LESSON #40: Using Graphics On Your Website

By | May 27, 2009
130 Comments

In the recent lessons, we’ve been talking about building your website. Some of the most common questions that I’m asked regarding the website building process are questions pertaining to pictures and graphics.

So today we’re going to talk about graphics…

(Watch this video…

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Main points:

  • You don’t need graphics, but they have been shown to increase website effectiveness in most cases.

  • Sometimes ugly websites with no graphics make money (see video for example).

  • Ugly sites with an amateurish look can create a sense of authenticity in certain cases.

  • Consider your target market when decided whether to go for a very professional “polished” look or not. When selling to businesses, professional is usually better.

  • For a polished looking sales page, consider hiring a graphic artist to do your graphics for you. Some of the most well-known “mini-site” designers in the Internet marketing niche include…

    Design Guru Ryan – http://designgururyan.com
    Brent and Joe – http://www.minisitefrog.com
    Karl Warren – http://ecoverninja.com
    James – http://www.minisitestudio.com

    (Prices ranging from $197 to $997)

    -Be cautious about using random freelancers

  • Consider going for a minimalist look, with fewer graphical elements. It may be more effective, and it’s easier if you’re doing it yourself.

    (See video for examples of my sites)

    One or two well-placed photos can go a long way in turning a bland HTML page into something that captures people’s attention.

  • Where can you get photos to use on your site?

    1) Use your own.

    2) Public domain.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources

    Just beware of “non-commercial use” clauses, and don’t waste time looking for a perfect image in the public domain when you could quickly license one for under $2.

    3) License it from a stock photo site.

    Such as…

    Istockphoto
    gettyimages.com
    photos.com
    stockphoto.com
    shutterstock.com

    IstockPhoto – my favorite source because…

    – they have high quality standards
    – they have a great selection
    – they’re cheap! starting at $1.50, or less if you’re buying in bulk.

    Be aware of license terms – generally you can not use it in an item for resale unless you purchase a special license.

    (See video for demo of obtaining and using a photo from Istockphoto)

  • If you don’t have any graphics editing software, you can resize images with Microsoft Paint (included on Windows computers). For a more powerful alternative, you can get Paint.NET for free.

  • Ecover = a visual representation of a digital product.

    Ecovers help sell your info-product, because they help your prospect conceptualize it. It builds more value in your product (as long as the Ecover isn’t really ugly).

    -You can buy a custom Ecover for $67-$100 for good quality.

    -Or you can make your own. I make all my own Ecovers. I used to use Photoshop with action scripts. Now I use a simple software program called Ecover Engine…

    Recommended product:

    Ecover Engine enables you to make great Ecovers, even if you have no graphics skills at all. You can make Ecovers for ebooks, software programs, audio recordings, videos, and more.

    Ecover software

    You can grab it at a special low price at:

    Click Here to go to Ecover Engine

    Action steps:

    1) Decide what kind of graphics strategy you want to use for your website. For example…

    -The “intentionally ugly” look
    -The minimalist few graphics look
    -Professionally designed graphics package

    2) Put some images/graphics on your website.

    In the next lesson we’ll be looking at how to put video onto your website.

    As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.

    Have a great day!

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    • 130 thoughts on “LESSON #40: Using Graphics On Your Website”

    1. Anonymous

      WELCOME BACK ERIC!
      GREAT TO HEAR YOU TEACHING THE GREAT STUF AGAIN !

      Reply ↓
    2. Karen Juett

      Hey Eric, I have been following these tips to see if I can acquire enough understanding about starting an internet marketing business or not, before I lay out any cash. But lately, the frequency of the tips has dropped off from every day to one or two a week. I wonder if this is a marketing strategy or a time management issue.
      I’ve also been waiting for some specific information about creating or developing, or piecing together an eproduct in the tips course. Picking a topic or niche, researching the competition, etc… is all really important, not to mention very interesting. But when are you going to tell us if you write an ebook, or use public domain, or take a concept from a sucessful site and put your own spin on it, or a combination of the above. I don’t know? Please reply.

      Reply ↓
    4. Eric Post author

      I’m still making the lessons 😉 The next one will be posted soon.

      Reply ↓
    5. Eric Post author

      It’s because you’re now caught up to me, and I’m still making the lessons.

      I will be covering product development very soon though!

      Reply ↓

    7. Pingback: LESSON #41: How to Put a Video on Your Website | Eric’s Tips

    8. Liz

      Is it possible that if you have to do a restore you can go to a point before you are registered for updates from a site? Just an idea Anthony.

      Eric’s lessors are always the greatest. I have been a fan of Eric’s lessons a long time. Recently thou I started going back over them and Im missing lessons 10-11-12. Lessons 7-8-9 were in june 2008 but 9-10-11 are not in july, any idea on this Eric? Please do not run out of space we all need these lessons. And now that I am really looking at retirement I really need them, please help.

