Great stock photos for low prices

Just about every project I work on for clients requires a photo of some kind. Sometimes the client will have the photos, but more often than not, I need to search out photos on their behalf.

If there's a big budget for photos, the sky's the limit. But most clients want to save money and for them iStockPhoto is a great place to look.

Most photos that you'd need are no more than $5. A few photos like that should fit anyone's budget.

iStockPhoto isn't the only service that offers photos are low prices, but it's the one I use the most.

Like most stock photo sites, you can create Lightboxes to store potential photos for a project, then send a link to your clients for viewing. That allows them to see what you have in mind and get their feedback before buying and downloading a bunch of photos.

There's another site that I found interesting for stock photos: SimpleStockShots.com.

All their photos are single objects with no background. This can be really useful for a project.

I will say that I have two problems with them. First, their selection at this point seems a little sparse in areas. For example, I did a search on TV and then Televsion. The best I got was two TV remotes and three TV dinners. Not exactly what I had in mind.

Second, their hi-res images - which you would need for print - are $175 each. I've seen high quality, professional stock photos for $150 on other sites, so $175 for a single object doesn't sit right with me. Yes, I know these are very specialized photos, but I do think the price is a little high.

Still, if you've just gotta have the shot and can't waste time extracting an object from another photo, this may be an option for you.

Photoshop TV - Required Watching!

If you use Adobe Photoshop CS2 then you need to be watching Photoshop TV.

It's a podcast and available free via the Photoshop TV website, or via iTunes.

This is produced by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, the organization that publishes Photoshop User Magazine. (That magazine is on my Recommended list.)

Each weekly half-hour show is filled with Photoshop information...mainly tips and tricks that will help you use Photoshop better.

As I write this, they're on episode 15 and there hasn't been one episode where I haven't learned at least one new technique to apply to my design business.

Even better, they now produce a daily Photoshop Killer Tips video podcast which is about 2 minutes.

I'll be adding some Photoshop books to my Recommended list, but Photoshop TV and Photoshop Killer Tips will be on the list as well. Both of these are free so there's no excuse for not watching.

Recommended Reading, Software, Video List

I've heard more than one motivational speaker say that you should model yourself after someone who is having the success you want to have. It's good advice and advice I try to follow.

I'm not a millionaire, but I am having success in my design career and I'm asked from time to time what I use, read, etc.

So, here's my "recommended" list with comments. Note that I have a ton of materials in my studio, but this is the "made a significant contribution to my career" list. (Each link opens in a new Window.)

This will be a long list and I'll add to it as time allows. Just keep in mind that you don't have to own everything on this list to be a success.

Magazines:

Before & After Magazine - Quite simply the best magazine you can buy when it comes to help that direct mail designers can put to use. Study every page (and the free PDFs you get with your subscription) and you'll know more than most other beginning direct mail designers. You won't find this magazine in your local bookstore...you need to subscribe.

Layers Magazine - All things Adobe are covered here, so unless you have Adobe products (like Photoshop, InDesign, etc.) this magazine won't do you much good. If you do have Adobe products, you'll learn a lot.

Photoshop User Magazine - You can find this at some bookstores, but your best bet is to join NAPP and get it as part of your membership. The things I've learned by being a member of NAPP has paid for the membership many times over.

InDesign Magazine - Obviously, this is useful only if you use InDesign. This is a download-only magazine, but ultra-professional. You can download a free issue to try it out.

Dynamic Graphics - This one isn't as well-known, but I like it and learn a lot from it. Many of the things it covers easily applies to direct market design. They have some good before and after projects, articles on color management, etc.

General Design Books:

Before & After - This is the first of two books that compile a number of the articles from past issues of Before & After Magazine. Buying this book and the next one is cheaper than buying up many of the back issues that existed at that point.

Before and After Graphics for Business - The second book based on prior articles in Before & After Magazine.

Robin Williams Design Workshop - Covers logos, newsletters, websites, and more. You get a really detailed look at how you should be putting things like this together.

Graphic Design Cookbook - This is an interesting book. It gives you a variety of creative ways to present information on a page. For example, there are three pages of ideas for how to layout page numbers. This will add some variety to your layouts.

Color Harmony 2 - If you have no clue which colors work well together, this book will help. You can pick a style you're after - like Regal - and then see the colors that would fit that style. With the CMYK values they give you, you can easily create your color list in your design program.

Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color - This is much like the Color Harmony book, but approaches things from Pantone colors (with a conversion chart to CMYK.)

Quick Solutions to Great Layouts - Covers the layout of newsletters, brochures, and advertisements. It does a great job of breaking down layout measurements, fonts, etc.

Getting It Printed - Unless you only intend to design for online use, you'll need to know the basics of getting your work printed for clients. If you understand what's in this book, your conversation with printers will go much smoother.

Real World Color Management - This is not for the weak-of-heart. It can be a tough read, but it's recognized as one of the best books on color management.

More to come...

Sharing your skills and experiences

Later today I'll be speaking at an artist-led business conference for written, visual and performing artists. My topic is non-standard marketing methods and is one of many topics during the two-day conference.

