Free Logos

If you are wanting a logo for your new web page, but you don't want to pay for the privilege of getting it designed then you might like to consider the free logos on offer on the Internet.

They might not be exactly what you are looking for, but the price is certainly right. Some of the sites will even let you customize the logos to a point.

These are some good places to find free logos
GMK Free Logos
All Free Logos
Free Logo Services - US only, but you can design many aspects of your design and then they send it to you for free!

This guy offers to design your logo for free as long as you give him a link on your site. He claims to have made over $20000 worth of logos for free!
Free Logo Design

I hope these resources help. If you find something worth mentioning feel free to leave a comment. Remember you can subscribe to this blog

Choosing a web designer and developer

At the moment I am having my first commercial website designed and developed and many people have been asking me "how do you choose one out of the thousands of companies." These are my few tips for this daunting process

1. Firstly look at their own site:

• Does it look good?
• Is it easy to navigate?
• Do all the pages work?
• Does it work on all the popular browsers
  

2. Make sure they have a portfolio of pages they have designed. You can always email the webmasters of the sites in their portfolio and ask them if they were happy with the designer/developer.

3. If you are also getting them to do your search engine optimization then make sure they rank highly for their name and other popular keywords.

4. It is much easier to have one person to do all the work on the website, but remember that not all designers are good developers and vice versa so it might be worth using one of each.

5. Get a free quote on the website you want done. If they wont give a quote then move on to another company. Make sure they are friendly and will answer all your questions and emails quickly. Remember that cheap isn't always good - a professional web site that makes thousands a year can cost a mini fortune, but it is a once off cost! If the website is a hobby or simply fun then don't spend too much!

6. Give the designer and developer a really good idea of what you want. Some simple drawings of what you want your page to look like and where all the content goes is a really good idea.

I hope these few little tips help you! Good Luck!

Dreamweaver video tutorial of the week #3

Button Rollovers
This is the third video tutorial in this series and is well worth watching if you are trying to develop and your own website. This will help you create button rollovers, where the image changes when you hover your mouse over it. Enjoy!

Best Places to Register Your Domain Name

Registering a domain name can de a daunting task for many new webmasters with everyone trying to get your business offering all kinds of different incentives and prices. The best thing to do is find a site that reviews the top domain name registration companies and compares them with features as well as prices.
I have found such a site that might be useful for anyone trying to register their domain names:
Domain Name Registration Reviews
Good Luck!

Free Web Hosting Reviews

They say the best things in life come for free and for someone looking to make a personal site then free hosting is what most will be looking for. Most free hosting is sponsored by ads, but some are absolutely ad free. Its also worth noting that many will even give you a free domain name (eg. personalfinance.50webs.com), but to make your site look really professional then you can often buy your own domain name and use it.

If you are looking for free web hosting then the following site will give you some great options (and they even review most of the hosts to give you a better idea of what they offer!)
To find free web hosting or to read the reviews simply go to the Free Web Hosting Website

Auction Ads Review

Auction ads is another way for webmasters to make money by showing ebay ads on their webpage. They pay you a percentage (75%) of ebay commissions and you even get money ($25-35) if a new ebay user signs up. The best part is that you can choose the keywords of the products that you want to show up and they provide you with the code to paste into your website.

Currently they are offering $25 for free to sign up to their program! So if you are a webmaster it is definitely worth signing up! To sign up simply go to the Auction Ads Website

There is an example of auction ads below this post.

Webmaster Tip - Dreamweaver video tutorial of the week #2

This is the second video tutorial in this series and well worth watching if you are trying to design your own website. Yes the guys voice is annoying and he explains things very slowly, but there is some really good advice and tips here to be worth the 17 minutes (hell I watched it and I don't even use dreamweaver).
This video focuses on creating hyperlinks and simple menu bars. Enjoy

Websites - building one yourself or paying to have one built?

Currently I am thinking of having my first commercial website built and this question has been running around in my head. I am considering forking over a large amount of money for something I do not know will make me anything back. I have a decent amount of IT knowledge (I even run a tech tips blog), and have even built some small and crappy websites before, but lets look at the pros and cons of each. (I am assuming little or no coding knowledge)

Build it yourself

Pros

• Cheap
• You can design it exactly how you want

Cons

• It might look cheap or not work very well
• It might take you a lot longer than expected

Pay someone to do it

Pros

• It should look professional and work well
• It should be done fairly quickly
• Designers can often provide a domain name and hosting saving you the hassle
  

Cons

• Expensive
• The web designer / developer might not understand exactly what you want

My opinion
If the website is primarily designed to make money then you should probably spend some money to make it as professional as possible. If it is a personal site or just a hobby then have a go at building it yourself - it can't hurt!

Webmaster Tip - Dreamweaver video tutorial of the week

Without a doubt dreamweaver has helped spawn hundreds of websites many built with the WYSIWYG editor. The program is the best in its class and has helped thousands of computer code illiterates to build some very fine (and not so fine) pages. This video tutorial will help you start to gain a basic understanding of building a website with dreamweaver. It is filled with great tips and is a recommended watch for anyone learning dreamweaver or wanting to make their own website.

Please leave a comment if this was useful or if you would like to see more of these video tips. (commenting is open to everyone).

I am planning on starting a video tutorial of the week post so check back later for more video tutorials. You might also want to subscribe to this blog to get the fresh content first!

Webmaster Resources - Your source for free web templates

If you are having trouble designing your website or just can't get it right then the Open Source Web Design website is for you. The site lists a massive 2080 free designs for your downloading pleasure. It even offers a search feature to find the design you have been looking for.

To begin searching designs or to check it out you can go to the Open Source Web Design website

My tips for running/starting a blog

If you currently run a blog or are considering it then these are my top tips to make it a winner.

• Write about something you like - there is no use writing about something you hate because your interest will wane and your blog will become another abandoned blog on the scrapheap.
• Try to post as constantly as possible and stick to it. If you want to post once a week, or once a day then stick to that, don't post nothing for a month and then 5 posts all in one day. That type of posting doesn't encourage readers to come back.
• Make posts that people will want to read. I don't know too many people that read about Mongolian strains of grass. To get heaps of readers you can try writing about controversies, celebrities and other things that people like to read.
• Don't blog soely for money - sure you can make a few bucks with a blog, but only 0.1% will ever make the sort of cash that everyone is claiming you can make!
• Submit your blog into blog directories and search engines so people will read what you are writing
• Have fun!

Good luck with your venture and consider leaving me a comment if you have any questions about blogging. I will be happy to answer you.