I have probably developed over 30 web sites in the past 13 years. And when I say developed, I mean everything from selecting the domain name, creating the logo, coding the site, writing the database queries and most importantly designing the look and feel of the pages. When it comes to this last task, stock photography is a must. Everyone wants a site that catches the eye and that means often buying stock art from one of the major players like Jupiter Images (http://www.jupiterimages.com).
Since my endeavors have been mostly for hobby (or at least that's what my wife says since only two ventures were somewhat successful) buying royalty free stock images can be expensive. Even if a site uses just 3-4 good images, I have paid on the order of $60 per image if it's something I really want. Enter Veer.com (http://www.veer.com). I stumbled upon this site by accident and was intrigued by their offer on the homepage - register for free and get 10 credits to use towards the purchase of an image. Wow, I thought, someone actually giving away a quality product just for me to register with no strings attached. Then I thought their art must be expensive. It wasn't, I found one quality image for just 6 credits and it truly was no strings attached. I also must tip my hat to whomever chose the 10 credit price point. Since now that I have tried the service and like the images, I am incented to buy more credits rather than just let my 4 credits go to waste. In a 10 minute process they got a customer for life.
If you're a wanna be graphic artist like myself give Veer.com a try. They have not asked me to plug their service, but it's worth mentioning on this blog because it gives us a perfect example of making a great first impression. Not every business can afford to give even one of their product away; but with something like stock art which is always in demand, Veer is setting themselves up for another repeat customer. If your business model allows you to give away your product (or part of it - think Gillette razors) to bring customers onboard, don't be shy about exploring this option. Sometimes the best customer service is a free trial. To be honest, the download part of getting my image was not that intuitive on Veer, but the registration process was so easy, that I probably would have called customer support if I didn't figure it out a minute later.
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