A lot of people can recognize good design when they see it on the web. But most people don’t really know what makes that design good. How do you define “good design?” Is it subjective, like your favorite flavor of ice cream? Although there is some subjectivity within good design, there are artistic principles that good design is built from. Here are a few that form the foundation of good design.

Items that are in close proximity to one another become one visual unit, items that are related to one another should be grouped together. Laying out related items on a website page this way helps the eye associate the information and enables the viewer to mentally categorize the information easily. The flip side of this principle is that items that are not related should not be placed in close proximity to one another.

The purpose of the principle of proximity is to organize information in a way that enables viewers to quickly and easily comprehend. When information is organized, people are more likely to read it and respond. People are also more likely to remember information that is organized.

You’ve seen website page layouts where the text and graphics are placed wherever there happens to be space. The effect is messy, with no impact. Nothing should be placed on a page arbitrarily. There should be a visual connection between each item and something other item on the page. When items are aligned, it creates a cohesiveness that the eye appreciates.

The purpose of alignment is to unify the website page. Imagine a well-organized kitchen. All the pots and pans are stored in the organizer, the fruit is nicely displayed in a basket on the counter, the spices are all on the rack-everything is in its place. A page layout needs the same thing.

Good design repeats some aspect of the website design throughout the site. It’s this repetition that makes all the pages in a site look like belong together. Color scheme, graphic elements, typefaces-all of these elements should be repeated-used consistently-throughout. If you are looking to have a new website designed for your online business, you can opt for a company that offers web design in Delhi.

A design that integrates these principles will automatically gain professionalism and polish that it would otherwise lack. Next time you stumble across a website design that makes you say “wow,” cheek for these principles-you’ll find them quietly working to make that design a good one!

Alternative marketing, also known as word-of-mouth, aims to reach consumers more directly than by traditional advertising on radio or television, or in print. It tends to be confusing, though, beginning with the number of names by which it is called. You can pick your favorite from a regular buffet of terms: under-the-radar marketing, below-the-line marketing, renegade marketing, street marketing, ambush marketing, vanguard marketing, ambient marketing, guerrilla marketing, covert marketing, stealth marketing, viral marketing, or diffusion marketing. They are all equally evocative of a marketing style that is unconventional in concept and hit-and-run in execution. Let’s look at just a few of the variations.

The Video Virus: Is it Catching?

Probably the best-known technique in alternative advertising is the viral video. A short video clip is produced, and slipped stealthily in front of the consumer by posting it on Internet forums, e-mails, video-sharing sites, and the like. This video is unlike the usual television commercial; it’s usually either humorous, or controversial, or both. A TV commercial wants to transfer information about a product to the potential consumer. These viral videos may include information transference, but their purpose is to entertain and amuse you. The idea behind them is that if people are interested and amused, they will pass the video clip on to Internet friends, and more people will then see it. Somewhere in the video is usually something about a product, or at least its name. Advertising companies believe that the details about a product will be sought out by the audience, if they enjoyed the video enough.

This is an interactive model of advertising, in that the consumer is active in receiving, viewing, and passing on the video clip. Even by just doing those three things, a person is exerting more effort than the watcher of television, who is simply sitting and watching. To see a video clip, at a minimum you need to press Play, or click on an arrow. And if you like it enough, you may watch it a few more times, then send it to some of your friends in an e-mail. After all this, it’s likely that you’ll remember the product when you’re in the market for something like it.

Blogs and Buzz

“Blog” is short for “web log”. Merriam-Webster Online defines “blog” as “an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer”. Blogs are a great way to reach an audience that pays no attention to traditional print and television advertising. Their contrast with the cleverly-produced values that are hyped on corporate websites is their “homespun” character. The voice in which they are told might be your own voice; at any rate, it’s the voice of ordinary, everyday folks. Many blogs are still, essentially, online diaries written by an individual; others have begun to dabble in the waters of marketing.

