Good stock photography can really enhance a site, and it doesn’t always have to be expensive. Today we’re going to have a quick look at some of my favourite stock photography sites. Whilst nothing may be able to provide the unique custom content of your own photo shoot, these come pretty close for just a fraction of the cost!

Just another note: we use all of these sites for our client’s and our own projects. If you’re interested in purchasing some stock photography then we really suggest checking them all out to see what images they each have that might suit you.

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iStockphoto.com may be slightly more expensive than most, but it makes up for that with often overwhelming quantity and quality. If you want some decent yet still affordable stock photography, vector illustrations, Flash animations or even video clips then you should definitely check out iStock.

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Dreamstime.com is by far one of the most affordable stock photography sites around. Most images can be purchased for $1USD or less, with some now available entirely free of charge. It was one of the first sites we stumbled across when embarking on our journey to find clients low-cost stock photography and it has remained a useful asset to have. Worth a look, especially for those after the really low-cost (or free) options.

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fotolia.com is another great site to check out. They have a heap of photos and flexible pricing schemes so you don’t have to pay for more than you need. We’ve found some delightfully good pics here, just the same as the other sites suggested so again have a look and see if anything catches your eye.

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Probably the original source for royalty-free stock photography that we used as a fledgling business. sxc.hu is a site where you can upload and share your own photographs for people to use. It’s fairly well run, so quality doesn’t suffer like it might in some open slather photo websites and it does provide a lot of worthwhile (and legally useable) photos. Note though that some authors request to be contacted before you use their work publicly so pay attention to any details for specific files.

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Have a look around at these sites. Shoot us an email or leave a comment if you have any favourites of your own, we’d love to hear about them - remember this isn’t an exhaustive list!

The mantra shouted by real estate agents seemingly the world over, ‘location, location’, doesn’t lose its meaning when looking at the web.

An obvious translation is the value of a good domain name. Simple, catchy, short. These gems of the internet are in hot demand by domainers (people who buy and sell generic internet domain names) and can fetch sizeable returns (read Masters of their Domains). But the real topic of tonight’s post is concerning search engine results and the location of your server (or TLD of your domain name).

Searching for ‘flowers’ in Google will return different results depending on your location, no matter if you selected ‘pages from Australia (insert other country here)’ or not. Granted defining the search to a country will narrow down the field much further, but the important point to note is that Google has already decided that you’re going to prefer results in your local area to have a higher preference in the general search.

What does this mean for online businesses? Your domain and server location matter.

If your primary consumer is a local Australian and your domain ends with an international extension (just .com/.net etc) and you’re hosted overseas, then chances are that Google is going to overlook you. How do you solve that? Either make sure you’re hosted locally or purchase a .com.au domain.

The old adage that content is king does have more than just a grain of truth to it. Anyone involved in SEO (search engine optimisation) will tell you that one important factor in gaining good results in any search engine is having high-quality, original (and unique) content. There are two key terms: high-quality and original/unique. I’ll cover what I mean by that and why exactly those two points are important for anyone with a website.

High-Quality Content mediocre copy kills conversions

We often provide our customers with this simple analogy for what their website is: your website is like a brochure. It contains all the important details about your business, wrapped up in a (hopefully!) nicely formatted design. What good is a brochure which is riddled with poor grammar, spelling or sentence structure? The answer? Very, very little. A company site that is filled with basic errors and provides little informative or useful content will only serve to ward off potential customers.

Unique and Original verbatim copying is both plagiarism and dangerous

You don’t only run the risk of legal retaliatory action, but when you copy text from another site on the Internet you can almost expect a backlash from Google. The search engine (and probably most others) doesn’t look kindly on duplicate content. Content which is signficantly duplicated/copied/stolen from another site - or even content which is duplicated within your site.

Your site is going to be of significantly less interest to people if it contains portions which are reused or recycled. Invest the time to write original pieces which are going to capture the attention of your visitors and search engines or risk being ignored.

Your Homepage
The home page is crucial to the effectiveness of your website. It is the page that most if not all visitors to your website see. A home page which is poor in design and un effective in its appeal to the viewer can severly impair your chances of acheiving your website goals in seconds.

A good home page lays the foundations of every successful website. Your home page should outline the key elements necessary to sell your product, generate interest or an equiry all depending on what your goals and outcomes for the website are.
Is your website focused on a single product or services? If so it should be the focus of the main sales copy of your hoem page. IF however your website contains a  number of products and/or services, samples or “tasters” of each of your products or your primary products should be provided on the home page in order to entice the reader into reading more about your product on your products or services page.
 
Gaining the Visitor’s trust

It is handy to include serveral key elements into your homepage to establish  trust and credibility  with the viewer. These elements can be used as key tools in effectively communicating with your viewers and further ensure your websites outcomes are recognised.

• references and endorsements from customers, developers and high profile persons 
• guanarantees on the product or service provided
• outlining any awards recieved for the product, service of your company
• case studies to establish a deeper understanding of your subject area
• privacy and other legal policies and text
• professional presentation and error free copy within the homepage and throughout the site.

Grabbing Attention with Headers and Headlines
Headers and titles immediately grab the viewer’s attention. With the exception of images, well placed and written headlines can mean the difference in keeping your viewers glued to the screen or leaving within seconds.

Special Deals and Promotions
Your homepage will be your greatest weapon in appealing to your visitors. To further enhance your homepage and maintain your viewers interest hit them with bold specials emphasizing the great promotion you may have on offer.

Welcome