In this article we will discuss clip art and its application in building an affiliate business.
The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition has the following definition:
clip art n.
Ready-made pieces of printed or computerized graphic art, such as illustrations, borders, and backgrounds, that can be electronically copied and used to decorate a document.
Where and how to use clip art
Adding small, interesting and relevant images to your site, can help your readers digest your site's valuable content. Since a certain portion of your site's visitors are people who respond to visual cues, using art can increase the value of your site's content.
You will hear graphic designers and communications experts criticize lip art, claiming it is crude and too vague to be useful.
But there are some experts, such as Robert E. Horn, author of "Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century," who consider clip art to be the key to communicating visually in the future.
Horn points to the widespread use of pictograms and icons, and predicts that as clip art improves in quality and becomes easier to get, it will become an essential part of business communication rather than an annoying distraction.
Additional applications of clip art include:
- Decorative titles and headers to identify different web pages
- Web page background or coordinated background sets
- Navigation bars, menu buttons and interfaces for site navigation
- Divisions and separations between content
- Decorative Text and fonts to make selected content stand out
Clip Art is easy to find, just do a search for clip+art with your favorite search engine. (Search with Google)
Clip art can be bought as individual pieces or as a collection. Purchasing a collection will alleviate copyright concerns and give you a variety of images to choose from.
Clip art is also available free on many websites. Be careful to check the site's copyright info and to follow any instructions about use restrictions. Many sites that "give away" clip art want something in return (i.e., a link to their site, a comment in your source code indicating the origin/owner of the image, etc.).
Frequently you'll find that free art is of lesser quality and very limited variety compared to some of the commercial sites. Considering the assortment and the quality of the images, you may find that commercial sites offer very good value for your money.
Sources we recommend:
ClipArtInc, Royalty-Free Clip Art and Animations
BoxedArt.com
There's also an affiliate business opportunity in clip art which we'll discuss in Part Two of Clip Art
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