Templates For All

Resources: Website Addons

A plain site with no interactivity doesn’t get many repeat visitors. One of the easiest ways to keep them coming back is by adding a forum. You could use it to give support to your users about your product or just talk about random stuff. Other sites use polls or surveys to add interactivity. The way you choose to interact with your users is up to you, but the results speak for themselves. Interactivity equals more visitors.

Forums

MyBB

I have to admit the first one on my list is one I’m a little biased about. MyBB is a forum package I was a part of since before version 1 came out. I made one of the original themes for the forum that became the official theme. The theme, of course, evolved over time into what it is today. I was a member of their support forums until about a year ago. MyBB Has features that give paid forum packages like vBulletin and IPB a run for their money. Since you need to host it yourself it’s a little advanced for the casual user, but it isn’t too complicated.

ImperialBB

IBB is another forum that is run by some friends of mine. This forum has some unique features that make it a little easier to run for novices. It has a one click upgrade feature so you don’t need to do too much work to upgrade.

Vanilla

Vanilla is a forum I really love. It’s minimalist compaired to the above two. You get basic functionality and you add features via addons. Vanilla will also host your forums for you..

Other sites

• ZetaBoards
• Bravenet

Polls/Surveys

Polldaddy

Polldaddy allows you to put together a quick and easy poll or survey for your site. They offer nice graphs for the results too.

99polls

99polls allows you to create polls for your website or social network site.

Photo Galleries

Gallery 2

Gallery 2 is probably one of the best known photo albums for the web, right behind Flickr and Picasa Web Albums. It’s easy to set up and use.

Sites with multiple addons

Bravenet

Bravenet has been around for at least 10 years. They offer lots of hosted tools like Forums, guest books, photo albums, etc.

News: Guest Authors?

I’m thinking of getting some of my friends to write some Articles for the site. I got a promotion at my day job so I will have even less time to do anything on the site. Leave your opinions in the comments.

Resources: 7 Attractive Icon Sets To Use For Your Sites

Icons are a great way to personalize the web template you just bought. I’ve gathered some of the best free icon sets from around the net for you. Some of the icons may have some restrictions like having to place a link back to the creator in exchange for using them or not being able to use them on a commercial site. All of the icon sets are free in some way for you to use.

Silk Icons by Famfamfam – One of the most popular icon sets on the net today. It’s also one of my favorites. I see them on quite a few websites these days. It contains 1,022 16×16 pixel icons.

Silk Companion 1 By Damieng – Inspired by the work of Mark James (Famfamfam), these 460+ 16×16 pixel icons are a perfect fit with the original Silk Icons.

Flag Icons by Famfamfam – If you need flags for some project, this is the perfect icon set. All 247 flags are 16×16 pixels.

Diagona Icons By Pinvoke – 400 more icons in a similar style to the Silk Icons above in both 10×10 and 16×16 pixel sizes.

Onebit free icon set #1 and Onebit free icon set #2 By IcoJoy – A total of 80 pretty useful 48×48 pixel icons.

Basic Set Icons By PixelMixer – Here are 42 more high quality Icons in 4 different sizes. They come in 16×16, 32×32, 48×48 and 64×64 pixel sizes. A link back to the creators web site is required if you use them.

News: Removing the forums

Since nobody uses the forums, I will remove them from the site on the 15th to save space on the server.

Resources: Six sources for free Stock Photography

One question asked by people new to making websites always is, ‘Where can I find pictures to use on my website?’ Many people point people to stock photo sites that cost money either per picture or per membership. Often lots of them require a royalty fee as well.

There is some good news! There are several that actually offer free pictures you can use. There are even some that offer pictures that are royalty free.

Always check the terms of use and the licenses for the picture you choose to use. Sometimes you may be required to link back to the site in exchange for using the picture.

• Every Stock Photo
  This one isn’t my favorite site on the list, but I put it first because it is a stock photo search engine. They claim over 4 million pictures in their database. When searching you can specify license type.
• Stock.XCHNG
  My personal favorite of the bunch. I’ve used it for years. They have an excellent search and a large selection of pictures. If you are a photographer, you can even upload your own pictures for other people to use. They claim 350,000 images by 30,000 photographers.
• MorgueFile
  Despite the name, this site is a very good source of pictures. A morguefile is a term used my illustrators and newspapers to refer to their picture stockpiles. They have many categories of pictures. As with most of the sites on this list, photographers can upload their own pictures.
• DesignPacks
  This site has multiple picture packs consisting of 15 pictures on a particular subject such as flowers, cars, or tools. Some of the pictures are pretty abstract, but they would have a use for headers or the like.
• StockVault
  This site has quite a few Photoshop tutorials in addition to thousands of pictures. Registration isn’t required for this site, but it does give you additional features. You don’t need to register to download pictures.
• ImageBase
  The pictures here are licensed by a Creative Commons License. The pictures come in very high resolutions. Many different pictures across many categories.