Everyone should know by now that Adobe Photoshop is the de facto standard for any kind of image editing, but it also presents a rather high barrier to entry for most of us. Then a few years ago Adobe came out with Photoshop Elements to lower the bar a little and now even have an online version you can use free, if you can stand it.
Another truly amazing windfall to anyone wanting a website of their own for any reason, is to learn about all the free website templates available online. But be careful, as soon as the demand started rising, so did the booby-traps set to snag as much of your money as they possibly could. You can still find plenty of free ones that are high quality if you look.
Then once you find a really good free template site, the template you pick is probably going to have hundreds (if not thousands) of downloads already and many more to come soon after that. So do you want your website to look just like all those?
Well the good news is you don't need to spend hundreds on Photoshop, or even $150 for Photoshop Elements. There are plenty of copies of older versions of Elements around for a LOT lower investment and you still get all the power you need for just about any website graphics job. Websites only display 256 colors anyway, so who needs millions? Even resolutions need to be lower so they can load fast.
I just finished a website of my own at diykiss.com (that stands for Do It Yourself and Keep It Super Simple) and all I did was grab a free template and use Photoshop Elements 4 that I got on Ebay for $20 to edit the graphics. I used a free HTML editor to change the copy to my own, and in one afternoon I had it up and running!
Don't be afraid to give it a try yourself!
The risk you run is low, because Photoshop Elements is only around $20 and everything else is free. If you totally flop, you can probably sell it on Ebay to get most of your money back and if it turns out good, you have a new skill that will pay you for a lifetime. Believe me, it gets better every time you use it, but like Wayne Gretsky (the hockey player) says, you miss every shot you don't take!
The real bonus comes when you discover there are all kinds of ways you can make your website pay for itself. Then you'll have enough to go start up another one! Even a little trickle of extra money each month can make a difference and you can add to it over and over.
Well if that gets your juices flowing, I'll see you online!
Warren Contreras is a old retired guy that's having fun making money online. You can meet him at http://OnlyMy2CentsWorth.com
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