Small Business News: Big Branding Benefits

Branding is tied increasingly to success in business large and small. While branding might once have belonged more firmly in the realm of big business with larger marketing and advertising budgets, the Internet, social media and other tools and factors have changed this. From personal brands to individual branding for each of your products or services, many small businesses are realizing the degree to which branding is an important aspect of today’s small business environment. Join us as we review important lessons to master in this critical field for the modern entrepreneur. What’s your business brand? Don’t know? Read on…

Branding Basics

Basic branding with Twitter. One of the easiest tools to establish personal or business branding today is Twitter. The microblogging platform allows great flexibility with its 140 character posts. What you accomplish depends upon your strategy and approach. This Twitter Q and A tells you more.Personal Branding Blog

Branding misteps for companies large and small. Just as both large and small businesses now can take advantage of the power of branding, so both large and small businesses can be hurt by the simplest mistakes where their brand is concerned. A Starbucks re-branding this week showed how even the largest and most powerful of companies can suffer from branding missteps. What values are your brands communicating to your customers.Financial Post

Strategy

Using social media for small business branding. Using social media (Twitter, Facebook etc.) is, as suggested earlier, amongst the easiest ways to create a small business brand on a par with larger competitors. Branding consultant Silvia Pencak shares some broader tips you may want to consider when using these tools to distinguish your business, organization, product or service.  Magnetic Look

Sending your small business brand global. One of the greatest potentials for using social media tools to brand your company is the possibility of sending your small business global. Before the Internet and social media, it took a big marketing or advertising budget and representatives around the world to gain global reach for your products and services. Here’s how to use the new media to gain a whole new kind of advantage. Reuters

Self-development

Does integrity boost your branding?  Here are three pieces of advice for building your brand all tied to an integrity-based approach telling others more about who you are and what you represent. Elinor Strutz’s approach pushes it to the limit and demands some soul searching. But when you{re through you should have an honest brand representing your own values and built to boost the kind of business you most want to attract. Personal Branding Blog

New Year’s resolutions for small business branding.Forget about loosing a few pounds or getting into shape! While the new year is still young, make a commitment to loose those aspects of your brand that are not advancing your business and getting your small business brand and the message it sends to your customers in shape. Make a resolution to improve your brand with some simple tips.Logo DesignWorks

Advertising

Interactive trends will change the way we position our businesses forever.Conventional advertising is dead. But a new breed of interactive advertising including mobile communications, daily online deals and an integrated approach to marketing has taken its place. What message do you want to send about your latest product or service and how should you go about communicating?SF Gate

Investment

It’s time to invest in your brand.Investing in your business is always a good idea whether it’s with time, money or energy, but here Kristen Marie Schuerlein is talking about something more. Investing in your brand, as explained above, involves figuring out who you are and what makes you different when attracting customers or clients. Kristen has five good reasons to invest in your brand today. We think you’ll find it worth the effort.SuccessBug

Success Stories

How product reflects your brand.Toronto-based Ella’s Botanicals reflects its values and commitment to locally produced, hand-made products with every bar of soap or bottle of lotion the company produces. Your brand cannot simply be a clever marketing campaign super imposed on a product that doesn’t match it’s image.TheStar.com

Why sharing useful information is often the best kind of branding.  As Marc Kline explains in his post about the connection between branding and providing helpful content,“Remember that branding is not just about what logo you use and tag line you put on your email. These are good for recognition, but what impression or feeling people feel in seeing them is a far more important aspect.” AWebber Communications

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Five Green Business Trends for 2011

It’s wasn’t so easy being “green” when the economy was blue. But as the U.S. economy looks brighter in 2011 – as most hope and expect it will— businesses will be more focused on long-term sustainability.

A key part of that is environmental sustainability.

Environmentally responsible business practices are quickly becoming a top priority for many businesses, as more realize the financial benefits and competitive advantages that come with it. But being a“green business” now and in the future will demand even more transparency over green practices and less tolerance for fuzzy green marketing.

