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Getting Into The Minds Of Your Buyers

If you want to increase your sales, you have to get into the minds of your buyers, and understand how and why they think the way they do. The more information you can gather and analyze - through using sites like Alexa to track the competition and Heat Maps to track the information on your own website - the easier it will be to create products that are guaranteed to sell.

If you’ve been creating products based on what you think your audience wants, you’ve been going about it in the wrong way. It’s all about finding a need your audience already has, and figuring out how to fill that need.

That’s why you should never begin creating products until you know your audience. You can get to know them in various ways - by exploring the market, finding out what they like and dislike about similar products in your market, evaluating the competition, researching demand and finally, discovering a unique angle that you can take, in order to ensure that your products stand-out in the market!

Tracking Results

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.

A/B Split Testing

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.

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Another great Photoshop actions package is Mockups Master. This package doesn’t have quite the range of selections that Cover Action Pro comes with, but the graphics are more up-to-date than those in Black Belt Covers.

Perhaps the best thing about Mockups Master is the price. At this time, the product is available for only $27! If you’re just looking for a basic package that will give you a quality image, Mockups Master might be a great option.

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.

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Chapter Four: Locating Theme Designers

As mentioned in the previous chapter, you may need more than one person to complete your theme. The first person you will need will be the Photoshop designer. This person will create the basic design of your theme. They may be able to cut the theme up for you as well, but some designers aren’t proficient at this, which means you may need to hire a second person to cut up the PSD design provided by your designer and turn it into your completed theme.

The service starts at just $99, so it is very affordable. If you want added features and functionality you should expect to pay considerably more, but a theme that is complete with bells and whistles such as an image slider or built-in email collection box will sell much better and be much more profitable in the long run.

Quality Assurance

Before you hire any designer, ask to see examples of WordPress designs or themes they have created in the past. Find out what level of programming ability they have, and whether or not they will be able to add the features you need. This is the first step in assuring your theme is of the highest possible quality.

Don’t forget that the theme must be fully tested before you begin selling it. If possible, find some beta testers who are willing to help you test the theme

thoroughly before you put it on the market. If there are any bugs found after the theme is released for sale, make sure you respond and get it updated quickly. Otherwise your reputation will be harmed before it’s even built.

User Customization

One important feature you will probably want to have your theme creator include is the ability for users to customize the theme on their own from within the WordPress admin area.

There are many different levels of theme customization. It can range from simple tweaks such as selecting where the sidebars are located, up to something much more complex such as changing the background image and even changing the entire layout for different pages of the site.

Chapter Five: Creating a Design

You must work very closely with your designer to build a theme you’ll be happy with and that will sell well to users in the niche you’ve chosen. You will want to find a designer who is willing to make multiple changes when you aren’t happy with certain elements of the theme.

In order to minimize changes (which will make your designer very happy) start out by giving the designer very clear instructions, along with a few examples of themes you really like. This will help the designer understand your personal taste and style so they’ll be more likely to create something you like.

Don’t forget to let the designer know about any special functionality you will be having built into the theme. Some of these functions may require additional graphics, so the designer will need to know in advance what types of extra graphics you’ll need.

The design you receive will most likely be in PSD format for Photoshop. This file is not ready for use as a WordPress theme. It is only the base graphic file. If you happen to find a designer who can also do complete WordPress themes, you may get the entire theme delivered immediately. However, most designers will simply deliver the PSD file and you will have to go to someone else to have the design chopped and packaged.

In the next chapter, you’ll learn more about that process.

Chapter Six: Packaging & Testing

After the basic layout is completed, it’s time to package the theme. This process involves cutting the PSD file up and formatting it into the actual theme. Then any additional features are added.

Pricing is based on the complexity of the finished theme. If you want a simple, basic theme from your PSD, the service starts at just $99. If you add more complex features, the cost will be higher, but you’ll find you get many more sales than you would without these extra features.

Testing

One the theme is completed; it’s time to test it. You can test the theme yourself, but you may also want to have it tested by several other people, too. Beta testing the theme on your own may fail to reveal critical bugs in the theme that could lead to a wave of customer complaints and bad feedback. That definitely isn’t something you want to happen when you're trying to establish a name for yourself.

You’ll notice when you visit sites like ThemeForest.net that buyers can leave a rating and review for their purchases. The higher the star rating for your theme, the more purchase you are likely to get.

Not only that, but if potential buyers see a theme they like but doesn’t quite fit what they are looking for, if the theme has a great rating they are likely to take a look at the other themes you have for sale. This could increase your sales dramatically!

