There are three major problems common to background images: The image is too busy The image doesn't wrap properly The image is too large to load For a background image to be effective, it's important that it load quickly, not interfere with the text, and wrap around in a fashion which is fluid. You can have a very fascinating background image, but if it interferes with the rest of the web page, then it's going to cause problems. It's best to keep away from flashy backgrounds unless all the links on your page are images. The Vertigo page is an example of a page with a very flashy background that doesn't actually interfere with the text. However, this is the sort of background I use very rarely. My advice is to use more subtle backgrounds, such as the one on songweaver.com or the one shown here. In both these cases, the images load quickly (neither is more than 6k), and add dimension to the pages without distracting attention away from their content. Finally, a common problem with background images is simply their size. No one wants to wait 3 minutes just for a background image. While you might think it says "hey, look at the cool stuff on my page," what at it really says to people is, "hey, your time is simply not as valuable as my desire to do something which I think is impressive." If your background image is more than 20k in size, you should seriously rethink its value (I get personally squeamish with backgrounds which get larger than 10k)