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By: Amos Struck
Valuable features & sleek functionality will always be at the core of any good Website, but there is a lot more to it if you want a Site that stands out in the packed World Wide Web & pleases your visitors. In Web design, aesthetic is not to be overlooked, as it’s proven the visual appeal of your design plays a big part in making or breaking your site’s success. Royalty free stock photography is your biggest ally to ace the eye-candy factor on the low-cost end of Web design.
Instant download of high-res images with strong commercial value, at affordable prices & with flexible usage rights, make this the ultimate resource for adding compelling imagery to your Website — & even for supporting visual designs– with very little expense.
If you think it sounds too good to be true, keep reading & be surprised as we tell you all about the importance of using photography in Websites & the perks of royalty free stock photos for the task.
The Impact of Visual Factor In Website Success
geralt / Pixabay
That we are a very visually-driven species is not news. Even our writing started out as visual representations. Without going that far back in time, just think of how old the expression “a picture is worth a thousand words” is. We’ve known how much we value images for quite a while, but the successive phenomena of digital imagery, informatics technologies & massive social media platforms brought photography into everyone’s pocket & palm at any and all given times. Today we live through, & for images.
The visual component has been increasingly relevant in Website design as those phenomena unveiled & transformed the way people use & interact with both photography & the Internet.
All latest researches point out visuals are extremely important for ‘Internauts’: visitors will stay in and explore Websites they find easy on their eyes, & vice versa they are likely to bounce back from a Site within seconds if they find the aesthetics poor or the photos dated.
The conclusion is as obvious as simple: if you want users to give your Site a chance & stay long enough to discover your product, service or functionality, you need to wow them with your graphic design.
The Key Role of Photography In User Engagement
So how do you blow your visitors’ minds as soon as they lay eyes on your homepage? One word: photography.
Illustrations, textures & abstract graphics are great and you can definitely integrate them into your design — & there’ll be times where it’ll make a lot of sense to do so — but experts agree that people tend to have a lot stronger, deeper emotional response to photographs. So it would be the wisest move to use them in your Site. Then there is, of course, the matter of what kind of photography to use.
Authentic Photography for Websites In the Now
The first rules for choosing the right photos for your Site are mostly based in common sense: choose a genre & theme that connects with your objective, & aim for images that convey the messages & concepts you want to put out there. Go for the highest resolution you can, & work with professionally shot photos that show true artistic, as much as commercial value.
But here’s the bit that will help you stand out: you must be up to date with current visual trends, all the more if you are catering to audiences made up of individuals who were born & raised in the tech-driven times.
For photography, this is expressed in the term ‘authenticity’. These days, people react better to photos they can relate & identify with, photos that show real people in real life situations, in a natural-like and non-posed fashion. This is a direct influence of smartphone photography & picture-first social media networks like Instagram, that have flooded everybody’s feeds & lives with casual — or pretended casual — instant shots of everyone’s lives.
Using authentically styled imagery is one very easy way to get people to stop & appreciate, and why not love your Site.
And this is not limited to Web pages only. The same principles apply to all supportive & additional visuals you need to create: digital ads, street banners, flyers, social media posts… you name it. While you’re at it, you might want to check out Your Organizing Business’ cool list of visual marketing resources to make your work easier.
Royalty Free Stock Photography: Cost-Effective Solution for Websites
If you’ve jumped on to look at the average photographer rates & started to panic… don’t. You can still have awesome photos on your Site even if you can’t afford the cost of hiring a professional to shoot them for you. Royalty free stock photos will save the day!
Here’s how:
Beautiful Imagery For Modern Styled Websites
We know even today stock photography has a bit of a bad rap in the creative world because many still associate it with the cheesy, cringe-worthy photos of women smiling as they eat their salads, picture-perfect families hysterically laughing over a picnic & suited-up men awkwardly shaking hands.
That overly produced, Stepford-like aesthetic of the “classic stock photo” is long gone! Sure you can still find that sort of dated photos in stock imagery collections if you dig for them, but stock photography today is all about relatable, intimate, artsy & realistic photos with a strong commercial value.
