We have a two week comp running to win $50 credit at the popular photo sharing site dreamstime.

To enter all you have to do is put your name and email address into the form and click submit, then you’re entered. For your chance to win enter now: http://www.freestockimages.net/competition-dreamstime-credits/

Although the value is in dollars the service is global so no matter your region you can enter. Closing date is Wednesday February 24th, so hurry! A great prize if you regularly need stock pictures for website usage.

Notice: if a winner then in order to claim your prize you will need a free account at the dreamstime website.

The series of new articles going on our main site continues. Our latest addition is a free Dreamstime Review. Although we happily list other stock image providers as well, these guys are our particular favorite.

The reason we like Dreamstime so much is simple; the quality of images is awesome, the website is very easy to use, and the prices represent incredible value for money! Read the full review for more info.

It also contains details about; how to use the site, payments, coupons and also some free tips. Don’t forget to also read up on some of the other free articles we have added online in recent weeks.

We have now made live the new design of the main free stock images website, here is a cheeky screenshot:

It is designed to be a lot more user friendly, better to look at and load faster. So all round a definite step in the right direction. Any problems with the new design let us know, or any recommendations always welcome!

I’ve written about checking browser compatibility before. Recently I downloaded the new Internet Explorer 8. It’s a definite improvement over IE7, and I actually prefer it to Google Chrome, which I didn’t think I would.

One tool I especially like is Compatibility View, it is a small button next to the address bar (enlarge image left) which the user can click if the webpage they are viewing is not rendering properly. So menus out of place, bad placed images, dodgy text etc all moves to its appropriate place. A clever little tool which means the user can still use the website, despite it being designed for old browsers.

This doesn’t mean you should just slack from checking your website is compatibile, and fixing anything you need to. Users won’t want to be going round having to constantly click the little button. Personally all my websites render fine in IE8, so their is a good chance you won’t need to fix anything. But check just to be on the safe side!

Every month from now on I will be doing a Feature Of The Month, or FOTM for short. Each month I will do a post on a company related to webmastering.

This is the FOTM for February 2009 – Anistock Animations. Anistock is a low cost provider of 2D and 3D animation clips to use in your web designs as well as video backgrounds. They can also be used for video projects, TV, broadcasting, presentations, emails and mobile marketing.

The Thing With Animations
The thing with animation clips is they can either look brilliant or really tacky and rubbish. The animation has to be ideal for your website and not just random but you chose it because “it looked nice”. Done wrong they look terrible, pointless, annoying. Done well though they can have a big visual impact on your designs and really separate your website from competitors.

Choice
As far as I’m aware Anistock are the largest provider of its kind, they have thousands of clips. Some of them look good but I have no idea how they could be used by anyone, a few look tacky and should be avoided, but most of them are good quality and I can see how they could be used.

Availability Of HD
If you have a super slick website and need a clip in high definition you can pay $5 for a clip to be ugraded, very good value for money in my opinion.

Cost
You can’t just visit the website and buy one animation, you have to buy a ‘plan’. The cost varies from plan to plan.

The cheapest plan is $19.95 for the Webpro 10 plan where you get 10 downloads. The most expensive is $79.95 which is a partnership with iCLIPART and gives you 1 years unlimited downloads from over 7.8 million photos, clip art, fonts, graphics and you also get 120 downloads from the Anistock website! Depending on how often you do web designs all packages are decent value for money I think.

Conclusion
Overall I think Anistock provide very good value for money. Used properly these animations can help you stand out from competition. Alternatively if they are being used for presentations, emails or mobile marketing they can give that edge of quality you normally wouldn’t be able to achieve.

Website: Anistock.com

123RF is the leading supplier and distributor of royalty free stock images and low cost rights-managed images. They currently have a contest running where you can win a Wacom Bamboo or 20 123RF credits, to win all you have to do is search for images on their website as you normally would!

It is a great little contest, you don’t actually have to do anything to enter and you could win a really good prize. One Wacom Bamboo is being given away EVERY DAY! Just search for images on the 123RF website, look out for a special thumbnail and take home a cool Wacom Bamboo. They are also giving away 10 packages of ‘20 123RF credits’ every day. Read the 123RF Search and Win page for more info.

The Powers Or Wacom Bamboo
Wacom Bamboo is a graphics tablet that allows your computer to be your canvas. Check out this little beauty, it would be so cool creating work like this!

I am a regular user of 123RF’s services, their website is very easy to use and they have over 2million stock photographs which you can get your hands on at very low-cost. The service is also listed on our main website on the stock image providers page. If you are trying to save on your expenditure they also have over 12,000 stock images which you can download and use for free.

I’ve used the 123RF website quite a bit today so I’m in with a chance of winning! Are you in the contest?

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Google Chrome, well now Microsoft has gone and released a new MSN toolbar – and it appears quite complex to use.

You can do lots of things with the toolbar which appears to have some kind of a flip function so you can switch between what you are doing. Personally I’m just going to stick with the basic IE because I can’t be bothered to go to the effort of learning another thing to use.

I’m sure it’ll do well though with Microsofts reach but is it going to draw attention from Google Chrome – nope! The Digitpedia Technology Blog has a good post on the new toolbar.

Whatever your targets are for your business in 2008 make sure you start off as you mean to go on. If you begin the year getting out of bed late and putting off jobs you need to do on your website then you are heading straight on for a year where your business either fails or doesn’t grow, neither are an attractive proposition!

Make sure you are well aware of your targets for 2008. If they are financial then have them fixed in your head, if they are not directly financial IE complete design of WebsiteX then have your plan close at hand and get cracking.

If you want to end the year happy with your business then January has to be the beginning, good luck to everyone in 2008! 

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope 2007 has been a good all-round year for your business and yourself. Send out the year with a bang by enjoying Christmas and seeing in the New Year in style (I think everyone says that!) Then you will be fresh for 2008 and the challenges and joy that it is no doubt going to bring!

See you in 2008! Regards, Chris – FreeStockImages.net Owner

Thanks for visiting our new web design blog. This weblog is an extension of our popular FreeStockImages.net service, where we review providers of royalty free stock images as well as recommend webmaster resources and link to articles and videos with web design tips.

This blog will be on exactly the same topic of web design. We are also going to review tools and services as well as give tips and our thoughts on designs of websites and blogs. We are aiming to publish one post per week, with every post being unique, on topic and high quality. So don’t forget to subscribe to our feed! 

To learn more about us please visit the About page. Thanks – Chris, FreeStockImages.net Owner