Graphic design may not be the first thing that occurs to businesspeople about their business operations. As a matter of fact, it’s everywhere, in every business. From the website to the company letterhead, graphic design is very much part of the business process. A lot of major companies retain graphic design services on a contract basis, simply to cover their basic needs for materials for their online and hard copy publications.

The roles of graphics in business

There’s nothing cosmetic about graphics in business. In advertising and marketing, visual presence is one of the core elements of product presentation and public image of a product or a business. The graphics are quite literally the public face of the business.

The development of online business and the rise of the new media have added a few more dimensions to this situation. A simple PowerPoint presentation, for example, generates a lot of visual information, and that information needs to be very well presented to have an impact. The same applies to the various videos used by practically all businesses online and elsewhere.

The strictly conventional market role of graphics is presentation, but there’s another extremely important factor- Competitive values. Some graphics are a lot better than others, and in the real marketplace, graphic design often affects choices made at point of sale. That’s a fact which has been progressively re-orienting commercial visual materials of all kinds and raising the standard of production of everything from commercials to basic logos.

Graphics in digital media

Digital media and new technology have done a lot to enhance and develop new graphics options, too. What were once very expensive “visual effects” are now standard, and there are more options coming on stream every day. The big Adobe Creative Suite packages are a good indicator of the level of demand for a vast range of digital graphic options from professionals in all forms of visual and graphic media.

The fact is that the borderline between graphics and other media has been eliminated. The new media is really a hybrid of different media, and graphics are now built in as default properties of this medium. Quite literally everything related to modern business involves graphics and graphic design issues, at some level.

Graphic design best practice for businesses

There are two basic options open to businesses regarding graphic design:

1. Engage the services of a graphic design company to streamline the production of visual content. This is a cost-efficiency exercise as well as administrative best practice, keeping the expertise of the graphic design company available to deal with any needs for new media, publications, etc. on standby.

2. Get good graphic design through an advertising agency or marketing consultancy. This is a default quality control, ensuring professional standards of graphics work are available for promotions, literature, etc. on a needs basis.

Graphic design is now very much part of the business mix. It’s important to ensure high standards of presentation and professional quality materials are standardized, and that production of new materials can be done cost-effectively. Quality and talent are the core elements of business graphics, so lock in a good provider for your business.

For the past few years, the graphic design industry is growing at an enormous speed. If you want to become a reputed designer, you should possess certain skills. These can include creative, business, and communication skills.
For the past few years, the graphic design industry has been growing at an enormous rate. The reason is that this industry offers creative as well as monetary satisfaction. Studies reveal that in the year 2008, 286100 persons in USA were associated with graphic designing. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, by the year 2018, number of graphic design jobs will increase by 12%.

This statistics proves the fact that graphic designers will have good opportunities in future. However, this does not mean that the industry will absorb anyone who wants to be a designer. Rather, chances are high that it will only accept those who possess certain qualities. If you want to know, whether you possess certain relevant skills and can leave your mark as a graphic designer, read on.

1. Creativity

Creativity is the most important requirement. With the help of creativity, one can develop designs that are original and unique. Remember that if you do not possess creative skills, you cannot survive in this industry.

2. Education

A graphic design company will generally prefer people who have a formal degree. Therefore, if you are an aspiring designer, try to obtain a degree or diploma in graphic designing or related field. In case, you do not have a degree, attend seminars or workshops to refine your designing skills.

3. Powerful Communication Skills

These days, any job demands good communication skills. Graphic designing is no exception. A good graphic designer should possess excellent written and verbal communication skills. You should be a good listener as well. Listening carefully to the client’s ideas is critical. It will help you to develop designs that reflect requirements of the clients.

4. Ability to Use Computers

For the past few years, experts are taking help of software programs for creating designs. A good designer should know how to use Quark Express, Adobe Photoshop, Flash, and others.

5. Business Skills

To earn reputation in the graphic design industry, you need to possess powerful business skills. You should be aware of marketing and sales strategies, database management. Remember that smart implementation of business strategies will help you to realize your potential as a graphic designer.

6. Technology Skills

Technology now dominates every aspect of our lives. To survive in the graphic design industry, you should know how to operate PCs, printers and other equipment. Additionally, if you already possess social media marketing skills, it would definitely work in your favour.

7. Project Management Skills

Graphic design projects usually come with deadlines. If you are aware of project management skills, you can complete your job within the deadline in a hassle-free manner. This will help you to earn appreciation of your clients. Also, managing time will help you to handle projects effectively and thus, impress clients.

