Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Photoshop Styles

Styles are applied to layers, and they apply decorative effects to those layers. Styles are especially useful for creating interesting text effects, making plain, boring text really pop off the page.

Text without style applied is dull and lifeless. It doesn’t attract attention. You can turn plain text into a stunning logo with the click of a mouse by using the right Photoshop style!

If you’re going to apply styles to your text, be sure to choose a style that complements the image you’re using and it easy to read. Don’t choose overly busy styles or styles that clash with the other colors in your graphic. Using the wrong style is much worse than using no style at all!

Following this text, you will find an example of text on a gradient background. On the first line, no style is applied. On the second line, a garish style that clashes with the background and is difficult to read is applied. In the last line, a clean, simple style that looks good with the background is applied.

As you can see, the last line is easy to read and looks visually appealing. It stands out more than the text with the bad style applied, and it draws the eye much more than the text with no style applied.

You can download free Photoshop styles from hundreds of websites, but you should be aware that many free styles are not very attractive and may make your text difficult to read. Additionally, some styles are made for thinner fonts and others for thicker fonts, so keep that in mind as you use styles.

You can also purchase quality styles from reputable vendors. These purchased styles are often much more useful than free styles, and you can often see examples of the styles used on text before you buy.

One great place for purchasing styles (as well as other add-ons) is Graphic River. This website allows individual product creators to sell their add-ons through a single marketplace.

To find Photoshop styles, simply mouse over “Add-ons” in the top menu, and then click “Photoshop”. In the menu on the right side, click “Styles”. This will bring up a selection of hundreds of styles for purchase. Most packages include multiple styles focused around a similar theme, and packs are remarkably affordable. Packs start at around $2 and go up to around $20 for very large packages.

A great place to find free add-ons, including styles, is at deviantART. There are thousands of free downloads available.

Once at the deviantART website, click “Resources & Stock Images.” Click “Application Resources.” There is no section specifically for Photoshop Styles, so browse through the Photoshop .PSD section and the Photoshop Actions section to find styles, or search for “styles” within the Application Resources section.

Other Add-Ons

There are other types of add-ons available as well. For example, you can buy or download gradients, patterns, shapes, brushes and more. Each of these types of add-ons is useful in its own way. Gradients are useful for backgrounds and stylizing text. Patterns are great for adding texture to elements. Shapes are great for calling attention and crating dynamic images, as are brushes.

You can download thousands of various add-ons through Graphic River and deviantART, and there are thousands of web pages that make these elements available free. But check the terms for use and make sure they are for commercial use.

Virtual Product Design Packages

If you cannot afford Photoshop, or if you use the trial and find you don’t like it, there are other alternatives available for creating virtual product designs.

Box Shot 3D (Windows and Mac)

Box Shot 3D is a software package that is available for both Windows and Mac computers. This software allows anyone to create many different types of virtual product packaging graphics without Photoshop, because it is a standalone program. It is not a Photoshop action script as so many other virtual product design programs are.

Box Shot 3D is a 3D rendering program that allows you to take one of their premade shapes, add your own graphics to the shape, and render the shape from any angle you use. You can even customize the lighting to create exactly the look and feel you desire for your image. Box Shot 3D is currently $80.

True Box Shot (Windows or Photoshop)

True Box Shot is a software package similar to Box Shot 3D. The standalone version (Windows only) is $55, and the Photoshop action version is $39.99, making it cheaper than Box Shot 3D.

True Box Shot doesn’t have as many options available for cover types, but if you find the right one for your product, you can save money by choosing this option over Box Shot 3D.

Stock Photos: What You Should Know

Unless you will be creating your own images or taking your own photos for your products, you will need to purchase stock photos. Legally, you cannot just take images from other websites without paying for them. Doing this could get you sued for major damages by the owner of the image.

In fact, you shouldn’t even trust most images you find online that claim to be free. You have no way of knowing whether that image is truly being posted by the owner of the image’s copyright or by someone who has illegally downloaded the image elsewhere and is reposting it.

Stock Photo Sites

Finding the right stock photo for your project is crucial. If you choose a boring photograph or piece of artwork, your entire project will be boring. No amount of graphics work can make a terrible image work well.

There are many different stock photo sites available, and most are reasonably priced. Keep in mind that the price you are paying is going, in large part, to the photographer who took the image. Most images only sell a handful of copies (or none at all) so the photographers don’t really make a lot of money. This is why stock photos may seem pricey. A good photo is well worth the expense!

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Of course there comes a time when you have to think about launching a product and seeing where it takes you. For this you’ll need a dedicated website and a sales page that is designed to bring in as many buyers as possible.

This is where a service like CrazyEgg’s heatmap comes in extremely handy. Let’s imagine you write your sales page and put it up there for people to find. Once you start getting traffic to it you can use the likes of Google Analytics to see which phrases are bringing people to the site and how long they are staying there before they leave - or go through to buy your product, as the case may be.

But the Heat Map will show you how your links are performing, what pages are more popular than others as well as what areas of your website could use improvement in order to boost conversion rates.

Heat Maps won’t only show you which links, graphics and pages are receiving more exposure, clicks or visits, but it can also help you determine how colors, headlines, sub headlines and other sales page elements are affecting sales.

For example, let’s say you’ve used two different colors for two different buy now buttons. One color may be outperforming the other one, but unless you know which one is doing this you won’t be able to capitalize on it and change the color of the other buttons as well. A Heat Map will highlight which button is outperforming the other, making it easy for you to change!

You shouldn’t underestimate the power of testing and tracking when it comes to launching any new product. It can be the difference between a successful product and an absolute loss.

It’s worth mentioning the process of A/B testing here. You may also have heard this referred to as split testing. We made a brief mention of this above when we talked about having two different colored buy now buttons.

The idea is you change just one element on two landing pages, whether it is a headline, bullet point, color scheme, layout or perhaps even just button or link placement.

For example you might have a newsletter you want to send out to your 2,000 strong email list. So you send 1,000 people the standard newsletter with one subject line, while the other 1,000 people get exactly the same newsletter with a different subject line.

Apart from the subject lines everything else is exactly the same.

By running an A/B split test campaign you can see which subject line drew the most attention, which one garnered a higher number of open-rates and which one ultimately out-performed the other.

The same test can be conducted to evaluate two different headlines, sub-headlines, greetings and even website designs.

Test your ideas. Test your audience. Find out what makes them tick - and then test whether they react more strongly to one element in your sales funnel than another.

The great thing is, some of this knowledge you’ll learn as you go along can be applied to more than one product launch. As you get to know your target audience, you’ll start to understand them better. You’ll instinctively know whether one product is likely to out-sell another. You’ll have far more hits than misses, and you’ll ultimately, sell more than you ever have before.