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  • Essentials of Search Engine Optimization

  • April 8th, 2010
  • What is Search Engine Optimization?

    Search engine optimization is the process of writing a webpage with the right Meta tags in the appropriate parts of a web page to be crawled by web crawlers, web spiders, and web robots later to be indexed on search databases to be searched by internet users or consumers.

    Why is Search Engine Optimization important?

    SEO services should be a necessary part of running and maintaining a website for your business. It has been estimated that over 75% to 86% of all internet users use search engines to find products, services, and obtain information. If you plan to have visitors on your website, to sell products or to promote products, this is the best way to gain traffic. This is because it is the way to reach more people on the internet.

    How long is the Process?

    SEO Service takes time mainly because it takes a while for web crawlers to get your website crawled before indexed in databases. Sometimes it can take up to 9 months, in an ideal situation the wait period is 6 weeks. The process of optimization for higher rankings can take about 2 months.

    Benefits

    In the long run, you will gain increase in web traffic, increase sales, and your website will be frequently crawled by web robots this will aid in link popularity and link visibility – this means your website can be easily found on the web. Compared with pay per click advertising, SEO service is way cheaper.

    What is the challenge?

    The challenge is, knowing your industry toward finding appropriate keywords, and making the web page or web site both search engine and user friendly.

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  • Easy Brochure Design Tips That Work

  • April 7th, 2010
  • Easy Brochure Design Tips That Work

    All of us would like to think our product is so good, our services so unique, they’ll simply sell themselves. Not so! Strong branding, powerful images, compelling web pages and outstanding marketing pieces make or break that upward sales curve you crave so urgently. In today’s market, your customers and clients are influenced more than ever by the visual presentation of your marketing pieces.

    For example, a powerful brochure design will more likely to be read, remembered and respected. Here are such simple, but essential tricks of the designer’s trade that you can use immediately, at little cost, to improve your brochure design.

    1. Take advantage of quality clip art and stock photos

    Chances are you’re not an illustrator or photographer, but that shouldn’t stop you from using professional illustrations or photos in your marketing piece. You can use clip art—sometimes at a very low price—to enhance your layout. Check out the Internet for sites that feature clip art or stock photo libraries that provide a wide variety of quality and prices to choose from. Use the same style of graphics throughout your brochure design to create a consistent look.

    this is a more visual design technique. This type of graphic design belittles text in favor of a compelling and well-designed cover. For example, a brochure about child exploitation may have a very powerful picture of children being forced to work in the streets. The picture alone, compelling as it is should be enough for people to pick up the brochure. The only problem though with this technique is that you have to be good at taking or creating images and photographs.

    2. Jazz up your layout so your most important points stand out

    The attention seeker design is basically the technique that uses questions. For example, a brochure that has the words “Are you depressed?” on its cover is an attention seeker design, & Break up monotonous lines of text with attractive “pull quotes” or “call-outs,” which make critical information stand out on the page. To create a pull quote, just copy a provocative or challenging statement from your text and paste it into a different position on the page using large, contrasting type and this type of lines asks people about its issues to attract attention. It is a simple and very powerful technique that does target the particular readers you want quickly. It is perfect for brochures that are part of awareness campaigns where you want to target specific people to give information to. Add decorative quotation marks, border it with lines, or place it inside a box to jazz it up.

    3. Repeat certain elements

    Good design calls for repeating certain elements throughout your piece to make the whole piece come together visually. For example, use the same color, shape, and size for all your bullets. Also make all your headers the same size, color, and font. Repeat specific graphic elements such as boxes, banners, and rule lines throughout the piece. A word of caution: When you review your work, make sure you’ve used all of these design elements consistently and the classic corporate design is the mainstay of post public relations and client relations color brochures. This design involves clean and crisp lines, simple colors and the judicious use of the company logo. While this may seem boring, it is actually the style that is most in use today. It is a safe mode of designing that should always be part of your retinue of design proposals.

    4. Pay attention to proximity

    Proximity refers to the exact spatial relationships between elements. For example, you create visual relationships between photos and their captions by keeping the captions close to the photos. For subheads, a pro positions them closer to the text below than the text above. Apply this principle of exact spatial relationship to all other graphic and text elements where appropriate. When you review your work, make sure you’ve applied this spacing consistently throughout.

    5. Know when to use serif and sans serif fonts

    In general, when you have a large amount of text, it is best to use a serif font because it is easier to read than a sans serif font. Serifs are the tiny horizontal strokes attached to the letters which help the reader’s eyes flow from letter to letter. Bold sans serif (without serifs) are good for headlines and subheads because they slow the reader down thus bringing more attention to each word or concept. Some examples of serif fonts that are good for body copy are: Times, New Century Schoolbook, Garamond and Goudy. Some examples of sans serif fonts that are good for headlines are: Arial Bold, Helvetica Black, Univers Bold and Trade Gothic.


    6. The symbol brochure –

    Another great design technique. This kind of design involves using one very memorable symbol at the cover of your color brochure. This can be an embossed logo of the company, or an intricate picture of the product that is being sold. Symbols usually stick in people’s mind and they will have an easier time recalling your brochure because of it. This is a great type of design if you want to promote one particular product or concept.

