Hands On Keys

Follow these tips and you might find yourself learning things faster:

Avoid your Laptop. Write with pen and paper. Researchers have found that those who type, process the information at a shallower level. Also, there’s the fact that there are millions of distractions when you turn on a laptop. Taking notes with pen and paper helps you to retain more. Another tip is to reframe what you learned in your own words instead of writing it verbatim (word-by-word).

Study-Sleep-Study. An experiment has helped us find out that if you study in the evening, then go to sleep and then revise your what you have studied in the morning, you retain information more. So, follow this pattern for maximum retention.

Modify Practice. When you are learning a motor skill, don’t do the same steps over and over again. Do the task in a slightly altered way. Different moves and strategies mean that your speed of learning goes up almost by two times.

Get Exercise. If you get your adrenaline pumping with healthy exercises, your brain becomes sharper. You are more likely to be able to retain what you learned if you are doing your rounds on the treadmill.

Use Mnemonics. Use acronyms and mnemonics when you are learning things. Adults can only hold a limited amount in their short-term memory so if you use this strategy, you can get more stored in your brain. This helps you in your long-term memory as well.

Read Out Loud. When you are studying something, instead of reciting it quietly, reading it out loud helps. Loud readers are able to recall more.

Stay Hydrated. A large percentage of your body is water. Get those fluids flowing in and you will perform better. Water helps improve overall mental processing and learning.

These individual websites publish a lot of digital content that you can buy and use for your own projects. The prices are reasonable and the content is professional. It should be noted that ActiveDen, the marketplace where you can buy flash projects is shutting down. But we have till February 2016 before the site is fully retired. For now, we have a few more months of free files from this website.

Ok, now back to the list of the free files of the month for October 2015 from Envato’s member websites.

ThemeForest: GeoMetry – HTML Geolocation Template v2

GeoMetry – HTML Geolocation Template v2: Taking a break from the regular and highly demanded WordPress templates, this month they have something different in store for us. This month we get a free HTML template that we can modify to our liking. The download consists of 5 valid HTML templates with 2 unique styles—default and dark. So, that is like 10 total styles for you.

The main idea behind this template seems to use the Geolocation feature of HTML 5. It uses the Google maps API. You can make use of it to learn and make your own HTML pages that feature Google maps. The template is fully responsive and it makes use of Bootstrap 3 for this fluid display feature.

The Google map part allows you to tag places on the map and feature it in different sections of the HTML website. It is a really cool feature and it serves multiple purposes. Think about the possibilities like: You can create a website which can show all the cool places in different parts of the world. So, get this template while it is still free and try it out for yourself.

GraphicRiver: Vintage Black and White Styles

Vintage Black and White Styles: If you love retro designs then you get some free ones after you create an account and download this free Adobe Illustrator add-on. With it you can change the look of objects in your project to have a vintage design. You can design text in such a way that they have a classic feel.

You won’t get the free fonts with the download, but it comes with the information about where you can access the fonts used in it. The instructions are easy to follow and once you get the hang of it, you will be creating awesome designs in black and white.

CodeCanyon: Snippeter - Code Snippets Manager

Snippeter – Code Snippets Manager: If you are looking to manage and highlight your code, then use Snippeter. It is quite helpful for organizing your code in a way that it is manageable easily. This PHP script provides you with all the features that you need to save your lines of code. Notable features are multi-language support, search feature, the ability to highlight syntax and also export in multiple formats.

Try it out and it is guaranteed that it will boost your coding skills while saving you some time. Just make sure that you have the PHP ZIP class for it to work.

VideoHive: Social Logos and Lower Third

Social Logos and Lower Third: This is a simple video project that can be used to display your social media profiles. While displaying it in a video form is quite not popular, you can be creative and use it in YouTube videos for examples to redirect people to your social profiles and gain more followers.

In total, there are 12 logos and 2 icons that support all the popular social networks and similar sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Pinterest. You can use it in your After Effect CS5 and higher projects. The video is in full HD 1920 X 1080 and it requires no plugins to work. There is even a helpful tutorial included which tells you how you can change things like the logo transitions and durations, text duration and colors.

PhotoDune: Galaxy Background

Galaxy Background: This is an abstract background that contains some really cool rendition of stars and cloud particles. I am pretty sure that you can find different creative uses for it like using it to share deep meaningful quotes in social media.

3DOcean: Stylish Bathroom Mirror Set + Complete Vray Setup

Stylish Bathroom Mirror Set + Complete Vray Setup: This is a 3D rendition of a bathroom mirror set along with other materials and scenery. The models are usable with your .max projects. In the project file, you will find models for room, windows and floor.

AudioJungle: Warm Summer Kit

Warm Summer Kit: This free audio is a sort of a sentimental one. It features an acoustic guitar and a piano. You will find the track to be relaxing. Use it so that you get the soothing feel for the listener/viewer.

ActiveDen: Magic Idols Game

All the contents of these sites are premium. That means they are professionally made, and you have to pay to be granted the rights to use it for your own project. You will find only high-quality work in the Envato network. For those of us who’d like to taste how those premium designs look like, we have a free option.

The option that I am talking about is the Free Files of the Month program. As a marketing offer, the network offers one creation free from all the websites. That means we get to try out 8 designs and products for our own projects. They are free to use in whatever way you desire. So feel free to download them and use them in personal or business projects.

Here is the list of free releases for the month of September 2015:

ThemeForest: MaxShop Responsive eCommerce Template

MaxShop Responsive eCommerce Template: Taking a break from providing a free WordPress template every month, this time we get a general website template. The template is designed for eCommerce websites. It features several things like a giant slider on the top, different product listing styles and a separate section for featured products.

There are additional design features such as image galleries for products, shopping cart page, a blog page, and a sidebar where you can place several things like price sliders, featured products, and categories list. The template has a modern feel and it has integrated popular technologies and features like Lightbox and carousels.

When you download the HTML template, you get a lot of things in the archive. Besides the regular HTML and CSS files, you also get PSD files which is useful if you want to design something similar on your own. With elegant design and by making use of Twitter Bootstrap, this is a very good template for online stores.

GraphicRiver: 30 Assorted Blur Backgrounds

30 Assorted Blur Backgrounds: In terms of graphics, we get some cool abstract backgrounds. We can do a lot of things using these. It can be used for multiple purposes like for using as background for products or other images and text. The download contains 20 beautifully designed blur backgrounds.

The dimension of every file is 3556x2000 pixels. All the files are transparent PNG files. So, get them and put them into use.

CodeCanyon: Unite Gallery – Prestashop Module

Unite Gallery – Prestashop Module: This is a module for the famous Prestashop eCommerce software. This online software is used to start online stores. The module is for extending the design and functional abilities of the eCommerce tool. Unite Gallery allows us to create a multipurpose gallery for Prestashop. The gallery can contain images of products or anything else.

You can specify a description for each gallery item and the items are displayed beautifully in the style of Windows explorer. There are several premium types and more than 120 gallery options. Play around with them and you have your own unique thing. It also supports embedding videos from popular sites like YouTube and Vimeo.

There are several other perks like a modern design, smooth content flow and zoom effects with touch enabled navigation features. The admin are is powerful with options to almost everything. Download it if you use Prestashop and you won’t be disappointed.