Here’s a look at some green business trends to expect in 2011:

1.    Charting progress and success.Many big corporations like Microsoft and Walmart are creating teams of employees focused exclusively on environmental sustainability and have executives to oversee those teams. This will undoubtedly raise the bar for every company, large and small. More businesses will weave environmental sustainability into their business plans and budgets, writing full-blown sustainability plans and benchmarking their progress. Don’t be surprised to see more businesses devoting sections of their Web sites to describing their carbon- and resource-saving initiatives.

2.    Eco-managing the supply chain.It’s easy to unravel a company’s green image if consumers find out its products are sourced in environmentally unfriendly ways. So companies will continue to dig deeper into the green practices of their suppliers and hold them to higher standards, such ascreating supplier scorecards.

3.    LEDs get more play.As theNew York Times reportedlast summer, some LED (light-emitting diodes) light bulbs’ prices dropped to less than $20 in 2010, and prices are expected to drop substantially over the next few years. With lighting one of the biggest energy costs for so many businesses, a growing number of them are likely to start replacing older, less-efficient lights with LEDs, which use at least 75 percent less energy than incandescents and even less than compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). Moreover, many utilities are introducing rebates to make the upfront costs of LED lighting more palatable.

4.    Greater employee engagement.More companies are realizing they need their employees’ help identifying ways to reduce their environmental footprint. As a result, they will be communicating with employees more frequently about their green practices and soliciting new ideas, using green teams and other engagement techniques.

5.    Smarter green marketing. Companies are alsogetting savvierabout communicating their environmental sustainability initiatives with their customers and the public. More will be engaging their customers in the conversation in creative ways, launching public awareness campaigns about green issues connected to their business and helping their customers see why their green practices make a difference. Don’t be surprised to see more businesses devoting sections of their websites to describing their carbon- and resource-saving initiatives.

What will you be doing different with your green practices in 2011?

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5 Steps to Help Your Small Business Save Money in 2011

It’s the New Year!Time to make all those resolutions about losing weight and walking the dog… but how about taking some quick steps early in January that might save your business money throughout the entire year?

Here are five steps my management team is taking to save us money in 2011:

1. Set the tone.

Your team will take their cues from you, so meet early with them and remind them of the importance of being frugal this year. Getting everyone focused on intelligent thriftiness at the beginning of the year can pay dividends as the year progresses. Remind the team of simple actions they can take to save money, like asking for discounts when purchasing goods and services for the business.

There is nothing wrong with asking; and if you don’t ask you can’t save!

Let them know they should turn off their computers when they leave the office at night to save money on electricity. Then solicit ideas on areas where the company can economize. It’s all about setting the tone and getting your employees bought in.

2. Check subscriptions and recurring charges.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to review your monthly expenses. Small, recurring charges can add up over the course of 12 months. Make sure you are still using all of the subscriptions that you see billed on your corporate card– everything from magazines to cloud services to trade group memberships. If you are not using the product, cancel! And if you are planning on using the service for the entire year try to get an annual plan. Companies often offer discounted annual memberships.

I realized that I had signed up for a couple of services on a monthly basis so I could“test” them – and I had forgotten to buy the annual plan when I started using them regularly! Pull out a couple of your last few credit card statements and looks for savings.

3. Plan for taxes.

It’s never too early to talk with your accountant about tax strategies for the new year. I know you’ll be spending way too much time with your accountant come April, but why not make April 2012 a little better by making sure you are taking all the right steps from the first month of January?

4. Create an expenditure plan.

As a competent business owner, you probably already know a large percentage of the big expenditures you’ll need to make in the coming year. And you likely also have a decent idea of when you’ll need to make these purchases. Put all this down in a spreadsheet, and estimate the dollar amount and the purchase date. Getting all the items on paper will help you visualize your big cash outflows for theyear, and will help you prepare to make more intelligent purchasing decisions.

I find that if I know I’m going to need to make an important expenditure in June, I start looking for deals in March – and can often find discounts, sales or items on eBay. Also, if you know what you are going to need, you will be more thoughtful in how you react to coupons and special offers you get from your vendors.

