Creating your Stock Photography Portfolio

Stock Photo Portfolio Sites

A Stock Photography portfolio site is a site where people are able to buy as well as sell digital photos. To dedicate your time to such a site, you have to be truly interested in digital photography, enough to want to go out and take hundreds of photos everyday. Stock photography sites are useful not only to you, but also to a plethora of others as well. Buyers need stock photos in order to make their web pages, advertisements, art mediums, and anything else that requires visual aid. Those that benefit from buying your photos range from independent companies, personal businesses, and any other business that don’t want or don’t have the resources or funding to hire a professional photographer. Also, stock photography sites are a big help to freelance photographers. This is a way for digital photographers, like you, to make money or earn a living selling the pictures that they take. It depends on the work put into the site, but you can make anywhere from $1 to $500 per month, per site with payouts around 25 cents to dollars per photograph. How much you make really depends on your effort and the time you take shooting photos. To make around $500 dollars per month, however, you’re going to need a good digital stock photo portfolio that will show the quality of your work.

As a freelance photographer, you are going to need to know exactly how to set up a stock portfolio. The first step is to take hundreds, and eventually thousands of pictures. For how many photos you’re going to end up taking you had better love to take photographs. You will have to go through the process of eliminating photos based on lighting and angles and any other nit picky stipulations that make a great picture. You’ll end up taking many photos, with over half of them turning out badly. When you realize that you’re happy with the process of taking your pictures then you can begin to build your freelance portfolio.

How many pictures you need for your portfolio

One of the best ways of accomplishing this feat is to set a goal for you. This way, you won’t be discouraged when you first start out and you don’t just snap your fingers and produce hundreds of photos after only one session. You need to be able to get up everyday and complete a freelance photography session of at least 20 to 40 pictures. However, out of those photos you need to pick out 10 to 20 from the bunch that are of better quality than the others. Eventually, you’ll be able to better identify angles, lighting, and concepts for your freelance photography.

Once you reach a quota of about 100 pictures that you have taken, with no more than 3-5 repeated ones, you should be able to compare some of the more recent photos with the pictures at the beginning and notice some improvement. If you are consistent with your photography sessions, you will become a lot better and have a lot of work and original freelance photos to show for it. Eventually, through hard work and dedication, you’ll have the ability to shoot a hundred photos in one sitting and only throw out a few.

What to take pictures of

What you want to accomplish with your freelance photography is a collection of quality pictures. Like the saying goes, “quality over quantity.” Businesses that are going to be looking at your photography and perhaps purchasing some of them will want to be able to depend on your originality and quality. To ensure that you produce pictures of a good quality, you should shoot subjects that you’re passionate about. If you take pictures of sea otters and you don’t particularly like taking pictures of sea otters, then you will be less likely to make sure that the picture looks good.

However, if you take pictures of things that interest you then you are more likely to take your time and produce quality work. Finding a subject that you’re passionate about and expanding on that topic then you’ll make sure and find your Stock Photography niche. It’s recommended that for your first set of pictures you should choose one or two niches for your collection. This will narrow down the competition because if you take random pictures they’ll be white noise against the other photographers.

You need to be able to narrow down your subject matter in different ways than you are used to. Instead of just thinking about subjects like macro, portrait, geometric, or cityscape you need to be able to think in subjects such as decadent, noble, sensual, blue (colors), or futuristic. This will bring those businesses that are looking for a particular niche right to you.

Other things to know

Don’t include any signatures, marks, or Logo Design on your picture to confine ownership.

Make sure for modeling pictures, that the model signs off on submitting the photos be sold.

Always have enough space on your digital camera; don’t be caught off guard.

Keep researching and learning from those that are already more experienced in digital photography or, invest in and E book to help get started.

Type Design Today

When Jean-Frrançois Porchez handed me a copy of a Japanese graphic- Design Tutorials magazine, "Idea," while I was visiting him in Paris last month, my first impression was that it featured a very nice article about Jean-François's work as a type designer, and a cover that used one of his more unusual typefaces. The cover, it turned out, was designed by Jean-François himself, and he was the subject of an extensive, well-illustrated article, but the 200-page issue is essentially the equivalent of a short book on its topic: "Type Design Today." There are many books that don't give as thorough a snapshot of the state of modern type design as this issue of a magazine does.

What Jean-François was most delighted with was the way "Idea's" designers had reproduced some of his type-specimen sheets, and tipped them into the issue, despite the fact that he had never sent them digital files to work from. "It's all a fake!" he cried, with a smile, as he pointed this out to me. They must have scanned the specimens (at very high resolution) and then chosen equivalent paper stock and printed them on that paper, carefully, to re-create the original specimens in faithful copies. It was almost like the loving reproductions of 17th or 18th century type specimens done for books about printing and typography in the 20th century. Why the "Idea" designers didn't ask Jean-François for the digital files and use them, I don't know, but the result certainly surprised and amused the type designer.

