Free Website, Printing and Graphic Design Tips

Images are a powerful part of any website. A great photo or illusitration can catch a visitor’s eye and help to keep them on your site. There are many places to obtain photos or illustrations for your site. Some are free. Some are not. Microsoft Office Clipart Online has a great selection of free images but you must be sure to read and adhere to the terms. You are responsible for the legal rights to images you use on your site. Be sure you or your designer purchase images instead of just right-clicking and copying them. It might be free now to just copy and paste them into your site but later it can cost you a whole lot more in legal fees.
Be sure you read the documentation pertaining to the images you purchase and for the images you obtain for free. To purchase royalty-free images at very fair prices, visit i-stockphoto . Another good resource is Microsoft’s Office Online clip art. And remember, you don’t have to use any image in its entirety. Sometimes it’s better to enlarge and use only a section of the image. This technique can create more impact and it will also be less likely you’ll find that same image on someone else’s site.

When deciding what you’d like your website’s domain name to be there are several factors you should keep in mind.
1. Try to use words that are key words for your business. If, for example, you are in the business of house cleaning then housecleaning.com, smittyshousecleaning.com, smittys cleaning.com, etc. would be good choices. When potential clients conduct an online search they are going to use the words that most commonly describe your services or products first. You want those words on your website and in your domain name if possible.
2. Keeping the above suggestion in mind, try to keep the name short and simple. The more characters people have to type the more likely there will be an error and your web page may not “come up”.
3. Finally, stay away from using unusual spelling techniques (cryptic stuff similar to the ”words” found on vanity license plates). For example spelling the word “graphics” as “graFics” can become a problem along the way. As I have well learned.

If you use Outlook distribution lists you know that you can’t send emails to each recipient individually. Well, that wasn’t acceptable for me. After some lengthy research, I’ve found a nice Outlook Add-In that will make it possible to send emails, to the members of a distribution list, individually. Each recipient receives their own email and does not see the addresses of all the other recipients. What a concept.
This dream tool is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook. It’s not expensive and after making sure you have a compatible version of Outlook, you can download the trial version to give it a test run. The installation and use are very easy. Just follow the directions. 
Click on the link below to visit the site and learn more.
http://www.mapilab.com/outlook/send_personally/

Creating your own website can seem like a daunting task but with some good help it is possible. Visit http://www.w3schools.com/web/default.asp to get started. Here you will find a beginners’ guide to virtually all things website. 

Another resource for free website tools, etc. is http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/.

Good luck and don’t hesitate to ask questions!

The primary purpose of this blog is to help people with their design related issues. If you’re setting up your own website, designing your own business card, creating a logo for your company or working on a report cover with your child, I’m here to help. Ask me design questions, print questions, typography questions, or send me your url and ask me for my comments.