Finally, remember that the account managers who serve you are likely working on quarterly commissions. If you can pull forward your purchase by a few weeks to the end of a quarter, you may be in a much better negotiation position. But you can’t do any of this unless you plan ahead!

5. Check out Anita’s e-book onsmall business money saving tips!

She lists 75 ways your business can save money and prepare for growth. You’ll find great ideas from saving money on stamps by using your bank’s check payment feature to taking advantage of your kids’ latent tech skills.

What steps are you taking this January to run a more economical business this year? Please share your thoughts below– let’s help each other have a great 2011!

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Small Business News: Your Legal Brief

A big part of running a small business these days involves understanding legal issues, both those that could impact your business directly and those that could affect your market or your brand. This roundup takes a look at a variety of these legal issues and asks how they the affect small business world today. Got something to add? Leave it in the comment section below and help us build a comprehensive guide to small business legal issues today!

Taxes

Plenty of small business challenges ahead with new Congress.Despite passage of a renewal of the Bush-era tax cuts, there are plenty of concerns about a new Congress coming into office this year and about the considerable amount of work yet to be done. As U.S. small business owners communicate with their representatives this year, here are a couple of small business issues you may wish to bring up.AllBusiness

Tips

10 tips for small business legal.  Anytime is a good time for reviewing your small business’s legal position. Certainly there may be different considerations for a huge multi-national corporation than for a small business. But in the end, whether you do regular internal reviews or bring in outside advice, a regular legal tune-up will keep your business running smoothly.Lawyers ABC

Global

Legal brand protection spikes in India.Though legal issues connected to intellectual property and branding are hardly universal the world over, certain moves signify a unification of global business practice especially important to small businesses doing business across many national and cultural boundaries. The increase in India trademark application has many potential implications for the global market. Read one.Thompson Reuters

Hiring

How to hire legal counsel.Anita Campbell, founder and editor ofSmall Business Trendsputs her legal know-how as a former corporate attorney to work in this great post on how to hire and then manage the costs of an outside law firm. Whether you’re a big corporation or the smallest of startups, this primer will give you important tips about how to handle your legal representation in a variety of situations.Small Business Trends

Pitfalls

10 huge small business mistakes and how to avoid them.These errors, while simple to make for the inexperienced, than severely damage or destroy your small business if not carefully considered. You may wish to consult an attorney on some of these issues to be sure you haven’t crossed the line into behavior that could bring about litigation.crowdspring

Trends

5 big changes that could affect your small business.Small businesses face change everyday, changes in technology, the appearance of new competition in the marketplace and rising costs are only some of these. But five new legal requirements may spell difficulty for many small business owners depending upon their business model.FindLaw

More legal issues for small businesses owners.As fast as markets and technologies are changing opening opportunities hitherto unknown by small business owners leveraging the power of the Internet for marketing and networking, a number of legal changes may create significant changes for small businesses., You’ve heard some of these before but they remain crucial to your small business survival.BusinessNewsDaily

Legal Documentation

Pair of entrepreneurs seek to cut down on endless legal documents.Keeping necessary paperwork can be a challenge for legal firms and small businesses alike. One company has turned the solution for this problem into a business model. Now their only task is to demonstrate to the rest of the world that automated legal documents are the path to the future.BostonHerald.com

Indepependent contractor and work for hire agreements.Do you have these agreements in place for those doing work for your business? In a period when information and content have become the currency of much small business, especially small business on the Web, it has become imperative to understand the agreements you have in place.365 Days of Startups

Tech

Why the Internet may make legal costs cheaper.A recent post on how technology is changing and lowering the cost of doing small business pointed to free online legal templates and Websites with legal ads. If this information is going to be free or significantly less expensive online. It means less cost on what used to be a huge expense for small business startup.NuWire

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Top 10 Tax Trends for 2011

Taxes, and taxes for small business in particular, were headline news for a good part of 2010. This is because of the pending expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, the extension of those cuts, and legislation creating incentives for hiring and improving the economy. In 2011, taxes will continue to be an important subject for small business owners, who face a compendium of new rules and regulations. Here’s a look at the top 10 trends in taxes for the year.