And the effect for the reader is spectacular. Foldout specimens of Le Monde, the family of typefaces that Jean-François created for the famous Paris newspaper, and of Anisette, a sans serif face with both wide and narrow widths inspired by Maxim lien Vox's typeface Banjo, punctuate the magazine; along with another foldout inside the front cover, a demonstration by Jean-François of various typographic terms and distinctions. None of the other articles include foldouts, but they are all generously and stylishly illustrated. There is also a large foldout poster at the back of the issue, which is not obviously related to the type Design Training.

Elevator Free Sounds

In the US, as well as in many European countries, traversing the vertical distance up to your office or back to the ground floor while on your way home, was a very tedious experience. Most multi-storied buildings had elevators, (known as lifts in the UK and the Commonwealth states) and were a long way up or down for the people who took their help daily. So what was a corporate organization to do to make the time spent by its hard-working employees more soothing or inviting? Elevator music was the answer!

Today, elevator music has come to represent all kinds of simpler arrangements of popular musical instruments to keep the elevator users more relaxed and jovial. In public toilets, shopping malls, telephone systems (as the hold music for callers), grocery and department stores, airports and lounges, and various offices along with the age-old elevators.

But even though elevator music is only a simple arrangement of Free Sounds from soothing musical instruments, the right mixes and the right quality is vital. Elevator music or sound effects many a times retain a user or consumer to the source, thus, helping in the chances of sales to increase. However, where do you get quality royalty free music for this purpose? After all, not many can afford to employ professional sound engineers or stock musicians for this minimal task. Audio Micro comes to the rescue, again!

We provide the perfect quality of royalty free music for your elevator music needs. We also have a heady mix of the right Free Sounds fx and stock music tracks that you can choose and download from our site. Audio Micro believes that no matter how small your requirement might be, quality has to be supreme. Therefore, even if you are skeptical about the royalty free music, you can first download and listen to the free samples available. You will understand that our sound effects and music cues are developed by professional stock musicians and experienced instrumentalists, designed to suit your every requirement.

From our huge library of production music tracks and other such diverse streams of free music we possess, we can provide you with any free Stock Photography or free audio clips for your elevator music requirements. From garage bands to soothing country music, you will find every constituent core of elevator music in our stock audio and stock music libraries.

We specialize in delivering quality professional free music to users who need it, at a price that is both affordable and justified. The most popular ones, as far as elevator music is concerned, are music cues and free loops. These are available in plenty at audio micro libraries of royalty free music. You just have to visit to know!

Nowhere else will you find free music tracks that have kept the quality component intact, all the while providing you with a vast quantity of free music tracks and Free Sounds to cater to your needs. Don’t you think you should check out our site once, before this golden opportunity passes you by?

Why Entrepreneurs Divorce Their Logo Design

Remember how excited you were when you first designed your Logo? How beautiful you thought it was, and how you couldn't wait to get your first batch of business cards printed so you could show it off? How you excitedly described its meaning and subtleties to your mom (and your clients?) And the rush to the trademark office to get your new love "made official"—what excitement when the papers finally arrived!

Where did that magical feeling go?

The problem is that you keep seeing your logo. Over and over again.

You spend time working on your marketing: creating flyers, updating your website, putting together your email newsletter, etc... And of course, each of those pieces includes your Logo Design (right?). Then you do your business development and billing: writing up proposals, processing client intake questionnaires, writing up invoices—again, all with your logo. Then there are the pieces that you see on a day to day basis: the business cards in your purse or wallet, your office signage, the promotional graphics on your car. Just in the process of running your business, you'll see your logo constantly. Did I mention constantly?

Logo Design Files Part 2

Ask your designer which Free Fonts have been used in the logo, so you could purchase it for use in other materials. This will avoid the lengthy and time-consuming process of font matching, should you work with other designers.

You should receive several different versions of the software's native file formats from the designer, in case a future designer or printer ever uses an older version of the software. For example, I provide Illustrator files in Illustrator CS along with Illustrator 9.

EPS format — I recommend that your logo be in EPS 9 format. EPS can be opened and processed by many different programs. This is also the file format most commonly accepted/requested by printers.

PDF format — you will not be able to view many of the file formats of your design that you receive unless you have graphics software applications. I suggest that you receive the PDF files of each Color Version of your Logo Design. You will be able to view the PDF files using Adobe Acrobat Reader, available for free on Adobe's web site at www.yourdesignneeds.com.

"Outlined" original format — The difference between this graphic and the original would be found in the Illustrator files. The fonts in the outlined original format would be outlined, which means that the letters are converted into shapes. In Photoshop, the type should be rasterized and the layers should be flattened. This outlined file should be provided in all of the formats listed above—original program format, EPS, and PDF.

These outlined file versions should be provided to any printers or service bureaus to lessen the chance that the elements in your logo could inadvertently be shifted around. This will make sure that your logo will print with the right font should the printer not have the font used in your Logo Design Training.

JPEG and GIF formats — For web or email use. The GIF graphic should be created with a transparent background.

TIF format at 300 dots per inch (DPI) resolution, in RGB color format — For use in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files.

