If you’re dealing with a start-up, or a smaller client who may be on somewhat of a tight budget, the funds just aren’t there to hire a professional photographer to come in and take standard photos for you to use on the site. There are tons of places these days for finding good, high resolution, professionally edited photos for a fraction of the cost of hiring a lens man.

iStock Photo

Not only does iStock Photo have an image for just about everything you can think of, you can also get free images. Sure, it may be a shot in the dark that it’s one that will work with your design. But hey, I’m a sucker for free stuff! They don’t just offer images, you can also use them as a source for illustrations, audio files, videos, and Flash videos.

Getty Images

You may have seen the name Getty Images watermarked, or in the caption of, some news stories you’ve read on various news sites. Like iStock, Getty Images don’t stop at just images, they offer music and audio files as well. Unlike iStock, Getty has a pricing scale depending on what the image is going to be used for.

Free Digital Photos

The name says it all with Free Digital Photos. The selection may not be as vast as some of the other sites, but for the price you really can’t complain. Free Digital Photos offers both pictures and Illustrations and browsing the selection is extremely easy with the navigation on the left side. There’s also a search feature, in case you know just what you’re looking for.

Shutterstock

Offering over 17 million royalty-free stock photos, I think it’s safe to say you’ll be able to find the image you’re looking for on Shutterstock. There are a couple pricing options, you can buy a membership and have a monthly limit of 750 images, or you can buy on demand by the photo or by five photos. Shutterstock also offers a free photo and vector image each week.

123RF

123RF offers over 12 million royalty free stock photos, and counting. You can purchase credits and download by the image, or buy a subscription and download like crazy. The site is incredibly easy to navigate and once you find the image you want the pricing and size options are right there, no need to click through a bunch of other links to figure out the cost.

Free Pixels

Free Pixels is, well, exactly that, free stock images. The site navigates a lot more like a discussion forum, but for the cost of the product you really can’t complain. If you can’t find the photo you need on their site, they have a search box that automatically searches the Shutterstock site for you.

Deposit Photos

Deposit Photos offers the pay per image or subscription plan, and even has a free trial subscription. You can search for vectors and images if you know exactly what you came there to find, or using the hovering slide bar to browse by category.

Fotolia

Fotolia is a site cut from the same stone as Shutterstock, as they look nearly identical. Along with images you can also get vectors and videos. They also feature images of the day and seasonal searches that will help you to get your creative juices flowing.

Pixmac

Pixmac Pixmac makes it clear what they do, they sell pictures. And with low price pay per image options as well as some very affordable subscriptions options, I’d be willing to bet they sell quite a few of them. You can search for the image you’re looking for, or browse by one of the twelve categories they’ve broken their selection down to.

Dreamstime

One thing that I really enjoyed about the Dreamstime website was that it had an abundance of images on the homepage, laid out to give the page some design elements. You can click on the thumbnail images behind the search bar to jump directly to that image, or you can search for what you’re looking for. It’s that simple.

Stock photo sites are a great resource for the freelance developer. Being able to download affordable, top-quality, professionally edited photos to use in a design will help save you all sorts of time and money. The other nice thing about stock photo sites is that you can use comp versions of the images in your design comps. That way your client will have a better idea of how you intend for their site to look, rather than showing them a layout with a black square and the word “picture” written on it.

About the author: with over ten years in the freelance web design and writing fields, Scott Stanton has had his finger on the beating pulse of the industry’s hottest design trends and bends for the past decade. Scott regularly writes for Wix.com the free website builder. Follow him on Twitter @TheScottStanton.

I also know for a fact that you use Twitter to make connections with customers and learn web design tricks and techniques.

What if I told you that every one of your tweets is promoting other people’s business?

Here’s proof:

I just sent out 2 tweets promoting my web design articles using 2 different Twitter clients – MarketMeTweet and SocialOomph.

One of those tweets was branded with the Twitter client I used to send out that tweet, and one wasn’t. Why was my MarketMeTweet tweet branded with my own website url and how in the world did I do that?

I bet you didn’t know that “SocialOomph” and “WebDesignDev” are actually hyperlinks pointing to the urls.

So every time you send out a tweet you are advertising someone’s product with a link to their site.

You are promoting them absolutely free. They get a great free advertisement, don’t they?

Unless you change that.

Now wouldn’t you want to use this valuable Twitter real estate by

• branding your own tweets with your business’s name
• including a link back to your portfolio website or blog with every tweet you make
• getting a link back to your portfolio website every time someone retweets your tweet?

