Free Software for Indie Artists & Publishers
The Open Source Software movement has been around for a while now.
Basically, it’s software that’s source code has been made freely available to the public. Volunteer developers work together for the good of the whole, and overall, we all benefit from it by having free, reliable software to get our jobs done.
Indie Press Publishers and artists can also really benefit from the open-source movement, especially in terms of getting their work up on the web. How? Besides being free, most open-source software solves some specific problem in a big way. For me, it saves me time.
My sites SteamCrow.com, KlawBerry.com, CaughtCreatures.com, and MagicSkull.com all run off of various open-source web publishing. Why? Even though I’m a web designer for my day-job, these open source platforms allow me to do much more on the web than I could code myself, AND allow me to focus on the content. After building a site by hand, I rarely have the energy left to populate it with things that people would want to look at or read.
This list is in no way complete (in fact, it’s horribly incomplete); I’m just sharing software that works for me as an indie press artist.
Here are a few of my favorite free and open-source applications which might help you run your business cheaper/better/faster.
Basically, these are my secret weapons for getting a lot of work done, fast. Shhh…
Open Office - Office Tools
Okay, so I don’t use Open Office yet, but I plan on it. Call me a liar. I need it though, and maybe you do too.
Basically, it’s a suite of free office tools to compete with MicroSoft Office. Already got office? Then don’t worry about it. For me, I don’t really have the $329 for MicroSoft. Includes a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a presentational package. I do believe that OpenOffice can open up many of the standard Office formats, like .doc.
Use OpenOffice to do those “business duties” that you’re always putting off. (Like me.)
Google Products
Okay, so it really isn’t “open-source”, but these tools are free.
- I use Google Calendar to schedule all of my conventions, tax due dates, and all of the stuff I need to keep organized.
- Gmail is a great way to keep connected with everybody that I correspond with AND be able to keep/find previous conversations with the killer search. The integrated chat works pretty well, too.
- GoogleBase is yet another way to list my products AND offer yet another method for people to discover my work.
- GoogleAnalytics allows me to track the success of my websites.
- Google Checkout, a way to take money like PayPal.
- GoogleBooks allows me to make my books more “findable” and allows the public to peek inside.
Expect this list list from Google to grow.
WordPress - Blogging platform
A top-quality blogging platform, WordPress is a joy to work on. Sure, it can be used for your illustration blog, but you can also use it for a platform for managing your website. The “blog” feature becomes latest news, while the static pages become the other standard pages of your website.
It’s fantastic, and I use if for KlawBerry.com and CaughtCreatures.com and for other smaller web sites.
There are tons of freely available templates and plugins to extend WP even further for your specific needs. The WP forum is also a rich source for extending WordPress.
Joomla - A Content Management System
A Content Management System is basically a highly-powered administration system for your website. Sure, it’s a mouthful, but what’s the big deal about a CMS? You can move from being a site-developer into a content-creator. I now spend my time and energy developing information on my websites, instead of the sites themselves.
How it works: Log into a web-based admin interface, and then you can write/remove pages, add features, display images and the like. I love it mostly because I can add a web story anywhere that I have web access AND because I can probably find an add-on module that does what I need it to do.
See also: Drupal.org, Opencms.org, Plone.org, MoveableType
ZenCart - A shopping cart
Ever needed or wanted a bigger and better way to sell your stuff online?
Sometimes a single “products” page just isn’t enough. ZenCart is one of the best open-source shopping cart solutions out there. Not for the feign-of-heart it takes a good deal of work to get your products listed online, but you can avoid some of the monthly fees that you get when you use YahooShopping or other “subscription-based” selling methods. You do need to be really dedicated to getting it running, as it can be a whole lot of work to list your 300 unique items. (ZC works the best when you have 1000 widgets to sell, VS 1000 unique widgets.)
I use ZenCart for my MagicSkull store.
Gallery 2 - Photo Portfolio
Gallery is one of the best managers of large online photo galleries. Through the admin you can upload, categorize and caption your images. Perfect for photographers, it’s also a good way for prolific illustrators to show off their work. That said, if you’re only going to have a few photos on your site, Gallery is definitely overkill. It’s made for categories and subcategories of many, many photos.
See also: Coppermine, Flickr
PHPbb - Web Forum
If you need to add a forum to your website, PHPbb might be a good choice. It’s got a lot of add-ons, it’s widely used, and it’s far more stable than phpnuke or such. I’d advise you to really think about whether or not you need a forum, but if you do need one, PHPbb is good.
See also: Vanilla
GIMP - Image Manipulation
GIMP is a free alternative to Photoshop. While I’ve not used this one myself, I have heard that it gets the job done. There are plugins to make it work and look more like Photoshop too. If you’re already a Photoshop junkie, I don’t really see a reason to get GIMP. However, if you’re not likely to ever purchase Photoshop or Elements, GIMP might be the tool for you to get your image-manip on!
How to get started?
That’s a big question, based largely on the software that you select. You’ll have to examine the software requirements, which is sort of a pain. While some of this (Open Office) may work on your existing computer, you may not know what web hosts offer what.
I actually have one solution for you: you can use the web hosting company that I use, DreamHost. Most of these web-based applications are 1-click installs, which is frikkin’ glorious. In very little time, you can have your basic Joomla install ready to rock.
I hope that some of these suggestions save you time, money, or sanity. (Pick any 2)
- Daniel
www.steamcrow.com
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