8. Network Building Abilities

Network building abilities will help you to connect with other designers and learn from them. Furthermore, smart networking can help you to acquire more clients.

9. Interpersonal Relations Skills

This is especially important, when you are working as a team. Good interpersonal relations skill will ensure smooth functioning of the team. Additionally, it will encourage your colleagues to trust you.

10. Typography

Every design requires type. If you have in-depth knowledge about typography, chances are high that you can create interesting designs.

11. Flexibility

As a good designer, you should be flexible. You should be able to learn, unlearn, and relearn various things. Every project has different requirements. Therefore, you need to modify your skills and ideas accordingly. Flexibility will also help you to earn a wide range of clients.

12. Paying Attention to Details

Ensure that your project is perfect. Check the spellings and other important details in your designs. Before sending designs to the client, always double-check your work.

13. Problem Solving Skills

While creating designs for a particular project, you may encounter various problems. You have to solve these problems quickly, so that they do not affect quality of your work.

14. Photography Skills

As a graphic designer, you may or may not possess photography skills. However, if you do, it will act as an added advantage. By capturing interesting photos and using them in projects, you can impress your clients.

15. Knowledge about Print Design

Knowledge about print design will help you to understand how your creations would look in print. Knowing this is important, because it will help you to maintain consistency between the computer-generated works and printed products.

We highlighted certain skills that a good graphic designer should possess. However, remember that while working on a project, you may discover that a new skill is needed. In such a situation, you will have to learn it as soon as possible. For this reason, you should always possess an open mind for accepting challenges and overcoming them.

Multivariate and A/B testing are two methods used to test many ideas on how to improve the market perception of your product or service simultaneously. In internet marketing A/B testing is usually done to see which of two types of content is more effective. Multivariate testing, on the other hand, allows for the testing of an unlimited number of options simultaneously. Multivariate testing can help a webmaster understand which content or website design is more effective in improving potential customers’ conversion rate. Used properly both multivariate and A/B testing can be quite helpful in tracking and understanding the behaviour of visitors to a website.

Multivariate and A/B testing yield accurate results because all the variations offer the same information and options. The only thing that changes is how the material is presented. For a website owner this information can be invaluable. It can allow them to present their products and services in a manner that has proven to be most attractive to customers. This can result in increased sales or registrations or whatever the means of conversion is. Using these two forms of testing can save the website owner time and make them a lot more money.

More detailed information can be found on the Maxymiser website if you want more detailed descriptions of A/B testing and multivariate testing.

Why run these tests?
The multivariate and A/B testing concepts are being used increasingly by businesses on the internet because they work. Whatever means one uses to get potential clients to one’s website, knowing what configuration is most likely to make them commit is essential. Increasing the flow of potential customers to your website is important; but without a high rate of conversion it is meaningless. Your marketing dollar will have been wasted if visitors to your website are not motivated to convert. Knowing exactly what makes them convert is like owning a license to print money. Multivariate and A/B testing allows you to gather this valuable information.

How can bloggers use these techniques?

Many bloggers will not have given too much thought to multivariate or A/B testing and often become preoccupied with driving traffic to their sites. Whilst this is important there’s little point getting lots of traffic if you are not achieving your goals (for examples sake we will assume that your aim is to make money from your blog). First identify what actions you are looking for visitors to achieve on a page of your site; for example this could be to click on an AdSense advert or a newsletter sign-up button. Next decide what you want to test by changing different elements of the page. Using the example of a newsletter sign-up this can include size, colour and placement of the sign-up button on the page, images used, titles and content on the page. A/B testing is the easiest method to get started with, by changing one of these elements on your page each time you can see which version works best. It’s often worth making big changes to start with then fine tuning these once you find the winner from the initial A/B test. If you manage to increase newsletter sign-ups from 0.5% to 1% then this will mean twice as many sign-ups and twice as many new, potential customers to promote products of services to in your newsletters.

Thankfully running A/B testing is not as complicated as it used to be and can be carried out free of charge using Google’s Website Optimizer. Google include lots of useful tutorial videos so it’s easy to get started.
Being able to increase the rate of conversion of visitors to one’s website can mean the difference between success and failure for any blogger or online business. Using A/B or multivariate testing can be an important key to success and should not be ignored.

This article is by Richard Patterson, a freelance online marketer who writes about all aspects of online marketing including SEO, PPC and landing page optimisation.

