11 August 2009
Although I agree with the previous listing of websites....I also disagree with purchasing your own graphics. Since you are utilizing a web designer to create your site they should be able to supply the graphics that you require for building the site. It's your web developer that should be getting the graphics from one of these sites. The list of sites is great and if you want to ask your web designer what site they use, then you can visit the site and select the images that you want them to utilize. This way they can also be sure to get the correct file size and format for the job at hand.

12 August 2009
Hi Natasha,

The service your friend is using is one of many, Royalty Free image sites. a few you can check out are:

http://www.istockphoto.com
http://www.shutterstock.com
http://www.photosearch.com
http://www.gettyimages.com
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

I use http://www.istockphoto.com, they have great images for reasonable prices, and you don't need to pay monthly, you can add credits to your account and just use what you have in your, "account".

A quick note on SEO, please be careful who you pay to do your SEO! At the risk of breaking my own rule and sounding like I'm advertising.... we have developed a small suite of SEO tools that can literally save you thousands of dollars in SEO, if used correctly, that are free to all our hosted clients, (we only host clients we develop websites for).

That being said, our tools are a starting point for SEO and are not the, "end all to end all" for SEO, but there are options out there, just make sure you explore before you invest tons of money! Many, "SEO Companies" use software to submit your website and are not as effective as they lead you to believe. The more you know about SEO, the more you may find you can do yourself for free!

Hope all that helps!
Mark Cloyd
Mark Cloyd Designs


Amended: Everything Ink Graphic Design makes an excellent point! Good catch!

15 August 2009
Hi

shutterstock.com is a great resource and the offer a monthly package that lets you download 25 images per day. You could cancel after one month if you have the images you need. I think they are better value than most others.

istock is great if you need just one or two images though.

Shutterstock terms of using the images are also very good. I think it's better than istock etc.

It's important to check this so there is no come back for using images illegally.

Just check out their ts&cs and email them if unsure

18 August 2009
Hi Natasha,

I hope you

1 September 2009
If you are paying your designer to design and optimise your website, you may as well utilise their expertise with images. As they will be designing your website, they will choose the most appropriate images for your business within the cost.

Unless you want to choose images yourself, there are a range of royalty free image websites, which you can search and purchase your images from as someone else here has listed. However, i would check with your designer before purchasing, as they may have access to these images already, and would be able to assist with the legal side.

5 September 2009
Graphics and images are very emotive. Some clients let us suggest images, others are much more discerning and tell us which images they want on every page and will be in keeping with their vision or brand.

We suggest both - they can visit iStockPhoto and search / choose for themselves, note the image ID and we get them through our account or we source images and incorporate them into the site for them to see the image in-situ.

Whoever does the image search needs to put time aside as it can be a lengthy process so be warned.

If you are building lot sof sites then a subscription may be worth it, but generally a pay-as-you-need should be sufficient for most.

8 September 2009
Just watch the license agreements, and make sure you keep a copy of the license. A friend purchased an image for exhibition from shutterstock he purchased the right license but and it turned out shutterstock did give the right license agreement to the image... istockphoto is the one I use and bigstockphoto good selection of images. The service she is subscribed to is possible you pay a figure a month and you can download as many images in 24 hours as possible...

Someone commented on the web designer should provide the images... that rubbish if you know what you want it best you supply the images you then can have your own image library which you can use for marketing.

SEO be careful some people charge a lot of money for not a lot, be particularly carefully if anyone is wanting a monthly figure, especially if they promise the top spots.

9 September 2009
Hi Natasha, all the image bank sites mentioned are worthwhile checking out. You may have to look at a few different sites to find what you want. Dont rely on your designer to supply the images. At the end of the day you are responsible for ensuring you have the right to use them, not your designer. I know of business that have received letters from legal firms demanding payment for images that were supplied by their designers. Your website designer should have SEO in mind when putting together your site. If not find some else. Dont pay a monthly fee for SEO as you dont really know what work they are doing for you. Pay for SEO as you go and get all the details of what was done and where your back links and advertising is.

Hope this helps a bit

Peter
Your online shop

2 October 2009
Corbis is another great stock site, although i usually just go take my own pictures!

21 October 2009
The answers given above are pretty much spot on. Stock photography websites are a highly useful resource for looking at lots of different yet relevant photos, and the use of such can set one website apart from the rest.

Alongside this, Google images (don't forget Bing too), is also a great resource, however be very careful about using any of these images within your website - most will be copyrighted.

Cheers,

Chris.