You Guide to FREE Stock Images – Part 3/3

2017-10-16

Categories: Oracast News, Web Applications, Web Design

What would a FREE Stock Image Guide be without giving you a list of our favorite websites?! No guide at all, that’s why we’ve done the legwork and have listed out Top 10 FREE Stock Image Websites.

But before you read on, if you haven’t seen the first two parts of this guide make sure you check them out too:

  1. Licensing Rights: what you need to know to make sure your images are used within their legal allowances
  2. Sizing: What are you going to use this image for, and what size should you buy?

 

Oracast’s Top 10 FREE Stock Image Websites

1. Pixabay – pixabay.com 

a.  Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist – even for commercial purposes.

b.  Over 4100 high quality vector graphics & images

2. Pexels – www.pexels.com

a. Pexels provides high quality and completely free stock photos licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. All photos are conveniently tagged, searchable and also easy to discover through their discover pages.

b. Over 30,000 free stock photos

c. 3,000+ new images added every month

3. StockSnap – stocksnap.io

a. All photos uploaded on StockSnap are released for free under CC0 and do not require attribution.

4. Unsplash – unsplash.com

b. Over 200,000 free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos brought to you by the world’s most generous community of photographers.

5. Kaboompics – kaboompics.com

a. Photos from Kaboompics appear on sites like BBC, CNN, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, Yahoo, iSpot, BuzzFeed, Hubspot, The Huffington Post, Lifehacker (Polish: Onet, WP, Eska, Polskie Radio, Antyweb) and even PornHub (thankfully that was an April Fools’ joke).

Kaboompics is one of the most popular source of free images for lifestyle, interior design and specialized bloggers in World.

b. Not allowed to sell images without consent.

6. Gratisography – Gratisography.com

a. Images created by experimental visual artist Ryan.

i. Model Releases

ii. Commercial and personal use

iii. Ability to adapt and modify.

iv. Cannot sell the images.

v. Cannot redistribute, claim ownership or imply endorsement.

7. ISO Republic – isorepublic.com

a. ISO Republic provides free stock photos for creative professionals. This website was founded in 2014 by Tom Eversley, a designer and photographer from England. Since their launch, ISO Republic has published over 3,000 free images, with more being added on a daily basis.

b. Free for commercial and personal use

c. No attribution required but appreciated

d. Model release not provided

8. Pic Jumbo – picjumbo.com

a. In 2013 Viktor Hanacek created this stock photo site called Pic Jumbo with free pictures that are today used by millions of bloggers, designers and marketers all around the world

i. Free for personal and commercial use

ii. Redistribution not allowed

9.  Burst – burst.shopify.com

a. Burst is a free stock photo site that is powered by Shopify. They have 1000s of high quality and royalty-free images available and free to download. This includes a wide variety of images ready for you to choose from and create with. They built this site to empower designers, developers, bloggers and entrepreneurs to create stunning websites and marketing campaigns. You can use these pictures for just about anything — hero images on your blog or online store, backgrounds for school projects, shots for social media campaigns, client work, and beyond.

i. Free for personal and commercial use

ii. Attribution not required but encouraged

10. Negative Space – negativespace.co

a. Each of the high-quality photographs you find here has been taken by a photographer from the Negative Space community. They have something for everybody, so be sure to check out our categories: Abstract, Animals, Architecture, Business, Black & White, Food, Landscapes, Nature, People, Sport, Street, Technology, Transport, and Work.

b. CC0 License

Other honorable mentions:

https://freestocks.org

https://Pictography.co

https://mmtstock.com

https://skitterphoto.com

https://www.lifeofpix.com

https://shotstash.com

<Read Part 1>
<Read Part 2>

You Guide to FREE Stock Images – Part 2/3

2017-10-10

Categories: Oracast News, Web Applications, Web Design

Welcome back to the second section of our 3-part FREE Stock Image Guide. In our previous article, click here, we discussed understanding licensing requirements. Did you miss it? Make sure you have all your bases covered before you choose an image.

