Why Keep A Life Journal

Importance of Keeping a Journal

1. Start Writing Your Life Story As Early As Possible
2. Get In Touch with Expressing Your Emotions
3. Develop Creative Writing Skill
4. Writing Prompts
5. Record Exact Date for an Event or Activity

Motivation in Writing Journal Entries

Features of a Good Online Journal App

5 Best Free Online Journal App

• Journey
• Diaro
• Private Diary
• Better Diary
• Diary with Lock

Why Keep a Life Journal?

We have beautiful experiences in life that we would like to keep as vivid memories for a lifetime. We have vague impressions of many of those but regret not having a record of the minor details that went with it. If we have looked back at our life as an exciting journey that we can keep reading, would you have done it differently today?

Importance of Keeping a Journal

1) Start Writing Your Life Story As Early As Possible

We will discover how we have changed over time physically and mentally. Our values in life might differ over the years from the time we started out writing our journal entries.

2) Get In Touch with Expressing Your Emotions

Most of us have no problem stating the facts but may lack the capability to express our emotional selves verbally. Maybe we are painfully shy to voice out our emotions. Diary writing makes you face up to your emotions as no one is going to know.

3) Develop Creative Writing Skill

Writing journal frequently release creative potentials and improve creative writing skills. Fragments of thoughts are captured instantly with the right journaling tools which we can refer to them later with appropriate tags.

4) Writing Prompts

Just do it for the sake of fun. We might never know that we have collated enough information on a particular topic from writing prompts to start our unique blog! Enjoy the writing journey!

5) Record Exact Date for an Event or Activity

The occurrence of an incident laid out in a timeline helps us to recall important and precious events in our life such as the first time which the baby called out our name, the first time he learns to flip over and walk.

In another instance, when I forgot a Gmail password and asked Google to reset, one of the questions that Google verified was “When did you create the account?” Frankly speaking, who would remember that stuff? The date of creation was so negligent and yet frustrating when we ever need that.

By recording down as much detail as you can in a daily journal of the things that you do and encounter, you would be able to use the information one day which was once so trivial.

Motivation in Writing Journal Entries

Journal writing is a persistent effort that requires self-motivation. How to motivate yourself to love keeping a journal or writing prompts? With mobile and laptop technologies, many people are writing journals because they can do it anywhere with their electronic devices and mobility has replaced paper writing.

Many users reviewed the top reasons for choosing a good journal app is the attractive design and the reliability that it doesn’t lose any data. Users select a diary app based on how it looks like and whether it attracts them to use the apps for a long time. Many cited the design of the journal app motivates them to write frequently even when they least expect it.

Subsequently, when the online journal app that they used started losing data, not being able to sync or backup correctly, it caused distress and disappointments to the users for losing the most precious information that they have kept over the years.

The reliability of a journal app and the technical support from the developer is eminently important because you are entrusting the precious moments of your life to an application that could bust on you which would never happen to a book journal.

Features of a Good Online Journal App

Below is a list of the desired features in an ideal journaling app. You will not get everything in a free version. There are some premium features that the developer would want you to pay for using and to keep the development going.

√ Beautiful user interface design
√ Attaching photos, videos or drawings
√ Cross-platform syncing between devices
√ Backup with Google Drive, Dropbox or Cloud Services
√ Password Lock
√ Theme, font or background customization
√ Geotag manually or select a specific location
√ Weather and temperature detector
√ Sharing on social media platforms
√ Emoticons
√ Reminders
√ Importing and exporting files
√ Converting to PDF
√ Printing
√ Night Mode
√ Search function
√ Responsive technical support
√ Ad-free

Best Free Online Journal App

1) Journey

Journey is by far the best apps with the most functionality and can perform most of the important features listed above. It allows me to import my Diary entries using a zip file format with ease and integrate them accurately into the calendar.

It can sync across several platforms using Google Drive. I use it on my Android phone and also download the journaling app from the Chrome Web Store on my MacBook. The synchronisation between the two devices is seamless when I switched between them simultaneously. You can also write your journal online. Login with your Gmail account.

I appreciate that Journey uses Google Drive rather than Dropbox to back up the data. Google Drive has a 15 GB free storage space whereas Dropbox has a much lesser storage space of 2 GB for a free basic account unless one pays to buy more space or use other means to earn additional storage. The space limitation of Dropbox might be an issue later when the sizes of the photos and videos increase.

One journal entry can upload up to 4 images or 1 video. There are Geotag, weather, temperature, motion activity which you can turn on or off for each entry. A password can also be set to prevent people from reading your diary and various search functions by using any words, phrases, photos and locations within all your entries.

You can share and publish your posts and photo onto 6 social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress, Instagram and Google. Be thankful that the free version has no advertisement. You already have many goodies in the free version.

So, what are the Premium Features?

The premium version includes the Markdown Syntax that highlights the headings and keywords to your plain text such as bold and italic format. It is a must-have feature for people who journal a lot.

Night Mode is another unique selling point to take away the glare at night. The other less common features are bulk printing of PDF without watermarks and exporting single or bulk entries to .docx files.

Take note that the licenses are all sold separately for the Android and the Chrome Desktop due to different payment platforms. If you buy one license only, you will not be able to see the Markdown Syntax on another platform.

The customer service and technical support are first-class services. A developer who makes an effort to read and replies to most comments are taking the users seriously. The developer shows interest in helping users who have a problem and encourages them to write in.

What I do not like about this app is the unattractive timeline layout design which turns me off. There is a huge chunk of white space dividing between the entries.

I think that the developer should have a break-line, a border or a boxed up entry so that it looks prettier and easy for the eyes to distinguish quickly between entries. There is also no emoticon to express any mood. There is some room for improvement on the home page in my opinion.

Click on Journey website and download the app for the platform that you want.

2) Diaro

Diaro was the first online diary that I used in 2013 and 2014. I was intrigued by the design and colours and how much I wanted to keep writing. I stopped writing journals in Diaro for two years.

