Depositphotos – Finding Great Royalty Free Photos

A few months ago I wrote up an article on where to find royalty free images, and using Depositphotos. Since then, DP has done a complete web site redesign and continues to add to their selection of photos you can purchase from the web site. I actually just started up a new pet food review blog last month and have been using Depositphotos for nearly all of the the images I’m using on the site. The last thing I want to have a problem with is image and photo copyright, when I’m already putting so much time and effort into a new site.

Let’s take a look at the new Depositphotos site design:

Besides the great new visual look and feel to the web site, it’s actually ten times better the performance and you will also experience increased functionality and navigation. As an active user of the site, it makes a big difference to be able to speed through images and quickly download the ones I need without a hassle.

Outside of the new site design, you will also experience the following updates and changes to the site:

• Search functionality improved
• All image titles are included in search results
• Search bar updated with image type filters
• New site design is fit for all browsing dimensions
• Now available in Italian, Portugal, Polish, Netherlands languages
• Best viewing experience at 1024×728 or higher
• Separate download and description for each file type
• One click purchase / download

New DepositPhotos Search Area

If you’ve been an active user of Depositphotos, you will notice the image search is now faster and displays more accurate images. Once you find the image you want to use, simply click that image, it’s size and “Download”. The file will save directly to your computer and you are ready to go.

The main reason why I enjoy using Depositphotos over other royalty free image sites, is because they are much cheaper than the competition. You can see in the screenshot below, once you select an image, you will have the option to choose what size you would like to purchase. Since each credit at Depositphotos costs $1 each, grabbing the smallest image (which is fine for web sites), it is only .50 credits, which comes out to .50 cents. At DP I only have to pay .50 per image (smallest size), while at other sites I would have to pay $1-$10 each, which is crazy just from web site usage.

Whether you are looking for images for your new web site, or print work, Depositphotos is a great resource for you to use. You can also increase your business and revenue as a photographer by submitting your image portfolio to their web site. Depositphotos is currently holding a promotion for both bloggers and photographers, which offers a free trial subscription for site owners and special deals for high volume photographers.

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Profiting with Content

Content helps drive traffic, boosts credibility and authority, and helps you build a community of followers. It can also help you increase your search engine ranking, and should provide valuable information for readers.

Content can also have an impact on your cash flow if done properly. Here are some simple ways you can profit with content.

1. Write reviews.

You can use content to generate affiliate commissions by writing good reviews on the products you’re promoting as an affiliate. Many people search online for quality reviews before they purchase a product. It helps them make an informed decision about the quality of the product and if it will be useful to them.

When people are reading reviews, they are already in a buying mode. They simply need compelling information to help them complete the sale. If you write a detailed review, from your personal perspective, they are more likely to purchase the product. Include your affiliate link so they can click through to buy the product.

There are several things to keep in mind when writing reviews. First of all, always be honest in your assessment of the product. Describe who the product is for, who it will benefit and also cover who it may not benefit. Also remember to mention anything negative about the product, things you didn’t like. Many people think that giving some negative points will hurt their review, but in truth it makes your review stronger. It shows you are being honest. The things you didn’t like may not even apply to the prospective buyer.

2. List Building.

Use email marketing as another avenue of making money. Give out a free report, an incentive for people to join your list. Make sure it is directly related to your content and the things you share and promote. This gives you another way to reach them and another way to promote affiliate products or your own products.

Never bombard your list with useless promotions or daily promotions. Only send out important content that you think they may find useful and valuable. However, you still need to be consistent with contacting your list. You can send out weekly tips or articles that you write specifically for your list. You do not need to attempt a sale in every email, but you do need to stay in touch with them. Show them you care and over deliver with valuable content.

When you do this, they are more likely to buy from you when you promote quality products.

3. Sell Ad Space

You can sell ad space on your blog or even in your newsletter. If you have a large list of followers, some advertisers will pay you so that they can reach your audience every week.

Make sure the ads are relevant to your list and your content. If you don’t have advertisers you can start with a Google ad and remove those as other sites start purchasing those ad slots.

4. Use Article Directories.

If you have your own product or service, you can use articles posted at directories to drive traffic to your sales page. Use the article as pre-sell material so when the prospect clicks the call to action in your bio, they are already wanting more information. This can increase your conversations from those click throughs.

