Web Design, Web Development and Internet Marketing

Occasionally Asked Questions

Do you have a question about the site? Please read the following Questions and Answers below and if you still have a question, then please feel free to contact me.

Q: I like the image on your page or post, where do you get them?

A: I get images wherever I can. I want to start using my own original photos, but I just don’t have the time yet.

For my regular posts I start with PhotoExpress which is a free site. You’re limited to a single download a day unless you provide your address or connect with their Facebook page. The photos are free so there isn’t always a good photo for my topics. So there are some other options.

iStockPhoto.com is one of the best for stock images, but it’s not free. I usually get the extra-small photo size to save money and that’s all I need for a blog post. I usually only pay for photos for big, important posts or Pages (like my contact page) where things will be up for a long time.

Last there are options to download from Flickr and use content. Be aware that you can’t just use anything off of Flickr, it has to be specifically open for use with Creative Commons licensing. There are a couple of levels, one to use as-is and another to use and modify. You can do an advanced search and check the options to use the CC license before you just pick stuff off the site.

Even easier you can download the Photo Dropper WordPress plugin which allows you to find images related to your post right from the admin panel. Very handy, but again since it’s free it may be a matter of luck if you find something AND you must provide attribution of the photo to the original author. This may or may not be a drawback for you.

Q: Where did you get your avatar caricature?

A: It was drawn by the artist Dirceu Vega from Brazil. He is known for his RSS or Web 2.0 icon sets that are available for free on his site. The RSS icons were featured on Smashing Magazine a while ago and got some attention. The Guy-On-The-Toilet RSS Icon is pretty unforgettable and attention getting, which I guess is intentional. His newer icon work is quite nice and he is someone to follow.

I’ve seen other avatars drawn by Dirceu around the net and really liked them. I didn’t like the Zwinky’s or other freely available avatar generators, as they weren’t very personal or original. Dirceu’s caricatures have a bit of a Hannah-Barbera/Scooby-Doo quality about the artistry that I liked and thought it would be fun to represent me. (Hopefully he won’t read this and hate me for describing them that way.)

The price (at the time) was an amazing deal. Since I got mine, I noticed that Darceu has raised his prices, a lot, almost triple the original price. Even so, I think the price is well worth it if you intend to use it a lot. Maybe he got sick of doing them. [I hope he didn't raise his prices after dealing with me!]

Just a word of warning, if you get a caricture from him, that I think his schedule is that of an artist (laid back) and what was originally a 2-week turn-around time ended up being almost 8 weeks. Still, I wasn’t in a hurry and was very pleased with the results. Just ping him occasionally by email to make sure he doesn’t forget about you.