      Thanks
      Liz

      Reply ↓
    9. Lloyd

      Eric thanks for the great tip.

      I also purchased your Ecover Engine, which I plan on using to create my eBook covers.

      I would like to focus a little bit on eBooks, if you don’t mind and ask you and your audience, if anyone is aware of a good eBook Store Script that I can easy integrate into my website?

      Reply ↓
    10. fatimah

      Hi Eric,

      Thank you for your useful information always. Yes I like Istockphoto too but most of the times I take photos from google image, can I do that?
      Thanks

      Reply ↓
    11. Eric Post author

      No you should not take images from Google images and use them on your website. Those images belong to other people.

      Reply ↓
    12. vaughn

      hi eric,my question is how do you put a fully functional shopping cart on a website?

      Reply ↓
    13. Eric Post author

      There are many different shopping cart solutions. Paypal has an integrated cart, which may be the one of the easiest options… but then of course you’re limited to accepting Paypal.

      Some of the most popular carts for internet marketers are 1shoppingcart, and Infusion, largely due to their integrated affiliate program management features. With those carts, most marketers use their own merchant account through a provider such as authorize.net.

      There are also a number of free shopping cart scripts, such as the ones included in Fantastico (within Cpanel for most web hosts).

      I realize that doesn’t exactly answer your question of how to implment it, but hopefully it will give you some places to look.

      Reply ↓
    14. Frank Olivares

      Hello Eric
      I purchased the Ecover product and have not received the link for the download. I’ve used the help option but have not rec’d any response, can you help? Thx

      Reply ↓
    17. ADO IDRIS

      Please Eric how do i get the content to put on my web site and how do i get the link of my affiliate?Thanks.

      Reply ↓
    18. Micah

      Hello Ado,

      You can get content from inexpensive membership sites like this one:
      http://www.monthlywebcontent.com/

      Your affiliate link can typically be found when you log into your affiliate account, but you can always contact your affiliate manager for assistance.

      Reply ↓
    20. robert

      thanks for your rapid reply to my ticket request.same hour service never though i would see that on the net.great job micah

      Reply ↓
    22. Claudia

      Hi Eric,
      I’m working on my blog in WordPress and on the left sidebar there is something called a BLOGROLL ….can you explain that? Also, how do I get rid of the stuff in the magins that says “Development Blog” and all of that? Do I edit that out of the php by hand?

      Reply ↓
    23. Claudia

      Hi Eric, I figured out the widgets and plugins a bit more so I see how you add and subtrack things from the sidebar. I have a question for you…..
      What login pulgin do you use…or what kind of membership scheme do you think is best??

      I would like for people to register to be able
      to comment…and I want some people to actually post their own articles …how can I set that up in wordpress?

      Thanks for your advice!

      Reply ↓
    24. Claudia

      Hi Eric, Hope your feeling well again and your trip to Belize was a success. Thanks for making the offer to raise money for such a good cause. I hope that I can help more when I get going…I think that is something everyone should want to do and I believe in giving at least 10% to help others…I see you are giving 110%!!! I hope to do that too when I can.
      I have a BIG question…
      How do you know when you are done with a site for awhile?? Do you follow a checklist? I’ve put up a few sites now…5 sites…and now I have more to work on…but once I do the physical setting up which I think is fun…I’m feeling stuck and alone. I’m writing a few articles and posting them but nothing really is happening. My company site is
      a review of everything I am doing…products and other things I find interesting…Should I have my company site have links to all the other sites I am putting up and then use Traffic Sage to push traffic to my company site?? I’m lost on what would work best…I don’t have the budget to pay for traffic generation to 15 sites….
      What say you???

      Reply ↓
    27. Micah

      Hello Claudia,

      The blogroll is a convienient link list of your own favorite blogs that you wish to share with your readers.

      You may control the information that appears in the sidebars from within your WordPress admin panel under the “Widgets” section.

      Reply ↓
    28. Micah

      Hello Claudia,

      We like to make it very easy for people to engage in discussion on the blog, so we don’t choose settings that make people jump through too many hoops to be able to post. That does invite a lot more spam though, so we use the Askimet spam filter to screen out most if it!

      Here is the direct link to the WordPress support for the best help:
      http://wordpress.org/support/

      Reply ↓
    29. Gurjit Singh

      Dear Eric,
      Your Tips are very good for internet business and web design. As graphic and picture play a major role in web design as I am a developer
      Also I have a picture and graphic web site FreeFotoFul.com to Download Free pictures and graphics to Use on website and Blogs.
      I have developed software, soon I will upgrade to FreeFotoFul.com and I will upload thousand and thousand of more pictures.
      Also I will provide a Free picture hosting service, to upload your pictures
      Thank You.

