Now there are loads of different Twitter logos, and I’m sure I could have come up with a slightly better design, but for now, this quick button will fill one of my advert spaces and promote my own Twitter page.

The button is free and can be downloaded here:
Temp Twitter Advert

Although there are now hundreds of such websites, I tend to gravitate towards two, Stock Xchng and Fotolia. Both offer royalty free images and also have very reasonably priced pro images that can be bought for only a few pence/cents.

Bare in mind that some images may have restrictions, but you should find that you can usually contact the owner and get permission to use the images for almost anything — be it personal or commercial work.

Reader Feedback: Do you use royalty free images in your adverts or on your website?
If yes, what sites do you use and why?

Why don’t you try something simple like a silhouette, or a black and white photo? Give it a tweak, maybe boost the Brightness and Contrast and then you will have something a little bit different.

How many colours do you need? Sticking to a single colour or similar colours can have a striking effect – and although there is a little bit of yellow in my example, you can see that using the same colour range can make for an interesting change.

Talking of changes – on the 23 Feb 2008 I will be kicking off a 7 day completion that has some great prizes, so make sure you pop back tomorrow to enter the leap-year special!

Download today’s Photoshop samples – Silhouette (96k) and Green Earth (132kb).

You can also download the Anderson Fireball X font which is used in the Silhouette sample. Other free fonts can be downloaded from the 125Cards download page.

Don’t have Photoshop? Would like a template in another format?
Leave me a comment and I will see what I can do.

It is not complicated, in fact it is only four simple steps, so you don’t need to be a Photoshop guru – you only need to know a few basics.

1) Nice and simple, open Photoshop and create a new document that is 125×125 pixels and 150 pixels/inch. Make sure the Colour Mode is RGB and the Background Contents is Transparent.

2) From the Tools Pallet, use the Round Rectangle Tool with a corner Radius of 8 to draw a box that fills the whole background. If you wish, you can change the box colour by double clicking on Layer Thumbnail.

From the Menu Bar open Layer Styles by going Layer > Layer Style, alternatively you can double clicking on the box layer to open the Layer Style pallet.

Select the Bevel and Emboss style and change the setting as follows. Style: Inner Bevel, Technique: Smooth, Depth: 100, Direction: Up, Size: 1, Soften: 0, Angle: 90, Altitude: 67, Anti-aliased: on and both opacities set to 75 – click OK.

3) Using the Text Tool add your text. In the example I have just used the name and the basic description for the 125Cards website. But you can add what ever you like. Remember – keep it short and sweet, and use colours that make it easy to read.

I have added a little bit of Bevel and Emboss to the 125Cards text just to lift it out of the background. The setting for this are similar to that used for the box layer.

4) Ok, that’s it – check everything, and then using Save for Web, save the advert either as JPEG, GIF or PNG file. For the example I have used JPEG High.

Obviously you can add pictures, logos and different font styles. Photoshop also has a huge collection of effects that you can apply to layers and it is worth spending some time playing with them to see what they can do.

Download the 4 Simple Step sample file (60kb Layered Photoshop file). The fonts used in the sample can be downloaded from the 125Cards downloads page.

If you have any question or suggestions, please let me know via the comments below.

Changing the image is a quick and easy way to keep your advert looking fresh and avoid it becoming overlooked. There is nothing worse than an advert becoming so familiar that it becomes invisible.

It is worth remembering though, just change the background image and not the style of your logo or branding as this could confuse potential customers, visitors and traffic.

Above is a quick example of seasonally themed adverts. They all use the same font for the main text at the top and there is ample space for a logo, branding or a web address at the bottom.

Download the Seasonal Samples (287kb Photoshop layered file) and the font Cookies, which is used for the text at the top of each advert.

Feedback Time
I’d be interested to know if you already use alternative images or styles throughout the year in your adverts, or even if you change the overall theme of your website.

Now if you have a website that focuses on a particular animal related trade, say professional pet grooming secrets, then it would be safe to say you could, if you wished, use a picture of a cat or dog in your little 125×125 advert.

But if you had a site about computers or dare I say it, how to make money online, then a picture of a cat, dog, frog or even a horse is probably the last thing you would want to use?

Unfortunately there are hundreds if not thousands of such errors in judgement out there, and I really think it is about time we all grew out of the little fluffy kitten thing – it’s not professional and definitely not clever… in fact it has never ever been clever. I repeat, never!

Fonts! OK, if you really, really, what to use a picture of an animal, you will probably want to add a slogan or web address. Now bare in mind that the font you use needs to lend itself to the picture. Default Helvetica/Arial might work, but only if it was solid black or white, bold and perfectly aligned, possible with a little bit of horizontal tracking to make it really easy to read. But don’t just slap it on the image – think about composition and colour, and try a few different fonts and positions before deciding.

So to recap. If you want to use a picture of an animal, make sure you have a site that focuses on that animal, or even animals – but don’t talk about little fluffy kittens – please! Try a few different fonts, and stop and think about how it will look before slapping it together.

Download sample Cat and Dog Adverts (layered Photoshop file – 132kb).

Search for Free Fonts – there are hundreds, possible thousands out there.