Every Time You Create A Video You’re Wasting Time And Money With This… Time You’ll NEVER Get Back ...And You Don’t Have To!

The video creation journey involves scouring the web for how to's, purchasing video editing software and writing video scripts. 

You’ve got your script written, you’ve created some type of “shot list” (the assets you need to find for your scenes) to effectively convey your message so your videos are watched and convert. 

Some of these assets need to be images to properly display your text and/or clearly and effectively support your vocals. 

Then, like many, you go to Pixabay, Creative Commons or Pexels for free stock photos. Or maybe you have a subscription to Adobe images, Canva or Shutterstock.

You type in terms like “backgrounds,” “blue backgrounds”, “sunset backgrounds” “cityscape backgrounds” or whatever you think might look good behind your copy to enhance your message. 

Then the scrolling begins…You find one that might work,  so you open it in a new tab; the next one is close, but not quite what you’re looking for, but you open it in a new tab in case you can’t find anything better, then, you reach the end of the images … sadly, nothing is really useable … 

So, you go to another stock photo site and search… Before you know it, you’ve spent over an hour finding 3 images that sort of convey what you want, but probably won’t look very good in your video or with text overlaying the graphics.

This is a common frustration among most video creators.  

And when you add up the time wasted on the search itself, then add the cost if you had to purchase an image, you start to cut into your profitability and your sanity.

If every time you create a video, you waste hours on this simple step, you’re going to get frustrated and quickly stop making videos.

So what’s the solution?

Stop searching for backgrounds you think will convey your meaning but just won’t work.

While a picture may be worth a thousand words, that isn’t true when you add a bunch of text on top of it.

3 Simple Tips To Save Time Searching For Images

Tip 1: Keep Your Image Searches Simple

Simple is better – this will eliminate 90% of images you find on free stock photo sites and save you lots of time. 

Begin your search for single color backgrounds that have some visual interest and allow your text to pop. 

Let’s say you want to use a human in combination with text. Look for an image with a plain background behind a person’s face. Make sure the model’s face matches the emotion you are conveying in your text and make sure there is plenty of space for the copy. Images with people should draw the eye to the face,  then to your text … and nothing else. 

Tip 2: Leverage Your Down Time And “Keywording” Your Images

Take some time when you’re not creating videos to browse stock photo sites or even video footage sites. Download simple backgrounds and save them in a folder grouped and keyworded by color, emotion, style or theme. For example: backgrounds – blue, backgrounds -yellow, People – happy emotions, People – sad emotions; backgrounds – landscapes-sky; backgrounds-landscapes-sand. Get in the habit of properly “keywording”’ your images.

For example, one of our TextDrops (custom designed backdrops for text and images) is keyworded for a clean search ... 

So if i want a blue TextDrop 1280x720 texture

My search will bring up this image as one of my choices

ScratchCircularLinesSubtleSoftTextureBackgroundTextdropsBlue_1280_720

The point is to simplify the process of finding images which will save you hours and hours in your video creation process. 

Browsing images is a great mind break – but set a timer and only spend the allotted time browsing. You may feel more creative and refreshed after 20 minutes of searching for pictures while having a snack, as long as you don’t let it become a time suck. 

Insider Secret: 5 Steps To Locate Images Fast And Effectively Using Keywords

One of the biggest struggles in image search is coming up with the right keyword to more easily find your asset. 

So, here’s an insider secret: When this struggle arises, you can easily leverage the power of paid successful stock image sites. You see, these sites have heavily invested in making it as easy and fast as possible for you to find assets on their sites, so you use their site more and purchase their assets. 

Step 1: Go to Shutterstock.com. Navigate to images,  and search for “textured backgrounds” or “wood background” or “your niche”, or what specifically your message needs for a background.

Step 2: Look at their keyword suggestions. Using those suggestions, narrow your search down to images that support your message. 

Step 3: Find an image that’s close to what you want. And again, look at their suggested keywords.

Step 4: Copy those suggested keywords to a text doc.

Step 5: Go to a free site like Pixabay, Creative Commons or Pexels. 

Use the saved keywords you found on the paid sites to search the free sites. At times, you may even find the same images on the free sites that you found on paid sites. When you find an appropriate image, download, keyword and save. 

Another Insider Secret 

Take your saved keywords and run them through Thesaurus.com and find synonyms for those saved terms. Then run these keywords through the images sites to find more appropriate images for your videos. 

This enables you to widely expand the images you find for your scenes and makes it much simpler and faster then just searching for textures or backgrounds which is how I used to do it :)

Tip 3: A Deal Is A Deal And They Exist With Images

Look for better deals. Find a few image packs created by graphic designers, marketers,etc. These will be more unique then what you see on stock photo sites –Let’s face it, there are certain images we’ve all seen enough to go “Yup, that’s a stock photo!” So, the more creative options are better. 

Often when you purchase these packs or bundles you get a few hundred options that have been well categorized. The cost is cheaper than the subscription based stock photo options. If you pay $30 for 100 backgrounds from a developer, graphic designer, or small business you’re not only saving a bunch of money (most purchased images range from $7 - $15 each from Stock Photo sites), but you are supporting a fellow creator so it’s a win-win.

Plan ahead and gather simple backgrounds and images that are versatile, convey a single, clear emotion and focus the attention on the messaging. Then, save and name them in a way that makes them easy to locate and makes sense to you. This cuts down on the hours you waste before you begin creating your video – and by keeping these images simple, you will achieve a much more professional, effective and engaging end result.

We can get you started on building your library of well-crafted backgrounds for your projects.  Here’s an example of 10 Text and Image backgrounds. They are our gift to you. 

If you’d like these 10 FREE custom designed, purposefully crafted, carefully keyworded TextDrops to use attribution free in any of your presentations, projects or videos ...

Simply click the button below Yes, I’d like 10 FREE TextDrops. You’ll be taken immediately to the download page. No opt-in, email or credit card is required. Just 10 Free assets for your video creation.