When I looked back at my past entries written in Diaro after I have purchased a Pro Version from Journey, I realised that the photo attachments were missing from the posts. I did another test recently by uploading some photos from my phone gallery into an entry and subsequently, I deleted the same photos from my gallery. I could still see those deleted photos stored in Diaro.

Several Diaro users commented that they suffered from a loss of data when Diaro upgraded its version or some technical mishaps that happened along the way. My photos were likely to be lost during one of these unfortunate incidents. Diaro developers might have improved the app stability and the storage condition over the years, but however, I have no more confidence to use it again.

Diaro uses Dropbox to sync across Android devices and Diaro on Mac and PC online. This important function is a paid version. It is as good as saying that if you want to use Diaro, you must buy the Pro Version so that the journals can be backed up.

I was contemplating getting the paid app a few years ago and wrote to the developer asking a simple question regarding syncing between devices. The developer did not reply back. It discouraged me from buying the app as I could foresee that I would not be able to get any support if I have a problem later.

The advantage of Diaro is uploading unlimited numbers of photos. I have tested up to 20 photos. The location detector is not very responsive. I had to try a few times to get it right.

Download Diaro from Google Play Store

3) Private Diary

Private Diary has one of the most attractive journal app designs especially the presentation of the photo which allows the user to slide them sideways. There are three photos per diary entry for a free version and unlimited photos upload for a paid version.

A noteworthy feature is the ability to synchronise between Android and IOS platforms (iPhone and iPad). It is good news for users who want to change their mobile phones without fretting over access to the app.

You can also back up the files on your SD card. Another option is to upload the archive file to Dropbox or download it out to your device. Online cloud service is also available to sync entries with all your devices.

In the “Standard View”, another impressive feature to search your entries is to use a date range, coupled with the selection of categories and tags to filter all the entries. Other plus points are password lock, geotag, weather, temperature, emoticons and a change of themes (limited). The font colour customization does not seem to work.

After reading users’ reviews of the pro version, Private Diary is better of as a free version. After upgrading from the free version to a paid one, there seem to be some synchronisation problems encountered by many frustrated users. The developers do not seem to reply as well.

Download Private DIARY Free from Google Play Store
Download Private DIARY from iTunes Store

4) Better Diary

Better Diary is another remarkable journal app because it has HTML rich text formatting options. The photo layout is an outstanding feature, unlike other apps. You can upload the photo at any spot on the entry and scroll the images up and down in it. There is no photo limitation. I have successfully uploaded 20 photos.

A notable selling point of Better Diary is the capability to share the diary with your circle of friends or family members. You can create multiple diaries for different groups and purposes.

Selecting “Accordion” in “Page Transition” makes reading fun when flipping the journal entry like a book. Change the flipping into slider mode when “Page Depth” or “None” is selected.

Better Diary uses Google Cloud to sync and backup across devices. If you plan to migrate to a new device, just log in to the same account, all your diaries will be automatically restored. I also import Diaro zip files into Better Diary with not much effort.

The diary tracks location, weather and temperature data and supports emoticons. A premium license is yearly or a lifetime which provides handy widgets on the home screen, more font styles, unlimited space upload and sharing diary together with close friends and family members. Ad-free.

Download Better Diary from Google Play Store

5) Diary With Lock

After reviewing the above four journal apps with several customizations, Diary with Lock diary is suitable for people who value simplicity with a no-frills style of writing and do not care much about figuring out complex customization or any sort. This journal app is very easy to use.

The diary uses solid colours as the theme. There are many choices of background colours. The months are also colour-coded so you get a different colour for every month. You can change the font size but not the font style.

Sync and backup your diary with their online private and secure cloud storage. You can recover the journals later if you change your phone by reinstalling the app after you have registered an online account with them.

The downside is that photos and videos cannot be attached to the journal entries at this moment. On the other hand, this user-friendly journal app highlights providing loads of emoji (200+) to express your moods and most of them are in the paid version. If the emoji in the free version is not enough, buy more.

This simple journal app has come a long way rivalling its competitors with a 10-million downloads and yet able to maintain a high score rating based on 200 thousand reviews. Lastly, If you hate ads, purchase the premium version at a low cost.

Download Diary with Lock from Google Play Store

Deleting an unwanted PDF page is a pain in the neck after going through ways and methods just to delete a page in Adobe Reader. There is no “Delete” option in the standard free Adobe Reader. We can make use of an external option to do it, simple and fuss-free without paying a single cent.

One of the options is using Cute PDF Editor online without downloading it even when you are using Adobe Reader. I have listed very simple steps to delete one or more PDF pages.

1. Open the PDF file that you want to edit.
2. On the left sidebar, select <<Delete Page>>.
3. A pop-up menu will appear. Select the page(s) that you want to delete.
4. Save your new edited file under another name or replace the existing file.

How to Merge Several Documents, Images or PDFs into a Single PDF Page?

1. On the left sidebar, select <<Merge Page>>.
2. Select all the files/images/PDFs that you want to merge into a single PDF page. All single files have to be less than 5MB and all chosen files must be less than 10MB in total.
3. Page arrangement is on the right-hand corner.
4. If you are satisfied with the page layout, press <<save> and choose the location of the saved document.
5. Review your saved file.

1. A Tribute to the Photographers / Websites
2. Websites of Free Stock Photos Commercial Use
3. Still Can’t find The IDEAL Photos That You Are Looking for?

• • Live Models Are Not Free
  • Studio and Special Background Settings Rental Cost
  • Travel Cost

4. Why Choose Depositphotos as Your Choice of Professional Stock Photos?

• • Great Customer Service

A TRIBUTE to the Photographers / Websites that Allow Free Stock Photos for Commercial Use

A photo tells a thousand words, which is why no quality article would be left without an image or two to enhance the topic and pleasure the eyes aesthetically after reading rows of text.

Rarely do the audiences know that finding appropriate photos to complement an article is one of the greatest challenges. The time searching for good photos can sometimes equate to drafting an article.

Bloggers and designers have to be wary of grabbing just any photos online for use due to the photo’s copyright issue and fear of infringement.