TIF format at 300 DPI — Some printers, ad vendors (i.e., the Yellow Pages), or other designers may require this file format in order to create additional designed materials.

Having your logo in these formats will ensure that you won't ever need to have your logo redrawn or re-created for use in future projects. After all, you own your Logo Design—shouldn't you be able to use it as well?

Logo Design Files Part 1

Your Logo Design is the most important graphic element in which you will invest for your business. You should own the logo in many file formats. Having a library of logo files will enable you to send vendors the types of files they need (for example, other designers, printers, or other service providers).

There are two major categories that I will cover in this article—color variations and file-type variations.

Color Variations

You should receive your logo graphic from your designer in all of the file types listed below in the "File Formats" section (unless otherwise noted) in the following color variations:

Pantone color or CMYK color

Pantone color (if applicable) — If you intend to have your business cards or other materials printed professionally, choosing Pantone colors makes the process less expensive than printing in full four- (or CMYK-) color, unless you choose to use the new printers available today. See my article on inexpensive printing options, coming soon!. Full CMYK color — This is for four-color printing, full color ads, and for use on any materials that you intend to print from your own desktop color printer, i.e, invoices, statements, receipts, letters, etc.

RGB color

RGB color—For use on your website or in your email. You should get JPEG and GIF formats in this color scheme.

Grayscale and/or black and white versions

Grayscale — If your logo contains more than one color, or if it has tones or shades of one color, you should receive a grayscale version. You would use this when your logo is included in the newspaper or in the Yellow Pages, or on any black and white laser-printed materials you may create.

Black and white — This version would be used to produce the best-quality Logo Design on faxes or any materials you reproduce using a copier.

Depending on the design of the logo, sometimes only either a black and white or grayscale version of the logo will be applicable. For example, for a logo with just one color in it, only a black and white version would apply. And, if elements of different colors overlap, a grayscale version will ensure that the different graphic elements do not bleed together, as they would if they were all converted to black. So you may not receive both grayscale and black and white versions, but having one or the other should suffice. File Formats:

Original graphic — The original Illustrator, Photoshop, or other program-native document. This comes in handy if you make a minor change to your company (i.e., if you add LLC or Inc.), or if you decide to change your color scheme.

To make these types of changes easiest, you need a file of the logo in the original program in which it was created. If the logo was created in Illustrator (which is preferable, because creating vector graphics in Illustrator will allow your logo to be scaled up and down as needed), the type should not be outlined, unless your designer has done so in order to modify the typeface.

If the logo was created with Photoshop Brushes, the layers of the document should not be flattened, and the type should not be rasterized (converted from editable type into pixels)—this will ensure that it will still be editable.

Photoshop Tutorials - Pen Tooling

Adobe Photoshop, or simply Photoshop Brushes, is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems.

It is the current and primary market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation, and is the flagship product of Adobe Systems. It has been described as "an industry standard for graphics professionals"[1] and was one of the early "killer applications" on the Macintosh'.

This was the first tutorial I ever did!

I created it originally for another site, so sorry for any irregular references.

Hey guys, this is a tutorial for pen tooling, present on my current signature. I hope you enjoy this and would love to see some results :) Pen tooling is a great tool in any graphic artist's arsenal.

This should be done on a new layer, for every line you do ;)

Generally you should use relevant colours to the piece, if you can add a white or black with it. I will use blue just so you can see clearly what I’m doing.

Step 1 for Photoshop Tutorials

Set your brush tool to a hard brush, 3-12 pixels depending on the thickness of the line you are aiming for. Image cannot be shown in this article.

Step 2 for Photoshop Tutorials

Make sure you're using the 'paths' version of the pen tool. (Top left corner)

Select the pen tool and click twice, forming a ‘straight line’, as shown.

Image cannot be shown in this article.

Step 3 for Photoshop Tutorials

Click and hold the line anywhere you like, you’ll see you can now bend the line around. Do this until you have something you like ;) (not on the same click and hold)

Slide Show Music

Slide shows are the core of various ceremonies and presentations conducted around the world. Often developed by amateurs and non-professionals to lucidly explain or depict the subject or event, slide shows are a good audio-visual tool to retain attention of the people converged at a particular place. And Free Sounds are as important as visuals in these slide shows.

In a wedding ceremony, the visuals of the groom kissing the bride and the celebrations thereafter would be very boring of it did not have the music or sound effects. Imagine the slide show of a boy’s birthday party without the sound fx!

As obvious it may sound, adding the appropriate and perfect sound according to the ambience created by the visuals is a big challenge for those not used to slide shows. This is because the price rate of composing your own music with the help of professional composers or to buy Stock Photography from original owners is sky-high. The time to take out a license for using an authentic piece of music track also takes a lot of time and red tape to overcome. Since both these options are expensive and time-consuming, they are bad for your slideshow budget.

So what do you do? Bingo! You have Audio Micro at your service!

At www.yourdesignneeds.com we provide you with the choicest of royalty free music that is fit to be played along side or as a background score of slide show visuals. The stock music and sound effects reserve at our library has the potential to overcome any challenge posed by the music requirements of your scheduled slide show.

