Quality graphics for your contests and sponsored promotions don’t have to cost an arm and a leg! Below are several excellent online resources you can use to create your own contest headers, skyscraper ads, and more without breaking the bank.
Don’t have the budget for a professional photographer, but the pics from your smartphone aren’t quite cutting it? There are a plethora of stock photo sites out there with unique stock photos that are free for commercial use. You just have to know what to look for.
Stock Images
When sourcing stock photos, vectors, and illustrations for your content graphics, there are two main types of images that you can use free of charge. Look for either works that are public domain (meaning their copyrights have expired) or those that fall under Creative Commons license CC0 (which refers to works that the designer or photographer has relinquished rights to so that they may be used freely for any applications, including commercial use).
Pexels is a large online database of free stock photos (through the Creative Commons 0 license) that is easily searchable. It allows you to search specific keywords or browse by popular keywords or even by color.
Pixabay, SkitterPhoto, Pikwizard, and Unsplash are also excellent sources for free images through public domain and the Creative Commons 0 license.
If you do have the budget for purchasing licenses for individual photos and illustrations, check out the available inventory on sites like Shutterstock and Fotolia.
Photo Editing
While the sites above feature tons of quality stock images, you may not always find the exact type of photo or graphic that you’re looking for. If a graphic requires some tweaks but your department doesn’t have an Adobe Photoshop license, there are many great online editors you can use at no cost!
BeFunky is a free online editing tool that can turn an average image into the work of a masterful photographer. The program allows you to crop, enhance, fix poor lighting, and more–all with just a few clicks. BeFunky is incredibly easy to use and allows you to save your work directly to your computer, Google Drive, and Dropbox–or even share it straight to your Facebook business page.
Two other excellent free photo editors you may find useful are Pixlr and PicMonkey.
Design
Once you’re happy with your images, there are many great design programs available online that you can use to create ads, ebook covers, email headers, and more at no cost. Sites like Canva and DesignWizard provide templates in a variety of dimensions that fit everything from posters and blog images to tailored posts for Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. both programs allow users to use customize graphic dimensions and also provide free and cheap background designs, graphics, and eye-catching fonts. When you’re done, your graphics can be downloaded for both print and online use.
Other online design resources you may want to check out are Bannersnack and Vectr.
When creating graphics for use with our AMP Contesting product, here are suggestions for optimized graphic dimensions:
- Featured carousel graphics:170×170
- Contest headers: 700px is a good width, with height typically ranging between 200-600px depending on what works best with your design.
Landscape is also an excellent tool for resizing your graphics to fit various specifications, including the different size requirements across social media platforms. Not sure what sizes are needed for social media profile images, posts, and headers? Landscape provides an up-to-date list for all specifications for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more!
All of these are excellent resources for creating attractive, professional-looking graphics that will impress both your audience and your sponsors without putting a dent in your marketing or promotions budgets. Give these online tools a try for your contest headers, trivia graphics, emails, banner ads, and more to design winning campaigns all year long!
| Looking for more easy promotion ideas for an upcoming event or holiday? Want tips for promoting your content on social media? Contact the Syndicated Content Team and tell us what you’d like to read about in future engagement blog posts! |