One can buy photos online from stock photo companies such as Depositphotos to save all the troubles and to get a royalty-free license photo as they have a wide range of selection, over 31,668,450 images, which one will be able to find a suitable one.

There are many small-time bloggers who are not propelled to invest in these photos if they can get free photos online that convey their needs.

We google for images under public domain use that either has no copyright, meaning that we can do whatever we want with the photos and no permission is needed or we attribute the photos to the photographers if they require it under the license of the photo which they register in.

I chanced upon a website www.freeforcommercialuse.net where the founder of the site, Markus Spiske displayed a list of other free stock photography websites. What a precious discovery for a blogger like me as I have been always scratching my head with only 2 or 3 websites on hand!

I came up with a brilliant idea to write a short description of the founders and creators as an appreciation to their hard work for providing us quality high-res images to use, photos either taken by themselves or uploaded from others’ websites. Either way, they are kind enough to do it and give away free things.

Many website owners who are the photographers themselves went through the same phase of struggles in search of free photos and therefore decided to share their work with the rest of the world instead of letting them collect dust. Some request attributions which are reasonable enough to acknowledge their effort.

Most of us draw free images for our use but didn’t bother to read much about their profiles. Hence, I took the opportunity to research those awesome guys behind the masks. At least, if anyone comes to my website hoping to download free images from their website, they are compelled to glance through their profiles quickly. Wicked…….

I have also made an effort to screen through individual websites to make sure that they are still free for commercial use at the point of writing this article and which website requires attribution and which one does not.

Most importantly, I want to distinguish their photography style and admire their work. The way they arrange their photos for users’ search and the ease to facilitate the search will decide how often I will visit their site.

Special thanks to Markus Spiske once again. Without him, I would not have discovered most of the websites below. I will update the list if I come across any in future.

Websites of Free Stock Photos Commercial Use

*Double check the attribution term again when you use a photo*

Markus Spiske is the creator a few websites and some sites are in German language which hidden gems can be found.

Attribution: Required for all his websites below.

www.freeforcommercialuse.net – a list of free photo stock in which he displayed their links for free commercial use.

markusspiske.com

Browse by: Category (translated by Google)

• • • • Alps
      • Edibles
      • Live
      • People
      • Mother Earth
      • Urbane
      • V8
      • Two Gung

Photo Credit: Marcos Gali – www.facebook.com/marcosgali.gallery

www.facebook.com/marcosgali.gallery

Marcos Gali is a friend of mine. He is a Spanish guy who stays and works in an IT company in London. During his spare time, he enjoys taking photograps and has very creative photographs which had won him some awards.

Attribution: Yes. (Photo: Marcos Gali – <name of website which you extract photo from>).

Browse by: Category.

• • • • Street Photography
      • Fine Art of Nude
      • Thailand
      • Sports and Action
      • World War II (Documentary)
      • Conceptual and Ideas
      • Cities
      • Mood and Feelings
      • Landscapes
      • You Sessions
      • United States

www.freeimages.com – Freeimages was launched in 2001 as an alternative to expensive stock photography. Over 410,450 photos online contributed by more than 30,000 photographers. Photographers are encouraged to send in their work for exposure.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Category and Search Box.

• • • • Abstract
      • Architecture
      • Business
      • Computers
      • Concepts
      • Food
      • Nature
      • Objects
      • People
      • Places
      • Seasonal and Cityscapes
      • Transportation
      • World

pixabay.com – Pixabay was first developed by Simon Steinberger and Hans Braxmeier in Ulm, Germany in December 2010 supporting 26 languages currently. Over 340,000 free photos, vectors and illustrations can be downloaded.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Category and Search Box.

• • • • Food/Drink
      • Emotions
      • Education
      • Computer/Communication
      • Business/Finance
      • Beauty/Fashion
      • Backgrounds/Textures
      • Architecture/Buildings
      • Animals
      • Health/Medical
      • Industry/Craft
      • Music
      • Nature/Landscapes
      • People
      • Places/Monuments
      • Religion
      • Science
      • Sports
      • Transportation/Traffic
      • Travel/Vacation

www.publicdomainpictures.net – Created by Bobek Ltd. Over 96,200 photos online contributed by various photographers.

Attribution: No but with an option to do so via HTML link.

Browse by: Category and Search Box.

• • • • Animals
      • Architecture
      • Background
      • Business
      • Flowers
      • Food
      • Holidays
      • Illustrations
      • Landscape
      • Light
      • Effects
      • Macro
      • Nature
      • Objects
      • Office
      • Other
      • People
      • Seasons
      • Sports
      • Still Life
      • Symbols

stockphotos.io – David Choi is a full time web designer and developer based in New York City who created this website for images to be distributed together with his products without worrying for license restrictions. Around 27,000 photos are in stock. Various image sizes are available for download. There are also other great free resources to be found.

Attribution: Yes unless otherwise stated. Check license for individual photo.

Browse by: Category, Sub-category and Search Box.

• • • • Designs & Concepts
      • People & Nature
      • Illustrations

openphoto.net – Michael Jastremski from Philadelphia uses various brands and models of cameras for his photography. Various contributors to the site. Each photo displays the model of the camera being used.

Attribution: Yes. A HTML code is provided on each image to attribute for the photo credit.

Browse by: Category and Search Box.

• • • • Animals
      • Architecture
      • Arts
      • Colors
      • Commented Images
      • Concepts
      • Derived Work
      • Descriptions
      • Events
      • Feelings
      • Flowers
      • Food
      • Holidays
      • Imaged Mosaics
      • Landscapes
      • Licenses
      • Life
      • Light
      • Living Spaces
      • Nature
      • Our Favorites
      • People
      • Photos
      • Places
      • Popular
      • People
      • Professions
      • Recreation
      • Seasons
      • Shapes
      • Skies
      • Still Life
      • Study
      • Technology
      • Texture
      • Weather

www.pexels.com – Over 1,800 photos in stock by various contributors. 35 new photos added every week. Only creative commons photos (CC0) from reliable sources are added to the database.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Category and Search Box.