We understand that even still pictures can be instilled with life with the help of sounds. Our skilled audio engineers employ their creativity and experience to produce some of the best royalty free music tracks and stock audio for our consumers to avail of. And the quality that we provide with production music and stock music supplies is unmatched by any in the business, be it online or in the virtual world.

Our varied cheap stock audio and Free Sounds have the capacity to cater to all kinds of slide shows. Our consumer catalogue includes a teacher making a slideshow for her nursery students to a wildlife photographer presenting his latest collection of still photos to the critics! Few sites offer stock music and stock audio online as royalty free music stuff, and fewer profess the quality desired buy the consumers.

At Audio Micro, we personally develop sounds keeping in mind the purpose of the developer of the slide show. This helps us develop the vast yet accurate array of free sounds and free music for each and every kind of slideshow that may exist! From tunes for a melancholic death anniversary to thrash metal sound tracks for a head bangers ball, we have it all! You just have to visit us to place your hands on this treasure chest of quality royalty free music.

The Free Fonts Character Issue

IT’S one of the most visible choices Sen. Barack Obama has made, and it’s burning up the blogosphere and YouTube, being debated on the radio, even parodied.

It’s a typeface, of all things, one called Gotham that the Illinois Democrat chose for his rally banners and campaign signage, a collection of letter shapes some typographers are calling the hot Free Fonts of 2008.

Though a discussion of fonts may seem obscure, anyone who has agonized over the look of a wedding invitation or spent hours sweating over a Romanovs that letters can say nearly as much about a person as the words they spell out. And now that we are in the computer age, the message conveyed by a font is no longer subliminal, it’s overt.

“We see type as the clothes that words wear,” typographer Tobias Frere-Jones said. “You have more than one outfit in your closet, because you don’t wear the same thing to the office that you’d wear to the beach.”

Typefaces with big round O’s and tails are considered more friendly, whereas linear fonts evoke overtones of “rigidity, technology and coldness,” according to British psychologist Dr. Arc Sigmund who published a 2001 study, “The Psychology of Free Fonts.”

The Free Sounds Effects of Music!

Try watching a silent movie of the early era after watching a war film like Platoon or Saving Private Ryan. Instantly you will understand the importance and impact of Free Sounds, or rather sound effects in our lives! Comedy without sound fx of laughter, wars without the effect of booming guns and horror without its glass-shattering shrieks are nothing. The immense popularity of films, music, and video portals such as YouTube Music and video sites and life in general will cease to exist. This is the importance of sound in media today!

Many producers and directors, therefore, search for production music and Stock Photography effects and miscellaneous sounds to incorporate into their music for film or other productions. A lion’s share of such producers and artists come to www.yourdesignneeds.com to acquire royalty free sound effects and cheap stock music. Why, you may ask? Because we feed the hungry clientele with the best royalty free music, and royalty free sound effects.

But all the while you may argue that with hundreds such sites available who provide royalty free sound effects and free sounds why should you choose us? Well, the answer is simple. Because we don’t balance quality with the monetary value. We understand potential consumer’s quest for value, even when they are searching for free sound effects and music cues. Our huge library of royalty free music gives you an exemplary view of how stock sound effects and free music can be combined to constitute a treasure trove for consumers online. Many of these tracks are available for download at our website itself.

Moreover, at www.yourdesignneeds.com, we do not force you to blindly pine for free sound effects. We offer you a personally selected package of royalty free sound effects to allow your taste to configure whether our stock music is good enough for you. What does it mean? For starters, you cannot only avail of the sound effect royalty free, but you are acquiring it without spending a SINGLE PENNY too! You see at www.yourdesignneeds.com, we do not hesitate to go the extra mile for our consumers who have shown an interest in dealing with us.

For connoisseurs of music who want their share of royalty free music and royalty free sound effects to enhance their individual music production quality, we have devoted a section of our website to them as well. We have employed musicians with a lot of experience to answer your queries and help you whisk through the huge volume of quality royalty free music stashed in our reserve.

Today, when buying mainstream music and effects or having it composed with experienced professionals is no cheap bargain, acquiring royalty free sound effects from us is a pure advantage. With no hidden deals and buys to be cautious of, you can be your own free self while choosing and downloading Free Sounds effects to add character to the construction of your media project.

Better Free Fonts Management

If your font collection is out of hand, it’s time to learn how to manage it.

Whether you are a graphic designer, typographer, or a hobbyist, you’ll benefit from better management of your fonts. Experimenting with fonts, downloading free fonts, and purchasing new Free Fonts all contribute to a growing collection and, before you know it, you have more fonts than you know what to do with. Even without the potential for confusion, all of these fonts can drain your computer’s resources—in short, you need a solution to manage your collection.

Font management can be accomplished in a variety of ways. First, your operating system has some built-in font management capabilities. Next, free font Design Tutorials management programs are available on the internet. And finally, commercial font management programs will offer professional functionality, but come at a cost.

