This is a picture of a one room school house in east central Illinois. My grandfather and his siblings attended there before World War II. I sell this image on my own stock photography/photo research site and I feature it here because I have a lot to learn.

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Over two months ago I created a new photography website where I license stock photography images. Photo buyers use these photos in websites, newspapers, textbooks and other such uses that are editorial in nature. Many of the photos are mine, others are in the public domain. I don’t sell the public domain. Any fees collected for those are research fees. On top of that, all monies earned from this site are donated to hospitals, holistic ministries and charity.

So after two months and many hits each day, I wondered why people were not clicking on the strategically placed “License this Image” link. I had it located directly over each image on the website. There was even a “Buy a Photo” link on the sidebar. After not selling any images, I decided to place some adsense code on the sidebar. If no one would purchase images from me, maybe they’d click on an ad for another stock photography site.

It was at this time when I showed my son the website. I said,”if people will only click on this link, I’ll sell some images.” That’s when I saw it, a “Not Found,” page. I then checked the sidebar and that “Buy a Photo” link went to the same place. Oh my! I fixed the problem right away. It was no big deal code wise. It was just a couple misplaced words. But those misplaced words may have cost me a few hundred dollars over the past two months. Check all your links before allowing a website to go live. For all wordpress users, I’d recommend you install Broken Link Checker 1.2.5 by Janis Elsts. So far, it’s been downloaded over 700,000 times and is compatible with the latest WP release.

Well, I gotta go now. I think I’ll be uploading the Broken Link Checker on all of my websites. By the way, what’s your favorite link checker plugin? And let me know about your biggest problem encountered from neglecting to proofread your website. I hope I’m not alone in this area.