Archive for January, 2008
Oh my stock, photos that suck
Almost every website with any resemblance of professionalism uses stock photography. Although it is usually very high resolution, it is so often very low in realism.
Do people actually respond to fake, photographs? Only your own testing can tell for sure, but one thing’s for certain, if the images on your site are actually unique and speak to your customers, you have an advantage over everyone else.
Here’s my favorite examples of the too-stock photography that we see everywhere!
The collaboration
Great ideas come from conflict and discussion, not cooperation. If everybody’s happy, then chances are nothing is getting done.
The corporate team
When you take a picture of a bunch of models in business suites, you end up with… A bunch of models in business suites!
The business professional
Hmmm. Just out of college and standing around dreaming. My advice is to stop standing around and get to work.
The customer service rep
If it were this much fun to work in a call center, they wouldn’t have the highest turnover rate of any job.
The grunge factor
Nothing says professional like a scruffy face or a crumbling wall…
However, You shouldn’t take this as a recommendation to put a bunch of low quality pictures on your site. But, trying to find some realism isn’t a terrible thing.
Do this:
- Show realism!
- Connect with your visitor!
- Don’t choose a photo just for a pretty face!
- Choose photos that have some relation with your service!
- Use only clear, sharp, and high quality photos!
- Take time when choosing any stock photo for your website. Make sure you can easily explain why you chose that image!
Here’s an interesting article about how people in photo’s can affect your website’s conversions.
Starting a new business, 5 reasons to avoid Microsoft now!
If you are a new online business owner, one of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to not become a whore to Microsoft, their high cost, and their ludicrous licensing system.
Since most of us started with Microsoft Windows it’s natural to assume that they are the only viable company that can provide software for our business computers. What you will find especially if you can grow into a medium size business with several employees, is that Microsoft is truly an evil company, and your business is far better off without them. I don’t just mean that your web server should not be running Microsoft, but if you have the capacity to, I recommend not installing a single piece of Microsoft software in your entire business.
There’s millions of people that make the Microsoft sucks claim, but here’s why you should avoid them with your business: Click to continue…