Now that you have chosen your image and you’ve double checked the licensing rights, you’re probably wondering “what size am I supposed to download?”

The short answer: the LARGEST file

But there’s more to it than that. Read on…
<Read part 3 now>

Your Guide to FREE Stock Images – Part 1/3

2017-10-03

Categories: Oracast News, Web Applications, Web Design

You’ve seen websites, magazines and ads, and there was a part of you that connected to it. There was a big beautiful crisp image that caught your attention, followed by the text that got you thinking about what the business wanted you to focus on. Simply put, the correct image can be a captivating and powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.

If you’re anything like our clients (or any business owner for that matter), you’ve wanted to emote the same response in your marketing. To Google you go, but where to start? It can be easy to get lost in the online ocean. Don’t worry, we’re going to let you in on a few of our secrets.

There’s so much to consider when selecting marketing images. It’s not enough to find stunning imagery, you also have to consider licensing rights, sizing and costs. Unfortunately, there is a stigma with free images. Many people assume free images means low quality or a lack of commercial rights. This simply isn’t true.

With all of this in mind, we were inspired to write a 3-part guide to cover the ‘must-knows’ of Free Stock Images. This series will cover:

  1. Licensing Rights: what you need to know to make sure your images are used within their legal allowances
  2. Sizing: What are you going to use this image for, and what size should you buy
  3. FREE: Our Top 10 list of FREE Stock Image websites.

Licensing Rights

Whether you are purchasing or downloading FREE stock images, you have to be certain to use the images within your legal rights. Here are the things to consider when using FREE stock images:

1. Is the FREE Stock Images being used for personal, commercial or both?

Don’t know what the difference is between personal and commercial? General rule of thumb: if you are going to make money off of using the image in any way shape or form, consider it commercial.

Make sure to double check the licensing rights for the image. Some images are only free if they are being used for personal use. How can you tell if you can use the free image for your purposes? If you go into the image it will tell you the terms and use of the image.

PRO TIP

Instead of falling in love with an image and realizing you have to pay for commercial use, or that it’s personal use only, use the website’s search filters, this will avoid running into this issue.

2. Are there additional copyrights, property rights or trademarks that need to be considered?

Some images have Apple MacBook laptops, Nike jersey’s, buildings with design copy rights etc. These images may require thirty party consent or license agreements to be used. Alternatively, the image may need to be modified in order to render the brand unrecognizable.

Every watch a movie or TV show and someone is clearly using a MacBook, but the Apple logo is covered by a sticker, that’s an example of rendering the BRAND unrecognizable.

3. Do the photos require attribution?

Attribution: The action of regarding a quality or feature as characteristic or possessed by a person or thing?

Translation: Some images require you to reference the photographer/artist.

IE: Photo by John Cast

4. Is the website you’re using licensed under the CC0 Creative Commons 0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication?

First off, what does that even mean? Here’s the technical answer:

  • The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.
  • In no way are the patent or trademark rights of any person affected by CC0, nor are the rights that other persons may have in the work or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.
  • Unless expressly stated otherwise, the person who associated a work with this deed makes no warranties about the work, and disclaims liability for all uses of the work, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.
  • When using or citing the work, you should not imply endorsement by the author or the affirmer.

So, you’ve:

  1. Found your image
  2. Know it can be legally used for your purposes

Now what?

  • You need to decide what image size to download and use in different settings!

There are a LOT of different things to consider when it comes to what size you need to download. We’ll cover image size in the next segment of our 3-Part FREE Stock Image Guide.
<Read part 2 now>

Business Advertising Budgets and DIY Tips

2016-11-15

Categories: Search Trends, Mobile Optimized Web, Pay Per Click Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Web Applications, Web Design

If you own a small to medium sized business, you may wonder how much to spend on advertising. What return on investment can you expect from hiring professionals with years of experience in the game? You may also be considering what aspects of marketing may be worth pursuing “in-house”?

