Beth Devine – Page 12

So Much Money, So Little Time

November 20, 2015 Beth Devine

CCAT, CT Innovations, DECD, NETAAC, SBDC, STEP, etc., etc., etc. When it comes to marketing dollars for manufacturers, there’s no shortage of options. Each day, the manufacturers we work with receive emails informing them of opportunities. This is a good thing. However, understanding which program to use can be a bit overwhelming.

Some programs offer free money, some have a 50/50 match, others are low interest loans. There’s also the question of qualifying. Some money needs to be used towards international marketing, and in other cases, funding is based upon the size of your business or your business situation (work lost to an overseas competitor).

Then there’s the time involved in looking into the options. In fact, from state and federally run operations to manufacturing associations and other resources, there are more than 20 organizations with multiple programs to assist manufacturers in CT. The confusion lies in the myriad of choices as each one of these organizations has up to 3 different programs to choose from.

Save yourself time and access the most money by investigating all options. Contact Web Savvy Marketers to discuss your marketing needs and determine which funding program would work for you.

Small Businesses Make Big Targets for Hackers

November 20, 2015 Beth Devine

cybercrime — “Out” by bradhoc, used under CC BY / Modified from original

If you’re a small business, don’t be under the illusion that you’re too small for singling out by hackers. You could be one of the growing number of small businesses who have moved into the cyber crime spotlight.

According to Symantec Security Response, 50% of all targeted cyber attacks are on businesses with fewer than 2,500 employees. In 2012, businesses with fewer than 250 employees saw an increase in attacks from 18% to 31% in just one year.

The top businesses and occupations targeted are:

Manufacturing – received the greatest number of attacks in 2012; at 24% of the attacks, they got twice the number as government organizations.
Finance, Real Estate, and Insurance – hit with 19% of the attacks.
Research and Development – highest target for job occupations at 27%.
Sales Representatives – 24% of targeted job occupations.

So what are cyber criminals looking for? When you look at the use of the stolen data, the information tells us they want trade secrets, products plans, and customer and employee data. All your proprietary information that can be used to help competitors gain an advantage or be sold to unscrupulous organizations. Your social security and driver’s license numbers, addresses, credit card numbers, health and financial history, purchase information, and other private details are up for grabs.

The news is continually warning us about data breaches that occur at all levels and includes major retailers, hotel chains, government organizations, and other businesses. In July the headlines were about the breach on government systems affecting 21.5 million people and is related to the previous month’s government breach compromising an additional 4 million with stolen sensitive information.

This government incident is “not without precedent,” and “cybersecurity in both the private sector and the public sector” must be raised, said Michael Daniel, the White House cybersecurity coordinator.

Cybersecurity has been a documented issue going back to 1997. In a cover letter to the President on the Report of the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, it reads, “We did find widespread capability to exploit infrastructure vulnerabilities. The capability to do harm—particularly through information networks—is real; it is growing at an alarming rate; and we have little defense against it.”

So what are we doing about it? What measures should you be taking to protect confidential business data and private personal information?

INTERPOL, the world’s largest international police organization with 190 member countries, is committed to becoming a global coordination body on the detection and prevention of digital crimes. They advise that we do two things to protect our business and personal data.

Update your OpenSSL.

For website owners, it’s important that you have an updated OpenSSL. The Heartbleed vulnerability in encryption software which is used by the majority of online web servers is leaving nearly everyone open to one of the biggest cyberattacks in the internet’s history.

Heartbleed lets its attacker anonymously download a random chunk of memory from the server, including secret keys, passwords, and other personal information. The secret keys are the most problematic because this opens the door for even more secret information to be revealed.

The bug went undiscovered for two years until being uncovered in April of 2014, and it’s predicted that the ripple effects could continue for years. Vulnerable versions are still being used on websites, most likely small e-commerce sites that don’t have the administrative support to patch things up.

If you’re concerned about a website, you can use this handy Heartbleed checking tool to check if it’s vulnerable.

Speaking of updating, keep all your software programs and websites up to date and backed up for added security.

Change your passwords.

INTERPOL says to use unique passwords for each of your online accounts and to change them often. While this may be wise in theory, in reality it’s difficult to carry out. Start by changing important accounts, ones that have financial information on them, for example.

