go-to links
One of the biggest problems with the internet is knowing how credible (& up-to-date) the info you find is. Back to our favorite quote for Donald Rumsfeld “You don’t know what you don’t know’.
Be sure to bookmark this page so you can come back to it as needed!
Here we want to share with you our favorite bits of internet knowledge we refer to constantly …
business stuff:
growth supply
Growth Supply is chocka block full of free business resources. 5 categories (business, marketing, design & code, productivity & learn) each broken into small categories this will become the goto for start-ups (after our site of course)
resource cards
Resource Cards is a list of free resources for creatives. Know the sites on where to get high-resolution photos, free fonts and icons, use Photoshop online and so much more.
social media:
ideal sizes for your social media images:
Just 1 tiny pixel to big or too small can blur your beautiful social media image & spoil its impact so Buffersocials’ Guidelines for all 6 major social media platforms is a great resource to refer back to – the post is updated on an on-going basis with all the latest info on ideal SM image sizes. It includes 6 platforms …
- google+
Or you’ll find a highly detailed infographic here which you can printout & keep handy in your office.
image size cheat sheet for DIVI
If you use DIVI it is really easy to forget all the image sizes for different columns widths.
Come on in the Divi Image Size Cheat Sheet. I particularly like that it shows the images size in teal life.
ritetag
Get instant hashtag suggestions at a click of a button with RiteTag. Great for Instagram and Pinterest, all one has to do is hover on the image and click Get Hashtag Suggestions. You can also get hashtag suggestion for a word or short texts.
SEO:
SEO links
- Googles own guide to SEO (links to a .pdf file). It’s pretty full on, but if you’ve got an hour or 2 with nothing better to do, go for it! But seriously download it & put it in your SEO resource folder (you have organised a digital asset filing system haven’t you!)
- Amazon key word search tool. Basic searches are free with a limited number of results per search but if you write a lot of blogs the pro version may be worth the investment.
- Enter a topic and Tweak Your Biz Title Generator will give you a huge number of title ideas for your blog, articles – so beneficial for writers and bloggers.
- Know the strength of your blog post or article title by using CoSchedule Headline Analyzer. This nifty tool will rate the writer’s working title and can even generate and suggest better titles/headlines that can help improve the articles.
- Beginners guide to SEO brought to you by MOZ
- Get the might Googles page speed insights with instructions on how to fix your site
keyword revealer
think mobile first
see what Google sees
occasional tools:
convert rgb to cmyk
RGB 2 CMYK is a free online tool which will convert your images from RGB to CMYK using a professional ICC profile.
name that colour
Paypal fee calculator
chrome extensions:
figure it out
‘Figure it Out’, or FIO, is a chrome extension which beautifully displays the time zones you work and play in. A minimal time zone extension that adds up to ten time zones of your choice to your ‘new tab’ screen, making it easy to schedule meetings, connect with family, and beat jetlag.
keyword shitter
domains:
creative domain name search
If your stuck trying to find an available domain name go to domainr, type in your keyword & see what results you get.
edit, sign & send PDFs online
courses:
If you prefer tutorials, head to our Tutorials to Explore page.
be an Alison graduate
Alison provides free online courses. This includes courses in Technology, Language, Science, Health, Humanities, Business, Math, Marketing and Lifestyle. Sign up now and become an expert in a chosen field.
get certified
Develop fundamental social marketing skills and get certified via Hootsuite Academy.
Course on Social Marketing Education is for free.
sponsored courses
FutureLearn offers a wide range of relevant, high quality courses such as digital marketing and social media, healthcare, artificial intelligence among others.
In some instances, they work with partners to sponsor courses, so that all learners can earn a free certificate and access for as long as it’s on FutureLearn.
websites:
helpful sites to bookmark
- Find out what platform a website is Built With
- What WordPress Theme Is That is a FREE online tool that allows you to easily detect what WordPress theme a site uses (including parent and child themes). Additionally, it will also detect what WordPress Plugins are being used.
- FREE WP Theme Detector. WordPress Theme Detector is a free tool that allows you to find all the details about the WordPress theme and plugins currently being used by a site.
- FREE Web Tools Club. The biggest free tools & free resources collection for the web industry. Design tools such as graphic design, web development, social marketing, SEO & PPC.
- Learn about the latest web trends, news, tutorials and techniques via Codrops. All resources from the site are FREE.
- Having trouble loading a website? Go and check if the website’s down via Down for Everyone or Just Me. This platform is very simple and user friendly. Just enter the website URL into the search bar and Down for Everyone or Just Me will do the rest.
has you copy been copied?
search for copies of your page on the web at copyscape
stylifyme.com
Like a site & want to know what colours & fonts it uses? Copy the URL & paste in into stylifyme & voila, you have it. You little spy you …
images for your website
- FREE Background image generator. Choose the base color, pattern, intensity and a few other settings & your background image is generated for you.
- Flaticon is the largest database of free vector icons in PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD.
using images of children
Before you use images of children on your website make sure you know the rules.
website add-ons
FREE live chat app for your website. Making a phone call is disruptive. Email is slow. Live chat is fast and more personal. Your website visitors are familiar with messaging friends and family. Give them the opportunity to chat live with you and your team.
website usability
- FREE website usability testing. Have someone have a look at your site and then send you a video of what they see and what they think! As well as being good fun, it can be very helpful and give you some ideas on how to improve your website! The free version allows you to have 3 requests per month.
- FREE Website Grader. This website gives you an overall score on the performance of your website! They focus on areas such as performance, mobile, SEO and security and give you tips on how to improve!
- Analyze your sites performance with Page Speed Tools
- How strong is your website: a website grader bought to you by Hubspot
mobile friendly test
Googles mobile friendly tester
mobile site speed
Test your mobile web site for speed.
check for vulnerabilities
Worried your site may be hackable? Put your URL in to gravityscan & find out if your website has been hacked or has any security issues that need to be addressed.
is it hacked?
Is It Hacked analyses your website, looking for for signs of an infection.works on most backend technologies & checks to see if your site is cloaked to GoogleBot, has spammy links, funny redirects, or otherwise appears to be hacked.
who is the host?
When you need to know who is hosting a particular website.
how strong is your website?
Test your website’s performance, responsiveness, SEO and mobility with Website Grader.
color codes
HTML Color Codes is a creative’s answer to finding color harmony, tints, shades and tones.
The site provides HTML color names and codes, Hexa codes, and RGB and HSL values as well.
wordpress:
building your wordpress website
- A super simple guide to the first steps you need to do when thinking about building your wordpress site. Of course this isn’t the be all & end all, but it’ll help you to understand the process.
- FREE Easy WP Guide WordPress Manual. You won’t find any talk of HTML, PHP or creating WP Themes here. What you will find is a simple, easy to read WordPress manual that will guide you through the process of editing your site content.
You can read the Easy WP Guide WordPress manual online, download the free PDF, or purchase the eBook or brandable Word document. - A Partnership between GoDaddy & OSTraining has produced a set of FREE wordpress tutorials to help you bet on top of things.
DIVI wordpress framework
- If you love DIVI as much as we do you will absolutely want to bookmark the DIVI tutes directory. It is the go-to for free tutorials.
DIVI plugin list
Divi Plugin Index: A Simple List of Plugins Built Specifically for Divi broken into 2 lists – Divi community faves & others.
We do try to keep these links current but if you find one which is out-dated please let us know …