1. More e-filing

In the 2010 income tax filing season (for 2009 returns), the number of returns filed electronically reached an all-time high.According to the IRS, 70.37 percent of individuals filed (or had their returns filed through paid preparers) electronically; e-filing should increase in 2011.

For businesses, electronic filing is required for large corporations (those with $10 million or more in total assets and that file 250 or more returns a year) and encouraged for small businesses. E-filing isn’t limited to income tax returns. Businesses are encouraged to e-file information returns and excise tax returns with the IRS and e-file their W-2 forms with the Social Security Administration.

Also, tax return preparers are now required by federal law to e-file client returnsif they prepare at least 100 returns. The threshold will decline to 11 or more returns in 2012.

2. Taxes as a political issue

Tea Party candidates helped to bring tax issues to the fore in 2010. Expect this trend to continue in 2011, as the need for more revenue to reduce deficits continues to dominate the political conversation.

Tea Party sympathizers argue that reducing tax rates will help the economy and ultimately increase tax revenues. Many Democrats have argued that“fairness” dictates higher taxes be imposed on wealthier taxpayers. A new Congress in 2011 will debate tax reform. One proposal likely to be introduced early on by some Republicans is the “Fair Tax,” which would include abolishing the IRS and creating a national sales tax. AFair Tax videoexplains what this tax would mean.

3. More IRS tax audits

As part of the government’s fiscal year 2011,the IRS requesteda 5.33 percent increase in enforcement activities—investigations, examinations and collections. Since the government continues to operate on a temporary basis, actual figures for allocations to the IRS for FY 2011 are not yet set.

4. Continued uncertainty about health-care rules

The fate of the massive health care package enacted last March remains in doubt.

• Courts have entertained the argument that the mandate for all individuals to carry health coverage is unconstitutional; afederal district court in Virginiaagreed that it is unconstitutional. Higher courts should weigh in during 2011.
• Some Republicans have vowed to repeal the health-care package in total or“unfund” certain portions of it.

5. Push to make business provisions permanent

TheTax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010extended a number of provisions that had expired at the end of 2009; the extensions end on December 31, 2011. Congress likely will take up the issue of additional extensions, at least of key provisions.

One key provision is the research credit. The credit was created as a temporary provision by the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. Since then, it has been extended 14 times (including this new extension). Many business leaders want the credit to be made permanent.

6.No AMT reform

The alternative minimum tax (AMT) is a second income tax system that runs parallel to the regular tax system, but has different rates, different exemption amounts and other rules. Individuals figure their taxes under the regular tax rules and the AMT and pay the higher amount. The AMT has been“patched” for 2010 and 2011 by an increased exemption amount, which effectively will keep millions of taxpayers from owning this tax. However, what will happen after 2011? Expect this matter to come under debate in 2011.

The Obama Tax Commission’s reporthas suggested complete repeal of this complex tax system, but unfortunately the cost of repeal ($1.4 trillion over 10 years) is just too high. Simplification to AMT rules is another of the Commission’s options; this likely will receive greater attention, along with another “patch” for 2012.

7. Higher state and local taxes

Many states will continue to seebudget shortfallsduring 2011 and beyond. While there has been considerable spending cuts, revenues are still insufficient and federal subsidies are declining (about $60 billion remains from the funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to help with 2011 fiscal problems, but only $6 billion will remain for FY 2012).

To meet the budget shortfalls, over 30 states have raised taxes, and new tax hikes could be introduced in the next year.

8. Greater crackdown on return preparers

The IRS has taken a variety of steps to weed out uninformed and unscrupulous tax return preparers. It has initiated a new practitioner identification number, orPTIN program, for those who prepare returns for a fee.

In the spring or summer of 2011, it will announce new continuing education requirements and competency testing for preparers who are not accountants, attorneys or enrolled preparers who are already subject to such oversight.

Also, the IRS is continuing its efforts to pursue civil or criminalprosecutionsof return preparers who use questionable practices. Clients of such preparers are vulnerable to examination, making a taxpayer’s selection of a return preparer more critical than ever.