Create strong passwords that are at least eight characters long and use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Don’t use words from the dictionary (the use of symbols comes in handy here) and don’t use personal information that is readily available, such as your name, birth date, or apartment number.

What else can you do? Here are a few more preventative measures to use in protecting yourself from cybercrime.

Get two-factor authentication.

When a site offers this step, use it. If you are a site owner, enable it for your customers and subscribers. One of the largest attacks on banks occurred in 2014 when failure to enact two-factor authentication at one of the bank’s servers caused a weak point in the bank’s security, allowing the hackers to access 90 other servers in their network.

Be careful what you click on.

One of the ways hackers manage to steal information is through infecting your computer. Malware such as remote-control Trojan programs, worms, viruses, and botnets can affect computers using sophisticated techniques.

Spam email, infected files on downloads, and malicious pop-ups and links can all infect your computer, which in turn can be used by hackers to launch DoS attacks or send spam with even more malware.

Always think twice before going to a website that’s unknown to you, and if you do, type a legitimate address in a new browser tab instead of clicking on a suspicious link. Never trust an email from an unknown source.

Put barriers in place.

Utilize the best tech barriers you can afford, like this cloud-based security app for mobile phones. Anyone operating their computer without some serious security software is taking a huge risk. Install and regularly update virus protection and adware/spyware removal software programs to keep malicious applications from invading your privacy.

Good luck — it’s a digital wild west out there.

3 Secrets To Getting Your Customers To Trust You

October 20, 2015 Beth Devine

Trust is a hard-won commodity. Gaining your customer’s trust is a process that takes a business at least two years, according to a global study by SDL. Strengthening your relationships with your customers is an investment that requires good communication, but just how else do you build trust over time?

With these three secrets, help your business grow as you practice building trust.

Be Imperfect

Today’s social media makes your business far more visual and public. Your business communications on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media platforms reflect your ability to be accessible and transparent.

The key to conveying accessibility and authenticity to your audience is by sharing content that reveals you’re imperfect. Authentic storytelling involves a willingness to admit your faults and mistakes, as well as your accomplishments and successes. The more you engage with your followers in a familiar and realistic manner, the more effective you’ll be in persuading them to accept and trust you.

Gone is the perfect brand image with impeccable stock photos to tell your brand’s story. The trend in images on social media echoes the user-generated content taken by the smartphone in your back pocket. The natural technical errors and the added filters help create imagery that’s familiar and relatable.

There’s a right balance between professional, polished content and authentic storytelling that depends on your audience and business. Just remember, the more transparent and realistic you are, the more your audience will gravitate to you.

The Law of Diminishing Returns

The law of diminishing returns is the theory that the more you do something, the less value and effect it has. It applies to things you enjoy doing, like eating your favorite food or riding your favorite amusement park ride, and to performance-based efforts, like studying for an exam or practicing for a competition. The more you experience it or work at it, the more you grow tired of it or feel burned out from it.

This theory is similar to a diminishing law of credibility. The bigger your claims are, the less likely anyone will believe you. The rule here is to “never tell them more than you think they’ll believe.”

You might have the most powerful vacuum cleaner ever made, thanks to its high-tech filter. So how do you get your audience to believe you? Instead of rattling on about how and why it’s the best, start by telling the disadvantages first. Tell them the filter is the most expensive on the market. Then eventually get to that’s why it’s also the most effective.

This doesn’t mean you don’t get to sound excited about your product or service. It means you aren’t afraid to be upfront about some of the limitations in order to establish credibility and trust. This is a tool you probably use in your everyday life without realizing it.

For example, when talking to a friend about your exercise regime, you are more likely to tell another avid runner all about your struggle with 12-mile daily runs than you would discuss it with someone who never runs. You would be more effective in encouraging this friend by talking about the hard-won benefits of walking.

Telling people the truth, but only as much as they can accept and want to believe, will not only resonate with your audience, it will make you easier to trust.

Start With the Why of the Golden Circle

Why should people choose your product or service over your competitor’s? Is it better quality? Less expensive? Will it last longer? Most businesses sell themselves with similar claims, offering no unique point of reference.

According to Simon Sinek, the way to stand out from the competition is to use what he calls “The Golden Circle.” The circle consists of a bull’s-eye in the center of the circle and two concentric layers. In the center is the why, in the middle is the how, and in the outermost circle is the what.

