Free Website Headers: How to Customize for Your Website

As the owner of a new website, or an existing one in need of revamping, there are certain aspects to consider. Maybe you want your viewers to see how professional your business is. Or maybe your site caters to families and that is the ‘feel’ you want viewers to experience when they find your page.

The days of hiring someone to do your web or graphic design work are long gone. Remember those days? It was once a natural practice to hire someone, which meant spending money, to get precisely what it was you were looking for. Even then, there were still no guarantees. There are now many different programs available, permitting you to totally revamp your current website, or even helps you create a great first site. Of all the choices, we have found Photoshop to be the easiest to work with.

With Photoshop, you can easily find yourself with a finished product in the style you really want in no time. By doing the work by yourself from your own office, on your own computer you are already saving money and we haven’t even started yet! By choosing to use this method of header creation, with the look and feel you want, you’ll only have to add it to your site codes. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Start by opening your Photoshop software and create a new image. You can now set the size of your image, which will be the size of your header, either by entering 1025 x 150 pixels (or the size of your webpage) or by using the image-size tools which are available to you in order to set the proper dimensions you want to be working with.

Selecting the image outline or header, select the tool resembling a rounded rectangle. Drag this pointer to the corner of the image found at the top left side. Now left click to draw a rectangle crossing from the left to right side of your image. This will show you the outline of your header section.

Continue by selecting “Layer” from the navigation tool bar, which you can find at the top of the window you are working in. Your next option is to choose the “Layer Style”, followed by “Add Drop Shadow” from the various options. You will now see a new pop-up window with the option “Drop Shadow, Inner Glow and Outer Glow.” Be sure to check the box in front of this option.

The next option you want to choose is the “bevel” option. This option will result in the rectangle now having a professional style with depth, which is added by the shadow you have chosen. Click on the “Layer” icon to add a new layer to your header.

We’re going to open the text tool now, dragging it to the top left corner of your image. Type here either the name of your website or company name. Have fun playing around with different font types, sizes and colors until you find what really suits your ideas. There are also other text option tools on the navigation bar at the top of the present window.

Now we are going to add a bit more style to your header. Start by selecting the rectangle tool, left-clicking in the top right-hand corner. By dragging the pointer along the top of the header, you will be creating a smaller navigation bar at the top of the image.

You can now click the “Direct Selection” tool, and by left-clicking on it you can select the rectangle. You will now see small squares appear in each corner. By clicking the lower left corner and dragging it toward the right, you will create an angled edge for this new navigation bar.

In order to add color and/or effects to the upper navigation bar, you would need to choose the “Fill” tool and pick your options from there. It is also possible for you to cut and crop any image to an exact size you may require with the “Crop” tool.

You want to ensure you don’t lose this work, so click “File” then “Save for Web and Devices” and save this image. You might want to create a folder for all your business website information to keep everything together. Once you have save your new header, you need to upload it to the “Images” file of your website codes.

To add the new header to your web pages, you will be using it as a background image. It will be located in the first row of the first table of your website, right under where you see the head tag.

Now that all is said and done, you will be able to see just how easy it is not only to create your own website headers, but how they can be done for free. Depending on the goal of your website, you may decide to change headers for each season. Or maybe get creative with the headers for other pages of your website. There’s no reason why not. Besides, it’s free!

Market Your Business with Software Giveaways

One great way to build your business is to give away free software. Hundreds of businesses have been built successfully on this foundation alone. There are many ways you can use free software giveaways to build your business.

Possible ways to give away software and make money online include distributing it at free software download sites. You can also give away free website and blog templates, such as Wordpress or MySpace themes. These are some of the free or low cost ways to accomplish this, but use your imagination as there are many more.

Give Away Free Software

If you do some searching around, you can find many websites where you can download software applications for free. Once you have them, you can turn around and offer them as incentives to customers who may want to purchase other things like eBooks or courses. And it costs you nothing but a little time to do this.

One place you can download software for free is at Download.com where there are literally thousands of free software programs that people keep coming back to download again and again, with little to no marketing done by the website or companies themselves. When the time comes to upgrade the software however, after the free time period is over is when the companies make their money.

You can also create free software and market it by giving it away to other people’s email lists or in relevant forums. For example, if you have a free market research tool, you can give it away at marketing forums or have your marketing friends send out an email blast that’ll promote your new free tool. If the tool is good, they’re doing their customers a favor.

Lastly, be sure to keep your software free by requiring an email and sign in for those who sign up for this perk. That way you can maintain a database of emails to send out marketing emails from time to time.

Give Away Free Design Templates

Want to increase your website traffic? Giving away freebies like software and Wordpress designs can help you with generating traffic by use of backlinks. Create these templates yourself or hire someone out to design them. Make them in a particular niche and include a backlink at the bottom for people to click on to take them to your website.

For example, you might want to create a set of Wordpress themes about fishing and then include a backlink so that people can click on it and go to your website. On your website be sure to list articles and other items related to the fishing products or advice that you offer.

A Very Cost Efficient Way to Market Your Business

Getting lots of website traffic to your site can be a challenge at times; however when you give out free software and include backlinks to your site, people can’t help but click on them to learn more about you. This creates a large amount of free website traffic for little effort and no cost to you.

Simply put, giving away software is a great way to get huge exposure at a very low cost, especially if you write the software yourself. Even if you don’t write it yourself, it’s surprisingly cheap to outsource simple software projects for free on the Internet.

After a while, you will be experiencing some serious hits on your website as a result of the free software, Wordpress themes and website designs. Your one time effort and time will give you multiple results. People will keep coming back to learn more about the products you offer and buy more. This will improve your chances of being noticed on the Internet and give you maximum marketing results.