vAssistant Services » Free Resources http://www.vassistantsvcs.com Presenting you to the world via WordPress sites and blogs. Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:00:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 en Photo Dropper WordPress Plugin http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/photo-dropper-wordpress-plugin/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/photo-dropper-wordpress-plugin/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:25:06 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=140

One of the more common complaints I hear from my clients is, “I want to use pictures on my site, but I don’t know where to get them for free…legally.” To their credit, every last one of my clients who’ve asked me about adding more photos and images to their sites has voiced concern about adhering to copyright laws.

Well, kiss that problem goodbye by installing the Photo Dropper plugin!

Now you can easily add Creative Commons licensed photos - images that are licensed for shared use - to your posts - right from your dashboard with just 1 click. (If you’re running a commercial blog, read this article to make sure you’re clear how Creative Commons works and what you’re allowed to do with Creative Commons photos.)

It’s a pretty cool plugin for a couple of reasons:

  1. You can search for photos using keywords related to your post content, making the process of finding relevant images for your posts a breeze.
  2. You can choose small, medium, or large sizes, just like at Flickr. A couple of clicks and your picture’s in your post!

You might have to play with your image alignment a little bit, depending on the size of the image you choose, but other than that, it’s a great tool for adding relevant images to your posts!

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© 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. vAssistant Services

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/photo-dropper-wordpress-plugin/feed/ Build Traffic With Business Cards http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/build-traffic-with-business-cards/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/build-traffic-with-business-cards/#comments Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:17:01 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=53

I’m sure you’ve put your website URL on your business card, right? And when you give a business card to someone, they’ve now got what they need to visit your site. That’s great, but there are lots of other creative uses for business cards.

For example, you can make business cards that are more like “gift” cards. Put your offer on those and pass them out in the real world. Include one (or some to share) in every order you ship out. Leave them with complementary business owners to distribute to their customers.

Here are a couple I’ve created and used with success:

  

They are handy because they serve as little ads I can spread all over the place as I go about my day. These have been far more useful than standard business cards ever have been, at least for me.

Did you know you can get 250 business cards (design them the way YOU want) for just the cost of shipping at VistaPrint.com? Yep - it’s true, and you can get other stuff to match, like car magnets, stationery, magnetic business cards and a whole lot more! Some of those other items are even free from time to time, too. Heck of a deal, eh?

So, put your creative thinking cap on, and see if you can’t bust the boundaries of a bland, business-as-usual business card and drive some traffic to your site from the offline world.

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© 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. vAssistant Services

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/build-traffic-with-business-cards/feed/ Tweak Your Photos With PhotoShop Express http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/tweak-your-photos-with-photoshop-express/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/tweak-your-photos-with-photoshop-express/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:59:48 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=90

I’ve been using Photoshop since version 7.0 and I’m STILL learning how to do things to my photos with it. But not everyone wants to spend (or has laying around to spend!) a few hundred bucks to tweak their photos. Now, you don’t have to! You can use PhotoShop Express, instead, for free!

Even though I have the full version of PhotoShop, I find PhotoShop Express extremely useful. I can make a crayon version with just two clicks:

…or make one color stand out…or change that one color to another…or another:

…or do regular stuff like crop, resize, red-eye removal and more quickly and easily! In addition, you can directly link to your Flickr, PhotoBucket, Facebook and/or Picasa accounts. You have 2.0GB of storage and can easily share your photos and albums via email, create slideshows and order prints.

So, if you’ve been needing basic photo editing program that allows you to have some fun, too - set up a free account at PhotoShop Express!

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© 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. vAssistant Services

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/tweak-your-photos-with-photoshop-express/feed/ Alexa Sparky FireFox Add-on http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/alexa-sparky-firefox-add-on/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/alexa-sparky-firefox-add-on/#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 11:01:00 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=29

Here we go with a great little add-in for your FireFox browser: Alexa Sparky. Now you can see Alexa ranking data in your status bar, for your site, and every site you visit on the ‘Net! No more having to trot over to Alexa.com to check your (or anyone else’s) popularity rank.

Written by Alexa, this add-on also provides a right-click menu full of handy links that:

  • show how this site’s traffic compares to other sites’ traffic
  • shows you other sites like the one you’re on with Related Links
  • tells you whether this site is getting more or less popular

In addition, as you surf, you’re helping to provide traffic information that will make Alexa’s ranking more meaningful over time.

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© 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. vAssistant Services

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/alexa-sparky-firefox-add-on/feed/ Jing Project http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/jing-project/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/jing-project/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:01:02 +0000 Suzanne http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/?p=19

Jing is an always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video from your computer to anywhere. Version 1.4.7331 adds output to FTP and Flickr in addition to the Screencast.com and File outputs. For Mac or Windows.

I was introduced to Jing through The 30 Day Challenge last summer. As a web developer, I use it often to “take pictures” of what I’m seeing on my screen to discuss with my clients.

It’s spyware free and available as a free download. Try it out!

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© 2002-2008, Suzanne Bird-Harris. vAssistant Services

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]]> http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/jing-project/feed/ StatCounter Gives Real-time Stats http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/statcounter-gives-real-time-stats/ http://www.vassistantsvcs.com/statcounter-gives-real-time-stats/#comments Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:50:11 +0000 Suzanne http://localhost/wordpress/?p=23

There are many statistics programs and services available to us these days, and I have to admit, I use several - some even on the same site! Each program or service presents your stats in varying ways, and some include data that others don’t. I have yet to find the ‘perfect’ stats solution.

However…

I can recommend StatCounter - it’s fast, it’s friendly and it gives you REAL time numbers (unlike the big G’s analytics.)

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