To communicate with your customers, Sinek says to begin in the center with the why. He says that few organizations can explain the why to their existence, so to be unique and meaningful, you must start from the inside of the circle and work outwards. The why of your business is how you will build trust and loyalty, Sinek says.

Don’t let these three secrets stay a secret. Share this post with your colleagues and help to spread valuable trust in your corner of the world.

Social Helping Enters the Social Selling Scene

October 7, 2015 Beth Devine

There is a new buzzword in social media marketing: “social helping.” Its definition appears to be no different than the original “social selling.” So why the need for new jargon?

Maybe it’s because the term “selling” couldn’t absolve itself of pushy, used-car salesman undertones. Maybe it’s because salespeople simply can’t resist hard-core selling. Or maybe it’s because we’re hard-headed minions who refuse to listen. Whatever the cause, social helping has arrived to differentiate itself from old-school social selling.

Are You Misusing Your Social Media?

Your online social media presence is a great tool for connecting with customers. There are successful salespeople who are developing relationships that generate leads and convert into sales. But they didn’t do it with an aggressive sales approach.

The social selling agenda didn’t develop so you could use hard-selling tactics. I found this misguided advice online to describe social selling: “Ultimately, you need to obtain sales any way you can.”

Social helping has morphed out of social selling from necessity. Internet users have grown apathetic to sales messages and the constant bombardment of banner ads, click-through buttons, and sponsored content. The social aspect was lost, and social selling isn’t doing what it’s intended.

The Keys to Social Helping

Be a listener.

As a business, you’re on social media for one reason, to become familiar with your followers. All your communication is driven with the intent to understand how you can help them. What problems do they have? How can you assist with solving them?

Ask questions.

All followers are potential customers, but instead of forcing them to learn about your company, you’re concerned with learning more about them by asking the right questions. Find out what motivates them, what concerns they’re struggling with, and what their preferences are. Leave your “about me” self-indulgent pitches at the door.

Share great content.

Keep your followers educated and entertained. Give them targeted content that helps them make informed decisions, such as how-to and DIY videos, blog posts, and relevant content from other valuable sources. Be the company they look for who shares interesting and fun posts. Don’t be the brand who’s always sharing promotional gimmicks.

Be an expert.

When your followers have a question, be the authority they turn to for answers. Keep your social media profile filled with a steady stream of useful information. Based on their questions and needs, contribute relevant content that solves their problems and builds your credibility.

Meet your followers where they are. Social media is the place to go to reach your audience and be a social helper. Almost two-thirds of social media users use social media sites at least once a day on their computers and almost half of smartphone owners visit social networks every day on their phones, according to Neilsen’s “The Digital Consumer” 2014 report.

Make it easy to connect by adding links to your website on your social media profiles. You can also incorporate links to a landing page or other pages with sales information. When your follower is ready to be a customer, they can easily find out more about you.

Are You Keeping Up With Facebook’s Latest Features?

October 1, 2015 Beth Devine

Facebook is continually adding new features to enhance the experience of all users, including businesses. Using Facebook’s latest features for your marketing will help you gain more visibility. Learn how to promote your business, increase your post’s views from fans, and boost communication with your fans.

See First

With See First, users can give priority to the pages and friends they want to make sure they “see first.” Help your fans to manage their news feed and explain how this works.

Ask them, “Want to stay tuned to the latest at (insert your business name)? Let us show you how!”

It’s easy. All you need to do is have them go to your Facebook page and click the Like button. The drop down will give a See First option to choose. That’s it!

The other more customized way involves several steps. For desktop users, go to your personal News Feed and select the down arrow in the top far right to access News Feed Preferences. From there, click Prioritize and select the pages and friends you want to See First.

Keep giving your fans outstandig content so they will want to select your business to see first in their news feed.

Facebook Beacon

As a local business, you can choose to place a Facebook Beacon on your page. Just like a physical beacon, the Facebook Beacon sends information out to people who are nearby. If your fans have their bluetooth turned on and they are near your place of business, you can send messages to them.

Send your fans a photo with a welcome message, alerting them to your location, share a recommendation from friends, or request a check-in. All you need to do is request this free feature from Facebook and you’re on your way to getting more attention and airtime from your fans who are in your location.