Even more, royalty-free photos are of very high resolution & more likely than not produced by professional photographers just like the ones you would hire for a much higher cost.
Instant Access to Budget-friendly Photos
Not only you can find the perfect trendy photos for your Site in a stock photo library, but also you will be able to save as much money as time with them.
Online stock photo agencies offer huge catalogues of up to millions of images, all ready to download & use with a few simple clicks of your mouse. You can go from thinking about what kind of photo to use to integrating that exact photo into your design within minutes, versus commissioning a photographer, running the photo shoot & waiting weeks for the final files.
Stock photo Sites sell the images under a Royalty Free license, by far one of the most convenient licensing options around. It gives you the right to use photos for commercial purpose, in as many designs & placements as you want, for as long as you want & in as many regions as you want, for a one-time fee.
Such fee tends to be very affordable & accessible for most budgets – certainly way cheaper than commissioning custom photographs. The cost will vary from agency to agency, & also according to the buying system you use, but the general rule of thumbs is this is a volume-based deal: the more photos you buy, the cheaper they’ll be.
Stock Photo Subscription & On Demand Buying
Stock photo agencies commonly work with two buying options, both setting a minimum purchase requirement & applying discounts over overall volume.
The best possible prices come with stock photo subscriptions, plans that give you a fixed number of photo downloads per month or per year, for a fixed monthly or yearly rate. Such plans range from around 10 to up to 750 downloads monthly & cost between $20 & $250 a month. Prices per image fall within $2 and as little as $0.50 or less each. A real bargain.
To buy on demand and paying as you go, there are credits or image packs, systems with which you pay upfront for a certain number of downloads, & you use them whenever during a year or even without expiration limit. Few agencies let you buy by the unit. In general photos on demand range between $5 & $30 each, still affordable compared to photographer rates.
Buy Royalty Free Images Cheap With The Best Benefits
If you’re already in to try royalty free stock photos on your Website, you must be wondering where to get them. And you’ll be pleased to know there are a plethora of stock photo Sites to choose from, many of them very serious, reliable & popular.
One of such trustworthy Sites is Stock Photo Secrets Shop, a stock photo agency specifically tailored for small & medium-sized businesses that offer over 5 million royalty-free stock images, perfect for complementing Websites, with some great plans that let you make the best out of your money.
Their 99club plan is their best example, as it gives you 200 photos to download within one year for just $99, averaging just $0.49 per image! They also have plans with a monthly download limit as well as image packs you can buy on demand. So whatever your budget & needs are, you’re sure to find a suitable option here!
Attractive yet Low-Cost Sites Are Possible with Royalty Free Stock Photography
The combined pros packed in the royalty-free stock photos offer — professional imagery, optimal quality, flexible licensing & low pricing– are that good that is one of the ultimate, evergreen designer’s resources, as versatile as efficient.
What could be handier than popping up a Website, selecting photos to download & then add them to your Website design? What’s more cost-beneficial than being able to use those same photos in additional graphic material for your business?
Beautiful looking Sites are no longer the realm of those big-budget companies or the well-connected artist. By just purchasing a stock photo subscription, you’ll have more than enough photos to boost up the visual appeal of hundreds of sites right at your fingertips!
All that, without having deep pockets or breaking your bank, & equally important, respecting & collaborating with photographers and artists, paying them to legally use their work.
If you’re about to build a Site or hire a designer to do it for you, make use of this great list of the 15 things needed to build a website by VineFruit.
About the Author: Amos Struck
I am a publisher & entrepreneur in the stock imagery field. I focus in providing knowledge and solutions for buyers, contributors & agencies, aiming at contributing to the growth and development of the industry. I am the founder and editor of Stock Photo Press, one of the largest networks of online magazines in the industry. I am the founder of Microstock Expo, the only conference dedicated to the microstock segment. I created several software solutions in stock photography, like the PixelRockstar WordPress Plugin. Plus I am a recurrent speaker at Photokina Official Stage, and an industry consultant at StockPhotoInsight. I am passionate about technology, marketing and visual imagery.
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