If you don’t have friends who could help you test your theme, you can post a message on a webmaster forum and ask for beta testers. Let them know they can keep and use the theme for free in exchange for their help, just be sure to tell them not to distribute the theme to anyone else.

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There are many ways to fully engage your audience in order to make your efforts more effective. By engaging your Pinterest followers with direct contact from you, they will see you more as an individual rather than a company, which will increase your trust level considerably.

We’re going to take a look at some of the ways you can engage your audience to boost your traffic and sales

Contests

There are many types of contests you can hold to increase loyalty and also gain more followers in the process. For example, you can hold a contest for the most referrals, the most re-pins of your content, one random person who re-pins one of your pins, give additional entries to people who also post your pins on Facebook and Twitter, etc.

Get creative with your contests. And remember, the ultimate goal is to get your pins seen by more people and to gain more followers. So focus your contest rules on getting people to help you achieve that.

Commenting on your Own Pins

Interaction is important, especially on highly social sites like Pinterest. When people comment on your pins, be sure to communicate back. Keep an open line of dialog with your followers. Once they see you as a real person, they’ll begin to like you as a person and will re-pin your content more often and respond better to the things you pin.

Even if you don’t want to hook your Pinterest account directly up to your Facebook or Twitter account and have your pins shared automatically, you can still take advantage of these sites to cross-promote.

Just be sure you share your most important pins to your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts for maximum exposure.

Follow Relevant Users

Another great way to get more views of your pins as well as more followers is to follow other people who post content similar to yours Don’t worry about the “competition” factor. There’s plenty of room for everyone.

Let’s say you are in the golf niche. Follow other people who are avid golfers and have a significant number of followers. Not only might they re-pin your content, especially if they see you re-pin theirs sometimes, but you can comment on their pins and potentially get more followers that way as well.
Post Pins to Blogs, Forums, Newsletters, Etc.

Make sure to post links to your most important pins to places like relevant blogs (in the comments and on your own blog), relevant forums, email newsletters, as your email signature, and other locations.

Use Video for More Exposure

Video sites like YouTube are extremely effective traffic sources, and they can easily help you get more views to your pins. Simply post a video relevant to your pin and link to your pin in the description of your video.

Not only that, but you could post a link to your pin in the comments of other relevant videos that have a significant number of views. This way, you can get some traffic from other people as well. Just be sure your pin is useful and relevant or it will be seen as spam.

Ask for Re-pins on Important Pins

Sales people have heard the old adage, “To get the sale, you have to ask for the sale.” The same goes for re-pins. Sure, you’ll get the occasional re-pin without asking, but when you post something really important, just ask people to re-pin it for you. You’ll be surprised how many people will oblige, especially if you’ve engaged them prior to asking and they like you.

Just remember not to abuse the privilege. If you ask people to re-pin every post, people will eventually get tired of it and won’t do it anymore. Save this technique for your most important pins and for those with the most potential to go viral.

Re-pin For Others

Don’t forget to re-pin content for your followers. If they see you re-pinning their content, they will be much more likely to reciprocate and pin yours. Additionally, they may even feel obligated to do so, because they’ve seen you re-pin theirs.

Pinterest Tools

While you can certainly use Pinterest without any additional tools, there are a few things you might want to consider that will make using Pinterest easier and more effective.

Graphics Programs

One thing you will almost certainly want to have if you’re going to use Pinterest regularly is a good image editing program. You can download a few trial of Adobe Photoshop, but the software is very expensive to buy beyond the trial. However, if you like it, you can use Adobe Creative Cloud to access Photoshop and other software for a lower monthly fee instead of having to pay for it upfront and spending hundreds of dollars at once.

If you’d rather not spend any money at all, you can try GIMP, which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. This software isn’t quite as full-featured as Photoshop, nor does it have as many free add-ons available, but it is free and works very well.

Pinpuff

Pinpuff is a service that will give you some simple analytics about your Pinterest account, such as an approximate value of each pin, your potential CPC, your reach score (how many followers you have compared to others), your virality score (how well people re-pin your content) and other data.

This can be especially useful for determining the effectiveness of your Pinterest campaigns, allowing you to make changes, if needed.

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Chapter Seven: Social Media & Forums

By now, nearly everyone on the planet is aware of the existence of Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets. However, while the average individual is using these services to share photos of what they had for dinner and who they saw at the mall last night.