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I take great pleasure in bringing you this Guest Post  written by Gerald Martin who also writes on being a radiology technician for www.onlinecollegedegrees.net as i have said in one of my previous post i am now opened to accepting guest post .Making a blog look unique can be a trickier prospect than it seems from the outset; it’s completely open-ended and can thus go very well or very poorly, depending on what your blog’s goal is. Regardless, here are a number of things that you should almost never do, unless your blog’s goal is to alienate and annoy potential readers:

1. Embed auto-playing music.

Music is not necessarily a bad thing; music that plays as soon as a potential reader loads a page almost always is. It makes as good an impression as yelling at a stranger, and it’s one of many reasons why no one uses MySpace anymore. If you run a music blog, embed streaming media players that don’t auto-play. Also consider linking out to music you want your reader to hear, so that they can listen at their leisure, rather than in an agitated state.

2. Embed Un-skippable ads.

No one liked pop-up advertisements in 2001, before everyone’s browser included a tool to kill them instantly. Now no one likes un-skippable ads, which make users wait before they can view your blog’s content. Unless you have something that you know everyone wants, stick to targeted ads that make sense for your reader base, rather than irrelevant ones that waste their time.

3. Use Flash exclusively.

The lure of Flash is understandable. It can make things pretty, it makes them detailed; it can make them wholly, uniquely yours. It also makes them drain resources on almost every modern web browser and can’t be viewed on any device running Apple’s IOS, making the technology dated and impractical as interface designer’s move into the future. Furthermore, Flash is a poor choice for blogs because it renders text solely as you design it, rather than in a medium that looks best to your reader (whose eyes might not be able to render text as small as yours).

4. Choose an obnoxious font.

Bad font choice can do wonders to hurt your credibility, especially if that font is Comic Sans MS (famously used on the tags of Beanie Babies by comic artists too lazy to pen their own text, and eight-year-olds the world over). Colour combinations can be equally devastating; avoid yellow on white, for example. Stick to a more conservative font and a colour combination that complements your layout, rather than one that renders your content unreadable.

5. Create a bad layout.

Deliberately terrible layouts can make for good art, but rarely convey information in an effective fashion. Stay away from noisy embedded background images, resource-intensive add-on, and other unnecessary decorating. Make your content as accessible as possible and your readers will be relieved when it doesn’t take them a month to find something in your archives.

-This post was written by Gerald Martin who also writes on being a radiology technician for www.onlinecollegedegrees.net

Redesigning your website should be a matter of personal choice unless technology forces you to. Is it really time for you to redesign your website or should you redesign at all? You may argue that your website is great so why should redesign it. There is an old saying that goes that if it is not broken then why fixes it true but how do you decide when your blog or website is broken and need redesigning? For me i am never satisfied with my blog design i always believe that I can add something extra to it. You could argue that we should not redesign but instead we should rebrand.

When Is the Right Time to Redesign?  This should be a matter of personal choice or unless circumstances arise that forces your hand on this. Technology as I have mentioned or it could be changes in your marketing strategy. One other reason could be that you get constructive feedback from your visitors and you know that the site is not performing because of the fact that the layout is not conducive to what you are trying to achieve. Take a look at some website you can see that it is design around the content or as we would say designed inside out.

One thing to bear in mind is that you should only redesign for a reason and not just for the sake of redesigning, it does not make any business sense to redesign your website because you see your friend does it or just to keep up with the other bloggers. It is okay to give your blog a makeover because of marketing trend or for better functionality. One good thing you could do before you start that make over process is to poll your visitors and asked for their opinion that way it will help to make a better decision and make the changes smoother.

If you run a website or blog for quite some time with the same design it could be high time you give it a makeover but you should try to keep some characteristic of the former site to make it easily recognizable to your readers. One such area could be the logo as this represents your brand. The last thing you want after a redesign is to lose your valuable readers and visitors. There are lots of benefits from redesigning your one such one is the attraction of new visitors which can become regulars and also it can keep you in line with your competitors. No what are your views? Is it time for a redesign or a rebrand? Remember it should be for a reason that is worth it, share your views.

Blogging in a particular niche can be a bit difficult at times depending on the competition you are facing, choosing the right keywords and optimizing your content is your best bet to out- class your competitors. If you are blogging and your niche is about web design and you tried Google the terms you should have a result of over 10 million results at the time of writing this post. Choosing a niche about web design is very competitive but is this good thing or as some believe it is best to choose niche that are less competitive but commands a great search volume.

