I’ve been tweaking the look and feel at Roamsters again and this time I really wanted to change the header graphic out.

This is the old header graphic — something I just cobbled together one day. A little boring, don’t you think?

Yesterday, I went over to 99Designs and almost submitted a budget logo project for $195, which gets you about 40 design submissions.

Then I remembered how most folks absolutely hated the new logo that I had done for NetProfitsToday — at great expense, I might add.

As my design skills extend only to adding a linear gradient (making the color go from light to dark) and I can usually mess that up too — I can’t ‘just cobble together’ a really nice one with fancy design elements.

But this morning, after looking at a few cheesy freebie offerings, I finally got the bright idea to search for “headers” and “logos” at BigStockPhoto and was blown away by all the gorgeous headers that came up.

Well, here’s the one I chose, which I think is much more fun and vibrant than the old one.

It cost one whole dollar — saving me $194, a week of waiting for those submissions to come in and the possibility that I wouldn’t like any of the designs.

Because the design elements stretched right across the header, I did have to do a little tweaking to add some ‘blank space’ on the left side to put in the Roamsters logo and tag line. If you’re concerned about having to do any tweaking, there are plenty of headers that already incorporate ‘white’ or blank space for logos.

So, what do you think?

Like it? Hate it? Should I change the Roamsters name to orange?

I hope you like it. Then again, I’m not overly concerned if the consensus runs generally negative — because a new header graphic will only cost a buck!

BigStockPhoto is my new favorite images supplier and most of those that you see in the Featured Content Gallery on the homepage here at NetProfitsToday are from BigStockPhoto. I also use them on 101Date.com and MyEnergyPal.

BigStockPhoto is a royalty free stock photography site that serves up BEAUTIFUL images on the cheap.

You can pick up images for as low as $1 a piece if you purchase 300 credits – $1.40 a piece for 100 credits. 10 credits will cost you $20. Or, you can buy just one credit (photo) for $2.50.

Image downloads cost from 1-6 credits depending on the size of image you want. A typical 900 x 600 pixel images (perfect for the web) costs only 1 credit.

The only stipulation is that BigStockPhoto requests that you abide by a “fair use” policy – eg. that you purchase a new copy of the image if you plan to use it on a different project (site). Fair enough, at a buck, most of us should be able to afford to do that.

Searching and finding images is easy. You may search by keyword, category, subject, DPI, quality, orientation and photographer as well as by:

• Newest Photos Uploaded
• Featured Collections
• Most Popular

Each photo returned shows how many times it has been downloaded.

Photo Collections include seasonal, educational, people, objects, corporate, business, nature, food, animals and more themes.

What I particularly like about the search function is that you can choose to hide graphics (if you want photos only) and select your prefered orientation (horizontal or vertical) which is very handy for the Featured Content Gallery which has a horizontal orientation on this website.

Also handy if you’re setting up a new website are BigStockPhoto’s button collections.

Overall, I’ve found the image quality to be VERY good – not exceptional – but very good, especially for website use.

But best of all, BigStockPhoto is less expensive than other stock photography suppliers.

I found the Doglirious site through a link in our Forum and my first reaction was “WOW!”

SO impressed was I, that I emailed Justin (the webmaster) to find out if I could profile his site in the Super Affiliate Handbook as an example of how an affiliate site SHOULD be fleshed out.

When Justin replied with a little background about the site, I was even MORE impressed. Here’s what he had to say:

Michelle (my girlfriend) and I adopted a dog from the Atlanta Humane Society about a year ago and ever since then, had been disappointed with the dog websites that existed. We were interested in reading product reviews from a website other than Amazon.com. Also, we were looking for reliable tips & advice that was fun to read (and sounded like it came from real dog owners). Finally, we wanted a central place to find online dog-product discounts from across the Web – but we just couldn’t find a website that offered these elements in a user-friendly manner.

So, about two months ago, we began brainstorming about how to create a dog lover’s website. One month ago, I bought your eBook, and with a lot of hard work, this project quickly blossomed due to our enthusiasm for the subject.

BRAVO!

Justin and Michelle started with exactly the right motivation and enthusiasm for building a business website. They saw the demand and went with the topic based on the fact that they’re both completely ‘doglirious’.

LOVE that name – Doglirious.

The WordPress Theme

The theme Justin is using for the site is Brian Gardner’s (Studio Press) Lifetyle theme. I asked him if they had an Elancer produce the graphics for the template or whether they designed them.