VideoHive: Sport Kinetic Typography – Minimal Quick Business 2

Sport Kinetic Typography – Minimal Quick Business 2: We get an awesome After Effect project file to use for our own project. This design can be used for an intro video. As the video plays, you will find several items and texts. The transition are seamless as the video plays. We can customize the text and other graphical entities, and compile it to create a great looking as well as professional intro videos.

Please note that you need Adobe After Effect CS4 or higher to be able to open and edit it.

PhotoDune: A flower beside an empty beach

A flower beside an empty beach: The free photo of the month is a beautiful picture of a scenery. The picture is from a location near Taj Mahal in Agra, India. As you can see below, the picture is of an empty wooden bench and a couple of flowers blooming beside it.

3DOcean: Low Poly Earth

Low Poly Earth: Simply put, this is a cool and cartoonish 3D design of earth. It has been modeled using 3DS Max 2014. No external plugins have been used to create it so you will find that it will render easily and quickly.

AudioJungle: Long Trip

Long Trip: The music file that we get this month is somewhat different than the past months. The audio is a bit more serious. Previously, we were gifted with cheerful music files. This month, we get a somewhat different audio that starts up slowly and as it begins to pick up pace, the intensity increases. You will find the use of heavy and melodic tracks in drum and bass style.

ActiveDen: Class FlipBook

Class FlipBook: The final file that we get for free is a Flipbook project for Adobe Flash. This flipbook looks like a magazine. There are arrows or page turners in the left and right of the book which can be used to turn the pages. The page turning animation looks quite natural.

This video also happens to be the most popular TED video in YouTube with more than 8.5 million+ views. In the official site, it already has 34.5 million+ views. It is 8 years old already, but it is still relevant till date. I feel that the things discussed in the video are beginning to show.

Here’s is its summary:

Education

Everybody has a vested interest in education. It goes deep with people. Education is meant to take us into the future that we cannot grasp now. Despite all the predictions, nobody has a clue what the world will be like in the future. The unpredictability of the future ahead is extraordinary and our education is meant to prepare us for it.

Creative Children

Children have extraordinary creative capacities. They have tremendous talent. For example- kids take a chance even if they don’t know something. They are not afraid of being wrong. But in education, being wrong is like the worst thing that you can do. Being wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that you are creative. But nothing original will come from you if you are not prepared to be wrong.

Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.

We are teaching kids to lose their creative capacity. The creativity that they had is pushed aside by our education system. Around the globe, it seems to focus on meeting the needs of industrialism. They have the same hierarchy of subjects: mathematics and languages on top, humanities in the middle and at the bottom is arts. So, you can see that the most useful subject for work are on the top showing that education systems are designed to get a job.

Intelligence

Academic ability dominates our view of intelligence whereas the unique abilities of brilliant people are not valued. So brilliant people think that they are not so. What we need to do now is change our view of intelligence.

Here are 3 things we know about intelligence:

It is Diverse

It is Dynamic

It is Distinct

In schools, we are being taught to enter into universities. In universities, we get a degree. A degree is supposed to guarantee us a job. But that is not the case anymore. There is a thing called Academic Inflation which is raising the standards or requirements. Previously, a degree meant a job. Now you need more; higher degrees for jobs. It keeps on going up as degrees are flying out of everywhere as more and more people graduate every year.

The Future

Similarly, some of us just prefer to compose articles directly. That means not using any software while typing. There is always a possibility to make mistakes while typing articles or even comments. As a non-native, I make such mistakes frequently. Proofreading is really important to prevent those errors when we finalize texts. The clients that we work with always demand error-free articles.

So, to keep our writing free from any errors and to keep the clients happy, we can use a number of automated tools. The popular blogging platform, WordPress, has a Jetpack feature called Spelling and Grammar. But it doesn’t cover all of the web typing that we do. We have to compose emails, write comments and post in other platforms. For such varied uses, we need a browser plugin or something of that sort to correct our grammar everywhere that we type.

The Solution – Grammarly

There happens to be a perfect solution for it. The name of this amazing tools is Grammarly. It is available everywhere. You can install it as a browser plugin and it will look into everything that you type online. Whether it is an email that you are composing or a Tumblr post that you are typing out, Grammarly keeps you covered. It even looks into the comments that you are currently typing in Facebook and points out all your grammar and spelling mistakes, if there are any. It is like Microsoft Word’s automatic spell-checker which draws those squiggly lines under words and phrases that it thinks are incorrect.

Grammarly will underline all the errors. It is an instant grammar, checker. So, before posting an article and making it live for the world to see, you can go through those underlined items. When you click on those underlined words, Grammarly will highlight it and offer an explanation of why it could be incorrect. It will also present you will the correct suggestions. If you pay attention to it, you can avoid all those embarrassing mistakes in your typing.

How to Get Grammarly

Grammarly is a free tool for writers. There is a paid option available and I will talk about it later. The free option is enough for most of us. What most of us want is the browser plugin. The plugin is available for Google Chrome only.

Click here to download Grammarly Spell Checker & Grammar Checker from the Chrome Web Store

For the rest of the browsers like Firefox and Safari, there used to be Grammarly lite. But it has been discontinued. Since, most of us already have Google Chrome it works for us. If you do not use Chrome and you want to avail the features of Grammarly, you can always use their online editor to check your text.

The Browser Plugin at Work

Whenever you are typing anything in one of those text boxes present in any website, the tool is working for you. You will see lines under mistakes. Simply hover or click on them and you are offered a solution.

It also displays a summary and the number of possible errors in the bottom left. You need an account to view the detailed summary. Hover over the number, and click on the button called Correct. An on-screen dashboard will pop up.

An added bonus of using Grammarly is that you can view the meaning of words instantly. Just double-click any word that is in your browser and it will show the definitions right there.

Grammarly Account

There are two types of account that you can sign up for—free and premium. A free account gives access to all the error correction and definition tools that you saw at work above. It also has an online interface to do the same thing. You can upload files or paste in blocks of text.

A premium account provides these additional features:

Sentence structure checks Style checks Vocabulary enhancement Plagiarism detection Document type checker (business, academy etc.) Microsoft® Office™ add-in

Final Words

If you ask me, Grammarly is a must-have tool for online writers. It makes proofreading a lot easier. Since, it is available within a browser, you can see mistakes you make in emails, Facebook or other websites. It is really helpful.

The only thing about it is the fact that it is available for Google Chrome browser exclusively. People using Safari, Firefox or the new Microsoft Edge browser cannot use it in their browser. They can use their online tools at the website, but it isn’t convenient. But since Chrome has a large market share, there is a high chance that most of us will get to use the full-fledged service.

In the TED video, Simon Sinek talks about how some leaders are able to inspire action with the same access as everyone else. He shares a simple model to explain how great leaders are able to defy all assumptions.

The Golden Circle

The pattern is explained with the help of the concept: The Golden Circle.

Everyone knows "What" they do.

Some know "How" they do it.

Very few know "Why" they do it.

Note that, "Why" is not about profit. Profit is a result. Why is your cause, purpose or belief.

Most people communicate from the outside->in of the model. First they explain the what, then they tell the how and they have no idea what their why is. They are essentially going from the clearest to the vaguest part.

Great leaders think, communicate and act in a way which is completely opposite of what others do. That is why they are able to inspire change.