9. Taxes and social media

In an effort to make the subject of taxes more accessible, the IRS has launched a number ofprogramsto expand its reach on the Web:

• IRS twitter accounts @irsnews for taxpayers and @IRStaxpros for tax professionals
• YouTube videos

These social media efforts should ramp up during the tax filing season.

10. More information reporting

The IRS uses information returns to make sure that taxpayers are reporting their income rather than relying on the honor system. In 2011, for the first time, banks and other financial institutions will have to report merchant transactions on a newForm 1099-K. The transactions include amounts processed on credit cards, debit cards, PayPal and other electronic transactions.

Additional information reporting scheduled to begin in 2012 requires all businesses to report payments of goods and services of $600 or more annually to other businesses. Most small businesses, along with the Obama Administration, want this measure repealed as soon as possible; it is simply an administrative nightmare.

Bottom line: Taxes will undoubtedly change in 2011 and in years to come. Stay alert to opportunities that could help you.

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50 Stock Photo Sites for Every Small Business Need

We are visual creatures. We love to take pictures; we love to look at pictures. We like pictures when they are still and when they are moving. A picture isn’t just worth 1,000 words; it also speaks to us when there are no words possible.

Free Photo by PhotoRogue.com

Your blog posts, your marketing materials and your website all need images.  As a small business owner, you probably think that photos come with an expensive price tag, but they don’t have to.  In this post, we highlight 50 image sites and services where you can get photographs and types of images for free or a low cost.

Kave Wallis a graphic design firm that also has a stock photo library. Many of the images appear to be free for the small sizes, but they also offer a full resolution catalog of 1,700-plus photos for $199.

Nations Illustratedhas a unique niche— travel photographs, which are often popular and beautiful and can work well on a business site in many situations.  The downside is the site doesn’t make it clear where the images come from; however, the user agreement states that you may use the images for personal, non-commercial purposes.

Historical Stock Photoshas a great collection of historical photos. However, I could not determine details of copyright or ownership.  I include them because the site also links to the parent company, Image Envision, which is a paid site that you might find interesting if you need historical photos for your business website.

Veeris a free and paid photo site.  Each week they handpick images to put in their free gallery.  (Veer is currently an  advertiser at this site.)  In addition, when you register at Veer they give you image credits you can use in the paid gallery. They have a terrific font gallery, too.  They give you 10 free photo credits whenyou register.

Public-Domain-Photosoffers 5,000 free photos and 8,000 free clip art items. All photos on this website are public domain. You may use these images for any purpose, including commercial.  They advise you to be careful, though, if an image contains logos and products that are trademarked.

Free Digital Photosis a photographer community to help you sell your work.  Most of the images are free, but you can purchase a high-resolution image, if you need it.  The site states: “Download free photos and illustrations for corporate and personal use. Every image is free, with an option to buy high-resolution versions for use in print or graphic design.”

I likePixel Perfect Digitalbecause they explain the“free” rules clearly on their terms of use page and they have tons of cool images. Most of the photos are from amateur and semi-pro photographers and have a genuine look about them, not models or fake scenes.  If you need that natural look, Pixel Perfect Digital is worth studying.

Image Afteroffers a simple search tool with drop-down choices. You can also search by term and as soon as you click the image you like, it brings up options to download.  However, you have to be careful, as there are lots of ads on this site taking you to paid photo sites.  But you can find a good range of free images in their catalog.

Design Packsis aimed at Web designers and offers free stock photo sets, already Zipped up, ready for download. There are 15 different design packs, such as money, bark, rock, light, and other categories. In each“pack” or bundle, there are 10 to 20 photos. There are links to other packs, with free downloads as well. Overall, this site offers more background-type images, but you may be able to use these for more abstract work. The one I liked the most is called Grunge Textures and offers all sorts of earth and element images you could use for free.

Free Fotois one of my favorites from this round of research.  They offer a huge library of images, and state the rules right up front. “FreeFoto.com is the largest collection of free photographs on the Internet (linkback and attribution required).” They offer free online use, with higher quality images available for a fee. However, they do run a lot of advertisements, which can be a bit confusing.