Depending on the type of user you are, the features that you need will vary. Hobbyists will be satisfied with a font manager that allows them to perform basic management steps such as previewing fonts and installing and un-installing them with ease. Graphic designers will want greater control and features, such as detecting and repairing corrupt fonts, missing fonts, duplicate fonts, and PostScript errors. In addition, the ability to deactivate unneeded Free Fonts will help your computer perform better if it has an extensive collection of fonts installed. Also, font managers with server-enabled versions are ideal for a networked environment.

Typography and Web Advertising: Making Every Opportunity Count

We hear it all the time: “Advertising on the web is so different than print. It has to contend with tininess, limited bandwidth, and banner ad shapes; being shoved into sidebars…no one even wants to see our ads!”

Let’s begin with a clear definition of the term advertising. It is from the Latin advertere, meaning to turn toward, thus to bring to someone’s attention, or to notice. So all advertising, whether web Design Training, print, or broadcast, must share this one attribute: It must be noticeable.

So why is so much advertising, including web advertising, so skippable? Partly, I think, because advertisers make the mistake of thinking of the audience as viewers rather than targets. The distinction is real: A viewer is one who views, which implies—but does not necessarily actually deliver—their attention. It is a soft and flabby term that describes a mostly passive audience. On the other hand, a target is one to whom an ad is aimed, and suggests Free Fonts, aiming, accuracy, and a more active, vigorous stance by the advertiser.This is necessary in our age of sales-message bombardment—on the order of about 3,500 per person, per day.

A Parent's Guide to Key Words in Japanese Import Media

If you’ve been paying attention for even a little while, you’ll have noticed that Japanese imports have, in recent years, taken the animation, video game, and comic industries by storm.

If you have children that are following what some call “Japan mania” (a term I’m not particularly fond of myself), you may want to be aware of what you’re giving them before you give in to their requests for the latest in a series of cartoons, comic books, or games. Japanese cartoons and the cartooning industry can differ greatly from those in the Western world; there are many cultural differences that defy assumptions and cause some unpleasant surprises for the uninformed. Japanese cartoons and games aren’t always oriented towards children; they’re sometimes used less for simple entertainment, and more as a sophisticated storytelling medium. Storylines and graphics can range from things suitable to a toddler, to mature and complexly interwoven plots for teens and adults...to a few things that should be best left in the hands of Photoshop Brushes only.

If you buy translated imports from places such as Barnes & Noble and other mainstream stores, you generally don’t have to worry about the latter; most are edited by companies such as Viz and Tokyo Pop, with clearly written markers in English depicting age-appropriateness. However, there are still certain things you should know before buying Japanese import media for your child, especially if you don’t speak a lick of Japanese. You may spare yourself a bit of a shock later.

First, let’s look at your basic terminology.

Manga

A manga is a comic book or graphic novel: usually pocket-sized, perfect-bound, and much thicker than your average Western saddle-stitched comic book. While Western comics are generally full-color, manga often have black-and-white pages created in ink and halftones; only the covers or a few inserts are in color. A single manga may contain several “episodes” of a storyline. The key thing to remember about manga is that they’re original works, created by the company or person that owns copyright to a specific story concept. The authors and artists of manga are called manga-ka.

Doujinshi

Doujinshi are like manga, but are generally done by artists other than the original circle, as either a tribute or a way to explore side characters and storylines left to the imagination in the original work. Because doujinshi are rarely monitored or censored by the original artists, they can range anywhere from short stories containing brief moments of character silliness to X-rated situations depicting characters from the story involved in various sexual acts.

Anime

Anime is the Japanese word for animation, but has come to represent the rather distinctive look recognizable as a unifying theme even among the most diverse of Japanese animation styles.

Otaku

A lover of manga, Flash Animations, and video games, to the point of fanatic obsession. Westerners often label themselves otaku and wear the name as a badge of pride, but in Japan the connotations aren’t exactly flattering. At best it can imply that the person refuses to grow up and focus on something more productive than an obsession with cartoons; at worst it brings to mind the serial killer Tsutsomu Miyazaki, who was reputed to be the source of the common slang use of the term after the media described his obsession with pornographic anime and manga. (Bet that’ll make you stop and think twice next time your son or daughter pins an ”otaku” badge to their backpack.)

Flash Animations for lively Designs

Many of you may have come across websites that are dull and do not offer any degree of interactivity at all. Judging a website does not take long and a visitor forms a first impression as soon as he opens the site. Some sites are so engaging and lively that you feel like bookmarking them. Flash animation is one way of creating such a lively and engaging website. When you integrate Flash image, text, video or music Flash Animations elements into your website, an engaging and interactive environment is created for viewers.

A uniquely created website has a better chance of a viewer visiting it for a second time. Flash-based websites are attractive, unique, interactive, and conveys a dynamic image of your company. It can create an everlasting impression on the visitors' minds. After all, a visitor will always prefer some kind of video animation elements to be integrated in your site rather than a motionless display of content. Web design flash animation adds life into your site, which attracts and retains the interest of the visitors.