Messenger for Business

Want a new way to connect with your customers? Now it’s easier than ever with Facebook’s Messenger app. Through Messenger, you can send private messages to not only friends, but also with your customers who respond to your ad.

Thanks to Facebook, selling your services and products just got more customer-friendly. When your customers go through checkout in response to your ad, they can choose to sign up for this feature and get information sent to them such as order confirmation and shipping updates. They can click on “Send Message” button with your ad, and the Messenger window will open for them. Once a customer sends you a message, you are then able to respond.

Facebook says businesses will soon be able to respond to not only customer’s private messages, but to their comments as well. Instead of email, you can use Messenger to quickly help customers with their questions and problems. You can use images in your communication, unlike texting. This is an excellent way to give your customers the support they want in a more personalized way. If you want to jump on the Messenger for businesses bandwagon, just sign up with Facebook.

Saved Replies

Save time with saved replies by reusing a standard message that you send over and over. You can tweak each one to be more personalized before you hit send, but the bulk of the message is the same and easy to save for reuse.

First navigate to Messages. Click on a particular message to see Saved Replies. The message shows up in a pop-up box with the Saved Replies on the left side. Select Manage Replies to see all your replies or to write a new reply. Write generic replies for all your FAQs for future use. Don’t forget to customize each one before sending out, such as with a personal greeting to the recipient.

360-Degree Video

Give your viewers a totally immersive viewing experience with this latest of video features. Web and Android users (with iOS coming soon) can view a scene from all angles by tilting your device or dragging your cursor.

How do you do this? You need to use cameras that will capture all 360 degrees of your scene at once. Think of the possibilities. GoPro is using it for a motocross ride across the Idaho desert. LeBron James, the basketball legend, is giving his viewers a behind-the-scene look at a his workout. Walt Disney is taking viewers to its fictional planet Jakku for a preview of what’s to come in the next installment of Star Wars.

You can start uploading now, although no ads are allowed at this time.

Send and Receive Money

Now you can send and receive money on Facebook. There’s no service charge for this like there is with Paypal, for example, but it does come with a few caveats. You must be friends with the person, so if you’re friends are clients, they can pay you by using the Messenger app. It is currently only good for the U.S. and when using a debit card.

All you have to do is click on the dollar sign in the Message box to get started. The dollar sign is there for a reason, so be patient while this feature continues to roll out.

Have fun trying these new Facebook features out for your business, and for the ones still in the works, keep an eye out. By then there’ll probably be a few more new features available.

Why Marketing Is Essential To Your Recruitment

September 25, 2015 Beth Devine

The key component to advancing your capabilities and capacity is successful recruitment. While this pertains to all industries, it is especially true for manufacturers. How do manufacturers succeed when fighting against the raging tide of a generational skills gap that is only going to get wider as the manufacturing workforce shortage continues to increase?

It is predicted that the impact of the shortage will be felt up to 2025 and beyond. The manufacturing industry is creating new jobs from a natural expansion following the recession. Data indicates there could be 400,000 new jobs by 2020, and up to 700,000 by 2025.

The challenges that manufacturers face are:

Baby Boomers are retiring, with nearly three million workers expected to retire between 2015 and 2025.
Millennials, who are expected to assume 75% of the manufacturing workforce by 2025, aren’t interested in manufacturing work.
The incoming workers are deficient in technology, as well as basic technical and problem-solving skills.

Marketing To Millennials

Successful manufacturing recruitment involves targeting today’s Millennials (aged 19 to 33 years). Three things are important to this generation of workers:

Social Consciousness

This generation wants to see their career prospects concerned with making the world a better place. By highlighting your community service, environmental awareness, and sustainability development, you add value by increasing your firm’s attractiveness.

Your website, company branding, and social media presence are all important in your recruitment process. An outdated site, unattractive branding, and missing the mark on social media will work against you.

Advanced and Innovative Technology

Marketing to millenials Dispel the old image of manufacturing as “dirty, dumb, dangerous, and disappearing.” Show how work environments and skills have changed to incorporate highly advanced machines and processes requiring computer-savvy workers with multiple talents.