• • • • summer
      • business
      • abstract
      • sunset
      • art
      • black-and-white
      • car
      • building
      • people
      • vintage
      • technology
      • street
      • city
      • nature

www.goodfreephotos.com – Bob, the creator of a gallery of over 1,000 stock photos lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He compiled photos of things and his travel with some captions so you get more details of the photos. He has some unique categories such as Fossil, Rocks and Crystals which are uncommon.

Attribution: Consider a credit link when using a photo from this site.

Browse by: Category and Search Box.

• • • • Photo Album of the United States
      • Canada
      • China
      • Haiti
      • Mexico
      • Food
      • Plants
      • Animals
      • Other Photos
      • Weapons
      • Rocks and Crystals
      • Fossils
      • Sky and Clouds
      • Relics and Art
      • Textures
      • Automobiles

kaboompics.com – Karolina is the creator and a web-designer from Poland. There are 900 photos available, mostly 3888px or 5472px. Contributors are welcome to send in their photos.

Attribution: To include in the photo credit where possible as a courtesy anywhere on the same page of the photo > “Photo by Staffage via: kaboompics.com” (or similar statement). Photos can be used uncredited if you can’t or don’t want to do it.

Browse by: Category and Tags

• • • • Abstract
      • City and Architecture
      • Fashion
      • Food
      • Landscapes
      • Other

unsplash.com – Based in Montreal with a group of Crew team. 10 new photos every 10 days.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Category and Search Box

• • • • Buildings
      • Food & Drink
      • Nature
      • Objects
      • People
      • Technology

isorepublic.com – Founded by Tom Eversley, designer and photographer from England for 15 years in the creative industry. He is not using real models, hence is not suitable for some commercial use. Brands that have registered trademarks need to be respected and acknowledged.

Attribution: No, but it is appreciated, particularly for commercial WordPress themes and web templates.

Browse by: Category and Search Box.

• • • • Architecture
      • Nature
      • People
      • Textures
      • Urban
      • Various

picjumbo.com – Viktor Hanacek is the creator of picjumbo and a website designer. He claimed that no photo stock agency wanted his photos therefore he created his own website in November 2013. His photo quality is mostly 3500+ px in wide.

Attribution: Not necessary but greatly appreciated.

Browse by: Category, Tags and Search Box.

• • • • Abstract
      • Animals
      • Architecture
      • Business
      • Christmas
      • Fashion
      • Food
      • Nature
      • People
      • Roads
      • Snow & Winter
      • Sunlights
      • Technology
      • Things
      • Wedding

www.gratisography.com – Ryan McGuire owns a website design company and is a multi-faceted whimsically creative visual artist based in Ithaca, New York who used his art to connect with people. His photography style denotes a touch of humor.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Scrolling.

Photo Credit : Splitshire

www.splitshire.com – Daniel Nanescu, an Italian, loves photography so much that he gave it away for free. He loves the awesome feeling of people connecting to his art.

Attribution: Attribution not required but appreciated.

Browse by: Category.

• • • • Categories
      • Blur Backgrounds
      • Food
      • Fashion
      • Instagram
      • Landscapes
      • Fashion
      • People
      • Wedding
      • Bokeh
      • Technology
      • Automotive
      • Abstract
      • Nature
      • Still Life
      • Video
      • Things

barnimages.com – Roman Drits and Igor Trepeshchenok are both Latvian photographers based in Hamburg, Germany. They have a special way to categorize photos according to colors.

Attribution: No but would appreciate if you could place a link to their website.

Browse by: Category, Tags, Colors and Search Box.

• • • • Abstract
      • Animals
      • Architecture and Cityscape
      • Arts and Entertainment
      • Beauty And Health
      • Concepts And Ideas
      • Food and Drink
      • Industry
      • Landscape
      • Lifestyle
      • Nature
      • Objects
      • People
      • Travel Locations

jaymantri.com – Jay Mantri is the founder of the site. 7 photos will be sent every Thursday when you subscribe to his newsletter.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Archive by months where thumbnails of all photos are shown.

nos.twnsnd.co – Cole Townsend is a visual designer who has a passion for clean and intuitive solutions. He studied Art History and has a collection of unique old vintage photos of mostly black-and-white from the public archives.

Attribution: No. Free of known copyrights restrictions. 

Browse by: Scrolling.

www.lifeofpix.com – Hand-made with love by Leeroy Advertising Agency in Montreal & its network of photographers.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Scrolling.

thestocks.im – The Stocks is a search engine categorizing 16 free stock photo websites.

Attribution: Yes and No. Check license requirement of different website.

Browse by: Category.

• • • • Unsplash
      • Little Visuals
      • New Old Stock
      • Superfamous
      • Startup Stock
      • Gratisography
      • MMT
      • Getrefe
      • Crow the Stone
      • Pexels
      • Stock Up
      • Jay Mantri
      • Magdeleine
      • Free Nature Stock
      • Travel Coffee
      • Moveast

allthefreestock.com – Sajio George works as an SEO Analyst in Melbourne. He has his own blog about SEO and design. There is a large compilation of Free Stock Photos websites, Free Stock Video, Free Sound Effects and Free Icons, all listed under Creative Commons Zero license.

Attribution: No

Browse by: Category

• • • • Finda.Photo
      • Barn Images
      • ABS Free Pic
      • Furious Camera
      • Realistic Shots
      • Free Nature Stock
      • Stock Snap
      • Stok Pic
      • Nobl Web
      • Bara-Art
      • KaboomPics
      • 1 Million Free Pictures
      • re:splashed
      • Stock Up
      • Splashbase
      • Magdeleine
      • MMT
      • Apfel Stiel
      • Camarama
      • pond5
      • Jeeshoots
      • Picography
      • Pexels
      • ISO Republic
      • Designers Pics
      • Gratisography
      • Split Shire
      • Life Of Pix
      • Startup Stock Photos
      • Stock Image Point
      • Stock Photos For Free
      • morgue File
      • Crow The Stone
      • Skitter Photo
      • Little Visuals
      • Unsplash
      • Good Stock Photos
      • Jay Mantri
      • Free Range Stock
      • New Old Stock
      • Snapwire Snaps
      • The Pattern Library
      • Travel Coffee Book
      • Pixbay
      • Moveast
      • Pic Jumbo
      • Snapographic
      • Camarama
      • Foodies Feed
      • Death To Stock Photo
      • Authentic Snaps

www.freefoodphotos.com – An interesting website specializing in all the food photos professionally taken. Just by looking at them make our mouth salivate. You can send them an image request if you need their help.