Simon Sinek gives an example of Apple and its marketing communication—

Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking different. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, user-friendly and simple to use. We just happen to make great computers.

Wanna buy one?

Imagine how the same marketing message would sound like if it was outside in without knowing their why. Something like:

We make beautiful computers. They are beautifully designed, user-friendly and simple to use. Wanna buy one?

This is why even though their competitors are able to make equally qualified products, Apple always wins. They have believers who are willing to stand in line for 24 hours to be the first one to use their new product. They have people who believe in what they believe.

The goal should be to gain such people. Have people who believe in what you believe because when people do so, they work blood, sweat and tears for you. It is possible only by communicating from the inside out. Only then will we talk directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior. That is what gives the gut feeling. The outside parts are there just to rationalize the purchase.

So know that

People don't buy what you do. People buy why you do it.

The video continues with an explanation of the theory: Diffusion of Innovations.

Every product in these websites cost a certain amount. Notice that these are premium products. But if you want to get your hands on these premium products for free then take a look at the free monthly downloads. It gives us a chance to download and try out products made by professional designers, developers and writers. We are even free to use such downloads in our own personal as well as commercial project. They are given for free every month as a promotion.

Here is the list of 8 premium files from 8 different websites that wave the Envato banner:

ThemeForest: Wharton: A Big & Bold WordPress Blog Theme

Wharton: A Big & Bold WordPress Blog Theme: This is an exciting download for people who are looking for a professionally made premium WordPress template. It can be used to power your blog or website as long as the website itself is powered by WordPress. The appearance of this template is really great. It looks premium from all angles. It has big texts in the header and a follows a one column format as the default one. It is fluid by design.

A lot of elements of the template are customizable. We have full control over several aspects like setting a header image and controlling its properties like opacity and position. The navigation follows the hamburger menu style that is popular for smartphones. It displays the same navigation for desktop/laptop monitors and other big screens. It also makes use of all WordPress post formats—aside, video, audio, gallery, image, status, chat, link, quote and the standard format. It means if you want to post just an image then you can select the format as image and it will style the page accordingly. The same rule applies for the rest of the formats.

The template comes with a lot of other goodies. The feature list is populated with things like unlimited color support, apple touch icon upload, setting a favicon, custom menu and other juicy features. The customizability and the wide range of style and features make the template a must have.

GraphicRiver: Oil Paint Action

Oil Paint Action: If you take a look at GraphicRiver's free file of the month then you will find two premium Photoshop add-ons available for free. You will get .Atn files that you can easily integrate to your version of Photoshop. The action file comes power-packed with some amazing effects. You can apply it to your photos.

When you apply the action, your photos will automatically change and look like one of those artistic oil paintings. You won't have to do all the hard work of editing as the action file does it for you. However, the file does require you to have the oil paint plugin and it is not supported on Photoshop CC. It requires minimum Photoshop version CS 5.5. You can take a look at the help files if you need to know how it can be used.

CodeCanyon: Edu Expression Online Examination System (Lite)

Edu Expression Online Examination System (Lite): This is a PHP/MySQL script that can be used to conduct examinations online. The CakePHP framework has been used to build it. If you are looking for an examination script for online tests then take a look at this script. It comes packed with a lot of features that can be applied to conducting online or computer-based examinations.

There is a Lite and a Pro version. We get the lite version for. It comes with free updates and a limited number of features but it is enough. You can create unlimited questions banks from which questions are drawn out, the questions themselves can be of various types like objective, subjective, fill in the blanks etc. Other features include the ability to create student profiles and groups. You can also charge for exams using PayPal and E-Wallet for offline payments, use marking features like negative marking, and publish a detailed report or result card. There are settings to change everything like time zones, email and SMS notifications.

VideoHive: 55 Qualitative Typography

55 Qualitative Typography: This is an After Effects Project file that can be used to create animated titles. It supports After Effects CS5 and new versions. This typography pack allows you to put in some text as a title, add in a little music and adjust some colors. Then it finally generates a cool looking video for the title filled with awesome effects.

You can export up to 4K videos. So, resolution is not limited at all. You can apply different animation effects. There are a lot of those available. Additional plugins are not required while the render process is very fast. Even the fonts in the preview have a download link so you can develop something that looks exactly like on the preview but with a different text. Finally, if you get stuck there's a manual.

PhotoDune: Model Railway Maintenance Men Drilling

Model Railway Maintenance Men Drilling: This is a simple photography of a couple of model maintenance men drilling. There are a few items in the background and the texture looks like grass. It's just a simple photo and some people might find it useful.

3DOcean: Drone phantom with gopro

Drone phantom with gopro: You get a 3D model of a drone with a GoPro camera mount on it. The model is created in 3D Max. I am sure that you have seen one of these drones in the wild. Now, if you need a computer generated render of it, get this 3D model.

AudioJungle: Indie Pop

Indie Pop: This is some lively indie pop music file that you can download for free from AudioJungle. Previously, it used to cost $19. It is perfect for videos like commercials, trailers, presentations and other projects. It is catchy and it gives us a positive vibe. There are some deep bass, guitar music and powerful beats that make up this energetic music.

ActiveDen: Slot Machine

Slot Machine: We have a free flash game that can be customized to fit your needs. It can be used to create your own slot machine game. The game can be placed in your website. If you are looking to make an app then Adobe Air will convert it to mobile standards.

Online chatrooms are one of the quickest forms of communication. IRC is a popular way to connect and chat in public and private rooms—between individuals and in groups. A similar style of communication is used by Slack. It allows the invited members of a team to communicate between each other and in groups.

Slack Website

Android App

iOS App

Signing Up

Anyone can freely sign up using their email address. The group creator will get to choose a sub-domain like http://yourteam.slack.com along with the name of the team. Other usual details like username and password are required.

After signing up, there is a short tutorial that will show you how to use different features. It's simple and chatting with the slackbot will get you accustomed. Those who are used to chat rooms and IRC will immediately understand how everything works. The rest can explore the interface for a while and learn how things work.

The team members should be invited. Even though they already have a Slack account, they should join again for your separate team domain.

Configurations

After signing up, several configuration options can be set via preferences. It is accessed from the down facing arrow menu under the group name on the top-left corner of the screen. You can set a lot of things like

Message themes, display options, font, typing status etc.

Choose between different themes for the left sidebar.

Expansion and preview options when media and links are shared.

Emojis, search options for channel exclusion and settings related to read messages.

Other options like spell check and auto complete.

Major Features

The major features of Slack focus on facilitating communication between team members. There can be public discussions, private messages and semi-public communication. Here's how they are classified as:

Channels

The public group chats or conversations are called channels. They can have names like #writing, #general etc. Just remember the hashtag (#) in the beginning of the name. Channels can be created, edited and renamed according to the requirement.

A certain channel can have any number of members. Members can be invited or they can join any channel on their own. You can imagine different channels as different public chat rooms. Relevant members can join in the discussion at any time. Individuals who aren't in the channels can still see the preview of the messages inside it. The basic idea behind it is to have group chats between different team members in different groups. Add relevant members to a channel and they will be able to join in the conversation.

Direct Messages

Direct messages allow sending of private messages between members. Two individual members will be able to chat and share privately. The content of the chat is only visible to the two participants. Other members won't be able to join, chat or preview the contents.

