Do you ever get nervous about using images on your blog or web site? I don’t think anyone is going to mind if I take a screen grab of their logo, but I really want to make sure that if I use a photograph, especially if I’m going to chop it up or do something else a little crazy to it, that I’m not doing anything wrong. I sure wouldn’t want someone taking my work against my wishes.

So one day, I was looking for free images that I could use, and I ran across Freerange Stock. This site is really too good to be true. They have some extremely good photos, and you can use them for just about anything you want to.

Many stock photo sites will let you use their images, as long as it isn’t for “commercial” use. I was always hesitant to use them on my blog, since I’m serving ads which bring in dozens of pennies.

To set your mind at ease, this is from Freerangs Stock’s FAQ:

    Can I use these images in my commercial projects?
    Yes! Our images may be used in commercial projects like websites, advertising, books, videos, and other commercial presentations. If you would like to give credit to the site and/or photographer, that would be great. If you don’t have a way to include the credit, that does NOT prohibit you from using the images. You may not, however, repackage, redistribute, or claim ownership of the images. Do not use the photos in products that rely on the photograph as the main selling point.

You really aren’t risking anything using the photos. You do have to register with them to create an account, but I haven’t received any email from them, and I have had the account for quite awhile.

I haven’t always been good about linking to the photographer, but you may have noticed that I started including a link to the image and to the photographer at the bottom of my articles, even though this isn’t a requirement.

I definitely recommend this site.

References:

Free Range Stock

Posted in images, free stuff, Recommendations, Blogging, WebSites 4 Comments »

I’ve heard a number of bloggers complaining that they are experiencing writer’s block, and I truly sympathize with them. However in my case, I have diarrhea of the brain. I can’t stop what is coming out of it, and the best I can do is just try to get it all down somewhere.

Of course, and idea isn’t a finished product, and that is where my problem lies. I have a huge number of posts that I need to just go ahead and write. Some of them require a whole bunch of work, and I should get started on them, some of them don’t require much of anything, but it seems like anytime I sit down to get a post going, I end up with a series of post snippets.

I use Microsoft OneNote for my note taking, because it is really easy to keep notebooks on several computers synchronized with a thumb drive, you can keep particular sections private, and it works well with graphics and text layout. The notebooks are even available to you when you don’t have the thumb drive handy, like when you forget it at home. This way not only can I keep the notes related to my personal life, but I can also keep all of my work notes, as well as reference and reading materials, all in a handy, organized fashion.

Yes, there was a whole series of post ideas around OneNote, but that isn’t why I mention it.

There is a toolbar in OneNote that shows you the pages that are within a section. The picture on the left is the page listing of the “Misc Posts” section of one of my notebooks. These are all partial posts or post ideas, that I just haven’t gotten around to finishing.

I know that if I just keep working on these, that I am going to hit a point where I have more finished posts than I know what to do with. Well, I’ll know what to do with them, I’ll post them. Relax, it was just a figure of speech.

Before I took the screen shot, I sized the window so that you couldn’t see the entire title of the pages, I didn’t want to give away any spoilers. I also didn’t want to change the title, and have someone ask “What happened to the how to catch a monkey post?”.

OK, back to working on one of my posts.

Posted in Blogging 5 Comments »

So you finally took the plunge and got an account with a hosting provider. But you aren’t big enough yet to afford a dedicated server, or co-location, so you’re using shared hosting.

Did you ever wonder who else is on the same server?

Well “My IP Neighbors” lets you find out. Just enter in your web site’s IP address, or web site URL, and it will list off the other sites on your server, in a convenient viewing window.

When I did it, I found out there are 101 web sites, including my own, on my server. I can’t complain since Blue host has been really dependable, and I can’t beat the price or what is included with the package.

Posted in Hosting, Blogging, Web Tools, WebSites 3 Comments »

I’m one of those people that read a blog or web site with a lot of readers and ask myself, “I wonder who their hosting provider is?” I also do this for sites that are really slow, or seem to be down often.

I just don’t think there is any better recommendation for a hosting provider than a fast loading, responsive site that is always available.

Now, I can occupy myself for hours looking up the hosting providers for my favorite sites with “Who is Hosting this?”.

The site is really straightforward, you enter the domain name that you want to learn about, and click on “tell me”. The site comes back with the hosting provider, conveniently linked so you can check them out.

Unlike some other web based tools out there, Who is hosting this isn’t covered in ads. There are some ads, but I’ve seen some web tools that have so many ads, sometimes I have trouble finding the tool.

No need to look Port 16 up, I use Bluehost.com, and love it.

Posted in Blogging, Web Tools, WebSites No Comments »

Yesterday I showed you an Easy way to Schedule a future post in WordPress, and although I’m sure that you are busily creating posts for the next 4 years, I thought I would share this with you.

The problem I have with future posts is that I want to link to them in other future posts. This is especially helpful if you are writing a series of posts and want to point your readers to the first post in the series.

Well, I figured out that doing this is almost as easy as automatically posting in the future is.

Step 1: In another browser window or tab, go into your WordPress site Administration, and click on Manage.

Step 2: Click on the “view” option next to the post you want to link to.

Step 3: Copy the URL.

Didn’t I say that it was simple?

One warning though, if you are using the “Date and Name based” option for your URLs, and you change the date of the post, then the link will be broken.

Posted in Tips, Blogging, WordPress 1 Comment »