Dec 15 2008
Design on a dime
Times are tough. These days, everyone is hiding their piggy banks and spending less on just about everything. Inevitably, that means internet-related expenses as well. There’s no need to fret, however. There are many ways to “design on a dime.” There are high-quality images to be had for less. There is help for your tortured code. On the web is truly where all the best deals are. Here are some of those resources to get your new, on-a-budget design going:
- Images
Every site needs some eye-candy. Images provide nice visual stimulation to help reinforce content and spice up a design. One site I visit daily is Stock.xchng. This is a great site for free images. Over 80% of the images I use in all of my designs come from them.
Can’t find what you’re looking for there? Check out their sister site, Stockxpert. The images here aren’t free, but they are nice and cheap! Ranging from $1 for small 400×300 to $10 for XL 3500×2400, the price is still right!
Need more sources? Check out my Delicious bookmarks.
- CSS
Okay, CSS is, technically, already free. That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s easy. Need a quick, easy CSS template? Check out Nice and Free CSS Templates. Click on the layout you are looking for, copy and paste the code into your HTML editor, and make it your own!
Looking for some tabbed navigation which is now all the rage? Try CSS Tabs for a super-simple tab method using only CSS. Or how about a slick little accordion menu? Dynamic Drive has a nice one (and lots of other free goodies as well).
Don’t want to do any heavy lifting yourself? Free CSS Templates actually has free CSS templates. Pick one, plug in your content, and go. And last, we have 101 CSS Techniques Of All Time-Part 1. Truly a cool list of CSS awesomeness.
- Blog Themes
Not really looking for a site, but a blog? Don’t worry, you have tons of resources too! If you are a WordPress user, there are so many free themes out there it boggles the mind. for instance, Free WP themes has over 16 pages of ‘em.
Do you have a little cash to spend and want a theme that’s more unique? Theme Forest is worth a look. Blog themes start around $15 and the choices don’t look like a lot of the cookie-cutter blog themes out there. You’ll even know how many other people have your look—each theme lists how many times it’s been purchased.
Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten the Blogger users! There’s ThemeLib which has some great templates, Blogcrowds Blogger templates, and Pyzam blogger templates.
- Resources
If you are looking for help, there is no shortage of people out there willing to assist. Here are five resources to help you along:
- Nice 2 All: This blog provides great info for all things WordPress.
- Top Ten Blog Tips: A great forum and resource for bloggers.
- 10 things I hate about your site: Get an honest review of your site/blog, with tips on how to fix what’s wrong.
- 100 Ways to Advertise Your Site some are pretty basic, but others are pretty good and you probably aren’t doing all of them.
- Productivity 501: Solid information on getting things done. Lots of interesting articles.
Whether you’re being forced to close the purse strings, or are doing so by choice, it’s always nice to save some pennies for a rainy day. Hopefully the resources above will help you do so. Let me know if you’ve found any of these helpful in your sites/blogs, or feel free to share other resources.
