[This was inspired by an awesome post by our own Jeb Foster on the InsureMe Agent Blog. Make sure you read Is Hack Photography Killing Your Web Site?]
Ladies and gents, it’s time to be honest with ourselves. For too long we’ve been fooling ourselves, thinking we are doing the best we can with the resources we have. But it’s time to shake ourselves out of our delusional bubble and face the facts:
We are using terrible, cheap, pixilated, trashy images on our web sites - and it’s killing our conversions.
Now of course I’m generalizing here. I see many affiliate web sites that have very professional images on them – and for those of you who are, feel free to skip the rest of this post. But for those of you who are guilty of visual crimes against site uses, please read on…
By working with affiliates for almost the last four years I have seen many, many affiliate web sites that cheat themselves out of any chance for conversions by using bizarre, unprofessional, distorted images on their sites. Using poor quality images looks bad on any web site – but in the insurance space, where building trust is key, using poor images can be fatal to an affiliate site.
So what are affiliates doing with their images that is hurting them? Let’s look at some examples:
Resizing Images to the Point of Distortion
The most notorious image faux pas that I see on a daily basis is the resizing and distorting of images to fit them on a site. For an example of what I’m talking about, let’s look at what has to be the WORST banner ad InsureMe ever created…the notorious clown banner:

I love that thing. Ok, so besides the fact that 99.9% of people in this world would never click on that freaky looking banner, the banner itself is displaying correctly. The proportions are correct and the image comes through clearly. This is what banner images on your site should look like (that is, if you are still using banners – if you’re an InsureMe affiliate you should be using our quote boxes instead…hint, hint).
Now that we know what you should do, let’s look at what not to do. In order to get an image to fit where it shouldn’t, many affiliates change the proportions of their banners. Doing so with our happy clown banner makes it look something like this:

Doesn’t look too professional, does it?
My rule of thumb on this kind of stuff is if an image doesn’t fit in a space, either modify and crop it to fit (use a program like Photoshop) or find another image. Not being able to find an image that’s the right size is no excuse for having distorted images on your site.
Just Say No to Animated Gifs
Yes, I said it. And I’m sure someone, somewhere is going to get upset about it. But I’m telling you, animated gifs almost always make your site look amateurish…and amateurish sites don’t convert that well (especially when it comes to insurance).
I’ll admit that animated gifs can be fun, but please, save them for your MySpace page. Because this…

…makes me want to have a seizure, not buy insurance.
Image Overload
I have a theory that there is a percentage of the affiliate community who feel that the most efficient way to make money online is by offering everything from blenders to insurance quotes to underwear all on one web page. Sites like this are usually referred to as “online malls” and almost always consist of a web page with dozens of different banner images on them. While sites like this might work for some industries, trust-based industries (like insurance) don’t fare too well on these types of sites.
Just because you can add a new image or banner doesn’t mean you have to. Every image on your page should help tell a story and motivate your visitors to convert…by barraging visitors with images, you are just going to sidetrack and confuse them.
Stolen and Low Quality Images
Back in the day, stock photos were crazy expensive. Stock photo companies like Getty charged outlandish prices for the use of their images – and no affiliate in their right mind would pay for them. This usually led many affiliates to put low quality and/or stolen images on their web sites. The thing is, low quality images repel visitors, and stolen images are, well, stolen. And if you missed that day in kindergarten, stealing is bad.
Luckily the days of overpriced photo monopolies are over. Today, there are tons of affordable sites that can provide you with professional quality images for the price of a lunch at McDonalds. Check out sites like istockphoto.com and even flickr to find cheap or even free professional looking images that you can use on your next web site.
Here at InsureMe we have a subscription to Photos.com, which is a bit pricey at $700.00 a year, which gives us unlimited access and usage of about 325,000 professional quality photos. If you are looking to build a lot of sites in the next year, it might be worth the investment.
Time for an Extreme Image Makeover
So it’s gut check time my friend. Sit back, look at your web site, and be brutally honest with yourself. Are your images clear, professional, focused and appealing? If not, it might be time for an extreme image makeover. By spending a few bucks on professional quality stock photos you could not only make your site look a lot snazzier, but you could turn up your conversions and turn your site into a money making machine.