5. Establish Authority with eBooks.

Ebooks are a great way to establish authority in your niche. If you’re extremely knowledgeable in a certain area, you can write an ebook for people to purchase.

You can sell your ebook from your own website, through Clickbank or you can even have it published on Kindle. This allows you to reach more people in your field.

Sales from ebooks not only boosts your income, but it can also increase traffic to your site which can give you future income,  more prospects to reach out to and help you profit with content.

There are many ways to use content as a means to increase sales. Implementing just a few of them can increase your popularity, your bottom line and establish your credibility. Try some of these methods, give them time to work and see if they don’t increase your income.

Another great thing about content is it can work for you for many years. You do the work once and it keeps working for you.

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How to Use Guest Blogging to Make Your Blog a Success

I can remember clearly when I just started my blog, on the second of April 2010. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing then, but I just knew, somehow, that my blog will grow to a stage where it is read by thousands of people every month. After a few months of blogging, I read a lot of articles giving tips on how to market a blog and drive traffic to it, I implemented as many tips as I came across, but none of them was as effective as guest blogging.

I discovered guest blogging around 2 months or so of starting my blog, and even though I expected it to be just like every other blog marketing tactic I’ve implemented, I was surprised to see my first guest post send me 50 visitors the week it went live. For a newbie, that was much, and I made up my mind to be using guest blogging to market my blog ever since.

8 months later, my blog got to a stage where it is getting 10,000 visitors monthly, and a stage where it is bringing me clients making me thousands of dollars monthly. It’s now 1 and a half years of starting my blog, and it is already getting over 30,000 visitors every month – Yes, that’s 30k monthly visitors, for a blog that is less than 2 years!

While that traffic isn’t that impressive to some bloggers, it is more than what most people achieve in 2 years of starting their blog. Mind you, I’m not trying to paint myself as a genius, because all that would have been impossible if not for guest blogging. Instead, I will be showing you how to use guest blogging to make your blog a success.

Determine Your Approach

I didn’t know much when I started blogging, so I didn’t have an approach. In fact, I hardly really knew what it meant to have an approach, but after guest blogging on blogs of all sizes in the last two years I have come to see how important having an approach can be.

If you want to achieve success with your guest posts, you need to have an approach. In other words, you need to know how you plan to use guest blogging to grow your blog, and how you want to go about it. It won’t be advisable to just start guest blogging on other blogs in your field without an end goal in mind.

For example, in my own opinion, there are two major approach you can follow. The first one is the approach of only guest blogging on big blogs in your niche. That way you will have prepared your blog to be able to convert your traffic in the best way possible. Since most big blogs send 100′s of visitors per guest post, if you are able to land 5 guest posts on 5 top blogs in your niche at an average of 400 visitors per guest post, that will be 2,000 visitors in one month. If you’re able to convert just 25% of the traffic you get from your guest posts on those 5 top blogs you will be able to get 400 subscribers every month. If you continue at that pace you will have at least 4,800 subscribers in the next one year, just from your guest posts.

The second approach is that of targeting small blogs. Since most small blogs will hardly send you any traffic, your main approach will be to focus your guest posts on sending high quality traffic to your blog on the long run. How can this be possible? You will be leveraging SEO.

Search engines value links from other blogs, and by effectively guest blogging on smaller blogs you can build quality backlinks to inner pages on your site. While this might not send you great traffic initially, it can lead to thousands of visitors to your blog monthly from the search engines in the next few months.

Prepare Your Blog for the Traffic to Come

While having the right approach is important, having an approach isn’t enough to make your guest blogging a success. You need to realize that people won’t just subscribe to an empty blog, and a poor blog is just like an empty blog.

You should work on creating your blog in such a way that you can effectively convert a large part of the traffic you will be getting to subscribers. This means you should work on having a nice conversion-focused design. You should work on having a consistent content schedule, and you should have a plan to monetize your blog in place.

The major mistake most people make with guest blogging isn’t the mistake of not writing the perfect guest post, it is the mistake of not preparing their blog for the traffic to come.

Make sure your blog is in the right state to capture the traffic from your guest posts, and you will be able to build your own community of raving fans over time.

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