When artists are focusing on their art, they don't always take the time to get creative with their marketing. They either avoid the topic altogether and hope for the best, or they go with traditional marketing channels that really won't work for them.

For me, I love the chance to help. If I'm not careful, I could stay locked up in my studio doing my work day after day, never getting out and interacting with people.

But I really do think it's important to contribute your time and skills in different ways and resist the temptation to stay closed off. That's why I do things like this conference from time to time.

I encourage you to find ways to contribute to your industry that actually require you to be engaged...not just something where you can write a check and be done with it. People really do appreciate when you take the time to sincerely share with them and help them avoid the mistakes you may have made.

How Much Did You Earn Today?

I'm really happy to include a quick article by copywriter and author Steve Slaunwhite. When I first went freelance as a writer, Steve's book, Start & Run a Copywriting Business, was a big to help to me. Even today as a designer, I still get his newsletter because there's so much good info in it, including what I'm going to share with you now:

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How Much Did You Earn Today?
The garbageman who picks up my trash every Thursday morning has an advantage over me. He knows exactly how much he’s going to make that day. All he has to do is show up and do the work. When he goes home at night, he knows he’s earned a paycheck.

Not me. As a freelance copywriter, I know (firsthand, I admit) that it’s possible to fritter the whole day away and not make a dime.

I remember a few years ago, during dinner, my wife asking, “How was your day?” I answered, “Very busy. I worked on my website for a while. Updated my portfolio. Cleared up some bookkeeping and . . .”

Then it hit me. I didn’t make any money! Not one cent.

So the next day, I put “Make money” on my to-do list. And it has been there ever since.

The best favor you can do for your writing career — and your bank account — is to set a daily income goal. And then strive to reach that goal before you go onto anything else.

Let’s say, for example, your goal is to earn $400 a day. To achieve that target, you need to give your paying jobs priority and do $400 worth of work BEFORE you surf the blogs, chat online with colleagues, or sip coffee at Starbucks. (My wife calls it Fivebucks.)

I’ve been at this for a while, so my daily goal is relatively high compared to many freelancers. Yours doesn’t have to be. Even if your goal is a modest $200 per day -- an eminently reasonable target for most copywriters -- that’s $1,000 per week; $4,000 per month; $48,000 per year! And a four-week vacation!

The most important thing is, by setting a daily income goal, you’ll sleep better. You’ll know that, by the end of the day, you’ve made money. And that’s a damned good feeling.

“But what if I don’t have any billable work to do today?” you might be asking. Then you know EXACTLY how to spend your day: prospecting and marketing.
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Good advice for designers just as it is for copywriters.

Steve just finished a new course for copywriters called Secrets of Writing for the B2B Market. I don't know if Steve knows this, but I did the layout and design of that course. (You can see the cover here.) When I had a chance to pick between a couple of projects to work on, his was on the list and I jumped at the chance because I was familiar with his work through his book and knew the course would be top-notch.

Sure enough, his course is a winner. (That's one of the joys of design...you get exposed to great writing.) If I had known what was in that course when I was writing, it would have saved me a lot of time.

Too late now because I'm having way too much fun in design. But if writing for the B2B market is something that interests you, check out his course. I teach a marketing-related writing course at a local college and I've already recommended this course a couple of times. It's perfect for writers who don't care of the traditional hype that often goes into B2C (Business-to-Consumer) writing.

Note that just because I did the design, I don't get anything if you buy the course. Consider this friendly advice from someone who has worked as a writer and someone who has seen the complete course. Scoll down here to get more info about that course.

And thanks to Steve for granting permission to use his article here today. If you want to sign up for his newsletter or learn more about his book, visit For Copywriters Only.

Tip: Getting a website on "one page" of a PDF

I spent part of the day working on the layout of an HTML-based e-mail promo for a client. It looks much like one of the direct marketing mini-websites you see, but it's intended for e-mail.

I wanted to print the draft layout to a PDF and send it to the client, but by default, the long HTML page (about 6 pages) would be broken up by pages in the PDF.

That's...well...lame.

But there is a way to take just about any website and print it to one, long scrolling PDF file. That way, it's not broken up into pages and looks a little more professional.

This may be possible to do in other PDF creation tools, but here's the way I know to do it in Acrobat 7:

1. In Acrobat, press Ctrl-Shift-O to bring up the Create PDF from Web Page dialog box.
2. Put in the URL of the site you want to capture. (It could even be an HTML page on your hard-drive.)
3. Click the Settings button and go to the Page Layout tab.
4. Page Size should be set to Letter, but make sure you unclick the "Scale wide contents to fit page" box.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Create.

The result is a PDF that allows the client to view the work as you designed it.

Q&A: What software do I need?

There's not a month that goes by that someone just starting out in direct market design doesn't ask me a question. So, I'll answer some of them here over the weeks and months to come.

Today's question is scary because the answer is going to cost the questioner a decent chunk of change.

I think you at least need a layout program, a photo manipulation program, and something to create PDFs. I don't do much in the way of website design these days, but if that's your niche, you'd obviously need a program like Dreamweaver.

