Try using a picture that relates to the title of your album. Bon Jovi's 2007 "Lost Highway" album features a highway; Pink Floyd's 1979 "The Wall" features, appropriately enough, a wall. For The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album, widely lauded as one of the most recognized and duplicated album covers of all time, the cover shows the band walking across a road. Disturbed's 2005 "Ten Thousand Fists" shows a drawing of people holding up their fists, and REO Speedwagon's 2002 "The Hits" shows the letters "H," "I," "T" and "S" lying in a jumble.
Another technique is to try being random. Use any object or setting that happens to catch your eye on your CD cover. Pink Floyd's 1973 "Dark Side of the Moon" album cover shoes a beam light separating through a prism. Nickleback's "All the Right Reasons" features a car on a highway, and their 2001 "Silver Side Up" features a crying blue eye. Green Day's "American Idiot" features a hand holding a bleeding, heart-shaped grenade. Sugarcult's 2001 "Start Static" shows a frayed electrical wire.
If you want an option that is a bit more personal, try putting your face on the cover. Eminem's 2009 "Relapse" shows a mosaic effect of his face -- eyes staring intently. On her 1998 release, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," Hill used a drawing of her face. On her 2009 "Fearless" CD cover, Taylor Swift shows a side profile of her face -- curly hair blowing around in the wind. Lady GaGa's 2009 "The Fame" features her face, with diamond-studded sunglasses over her eyes.
If you are considering more than just a face shot, keep in mind that your look is important. To portray the tough-guy character evoked by the album's title, Michael Jackson wears a black leather outfit covered in buckles and zippers on 1987's "Bad." Bruce Springsteen went for the Americana look for 1984's "Born In the USA," using a rear-end shot of himself in worn jeans before a flag background. And Madonna often uses a particular look: a wedding dress for 1984's "Like A Virgin"; western get-up for 2000's "Music"; and a sexy dominatrix outfit on 2008's "Hard Candy."