A Free Web Site Graphics can Make or Break Your Website

With access to so many free website graphics, it can be very tempting to plaster your website with flashing banners and bright colors. Somehow as you surf around the web, your mind gets conditioned into thinking that's how all web sites should be. Nothing could be further from the truth!

If your website does not load quickly - 10 seconds at the absolute worst - then your visitors will lose patience and click away. Staring at a blank screen for 10 seconds is a long time -- try it and you'll see what I mean, it's incredibly frustrating.

Website graphics can easily reach an enormous file size and they'll prevent your page from loading in a timely fashion. Whilst people may admire a clean design they can read easily, they'll not appreciate your flashy banners, bright colors and poorly coordinated use of color making it more difficult for them to read. Get the point?

The fact is that you probably only need two graphics for many websites - especially if you're selling a product from a one page sales letter website. You can generate a nice clean looking website with nothing more than a "header" panel graphic and software box or ebook cover to represent your product. This is especially true with digitally delivered products -- it helps to make your product seem tangible in the eyes of your customers.

Use images with caution!

Hiring a graphic designer can be an expensive option and can have some hidden charges that you may not be aware of at the time.

Many designers use "stock" images that have to be paid for to make the use of them legal. You just can't take images from the internet for free.

You can be sure they'll pass on the cost of acquiring the rights to use these images as the basis of their design, to you!

If you're having a header image, an ebook cover or software box designed for your site, make sure their are no hidden costs before you enter into any agreement with your designer.

One way to get quick and easy access to hundreds of images that you can use to base your header designs on is a software product called "E Header Generator".

This little gem allows you to create your own custom designed header panel images using a simple "wizard" where you just choose your base image from a library of hundreds - all copyright free - and add your own text & image layers.

You simply press half a dozen buttons, point and click and you're done!

The best part about this software is that it has a companion product to let you create matching 3d software boxes and ebook covers. You could literally set yourself up as a high paid image designer with these two products!

Tips & Tricks To Speed Up
Your Website Load Time

Reduce the size of your image files:

Using a simple imaging program such as Paint Shop Pro you can experiment by changing between gif & jpg formats, scaling the pictures to occupy less screen area and adjusting the compression. This can trim off a lot of excess "fat".

Specify the dimensions of your images in your HTML code:

By simply including height="xxx" and width="yyy" your visitors web browser will draw out and reserve an area on the screen and load the text before returning to load your images. This can have a dramatic affect on the speed at which your page loads.

Use less image files on each page:

This may sound obvious, but you need to understand how web browsers work! Your browser has typically 4 "sockets" each one can download one file at a time. If you have 4 images then each can load simultaneously, but if you have 5, then one has to wait until a socket becomes available.

There is an up to date news desk on the subject of free website graphics here as well. It is an excellent free website graphics resource because it is updated daily.