So here's what I've got for you: nine websites that offer high-quality photos and images for your blog. These images do not require attribution and may be used commercially.
When I first started blogging, I spent hours--and I mean HOURS--searching the internet for websites that offered high-quality photos for free. When you just want to add a little visual spice to your blog, you can't afford to pay $50 a month to get the photos you want. Same goes for authors who like to design their own book covers.
So here's what I've got for you: nine websites that offer high-quality photos and images for your blog. These images do not require attribution and may be used commercially. This week as I was writing The CURE Games, I encountered a scene that required a cipher of some kind. An alphabet substitution cipher was far too easy for this code. I needed something... meatier... subtler... more difficult...
Something, perhaps, like a Vigenere Cipher. (My comment to my mother: "Dude, I'm tellin' ya: The French came up with the sneakiest codes!") And that's when I discovered this awesome website with a plethora of ciphers and codes--and handy tools that help you encode and decode a message like *that*! This post is linked on the Building an Audience page under the "Plugins, Tools, and Widgets" tab. I don't even remember how I ran across POWr, but ever since I've tried their easy-peasy plugins, I've been really happy. Want a plugin to gather reviews? To set up an e-store for both digital and physical products? To gather e-mail addresses for a list? To display your social media feeds? To count down to an important event? POWr can do it.
The 2 main questions new bloggers ask is "How long should my posts be?" and "How often should I post?" I answered the first question in my last post, so here's my discussion of the second question. This is another case of the conflicting experts, and of me making tons of mistakes. (Yes, I explain my mistakes for your enjoyment, so you can feel like a genius at my expense. You're welcome.)
This week, I've been obsessing over finding the right tagline for my writing website. A tagline is generally two to ten words that summarizes your brand and makes you more memorable to potential customers. Here are some famous taglines:
About two years ago, I stumbled across another author's blog, and she had just designed her own cover to her fantasy short story. I was impressed. She said that she had designed the cover in GIMP, which is basically a free program that does most of what Photoshop can do--if you have the tenacity to learn it. Well, I like a good challenge. I decided to start designing my own book covers, just to see if I could do it. If it was terrible, well, I could always fall back on indie cover designers. So I downloaded GIMP and started to teach myself how to use it.
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