Disclosure: Webby’s World is getting paid to write this review. We will try not to let this alter our opinion. I have to apologise for writing two paid reviews so close together, but I’d write about this site regardless!

Urban Fonts is a website which hosts 8000 Free Fonts and dingbats, all of high quality. I have indeed written about the service before, on 9rules’ notes, and I have installed a number of their fonts on my computer.

The site has a very Web 2.0 design and uses lots of light colours. This makes the site aesthetically pleasing which is good considering you would expect designers to use the site!

UrbanFonts has three types of fonts: free fonts, free dingbats and commercial fonts (provided by fonts.com).

The free fonts are of extremely high quality and spread amongst many categories, such as 3D, pixel/bitmap and retro. A category I’m not keen on is USA; I think it’s bad how they have a category devoted to a country but no category for fonts for other countries like the UK.

A useful feature is that you can preview a free font by typing in text of your choice, in the colour of your choice. The previews of the fonts are then dynamically updated.

The fonts themselves are available for both Windows and Mac (but not Linux, by the look of it).

Urban Fonts seems not to reward free font authors very much. They submit their fonts through a tiny link in the footer of the site, and all they get is their name on a massive list! But still, I expect many do it in order to assist fellow designers who’d do the same for them if they had the opportunity. The site also has a forum.

Tags: web 2.0, web2.0, web 2, web 2.0, free fonts, fonts, typography

ParkatmyHouse is a British service which allows you to rent parking at someone’s house or business (for example, in their garage or on their drive). You could use this to store your car or as parking for you to use while you are at work. The site is free to list a parking space on, but it costs £5 a month to correspond with those wishing to rent it (but you only need to pay this if you know someone’s interested and you wish to pursue it).

The site seems to be quite reliant on Google Maps. To find a parking space, you enter your postcode/town, which the site goes to on Google Maps. It then displays spaces in that view. There are not many spaces so far, I found none in my county whatsoever.

Parking can be fairly cheap, at about £40 a month or so, but can become expensive (£500 a week in the City of London!). Of course, these spaces may not actually exist so the site has a feedback system, like eBay’s, in place. Still £40 a month is much cheaper than pay and display!

The site has received quite a lot of media coverage, such as this in The Guardian, and I’m sure it will do nothing but grow.

Tags: lifehacks, parking, parkatmyhouse, web2.0, web 2, web2, web 2.0, google maps, gmaps, mashups

Disclosure: Webby’s World is getting paid to write this review. We will try not to let this alter our opinion. Also, on a sidenote I got back from Tenerife and will be uploading photos soon.

SitePoint Design Contests is a service which allows webmasters to hold contests where designers submit potential designs for a website with the possibility of winning a cash prize.

The site in many ways serves as a marketplace for you to get a unique design for your blog or website (which you can re-distribute, if you wish, as SitePoint’s terms of service state when you pay the winner of the contest, all rights are transferred to you) or a professional letterhead or logo.

The designs you get through SitePoint are not always perfect and often need a few finishing touches but this is worth it for the high quality designs you receive. The fact it is a contest means there’s only one winner, which would naturally make the entrants produce higher quality designs in order to win (for the right price).

SitePoint charge a minimum of $20 per contest (you must pay for them to feature your contest or place it in more than one sub-category), and there are minimum prizes you can award. These minimum prizes are $100 for a logo, button/icon/banner or other design task like book covers; $150 for stationery like letterheads, uncoded templates (an image only) or a simple Flash animation and $200 for a coded template in HTML & CSS. They suggest, however, that you pay more.

While this may seem a little expensive, a unique WordPress theme at Template Monster is likely to set you back in excess of $700 while most people seem to be happy doing one at SitePoint for just $400.

I considered using SitePoint, but I decided just to settle for a free WordPress theme. This site is fantastic for businesses (large or small) which require a unique design (whether it be for their blog, letters or even something like a logo!).

Tags: sitepoint, web2.0, web2, web 2, web 2.0, web design, design, webdesign

I’m going to Tenerife for a holiday until the 24th. I might make a few posts while I’m there, I might not.

ReviewMe (see review) is a website which allows bloggers to sell reviews on their website with advertisers buying them. Unlike their competitors, ReviewMe require disclosure and ask for reviews to be honest. A feature it shares with its owner, Text Link Ads, is that the blogger (nor advertiser) set the pricing but instead a machine does.

When I joined, a review on my site cost $100, but this has gone up to $250. While I would normally think this is a great thing, I’m sure it’s out of the price range of many advertisers. Hence, my income from this site is likely to decrease.

I think ReviewMe should allow deals to be made on prices between the blogger and advertiser so they both find an acceptable price. This is a much better system than allowing one party to set a price as it gives more of a balance.

Also, as a side note ReviewMe are having a promotion this month. It allows advertisers to pay half-price for their reviews while the blogger receives thier normal 50% of the list price (in effect, ReviewMe are sacrificing their comission). To take advantage of this promotion use the code trial at ReviewMe. Think about it! A review here for only $125!

Tags: reviewme, advertising, web 2.0, web2, web 2, web2.0, deals, promotions, payperpost