Private Groups

Private groups limit the people who are able to see the messages. Only invited members can participate and see the conversation. This feature is to disallow certain team members from accessing private conversations between more than two people.

File and Link Sharing

We can share the public links to files on Google Drive. They will be identified and when you give the authorization, the files will be imported. Files are grouped separately. There is also a separate commenting section for files.

Other Features

There are several other features like:

Notifications: To notify people when they receive messages that is relevant to them.

Mention: Use the '@' sign to mention a certain user or even everyone.

Starred Items: Star any conversation or a file link and it will be grouped for easy access.

Notifications: In a computer, if you authorize the app with browser permissions you will get notifications right in your desktop.

Emojis and emoticons: Since Slack derives its user interface from chat, you can use Emojis and emoticon packs.

Final Words

Slack is a simple yet powerful messaging platform for teams. It's great when there are multiple team members who need to chat with each other at any time. Messages can be public, private or between certain members only. There are also native apps for both Android as well as iOS devices. They are capable of sending notifications when new messages and mentions are sent.

Slack doesn't send any email notification of conversations. Its purpose is to facilitate communication on different grounds without emails. It also doesn't support file uploading and sharing directly. But Google Drive file links can be shared easily. Slack is also not for creating tasks and to-do lists. Asana would be a better alternative for task as well as communication management. Slack is more useful for quick communication and sharing.

The name Asana has been derived from the Sanskrit word आसन which are the postures in yoga where you sit still. The name has got nothing to do with the feature rich app that it is. Branded with the tagline "Teamwork without email", Asana has reimagined team communication. All the conversations take in a single place and they are tied up with the work that is required to be done. The team will know the things that they have to do next. The team leader will get an overview of every work that is being done. With the proper use of this centralized system, team communication and work can be managed better than when it is done via email.

Links to Asana

Web App

Android App

iOS App

Asana Workspace

Asana actually has a single workspace. People can be added to it. They need to join asana.com. Signing up is easy with a Google account or an email address. Signing up is free as well. Different projects can be created and every one of them can have a unique group of team members. Projects with up to 15 members are free to create and use. The work-space contains different elements sorted in different panes. It can be accessed from the web or by using their mobile app. A single project can contain different members and a number of tasks.

Tasks and To-Do list

Tasks can be created by everyone and assigned to the people in the team. A due date can be set for it. The ones who are assigned the job will see it due in the Tasks to Do list. It is like those popular to-do lists that we use everywhere. This checklist will sort items according to their due dates. While adding new tasks, just click and begin typing. There's no need to visit multiple pages to create something new or to add members to anything. Just type on the editable area, choose a due date and assign it. The magic happens in a single work-space.

For each task, there is a separate chat or commenting interface. The ones assigned to it can send and receive messages. Attachments can also be added to conversations. There are additional features like tagging, limiting visibility and merging items. Items can be added and removed as desired. One interesting feature is the ability to create sub-tasks that can have a separate communication thread. These are like to-do lists within the to-do lists. While Asana is meant to reduce the use of email, every team member that follows the task will get an email notification for all the conversations. Mobile notifications are sent by mobile apps as well. So, nothing goes unnoticed.

At the end when everything is complete, a checkbox can be checked and the job will disappear from the to-do list. It will be archived in the recently completed list. They can be viewed with the help of a dropdown.

Dashboard

It is accessible by visiting the My Dashboard link from the left pane. Projects can be added and they will be displayed as cards. With a free account you are limited to 3 projects. The dashboard is a view that allows us to see the overall progress of projects. It tracks it and the progresses made in it. You will see diagrams that represent the work advancement. It's useful for project leads to get an insight of everything.

Other Features

There are a large number of other features that take care of every small detail. For example:

People can like messages by clicking on hearts.

Due dates and task names can be easily changed.

A work calendar to see what comes next.

Members can be added and removed simply.

Tasks can be converted into new projects.

Guests with limited access can be invited.

The search feature can be used to find jobs and messages.

Time tracking is possible by integrating to Harvest.

Pricing Structure

Asana is free to use for a team that consists 15 members at maximum. If there are more people on the team then payment is required. The price depends on the number of team members. For example for 20 people $83 is charged per month when billed annually. You can view the payment structure from here. Premium account guarantees additional features like private teams, unlimited guests, premium and improved dashboards, the ability to export data and centralize administration etc. So, even if your team has less than 15 members, you can always pay to get access to these juicy features.

Final Words

The projects available for download from these 8 websites are made by professional developers, designers, composers and authors. A lot of users purchase and download from the Envato Market. Every month as a promotion, one file from each of these websites are available as a free download. All that is required is an Envato network account. One account is enough to access the contents of all eight websites. So, if you haven't already joined, why don't you spend some time to sign up and you will be able to download these premium content:

ThemeForest: Ferado – WooCommerce Fashion Theme

Ferado – WooCommerce Fashion Theme: This is one of the best releases as a free file from ThemeForest. It is a known fact that you will find some of the finest premium templates on this website. Getting one of them for free is a really nice thing for a lot of us. This time we get an awesome looking WordPress template. The template is meant for styling any site which also has the WooCommerce plugin installed. This plugin is for starting your own e-commerce store powered by WordPress.

Just look at the preview of the template and you will see how much advanced it is. It is a stylish one meant for fashion stores that sell their merchandise online. But don't think that the design is limited to fashion and clothing stores. With the plethora of options available, it can be configured for any online store or catalog. The final website will look stylish and I believe that every online store will want to have an eye-catching layout.

The theme comes with several options so that every installation is unique on its own way. It is up to the designer to configure and give it a unique final touch. It already has features to choose between a number of homepage designs and color schemes. There are actually six color schemes—red, yellow, green, blue, purple and brown. Other customizable options are the header styles which can be selected between two designs. The elements on the homepage can be added, removed, moved and placed according to one's wish. You will be astounded by how you can use the page builder, code shortcuts and sliders to give it the look that you want. Don't lose this opportunity and grab this great template quickly.

GraphicRiver: Multi Devices Responsive Web Mockups Pack

Multi Devices Responsive Web Mockups Pack: With the giant market share of mobile devices, every product that you put out in the web should have a mobile interface. But the usual laptop/desktop and other big screen interfaces shouldn't be missed as well. Supporting multiple screens properly is a basic requirement to increase usability. Responsive designs—the design that adjusts to every screen size—is popular these days. The demand for responsive design is high and theme authors have been catering to this need.

When, publishing a theme for selling or for free distribution, it is necessary to display it properly. On the description page of the theme, users will want to see a clear preview. One major selling factor is the ability to show the users what the design is capable of. To do that, designers use mockup responsive layouts to show how it looks on every screen size.

This mockup pack is quite suitable for the purpose. Show how your design or layout looks in multiple screen sizes. Let your users see the screenshots as they are seen on a computer screen, a tablet or even a mobile phone. Download the PSD and save some time.

CodeCanyon: Easy Cronjob Web Handler

Easy Cronjob Web Handler: When you want the repeated execution of a certain script at a certain interval, cronjobs are used. This is a feature that web hosts provide along with their hosting plan. You can configure the time, date and the repeat cycle. The PHP Script that comes for free from CodeCanyon can do the same thing. All you need to specify is a CronJob URL. It is the URL to the script that needs to run regularly.

