Free For Your Site

Marketing your web site via the Internet is the most logical way to go for most online businesses. After all, your target audience is online, isn’t it? However, a little bit of offline advertising surely won’t hurt, especially if it’s targeted to netizens like in an Internet café and such. For some people, this sort of traditional ad placement may give a stronger of impact, especially if you plan to sell your products or services within your community. But before you go dashing out of the door in search of a seasoned graphic artist, check out Posteriza.

Posteriza is freeware that brings poster-making to a whole new level. Downloaded as a stand-alone program, no setup or installation whatsoever is required. Just unzip, double click, and you’re ready to create your posters. Converting a single image to poster size is as easy as 1-2-3. Just open the application, choose your image, type in the text you want to be seen in the poster and you’re done. No need for special paper because the software can print on regular sized sheets such as letter-sized and A4. To choose the size of your poster, just adjust the number of pages to be used and the calculations for the image will be done automatically. No need to compute height or width dimensions, the software automatically does that for you. To print, simply put the number of sheets needed in your printer and glue the edges together to create your whole poster. With Posteriza, posters just became a lot easier to create.

Posteriza is compatible with Win9x/2000/XP.

Go to Posteriza

Clever use of images can better capture audiences’ attention and drive the point home. Bloggers and other web content writers realize this, which is why free clipart are always in high demand. A good place to start is Webweaver’s Free Clipart site.

Webweaver’s Free Clipart offers free images to use in your sites, blogs, presentations, or desktop wallpaper. Finding a suitable image is a breeze as all of them are arranged according to well thought-out categories. There are clipart for major holidays, like Christmas and Halloween. Not into holidays? Images for general use are also available. However, it must be said that the selections are rather limited, and while some of the designs are appealing, others look quite outdated.

You can use their images for free, but be polite and don’t link directly to their images. It hogs their site’s precious bandwidth. Instead, save the images on your own webhost, Flickr, or any other image hosting site and link from there. If you found Webweaver helpful and want to give back, they also accept submissions to enhance their database. With Webweaver’s Free Clipart, it’s all about the community spirit and pure clipart fun.

Webweaver’s Free Clipart works on most browsers.

Go to Webweaver’s Free Clipart

Adding pictures of linked sites adds a more professional look in your page. Thumbnails give viewers a taste of what you are talking about, rather than relying solely on what you are saying. However, capturing a site and resizing it requires more effort in your part. Don’t you wish that there was something to help you do this with minimum fuss? Worry no more, for WebSwoon is here to help you.

WebSwoon is an application that automatically loads and takes screen captures of web sites, then saves them as image files. It is fully configurable with options that cater to your needs. Dimensions of capture files can be easily changed, removing the process of resizing the images. Need to capture from many sites? No problem, since WebSwoon can be configured to capture multiple sites consecutively without intervention. Just list the sites you want to take screenshots of and leave WebSwoon to do the job for you. Want to save a different file type? You can choose from 3 different file formats for your captures. No need to manipulate the images captured, saving you precious time and resources. And the best news is that WebSwoon is a freeware. Whether you are a blogger who reviews sites, or a web developer keeping track of site changes, with WebSwoon’s features and zero price tag, you can definitely call this deal a steal.

WebSwoon works only for Windows and requires IE6 or later installed in your system with ActiveX activated.

Go to WebSwoon

Visual impact is a very important element, whether you are a blogger or a web designer. To satisfy the need for such an impact, you turn to images. Abundant in the Internet are stock photography sites that offer images for a fee. If you have the resources, purchasing these wouldn’t be a problem. But not everyone has a gold mine in their backyard. For those who don’t have money to blow on one photo, there is Stock.XCHNG.

Stock.XCHNG is a stock photography exchange site that lets you download images for free. While some sites require an arm and a leg just to get an abstract photo you need, Stock.XCHNG only requires that you just sign-up. Signing up is virtually painless and almost instantaneous. Once signed in, you now have access to thousands of free photographs you can download and use.

The ever changing need for fresh images emphasizes the importance of a free stock photo site. The cost in the creation of a web site or blog is lowered as the images needed are now obtained free of charge. And with the growing number of images available in Stock.XCHNG, your well of ideas won’t easily run dry.

The Stock.XCHNG site runs on most web browsers. Permissions vary per artist and are displayed on the photo’s download page.

Go to Stock.XCHNG

Don’t be put off by its name. MorgueFile, despite appearances, is a wholesome and useful site that is sure to be a boon to every designer. In simplest terms, MorgueFile is an online storehouse of free high resolution stock photography.

The name was taken from a popular newspaper term used to describe a file that holds past issues flats. It is a place to keep post-production materials for reference, or an inactive job file. The goal of the site is to provide quality images for any creative pursuit, may it be corporate or private. You can use it in your ads, blogs, web sites, or print media without permission or credit from the photographer. However, give them due respect and don’t sell prints or digital copies directly, or claim that the photo is yours.

You don’t have to sign up to view their archive and download images. But if you’re planning to contribute works to their database, you will need to be a registered member. The images are still considered property of their respective owner, who agreed to grant you usage license under the MorgueFile Terms of Service.

The site design is clean and the navigation is intuitive. It also includes chat and discussion forums for users and members. It even has an online store with books, consumer electronic items, computers, and cameras among its categories. With all these features, MorgueFile is truly a resource that deserves a bookmark. It’s highly recommended for bloggers, article writers, and web designers.

Go to MorgueFile

Sometimes you just wake up wanting to make your own favicon. If not, you probably wake up wondering what a favicon is - it’s the small icon that shows up next to your web page title on someone’s bookmark list. This shows up in common browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera. Adsen FavIcon lets you easily create these small icons for your web page. Don’t mistake it for just a favicon maker though, since it also makes icons for the applications running on your computer.

The Adsen FavIcon program interface is very simple, with the drawing surface just above the “Save” button. There aren’t any complex menus or commands for you to worry about. The different options are accessible via a straightforward drop-down menu. Users can choose between two icon sizes: 16×16 pixels for favicons, and 32×32 pixels for program icons. There are also several color depth options between 4-bit to 32-bit colors. If you don’t know how to incorporate favicons onto your web page, the application also includes some helpful tips.

So if you want your web site to stand out on someone’s bookmark list, or you simply want to redo the program icons on your computer, Adsen FavIcon makes these changes for you, trouble-free.

Adsen FavIcon runs on Windows 95 and higher versions

Go to Adsen FavIcon