Smart marketers know there’s a lot more to social media sites than that! General socialization is fine, but these sites are also invaluable tools that can increase your traffic and make you recognized as an expert in any niche almost overnight!
Social Media

There are many different types of social media sites. Sites like Facebook and MySpace are designed to allow a wide range of activities from sharing photos and videos to chatting and even interacting though various applications, or apps. Microblogging sites like Twitter allow individuals to post their thoughts in a short, controlled format.

These sites are perfect for establishing yourself as an expert within a niche, because there are huge groups of individuals who gather into groups, making it easy to find people who are interested in your field.

One of the most powerful ways social media can get your name out there is through sharing. Whenever you post interesting content, others who follow you are likely to share your content with their friends. This posts the content to the walls of everyone they are friends with on the social network, allowing your message to spread quickly, even among people who have never heard of you before.

Forums

Don’t forget another classic type of social media site - forums. They’ve been around since before the Internet, as we know it, even began. True, there was an Internet many years before the general public got to use it, but before the public got to access the Internet as a population, there were Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs). BBSs were set up to allow people to use their computers with modems and regular telephone lines to call and connect to other computers.

Some BBSs had only a single phone line, so users had to wait their turn to access it. Others had 64 lines or even more. These systems had live chat rooms, games, databases, downloads and even message boards where users could post messages and receive responses. These message boards are still in use on today’s Internet, now typically referred to as forums.

Forums in many niches have thousands or even millions of active users. By posting regularly, answering questions and interacting in other ways you can easily establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Remember to avoid forum politics. Never get into heated debates. Friendly discussion is fine, but if someone starts to argue with you in a negative way, don’t be afraid to bow out of the conversation. No one wins forum arguments. People succeed only in harming their reputations.

Chapter Eight: Blogging & Article Distribution

Blogging has become one of the easiest ways to become widely known in any field quickly. Where else can you make a name for yourself so quickly?

Blogging, on its own, is extremely powerful. But when you combine it with social media like Twitter and Facebook, it can explode your name into the stratosphere in no time!

Not only can you use your own blog to publish your content, but you can also send your articles to other blogs, websites and even print publications. By submitting your article for publication elsewhere, you can make sure your name gets in front of as many people as possible.

Remember, you’ll need to publish unique, high-quality content that demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the topic if you hope to get published in a magazine or even a well-respected blog. Don’t just rehash content you’ve posted on your own blog or elsewhere. Make each article really stand on its own. Each article could generate a lot of positive publicity for you, so make it count!

If you outsource content for other publications, be sure you check it carefully for factual and grammatical errors. Submitting articles that are poorly written or factually incorrect will only do more harm to your reputation than good. So save the $5 article writers for other projects and hire only the best.

Conclusion

Remember, many industry experts in any field are using these same techniques to increase their visibility within their fields. It isn’t a new thing, nor is it dishonest as long as you never say anything misleading such as "I have twenty years of experience in this field” or "I have a Master’s degree in this field”.

Almost every major industry you can think of has its share of so-called experts that know little to nothing about the field they are in. And there is nothing inherently wrong with that. As long as they are providing quality, accurate information to their customers and aren’t misleading everyone, it’s fair.

It’s all about perception. You don’t have to tell anyone you’re an expert in your field in order for people to believe it.

Using these techniques in tandem will cast a wide net that will eventually get your name in front of a very large number of people within your chosen field. In a very short span of time, your name will start being recognized all over your industry, giving you all of the profitable benefits that go along with your newfound expert status!

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Optimizing Your Video for Top Ranking

The most interesting and useful video in the world isn’t going to be effective if no one ever sees it. People won’t just magically find your video, no matter how much you may wish them to.

Instead, you must focus on promoting your videos in order to drive traffic to them. There are several important ways to do this, and we’re going to take a look at a few of them now.

WARNING: Do NOT upload your video without reading this section FIRST! Video Titles & File Names

First, make sure your video’s filename contains your main keyword phrase. Let’s say you’ve created a video that focuses on the keyword phrase “ice fishing for beginners”.

You might want to name your file icefishingforbeginners.mov or icefishingforbeginners.avi or whatever other video file format you’ve used. This filename will not be listed publicly, but it will be used as a ranking factor, so this is an important step!

There’s a trick you can use to boost your ranking even further when you submit your video. It’s called “title stacking”. In this trick, you use the same keyword with slight variations twice within a single title. This will get you double relevancy in YouTube’s search!