Photo Rackoffers a large catalog of free images. Their terms of use are simple:“All photos at PhotoRack are Free to use for personal and commercial projects. No limitations. No backlink required to use them; however, we really appreciate it if you post about us in your blog.”  The service is organized in a forum structure and photos are then subcategorized within each section.  They mention a search box in their help file, but I could not find it, so you have to scroll through.

Deposit Photosis a fee-based service, but I mention them here because their 7-day free trial allows you to download five images per day for seven days. You have to enter a credit card, but their agreement on thispagestates that you can cancel at any time.

Free Pixelsoffers a smaller collection than some of the other providers here; however, they have millions of views in each category. This implies that they have a lot of quality images and people are spreading the word. I found a number of eye-catching images worth downloading. “Every Freepixels image or digital creation used must retain the domain name: freepixels.com when used on the Internet, in a Web page, in printed publications, or in any product, advertising, or packaging.”  They seem reasonable and will allow you to remove the watermark on the image if you provide credit near the image itself. Read the terms.

Photo Rogueis incredibly unique. I would categorize them as a photo request site.  You can submit a specific photo you’re looking for and a volunteer photographer will go out and try to create it for you. While they don’t have many requests in the service yet, this site could take off and provide an interesting model for both buyers and sellers of photography.

Free Range Stockis another of my favorites in the free stock world.   It is a photographic community supported by ad revenue– photographers get paid when users click on the ads that appear next to their submissions. Images on the site are either shot by Freerange Stock, drawn from Freerange archives, or contributed by a talented community of photographers.

Geek Philosopheroffers a free stock photo page and they request a detailed backlink for use of their free images.

Cepolinais a travel and nature focused site, but has over 16,000 images and also organizes by color for those who want to find a photo to match their website. I found some very good food images here, too. You can download by size, up to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels.

Abstract Influenceis a photography community and reportedly allows members to download free photos, but I couldn’t find evidence of that without joining.  You can see and peruse different photo libraries and categories without joining, so if you’re looking for an original photo this might be a good place to search. (No guarantee that itisfree, however.)

Stock.XCHNGis now owned by Getty Images, but as far as I could tell it was still a free photo site.  SXC has a long history, a great community, and tons of images on their unique site. How big is big? A huge gallery containing over 350,000 quality stock photos by more than 30,000 photographers.

Every Stock Photois a search engine for free photos. The photos come from many sources and are license-specific. You can view a photo’s license by clicking on the license icon, below and left of photos. Membership is free and you need to become a member to download photos.

Imagebase by David Niblackappears to be a labor of love.  David Niblack makes his images available for public use. The images are free and very few conditions are placed on them— read ithere. There are not thousands of images here, but there are some good ones in the people, objects, city and nature categories.

Morguefileprovides free images for personal and commercial work. Their tagline says it all:“Public Image Archive for Creatives by Creatives.” They also offer a way for you to add your own photos to morgueFile so that you can give back to the creative community.

Open Photo. This site has a range of photo categories with plenty of images in each one.  Once you click on the photo you like, you can see the details about copyright, creative commons, and other rights and expectations (such as a link back) in a simple box to the right.

Stock Vaultis a pretty slick site.  When you pick a photo, it brings up the image and details about the photographer. Next to the image is a button that says,“Support this User,” and when you scroll over it, it says,“Buy Him a Coffee.” In the upper left portion, it simply says download and you can get the image immediately.

Unprofoundis a photo site sorted by color. You pick one of six colors or white and peruse a range of photos. You can use a basic search engine on the site, but they advise you keep to simple terms.  This is not a huge collection of photos (it is run by one person), but it offers truly free photos.“This collection of photos is for anyone to use in just about any way they’d like” is what the FAQ states.

Toastois a simple free photo site by one photographer.  You can browse photos by categories such as nature, technology, computing, food, and even by concept and idea. Photos are available on a creative commons license as long your use is non-commercial and attributed to the site.

Photoreeis a photo search engine that searches creative commons licensed photos. In a simple dropdown menu, you can pick the license that is right for you.  This image came from a simple search on“mobile device” and“creative commons, commercial use OK.”

