Happy Mothers Day!

I so love finding fantastic programs to use. Today I had motivation to put a new video together, so I created this special one for you to for Mothers day.

I hope you love it!

PS If you want to know how I created such a fantastic video in no time flat, well I do love to share

Better yet Click this link - its free!!!!!

Brainstorming Ideas & notebooks

Where ever I go, I carry a a notebook. It is invaluable when that amazing idea comes to mind or a way to solve a problem that has been bothering you finally bubbles to the surface.

As you go about your daily life, be observant and notice problems and opportunities to further your business. Write down ideas, you will be amazed at what ideas will flow. Don’t be too critical, some will be great some not so.

Now, don’t just get into the habit of writing it all down, you also have to make a habit of reviewing it at least every month ( I prefer weekly) or you won’t get the use out of your notes. You must take action.

Start today!!!

How to effectively Manage your Photo files

Whether you’re emailing photos of your grandkids or putting images of your latest product on your online store, many people don’t optimize their photos for the web. We’ve all been on too many web pages where it seemed that the photos would never load, and sometimes they didn’t. So here are some steps to make sure that your photos always show up on your site as you intended.

1. Make a back up of the original format of your image. Never, ever alter the original! Believe me you will regret it. Burn it to disc and file away. (I use rewritable discs  so I can keep adding to them)

 

2. Copy the image to your computer. This is the one you will make the changes to. Open the image in your photo editing program

3. Crop to size. Make sure that you crop out any extra information that isn’t needed. Remember the larger the photo the longer it takes to load or send.

4. Resize to reduce pixels. There should be an option to resize according to pixels. You’re going to want the largest size to be no more than 250 pixels or you can reduce the dpi to no more than 96. (If you’re using Photoshop you can create actions to automate this process, more on this in the Photoshop tips & techniques category)

5. Reduce the colour palette. This is a great idea for images intended for web viewing only. Many images have millions of colours so you can reduce the colours to 256. You will lose some depth with this, but for viewing on the web it shouldn’t matter. If you keep the images small in size the smaller resolution will not be as obvious.

6. Save the file in a standard format. JPEG is the most common for photos and you can compress the image with a JPEG for further reduction in file size. It’s not unusual to see GIF or PNG as well.

If you’re creating a web page remember every photo that you add will add to the time it takes to download all of the images, so don’t make the image larger than it needs to be for your intended audience.