A Flash animation Design Tutorials can change the fortune of your business. Flash web design India offers customizes service to the clients to have them improve their businesses. You can ask for a rotating logo of your company so as to create a lasting impression. Likewise your products and banners on the web can be brought to life in the form of 3D models and spinning products. You can also ask for exact specification of size and dimensions. Flash is today the most popular technology for creating interactive animations on the web. Development of Flash has an edge over other technologies due to its lower bandwidth requirements. It will not only give your site a new look but will also work wonders for your business.

40 Simple Ways To Build Trust In Your Website Visitors

Here are 40 simple actions you can take to get started.

1. Your website Design Tutorials is the first impression. Make sure it is professional and relevant to the subject matter.
2. Navigation must be intuitive. If visitors can't find what they are looking for easily, they will question your competence in providing what they want.
3. Make the website personal by giving it its own tone and voice. People buy people.
4. Follow the HEART rule of creating online content. (Reminder: HEART stands for Honest, Exclusive, Accurate, Relevant and Timely.)
5. Use language that is appropriate to the audience. It will build empathy.
6. Regularly add new content to your site. It shows that the business is alive and kicking.
7. Review all links. Doubts will quickly form in your visitors' minds if links don't work or, worse still, take them to error pages.
8. Good grammar and spelling matter. Errors give the impression of sloppiness and carelessness.
9. Don't make outrageous and unbelievable claims, like "Read this blog and you'll be a millionaire by the end of the week." People are used to scams, get-rich-quick schemes and rip-offs.
10. Publish REAL testimonials and third-party endorsements. Try to always use real names and link to websites where possible. Some sites show images of letters sent by happy customers.
11. Publish case studies about customers you have helped, who use your product, etc.
12. Don't put down, curse or insult competitors. It's unprofessional. It is better to offer an objective comparison of competitive services or products.
13. Focus on building your long-term reputation, not on making quick sales.
14. Write articles for humans, not search engines.
15. Make your 'About Us' page personal and comprehensive. It plays an important part in making visitors feel comfortable that real people are behind the site.
16. Publish your photo or the photos of the key people involved with the site. Again, this reinforces the fact that there are real people behind the screenshots.
17. Clearly identify who is behind the site. Nothing creates more suspicion than a site that tries to hide the identity of its publishers.
18. On the 'Contact Us' page, provide an email form, telephone number, fax and address of the company. In Europe, it is a legal requirement for sites taking funds, but even sites driven by advertising will benefit from openness.
19. Provide a telephone number that people can call and talk to a person.
20. Provide Web addresses linked to the website domain, not addresses from free webmail services such as Hotmail and Gmail.
21. Think carefully about reciprocal links. If your site is about organic food and you have links to Party Poker, people are going to question your integrity.
22. Think carefully about the adverts you display on your site. Ensure that they are relevant to your subject and audience.
23. Write and publish your privacy policy. Be clear about what you will and will not do with any personal data you collect. State that you adhere to all data protection laws. Make it easy to read and don't use legal gobbledygook.
24. Write and publish a security policy. State what measures you take to ensure that all transactions are secure as well as how well you handle customers data.
25. Ensure that you have a security and privacy policy which is linked from the footer on every page. Make the link more prominent on all the order pages.
26. Clearly publish your guarantee. I would recommend making it a 100% money-back guarantee if possible.
27. Clearly state your refund and returns policy.
28. If you use PayPal, put the PayPal logo on your site. If you have a merchant services account with a major bank like Citibank or HSBC, put its Logo Design on your site.
29. Use Google search on your site for two reasons. First, it is great search solutions which will help your visitors find what they are looking for. Second, having the Google name on your site instills trust.
30. If there are well-known industry associations for your subject, join up and put their logos on your site.
31. Have a forum on your site and respond quickly to questions. Have the attitude that you are happy to help others without receiving immediate reward. As the old saying goes, 'Givers always gain.'
32. Allow people to comment on articles. Interactivity and an exchange of views build community and a sense of involvement.
33. If people provide constructive criticism or comments in the forum, don't delete them, but respond with your point of view.
34. Use the words 'secure website' whenever you try to get any information from visitors, including newsletter sign-ups, forum input and payment.
35. On every page, state, "We take your privacy and security very seriously." Link the statement to the security and privacy policy.
36. If you are selling a subscription, offer a low-cost, entry-level option. This could be a one-day taster, 'a week before billing starts' or a monthly trial.
37. Only ask for information from customers that you really need. For example, for an email newsletter sign-up, the only information you REALLY need is an email address, so that is all you should ask for.
38. If you have pricing on your website, make it transparent. I recently went to buy a book which was advertised for $10. When I checked out, they added tax, post and packaging, and the final bill was $19.50. I didn't buy it as I felt they had deliberately tried to mislead me.
39. Start a small newsletter of your company/services & circulate it among your clients/employees. Also, publish it on your website regularly.
40. Allow people to “unsubscribe” from your mailing list. This may sound very obvious, but I have found that many websites still don’t follow it.

To ensure that you are continually improving your trustworthiness, every time you go to a website, ask yourself whether you trust it or not. Then ask yourself why you have formed the opinion you have.

