Linda Lee, Author at Askmepc-Webdesign

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it.

WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on hundreds of thousands of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

The GPL from the Free Software Foundation is the license that the WordPress software is under.

The WordPress platform is easily adaptable to all types of websites, from blogs to e-commerce storefronts. Here’s what you need to know about the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS).

If you want to create a successful website, you’ll need to start with the best platform you can find. This is easier said than done — since there are so many options available for building your new site, it can be hard to know what platform to choose.

While there’s no one perfect platform, WordPress comes very close. It’s easily adaptable to all types of sites, from simple blogs to booming e-commerce storefronts. The benefits of using WordPress are numerous, and it’s surprisingly easy to get started with.

While WordPress was originally designed for blogs, it’s now suitable for all kinds of websites. In fact, it powers over 28 percent of all sites on the internet. You can use it to create business sites, online portfolios, e-commerce stores, and much more. For a clearer picture of what WordPress can do, check out some of the biggest and most popular sites made with it.

Before we move on, let’s address one common point of confusion. There is a difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a website that allows you to create a site using the WordPress software on their site, and is good to practice and learn with. You can create a site online for free at WordPress.com. WordPress.org supports people who use the software you can download and use to create your site, which will require your own web hosting and domain name. Installing your own copy of WordPress on your own domain name and your own hosting is a more flexible and powerful platform. You have total control over everything this way.

WordPress.com has some restrictions. As they should. They have to protect their site and their servers so they limit plugin use and other enhanced features you can use on your own hosting.

It is always better to get your own hosting account and buy your own domain name than to go with the free version on WordPress.com

But… I do tell my clients if they want to practice and learn the basics for free before they take that next step, sign up for a free blog/website on WordPress.com

You can always export your content to your new self hosted site later.

If you need help getting started, let me know.

I can help you with your domain name, website hosting and installing and setting up your WP website.

Just fill in my pre-planning form, or send me an email.

Free Images, Copyright Free Images and Resources Online

By Linda Lee Leave a Comment

How and where do I find free images or copyright free images for my website?

Websites need images. For pop, color, interest, and direction. Images enhance your website and also if you set them up correctly , they are tools for SEO, (Search Engine Optimization).

I update these sources as needed and add new ones all the time.
Some of these may take you to istock or a paid image source. Many of them are only one to five dollars.

Download Free Stock Photos

StockSnap.io: StockSnap has hundreds of beautiful high-resolution photos that are free from copyright restrictions. They add new photos every week and can subscribe to have them sent to your inbox.
Unsplash: Unsplash is built by a community of over 41,000 photographers who aim to inspire. This site has over 200,000 images that companies including Slack, WordPress, Squarespace, and Apple have used.
Stock.Xchng: With a robust search engine, this is one of my preferred places to “shop” for free images. Stock.Xchng is owned by iStock, so the first row of images are often paid images – but the pictures that follow are entirely free!
Pixabay: If you’re after high-quality images, Pixabay is where it’s at. Also, you don’t have to create an account to download a picture. Just click “download,” and you’re set to go.
Flickr Commons : Flickr has been bought by Yahoo/Oath and is not the free image location it used to be. They do however have a creative commons area, which is copyright free and contains quite a few very old photos, if you are doing historical or looking for old photos. They have old art work and illustrations with no known copyright and many very fascinating and unique image you can download and use safely. Check it out, it is well worth it if you want unique images or vintage images. It is all about your search words. When doing a search be sure to select creative commons in the upper left drop down. For instance here is what the search word “color” pulled up:

Purchase Stock Photos

If you decide you love certain images and want to pay for them, here are some trusted resources for those.

Fotolia: Fotolia’s subscription service can save you a lot of money if you plan on using images often.
iStock: If you have a particular image in mind, iStock’s awesome search box will help you quickly get what you need.
Cutcaster: Cutcaster gives you the opportunity to pay as you go. Also, their photos are well organized, making finding what you want a pain-free process.
Getty Images: With one of the largest image databases (over 80 million still images and illustrations), you’re guaranteed to find what you are looking for. The downside: the images are often expensive, and Getty is one of the biggest purveyors of cease and desist emails (so make sure you pay for them!). Getty has a proprietary software they run online 24/7 looking for their images that are not paid for and they do collect. Beware.

Be safe and make sure your images are not copyrighted or buy the ones you love.
When working online, you usually do not a size larger than 300-500 pixels.
That size is usually very reasonable in price.

More resources for copyright FREE images.

Another great source for large copyright free images is screensavers.

Resources and Places for FREE images for the web.

This site has beautiful images, FREE to use!
UnSplash

Burst Shopify- Burst from Shopify, this amazing site offers free images that can be used without attribution.

Free Quality Image Galleries-by Arun Basil Lal

Google Image Search: Google has done a good job in organizing the images on the web. Google image search is awesome place to find images, but there is no guarantee on its quality or copyright, so it’s last on my list. Make sure that you visit the landing page and confirm that the image is free to use before you add it on yours.

Don’t forget to save the images that you find while casual browsing for later use. I have a vast collection of images offline which I have collected over time. Make one yourself.

Always read the terms and conditions before you use images. Some images are free to use, but not free to edit, some need attribution, play it safe.

Another excellent article from Arun Basil Lal.

How to deal Content Copiers who copy from your Blog

Tell your age from a photo, how old do I look?

By Linda Lee Leave a Comment

Microsoft has revealed a new website that claims to be able to work out someone’s age just from just a picture. Called How old do I look, it allows people to analyze any image found on Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, or upload their own. Tell your age from a photo, and ask yourself, how old do I look?

It even allows users to search for celebrities – and see what Microsoft thinks their real ages are.
It is fun to use, but the ages vary wildly.

People uploaded photos taken of them on the same day and got a huge variance in the age it said they were.
The developers said, ‘We wanted to create an experience that was intelligent and fun could capture the attention of people globally, so we looked at the APIs available in the Azure Machine Learning Gallery,’. The system works by analyzing 27 points on the face. Called face landmarks, they are a series of specifically detailed points on a face; typically points of face components like the pupils, canthus or nose.

‘These attributes are predicted by using statistical algorithms and may not always be 100% precise. Still it is quite fun to try out. Hint on the photos, if you are using ones from your digital camera and have not re-sized them, they will not work. They have to be smaller than a straight digital file you may of downloaded.
Most people have no idea how huge those digital files really are.

Here is a group photo of some of us from the San Francisco Writer’s Conference volunteer meeting this year.

For some reason it missed one of us, and as for the rest, well let’s just say I think it is not exactly the most accurate tool yet!
Visit here and try it out. “How old do I look.net”

Another time wasting activity, halting your progress online with your real work. 🙂

Update: The Daily Mail tried it out on a bunch of staff and wrote about it here.