First of all, depending on which industry your business is in, companies should spend approximately 5% of total revenues on marketing to maintain their current position.

If you would like to grow your business, the marketing budget needs to increase, usually to at least 10% of revenues.

Highly competitive markets such as retail and consumer products will need to fork out many more dollars to keep and grow their market shares – more like 20-50%.

Using this general rule of thumb, you can calculate a reasonable marketing and advertising budget for your business that fits with your business plan and goals.

Advertising Budgets

This is the equation from frog-dog.com:

  • Total Revenue x 5% = Marketing budget required to maintain current awareness and visibility
  • Total Revenue x 10% = Marketing budget required to grow and gain market share

Implementing a solid online marketing strategy that includes components such as PPC advertising, search engine optimization, mobile apps and a responsive website, can yield massive market gains.

Take this testimonial from Oracast clients Shell Canada for example:

“The web application that Oracast built us has paid for itself hundreds of times over, and we continue to add features each year to improve our operations.”

Or this testimonial from Snowvalley:

“The build of our new website better reflects our company and is much more helpful to our customer base, as seen by the growth in the number of website viewers increasing by 20%!”

There is no doubt getting experts to work on your business for you can produce profitable results, but what if you have a very limited budget? What can realistically be done in-house?

We recommend that if you do have the time and in-house resources, some aspects of marketing can be achieved successfully. These include an email marketing campaign, social media marketing, such as regularly posting on your Facebook and Twitter pages, and regularly posting on your blog.

No one knows your business better than you do, and positioning yourself as an expert in the field via content marketing can go a long way. If you need to find or create graphics or video to go with the content marketing, we recommend tapping into the endless resources and advice online. A word of caution: do your research and get some basic skills down before going ahead on your own. Take a copywriting class. Learn how to handle graphics, file formats and file transfer protocols if you haven’t had a lot of experience with that already.

Creating a great website or mobile app, doing SEO well, running a PPC ad campaign all involve steep learning curves that usually require a whole team of diverse and skilled individuals that have years of experience to execute well. These aspects of marketing are better left to a well-rounded team.

Good luck! And if you do need a little help along the way, Oracast has the years of experience and diverse team you may just be looking for.

Why Information Architecture and User Experience Is Important

2016-07-07

Categories: Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Web Applications, Web Design

Information Architecture (IA)

What is information architecture (IA)? As per Wikipedia, it’s “the art and science of organizing and labeling data including: websites, intranets, online communities, software, books and other mediums of information, to support usability”.

IA is an important part of website development. It will impact the user experience, the conversion rates and search engine optimization. Understanding keywords and how people search for information online will help when organizing website content. The goal is to create a website people will want to revisit.

User Experience (UX)

UX is how a person feels when visiting a site. How easy the site is to use, the value the site offers visitors, visual appeal and interactive elements all play a role. Search engines take user-friendliness into consideration when ranking a website.

Website Development Phases

The first phase of website development is the planning phase. During this stage we collaborate in gathering information about your ideal clients, create SMART goals, develop a marketing strategy and establish calls to action. This information will be the foundation upon which we build the website.

It’s important we have a clear understanding of who your user’s are and what needs they have when visiting your website so we can meet their needs and develop a great user experience for them.

Once this information is gathered we create the website structure. This may include the keywords, sitemap, and a wireframe which is a simplified sketch of the website navigation and layout. All the content and photos will also be collected in this phase so that it can be organized into the appropriate spaces.

The next phase of the website development is the design phase. The designs are submitted for review to our team and the clients, and all necessary changes and updates are made.

Once the designs are approved the programming phase is complete, more testing and reviews are conducted to ensure each element of the site is working to plan and that it meets the goals and objectives set out in the planning phase. End users are kept top of mind through-out each phase of development to ensure an amazing user experience for all.