Royalty Free Sports Sounds

Some Free Sound effects, such as those in sports, almost always go unnoticed, but without them the game would seem like a drab documentary without music. Therefore, such sports sounds are very important, as far as making the game entertaining as well as comprehensible. But similar to film music

The sound of a ball being hit hard by a bat is one of the distinct sounds in baseball. Other sound effects include crowd noise, the umpire shrieking out instructions and the ball thundering to a stop in a fielder’s leather gloves. Moreover, music played during the cheerleader-dance or the team anthems is also a very important part of baseball sound fx.

Soccer is famous for its crowd sounds, being the noisiest among all sports. The referee’s whistle is another commanding sports sound in soccer, along with the thud that comes from the player kicking the ball. Motivated shouting and encouragement calls are an integral part of sounds associated with soccer.

Car-racing and bike-races have their characteristic sounds as well. In car racing, the sound of the car engine whooshing past is very popular. However, different models of cars and bikes would have different sounds

Basketball sounds differ when they are played indoors or outdoors. When played indoors, the sounds of the ball hitting the floor as well as the players shoes squeaking on the polished basketball pitch are commonplace. Outdoors, the sound of the ball hitting the floor and the backboard and the consequent ear-splitting crowd noise are the primary sound fx

Though most of these sound effects are available online at several portals, the Stock Photography quality and stock sound effects cannot match the standards of the quality that the client needs. But at Audio Micro, we offer affordable prices for the best quality royalty free music

We have our expert and skilled team of audio engineers who scan the submission of free music tracks and only provide those which match our quality checks. You can pick and choose from our huge reserve of stock music and production music. You may also download and listen to the samples of free music and music cues

Audio Micro offers you some of the best sports sounds and crowd noises, having quality as well as authenticity. Also, you will find that our free music tracks have been mastered to make them sound as authentic as they are on the sports pitch! No matter what the music or Free Sound effects requirement of your project, we have the solution at hand!

Is Your Business Ready For A Logo Design?

You're just starting your business. Opening a bank account, getting a business license, and setting up your office are top priorities. And, of course, the question of stationery and marketing comes up. If you're starting a business, you need business cards. And probably stationery. And a website. All this means you need to design a Logo Design immediately, right?

Maybe. But maybe not.

A lot of small businesses start out with one vision, but by the time they really start rolling, things may have changed. Services or products may wind up being modified to better match customers' wants or needs. New product and service lines may get developed. You may discover, after you start making sales and talking to customers, that you're doing things in a revolutionary way. You may be serving a different type of client than you'd originally envisioned—or solving a problem you didn't expect to encounter for those clients.

Any of these factors can play a major role in your logo and brand Design Training.

Starting out your business with your logo, stationery, and marketing materials all perfectly designed can certainly jumpstart your brand building process. But the key word here is "perfectly." If your business is in the very beginning phase, you may not have had enough practice running it to know what it is really all about, so you can't use that information to design the perfect brand.

Here are questions you can ask yourself to determine if you're prepared to create your logo:

1. Do you have a solid plan that lays out exactly what you're going to do in your business? If you've only sketched one out, or if it has gaps and holes, then waiting until those are filled in will result in a stronger logo and brand.
2. Are you committed to sticking to that plan? Or are you planning to stay flexible and make changes in your business as you try things out? If you're willing to make changes, then those changes may mean that your brand ends up not matching your business—which means that the effort and cost invested in design and printing has been somewhat wasted. You have gained some value from your Logo Design, but you have to do everything all over again.
3. Can temporary marketing materials work for your business, or will they detract from potential sales? How important is it that you get off the ground with your marketing materials finished perfectly? Don't postpone the branding process if it will cost you customers or hurt your business. However, do be aware that if you try to brand too early, you may not design your brand correctly.
4. Have you started a business and/or created a brand before? If not, you may want to take it slow. Branding is easy to rush into, but it's a major business decision. Waiting until your business is stable and established can really pay off.

If you have definite answers for these questions, then you may be ready for your brand. However, if you aren't sure that you're settled in your business and on its personality, services, differentiators, and target audience, it may be better to hold off creating a logo so that it will be as accurate and as lasting as possible.

Royalty Free Nature Sounds

Nature sounds are available in plenty all around us, but to capture or record them and use them as Free sound Effects in your projects is not easy at all! Not only are these sounds hard to record, with equipment and apparatus being expensive and technically sound, but there is one more condition too. Mother Nature also has to comply with your wishes to make the recorded track sound authentic and effective. Moreover, recording nature sounds such as sound effects of tornadoes, thunderstorms or even wild animals such as bears or a pack of wolves can pose a serious threat to your life and safety.

Recording sounds of thunderstorms, for an instance, is tough as well as risky. Recording the authentic sounds of thunder and lightning, along with the rain and shrieking winds is not possible with ordinary equipment. Interference of the wind with your microphone, the Free Sound of the rain hitting the umbrella protecting your equipment are examples of audio interferences that may destroy the authenticity of the recorded nature sounds. Damage to your equipment as well as health and safety risks cannot be ruled out as well.