Choosing a niche that you are comfortable with is the first, foremost and most important factor you should consider to become successful at it. If you are good or better yet knowledgeable about website design then this makes it better and it would be a good topic to choose for your niche. When you are going to choose a niche for your blog you need to think long and hard about it, don’t and I will emphasize it never choose a niche because it seems easy to write about or the search volume is great. There is more to building a successful niche blog than just jumping on the band wagon. Let’s look at your keywords.

Getting your keywords for your niche is an area that needs good research, blogging about website design is good but don’t forget about your long tail keywords or keyword phrases. I don’t think I need to teach you to suck egg here however keyword phrases for example “lawmacs Web Design Blog” or Web design Firms ask the Seo experts they will agree with me long tail keywords tends to yield better results. Whenever someone searches for a topic on the internet they sometimes refine their searches example, a web surfer living in London searching for a web design firm would refine his search by using the term “Web Design Firm in London”.

Refining of web searches is what gives your long tail keywords the edge searches are even refine to geographical locations not just by keywords. Getting your niche up and running takes lots of planning so what is your niche has you design for your niche? Getting your niche right is the key to your success. Just remember that your keywords are important and plan first design your website to suit your niche getting the basic right from the start makes it easier for you. Have you design for your niche? Or you just change it along the way?

In my last post titled What Football and Seo Have in Common I looked at the comparison between Seo and Football, as i have mentioned in that post the spectators are like our subscribers and if we get our tactics right we will have them coming back. Subscribers love brilliant content and that is why it is so crucial to get our tactics right from the whistle says go. Both for web designers and bloggers a like Seo is a part of our trade whether we employ someone to do it or do it ourselves we need to take keen interest in this area.

So how do we go about keeping our subscribers happy? By having the best players in the business just like a football club to attract the best players you need good financial backing some for hiring a good Seo consultant they don’t come on the cheap. When hiring a Seo expert you expect the best guaranteed results and that is achieving your goal of been on the first page of Google or the other major Search engines. Hiring a professional Seo firm you need your set your goals and have a big budget.

Playing the Seo game can be simple if you follow the rules of the game and avoid the un-necessary fouls, and by having a game plan and get your linking right. We all know that as bloggers Seo is very important to us, What is the sense in having a beautifully design website, fully optimized and well written content if no one reads it. It is just like playing the beautiful game without the spectators. A word of wisdom use your keywords right, don’t over stuffed your content with keywords, optimize your website these areas plays a crucial role if you are playing the Seo game, build your team with a network of bloggers link them to strengthened your effort.

So as you can see using the beautiful game of football you can learn a lot from it. The links passes from your defense to mid field to your forward then into your opponent goal; it just goes to show that good link building plays a key role in achieving your goal. Building links with good page rank sites will enable you to gain better rankings, choose a good Seo firm for your website who will optimize for your subscribers.

Playing the Seo game is not just a quick fix it takes continuous work .keeping up with your competitors is never easy. Go about your campaign the right way is in your best interest avoid all black hat methods this will avoid the red cards. Just remember every link you build is a trust earned for your website. In summary I ask you two questions are you playing the Seo game? And are you winning your game? Final piece of advice study your opponents this will give you the opportunity to get the upper hand have your say and feel free to share.

The three main areas of your website or blog that we need to pay attention to are the header, the body and the footer, this may seems simple to you but when it comes to web design we should aim to ensure that our website stand out from the crowd not to blend in, we can all be original in our design. Before we take a look at the areas individually we should remember that even humans were born head first, so technically the header of our website normally loads first. This is the first area that our readers see. Now before you absorb this just remember that I am by no means an expert here, okay with that out of the way let’s take a look at them individually.

The Header – A simple header is good but have you stop for a moment and look at the important role that the header plays? We talk about branding 99% of all logos are found in the header and your logo represents your brand, Getting this right has huge impact on your website this includes loading time. If we could just put the presentational side apart for a second and look at the underneath, the inside of the header for wants of better words, the header host some of the most important codes that lets the website function, codes like the style sheet, meta tags and others thus shows the importance of the header.

The Body or The Content – another area of focus, this is the main area which houses the content of our website and should be the second most important part of our design. As bloggers we write as writing is the main part of any bloggers life. The body or the content area needs to be design to fit its content sometimes we as designers believe that the best way to design your content area is from inside out by inside out i meant designing your body area to fit your content. Whatever ways you look at it just remember that your body plays a very important role in your blog design.

The Footer – Originally the footer was used for displaying copy right information and a few navigational links, but like everything else in technology web design has evolved and website footers has now been put to different use. The footer has now been used to display ads and other information related to the website. We have just looked at the three main areas of website design that needs our focus. Some believe we can liken it to human beings head body and foot these all makes up the body each depends on the other to function. I put the question to you do you pay these areas any attention? if you don’t I believe you should. Share your thoughts let us hear what you areas of focus are when it comes to design.

