I realize that in the course of my work as a personal historian I use a variety of sites which have become indispensable to me. I’m not saying these are the only sites – you may have favorites of your own – but they’re the ones I keep coming back to. Here in no particular order are my favorites:
- iStockphoto: I use this site when I’m looking for a very special, high quality, royalty-free photo. Their rates are very reasonable and the site is easy to use. It’s the internet’s original member-generated image and design community. You can search over 4 million photographs, vector illustrations, video footage, audio tracks and Flash files.
- flickr: A treasure trove of photos supplied by members. It’s my main source of great pics to illustrate my blog posts. And what’s even better they’re free!
- Wikipedia: You can find just about anything here. Wikipedia describes itself as, “written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world; anyone can edit it. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference web sites, attracting at least 684 million visitors yearly by 2008. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on more than 10,000,000 articles in more than 260 languages.”
- BrainyQuote: I love quotations. There are numerous sites but this one is one of my favorites. They include authors you won’t find on other quotation sites.
- OneLook Dictionary: Currently more than 13 million words are indexed in over 1000 online dictionaries. You can find, define, and translate words all on one site.
- Jacquie Lawson.com: These are the classiest e-cards you’re ever likely to find. They’re all carefully hand painted and animated. I find the cards are an invaluable way to send a quick greeting to my clients. There is a modest yearly fee but you get to send as many cards as you wish.
- CutePDF: I use the free version of CutePFF whenever I need to create a PDF. Works like a charm.
- Creativity Tools: This is a very cool site. Need to brainstorm? Need to come up with an original name? Just want a good chuckle? This is the place to be. For example, hit the random sentence generator and up pops, The desirable buyer ascends. Try a few more hits and you get, Another therapy starves into a bottle! Working with those you could begin generating some pretty interesting marketing ideas.
- Backpack: I’ve been using Backpack as my business organizer for over a year. I use their free addition which you can get here. I’ve adapted it to a GTD system and it fits my needs well even without all the bells and whistles of the paid Backpack version.
I’d be interested in what you consider to be your indispensable sites. Drop me a comment.
Photo by CLUC
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