In the life of a webmaster, there are many times where stock pictures come in handy. For those who don’t know, a stock photo is a photo that you can purchase (or get for free from specific sites), and use on your site, without fear of violating copyright laws. There are still rules that go along with the publishing of stock photos, but it’s better to have to follow a few simple rules than to pay hefty copyright fines when you get caught using unlicensed photos. If you’ve been looking for some stock photos, check out the resources below.

Stock.xchng

At sxc.hu you can browse through more than 350,000 stock photos, all of which are available for free. Not only are there more than 350K photos in the library, but more are added every day by more than 30,000 photographers. This gives you quite a bit of variety and choice when it comes to choosing a picture for your blog, website, advertisement, or whatever else you’re using it for. There is no monthly fee or anything, so the photos are truly free. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, so you’ve got your WordPress blog all set up, but is it safe? Unfortunately, there are many folks on-line praying on non-secure WordPress blogs like yours, waiting to hack in. But, don’t worry, this can all be easily avoided. All you need to do is take a few security precautions, and your WordPress blog will be fully secure. Read on to find out how you can secure your WordPress blog in just a few quick and easy steps…

If you take a little time and effort securing your WordPress blog now, you could save yourself a hell of a lot of time, money and worry later. Securing your blog takes minutes, but fixing a hacked WordPress blog will take you ages. Simply follow the 5 quick steps below, and you could have a hack-proof secure WordPress blog, in no time at all.

1. Use the latest WordPress version

Make sure your WordPress blog is updated to the latest version – WordPress 2.8.4. This will help to ward off most of the worms out there. When you log in to your WordPress, you should see the newest update at the top of your page. It will read – WordPress 2.8.4 is available! Please update now. Just click on this link and follow the prompts. You can also alternatively update by following these simple steps – go to the Tools drop down (left hand side), and then hit Upgrade. Again, follow the prompts and you’ll be able to secure your WordPress blog and update to the latest version. Please note: Always back up your blog before you update to the newest version of WordPress. Read the rest of this entry »