Anybody at all can set up a blog, as long as they have an Internet connection and something to say. There are webhosting services for sale that will help you create your own website for a blog, but you can get into blogging without hiring such a service. Most of the social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, or LiveJournal offer free blogging capabilities. In fact, there are so many sites and possibilities for blogging on the Internet that a new term, “blogosphere,” has been invented to encompass blogs and their myriad interconnections.

The marketing sphere and the blogosphere are beginning to intersect. Advertisers want to create “buzz” around their products: what better way than to get people talking about a product on their blogs? Young people, Generation Y-ers, and cool young professionals go to the Internet for the same services their parents would find in a telephone directory, an atlas, a road map, a radio or TV news program. This means that the Internet is the perfect place for advertisers to show their wares to potential customers. And blogs, because they are so friendly and believable, are the perfect medium for creating credibility.

You Can’t Get Away from the Ads!

The next new angle for advertising is the “captive audience”. Several companies like TransitTV are working this angle for all it’s worth. In five major US cities, over 3,000 buses, trolleys, and other public vehicles now have 8,400 screens installed to reach the captive audience. If you’re on a bus, in an elevator, or sitting in a restroom stall – you can’t get away from the ads! You can’t fast-forward through the commercials, or even turn the TV off! You are stuck, and even if you determinedly avoid looking at the screen, you can’t help hearing the sound.

TransitTV offers advertisers just what they want: an audience that is completely captive. There is only one channel, hence no flipping a remote from channel to channel when the commercials come on. There’s nothing else to watch. There is no way to get away from the commercial. Sometimes the commercials are hidden in what’s supposed to be a review of current events, a watered-down, not-of-the-moment news program; sometimes they are not. They’re the only game in town. Your only defense, as a consumer, is to avoid public transportation and elevators like the plague.

TransitTV also gives the advertising companies detailed demographic breakdowns of people exposed to their network. In addition, they can provide accurate measurements of advertising success. Advertisers love them; soon they’ll be everywhere.

“How’s It Going? Here, Try This!”

In an effort to make marketing more personal, and create real connections between advertisers and the people they want to target, “street teams” are becoming more popular. These people are paid to go out on the downtown streets and talk to people they encounter. They are a little like the lady in the supermarket with the bite-size samples of something or other – except that it’s easy enough to take another aisle if you don’t want to deal with the Sample Lady. The Street Team is right out there, walking alongside you, asking you to try something… it’s very hard just to brush past. It’s rude. They are counting on the likelihood that you won’t want to appear discourteous, and that you will have a verbal exchange with them, and maybe even agree to taste the crackers or cereal they’re pushing. They have already put up fliers and posters all over the buildings, so you’ve seen the name of the product just recently…

This is a first step in the creation of buzz. Advertisers have decided that the best way to get started on a network of personal connections that will be buzzing about their product is to force the personal connection between consumers and a company.

Buzz… buzz… buzz

“Buzz” is defined by Merriam-Webster Online as “speculative or excited talk or attention relating especially to a new or forthcoming product or event.” It’s estimated that consumers are exposed to about 3,000 commercial messages every day; so in order to cut through the clutter and make a point about your product, you’ve got to try something different. All the alternative advertising methods touched upon here are designed to create buzz and keep it going.

And buzz is a whole lot cheaper to use than traditional advertising. During primetime viewing hours, it costs an advertiser about $450,000 for a 30-second spot on television, for just a single airing. That’s just the airtime; it doesn’t include any production costs, actors, etc. Enough advertisers are investigating and using buzz that they have actually formed an association to try to weed out unscrupulous word-of-mouth advertisers. The Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association was formed in 2001, and is working with the Federal Trade Commission to set up guidelines to regulate marketing practices and prevent dishonest strategies.

Website graphics definitely play a major role in marketing your website and are therefore, a very efficient and effective way of boosting your sales. It is very likely that your graphics give the potential customer their first impression of your site and it is very important that a consistent overall image of your site is created. The quality and positioning of the graphics contained in your website are essential for it to look both attractive and professional. If all else fails in your website design, using professional looking graphics can only serve to enhance your site.