Using the ice fishing example, you might make your title:

This is an extremely powerful trick that will bring vastly more traffic to your video than it would otherwise manage to get!

Keywords & Tagging

One very easy way to get tags for your videos is to search YouTube for your primary keyword phrase and write down all of the tags from the top 3 videos that show up for your search.

Instead of spending precious time agonizing over which tags you should use, you can find out exactly which tags are most effective for your primary search keyword!

Descriptions

One of the most important things to remember about your description is to include a link to your website in the very first line of your description. This makes it easy to see. Don’t forget to include the https:// in your URL or the link won't be clickable.

Within the description, you can paste the script you use for your video. This script should be packed with relevant keywords, so it should be very helpful for your SEO.

Finally, paste a link to your video at the very end of the description, because if your video is scraped for use on another website, you’ll get a free link back to your video which will boost SEO and traffic to it.
Captions & Annotations

YouTube allows you to use captions and annotations in your videos. Just click on the plus sign on the right side of the video player on your own video pages. You should add just a couple of short annotations to each video. Don’t go overboard and DO NOT stuff keywords into your captions or annotations. Just use one or two keywords in a way that makes the caption useful.

SEO using Fiverr

Find people who specialize in SEO for YouTube videos and who will upload your video to all of the other major video sites using a program like Traffic Geyser, HaySpread, TubeMogul, etc.

Be sure to tell the person you hire to include a link to your YouTube video in the description. This will help boost the relevance of your YouTube video in addition to bringing in some direct traffic.

The best thing about this besides how much traffic your video will get is the fact that this will only cost you $5!

Encouraging Interaction

Don’t forget that interaction is a huge portion of rankings on YouTube. The more likes your videos get, the more friends you add, the more subscribers your channel receives, and the more people who add video responses to your video, the better they will rank, thus providing even more traffic.

If you’d like to automate some of the hard work of fully socializing your videos, you can try TubeToolBox.com. This service will help you add contacts, send messages and share videos on an automated basis, along with other great YouTube marketing tasks.

Create a Channel for Each Major Theme

One major mistake a lot of video marketers making is lumping all of their videos into a single channel. This is a huge mistake, because you lose relevance that way, because you severely dilute the effectiveness of the SEO on your channel.

Look at it this way. You wouldn’t create a single website that contained information about fishing, crocheting, stamp collecting, and baking, would you? Doing so would dilute any authority your website might get about each topic. Instead, you’d create one website for each of the different subjects. Channels work the same way.

Now, if you have several themes that are focused in a single niche, you could theoretically combine them into one channel if you wanted. You could, for example, create a channel for crafters and have videos about knitting,

crocheting, sewing, and other similar topics. However, the more tightly you theme your channels, the better you're likely to rank.

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Making money with KDP is a lot easier than you might think. If you can write (or outsource writing elsewhere) and use Microsoft Word or an equivalent word processor, you can make money with the program.

Choosing a Subject

The first thing you need to do to make money on KDP is to choose a subject.

You should decide between fiction and non-fiction, then choose what exactly you want to write about.

Typically, fiction sells better on Amazon than non-fiction. This is a very general statement, however. The right type of non-fiction could end up earning more than a novel. But generally speaking, fiction is more lucrative. However, fiction may also take a lot longer to create, especially if you create quality full-length novels.

Unless you already know something specific you’d love to write about, a good way to determine what would be profitable on Amazon would be to check the bestseller lists. Remember, the bestseller lists for Kindle may not always be the same as those for print books, so be sure you’re checking the Kindle bestseller lists.

Creating the Publication

Once you have chosen your subject, it’s time to create your publication. There are many different ways to do this, but the most common way is by simply creating a Word document in .doc format. You can upload this file to the KDP system and it will be automatically formatted for the Kindle format (.mobi).

Creating a Cover

You'll need a cover image. Amazon has specific rules for the size and other aspects of cover creation. At the moment, you can only submit cover images in JPG or TIFF format.

They recommend an aspect ratio of 1.6, and for best quality they recommend and image size of 1563x2500.

Remember, people do judge a book by its cover, despite so many recommendations to the contrary. Thus, it is critical to create an attractive cover that makes your book appear to be published professionally. Nothing screams “indie author” (and sadly "low quality”) more loudly than a poorly designed book cover image.

If you aren’t great with design, consider outsourcing the design of your Kindle cover or at least buying a pre-made cover.
Publishing on KDP

Amazon has a complete guide to publishing your book on Kindle. This guide will walk you step-by-step through the process of submitting your publication to the KDP platform.

