Sources for free images:

StockXchng – free stock images. The quality here runs from great to just mediocre, but I always look here first and often find exactly what I’m looking for. Many of the images require no attribution at all, but be sure to check the terms of use.

EveryStockPhoto – indexes images from a wide variety of sources. They also index StockXchng, but it’s unclear whether everything that is there is also on EveryStockPhoto, so I check both.

Flickr – I use a great plugin for WordPress called PhotoDropper. It searches Flickr for images available under the Creative Commons license.

Once you’ve taken a look at the sources for free images, check out the many low cost stock photography sites. My favorites are:

Sources for low cost images:

iStockPhoto – They’ve got zillions of images and the small size is only about $1.50. They have a new, improved search engine called “Best Match” which is constantly learning from customer search behavior to provide increasingly improved results. They offer free photos every week and a free vector every month. If you really want to splurge, check out their new premium image collection called “Vetta”. Here are a couple of samples – nice huh?

Shutterstock – This site boasts over 7 million images and operates solely by subscription. Blog-sized images end up being about $4 depending on your subscription plan. They offer a free photo and vector each week as well. Here are a couple of examples of the selection available:

Crestock – These images are just a little pricier at $5 each, but they have a free photo each day. Here is an example of a daily free image:

One last thought: remember that if you claim income from your blog on your taxes, you can completely write off the cost of images!

Of course, as I’m reading, I’m thinking about how the concepts apply to what I do every day, and blogging in general and I thought I would use some of the principles as inspiration for posts.

The first principle in the book is the well-known “80/20 Rule” or “Pareto Principle“:

A high percentage of effects in any large system are caused by a low percentage of variables.

Spend Time Wisely

The 80/20 Rule is most helpful in determining where to put your time and resources. If 20% of a site’s functions are used 80% of the time, then it only makes sense to focus time and attention mainly on these items. This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s so easy to get bogged down in some minor detail that ends up sucking all your time away.

I have 2 ways of dealing with this issue:

1. I complete the most important items first, so that if anything is going to get shortchanged on time as a deadline is looming, it will be the least critical elements.
2. If I get stuck on a less important item, I force myself to put it aside until the most important pieces are complete. Often, giving my subconscious time to ruminate on the problem makes it easy to solve when I get back to it.

Using the 80/20 Rule as a Formula for Success

Another way to think about this principle is to look at all of the activities that consume our time as we work towards success in whatever we’re trying to accomplish. The 80/20 principle indicates that about 20% of the activities we engage in are responsible for 80% of our success. The other 80% of the activities might be somewhat useful, but are not major contributors to the bottom line.

An interesting exercise might be to list out all of the activities you participate in during the time you have to work. If, for example, you’re working towards being a successful blogger (whatever your definition of success is), then you have multiple activities you engage in including things like researching and writing posts, tweaking your site, reading other blogs, commenting, networking, participating in social media such as Twitter and StumbleUpon, etc. and the list goes on. Rate all these activities by how much they contribute to the actual success of your blog.

Let’s say you have 5 hours a day to devote to your site. 4 hours should then obviously be given to those things that fall into the top 20%, leaving an hour for all the other items.

It is so tempting to get sucked into Twittering away the day, or reading every last item in the feed reader, and before you know it the day is gone and nothing has been accomplished. This happens to me regularly. If I would only keep my eye on those few things that are most important, I would be much more productive.

Okay, so this post has been a big pep talk to myself really. There is so little time and so much to do. I need to be more disciplined. I encourage you to check out the Universal Principles of Design- it’s a great read.

My 2 Year Blogaversary is coming up at the end of January! I’m celebrating with a week-long Blogstravaganza with lots of prizes, so be sure to check back or subscribe so you won’t miss it!

First, let me say that one of my main goals for this blog is that it would build my authority and therefore drive my design business, and it has achieved that goal beyond all my expectations.  I certainly could be posting more often if my main focus were traffic, ad revenue, subscribers, etc., but I choose not to put too much pressure on myself about posting frequency because I think it’s importance is rather overrated.

