High Wired: Utilize your high-speed web connection

Tip of the Week: Use the Web To Better Yourself

It’s quite easy to get stuck in the routine of visiting the same six or seven (or 40) websites every day. But the web offers so much more; it’s such a shame to have an internet connection and not make good use of it!

Whatever your goals in life — whether personal, financial, physical or work-related — the web can help you along your path. Every day, intelligent people dish out expertise for free, so make sure to take advantage of others’ generosity, loquacity and wisdom!

Here are a few examples of blogs offering regularly-updated, interesting, helpful information:

If you’re looking to strengthen your financial savvy, consider keeping up on the www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com blog.

If you’re finally planning to organize and de-clutter your work or home environment, try following the blog at www.unclutterer.com.

Looking for tips on how to keep stress at bay every day? Try thewww.zenhabits.com blog.

Wish you could improve the quality of your company’s marketing? Seth Godin’s blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com) is heavily-bookmarked by people just like yourself.

If you’re planning on remodeling but feel indecisive as to the direction you’d like to pursue, make sure to check the http://www.desiretoinspire.com on a regular basis; at some point you’re bound to come across photos that strike your fancy.

And so on. The opportunities are endless. Go make the most of them.

Cool Sites of the Week:

1) Leafletter (http://www.leafletter.com): According to the developers of Leafletter, their website is “the revolutionary way” for people to create portable, interactive mini-sites using nothing other than a good ol’ web browser. (That would mean Internet Explorer or Firefox or AOL for those of you who aren’t quite sure as to what a web browser is.)

2) FuelEconomy.gov (www.fueleconomy.gov): Find information on gas prices, gas mileage tips and air pollution ratings. Read about the new fuel economy ratings, alternative fuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and energy efficiency. Learn why fuel economy is important and how to find your car’s energy impact score. Compare vehicles side-by-side and conduct searches by car class when you’re looking to purchase a new car. Go!

3) Caring Consumer (http://www.caringconsumer.com): This site acts as a helpful guide for consumers interested in purchasing cruelty-free products in order to keep thousands of animals from being poisoned, blinded, tortured and killed each year. Caring consumer explains how to support cruelty-free companies and charities, provides information on choosing cruelty-free investments, and offers articles and resources focused on cruelty-free consumer products.

Useful Online Tool of the Week: LuckyOliver

LuckyOliver is awesome. The one sentence summary? Sure thing: LuckyOliver is a fantastic resource for high-quality stock photography at very low prices (we’re talking about the $1 to $10 range, which is about as low as it goes).

The design of the site is fun, the site itself is easy and intuitive to use, and the photography offered is as good as — if not better than — many of its competitors.

Whether you’re a student working on school project, a small business owner wanting to rework your company’s brochure, or a hobbyist looking to spruce up your online blog, LuckyOliver is a low-cost, convenient way to purchase photos on almost any topic you can think up. Well, almost any.

See you next Friday, everyone. Have a great weekend.

Based in Frisco, eRin pheiL is the primary creative force behind timeforcake (www.timeforcake.com). She can be reached via phone at (970) 668-0709 or e-mail at info@timeforcake.com.