Picappis a widget that you can use on your website to manage your own images or to pull from other image sources (approved by Picapp in its terms of service).  If your site uses images to keep people engaged, this might be a useful service to manage a photo gallery or provide dynamic photo streams on your website.

123RFis a fee-based royalty-free stock photo site, but they have a healthy collection of free images. Like others here, they have a subscription fee payment plan, or you can buy credits for just the images you need. They invite photographers to submit their work.

Dreamstimeis a site offering paid and free images (over 100,000 free ones) after you register. Registration is free, too. You will often find Dreamstime mentioned or highlighted at some of the other sites here in this post because they are a frequent advertiser on photography sites.

Photodropperis a WordPress plugin that lets you add Flickr photos to your posts. It searches for Creative Commons licensed photos– images that are licensed for shared use – and lets you drop them into your posts  right from your dashboard with just one click.

Rgb Stockis a free stock photo site, but built around a community of experienced and new photographers looking to build awareness for their work. The terms of use can vary for each photo, but you’ll see the details to the right of the image when you click to see the larger version.

Photloffers high-resolution images for commercial usage for free. You have to register to download, but it is a fast registration process.  They have a tag cloud on the site that shows you photo categories— the bigger the size of the tag, the more photos in that category.

Images by Photl.com

Dougit Designis one man’s (Doug) design studio that provides breath-taking free photos, wallpapers and textures in high resolution. Worth a visit.  Not a ton of images here, but still a good stop.

Photovacois a good site, and they have lots of stuff to click on, including free templates, free CSS files and free photos, so just pay attention to the photo part and look to the categories in the right column if you want to explore.

Public Domain Imageis a collection of images in the public domain. The site owner explains that he built this collection along with posting his own photographs. It is searchable and organized by category.

PD Photo– I like this site.  Its catalog of free public domain images is solid. Plus, the owner clearly states that unless otherwise noted, the image is completely free. They would like you to link back to the site, but it is not mandatory. Just scroll through the category list on the right side.

Acoboxprovides free images, but they host them for you, so they take the risk of making sure the images are properly licensed or attributed. You pick the image, copy the code snippet, and paste it into your site or blog.

Freeimagesexpresses that they are a fully free site, but asks for linkbacks or other ways of supporting them on their Support page. You’ll find lots of images, simple and detailed, across all sorts of topics from medical to technology, animals to travel, making this site worth a look.

Free Stock Photosis a well organized site. Mixed in with the completely free results, however, are images from Shutterstock and maybe some other paid photo sites. When I clicked on the free images, I was taken to a larger version of the image and details of where it was from (for example, the open clip art library), whether it was in the public domain or its licensing terms.  It is very clear what you are downloading.

High Resolution Texturesis an awesome site. If you want a background or texture, such as stone or metal, or even pasta (yes, as in spaghetti), you should check this site out. Not just for digital use— think about packaging or other print media.

Flickris the undisputed 800-pound gorilla in photo sites.  While not all of their images are available for free, you can do an advanced search and find suitable creative commons licenses.  Plus, if you found a great image, you could contact the photographer and get permission or purchase rights.  In many cases, I’ve seen businesses build a Flickr gallery and make that available on their site because it links directly to the photographer’s site and helps both you and the photographer.  Check into other creative options at Flickr and in their terms of service.

Photogenprovides free, quality stock photography for both commercial and personal use. The aim is to create a valuable resource for designers, bloggers or anyone who needs an image to enhance their website, presentation, homework or print job.

Photo Everywherehas 3,000-plus travel-themed stock images available.

Like some of the free photo sites,FreeMediaGoodoes not make it explicitly clear how they came by the images, but they claim you may use them for free.

Open Photoaims primarily at artists, developers, teachers and students, but through its search function or categories, you can find lots of great images. As you click on a thumbnail, you get a larger image with details about licensing/rights (often creative commons with some form of attribution).

Free Photos Bankis a solid site with lots of images, particularly for business users. They have ads, too, so don’t get distracted. They have a quick navigation button at the top right which can drop you into the section you want.

Fotoliais paid site, but has free images you can download. You have to register to complete a download, however.