      Reply ↓
    30. Eric Post author

      There are generally 3 reasons why I would temporarily or stop developing or marketing a website…

      1) if I’m happy with it’s income and want to just let it “coast” for awhile on autopilot.

      2) if I’ve determined that it’s not going to be profitable.

      3) if I have other priorities that will make more money.

      This business may require a lot of patience as you’re getting started. Free traffic sources like article marketing can take a lot of time to start seeing results. You’ll gain more insight when we get to the traffic lessons.

      you could link your company site to your other sites, and focus on marketing the company site… but that may or may not be an optimal way to market your sites. With Traffic Sage, you would want to focus on whatever site you want to improve your SEO for (better search result rankings).

      So a batter strategy might be to focus on one website (ideally the one where you’re selling your own product and/or generating a list), and then when it is profitable you will be able to afford the time and money to expand your business by shifting your focus (or outsourcing) to the next site.

      Reply ↓
    35. Adam

      Hey Eric, Your Tips are great!
      Also, wondering how “The Perfect Storm Product” is working for you?

      Reply ↓
    36. Eric Post author

      So far so good… it’s certainly not the backbone of an overall traffic strategy or anything, but it’s a nice tool and it is bringing me some extra traffic. And I wouldn’t want to use it in many situations, but particularly for links that would otherwise go unmonetized (like sharing news on twitter) it’s a good solution.

      Reply ↓
    38. Dave

      Eric,

      I like the Ecover Engine. Is this a product you created? If so, can it be marketed in an affiliate deal?

      Reply ↓
    39. Eric Post author

      Actually I private labeled it. I am adding it to my affiliate program for Eric’s Tips, and you will be able to promote it through clickbank. Thanks

      Reply ↓
    40. Dave

      Hi Eric,

      Thanks so much for taking the time to answer. I’ll look you up in clickbank in a couple of days.

      Be Well,
      Dave

      Reply ↓
    41. Walter

      Eric,

      I’m good at pictures and graphics so would a site like the Design Guru or ecoverninja be a good idea or would it be too completive.

      Would it be profitable to use my love for storytelling into a Niche for example “Dog tales” or “Rusty and the Lost Boys” kind of thing?

      I love art and things but need to earn money and don’t want to waste time barking up the wrong tree. (Story of my life)
      Thanks, Walt

      Reply ↓
    42. Eric Post author

      The freelancer realm is very competitive. But it really just depends if that’s what you WANT to do.

      If you want to be a graphics guy, and you have the skills to pay the bills, then you should go for it. Just keep in mind what I talked about in lesson #6:

      LESSON #6: Self Employed or Business Owner?

      If you’re self-employed rather than a business owner, you will be limiting your earning potential and you may still feel like you have a job.

      In terms of story telling, I would probably not integrate it into an information product, but it could work well for your sales letter. Sales letters (or videos ) that tell stories are often the most effective ones.

      Reply ↓
    43. Dr. Sunny Obazu-Ojeagbase

      There is no question about it, Eric, you are a great teacher!

      Kindly tell me, which of your courses covers all the stuff that you are sharing here that I could buy? Or do you have a transcript of this video course or a combination of both?

      Thank you for sharing freely. Your contribution is highly appreciated!

      Dr. Sunny Obazu-Ojeagbase

      Reply ↓
    44. Eric Post author

      The complete course will be available in a few months, with transcripts, and I will announce it to all Eric’s Tips subscribers 🙂

      Thanks

      Reply ↓
    45. dennis

      Dear Eric i love all the great free information and purchaced the ebook engine but it didnt send me to a download link can you help it looks like great software

      Reply ↓
    47. Sean

      iStock is good Eric, personally I’ve always had better luck finding the perfect image at Dreamstime.com!

      Reply ↓
    48. Murray J

      Thanks Eric! Must say I never thought about using my own photos and actually I have some pretty good shots (humbly said!)in my collection now. Thanks for another great lesson. I’m certainly learning a lot in a very orderly, progressive fashion. Thanks and cheers.
      Murray

      Reply ↓
    50. Gary

      Hi Eric; Thanks for another content-packed concisely delivered (as usual) lesson.You asked for comments re: “cool” graphics on our sites. I don’t think this qualifies as “cool” per se, but I used a combo of personal photos and public domain photos on the header for my blog site at http://www.russianbridefacts.com to personalize my blog. I had them installed by a programmer at scriptlance.com and wanted them “clickable” so they would enlarge when clicked. That worked fairly well except that the images I uploaded were of inconsistant pixel size and thus translated to different sizes when clicked. (at least, I guess that’s what the problem is).
      And I must say that reading all of that “gobbledy-gook” associated with public domain photos is a pain. I read it and tried to follow all the rules, but I also tried to cover all the bases by adding a “credits” page to my blog. Next time I’ll try the photo sites you spoke of.
      Thanks again Eric. I look forward to your lessons each day.
      Gary.

      Reply ↓

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