About Page

It’s time for me to work on my About Page. I’ve decided to tackle creating my Graphic Profile, and write a tutorial on how to do it at the same time.

The first step is to collect all the photos you need for your montage. The photos have to be of things that you’re passionate about. ChiQ has 14 items in her Graphic Profile. If I want to create a Jigsaw Puzzle effect, I need to have 6 or 20 photos to have one for each piece. I think a 6 piece puzzle isn’t enough for a Graphic Profile, so I’d have to go with 20.

So, my plan is to aim for 20 photos of things I feel passionate about. And to get them from free sites, where possible.

I’m going to show you where I’m going to get my photos from. There are two free photo sites that I often use:

http://morguefile.com/

http://www.sxc.hu/

The usage rights are good for my purposes – check them for yourself.

The first thing I’ll try to do is find an Aussie flag. I want to include the Australian flag as one image, because I’m an Aussie. I’m not sure I’ll find one on either of these sites, but it’s worth a quick search.

I’ve found a few on Stock.Xchng. I’m going to click on and save the first photo, because the usage rights for

it are easier than for the others that I like. (The Beach House requires you to notify the photographer if you use it for a public work, and the Australian Flag requires you to get permission before using the photo. The Aussie flag doesn’t require anything special.)

Now, I’m going to search for and save other photos relating to my interests. Here is what I’ve collected:

I have more than one photo for some of my interests. For some, I’m not sure which will look better as a part of the montage, so I saved a couple of photos for it. And for some others, I saved two because I want to combine the two images into one, like the scissors and the colorful paper next to it.

I’ve considered adding photos of my kids, but if I’ve decided that pictures of toys would be better. I’m not sure I want photos of my children on a business site. There are issues of security and relevance.

It takes a while to find so many photos, so give yourself a good chunk of time to do this in.

The next step will be creating montages with the images. I plan on doing a jigsaw style and a grid-based style like ChiQ’s, and then I’ll use the one I like better.

If you have any questions or ideas, please leave a comment.

Are you stuck on writing your website’s About Page because you are just starting up in business or a new project? Here’s a good article about it which I plan to use as a basis for writing my own About Page:

How Start-Ups Can Build Effective “About Us” Pages – ClickZ

But I just got inspired by ChiQ Montes’ Graphic Profile on her About page.

Basically, as you can see in the smaller version I’ve included here, she’s created a well-designed montage of her favorite things, with a number in each picture that corresponds to a key under the graphic. For instance, the photo of Uno cards has a big white number 1 in the corner, and number 1 in the list underneath says: “1. I love playing UNO Cards!”

I’m definitely going to borrow this idea for my own About page, and hopefully I’ll remember to create a tutorial on how to create your own Graphic Profile. Maybe I’ll even add ‘Graphic Profile Creation’ as a service for those of you who would rather have me create one for you with the images you provide.

Other ideas I have:

1. Put the individual images the montage into jigsaw puzzle pieces.
2. Create a Comic Strip Profile of favorite things using Comic Life software.

What do you think about Graphic Profiles? Please leave a comment…

Websites that were created to make money (either directly or by promoting an offline business) need to both:

1. Look very professional and credible (just like their owners look – you wouldn’t wear pajamas to a meeting)
2. Work very well and serve the needs of the visitors (just like their owners work in real-life)

21 random facts about me – in no particular order

1. I love waterfalls. I love the sight and sound of crashing water.
2. I’m Australian and I live in Australia.
3. I support free open-source software (like WordPress). “Share the milk and everyone will help take care of the cow.” I especially like to help non-profit organizations to save money by using free and open source software. I’m setting up a website with that aim at Share the Milk.
4. I love caves. They’re majestic. One day I’ll get into adventure caving.
5. I love Apple. I own an iMac and a 5G Video iPod, a 2G iPod Touch, and technically assist with my husband’s 2G iPod Shuffle.
6. I’m a health-conscious and animal-loving vegetarian.
7. Daisies are my favorite type of flower.
8. I’m a bookworm. Though a lot of the reading I do is now online.
9. I’m short-sighted and geeky. Speaking of geeking, I’m planning another website called No Geeking to help less-than tech-savvy website owners with their computers.
10. I’m a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.
11. I’ve never been to England/UK but I’m a a British citizen because my father is English.
12. I love poodles and I’m a poodle owner.
13. I’m a wife and a mother of three young children.
14. I love cute stuff. A high school art teacher of mine tried to beat it out of me, but I still like cute.
15. I use and highly recommend the Firefox web browser. Internet Explorer just plain sucks.
16. I love many (but not all) reality TV shows. I love Survivor and The Amazing Race the most.
17. I love Sci-Fi, and I love the TV show LOST. I’m a big fan.
18. I have a sweet-tooth. I love chocolate.
19. I’m heavily into comfort. If I’m comfortable, I’m happy.
20. I have always loved castles. I think it has something to do with all the Enid Blyton adventure stories I’ve read as a child and teen.
21. My hobby is scrapbooking. I’ve always enjoyed crafts.

My other websites:

I have a few other projects up my sleeve. I’ll be adding links and descriptions of those sites here soon, as they develop.