Attribution: Yes, under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. You can attribute (credit) by making a link to https://freefoodphotos.com or directly to the image page you download the image from. If you are printing the image or using it somewhere that does not support hyperlinks then just credit us in text as “freefoodphotos.com”, if you can’t add some text then stamp/rasterize the text onto the image itself.

Browse by: Category, Tags and Search Box.

• • • • Bread & Cereals
      • Breakfast
      • Sweets & Dessert
      • Cooking & Prep
      • Diary Produce
      • Fruit
      • Herbs & Spices
      • Meals
      • Meat & Poultry
      • Seafood
      • Seasonal
      • Vegetables

superfamous.com – Dutch interaction designer Folkert Gorter owns the Superfamous studio in Los Angeles.

Attribution: Yes, under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

Browse by: Category.

• • • • Aerial
      • Biological
      • Social
      • Geological
      • Psychological
      • Phenomenological

www.imcreator.com/free – IM Creator is a website company in New York. Photos are from various contributors.

Attribution: Yes.

Browse by: Category, Sub-Category and Search Box.

• • • • People
      • Business
      • Technology
      • Food & Drinks
      • Sports & Fitness
      • Education
      • Objects & Items
      • Fashion & Beauty
      • Nature
      • Inspiration
      • BW (Black & White)
      • Occupations
      • Arts & Music
      • Lifestyle
      • Recreation
      • Ambient
      • Transportation
      • Cityscape

www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0 – Flickr (pronounced “flicker”) is an image hosting and video hosting website for the community to share and embed personal photographs, and used by photo researchers and bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs and social media.

Attribution: Yes. Under Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). Always confirm the license of the photo before using when performing a search, copyright photos may appear.

Browse by: Search Box.

search.creativecommons.org – Creative Commons provide search services by other independent organizations. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link.

Attribution: Check license on individual photo.

Browse by: Search Box and individual website.

magdeleine.co – A website with various contributors.

Attribution: Yes and No. Check license category.

Browse by: Category, Tags and Search Box.

• • • • Nature
      • City & Architecture
      • People
      • Animals
      • Food
      • Technology
      • Objects
      • Abstract

chamberofcommerce.org/findaphoto – The website uses search box from Pixabay, Splashbash, Dreamstime, Deposit Photos and Finda.Photo databases.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Category, Color and Search Box

• • • • Action
      • Aerial
      • Bokeh
      • Close-ups
      • Curves
      • Glare
      • Landmarks
      • Landscapes
      • Laptop
      • Light rays
      • Long-exposure
      • Person
      • Reflections
      • Screens
      • Technology
      • Urban
      • Wild animals
      • Jay Mantri
      • Life Of Pix
      • MMT
      • Picography
      • Skitter Photo
      • Startup Stock Photos
      • Unsplash

www.freeepy.com – By Pavel Barysevich.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Archive by months where thumbnails of all photos are shown.

realisticshots.com – Henry Reyes is a freelance web developer and designer from Dominican Republic. Contributors are welcome to submit their photos to them.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Archive by months where thumbnails of all photos are shown.

freeforwa.siterubix.com – Alex Sol stays in Montrea.  He created this website initially to share his photo with the members in Wealthy Affiliate Photo collection is small at this moment but will be built up gradually.

Attribution: No.

Browse by: Category and Search Box.

• • • • Animals
      • Business
      • Food
      • Make Money Online
      • Nature
      • Random
      • SEO Images
      • Urban

Still Can’t find The IDEAL Photos That You Are Looking for?

Why do people want to buy photos online when they have so many free resources? Why are the stock photo companies doing so well when there have so many “competitors”?

Depending on the user which can be anyone from a blogger to a company, if the niche is travel-related, then it is easier to pick from the free photo stock resources which have a wide variety of professional stunning choices. If the user is looking for people-related photos and a specific expression, this is where the challenge arises.

1. Live Models Are Not Free

Photographers that offer free resources normally take their photos on still objects such as landscapes, scenery, architecture and food. Those things are there and they are free. Online stock photo companies offer images by real paid models who will take instructions and portray the styles according to what the clients or the photographers need.

And if you are talking about a specific group of people such as really photogenic beautiful women and handsome men to enhance the brand that you are selling, these attractive specific group of people sell their time to make sure you get the effect that you want.

The same theory goes for babies or even elderly models, where they are paid to fulfil the obligation of the shoot no matter how long it takes to achieve the desired effects.

2. Studio and Special Background Settings Rental Cost

Booking a studio cost money. Many corporate companies use models shot in a studio to give a very professional image to their brands. Some users and clients require special background setting such as the hotels and properties where one has to rent the location in order to get it done, needless to say, all these are part of the cost too.

3. Travel Cost

If traveling cost is involved in part of the professional photography and not just merely traveling for personal interest, one can agree that the photos will not be free.

Perhaps after all the searching for suitable photos for hours and days, one should try out  a paid services like Depositphotos because even the photographs know that offering free images download will not be able to satisfy specific niche and standard.

Why Choose Depositphotos as Your Choice of Professional Stock Photos?

1. Great Customer Service

Because Depositphotos have great customer service and getting in touch via their live chat session is a breeze! It takes less than 30s to get connected and to ask questions which the response is instant. One could understand how frustrated it is to invest in service just to know that the customer service sucks and takes donkey years to never response back to you.

The standard of their customer service is like their photos, high quality and reliable. I know that because I have done the trial for you a number of times and thus could speak highly of them from my heart.

2. Free Trial Subscription

You are encouraged to try out their free trial subscription where you can download 5 free photos daily for 7 days with no obligation. If you like what you see, you can continue on the subscription with a variety of plans and pricing for you to choose from. Try it now! It is absolutely free!

