Ever wondered how people get those cool real-time photo-linked timeliness on their sites? How about those crazy montage of jumble-up words or those fantastic looking graphs and charts? Must cost the publishers a bundle?

Nestor Arellano

Not really. , a Toronto-based journalist, media consultant and digital content expert, recently let on a bunch of editors and Web site producers to her favourite list of free Web design goodies. Pittaway was among the presenters at , a series or sessions and workshops recently held in Toronto.

Her message was: Great Web design and search engine optimization need not break the bank.

Here’s a sample of her favourite free to low-cost online apps for boosting readers online experience. I’ll put up a few more in the next few days:

 Create content in new ways

In many cases, text and static photos are no longer enough.

Pittaway suggests using other Web elements to add some oomph to your site.

For example, you can create a sleek timeline to hang you photos, text and video on with

 

can be incorporated to a site, associated with a photos video or copy to provide readers with additional visual aide that can enhance the reading experience or actually help in decision making.

The site uses Google Map to identify the location of restaurants that have had the worst recent inspection scores, The Toronto Star’s map of plots out the Canadian cities that fallen soldiers came from.

Add video, by embedding clips from video sharing sites or .

Pump some music into your site from sites that offer royalty free tunes such as , or get free sound effects and music loops from and .

Automatically make your own slideshows with music, photos and captions with the help .

2. Create a better looking site

Web design know how – Can’t afford a full-blown Web development team? No problem. Get access to technical and not-so-technical instructions, tutorials and articles on Web design and development from . The site is also chock full of freebies such as stylized social media icons, and design themes. Six Revisions is also an excellent place to connect with Web designers and developers.

, based in Berkeley, Calif and Washington, D. C. also offers low-cost Web design and interactive tool development, . They specialize in campaigns for not-for-profit organizations such as the World Wild Life Fund, the Sierra Club, Students for Free Tibet, the UN Refugee Agency and the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Free pictures – A picture may be worth a thousand words but these sites contain thousands of photos – most of which could be downloaded for free. Check out: , a free stock photo site that also recently began offering premium low-cost images; paid and free photos are also available on the photo sharing site ; and contains high-resolution stock photography images free for either corporate or private use.