Once you have published your book on Amazon, it’s time to promote it. It’s not enough to simply publish and move on. If you want your book to sell as much as possible, a little promotion goes a long way.

Fortunately, it’s not that difficult to get a book started. The main things that will help your book are:

Having a few positive reviews

Getting a few sales in the first few days in order to push it into the bestseller lists

Do not fall into the trap of paying for things like sales or reviews! This is against Amazon’s rules, and you could lose your KDP account permanently if you are caught! It is not worth the risk, so don’t even try it!

Instead, you can join Facebook groups related to the topic of your book and advertise it once if they allow advertisements. You can post on Twitter. Try using Pinterest to create related pin boards. Once you get a few reviews, sales will probably pick up considerably.

Creates pace

Once you’ve completed a publication for KDP, you can then format that same publication for print format through CreateSpace.com. This can be a bit tricky, and some people find it to be frustrating, but it really isn’t that hard if you follow their instructions carefully.

In fact, when the book is completed for KDP, most of the work is already finished. All you need to do is create a template formatted for the size of print book you want, paste in your content, and format it.

You’ll also need to have your book cover altered to be suitable for print format. If you’re not a designer, you might want to outsource this to save yourself time and frustration. Even experienced designers often find it tricky to format a cover perfectly for CreateSpace.

Amazon Advantage

The Amazon Advantage program is like a virtual consignment shop for publishers of physical content like printed books, CDs, DVDs and other media. This won’t be products you create through CreateSpace, because those will already be on Amazon. But if you’ve previously published material and you can provide it to Amazon, you can sell it there on consignment.

It takes approximately one week to get a product listed on Amazon using this program. Once a product is listed, Amazon.com will begin ordering them directly from you. They try to buy enough copies to meet current demand as well as enough for several weeks.

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Anatomy of a Successful Info Graphic

The very first thing to remember when creating info graphics is that the visual element is absolutely critical. Sure, the information you are relaying through the info graphic is also very important, but the graphic itself must be aesthetically pleasing in order to grab and keep the viewer’s attention.

Important Parts of an Info Graphic

1. Headline

2. Information (statistics, facts, etc.)

3. Images

4. Charts & Graphs

5. Contact Information

6. Call-To-Action

Let’s take a look at how these different elements should be incorporated into a successful info graphic.

Headline

The first thing you’ll notice on most info graphics is the headline. The headline should really pop off the page and grab attention. Not only should it be visually eye-catching, but it should be something that will make people want to keep reading your graphic.

Ideally, you want your headline to be short and to-the-point. Make sure it lets people know what your info graphic is about using just a few words, and make sure it is interesting enough to make people want to read your entire graphic.

Information

The meat of any info graphic is the information included in it. The trouble with many info graphics is that either they try to focus too much on marketing and too little on presenting interesting or useful information, or they just include far too much information and cause viewers to lose interest.

Above all, you must remember that your info graphic must contain information that is either useful or interesting. No one is going to pay much attention to a graphic that is purely commercial in nature, and they certainly aren’t likely to share it.

Info graphics must be shareable in order to be truly successful. You must create them to be viral. The only way people are going to share your info graphic is if the information contained within it is either very useful or very interesting in some way.

Images

Another important component of an info graphic is the graphic element -specifically the images. You’ll notice that the vast majority of info graphics don’t use photographic elements. Instead, they make use of drawings, cartoons and icons.

There are several reasons for this:

1. Photos increase file size significantly.

2. It can be difficult to find exactly the right photo.

3. Photos are generally rectangular in shape and don’t fit the info graphic format well.

4. Photos often don’t attract as much attention as simple icons.

Icons and drawn elements can be extremely powerful when used correctly. They can draw the eye toward crucial elements of your presentation and help make the document appear more professional. Fortunately, there are millions of free icons out there for use, and you can also purchase interesting icons at various stock photo and graphic agencies.

You can often find icon collections that revolve around a specific theme.

So if you’re making an info graphic about social marketing, you may be able to find an entire matching collection of social icons that feature the logos of many popular social websites. This helps keep the overall look of your info graphic uniform.

Charts & Graphs

Many info graphics contain charts and graphs as a graphical representation of statistics and other information. These charts and graphs can be very useful for presenting information that is typically thought of as boring (like statistics) in a format that is more interesting.

Don’t include charts and graphs just for the sake of having them. Only include them if they really add something of value to your info graphic.