Just like this:

You see how my tweets through SocialOomph were branded with SocialOomph’s website, both on my direct tweets and retweets by others, and how my other tweets were branded with my own website? Well, you can do the same like I do, and I will show you how.

MarketMeTweet

PieDog Media just released an update to their already extremely powerful and featured packed social media management tool called MarketMeTweet.

At this time, MarketMeTweet is the only fully featured twitter client that brands your tweets.

The video below provides a nice overview of MarketMeTweet v2.0:

Check Out MarketMeTweet!

Now that Google and Bing are displaying real-time Twitter and Facebook search results, it’s very, very important to have a presence on social media.

With access to real-time information becoming the norm, and soon possibly affecting rankings of your website, can your web design business afford not to be using social media?

MarketMeTweet is for businesses (small and large), such as web design, as well as power-users, bloggers and even newbies.

If you use social media to promote yourself as web designers, then MarketMeTweet is for you.

MarketMeTweet lets you easily promote your web design business online, get new customers and make more money.

Brand Management

My favorite feature in MarketMeTweet is the ability to brand your tweets. This means every tweet you send is branded with a link back to your website.

See the video below to see how easy it is to set up and configure your brand:

After you set up branding, every single one of your tweets will be be branded with your own URL:

This is an awesome feature that will give your web design business that competitive edge over your competitors, and create additional brand awareness.

Unlimited Accounts

MarketMeTweet lets you add unlimited Twitter accounts. This is especially useful if your business has multiple departments or if you have multiple web sites or blogs with a specific Twitter account for each (i.e. you have a business and personal twitter account). MarketMeTweet lets you add a new Twitter account with a click of a button. You can manage all of your accounts from the one interface.

Scheduled Tweets

MarketMeTweet offers tweet scheduling.

They offer 2 ways to do this: 1) the standard method where you can schedule your tweets to be sent out at a future date and time; 2) a feature that is unique to MarketMeTweet, is the ability to schedule tweets using Google calendar.  In order to schedule tweets using Google Calendar you first must enable Google Calendar.

The beauty of MarketMeTweet is that it also lets you schedule bulk tweets at once. Here’s how it’s done:

Click on Schedule:

Next, click on Import Tweets:

Then copy/paste your scheduled tweets into the box. Make sure they are in the format %T% This is my tweet %D% – they must start with %T% and end with %D%.

Then, select Use Override Interval. If you don’t, all your tweets will go out at once instead of being scheduled 1 by 1. Drag that little circle right below Overide Interval to set the interval at which you want each tweet to go out. For instance, I set it at 30 so that my tweets go out every 30 minutes:

Next click on Import pasted text:

Now click on Save Tweets:

And watch the progress bar:

Now you’ve scheduled 244 tweets for this week (so in less than 2 minutes I scheduled tweets to go out every 30 minutes for 5 days in a row, what a time saver!):

Twitter Management

No other Twitter business software has a comprehensive management side.

You are able to see your friend’s time lines, replies, mentions, retweets, search, customize panes, easily manage and delete direct messages, groups, expand the interface and much more.

Facebook Integration

You can set your tweets to be posted and scheduled to your Facebook profile and AND unlimited Facebook fan pages!

MarketMeTweet lets you to view your Facebook activity in a gorgeous interface (I like it much better than any other interface) and makes keeping up with friends and contacts a breeze.

Location Targeted Following

Matches for new followers can be in the same place as you, making the quality so much higher.  You can input your location and MarketMeTweet will automatically find followers. This feature is insane for you web designers – imagine how easy you can find local clients!

Reply Campaigns

MarketMeTweet’s reply campaigns lets you to find users in your niche and start conversations. The best part is that it’s completely user controlled to maintain the highest quality.

Language Targeted Tweeting

Grow a mass following of users who are relevant.

Build a following of users who speak the same language as you!

Automatic RSS Tweeting

For maximum exposure import your blog’s RSS feed directly into MarketMeTweet.

Every time your RSS feed is updated you can have it post automatically or have it scheduled.

You can tweet your posts to all accounts at the same time.

MarketMeTweet makes sending RSS feeds to Twitter and Facebook a breeze, all within the one application.

Free Updates

MarketMeTweet is continually being upgraded and all users get FREE updates.

Multiple Computers

This is epic: MarketMeTweet software engineers have found a way for you to take your marketing data anywhere you go, and access it from whatever computer you wish to access it from.

Price

MarketMeTweet has four different pricing options to give as many people as possible access to this tool.