Develop your firm’s image by posting new product lines on your blog or publishing articles in trade magazines on new processes. Ramp up your marketing to reveal how manufacturing has evolved into a “cool” place to be.

Part of a Team Environment

Enhance your desirability in this area by marketing your organization’s need for multi-taskers with advanced skill sets. Clearly display career path information on your website and write blog posts that feature employees’ development or production breakthroughs and accomplishments.

Help your prospective employees to understand the impact and value of their work. Share the culture of your open and collaborative work environment through social media and benchmarking publications.

There are currently six out of ten skilled production positions unfilled, and by the end of 2015, there will be 9,300 manufacturing job openings statewide in fourteen job categories. In order to compete for the available workforce, demonstrate your desirability as a company to work for through marketing that reaches out to a generation in a manner that is socially conscious and technologically up to date.

The principals of Web Savvy Marketers have been assisting CT manufacturers with their business development and marketing needs for more than 25 years. Give us a call at 860-432-8756 to see if we can help you with your on-line and off-line presence.

Understanding Creative Commons Licenses Made Easy

September 18, 2015 Beth Devine

Now that you have new image sources — and even more — that you’ve probably never heard of before, free to use for your blog posts and other creative pursuits, it’s the perfect time for an easy-to-understand explanation of Creative Commons licenses.

Because let’s face it, Creative Commons licensing is almost as difficult to understand at first glance as legalise. Oh, the horrors. Relax and fear not; this is going to be a breeze for even those of you who fear the dreaded clicking on “agree” to lengthy terms and conditions imposed on us with every piece of software we use.

Oh, the jargon. Will it never end? Here it is in common English, complete with my own personal disclaimer: I assume no responsibility for anything legal, even the lack of jargon. (Hint: I am not a lawyer.)

Go to the CC license site for each license deed and legal code for full explanation. If you really want to roll up your shirtsleeves, click here for a handy License Versions chart that compares all the different licenses.

But first, a little trick from Creative Commons. All CC licenses require attribution. To help you with remembering this, start with a simple acronym. Think “TASL” for Title, Author, Source, License. This handy mnemonic device means thinking about a bunch of threads hanging from a knob. How hard can it be?

The next time you’re wondering what to do for image attribution, ask yourself:

What’s the title of the image? (If there is one, include it.)
Who’s the author or owner of the image? The word “creator” would be better, but then that would mess up the acronym.
Where can the source be found? This is usually a URL or hyperlink to the image.
What’s the license of the image? There are now eight different Creative Commons licenses, so name it and create a hyperlink to its Creative Commons license page.

There are good ways to do this, and not so good ways. The good ways are all going to clear the TASL-minimum. Did you know that including the title is only a requirement for CC license versions 3.0 or earlier? And it’s optional for 4.0? Go with TASL and you’ll be covered.

On with understanding the Creative Commons licenses:

Attribution License

For this attribution only license, give the creator of the image the correct attribution by following TASL. You can use the image however you want, distribute it, and make changes to it for both commercial and non-commercial use. Indicate if you’ve modified the work from the original in your attribution.

Attribution-NoDerivs License

This is the same as the attribution except for the one all-important difference. You can’t modify the image in any way, including cropping, changing color, and adding text. It must remain in its original, unaltered condition in order to use it for any purpose you want, and with all the TASL requirements.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

This license allows you to share the image for non-commercial purposes only, but that’s it. No altering it in any way. The TASL still stands, so don’t forget to give attribution to the original creator.

Attribution-NonCommercial License

This is similar to the attribution only license except you aren’t allowed to use it commercially. Remember the TASL requirements, give attribution to original creator, and use the images only in a non-commercial way. You are allowed to modify the image, just be sure to indicate you’ve done so.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

You can use the image, manipulate it in any way, but only for non-commercial uses. You need to give attribution to the original author. The one caveat here is that the share alike gives you rights to the new work you created when you changed it. Your new, altered work carries the same license, which means others can again alter the image, etc. .

Attribution-ShareAlike License

Can you guess what this one is by now? You must give proper attribution, manipulate the image in any way for either commercial or non-commercial use. The same share alike portion applies, giving you the same license should you build upon the image, and anyone else who builds upon your new work.

Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

This is a new addition to Flickr’s licensing, a popular free image source. This particular licensing carries the CCO or “CC Zero” restrictions, meaning zero restrictions. There are “No Rights Reserved” and no copyright restrictions. Feel free to make changes, even for commercial use, no attribution or permissions needed. Thank you very much, Flickr.

Public Domain Mark

Also new to Flickr, this license carries no known restrictions under copyright law. Go ahead and modify and distribute it as you wish, commercial purposes included, no permission or attribution required. See other information as noted in license.

Your Creative Commons 101 course is now over. It’s up to you to stay informed, follow the requirements, and be a happy image sharer.

More Free Image Sources You’ve Never Heard Of

September 9, 2015 Beth Devine

Searching for little known, free image sources proved to be so fun I found you more. More visuals to make your online work pop out. More exciting ways to enhance your blog posts, eblasts, memes, infographics, social media shares, and all your other visual content marketing.

These sources give you free images under a form of Creative Commons licensing. Check each site before you use their images to make sure you’re following correct operating procedure. This way everyone’s happy in image-use land.

Give each title a click to discover what’s new. I don’t promise you loads of cute cat images, but I bet you’ll find a free image source you’ve never heard of before. If you don’t, I owe you a cat photo.

Tookapic

Tookapic offers both free and premium stock photos. You can filter by “free photos” which gives you the CCO licensed photos. They prefer dogs, but the Tookapic blog offers advice on photography, including Tips and Tricks, Photography 101, Tutorials, and Photo Ideas. So you can go right ahead and take photos of cats with all your newly acquired wisdom.

Snapwire Snaps

Get seven free photos every seven days. Photos are public domain and free from copyright restrictions. Download their collection by the week, currently showing week one through sixty, or do a quick search and see what pops up.

Jay Mantri

Beautiful landscapes and close-ups for your free, do-anything use. Check out his archive and see for yourself. Sign up for seven new free images each week and get something perfect for your creative efforts.

IM Free

Their collection features unusual categories such as BW (black and white), ambient, and icons, as well as the more typical fare of nature, business, and health. All the images are free and for commercial use. Some require attribution, so be sure to check before using. You can also build a website if you feel the urge.

Negative Space

Negative Space adds twenty photos each week that you can sort by color, copy space position, and fourteen categories, something not all sites offer that dish out weekly updates. All photos are under the CCO Creative Commons license, so you can use them commercially and no attribution is required. No cats to be found, the one negative about Negative Space.

PicJumbo

Get new free photos delivered to your inbox for commercial and personal use. New photos added daily from a variety of categories, including sunlight, Christmas, and abstract. PicJumbo says attribution is greatly appreciated. 2,108,672 photos since it started in November of 2013, and not a single cat image. Sigh.

Wellcome Images

You can now get ancient manuscripts, etchings by famous artists, and early photography and advertisements in free, high-resolution format from over 100,000 images available through the Wellcome Images collection. Most images are released under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license so you can use them free of charge for both personal and commercial use, with acknowledgement to Wellcome Library.

Whether you want to dabble in the morose with images of hysteric and epileptic patients from the Salpêtrière Hospital, or you’re interested in 1887 studies of motion, or a 1384 Persian horoscope, you’re bound to find something unusual and obscure in this historical collection.

Wylio

The word “wylio” is Welsh for “to look at” or “watch.” Thanks to Wylio, you can look at their compilation of photos collected from Flickr, all easily searchable under the Creative Commons Attribution license. They not only curate awesome photos for you, they also give you a free re-sizer, code embedder, and credit builder to use.

Choose your image, select a size slider to set your dimensions, then choose an embed code to automatically upload your photo within a responsive design like WordPress. Wylio generates the embed code, you just add the attribution. All this from “a lean, scrappy, bootstrapping web start-up, located in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee.”

And they have cats, loads of ’em.

Magdeleine

Magdeleine has both CCO public domain and attribution-required licenses, with images easily sortable by both categories. Each curated image displays its license by either hovering the cursor over the image, or with a license stamp in the upper right corner.

You can also sort by eight other categories, the most hits coming from nature, objects, and people. If you’re looking for a color to highlight, you can also search by thirteen color categories.

If you’ve discovered at least one free image source you’ve never heard of with this post or my last post, then I’ve done my job. If not, then you’re spending far too much time online. Or you’re a fellow cat-enthusiast who’s hoping I’ll send you that cat photo I promised.