    7. The mystery brochure –

    finally, this particular type of design technique involves creating a brochure cover that makes people wonder. Usually this design has some text that entices people to the information inside the brochure. For example, the brochure message can say, “discover the 10 rules of making money fast. Take a look inside!” Attracting people with mysterious and interesting information almost always guarantees a reader for your brochure. So use this as well in your own designs.

  • Posted in : Graphics Design |
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  • How to Design a Brochure ?

  • April 7th, 2010
  • CONCEPT :

    The main basic concept to create the Brochure we must keep in mind that,
    Brochure printing provides target clients with an idea of what a business is all about and what you can do for them. It is actually a message that shows you would want to convey to your target clients.

    • What do you want your target clients to learn about you or your products and services?
    • Why should they get you instead of your competition?

    Your brochure may be an information booklet about your products and services. It may also be to launch a particular event such as a trade exhibit or a discount sale. Your concept then in your print brochure will give your target clients an overall picture of your business that would provide them with an impression of your worth.

    DESIGN :

    Similar to your content, your design is also an element that can provide the means to make your message easier to understand. With eye-catching and attractive design, you can be sure to generate interest in your marketing campaign. However, be sure that your design is also appropriate to your theme. Your message might get lost in translation with a design that does not fit what you really want to say to your target clients.

    Designing a basic brochure – how hard can that be?

    For good graphic designers, the answer is a lot tougher than you think. Even for the most basic type of brochure, before you ever put pencil to paper or click your mouse, there is essential information the client and you need to discuss.

    The first thing you need to know is the purpose of the brochure or what the client wants that brochure to accomplish. That ties directly into who the target audience is and what the message of the brochure will be.

    STRUCTURE OF BROCHURE :

    Notice in the paragraph above, the words on the left line up evenly and the words on the right do not. This is called a “ragged right.” This format is easier to read than “justified” type which lines up evenly on both sides. Why?

    Consider this:
    Do you enjoy repeating the same task over and over again exactly the same way? How long before monotony takes over and you need a break?

    Your eyes are no different than you. In justified text, each line of type is exactly the same length, over and over, with no break, and your eyes get tired and you get bored. The ragged edge gives the eyes variety and abreak from the monotony of justified type. Use ragged right whenever possible.

    There are three main ” types ” of brochures and in each case; the cover is used to accomplish a specific goal.

    The three types of brochures are:

    (1) those that are used to advertise or market,
    (2) those that educate or inform, and
    (3) those that entertain.

    For a brochure whose primary purpose is to advertise or market products and services, the cover will most likely have two parts: a catchy phrase that grabs the potential customer’s attention, and then lists the benefits of the product (what will this product do for me?). In the instance of a brochure that is primarily educational or informative, the product generally appears on the cover with the information of what it does or can do listed inside. The entertaining brochure is used the least. You might see it in a family-style restaurant, for example, and it contains puzzles, drawings, etc. for kids to keep them occupied. But, for this piece, I’ll focus on the first two types of brochures.

    Designers need to get the parameters and specifications from the client before they proceed, as these may greatly affect the cost. Printers can also be a tremendous resource in explaining how a brochure’s parameters and specifications will affect everything from the size of paper a brochure is printed on, to trimming, folding, and special cuts.

    Once those decisions are made, the graphic designer and client need to discuss what is often referred to as the “hierarchy of information” or what’s the order of information; starting with the most important and moving onto the least. At this stage, you’ll need to know on which panel or panels information is being placed. In some brochures, information (particularly photographs and maps) can go across two panels to striking effect. At the same time, when thinking about how the brochure will be laid out, consider whether each individual panel will hold distinct information or are the panels related?

    You’re still not quite ready to move into the actual design process as you need to refer back to that target audience the brochure is aimed at. Here you need to know the answer to the following question: what is the message the client is sending with this brochure? Advertising, educating, informing, and entertaining are how that message is presented; the actual message is what you want to say about the particular product, service, or company.

    CONTENT :

    When all that information is gathered, you can finally get down to the business of designing. You’ll take into account the basic elements of good design – alignment, repetition for a sense of unity, contrast and a focal point that provides interest, balance, scale and perspective, color, and so on. You’ll also want to keep in mind the font, size, color, and orientation of the text.

    Your content is the group of words that would make your message concrete. Unless you put words to your concept, you can never convey what you want to say to your target clients. Your content is very important as it can make or break your business. One wrong word and your entire marketing campaign can collapse. So be sure to have the right content to communicate your message. Have a team of creative and technical writers to help you. With their skills, they can provide you with content that would make your marketing tool effective communicators to encourage your readers to take your offer.


    PRINTING :

    Finally, you have to concern yourself with the printing. This is how your marketing tools would look after they have been subjected to the process of applying ink to paper. The latest printing technology will definitely have a big effect on the results. So be sure to choose a brochure printing company that would be able to provide you with print brochures that is not only effective but also the best representatives of you and your business.

    As you can see, designing even a standard six-panel brochure is often a much more complicated process than you initially might think. The more organized you are, the easier the graphic design process will be, and probably a lot more fun. With any design project, it’s a good idea to have all the necessary information, pictures, parameters, and specifications before you let your creative juices flow.

    Some Final Thoughts On Brochures :

    Your brochure displays your business image when you aren’t there. It tells customers how badly you want or don’t want their business. It tells them that you are proud of your company or it tells them you are a corner cutter. If you don’t take pride in your image what makes me think you’ll take pride in your work?

  • Posted in : Graphics Design |
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