So getting started with this application a no-brainer, and there is a money-back guarantee.

Twitter Search

With MarketMeTweet’s search feature you can easily keep up to date with all the latest tweets from Twitter.

You can stay up to date on who is searching you and your web design business, and respond with deadly accuracy.

Ping.fm Integration

Ping.fm is a service that lets you to update many different social networks at once. You can update all, or just a few of your favorite social networks.

Updates can be made from your email, browser, SMS… and now MarketMeTweet.

Smart Following & Unfollowing Algorithm (user controlled)

MarketMeTweet lets you to stay in control of your account by finding highly targeted followers, and unfollow those who aren’t adding value to your account.

Unlimited Twitter Accounts

You can use as many Twitter accounts as you want from this app, making your life easier and more concise.

OAuth Secure

The new requirement from Twitter is OAuth security encryption, and MarketMeTweet has it. This means that your Twitter username or password is NEVER stored. Now are you sure your other Twitter tools do this…

Group Management

Groups in Twitter is an easy way for you to filter your friends’ tweets and keep up to date.

Post To All

Do you have more than one Twitter Account? Facebook Profile? Fan Page?

You can post to all of them with one click.

Forum

MarketMeTweet also has a fully supported forum where you can:

• ask for support
• make feature requests
• read tips and tricks

This certainly provides a peace of mind for your investment.

Finally…

MarketMeTweet is a tool I personally use with my Twitter account with 28,500 followers. I highly recommend it.

If you are serious about social media marketing, social networking and your web design business, get yourself a copy now.

Click Here to Get MarketMeTweet

The kit brings the Facebook vector icon and logo. Also, since the focus of this resource are the UI elements, it brings a main window with the header, menu and the chat window for you to set up your realistic mock-ups. Cannot forget to mention all the modal components, comment boxes, buttons, message boxes, tabs, etc.

Download PSD Files

Yes, man! And it can make you lose lot of time when there are superscript and subscript, letter-spacing, line-spacing, etc.

I usally spend one hour at day using Photoshop. Sometimes to fix bad photos, sometimes to create posters, but I also fought against text and it often won.

Now I want to show you some simple tips, tricks and keyboard shortcuts to simplify your works with text on Photoshop.

First of all select the Default Workspace of Photoshop (I use the CS3 Version)

Now you are sure to have the text Character & Paragraph tab on the right.

Quickly Preview Your Text With Different Fonts

Select the Type layer in the Layers palette, click on the font selection option in the Options Bar at the top of the screen, then use your Up or Down arrow keys to change font.

Letter Spacing

Letter Spacing could reminds you of the CSS property and here works in the same way: it sets the space bewteen letters.
If you want to change it in an entire text level open the Characther, select the letter-spacing area and set it.

You can also do this for a limited number of letters, just select the desired letters.

Keyboard Shortcut

Select the desired text and then “Ctrl+Alt” (Windows) or “Command+Option” (Mac) and use the Up and Down arrow keys to adjust linespacing by 10 points of default.

Line Spacing

This property is called “line-height” on CSS and it sets the space bewteen lines.
If you want to change it in an entire text level open the Characther, select the line-spacing area and set it.

You can also do this for a limited number of line, just select the desired line.

Keyboard Shortcut

Select the desired text and then “Alt” (Windows) or “Option” (Mac) and use the Up and Down arrow keys to adjust linespacing by 2 points of default.

Superscript Text

Keyboard Shortcut

Highlight the text and hold “Ctrl+Shift++” (Windows) / “Command+Shift++” (Mac)

Subscript Text

Keyboard Shortcut

Highlight the text and hold “Ctrl+Shift+Alt++” (Windows) / “Command+Shift+Option++” (Mac)

Convert Text To All Caps

Keyboard Shortcut

Highlight the text and hold “Ctrl+Shift+K” (Windows) / “Command+Shift+K” (Mac)

Convert Text To Small Caps

Keyboard Shortcut

Highlight the text and hold “Ctrl+Shift+H” (Windows) / “Command+Shift+H” (Mac)

Apply A Fake Bold Aspect

I often have to go up against some font designers ’cause they don’t include the bold style to their font.
With Photoshop you can fix this problem (in part))

Keyboard Shortcut

Highlight the text and hold “Ctrl+Shift+B” (Windows) / “Command+Shift+B” (Mac) to make text bold.

Apply A Fake Italic Aspect

The same goes for the italic style.

Keyboard Shortcut

Highlight the text and hold “Ctrl+Shift+I” (Windows) / “Command+Shift+I” (Mac) for italics.