Image credit: My photo of Longwood Gardens, PA, resident summer house cat, who clearly owns the place.

Free Image Sources You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

September 1, 2015 Beth Devine

commercial and personal use — “Green Eggs and Cat” by Nantaskart, used under CC BY / Desaturated from original

Posting images on social media can be a tedious task when you keep resorting to the same old free image sources. From your business or personal blog to the vast array of social networks, it’s time you spice up your images with sources you’ve probably never heard of, or lost track of, or forgot to bookmark.

When using free image sources, always check the license conditions. It’s a dog-eat-dog world (my apologies to all dogs; this reference is purely idiomatic) and prudent users know to proceed with caution lest they find themselves at the wrong end of a potentially costly legal accusation.

The license conditions can sometimes include legalese that is tricky to understand. Want something in plain English? To read about the legal ramifications of using images incorrectly in simple words, check out The Ultimate Student Guide to Images, a helpful guide that explains copyright, fair use, creative commons, and lists free sources that I’ve included here. Or check out my Use With Caution: How To Avoid Image Copyright Violation post for the low-down.

There are many online resources for free images with a Creative Commons license of some sort, giving you generous use and reprint rights. Here is a list of free image sources with at least one (or two, or more) that you’ve never heard of. Just click on the source name to be transported to a world of new photos.

You can thank me later — read to the end to find out how.

Gratisography

Free high-resolution photos added weekly for both commercial and personal use. There are no copyright restrictions on these pictures, all taken by Ryan McGuire from Bells Design. He not only has a keen eye, he also has quite the sense of humor. Images are searchable by category only.

Behold

Behold takes your searches and looks at what is inside the images at the pixel level. This way it searches like a computer would, rather than using only image tags and filenames like most search engines.

Try searching for images that “look like” a particular visual concept, such as an animal. You can get to this page by first doing a general search. Or go here and try it to see for yourself. Be sure to check each Flickr image for its individual license before using.

Unsplash

Subscribe and get ten new photos every ten days for free from Unsplash. All the photos are licensed under Creative Commons Zero, so you can do whatever you want, including copy, modify, and distribute them, even commercially, without getting permission or giving attribution.

There is no search function and photos aren’t grouped in any categories. You can wait for your inbox to deliver more awesomeness, or you can go to the site and scroll down to your heart’s content.

Death to the Stock Photo

Get another ten photos free in your inbox the first of each month from Death to the Stock Photo. Each month a different category is selected for delivery. Check out their own license here, which includes certain restrictions like no redistribution, always include this license, and ways not to use the photos. Try their easy-to-read version also.

One user calls the monthly Death to Stock photo packs “the new Saturday morning cartoons.” If that isn’t enough of an enticement, you’ll get a bonus pack of ten photos for immediate download after signing up.

Sadly, there were no cat photos, but the images are all high quality resolution and versatile. Their catchy tagline reads, “This isn’t just a mailing list. It’s a movement.” A bit provocative, isn’t it? Works for me. Now find the cats and it’s all good.

Superfamous Studios

You can use the photos from Superfamous Studios, a studio based in Los Angeles, for commercial and personal projects, just be sure to include credit.

For ha ha’s, wave your cursor around the home page. How cool is that, right? And check out their butdoesitfloat, a part of Cargo, a personal publishing platform and not part of the free image resources. But wait until you’re done reading this post. You might never return, come up for air, and see the light of day again.

Little Visuals

Before Nic, the owner of this site, passed away, he shot some eclectic, eye-catching photos. There are no new photos being uploaded, but the images that are here are amazing and all posted under the CCO license to be used however you want.

If you’re so inclined, a link is included to donate to the family’s fundraiser in support of S.A.D.S., (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome), the cause of Nic’s death, to help them supply schools and sports arenas with portable defibrillators in Nic’s memory.

Life of Pix

Created by LEEROY’s amazing photographers, a creative agency in Montreal, Life of Pix photos come with no copyright restrictions. High-res photos are added weekly, and the site includes a category search tool under the gallery heading, with lots of great textures and industrial images.