Useful Link

• About Creative Commons Licenses 
• More than 20 million images
• Image starting from $0.15
• Clear licenses for any business
• Convenient Subscription and
  Pay-As-You-Go plans

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1. Introduction
2. Are Unique Baby Names Feasible?
3. Names Influence in School
4. Names Influencing Success
5. Choosing Names for a Baby

Introduction

I am excited. Today will be the birth of my nephew. It prompts me to think about the meaning of names. Our names stay with us throughout our life for the better or for the worse. Since birth, this is one of the things that we cannot exercise our freedom of choice unless we decide to change our names later in life.

This is also a beautiful gift that our parents have bestowed on us. They gave us the name at that point in time where it sounded nice, had some meanings to it or simply because it was popular to be called Marilyn during that period.

For the Chinese, it is probably a bit more complicated. Many of those younger generations that I know of, pay money to have a fortune teller propose some combinations of Chinese names according to the baby’s five elements of life in order to derive an auspicious name.

Even the Chinese nowadays have Christian names for easy pronunciation for the non-Chinese, and also it is stylish to have a Christian name to blend into the social circle.

Are Unique Baby Names Feasible?

The quest for uncommon baby names has increased over the decades. This could be attributed to parents being more educated and creative. They want their children to be unique, individualistic and stand out among the rest thus giving them unique names for their future benefits.

The problem of having a unique name for a person is facing the constant frustration of others pronouncing and/or spelling it wrongly or with many variations of it.

To reduce the problem of repeating to make the name sounds or spells right, the person may change their name completely to a simpler version just to make it easy for people to pronounce and spell without teaching others how to do it right. It is vital that people must feel comfortable in their own names.

I am facing the frustration of spelling problems for my own name over the decades from my own peer. My name is spelt as Shirline (pronounced “sure-lynn”). People have no problem pronouncing my name correctly.

They have so many variations to the spelling – Serene, Shirlynn, Sherlene, Shirlene, Sherline, Shirley, the last 3 being the most common spelling errors.

I have a few friends whom I have corrected their spelling mistakes countless times for the past 10 years (yes 10 years, I am not joking!), it still didn’t change the impression in their heart that my name should be spelt in the correct way as “Shirline”.

Perhaps during their era or to their understanding, they are imprinted deeply with the common well-known name like “Shirley”, “Serene” or even subconscious preference over the alphabet “e” (lene) instead of “i” (line).

To date, I still cannot figure out their stubbornness of adhering to the (wrong) spelling that they are more aware of instead of making an effort to memorise the correct spelling that really represents the “real” me.

Consider the name-pronunciation effect. A series of experiments show that people who have names that are easier to pronounce tend to be evaluated more positively than people who have names that are difficult to pronounce.

This research stretched to political candidates and a random sample of attorneys in U.S. law firms. Attorneys that have an easier pronounceable name tend to climb a higher position in the corporate ladder.

“John, can you help me with this?” versus “Jyhanmohi, can you help me with this?” In a social environment, people with common names are generally more popular simply because it is easy to pronounce and remember.

When you encounter someone with whom you have a difficult time pronouncing their name, you are less inclined to communicate more and seek help from the person because it is tricky to ask for help from a person without first addressing the name of the person.

It is also embarrassing to let the other person feel that you still cannot get the pronunciation right after knowing them for a while.

Names Influence in School

Academic papers are usually ranked in alphabetical order by the authors. It is common to affiliate things at the top of the list as being the cream of the crop.

Over time, it forms a psychological effect to perceive as being successful. On the contrary, the further down the alphabet of one’s surname is the less likelihood of being successful.

Girls with more feminine names are more inclined to choose humanity subjects whereas girls with more masculine names are more likely to choose maths and science subjects for their courses among the high-grade achievers.

A research paper conducted by David N. Figlio from the National Bureau of Economic Research said that boys who have a girly name will tend to misbehave more in school compared to boys with more masculine names. The behavioural problem leading to a suspension in school escalated more when a female schoolmate had the same name as them.

They are also being teased often on their names thus making them more self-conscious. The phenomenon of boys having girly names was seen more clearly from immigrant children and native-born English language learners.

Experienced teachers could foresee that they were able to assess the behaviour of the term intake just by running through the name list. The names below were compiled by School Stickers in the UK for the Top 40 Names of the Most Well-Behaved and Naughtiest children, in both genders category.

One-third of the teachers claimed that the naughtiest children were also smarter, sensitive and more popular as compared to the more well-behaved ones.

Names of Nicest and Naughtiest Children

Names Influencing Success

Names indicate the secret to success. In 2006, American economists look at the relationship between surnames with academic performance. People who have their surnames with the initials closer to the start of the alphabet have a higher percentage to win a Nobel Prize and work in more esteemed university departments.

In Germany, a field study showed that People with noble-sounding surnames like Kaiser (“emperor”), König (“king”), and Fürst (“prince”) will tend to hold a higher position in work as compared to people with a more common last names like Koch (“cook”), Bauer (“farmer”), and Becker/Bäcker (“baker”).

Having royal names such as Elizabeth, Diana, William and James would help to connote success and popularity. One would be treated differently or behave in a different mannerism. It is a psychological effect that whenever you call someone with a royal name, images of the royalty may flash by in your brain associating with status and class on the person whom you call upon.

Choosing Names for a Baby

Ben Earwicker www.garissonphoto.org

Mike Campbell, Author of Behind the Name took pride in researching and presenting you a wide selection of names and their meanings for free browsing according to the Letter, Gender and Usage.

A list of countries and the meaning of the names are explained in great detail. The ranking of the chosen name in various countries are also displayed.

It helps in your option to choose the most popular baby names now that you know how names can influence our life path to a certain extent. Have fun researching the names!

(Featured Photo Credit: Horton Web Design – www.HortonGroup.com)

1. How to Create a Website for Free?
2. Are The Websites Permanently FREE?
3. To Upgrade to Premium or Not?
4. Searching for Ideal Domain Name
5. My Preferred Hosting Company
6. Freebies – 10 Video Lessons for Free!!!