About the Author

WebDesignDev.com welcomes our newest blogger, Andrea Pelizzardi, an Italian web/graphic designer who is the author of this article and many more to come. You can follow Andrea on TheGoldenFlux.com.
The list of his articles on WebDesignDev.com is available here.

By the way, don’t forget to download my package of over 340 Premium Logo PSDs .

Enjoy!

By the way, don’t forget to download my package of over 340 Premium Logo PSDs .

This was our selection of 20, so if you think that there are any others that deserve to be part of the list, why not let us know by dropping in a comment. Enjoy the list.

iPhone App Websites…

Outpost

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Tea Round

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Dig Deep Fitness

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Outside App

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Tapbots

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Cellar App

* * * * *

Broadersheet

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Tap Tapas

* * * * *

The Typography Manual

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Paraply

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Barista

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The Fun Tip Calculator

* * * * *

June Cloud

* * * * *

Wheel of Tea

* * * * *

Tic A Tac Poker

* * * * *

Ego App

* * * * *

Happy Dangy Diggy

* * * * *

TweetDeck

* * * * *

WordPress For iPhone

* * * * *

Tweetie

Im sure there are many other great tutorials out there that could have made the list, but I just don’t have the time to browse the internet top to bottom. So If you have found or know of another Photoshop texture tutorial that you think should make the list, feel free to drop us a link in a comment.

Rusty Metal Plate

Learn how to create a rusty metal plate in Photoshop.

* * * * *

Thick Diagonal Lines

This tutorial will teach you how to create industrial styled lines.

* * * * *

Navigation Bar

Learn how to create a professional navigation bar. This can also be used as a preloader bar too!

* * * * *

Brushed Metal

In a few easy steps, you can create this brushes metal button.

* * * * *

Black Bubble Effects

Create this black bubble texture in Photoshop.

* * * * *

Grungy Metal Texture

In this tutorial learn how to create a really nice looking grungy metal texture.

* * * * *

Crumpled Paper Bag

BioRust teaches us how to create this crumpled bag texture in Photoshop.

* * * * *

Metal Texture

Learn how to create this full realistic metal texture in Photoshop.

* * * * *

Matrix Background

This tutorial will teach you how to create a matrix like repeating background texture.

* * * * *

Geometric Abstract

Learn hoe to create a geometric background that looks good as a forum signature.

* * * * *

Creating A Watermark

This tutorial will teach you how to create a professional watermark on any image you like.

* * * * *

Creating Camouflage

In 15 minutes, learn how to create a camouflage texture in Photoshop.

* * * * *

Wet & Muddy Rock Texture

Create a realistic wet and muddy rock texture in Photoshop with the filter forge plugin.

* * * * *

Leopard Skin Texture

Learn how to create a realistic leopard skin texture.

* * * * *

Rock Texture

Learn how to create a beautiful rock texture with a nice shiny light effect too.

* * * * *

Carpet Texture

This tutorial will teach you how to create an oriental carpet texture using Photoshop.

* * * * *

Fur Texture

This texture is beautiful. It looks so realistic. A very simple tutorial too.

* * * * *

Gold Texture

Learn how to create a texture that looks like gold.

* * * * *

Patchwork Grid Effect

Learn how to apply a patchwork grid effect over any image.

* * * * *

Rust Texture Tutorial

Learn how to create a rust texture using Photoshop and around 10 minutes of your time.

The list is in descending order leaving the best tutorial until last. Remember that this is WebDesignDev’s opinion about the order that the tutorials are in.

What tutorial is your favorite? And does number one deserve to be number one? If you have any suggestions on tutorials you think should have made the top 10, then please drop by a comment. Anyway, enjoy the list.

#10 From Photoshop To HTML

BolducPress have written this top tutorial on converting a Photoshop design straight into HTML. There are demos too, and plus you can download the PSD and HTML / CSS files if your not up for following the tutorial. View Tutorial

* * * * *

#9 From PSD To HTML / CSS In Easy Steps

This tutorial is a 4 part series, and will teach you how to convert a very lush design into HTML. View Tutorial

* * * * *

#8 Lab TV Layout, PSD to HTML

PSD Vibe wrote a tutorial on how to design a lab tv layout. This tutorial will teach you how to take that Photoshop layout, and code it up in HTML and CSS. View Tutorial

* * * * *

#7 Build A Sleek Portfolio Site From Scratch

This Net Tuts tutorial is all over the internet. Its sch a beautiful tutorial, and will teach you how to build a sleek looking portfolio site from the grounds upwards. View Tutorial