For a layout program, if you want to be viewed as a pro, it's either InDesign or Quark. (Sorry, but MS Publisher won't cut it long-term.) You'll never convince me that Quark is a superior program to InDesign, but Quark is considered more of a standard because it has been around so long.

For photo manipulation, it's basically Photoshop. Yeah, Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro can do lots of stuff that you'd need. But you'll eventually hit a point where you'll wish you had the full power of Photoshop. You don't want to have to tell a client you can't do something that's considered a basic direct market design technique because you went with a cheaper program.

If money is tight, you'll have to make tough decisions. And the sooner you accept that you won't be setup to accept every job that comes along, the better. Maybe you'll buy InDesign, then you'll get three job requests that require Quark. It happens. But there's enough work for you no matter which of the two you choose.

Me? I chose everything...Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat, GoLive, Dreamweaver, Quark, Freehand, Flash, Dreamweaver, Painter and a couple of others I can't recall. And I have them on both the PC and Mac.

That's not meant to brag or to make you feel like you need to do the same thing. You don't. I'm just telling you how I went about solving this common dilemma. And trust me...it's an expensive solution.

Note that I don't know how to use all of them perfectly. For example, I'm useless with Flash right now. But I like being able to process just about any file a client can throw at me. My preference is to work in Photoshop and InDesign.

I hate to recommend anything without knowing more details about the individual, but I like the Adobe Creative Suite 2. In one package, you get Photoshop, InDesign, GoLive, Illustrator and Acrobat...at a price that's cheaper than if you bought those programs individually. In one box, you basically have a complete design studio.

There really is a (money making) book in you

I have loved to write since the 3rd grade. And without making an effort to search out writing jobs, every job I've ever held has required a lot of writing skill. In fact, the reason I went freelance was to write on my own terms.

So it was natural that I'd eventually get around to writing a book. It's about 90% complete as of today. It will be an eBook about a subject I have a passion for and something that will help others.

As easy as the writing part is for me, there were areas where I needed to learn from others who had already written and published eBooks. I eventually came across How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook... in as Little as 7 Days by Jim Edwards and Joe Vitale.

I knew Jim through his excellent website design course (a topic for another day), so I trusted him to lay it all out when it came to writing and publishing eBooks.

If you've ever thought about writing an eBook, you won't go wrong with this book. And why would you want to bother writing an eBook?

I'll save the full story for another time, but a few months back I realized with an incredible clarity that people are willing to pay for good information that saves them time, makes them money or spares them pain.

It was at about that time when I was thinking more about passive income channels. I liked the idea of eBooks because I like to write and there's no physical product to worry about...it's a download.

Most people I talk to about this don't think they have a book in them. They do, and so do you. You'd be surprised how something that you think is so simple is a true mystery for other people.

In fact, one of the nice things about How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook is Jim and Joe help you to see how easy the steps are. It also takes the fear away that many people have about completing an eBook.

And for you beginning designers reading this, an eBook is a portfolio piece. I've had just as much fun designing my eBook as I have writing it. Hard to top a portfolio piece and a money maker when you're just starting out.

One thing I've found as a designer is that my time for design work is finite. In other words, I can only have so many clients at once and that does put a cap on income. (And I take only a few clients at a time so they get the best I can offer.)

So, the thought of some passive income is important to look into for anyone whose income is capped in some way. eBooks are one way and worth considering.

White is good for cowboys, but not book covers

I was on a teleconference with the owners of Dunn & Associates Design. Their speciality is book covers. Chances are you've seen their work at your local bookstore. They said a number of things I found interesting and I'll share some of those things over time.

For now, here's a quick one.

If you're designing a book cover (for print) try to avoid lots of white, especially around the edges. Why? Books get scuffed up and white shows it more than any other color.

You've probably done this before...picked up a book and noticed it wasn't pristine. So you look for a cleaner copy. I know I do this and I'll certainly do it if I'm buying the book as a gift.

I have no idea how the book industry works, but I thought that book-sellers can return books to the publisher for any reason and that's a financial hit on the publisher, not the book-seller. If people aren't buying the book because the cover doesn't look perfect, the book goes back.

Obviously, there are tons of books with white covers. But if you're designing a cover and you have a choice, maybe you should consider steering away from white as the dominant color.

Finding design inspiration in everyday places

At the grocery store yesterday, I was walking by the wine section and noticed a wine called Mad Housewife. I found the name somewhat amusing, so I started looking at the other bottles to see if I could find more off-the-wall names.

What I found was that I was really impressed with the design of most wine bottle labels. Next time you're at the store, take a close look at those labels from the general design to the specific usage of fonts. There are some good ideas there that you could probably adapt in some way on a project.

I suppose you could buy a few dozen bottles, too, and then write it off on your taxes as a "business inspiration" expense. ;)

I guess I couldn't resist

I kind of felt I was the only one who didn't have a blog. I resisted for the longest time because I didn't think I would have anything to write.

But then I remembered that I didn't have any ideas when I started my newsletter. In just a couple of weeks, I suddenly had enough content for two years.

I think you need to bravely jump off the cliff when it comes to blogs and trust that the content will be there once you've made the jump.

Actually, just writing this has inspired a number of things. So here goes....my contribution to an already clogged up Internet.