Free Digital Photos. Images are free provided you publish a credit to the person who created the image. Instructions for publishing credits can be found to the right of every image– click the“Acknowledgement required” link. If you would rather not publish a credit you must purchase a licence, starting at just $5 per image.

PublicDomainPictures.netis a repository for free public domain photos. You can upload your own pictures and share your work with others.  They do make statements that model and property releases are not standard, so be careful how you use these photos.  However, they are all free for use.

iStockphotois one of my regular stops when I’m looking for an image.  They were one of the first to offer user-generated, royalty-free stock photos, including video, illustrations, vector images, and audio. They also offer flash-based images as well.  You can buy a regular subscription plan or pay-as-you-go.  There is a free photo of the week, too.

Important Caveat:Remember, just because a website has a collection of images does NOT give you the automatic right to use those images.  The owner of any image or photograph has a legal copyright in that image.  Make sure you  purchase the right to use an image, or the image is in the public domain, or the image is under a creative commons license that gives you the right to use that image, or you receive written approval to usethe image from the owner.  Check the Terms of Service of any website.  Never assume you have the right to use an image unless it’s clearly spelled out.  Otherwise, you could someday get a letter demanding that you pay $1000 (or some other large amount) per image, or a lawsuit charging you with misappropriating someone else’s copyrighted material.

We hope you enjoy this massive list of free photo and royalty-free photo sites.  Let us know which ones you use or any that we missed.

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Top 5 Microbusiness Opportunities for 2011

How can you tell a real business opportunity, one with staying power, from last year’s opportunity?

Some fields might seem hot right now but, for many, there’s a good chance that the real opportunity was over five months ago and the field will be totally glutted by February.

Then, too, the opportunities that shine like a beacon for larger firms might not work so well for microbusinesses.

So, how do you find microbusiness opportunities with staying power?

Microbusiness opportunities often build from everybody else’s opportunities. If one of the big trends to watch in 2011 is travel and tourism (at least,according to Entrepreneur.com), then the microbusiness opportunity lies in providing the personal touch–for example, via a B&B or by supplying the handcrafted soaps used by the local Big Tourist Hotel.

As I look over thatEntrepreneurarticle, I see a lot of the same trends I’ve been seeing over the last couple of years. There continue to be business opportunities attached to Baby Boomers, social media, health care and clean energy, among other things. The big difference in 2011, though, will be not what you do but how you do it.

So, let’s start at the top.

1.Experiential products and services.This overarching trend will impact everything else in the consumer economy. This is not necessarily about changing what you sell, just changing how you sell it. People have, experts say, entered a new period of austerity… but not really. What it means is that people don’t want to collectstuffanymore. On the other hand, theywillpay for experiences because they last longer— a lifetime, in fact. From a marketing point of view, that means you need to go beyond the features vs. benefits meme and focus on experience (emotional) over benefits (material).

2. For the technically inclined,mobile apps (and especially phone apps)for business are very hot. Added benefit: This opportunity is not anywhere near glutted yet. Microbusiness programmers might consider developing low-cost phone apps for their fellow microbusiness owners; that fortune at the bottom of the pyramid is not to be sneezed at.

3. Another technical B-to-B niche that’s very hot right now isWebapps for business, especially small business. Once again, if you can develop a product that is affordable for microbusinesses and will save them time or money, you’ll have that niche almost all to yourself. Too many developers chase the small business market but run from the microbusiness market, so the field is wide open.

4.Marketing services, believe it or not, are back and big but, once again, it’s all about the specifics. Social media is gathering momentum, and some creative people (like the folks behindSwipely.com) are combining it with e-commerce in interesting and profitable ways. The same goes for mobile marketing, which is still pretty leading-edge and has a bright future ahead of it.

5. This one is a bit of a blast from the past:fitness products and servicesare making a comeback. (I’m reminded of Huey Lewis’Hip To Be Square.) People are still busy and always on the go, so the challenge here is to develop fitness products that can be used anytime, anywhere. Promising variations include small group training and home fitness products. Above all else, find a way to connect to your customers and make it an experience!

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