How to Create a Website for Free?

When I was younger and the internet started not a long time ago, I dreamed to have a website with my desired domain name. How cool is that!

You can have something which you own forever and nobody can rob the memory that is stored online. With the risk that the site and information might be hacked, this is still left to the individual responsibility of the site owner to improve its security.

The idea to own a personal website is great for me. Why was I not creating a personal website back then? I had no idea how to create a website for free then, what were the steps involved and what would the problems unforeseen, who could help me if I meet with technical difficulties?

Recently, I saw a website about this company, Wealthy Affiliate (WA) on how to create a free website. As claimed by many WA members online, the limited material provided on the WA website would enable every subscriber to gain a lot of valuable knowledge for free. This sparked my interest once again in my dream.

I registered a Basic Membership account with them out of curiosity to see whether it delivers what it promises and what kind of training do they provide. The big plus point is that registration is absolutely free and there is no credit card being requested upfront in the registration process.

For safety reasons, one should always be alert for using a credit card in the registration process as the credit cards may be charged discreetly if you do not read the fine prints properly.

WA gives all its Basic Members 2 free siterubix.com sub-domain website and free domain names to start with. Immediately I started to create my first website out of fun to see how easy or difficult the set-up was before transferring the whole website to my own domain name with is done easily in 5 minutes time.

I followed the training materials and video religiously which take me step-by-step to set up my first website for free. I also wrote my first blog about Valentine’s Day because it was around the corner.

Are The Websites Permanently FREE?… YESSS!

The good news is that the 2 sub-domain websites given are free for as long as you want. You are not obliged to take up their membership if you do not wish to. It allows you more time to figure out whether you are confident to set up, build and maintain your own website in the long run.

There are members who maintain their basic membership status permanently without upgrading their membership to a Premium one.

Basic Members can take advantage to upgrade their membership to Premium within 7 days of the first registration at USD 19.00 for the first month and thereafter, standard rate of USD 47.00/month.

After the first 7 days special offer, they can continue to enjoy the benefits (ie. free website) of a Basic Membership or upgrade to Premium anytime they want. Remember, you can always stay as a Basic Member with no obligation.

The bad news is that while you can choose to remain as a Basic Member with no expiry date, the invaluable training resources offered in WA is limited in numbers for Basic Members. Basic Membership is for dummies like me in learning how to create a website for free and deciding whether to go full force or not.

To Upgrade to Premium or Not?

To access the few hundred training programmes in WA, one has to be a Premium Member. The other priceless perk of being a Premium Member is that I can pose any questions including technical difficulties that I have encountered to the WA Community while trying to build my website.

The Community is very close-bonded, helpful and always very responsive. Someone out there will always answer my questions. The community structure looks like Facebook where one can add one other as friends but with the same common goal.

These are very important reasons why a newbie like me decide to stay with WA at this moment given that WA is not the cheapest hosting company around. I want to make use of all the useful learning resources available to make my membership worthwhile. It is a motivating force for me not to give up on what I planned to start.

During the first 7 days of learning from the training materials online, I was bowled over by the help that the community offered to one another. I also wanted to take advantage of the USD 19.00 first month offer to learn more things so I upgraded my plan on the 6th day.

Searching for Ideal Domain Name

Immediately after my upgrade to a Premium Membership, I began to brainstorm for domain names for my personal website (domainname.com instead of domainname.siterubix.com) which is only available for Premium Members.

I spent a lot of time doing market researches on the cheapest and most sought-after domain name registration company.

I used Namecheap to search for the name’s availability and eventually registered with them for my new domain name. Many people speak highly of Namecheap because it has the lowest price in the market with no upsell as compared to some other domain name registrar.

I have also checked Singapore companies selling domain names. Their cost was much higher. I bought my domain name from Namecheap at USD 10.69/year whereas the Singapore companies sold the name for SGD 20.00/year.

My Preferred Hosting Company

With WA, I can host 25 personal domains and another 25 sub-domains from siterubix.com, with a nominal fee of USD 19.00 for the first month and USD 47.00/month thereafter. In order to make the monthly fees paid worthwhile, I have to create a few more interest-based websites in time to come which can earn me some income from time to time.

From creating my first free website out of fun to having a serious business out of it, it changed my perspective of how much financial independence I could have in the future and how E-commerce is another Art of Business to be explored.

In my previous post about “Making Money Online Scam“, I was very sceptical about paying for the so-called ‘Starter Kit’. Online companies should allow users to register for free and decide whether it is worthwhile to invest in their companies.

Companies that want payment upfront obviously place their own financial interest first and do not care whether their services can really help you to achieve what you want.

Unbelievable – 10 Video Lessons for Free!!!

Can you believe this? You have already earned yourself 10 free video lessons below at no obligation. That was “THE MAIN DECIDING FACTOR” whether the company is legitimate and genuine to any of your doubts which were also my doubts!

Are you ready to take the plunge and start your free Lesson 1 – Getting Rolling?

Wealthy Affiliate 10-Parts Free Training Program for BASIC Member

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• Make Money Online Scam

I was extremely sceptical about all these so-called “easy money making ideas” online because there are just too many “make money online scams” going on. They would make you envisage the ideal lifestyle to have, lure you into reading a long story on how to make money online BUT you will never be able to know EXACTLY what are the ways to make money online because they always beat about the bush when it comes to the real thing.

How would you possibly trust a site that doesn’t have quality content that goes straight to the point on exactly how to make money online to achieve the $$$$$ that they had painted for you?

After they have enticed and uplifted you into the get rich quick schemes mood, they will request you to pay for a starter kit containing all the information needed to teach you how to make money online and also guarantee that money would be fully refunded if you are not satisfied with the purchased program. They will not tell you upfront about the type of content that you can expect.

When emails were sent to them regarding cancellation or refund, one would receive no reply. Many hopeful people have been scammed this way and this indeed gives the online marketing companies a very dirty reputation.

