You need to sign up for the link shortener service and then add your Cutcaster user ID to your profile in the Picz.us system (your user ID is the 9 digit number in your public profile link or any of your referral links for Cutcaster). Now, if you make a short URL to any image, search page, or other section at Cutcaster, your link is updated to include your referral/affiliate ID automatically and the visitor is sent directly to the long URL (like bit.ly) and you get credit for the referral.It’s now even easier to make money for sharing your Cutcaster links on Twitter, Facebook or any other social media site.

Try out the new service and share your Cutcaster portfolio and images with the world and at the same time get rewarded with cash for sending traffic back to your photography or illustrations.

To download any graphics or images from Cutcaster, you do not need to register for an account and simply need to search for an image, add it to your cart and then checkout with any major credit card. In addition Cutcaster offers site credits that can be used to download images and illustrations from the site at discounts.

“Where can I find images or clip-art I can use on my blog?”

We hear that question a lot on Twitter, Facebook and Myspace, so we wanted to add some helpful information and tips about it to our design and photography blog.

Most bloggers or authors begin their photo search on Google Image Search by typing in a few keywords to locate images they want to use on their blog. While you will find some creative images, most image searchers find the quality to be not great and in some cases the photos can be copyrighted. Some risk-takers will use them nonetheless, thinking they can get away with using poor quality or copyrighted content.

In addition, there are a number of photo sites and photo search engines that will help you find royalty-free images that include Flickr, Wikipedia and a few others. The quality might not always be great but the sources can be useful when looking for something specific.

Another good place to search for images for your blog are royalty free sites that charge you a few bucks for the rights to use that image for as long as you want like Cutcaster. You pay a dollar or two and can use the image legally in perpetuity which is a fancy word meaning forever.

You are probably asking yourself why you would pay a couple of dollars or microstock prices to use an image for my blog. “There are free photo resources out there, why should I pay?” But take a look at the quality and diversity of Cutcaster’s image library and then you will understand why the images there will help get your point across.

For blogs, the inexpensive images can be used for a few bucks if you download the small to medium sizes. That size will be the perfect size that you will need for your blog post. Bloggers that include images as a part of their blog post engage with their viewers better, get more comments on their blogs and get better search engine rankings if you use the embedded image metadata, which comes with every file you download from Cutcaster, to describe your images. This helps search engines find your posts via text within the post and the text you use to describe your images. It is a double win. Your readers get a visually appealing blog to enjoy and the search engines have another way to describe and find your blog because you have included metadata to describe your photos.

If spending a few dollars is not what you want to do, then Cutcaster does offers free images and free illustrations for bloggers and any other photo buyers. You will find suitable photos there. You can download 10 free images a day or 300 images a month with a free subscription.

For further information on using images on your blog and what the differences are between free and royalty free images are visit Stock Photo License.

It’s Monday and everyone is dragging a bit. To kick-start the week off right, Acris Design posted a great selection of Photo-shopped art that will make your eyeballs love you and your mouth water with excitement. If you need a little inspiration to kick off the week check out these 35 Photos to jump-start your creativity.

Tap into a wide-ranging collection of editor-reviewed imagery, including professionally shot and user-generated photos, vectors and illustrations. Cutcaster adds thousands of pictures and clipart each day.

More bang for your buck

Our flexible buying options stretch your budget as far as your creative imagination. You’ll get flexible payment plans, discount codes for purchasing photo credits and broad legal protection against copyright claims.  Keep enjoying Cutcaster’s popular feature that allows you to do transactions by credit card without forcing you to buy credits in advance. For those of you who like the price savings of buying with credits, we will offer smaller packages of credits for your convenience.

Cutcaster makes it easy

You’re hands are tied enough with deadlines and budget constraints. Our plans are simple to understand and our site is easy to use. Just buy and use. We built a streamlined site with one hell of a search engine that puts all the images you want right at your fingertips – anytime of the day.

Here are the top three extra sources of revenue that we found to be the most interesting for our readers.

1. For obvious reasons- Stock/Microstock
As you are shooting an event or a portrait, why not spend a little extra time creating stock images? Microstock may not pay well per image, but add it up over time with a bunch of different images selling well, and you’ll quickly have a very effective stream of income.

2. Training
Why not teach your clients how to use their digital cameras better? Or bring them in for a fun craft project involving their portrait experience? Great add-on sale with a portrait experience.

3. Affiliate
Many different product and service businesses offer partnership opportunities where you make a commission if you bring in a sale. While it may not be much, every little bit helps. And if you end up bringing in $100 from to different partnerships every month, it quickly becomes a pretty significant part of your monthly revenue.

Can your metadata be re-written by this app?

David Riecks over at Controlled Vocabulary, sent out an email talking about a “MetaEditor,” or an application to “edit IPTC metadata info on your iPad.”  Not a good thought.

He notes, that the details of the application’s review from Cyril Godefroy’s blog are a bit sketchy, because it’s not clear whether this is IPTC only, or XMP.

Can anyone with and iPad check this out or verify it so we can check?  We’d love to help get to the bottom of this.

Download the above tablet with digital pen illustration at Cutcaster.

“Get Back In Your Book” by Lissy Laricchia

Photographer Lissy Laricchia recently photographed a series of different fairy tale characters getting sucked back into their respective books while flying through the air. We are digging the concept and dream-like atmosphere that the images give off. Check out the “Get Back In Your Book” by Lissy Laricchia over at DJ storms blog and watch out your don’t get sucked in yourself.

Stylish Empty Theatre

Ever wondered how to create an elegant theater interior with Illustrator to put into your powerpoint background or slideshow. Here is a step by step tutorial, detailing the process for designing the theater interior in a few steps.