* * * * *

#6 PSD To HTML

At number 6, we have the old BolducPress PSD to HTML tutorial. They take a design that they previously taught people how to make in Photoshop, and then code it all up into HTML. View Tutorial

* * * * *

#5 Slice And Dice That PSD

This tutorial lives up to its name. Net Tuts teaches us how to take a PSD design and slice and dice it up, and then code it out into a beautiful HTML and CSS document. They also show the PSD and HTML comparison. View Tutorial

* * * * *

#4 Converting A Photoshop Mockup

CSS Tricks teaches us how to convert a Photoshop mockup design into a fully functional web page. View Tutorial

* * * * *

#3 How To Convert A PSD To XHTML

At number 3 we have another awesome tutorial from Net Tuts. This is a 3 part video series that will teach you everything. They also cover coding for IE6 too! View Tutorial

* * * * *

#2 PSD To XHTML / CSS

At number two we have a tutorial from HV Designs. This tutorial will teach any web designer (beginner and advanced) how to code a PSD to XHTML and CSS. The tutorial flows and is very easy to follow. View Tutorial

* * * * *

#1 From PSD to HTML, Building a Set of Website Designs Step by Step

Last but not least, saving the best until last, we have a tutorial written by Net Tuts. This time they teach us how to convert a beautiful design (names Creatif) into HTML This is a top tutorial, and Net Tuts covers almost about everything. View Tutorial

Let me know what brush set you like the best. Plus, if you have any more sets you would like to add to the next list, feel free to drop in a cheeky comment.

	Grunge Brushes 11 Top quality grunge brushes made in Photoshop CS4. Brush Designer -
* * * * *
	Ultimate Grunge 3 135 Crazy grunge brushes available for free download. Download This Brush Set | Brush Designer -
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	Grunge & Splatter 8 Nicely crafted grunge and splatter Photoshop brushes. Download This Brush Set | Brush Designer -
* * * * *
	Grunge Brush Set 31 Grayscale brushes made in Photoshop CS3 available for free download. Brush Designer -
* * * * *
	QuadGrunged Compiled here are 10 abstract grunge brushes compatible with Photoshop 7 and onwards. Download This Brush Set | Brush Designer -
* * * * *
	50 Grunge Brushes Here are a collection of 50 abstract and crazy grunge brushes. Download This Brush Set | Brush Designer -
* * * * *
	Grunge Brushes 19 Beautiful grunge brushes free to download. Brush Designer -
* * * * *
	Grunge Brush A brush set that contains 36 brilliant grunge brushes. Download This Brush Set | Brush Designer -
* * * * *
	Rust Grunge Brushes 15 Really nice grunge brushes to use when designing in Photoshop. Brush Designer -
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	Grungey Brushes Here are 10 top brushes for free download and compatible for Photoshop 7 and onwards. Brush Designer -

Let me know what free brush site you like best. I think my favorite is either Brusheezy, FBrushes or PFB. Also if you have found any other top notch free Photoshop brush sites, then please let the WebdesignDev community know by dropping in a comment. Anyway, enjoy the list!

Brusheezy

Brusheezy is part of the “eezy” network of websites. Some quality Photoshop brushes on this site.

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WOW Brushes

These brushes have defiantly got the WOW factor.

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Get Brushes

This site has a great collection of only the best Photoshop brushes.

* * * * *

123 Free Brushes

The name basically sums this site up. There is over 107 pages of free Photoshop brushes available to download!

* * * * *

F Brushes

(Free) Brushes has a great design, and its very easy to find Photoshop brushes you want.

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Q Brushes

Q Brushes has a large selection of quality Photoshop brushes available to download now.

* * * * *

PS Brushes

A great collection of Photoshop brushes listed on this site, categorized too!

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Photoshop Free Brushes

A beautiful showcase of many different free Photoshop brushes.

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Free Brushes

An easy to use, nicely designed brush website that lives up to its name.

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GFX Fever

There are many brushes here that you can use when designing in Photoshop.

* * * * *

Brush Fed

A notebook / scrap book styled website design, with a large collection of brushes available to download.

* * * * *

In Obscuro

Pages of brushes that aren’t too big in filesize to download.

* * * * *

My Photoshop Brushes

A large directory of brushes, including patterns, shapes and gradients too!

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Photo Shop Brush

A nice sized directory listing some great Photoshop brushes. Large brush previews too!

* * * * *

Brushes Download

A nice index of not only free brushes, but many other Photoshop goodies.