NOT a Guru!
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Today, you’re going to start gathering images and a logo for your site.
If you are a mom and pop business who is setting up a storefront, you will want photos of your merchandise. Presumably, you have these already from your vendors or from photos that you have taken.
For other types of sites, you will be getting a lot of great images from your affiliate programs. But before we get there, you might want some stock images that you will be adding to your content.
High Quality, Royalty-Free Images and Audio.
One of my favorite places for excellent graphics and photos is IStockPhoto, which has over 4 million quality, royalty-free images. In fact, the images that were used on our first “sample site,” Antiquing with the Deco Diva, came from IStockPhoto. IStockPhoto will be adding audio clips for use in your videos very soon.
Free Graphics and Clip Art.
Microsoft Office Online offers over 150,000 free images and audio clips that you might want to check out if you are on a budget. You will also find thousands and thousands of free graphcis in the giveaway packages frequently announced here at the NotGuru blog. You can find out about current giveaways by clicking the word “giveaway” in the tag box that is in the right hand column of this page. Of course, you can always search for free graphics in the search engines … but many of these might be poor quality.
Free Graphic Editing Software.
If you need a graphics editor, you can get a free download of a superb program called Irfanview which should handle all of your graphics needs. Don’t let the $0.00 price deceive you — this is a powerful piece of software that rivals, and is in some cases better than, the paid graphics software packages.
There are some size constraints that you should consider when inserting images into your web page. You can read more about that here.
Creating Your Logo or Header Graphics.
Some html sofware programs and online content management systems come with templates so that you will not need to create a header; i.e., the image that appears on the top of every page with your company or site name. However, if you want to create a unique identity online, you might want to customize your header. Custom headers can be used “from scratch” in your html design program or they can be used to replace the headers that might exist in a template that you are using.
Instant Banner Generator is a free-to-join program that will enable you to create stunning headers and banner advertisements.
Another outstanding header graphics program that will create beautiful headers (and has more templates to work with than Instant Banner Generator) is XHeader, which comes from the creator of XSitePro. What is amazing about XHeader is that it is totally free.
Now that you’re armed with graphics resources, put together your portfolio of images that you want to use and create your header/logo.
ps:
If you’re a mom and pop business owner who has been scanning images, you’re going to save a lot of time and money by getting a digital camera. I am one of the worst photographers in the world — and can assure you that the GE Digital Camera series (yeah, that’s General Electric) are the easiest cameras I have ever worked with, and they take pretty good pictures and movies for people like me, who have very few photography skills. You can get them quite cheap at TigerDirect.com.
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I have to do a exam assignment and for this i have to make a webpage, so your info is really helping me out. Thanks
Good, I’m glad this helps. Keywords are going to be the most critical part.
Thanks!! for sharing these valuable suggestions and making me to learn new things.
Thanks buddy! you have done a really great job. Your blog provides continuously great information. I appreciate you work.
Yeah, I completely agree that keyword is the most important in being able to generate traffic to a web site.