You can control how often it runs and when it runs. The UI makes it simple to configure everything. You also get statistics on the tasks that are executed and email logs are also available on-demand. There is also no limit to the number of automated executions that you can have.

VideoHive: Clean Logo Reveal

Clean Logo Reveal: In a video project, it is a smart choice if you include branding options like logos in the beginning. Your logo can show up in a flashy animated way before the actual content is played. Similarly, you can have a simple video just to reveal your logo. This is what you get in this month's After Effect download file from VideoHive.

Your logo can be of any design. The After Effects project supports it all. After the reveal you can also have a tag line to go with it. See the preview in this YouTube video.

PhotoDune: Xygia Beach, Zakynthos Island, Greece

Xygia Beach, Zakynthos Island, Greece: If you are looking for images of beautiful blue beaches then this one is available for you, royalty free. The beach is from the Zakynthos Island of Greece. Its name is Xygia Beach.

3DOcean: City Road Set (street pack)

City Road Set (street pack): The 3D pack contains a high-quality set of roads and related textures. It can be used to create a detail design plan of city routes. The textures are realistic and it is perfect for 3D designers who want roadways for their projects like game design. It can also be used to show a mockup plan of roads.

AudioJungle: Summertime in A Bottle

Summertime in A Bottle: It is a joyful track as the composer puts it. Use it to portray happiness in your projects. Place it in videos or use it as background music. Various instruments are used in the beat. Enjoy the two different parts of the beat—a straight forward part and the next where drums get a bit bouncy.

ActiveDen: Flash Site XML with FlipBook v16

Recommended: Payoneer vs. PayPal vs. Other Payment Methods.

With many features, this card is used as a means to issue payment by many companies, especially freelance websites. Many of those allow freelancers to add a Payoneer Card as a withdrawal method so funds can be transferred. Then the balance can be withdrawn using ATMs or it can also be used to purchase online. Keep in mind that this is a prepaid card—it works like an international credit card but it must have preloaded balance to work.

Get A Free Payoneer MasterCard Now

There are two ways or methods to order a Payoneer International Prepaid MasterCard.

Method 1: Signing Up Directly at Payoneer.com

To request a free Payoneer card, signing up directly at the official website and providing personal details and verification is enough. It is like signing up in any other website by entering name, address, contact information, date of birth, email etc. Then these personal details should be verified with the help of a government issued picture ID document. It can be anything like a driving license or passport. The only requirement is that the document should contain details—personal details and a picture. The details used during sign up should match with these.

Once the information is verified by Payoneer, a card will be shipped to the provided address. After receiving it, details should be entered back in the website to activate it. Finally, this international card will be usable globally.

Here are the steps:

Visit Payoneer.com or use my referral link to sign up to Payoneer; $25 welcoming bonus will be awarded.

Fill up the forms step-by-step to provide personal details, contact details, security details and a shipping address.

Wait a few days for someone at Payoneer to get the details checked.

After that, upload the digital copy of a verification document like a passport or a driver's license.

After approval, the card will be shipped to the shipping address. It usually takes around 30 days or so for it to arrive.

After the delivery, enter the card number in Payoneer, set a 4 digit pin code and it will be activated.

Method 2: Ordering the Card from Freelancing Websites

Since the card is used extensively by freelancing companies to pay freelancers, the companies themselves offer members to sign up to Payoneer. Websites like Upwork (formerly oDesk) and Fiverr offer a sign up link for freelancers. This link redirects back to Payoneer but when signing up from such links the card membership will have a different fee structure. By comparison, ordering a card from such websites can have fewer fees if the number of minimum monthly transactions is met.

Here's how to order a free Payoneer card from freelancing websites:

Join a freelancing website that supports Payoneer. Example: Fiverr, Elance, Upwork or Freelancer.com. Provide all the details the site requires and verify your account if necessary. Make sure the account is complete and active. You may like to see a list of top freelancing websites.

Visit the section on the freelancing website that allows editing of the payment methods. There will be a Payoneer section from where a card can be requested and/or added. Use the link and it will redirect to a special sign up page.

Sign up and provide all the personal, contact, security and verification details. After approval by someone at Payoneer, submit an official or government issued document or photo ID like a driving license or passport. Scan it/take a picture and upload.

After approval, a card will be shipped to your address. Confirm the shipping by entering the card details back at Payoneer.com. Set a 4 digit pin for ATM withdrawals and enjoy using this new MasterCard. It will also be automatically connected to your freelancing account.

Signing Up Directly vs. Ordering via Freelancing Sites

There are two methods to order a Payoneer card and each method will provide you an identical looking card. The only difference is the service fees that are applicable and the availability of some features. Signing up directly allows sending funds from one Payoneer account to another whereas the other card seems to have this feature missing. There's also a feature that allows transfer of funds directly to bank accounts, although it seems that this service is only available to users from limited countries.

Here is how the fees are different:

Self-Signed up at Payoneer.com

Activation fee of $29.95.

Annual account maintenance fee $29.95 charged at the beginning of the year on the activation date.

Card Replacement fee: $12.95

ATM Withdrawal fee: $3.15 + 3% (Foreign Transaction fee if applicable)

ATM Decline Fee: $1.00

ATM Balance Inquiry Fee: $1.00

Regarding the annual fee of $29.95, if the balance is not enough during the renewal period, the fee is stalled and the card won't be usable. Later when the balance is enough, the charges are not deducted immediately. It is after the first transaction that is made, an amount is deducted along with the yearly fee.

For example: The card activation was on Aug 1 and so the annual fee is charged on Aug 1 every year. But on that date the Payoneer account doesn’t have $29.95. Let's say the amount is around $20. Nothing is charged and the balance won't be usable. But once the balance reaches let's say $40 the card will be usable. On the first use, let's say something was purchased for $5. The total balance deducted would be $5 + $29.95 = $34.95.

Cards Requested from Freelancing Sites

Card Activation: $5

Monthly account maintenance fee: $1(if more than 2 transactions) and $3(if less than 2 transactions) from available account balance. No account balance = no fees.

Card Replacement fee: $12.95 per card.

ATM withdrawal fee: $3 + 1.8% (Foreign transaction fee)

ATM Decline Fee: $0.90

ATM Balance Inquiry Fee: $0.90

Each of these individual payment processors come with their own fees. The charges are in addendum to the payment cut that freelancing websites take. While withdrawing there might be an additional charge applicable to process the payment by the online jobs website. Finally, there might be additional fees charged by the local banks or ATMS on our end.

Since we are bombarded by different types of fees at every intermediary, it is necessary to look at them in great detail. A single payment processor is not always the best choice. The choice depends on the amount that you are trying to withdraw. So in this post, I compare Payoneer vs. PayPal vs. Bank Wire vs. Skrill.

Payoneer

Payoneer is the most popular payment processor in the freelancing world. It issues a free international MasterCard and also assigns a US bank account for its users. The Payoneer account can be connected to websites and payment can be processed via this intermediary. After the balance is transferred from a freelancing website to Payoneer, it can be easily withdrawn using a Payoneer International MasterCard. The card can be inserted into ATMs supporting MasterCard for instant withdrawal.