Other than Brian’s theme and the WordPress plug-ins, we developed the entire site ourselves – the layout, content, and technical design. Michelle and I had a concept for how we wanted the website to look & feel. I then saw the Revolution Lifestyle theme and thought, “Yep, this is it!“

I thought pretty much the same thing when Brian released his new WordPress theme package — especially about the Lifestyle, Church and Chrome themes — so I bought the StudioPress multi-theme package right away and have it up on a few sites already including 101Date.com (Lifestyle theme) and MyEnergyPal.com (Church Theme), the latter of which is a combined venture with my friend, Ed who wanted to generate leads for his local energy assessment business.

The affiliate in me said “let’s make money!” so I started that site on Sunday afternoon and pretty much had it the way it looks now by Monday afternoon — a total of about 12 hours which included time to collect and create some content as well as research and place a few offers. Now it’s just waiting for that all-important content from Ed.

Granted, I have a ‘little bit’ of experience with WordPress and WordPress themes but I wondered how much experience Justin had when he started working with the Lifestyle theme. Here’s what Justin had to say about his own level of expertise prior to starting Doglirious…

I have been tinkering with Web design for years and also obtained a Masters degree in usability & information architecture. So with those skills and the very helpful people at the Revolution community forum I quickly grasped WordPress (which I’ve never used before). The Revolution forum admins – just like yours on NetProfitsToday – are prompt and extremely helpful with their feedback and advice.

Oh…if you are interested, I’ve attached our early drafts of the website layout to this email for your reference (see screenshot to the right). A $5 box of Crayola colored pencils was our very first business expense.

In addition to aesthetic appeal, Justin’s educational background is likely what caused him to jump at the chance to work with this beautiful theme. The section layouts lead visitors down a natural path from Featured articles / posts near the top of the page to various sections of featured categories, and lastly to the sidebar navigation.

What sets the latest StudioPress themes apart however is the Featured Content Gallery plugin which allows you to attach those large pictures at the top of the page to specific articles, and add thumbnail pictures to the category sections — all of which increases the likelihood that a visitor will click a link and go deeper into the site.

For example, according to the Google Analytics report for MyEnergyPal (which hasn’t even officially launched ’cause I still have tweaking to do), of the 40 unique visitors we’ve had so far, the landing page has a 0.00% bounce rate. Bounce rate is the average percentage of initial visitors who “bounce” to a different site, rather than continue on to other pages within the same site.

Pretty phenomenal!

But better yet, the average Pages/Visit is 16.50 and average time on the site is almost 24 minutes. Granted, that could have something to do with the fact that I count as one visitor and I had the site open in a browser for many, many, MANY hours.

Needless to say, when a theme makes a site that ‘sticky’, I plan to covert each of my sites to one of the StudioPress themes as soon as possible.

Interested in a LifeStyle Change?

Join us at Rosalind Gardner’s Academy which features the use of StudioPress themes.

A hearty welcome to guest blogger Elizabeth Orr of Savor-the-Rhubarb.com who tells us how she not only gets free pics to use on her website from professional photographers, but also how she gets extra traffic in the deal.

Despite being a webmaster, I am not technical – at least not in the ways of website building – and one thing I am definitely not, is a photographer.

Fortunately I get tons of help. Everyday I learn something new and either try to apply it immediately or file the information for another time. I also rely heavily on those great photographers who supply their photos freely for public use.

It is very easy and convenient to visit photo sites such as Flickr.com and simply download a photo for free, copy and paste a link, and add it to your material along with proper attribution.

FreeFoto’s conditions of free use are as follows:

ANYONE, by which we mean commercial and non-commercial alike, can use FreeFoto.com images in an online setting, providing they provide attribution to the image and a link back to FreeFoto.com (either the image or the main site). This license allows blogs, social networking sites and use in emails, just to name a few, providing they provide the required attribution, this includes sites that pay people to write, carry advertising or are selling and promoting products. The only requirement the attribution and link back.

Despite those very clear licensing requirements, I almost always contact the photographer via email and say that I would like to use their photo. I tell them what my site is about but do not give them a web address. I assume if they want to know, they will eventually ask. On the other hand, providing the address can save them time, and they can peruse the site and decide if they would like the association.

It is very rare that I don’t get a response.

Of every ten emails I send to the photographers, I typically get two responses that say “sure, go ahead, just credit me properly” and some don’t even care about the credit. I still respond with a thank you and tell them that their generosity is very much appreciated.

Do you know what the other 8 responses typically are?

“Oh wow – how refreshing to be asked or informed.”