As I looked back over the last two years I found three categories of things that had a big impact on the growth of this site:

1. Find a void, then fill it

One way I’ve done this is by creating some free graphics that I thought people would enjoy using. Creating the little “I Follow Movement” badge brought me from a Technorati ranking of over 100,000 to into the top 500 blogs because of all the links on other blogs into my site. Another recent example is these free Twitter graphics.  Finding these kinds of “voids” was just a matter of keeping my eyes open and then jumping on them as soon as possible before someone else did. Of course, creating graphics isn’t going to be everyone’s thing. More often, it will be subject matter that’s not being covered. Where are the voids in your niche?

2. Remember, there are always people just behind you on the learning curve

I can’t remember where I read this piece of advice, but it really helped me, particularly at the beginning when I felt I didn’t have much to offer. Whenever I would learn things along the way, I would write a post about it.  One good example is this post about manipulating the wp_list_pages template tag. It wasn’t earth shattering news, but it turned out to be information that many people were looking for and the post generated a lot of traffic. There are tons of bloggers out there using WordPress all looking to learn how to use it better and do things for themselves rather than having to pay someone. What did you learn today?

3. Network, Network, Network

The other very important piece is networking with others in my niche, starting by leaving comments regularly on their sites, linking out to their posts, eventually guest posting here and there, and participating in a couple of forums. The importance of networking cannot be overstated. Where are the people in your niche hanging out?

These are a few thing that have worked for me. To what do you attribute your blog’s growth?

Journal

Every blogger needs someplace to jot down their thoughts and plan out blog posts. There’s something about getting away from the computer and sitting down with a journal that helps get the flow of ideas started.  This leather journal from Kiki James is one I recently received and it is simply beautiful.  The cover is a soft, buttery leather and the pages have almost a handmade paper feel to them.  They have a variety of colors and styles- I got the pink one.  The paper is unlined, so it’s nice for doodling design ideas as well as scribbling notes.

ProBlogger Book

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income is required reading for anyone who is new to blogging, as well as those who have been doing it for years. Just take a look at this story of what one experienced blogger learned from the book and the difference it made in her career and life. I’ve read the book and highly recommend it.

T-Shirt

How about a blogging t-shirt?  The WiFi Detector t-shirt is genius!

Membership to a Forum or Training Program

The gift that keeps on giving- a membership to Performancing Hive or Authority Blogger would make any blogger happy.

Anti-Glare Filter for the Computer Screen

Staring at the computer for hours and hours can be very hard on the eyes.  An anti-glare filter screen is a perfect gift for computer addicts.

Desk Lamp

Good lighting at one’s desk is essential. I have this one from Target and it’s beautiful.

Ergonomic Keyboard and Mouse

I have this awesome Microsoft wireless keyboard and optical mouse and I LOVE it. The keyboard is not SO ergonomic that it’s difficult to use, but it just has a little curve to it that makes it much more comfortable.

Caffeine

Coffee is always a great gift for those who drink it.  If the person you’re buying for is not a coffee drinker, then how about some candy?  I hear that Shock-A-Lots are awesome, and this caffeine candy sampler is pretty cool too.

A Massage

Sitting in front of the computer for a long time can lead to a stiff neck and shoulders, and bloggers are notoriously bad about getting away from the desk to loosen up a bit.  A massage would definitely be a welcome gift.

What about you? What do you want for Christmas?

Featured Content Gallery

This plugin is amazing. It’s so easy to implement and really makes a big difference in a static site.  Check out this site or this one to see it in action.  To use, you simply install the plugin, and then set your preferences in the admin panel, add the bit of code to your theme files, and start posting in your featured category including the use of the custom field for the featured image.  Just an FYI, for you techie types, I have found that this plugin does not work on a site that is also using “Moo Tools” javascripts. Click here to visit download page.

Breadcrumb Navigation XT

Another simple one to implement and a must if you have a site of any depth. It ads “breadcrumb” links to make it easy for the user to navigate, especially as they get deep into your content.  Click here to visit download page.