Positioning
Obviously, in launching a website, you are trying to get a message across to the public, whether it be informative or strictly sales. In either scenario, the content of a website must be easily read. One way to achieve this is by breaking up the text with well positioned and relevant graphics, ensuring that the viewer’s interest is held while you get your message across. The graphics should be complementary to the text and aid in conveying the message. The visitor should be able to look at a web page and instantly know what to expect from the rest of the site, remember that first impressions only count once, so make it count. Website graphics and their positioning play a vital role in website design to the point where they could either make or break your website.

Image Formats
Generally, the formats used for website graphics are either JPG or GIF, as they load quicker than most others. The JPG format is mainly used for photographs and the GIF format is mainly used for buttons, logos or menu bars. A word of warning regarding working with graphics in JPG format. This format is a lossy compression, which means that every time the image is edited and saved, it loses a small amount of quality. The best way to avoid this is to edit the image in the native format of the image manipulation software you are using, and then save the final version in JPG format.

Size Does Matter
Whenever someone visits a web page, that web page is downloaded onto their computer, which means that your graphics are downloaded as well. There are two very important factors that come into play here if the site contains large graphic files. The first being that if the viewer is using a slow internet connection, the graphic will take a very long time to download, causing the viewer to lose interest and probably leave the site. The second being that graphics can use a lot of bandwidth, which means that if there are alot of very large graphic files on the site, and that site becomes popular, then the cost of running that site may escalate. Therefore, if your graphics are more than 50kb, then seriously think about reducing their size. I will cover this in more depth in my next article, but there are two points that you should consider. One, stop thinking about inches or centimetres and think in pixels, as this is what your web page is measured in. Two, screen resolution wont be much better than 96 pixels/inch on most computers, so why use a graphic that has a resolution of 600 pixels/inch and therefore six times bigger?

Summary
Professional website graphics are attention grabbers and will make your site stand out in the crowd. They can enhance your website and increase it’s popularity and thus generate revenue. Good website graphics add professionalism to your website, which will in turn entice viewers to return. On the flip side of the coin, poor quality or badly positioned graphics can cause your site more harm than good. Large graphics files can cause web pages to load slowly, potentially losing viewers and damaging your business. Working with graphics is very time consuming and an art form in itself. It might therefore, be more practical/economical, at times, to pay a professional to alter/construct the graphics you require.

In today’s world, there’s alot of people who want to make money online. Of course who wouldn’t; It’s the easiest and fastest way to allow you to work from home and enjoy the lifestyle that you want and deserve.

Over the past few years, people have realizd the value of PLR ebooks and other Private Label Rights products.  The main value is that PLR products allow you to label them as you like and as your own; In other words to have your own product without the stress and frustration that it involves to create it yourself.

If you haven’t created an ebook yourself, it is definately harder than it seems.  In my humble opinion purchasing a PLR procut is almost the only way to go to have Your Own Product, for sometimes less than $10. That is all you need on the internet today is a PLR product, with no emphasis on how good the product is or not.
I say this because of this revolutionary process of PLR Flipping.

Flipping PLR, or PLR Makeover is the process of not only changing the title of the product but also changing the mini site graphics, design, ecovers, order button, background, revise or rewrite the sales page copy and even revising the product itself.
Talk about an Extreme PLR Makeover!

Now take a PLR product, and hire someone to flip the entire package (there’s a place that does this for dirt cheap, I’ll add it in the resource/Signature section), and just plug and play.

So to recap:

1)Buy PLR Product that appeals to you.
2)Hire someone to Flip it.
3)Plug in (upload to your server).
4)Accept Credit Cards through Paypal or Clickbank
5)Kick back and enjoy the ride.

You can find out more on Flipping PLR products like the Pros, at http://www.FlipMyPLR.com