There are many different types of charts and graphs to include, but the three most popular are:

1. Pie charts 2. Bar graphs 3. Line chart

Contact Information

Depending on your purposes, you may want to include some type of contact information on your info graphic. Most info graphics will benefit from some type of contact information, whether it is a URL, email address or telephone number.

In fact, unless you have an extremely recognizable name within your niche, it is largely pointless to even create an info graphic unless you include some sort of contact information in order to take advantage of the views your graphic receives.

Ebook Sample Content Preview:

Writing a Quality Article

Don’t be tempted to pump out a quick and dirty article when you’re guest blogging. Every article you write needs to be the highest quality you can possibly achieve, because each and every article represents you. Not only does the article represent you to the owner of the blog you’re writing for, but also to everyone who reads it. Remember, your name will be attached to the article!

How many people do you think will click the link to visit your blog, website, squeeze page or other page you link to if your article isn’t interesting?

The main point of guest blogging is to get you more traffic, and also to establish your name in your niche. You can’t accomplish either of those if your content isn’t of the highest quality so above all else: make SURE that the article reads well, is relevant, free from grammatical errors and is interesting and entertaining.

Step One: Research

At this point, you should have already done research to see what type of material the blog’s visitors enjoy as well as to find a great topic. Now it’s time to research content.

Unless you already know your topic inside and out, it’s a good idea to do some thorough research in order to be certain you’re providing accurate and relevant information. I probably don’t have to tell you this, but never, ever plagiarize another person’s work! Remember, plagiarism includes ideas as well as actual words, so don’t make your work too close to your research material, and use multiple sources of research for a single article.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you should be certain to use only reputable sources for your research. Sites like Wikipedia are not considered reputable because anyone can add information, even if he or she isn’t an expert in the subject.

Try to get your information from true, recognized experts in the field. Look for people who have books published through traditional publishers (not self-published) and from major websites in the field.

Step Two: Outline & Notes

As you perform your research, create a simple outline you can use for your article. Figure out approximately how many paragraphs you’d like your article to be and create a paragraph-by-paragraph outline that includes a few notes about what you’d like to say in each paragraph.

An outline will come in very handy as you write, because it will help prevent writer’s block. If you know what you’re going to say before you start writing, it will make your job go much faster.

Step Three: Writing

The actual writing process will be quite simple if you’ve done your outline and your notes. Make sure your article is in-depth with quality, useful information and is of sufficient length.

Remember, a 300-word article isn’t enough for most search engines these days. Google especially wants to see longer articles. Shoot for around 600 words.

Step Four: Editing & Proofreading

Do not skip the fourth and final step! Too many people think they can simply write an article and send it off for publication, but that simply isn’t true. Sure, you could do that, but then you risk looking foolish if you make a major mistake, or at least not getting asked to guest blog again.

One thing that really helps is to print your article and read it offline. Sometimes it’s easier to catch mistakes in printed material than on a computer screen.

Also, try reading one sentence at a time, or reading sentences backwards. This helps prevent you from scanning and missing items.

Getting the Most from the Article

Okay, so you’ve written (or outsourced) a high quality article and you’ve pinpointed a handful of authority blogs in which to submit your content to.

The next step is to make sure that your article is optimized so that you are able to get the most out of every submission as possible.

Some of the ways to use this traffic include:

1. Link to your blog or website where another article is featured.

2. Link to a squeeze page to collect opt-in subscribers and build a list.

3. Link directly to an affiliate link (This is not generally recommended, because most blog owners won’t allow it. However, some may if you really want to do this.)

4. Increase your authority within the niche with links to additional tools or resources on your website.

5. Promote a book, DVD or other media.

6. Build exposure by linking to your social media accounts (Facebook, twitter, etc.) or by linking to a Facebook page or group encouraging participation.

Here are a few other ways in which you can optimize your content itself in order to generate mass exposure:

1. Create an Info Graphic and post it to Pinterest. Link to the article from the pinned image.

2. Link to a webpage on your site that features exclusive offers, discounts or coupons for products and services that reader’s will be interested in.

3. Offer incentives such as contests and prizes for direct activity (tweet, Facebook like, re-pin content, etc.) on your website and link to it in the article footnote or author box.

Answer Comments

Don’t forget to be an active participant in the comments on your article. This will not only help you get more traffic from your article, but it will also be beneficial for the blog owner.

If he sees an active discussion on your article, he’ll be more likely to ask that you guest blog again. Plus, it’s a great way to get your name out there and to connect with prospects!