Your design is it Crap? Wow i just heard you say now lawmacs sounds crazy but seriously have a look at your website design and ask yourself is this Crap? Well let me explain “Crap” in the world of design is an Acronym not a word which stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. For many of you, you should be familiar with the term Crap as this is what we refer to as good design concept in the designing world. So if you’re wondering what that is all about now you have it. Your design should meet these standards else have a look again and see if any adjustments can be made. If your design is crap then it is of Good standard it is like say bad meaning very well. Now lets look at the four concepts one at time

Contrast simply means difference.. We are not conscious of it, but we are scanning and looking for similarities and differences all the time. Contrast is what we notice, and it’s what gives a design its energy. So you should make elements that are not the same clearly different, not just slightly different. Contrast is one of the most powerful design concepts of them all because really any design element can be contrasted with another. You can achieve contrast in many ways—for example, through the manipulation of space (near and far, empty and filled), through colour choices (dark and light, cool and warm), by text selection (serif and sans serif, bold and narrow), by positioning of elements (top and bottom, isolated and grouped), and so on.

Repetition The principle of repetition simply means the reusing of the same or similar elements throughout your design.

Alignment The whole point of the alignment principle is that nothing in your slide design should look as if it were placed there randomly. Every element is connected visually via an invisible line. Where repetition is more concerned with elements across a deck of slides, alignment is about obtaining unity among elements of a single slide. Even elements that are quite far apart on a slide should have a visual connection, something that is easier to achieve with the use of grids.

Proximity The principle of proximity is about moving things closer or farther apart to achieve a more organized look. The principle says that related items should be grouped together so that they will be viewed as a group, rather than as several >unrelated elements. Audiences will assume that items that are not near each other in a design are not closely related. Audiences will naturally tend to group similar items that are near to each other into a single unit.

There you have it crap is actually a good word in design terms now its over to you tell me is your design Crap?

What are the ingredients to success? success can be measured in different ways, for us as bloggers to know if we are succeeding then we have to evaluate  he level of success against our goals.These  three ingredients Content, Design, Marketing that will bring us success and i will share them with you.There is nothing set in stone about the formula for success and i am not an expert in the field either but these three key ingredients i am about to share i strongly believe will drive success to you and your blog. I am sure we share one thing in common and that is we don’t want to be the master of our own down fall. Now lets look at the ingredients one at a time.

(1)Content – I meant great content is one of the three main ingredients to achieve success , Content is King or Isn’t it? you can argue here all day, agree to disagree but the fact still remains great content is what we all strive for as bloggers, great content are those your readers yearn for, these are the ones that left your readers feeling filled. how do you produce great content firstly start with  catchy headlines sometimes a bit of controversy is good but don’t over do it this can be a big put off to some readers.

There is no denying it Great Content is very important, remember we write for our readers and visitors alike this is what they come for and we need to be producing just that.Content can be anything that your blog offers it could a brilliantly written article of a wanted product it just have to be something worth the visit.

(2)Design – Now your website design fits in as one of your ingredients that can help to make or break your success. Remember the saying “First impression last” live by this rule don’t make your first impression be your visitors last visit. i can say this putting great content and a nicely design website together and you are well on your way to success.To have a good design you need to look at a combination of factors from your navigational structure to layout, ads placement and site colours just to name a few. Just remember good design attracts attention just as how good content gets mentioned now this leads to the third ingredients.

(3)Marketing – No i haven’t forget this one, this is area you need to paying close attention to, we all heard about Search engine Optimization or SEO, Back links and Networking yes we all do and SEO is close to our heart as bloggers. Hey, never forget marketing this is the single most critical ingredient that will determine your success. Follow me here for a minute you start a blog hire a brilliant web designer and write the most compelling piece of Content, brilliant but how are we going to know about your website or blog? simple answer Marketing, if you don’t market your blog it is like buying a Porsche and keep it in the garage who is going see it?

In summary these are three vital ingredients for your success, Brilliant Design, Great Content and a well organised Marketing strategy. Now have a look for your self are you heading in the right direction? if so then continuing doing what you are doing but if not it is not too late to make the change i am sure you don’t want to be the master of your own down fall. the days of build it and the rest will follow are long gone it is a competitive marketing world hop on board. What are your Key Ingredients for Sucess and how do you measure them?.