Tools and Resources

How to shorten website links

Website addresses can be rather long.  Length can be a problem when you're listing your web page information in a limited space.

Let's say you are sharing information about your website on twitter.  When you tweet, you can only use up to 140 characters. With a long website address that doesn't leave you much room to say anything about your page!

That's why there are handy tools called url shorteners.

Finding your official colors for web design.

Finding your official colors for web design.

When you create online elements for your website or email, you may work with a tool that asks foryour official colors in a specific format.

Colors online are designated in hex format, a pound sign followed by six characters. For example #000000 is black and #FFFFFF is white.

If you have loose brand guidelines and know what your colors generally are, like dark blue and olive green and need to find the closest standard color, then use this tool to find the most common web colors:

Three sites for free stock photos

Small businesses don't typically have photographers on staff, or a budget to have photos produced on a regular basis.  When you need pictures for your website, email, blog or social media posts - where can you find photos that you can use without worrying if you have permission to do so?

Here are three sites you can look to:

Pixabay - Type in the subject matter of the photograph you need and Pixabay will search a database of hundreds of thousands of photos and return recommended matches. The first row of your results typically display sponsored photographs you can purchase. The rest of your results are usually free to download and use for commercial purposes. Be sure to look at the permission details as you download the images.

Every Stock Photo - This search engine also allows you to search plenty of images to return results for whatever subject you may need a photo for.  Click any image that interests you for further detail on how to use them. Some have requirements to follow, like crediting the photographer.

RGB Stock  -  This site also offers licensed photos for purchase in the top row of results and free photos in your remaining results.  Select any free photos you like from this search engine and download them for use. When you download you agree to the terms of RGB Stock's site.

Search, surf and enjoy the free resources that make it easy for you to find images on just about any topic.  Keep in mind there are also times when you may want to pay for that photographer or licensed image.  There are fantastic images available for anyone willing to pay for them. But for everyday purposes, free can take you a long way.