Sign Up For a Payoneer Account from My Affiliate URL

Payoneer MasterCard is good for withdrawing funds around $100 to $350 USD. There are different types of fees that Payoneer deducts:

Monthly fees ($1 to $3) or annual subscription fees ($29.95) depending upon where you signed up from.

Per transaction fees: ($3 to $3.15) + (1.8% to 3%) foreign transaction fees, since you get funds in your local currency.

Bank ATM Fees: Depends on your bank.

Note that there are additional fees if you are interested in instantly loading your Payoneer account. You can wait around 2 days to gain access to the funds in Payoneer for free.

You might be interested in: Figuring out Payoneer ATM Withdrawal Fees.

PayPal

PayPal is the most widely used payment processor in many countries. However, it isn't available for all countries to receive payments. This processor has some strict rules and users complain a lot about getting their funds locked in. In countries like India there are strict rules set by RBI related to withdrawals. Users also complain about the exchange rate provided by PayPal.

So, use PayPal with caution. It doesn't have the yearly fees. Its bank withdrawal fees depend upon where you live. For countries like US and Canada there aren't any bank withdrawal fees. But for countries like India, converting funds from USD to INR and transferring funds from PayPal to Bank can cost you. There might also be additional charges added by your local bank.

See this page to find out the PayPal's bank withdrawal fees for your country.

But note that PayPal is widely accepted and moving balance from Elance to PayPal is free while Upwork charges $1 USD only. Withdraw to PayPal if you plan to spend the money online. It can be used to purchase hosts, domains for example.

Bank Wire

There are usually two types of bank wire transfers—local currency transfer and USD transfer.

Bank Withdrawal in Local Currency: In Elance, one bank withdrawal in local currency per month is free. But the exchange rate is not that good. However, transferring funds using this method is good if the amount is between 400 to 600 USD.

USD Bank Transfer: This type of transfer costs $25 for processing in Elance and $30 in Upwork (odesk). The exchange rate is good in this withdrawal method. When the amount to transfer is high, USD bank transfer becomes profitable despite the fees. Use this method when the amount is over 750 USD.

Notes:

Local banks might charge an inward remittance fee.

Input your account details, SWIFT or IBAN codes correctly. Always double check.

Skrill

Skrill is also a good option as long as the account is a personal account. But users have complained their accounts being converted into merchant account after withdrawing funds from freelancing websites. Skrill merchant account fees are a bit high.

For example: Non-European merchants will incur a fee of 3.90% + €0.35 for receiving funds. There's also a conditional gateway usage fee of €19.95 per month. For withdrawing to a local bank there's a €1.80 fee and you will have to except a local bank's inward remittance fee as well.

For personal accounts, Skrill works great. The exchange rate is fine and personal account fees are comparatively low. For withdrawing to a bank internationally via SWIFT, the fee amounts to GBP 2.16 or EUR 2.95 plus the local bank's remittance receiving charge.

Hence, Skrill is good as long as you have a personal account. If it is converted into a merchant account— which happens automatically—move away from Skrill.

Conclusion

There isn't a single method that suits the payment needs for all the countries and amount. It depends upon how much you want to withdraw and in which country you have your bank account. In my experience:

USD 100 or lower to 350: Use Payoneer.

USD 400 to 600: Use local currency bank transfer

USD 750+: Use USD bank transfer.

For spending funds online: Use PayPal

This promotional campaign gets us some professional tools, templates and codes that we can use on a project for free. To get the download, we have to create a free account. One account is enough to download all the free files of the month across the eight different websites. So, if you want a professionally made template, flash file, audio file, stock image, video project, 3D project, graphics project, or a code; then it's really beneficial to join the Envato network.

So, without further ado, here are the 8 free files for the month of June 2015:

ThemeForest: Promo – Landing Page Template

Promo – Landing Page Template: Out of the 8 network websites, ThemeForest has to be the most popular one. It is the marketplace for templates of all kinds—from simple HTML templates to powerful WordPress templates. I really look forward to the free download that is provided in ThemeForest. This month, the free template for download is a landing page template.

Please note that this is a one page template and not something meant for WordPress. Although, there might be people who can integrate it with their content management system, it is basically meant to host a landing page. Display your products, stats, testimonials, links, social profiles etc. in a single page. All the sections of the page will be presented in an attractive manner backed by animations. The purpose of the beautiful presentation is to gain the visitor's attention and make a conversion/sale.

This template is clean and flat—the website design that is trending right now. It has been built in Bootstrap 3.0, that means the template is fully responsive. It uses the latest HTML5 and CSS3 technology to ensure the best use of available web design technology. It works well in all the browsers across multiple platforms. You can view a website created using this template in a desktop computer or in a small screen smartphone, and all of them will project the website perfectly.

GraphicRiver: IU Mobile Sport App

IU Mobile Sport App: If you are developing an app and need a design for it, then this is one perfect choice for you. This download comes with two different themes and has been made for phones. It is perfect for creating a sports app. You can use the elements of the PSD download to integrate into your own mobile application. The download contains 28 PSD files that means a complete design for all the pages of your app.

This graphics file has been created to implement in a sports app. There are pages which can hold the scoreboards, match fixtures, results, news, and even something detailed like a squad formation. These two beautiful themes are retina ready with high quality vector shapes. Everything is editable as per your taste.

CodeCanyon: Ultimate Paid Referral System

Ultimate Paid Referral System: One way to promote your website or online content is with the help of a referral system. Users get paid a certain amount for bringing in signups and you get members and new subscribers to your website. If you need such a script, then ultimate paid referral system is a great one. It is a powerful PHP script that can handle member signups and track referrals. You can create an affiliate system to expand the possibilities with the help of an explosive growth.

When you get this download, you don't have to create a signup script or even a website design. It has both of those including profile pages for members and other necessary pages like contact us, and referral statistics. There is even a lucky draw system. The code for this script is well documented with comments, so it is easy to edit and implement. The admin panel has controls to everything. So, if you need it, implement it and enjoy the benefits of having a referral system.

VideoHive: Storm Clouds Sky

Storm Clouds Sky: It is a stock video footage of the sky. This time lapse photography features footages of the sky during a thunder storm. You will see the clouds moving around and forming a storm. In total the video file is 48 seconds long and is available in full HD 1920x1080 pixels. There are two versions—both color corrected. The camera used to capture this footage is Canon EOS 7D. Please note that the audio track is not free and hence it is not included with the download.

PhotoDune: Space

Space: The free stock photography available for download is titled Space and it features an artistic rendering of a planet that is similar to ours in space. In this image, you will find a planet in front and in the background there are multitudes of stars.

3DOcean: Bathroom Set (VrayC4D)

Bathroom Set: The 3D model that we get for free is of a bathroom and various items placed in one. After downloading you get 3DS, C4D, Dxf, Fbx and Obj files. There are different contents or models of bathroom cabins, carpets, curtain, turb, towel and wash-hand basin. This model can be used as a basis for 3D design or with modifications—to display your own bathroom designs.

AudioJungle: Electronic

Electronic: An inspirational as well as an energetic audio track. Download it for free and place it in any project you want. Use it as your background music for videos or audio recordings. Use it however you want to. There are a lot of instruments like an air pad, piano, electronic bass, synth lead and cosmic percussion that has been used to create the track. In the 75.2 MB download, you will find three versions of this electronic track—electronic main, electronic short and electronic without drums.