I also hear “I am so flattered you like my picture. Certainly you may use it, and please email me your link. I want to see it.”

These photographers want to see their work displayed and if I was a photographer, I would want that also. There is another advantage to making contact with the photographers. They show a friend or family members where their work is and some of those people enjoy my site content enough to become regular readers and subscribers.

It is clearly a win-win situation.

Oh, and if you should make a terrible error like I did once, and ask for a photo that was clearly not available — apologize.

In that case, I was not paying attention. I didn’t know the rules well enough, and got a very abrupt “absolutely not” as a response. However, after I said I was sorry, my apology was not only accepted but the photographer later offered me other pictures to post on my site. This is something else to remember too. Many photographers make their living with their talents. You have to respect their wishes.

By the same token, don’t be afraid to request information on where to find a specific photo based on their knowledge. Instead of chasing another prospect, you may be pleasantly surprised and offered a picture from their own collection that initially was not available to the public.

I have tremendous respect and appreciation for the generosity of these talented photographers who so graciously share their work on stock photo sites. As the old saying goes, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ , so they save me a LOT of writing. The very least we can do is thank them for their contribution to helping to beautify the web.

Shortly after posting a call for guest bloggers, I received an article proposal from someone I’ll call Betty. I thought Betty’s proposal for a topic was great, so I checked out her site.

“Hmmm…” thinks I when I saw the site. “This has a very familiar look and feel”.

“Hmmm…” I thought again as I saw Betty’s list of blog categories in the first navigation bar along the right side of the page. OK, so it’s not unusual for category names to be similar across same-topic sites. For instance, almost every Internet dating blog is going to have relatively generic categories named Dating Tips and Internet Dating.

However, one not-so-generic category name that Betty’s blog shared with mine struck me as way beyond coincidental.

Sure enough, when I searched the wording on Google, my site showed up second in the natural listings (after a site that included the phrase within the body text of an article) and Betty’s showed up in 9th place for the same term.

“Hmmm… I best investigate a little more” I concluded and wouldn’t you know it… smack dab in the middle of her newsletter signup form there was a graphic that I created.

Sheesh.

I responded to Betty and explained that because NPT guest bloggers link out to their own sites, I couldn’t possibly link out to hers what with there being STOLEN CONTENT on her site. (OK, I didn’t say STOLEN CONTENT in my response to her… and although she didn’t respond to my email, she has changed her site considerably since then — so, message obviously received.)

Folks, copyright infringement is a serious matter and many webmasters and companies aren’t quite as forgiving when they find their work displayed without approval on other sites. You could easily get slapped with a fine or lawsuit and, if the aggrieved party is angry enough, they could easily run a campaign that damages your reputation to the extent that it’s not worth promoting your site anymore.

Using someone else’s work without their permission or purchasing the rights is just not worth the risk.

So, as far as graphic images go, I …

• Make my own graphics using Paint Shop Pro – available through Corel and which is considerably less expensive than PhotoShop.
• Use pictures taken with my Sony digital camera (lots of examples on Roamsters.com).
• Use images of products supplied by merchants (eBags example here on Roamsters).
• Buy photo CD’s from stock agencies like ComstockComplete.com.
• Buy credits.

My personal favorite of those mentioned above is BigStockPhoto, and you can read more about what I think of their service (GREAT photos at CHEAP prices).

In summary, there are so many good options available for getting graphic images on the cheap, that there is no need to ever risk your online business reputation – or your chances of becoming an NPT guest blogger.

Our Roamsters.com travel blog receives a little bit of traffic from the pictures that I upload to Flickr.

But I discovered another way that blogger photographers can get traffic when I received the following message about the picture shown here to the left.

Your photo(s) shown below have been short-listed for inclusion in the third edition of our Schmap Vancouver Guide, to be published mid-November 2007.

While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr.

If you would like your short-listed photo(s) to continue to our Vancouver Guide final selection phase, please read our ‘Terms of Submission’ and press the ‘Submit’ button, no later than our editorial submission deadline – Sunday, November 11.

I set the credit to go to Roamsters.com and accepted the invitation.

I’ve also granted another ‘permission to use photo’ request for a photo to be used in Trail Blazer Magazine which will also be credited to roamsters.com.

Who knows? All it takes is one visitor from the Vancouver Schmap Guide or Trail Blazer magazine to visit the site, make a big buck purchase and my 1-minute picture upload and responses to their requests will have been very worthwhile.

[tags]Schmap Vancouver Guide,Flickr[/tags]