The genuine online marketing companies should be able to allow their prospective customers to decide logically by not misleading them into a get rich quick scheme because not everyone can run that fast; not everyone knows how to build a website due to a limitation in technology knowledge; not everyone is interested to learn about IT and e-commerce, not everyone has the aptitude to understand about marketing, let alone online marketing but everyone wants to get rich fast.

That is the weakness of how the scammers prey on the greed to get rich quickly without people considering their own limitation that they cannot build up the desired income at the speed that they think they want. The scammers would cover up the fact that Rome wasn’t built in a day and it takes a lot of hard work for successful people to get where they want.

Introduction

1. Embed a Twitter Feed
2. Drop Shadow Fonts
3. Smiley Emoticons
4. Free Visitor Counter

Introduction

I know what are some of the problems that new bloggers face. One of them is not to use too many plugins because they will slow down the websites’ performance and as a result lead to low Google ranking. Google considers the site speed as one of their criteria as it will affect users’ experience when interacting with the websites.

There are many attractive free plugins in the market that I am tempted to use for my blog site. Due to the reason stated above, I try to find a solution by using HTML Codes instead of plugins.

In the midst of conducting the researches of what I want for my website, I have decided to compile a list of information including the direct links of it to share the advantages with other newbies like me. You can already see that I have been using some of them.

If you are a new blogger and wants to find easy and uncomplicated ways to enhance the aesthetic value of your websites for a better user experience, you can follow me on my special Facebook page – Online Marketing for New Birds.

The page was created because I want to find ‘somewhere’ to deposit all the useful links so I can always refer back over and over again. I am not an expert but good enough to help myself.

Do not be surprised if you are just seeling links and links so those can bring you to the real expert IT sites for advice or introduce you to new useful sites!

1. Twitter Feed

Would you like to embed one cool scrolling Twitter feed into the sidebar of your website like below? Twitter feed is especially helpful when you want your audience to have immediate updates on your new article, new launch of products and take advantage of the special promotion which you are marketing for.

It is fully customizable to the height of the size that you want. The colour theme of the background can either be dark or light, and the colours of the links inside the Twitter post can be selected too.

2. Drop Shadow Fonts

Drop shadow 1

<p style=”font-size: 18px; color: orange; text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #666;”>Drop shadow 1</p>

Drop shadow 2

<p style=”font-size: 18px; color: orange; text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #000;”>Drop shadow 2</p>

Drop shadow 3

<p style=”font-size: 18px; text-shadow: 4px 4px 4px #666;”>Drop shadow 3</p>

Drop shadow 4

<p style=”font-size: 18px; color: orange; text-shadow: 4px 4px 8px #666;”>Drop shadow 4</p>

Drop shadow 5

<p style=”font-size: 18px; color: #fff ; text-shadow: 1px 1px 8px #000;”>Drop shadow 5</p>

<p style=”font-size: 18px; color: orange; text-shadow: 1px 1px 1px #666;”>Drop shadow 1</p>

I have used the fonts above for one of my article series – Cutie Pie Korean Baby Yebin Videos. You would be able to see more effects from this page because I have made changes to the original font sizes and colours listed above to create a more fanciful theme dedicated to a little girl.

There are 5 types of Drop Shadow fonts to choose below. Copy and paste the HTML Code <p style = … </p> below your font choice onto your “Text” editor page (not your “Visual” page).

• Adjustment of Font Size

You can adjust the font size below “18px” to “other numberpx”

• Font and Shadow Colour HTML Code

You can adjust the text colour from your default toolbar above. Pretty straightforward.

a) 1 I use the HTML colour code to create my personalised shadow colour. Scroll down below and search for the subject title “About Hexadecimal & RGB Colors“

b) A colour code will be generated from the HTML Colour Code link when you click on the colour panel.

c) Just replace the above Drop Shadow code → #666;” with the #generated colour code;” that you have newly generated.

Source: https://www.html.am/html-codes/text/text-code.cfm

3. Smiley Emoticons

You can copy and paste these icons directly onto your website. Otherwise, use the HTML Code provided beside the icon.

If you need more information and troubleshooting, you can refer to the direct source link provided below.

icon	text	text	full text	icon	full text
	“:)”	“:-)”	“:smile:”		“:lol:”
	“:D”	“:-D”	“:grin:”		“:oops:”
	“:(”	“:-(”	“:sad:”		“:cry:”
	“:o”	“:-o”	“:eek:”		“:evil:”
	“8O”	“8-O”	“:shock:”		“:twisted:”
	“:?”	“:-?”	“:???:”		“:roll:”
	“8)”	“8-)”	“:cool:”		“:!:”
	“:x”	“:-x”	“:mad:”		“:?:”
	“:P”	“:-P”	“:razz:”		“:idea:”
	“:|”	“:-|”	“:neutral:”		“:arrow:”
	“;)”	“;-)”	“:wink:”		“:mrgreen:”

Source: https://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Smilies

4. Free Visitor Counter

Some visitor counter plugins can track visitors’ visits and you may want to install them to track.

https://www.freecounterstat.com/

Public or Private View

You can set the counter to private or public view. If you click on the counter, you can decide whether IF the visitors can see the analysis of where your visitors come from if it is set to ‘public’. For the ‘private’ setting, only the numbers are shown.

Step 1

No registration is needed – Choose from a list of designs that you like and click on it.

Step 2

Customisation – Decide whether you like the standard design or the floating numeric design and its floating position on your website.

You can input your numeric counting from any numbers you want, not necessarily 0 so it is great for beginners. I use my Google Analytics page view figure as the starting number.

Step 3

An HTML code will be generated and you can paste them onto your sidebar.

Visitors Analysis

After you have completed step 3 and viewed it on your website, click on the counter. You will see either only your own visit or people who are online If you choose to go PUBLIC.

If you go PRIVATE, you will still be able to read the visitors analysis if you use the weblink that is generated. See Demo Stat.

Advantage:

• You can change the counter design if you get bored of it.
• If you want to switch from private to public view once you have more visitors coming to your website and there is “more things” to show rather than a handful of visits.
• Data will remain unchanged and there is instruction on how to do a change.

Disadvantage:

• You cannot exclude your own visit.

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