ActiveDen: YouTube Player Standalone

For designers and developers, these files can come to great use. They are professionally made. They can be enhanced to produce great end-products that are unique. So, it is highly recommended to check the free files from the Envato network at the beginning of every month. You never know what you find and what you find might be really useful.

So, here are the 8 free files for the month of May 2015 from the Envato network:

ThemeForest: Weather - Layers Application One Page Theme

Weather: This is something new and something fantastic for the WordPress users and website creators out there. Layers is a site creator that is something like a drop and drag visual editor which is currently popular. It is simple to use and it gives us the flexibility to design something awesome without having to use scripts. The simple interface allows us to use elements or layers for designs.

Weather is a one page theme that has been designed to highlight and display a phone app as the product. But it doesn't mean that this template works only for developers and designers who are looking to display a phone app. With creativity, you can use this simple one page theme to showcase any product that you want. Add widgets, change your design and have something that looks great.

GraphicRiver: Label Mockup

Label Mockup: If you are looking to create a graphical label then you're in luck. This time from GraphicRiver, you get free a graphics file that is suitable to create mock up labels. There are six total files in this free graphics package. These are computer generated imagery that is photo realistic.

You can edit these PSD files or Photoshop files as per your desire. Change the text, tag, logo and you have an instant graphics mockup of a label. The design looks rugged and realistic. The download is a bit heavy: 402 MB in size.

CodeCanyon: Facebook Events Calendar WordPress Plugin

Facebook Events Calendar: From CodeCanyon, you get something awesome this month. It is a premium WordPress plugin that integrates with Facebook to display events. The events are picked from various Facebook pages, profiles and groups—as per your liking.

You can integrate this great plugin to your WordPress website to display upcoming events to your site visitors. Using the plugin and integrating with any template is simple. Just use short-codes or make use of the widgets that come along with this plugin. Display it where you want to and you will have a calendar with Facebook events.

VideoHive: Minimal and Essential Portfolio

Minimal and Essential Portfolio: This After Effects CS3 file is a video project that is useful for displaying portfolio. It is sort of a template that you can customize to present what you want to. Just make a few edits and you have a professional looking video for sharing.

This video renders quickly and supports full HD that is up to 1080p (1920 x 1080 in dimensions). Additional plugins are not required for it. But there is an additional sound file that is required. It is not free but you can always replace it with another sound file. Why not try the free audio file of the month from AudioJungle?

PhotoDune: Beautiful elf with bow in hand

Beautiful Elf with Bow in Hand: This is a simple stock image of a female elf with a bow in hand and some arrows in her quiver. The background is grey. There isn't much to describe about this image. See it for yourself here:

3DOcean: Hand Painted Modular Tile Set

Hand Painted Modular Tile Set: The 3D file that comes free is this hand painted modular tile texture. They can be used together to create a floor design. Each texture is of the dimension: 512 x 512. There are 33 pieces in this set.

AudioJungle: Chance

Chance: The free audio file of the month is titled Chance. The track is great and it feels energetic. It is meant to create a pleasant atmosphere. The audio is melodic and catchy. It can be used for a single product by one user.

Use it to give background music to your videos or integrate it with, let's say, audio vocals and you have something that is catchy and melodic.

ActiveDen: Flash Site Template XML v9

Flash Site Template: There aren't many people who design their website using Adobe's Flash technology but those who do—this project will come quite in handy. The flash site template looks great and it uses the powerful features that we get with Adobe Flash.

This means, you have some great pre-created template, audio or graphics that you can build upon. If you're looking for website templates then there is bound to be one free every month. If you want a background audio, get one for free. There are such free files every month and I enjoy collecting them.

Here are the free files of the month April 2015 from 8 network websites of the Envato network:

ThemeForest: Uncle Hummer - Responsive WordPress Building Theme

Uncle Hummer: Out of all the network websites, the most popular one is Theme Forest which is for website templates. I use this website primarily for WordPress templates. This month luckily, ThemeForest's free file of the month is a WordPress template. The template is titled Uncle Hummer - Responsive WordPress Building Theme. This template has been built with construction companies in mind.

This is a parallax, full-width, single-page template with a lot of added on features that you can use to customize it to your liking. There are three trendy look for it and they are all fully responsive. The ease of editing is there, thanks to the built-in visual composer for building pages. There are sliders and slide-shows that can be used. Google font integration is there, so the words on your site can be made pretty with pretty fonts. If you want it to use for blogging, then you can do it as well—with its multiple blog layouts.

Other things that make it worth it are features like short-codes when composing pages and posts, video background for creating an amazing header, and an SEO friendly everything. If you're looking to build a portfolio page or a full width website with parallax effect for a company then grab this monthly offer.

Graphic River: Bokeh Textures and Actions Vol.2

Bokeh Textures and Actions Vol.2: If you are looking for some quick actions to make your photos and images look artistic, then get this actions pack. Once you install these professional Photoshop photo effects, you get to make your photos amazing in just a click. Choose the action that you want to apply and then let it shine on your picture.

When you download this pack, you will get not one or two, but eight high quality actions and textures. They support high resolutions, so do not worry about it. Even when you look at the demos and previews, you can see the amazing changes that it brings to the photos of models. Try it for yourself and let the actions improve the artistic looks of your pictures. They are great if you need professionally enhanced photos for magazines or websites.

CodeCanyon: Cloud Pricing Slider

Cloud Pricing Slider: Websites and online service providers use different techniques to present their features allowing the customers to select them. One of such techniques is the use of sliders to help buyers select a package. This cloud pricing slider has been created with web hosting—VPS hosting  and dedicated server providers in mind. VPS sellers and resellers can use this JavaScript effect to create an interactive way for visitors to choose their package.

Use the sliders to enable people to choose the processor speed or cores, memory and storage. Based on the slider's location a price will be displayed. This script is easy to edit and you can integrate it with your web-hosting website. You can simply integrate it with a WHCMS order form which is one of the most used client management, billing and support system for web hosts. So, integrate this feature as you get it for free.

VideoHive: Website Presentation

Website Presentation: If you want a website presentation video then get it now for free. As VideoHive's free file of the month you get a free After Effects project. It requires no additional plugins for you to edit. This simple presentation will bring out your website in a quite eye-catching way. Use it as a way to show off your website and its various pages and features.

The video file supports full HD i.e. those videos with resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 pixels. It is easy to edit as the file is filled with text placeholders and image placeholders. Just simply replace them or add text or images to those parts and you have your own unique website video presentation. If you're confused about editing it then there's even a video tutorial that comes with the download.

PhotoDune: Olives and bread

Olives and bread: This month's free high-quality stock image download from PhotoDune is a picture of neatly placed olives and bread, along with some other dining table items like a fork. This is a close up picture and you can use it for any single project as long as it is relevant.

3DOcean: Fireworks - Render Setup

Fireworks – Render Setup: As the title states, this is a 3D render of fireworks. It's simple and usable in Maya 3D projects. You can use it for your video projects if you need some firework particles that need to be animated and displayed. There's a documentation that comes attached for changing the colors of the particles.

