Make your website better for 50p

Although the web contains an awful lot of text, it remains a strongly visual medium. However, most sites contain little in the way of visual imagery. People shy away from using high quality original photos or illustrations because of the perception that they are very expensive.

Those times are now past. Enter Fotolia.

Fotolia has almost 2 million high quality photos which can be purchased for $1 (at time of typing, just over 50p). Even buying one or two can make your website much more appealing to visitors, instantly.

Fotolia

Here's an additional brilliant thing about Fotolia; if you're a pro or a keen amateur photographer, you can submit your own photos, illustrations or 3D models for sale and earn up to 50% commission.

Knowing when to stop

It was an interesting journey for rechord in 2004. Seems a whole century ago now.

Severe illness and a wedding all got in the way of some good habits. Despite these extremes of sadness and happiness, calm reigned, and things that were peripheral to the task at hand got left behind.

Part of this task was knowing when to stop. In other words, refusing to let your health or your creativity be sacrificed to the gods of money or vanity.

Here are some advice nuggets discovered on the emotional pilgrimage.

• Beware the temptation to get glued to your monitor.
  
  Got an aching back? Shooting pains in your mouse trigger finger? Scary as it may be, these are warning signs of Repetetive Strain Injury. Ignore them and you could cripple yourself. Do something about it now, and the pain trend is reversible. How? The oft ignored advice; take regular breaks. It's only human to forget, or to procrastinate. These two free software programs (Rest Break Reminder for Windows machines, TimeOut! for Macs) will remind you to take those all-important breaks. They have various settings for those with different working styles, from matronly severity (stops you from using your computer at all) to Boo-boo style polite deference (the Ranger's not going to like this, Yogi!)
  
  Those 10 minute breaks can be extraordinarily useful for rescuing oneself from procrastination. And hey! Suddenly all the yucky filing is finished. Not only that, but work problems seem more surmountable after a while away from the screen. And you don't get those weird green sparks and purple floaters interfering with your vision after not blinking for ages.
  
  Rest Break Reminder
  TimeOut!
  
  
  
• Get a priority list AND an impish, sarcastic friend.
  
  OK, so we've already got list fatigue, and all that continual advice to remember our priorities is falling on deaf ears. This is different: sarcastic friend is all important. When we've got our ideals written down, but there's a real world situation which is tempting us to bend the rules a little (I know it'd be nice to see so-and-so, but if I get this thing done by 10pm tonight, I'll be able to come in on Monday with that nice clear desk feeling) just one query from our fork-tongued mate can make us realise that we're being daft as a middle-eastern invasion. Even if it's only because they enjoy being funny.
  
  
  
• Use technology where it really can help, not just where it's cool.
  
  Some gadgets are truly pointless (behold the indoor blimp!) but there are some that, despite their geek-boy pretensions, can truly release us from being bound to a location or a desk.
  Indoor blimp
  
  Here is a small sample of them:
  
  1. A change is as good as a rest, they say. How about being able to get away from where you normally work and check your email in the forest? This can now be done, even without a laptop. Some of the newer mobile phones have just as much power and storage space as the PCs of 8 years ago. In addition to that, they provide a surprisingly usable net connection without wires. Make sure you go for T-Mobile's "Web 'n' Walk" tariff, which lets you have unlimited access for about £8 per month (at the time of writing).
  
  2. Another toy which can boost location-independence is an external hard drive. There are a wonderful range now available, which allow most professionals to store several years' worth of work and carry it from place to place. And they are surprisingly light, too.
  
  3. 3G cards, which are becoming more available across the country, and when plugged into a laptop, enable wireless internet connections at broadband speeds.
  
  4. Great email programs, like Popcorn (sadly PC-only) which can be stored on removable media and do not need to be seperately installed and configured on each computer you want to check your email on. Perfect for going where you wouldn't dare take a laptop.
  Popcorn
  
  Just don't let any machines get between you and your priorities.
  
  

Less geekery next post - promise!

Random acts of weirdness

Something only made possible by new technology, the phenomenon of flash mobbing, is on the rise.
Performance art?
Ironic situationism?
Brain vandalism?
Instant community?
Who can tell?

If you want to know more, or join in the surreal fun, have a look at these websites.
MobProject
FlashMob

How to inspire yourself

The task is set. But your screen and your brain are equally blank, and it's driving you crazy. What to do?

The myth that inspiration should hit like lightning - a random surge of power in an instant - has nipped many a worthy creative endeavour in the bud. This should not be so. Problems can be solved and ideas grown with a little lateral thought fertiliser. You don't need to sit on a seed and wait for spring.

Here are our top five brain gardening tips:

• Waste nothing
  Don't ever dismiss an idea straight away, no matter how crazy it is or how much it stinks. (Roses grow better with manure.) Excellent solutions often shoot up from ridiculous suggestions.
  
  
• Make some choice grafts
  Choose an alien concept at random and fit it somehow with your current task. Many a brilliant tv ad has been spawned this way: think Tango and Tennents.
  
  
• Cultivate wild plants
  Talking with somebody about your task or problem obliquely - without giving away its exact nature, especially to somebody who knows nothing about your specialism, can trigger off thought patterns you never would have had otherwise.
  
  
• Ignore your parents' advice
  “Not playing with it” improves your manners considerably, but does nothing for creativity. Relearning the art of aimless play is absolutely necessary for adults everywhere, and it's sad that most of us need to use alcohol as a cover. Go on; be naughty, fiddle away.
  
  
• Have more accidents
  So much of the technology that surrounds us is the result not of logic but of accident and happenstance. The invention of photography, for example, or the popularity of text messaging. The more accidents you have, the more opportunities you give unexpected beauty to shine forth. The trick is to find ways of having safe accidents - randomising things; straying into unknown territories; pressing big red buttons; having (computer) crashes.