Multi-page Toolkit

If you have content that is quite lengthy, this is a perfect plugin to help your users wade through it.  There are many options for customizing it in the admin panel, and you can style the display by adding some plugin specific CSS to your theme’s stylesheet. Check out this post for an good example, and click here for the download page.

Related Entries

This plugin gives your readers suggestions at the end of each post for other posts that may interest them, and is a great way to increase the time they stay on your site. You can even include exerpts if you like! Click here to visit the download page.

CForms

This is simply the best contact form plugin I have ever come across.  It allows for multiple forms, custom form styling and it’s very easy to insert your forms into posts, pages or your sidebar.  Download page is here.

And, while I’m in plugin mode, here are some plugins I couldn’t live without:

Ozh Admin Drop Down Menu

Share This

WordPress Automatic Upgrade

BackUpWordPress (if you don’t have a plugin installed that backs up your site, drop everything you’re doing and install one now)

I’ve been a fan of Fast Company Magazine for a long time, and have recently been invited to be one of their “Expert Bloggers”.  My first post is up, taking a look at reasons companies should be in the blogging business:

1. Build Relationships

2. Build Reputation

3. Build Customer Loyalty

4. Build Authority

5. Build Traffic

Check it out, and be sure and subscribe to the feed while you’re there!

I don’t recommend stuff here much- only things I really think are awesome, like the Perfomancing Hive forum for example. One of the “Hivers”, Chris Garrett, has a new Authority Blogger course that IS awesome.  Everything Chris does is quality, and this course is no exception.  He’s in “pre-launch” mode right now and that means you get a special deal – the upgraded “Accelerator” version for the Basic version price!

Here’s what you get:

• Three 30min 1:1 coaching calls (!!!)
• Email support
• Private forum members area
• Early access to all the content as it is added daily
• Group conference calls, with recordings and transcripts
• The full 3 month course when it officially launches

I have taken a peek at the material, and it’s oustanding. Chris is one of the most experienced bloggers in the business. I have learned a lot from him and I’m looking forward to learning more through this course!  Check it out!

The installation was easy and it imported all my bookmarks from Firefox without a problem.  Some nice feaures of the browser include:

• a great start page that shows thumbnails of your most most visted sites, along with a search box and your most recent bookmarks
• one-click bookmarking
• a single bar for everything – search, address, history  
• lots of added security to keep malware from being installed and warn you of phishing sites
• popups will no longer be a problem
• Every tab you’re using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won’t take anything else down- you just close the tab

Sounds cool doesn’t it?  What do you think?  Do you see this as just one more step in Google taking over the planet?  Or, do you think it’s a good step forward in the “evolution” of the web browser?

Have you heard about PerformancingAds? It’s a new ad network from the people behind Performancing, whose tagline is “helping bloggers succeed”, and this ad network will do just that. I’ve been participating in the pre-launch testing of the site, and it is super easy to use, and has some great features that you’ll want to check out, including:

• any publisher of a blog/site can use the network. You don’t have to be a well-established, high traffic site to be accepted.
• features a free “exchange” program, whereby you can display ads for others sites in your unsold spots, and earn credits for your ad to be displayed on other sites!
• an outstanding affiliate program
• the ability to create and book your own ads. You can use PerformancingAds to promote affiliate offers or your own flagship content on your site.

You might accuse me of being slightly biased, as I actually did the design for the site, but I’m recommending it here because I believe it’s truly the best ad network I know of. Check it out, and let me know what you think.

There could not be a better example of this than the recently published “Top 100 Female Bloggers” list published at Enkay Blog recently.  Randa Clay Design came in at #10, which is very nice and I’m always honored to be named among any list of this nature.  However, if you take a look at the list, you’ll see that #11 is Liz Strauss.  The idea that I would rank higher than Liz, and some of the other women in this list of top bloggers is just silly, and goes to show that while achieving high stats is great, they do not tell the whole story.  Spend more time building your blog into an influential site- the numbers will follow and they’re not that important anyway.