Proximity to the source of the sound is also an important factor in making the recorded track sound authentic and perfect. But you surely wouldn’t want to get too close for comfort to wild animals or rampaging tornadoes in order to record their sound! Rains and the availability of other such sound fx sources during your recording venture is also a vital factor in making the latter a success.

So, you must be wondering as to how to get your hands on easily available and affordable nature sound effects and tracks of an excellent quality? Audio Micro has the answer. Our huge reserve of quality royalty free music and audio tracks will cater to all your music requirements, albeit without the hassles of recording authentic Free Sound and risking your neck in the process! Our professionally recorded stock music and stock audio is of the highest quality available, and is a notch above the quality or quantity of free music provided by royalty free music portals online.

Not only this, we also provide sample stock audio tracks for you to download and listen to, prior to the intended purchase. This is a mutually beneficial exercise as it helps you in being reassured with our quality, while we benefit from building brand loyalty among our clients. We understand that you require only quality free music . Our professional audio engineers master the sound effects to achieve 100% client satisfaction and value-for-money for our clientele, a feature that is not a regular among other free music portals on the net.

Audio Micro also specializes in catering all your diverse Stock Photography needs, and no matter how vast and varied your project requirement might be, we have the solution at hand! And as far as nature sounds are concerned, our free sounds save you the risk and monetary costs involved in recording authentic nature sound effects by yourself!

Micro Typography, Designing The New Collins Dictionaries

One of the surprising things about researching a new dictionary Design Tutorials was to discover just how little it had changed – on a macro level – over the last 250 years. There is quite a difference in feeling between Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of 1755 and today’s Collins English Dictionary, but the structure of information and the way in which it is made visible are identical. The two- or three-column grid with its three-letter column headers, the out dented headwords, the cascade of entries and quotes; all these are familiar elements of contemporary dictionaries.

On a micro typographic level however, there are some differences. Dr Johnson’s compositor didn’t have a bold weight to separate headwords from entries, or a sans serif for related words; instead the hierarchies were expressed through capitals, small capitals, changing sizes and italics. Although the word count is about the same, the new dictionary reflects a general tendency towards use of lower- or upper and lower-case forms for headwords, in a bolder and often sans serif type, slightly larger than the entries, instead of varying between capital, Free Fonts roman and italic forms at the same size and the same weight, with detail expressed by a reduction in size.

Minimum type size is also a very interesting question. It might be assumed that better glasses and contact lenses would lead to a greater capacity to read small type, yet some of the historical dictionaries and bibles I’ve seen contain type that is extremely small by any standards. A dictionary like the Collins Household Dictionary of 1859 is quite difficult to navigate and read, with its 6pt type, lack of differentiation in weight, and column rules.

Royalty Free War Sound Effects

From films to docu-dramas, from radio plays to a television mini-series, war has been the focal point of many such media programs targeted for the masses. Even college and school students tackle the issue of war in their projects, especially with history as a subject. Often, staged dramas and plays use war sounds and war-related Stock Photography to bring out the ambience of war in the background. This helps in building up the story as well as allows the viewers (or listeners) feel as if they are in the thick of war.

But it is almost foolhardy as well as dangerous to try and record the war sound effects on your own. First, recording authentic and accurate sound effects from the scene of war requires equipment that is sturdy and technically astute. Moreover, the threat to life as well as the well-being of the person undertaking the recording venture is very serious and only experienced and skilled professionals assign themselves such tasks.

So what shall an ordinary person, who needs an authentic sound fx of marching soldiers or an air-raid siren, do? The answer to his quest is royalty free music and stock audio tracks. There are numerous companies that provide royalty free music online through free music portals. But while such sites have mushroomed over the internet with time, only some have been able to provide music of a standard that matches with the required standard of quality demanded by the clients. And Audio Micro leads this list!

We not only provide quality tracks of production music and stock music, but also cater to the diverse demands of our clients. These also include Free Sound effects and music cues related to wars. With our readymade recorded free stock audio clips, the headache of licensing and other worries will cease to exist for you as the client.

A war-time play or drama may include the sound of marching feet of a regiment, or the sound of bombs whistling and then exploding in the background or even the sound of a tank rumbling along an invaded city’s streets. All these sounds can easily build up the mood and ambience of a war. The sound of machine guns, the Free Sound of mortars as well as the haunting screams of the wounded also help in constituting a milieu of war and chaos. Usually, in most projects, games and films, war sound effects are used in the background with a dialogue or monologue being given prominence in the foreground. The usage of sound is a very basic entity to draw attention for films and plays, as is so vividly implied by films such as the scene of the thunderous invasion of D-Day in Saving Private Ryan or the marching of soldiers to the sergeants peculiar whistling tune in The Bridge on the River Kwai!

With Audio Micro, you will be able to posses the optimum quality wartime sound fx and stock music that complements and enhances the constructed ambience of war. With us, implementation of the quality free audio of the soldier’s battle cry or a bomber plane zeroing in on its target in your project is no longer a distant dream!