AudioJungle: Beauty

Beauty: This is an emotional type of music. As the author puts it, the music is

Emotional, airy and inspiring piece, filled with magical dreams and passion.

Use this music for any project that you want to. You can use it to present picture slideshows or for video projects that portrays a deep message. The piano music is bound to capture the attention of the listeners.

ActiveDen: Coloring Book Creator

Coloring Book Creator: Taking a break from flipbooks and magazines as free files, this month ActiveDen presents us with a coloring book creator. The book or the output of this project is targeted towards a young audience. You can create a coloring book that allows the users to fill colors on various drawings. The drawings are editable and you can re-brand the book as per your liking.

1. Blogger

Blogger.com is a free blog hosting service by Google. All you need is a Google account to access this great service. After you login to Blogger, you can create a new blog within the click of a few buttons. Just click the New Blog button, give your blog a title, an address and choose a template; all of which can be changed later. The hosting service is not limited.

Some Features of Blogger

Writing and Reading: You can create posts and pages which can contain formatted text, and media like images and videos. You can also use HTML to format your posts. The commenting system is also great. You can also collaborate with other writers and authors.

Blog URL: Your blog address will be something like http://yourblog.blogspot.com. You can use a third-party domain registrar like Name.com or NameCheap.com (Affiliate Link) to register a top-level domain for cheap and configure it to work with Blogger.

Templates/Styles: There are a lot of free templates, styles and widgets out there for Blogger. All you have to do is search in Google, download the customizations and install it into your blog. You can add widgets and modify the templates.

Other Features of Blogger/BlogSpot: There are a plethora of features provided by this blog hosting service. First of all, it should be noted that the service is hosted at Google's servers and it is really fast. There are various options for customization. Moreover, you can also use the built-in features for Google's AdSense service to monetize your blog easily.

Blogger is a highly recommended platform for beginners. Once you're blog is mature enough, you can always move it to a self-hosted platform like WordPress. There are a lot of plugins for WordPress to help you in that.

2. Tumblr

Tumblr.com is a simple and free blogging and sharing platform. It's easy to get started and it works great as a CMS to write and share your articles. This platform is more social, meaning that the users can follow each other, have a newsfeed, and share and like each other's posts. The layout and design to post is really simple and user-friendly. You won't have any trouble getting accustomed to composing posts, adding media and formatting them. Even this website is hosted by Tumblr.

Some Features of Tumblr

Reading and Writing: You can compose posts on the fly. You can create a text post for blogging. You can also create a post that contains only a photo, quote, link, chat, audio or video. You can use the in-built Rich text composer to format your post. You can also switch to HTML posts for more formatting options.

Blog URL: Like Blogger, you get a blog address of http://yourblog.tumblr.com for your blog. You can also add a top-level domain like http://yourblog.com to work with a Tumblr blog. You can use external domain registrars for this.

Template/Styles: There are a lot of attractive templates out there for Tumblr. You will find a lot of free ones in the official template directory. You can find more if you google. The in-built theme editing feature from Tumblr is quite easy to use.

Other Features of Tumblr: The most exciting features of Tumblr come in the form of its social settings. Follow other people and have them follow you. Like posts, reply to them and re-blog them while others do the same for your content.

Due to the ease of starting a blog, Tumblr is a perfect choice for beginners. You will have a blog up and running within minutes. There's also a very popular Tumblr app which allows you to use all its features for mobile phones. The user-base is huge and it is something that you can build upon.

3. WordPress

Wordpress.com is an in-house blog hosting service provided by the company behind the most popular blogging and website platform—WordPress. Your blogs are powered by their amazing blogging software. But it should be mentioned that the capabilities of WordPress has been cut-back to create a simple reading and writing platform. With a free plan, you don't get all the customization options that you'd normally get with a self-hosted WordPress website.

Reading and Writing: You get the powerful blogging tools present in WordPress to compose posts and for visitors to comment on them. You can also create pages, use tags and categories.

Blog URL: You get a subdomain i.e. http://yourblog.wordpress.com address for free. You can also get a top-level .com or .net domain for $18 a year. You can also add your externally registered domain name but that requires an extra fee of $13 a year. It's to get the domain mapping feature. Due to this, it feels like a lot of limitations have been placed.

Templates/Styles: You get access to a large number of hosted templates on the service. You can't upload your own templates and you are limited with the number of customizations, but they are enough to get you started.

Other Features: You get some power-packed tools like for statistics and social sharing. There are a number of in-built customizations that you can use to add certain features to you blog.

This free blogging service provided by WordPress is great for writers. You can share your articles online with the WordPress community. But you are limited in terms of placing advertisements. You also cannot upload plugins or themes for WordPress that are present in the directory for self-hosted sites.

4. Medium

Medium.com is a relatively new provider that hosts your articles. The interface is clean and the style is great for simply writing and sharing. You can discover great articles or your articles can be discovered by the large community. If your articles are featured, then expect a lot of traffic. You can also have followers or follow other users.

Reading and Writing: The compose box is clean and easy to use. Write text posts, add images and videos. Embed other items and publish when the post is ready.

Blog URL: You don't get a dedicated sub-domain. Adding custom domain is in limited beta phase. You get a sub-directory like http://www.medium.com/@yourusername/.

Templates/Styles: There aren't dedicated customization options for medium. The default template used by the website is what you are using as well.

Other Features: The site is simple and simplicity is the selling point for medium. Social features and the possibility of reaching a large number of followers and audience out there is what make this service attractive.

When it comes to Medium.com it is purely for writers. Write text posts and add images to go with them. Add high resolution images for your individual posts to make them attractive. Moving content out of Medium is not that simple. With this service, it feels like you're contributing to a popular website.

5. Weebly

Weebly.com is a powerful free service that offers great features for writers and for those people looking to start a new website or store. It is a new and next generation blogging and website building platform. You can choose to create a website, blog or a store. The website can use several of the available templates for styling.

Reading and Writing: With the stylish and distraction free writing method, you can get quite involved with your writing.

Blog URL: You can get a free subdomain http://yourdomain.weebly.com or you can also use a custom top-level domain name.

Templates/Styles: There are so many styling options that you'll be able to customize every nook and crannies of your blog/website.

Other Features: There are many features like the drag and drop layout editor, the ability to create a store or use mobile apps for delivering your content. There are also a lot of tools related to planning your website.

Weebly can take a bit of getting used to but once you are accustomed with the powerful tools, you will be creating and writing for a site that looks professional. You can create a website, a blog or a store easily. The feature list is large even for a free user and you'll find great use for them.

Final Words

As a freelance writer, it is quite helpful to have a blog online. You can use one of the five free services listed above to start your first free blog. Then you begin your impressive journey as an online writer.

How blogs help a freelance writer:

You get the writing practice if you blog regularly.

You can display your sample writing to the potential clients.

You can attract new clients from your blog.

You can share your portfolio using a special page on the blog.

You can even highlight your testimonials in your blog.

Why Not Start From Paid Blogging?

When you are just starting out you might have limited funds, so save them. There are paid ways to get your own WordPress blog but free options aren't that bad. With paid WordPress or other content management systems, you get a lot of customizing options. But those tailored options aren't required from the start. You can always migrate to paid hosting services with your own domain name when you grow and want to expand.

Branding Your Blog from the Start