Splitshire

Free stock photos with no copyright restrictions, sortable by category. They prefer dogs to cats, something entirely forgivable, considering how terrific the dog photos are. Unique, top-quality images for both commercial and personal use by web designer Daniel Nanescu.

If you found at least one source you’ve never heard of, you owe me a cat photo. Just be sure to include any licensing requirements when you send it along.

More WordPress Security Mistakes (Yes, You’re Making Them)

August 15, 2015 Beth Devine

You’re making more WordPress security mistakes besides those updates you keep neglecting to do. Avoiding regular updates is the most common security mistake, but there are more mistakes that also put your site at risk for attack.

Because WordPress is open source, those miscreants who wish to do harm can easily obtain the source code and study it for ways to hack in. Combine this with the popularity of WordPress and it’s like you have a bulls-eye target on you.

The good news is you don’t have to do anything drastic, like change to a much less user-friendly CMS that doesn’t have all the fabulous plugins and themes, all for free. All you have to do is follow these tips to button down your site and stay safe from attacks.

Lacking a First Line of Defense: No Security Plugin

There are many security plugins to choose from with different pricing, including some free options. While it’s true that having too many plugins can be a bad idea, having one that actually protects your site is a no-brainer.

This list of the Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins is a good place to start. It includes Wordfence, a personal favorite of mine. These give you an extra layer of security by addressing the issues most prevalent, leaving you free to run your business worry-free.

Installing Bad Plugins and Themes

If a plugin is available for free that you would normally have to pay for, consider this a giant red flag. A pirated plugin or theme may be free, but it’s also going to be potentially rife with dire consequences.

Disreputable plugins and themes come with a catch. Not only are they dishonest and often stealing from hard-working developers, they can be infected with malware that will inject malicious code into your website. Once they’ve made this connection to your site, it’s like a backdoor where they can get in and do all kinds of damage.

Beware also of WordPress themes that look totally safe. If the theme isn’t from the WordPress Theme Directory, or isn’t from a source you know and trust, then you shouldn’t install it. There are hundreds of themes available, and they all have to pass selection criteria that includes possessing no unsafe code.

Surfing In Public Wi-Fi Waters

Sure, you’ve heard it all before, but do you really avoid using your credentials and private information on the internet when using a public Wi-Fi hotspot? These places include high-density areas such as airports, libraries, hotels, cafes, and, of course, Starbucks.

The ease with which attackers can steal your information is due to the fact that, according to Public WiFi, public WiFi networks are “almost always unencrypted, which means that anyone with cheap, easily available software can listen in and access everything being sent over the network.”

The hacks in a public WiFi hotspit can include Sniffers, Evil Twin, Man-in-the-Middle Attacks, and Sidejacking. The names are almost enough to steer you away from exposing your website and other information to attack.

Using “Admin” For Your Username

Your WordPress site has an automatically generated username with the Administrator role. This role has permissions that are referred to as admin, which allow this user to do anything they want. An Administrator has total power over the website, including deleting your whole site.

The last thing you want to do is keep the original username “admin” as the name for someone who has total access. This is the first thing a hacker will use when trying to break into your site. Once they’ve figured out your username, then all they have to do is guess your password. You’re giving away half the access information with admin still intact. See the list of targeted usernames in the recent brute-force attack here. Clearly admin is a common guess.

You can do one of two things:

Don’t use or, even better, remove your admin username. But before you do this, create a new user with the admin role. Functioning under this new username, you can delete the old username of admin.
If you want to do this in C-panel, read this user-friendly post on How To Change Your Username. If I can do it, you can too.

The Wordfence plugin allows you to block any IP address you want, so if you find one is continually attempting to log in using the admin username, block it.

Using Really Obvious Passwords

The list of top passwords for 2014 contains the same weak passwords, with “123456” and “password” holding the top two spots. It appears that all the advice on the internet about using strong passwords is going unheeded.

Use your imagination when creating your passwords and follow the Google’s tips, use a password generator, or take Edward Snowden’s password advice to John Oliver and use “pass phrases” that are easy for you to remember, but difficult for computers to crack. Try one of the top five password managers to help you remember them all.

You can always sign up for a worry-free program with your web hosting company and let them take care of all your site’s security. If you’re running a small business, it’s a huge timesaver as well. Good luck — it’s a Digital Wild West out there.