Spice Up Your Content With Good Web Graphics

When I look at Contentrix you know what I see?

Loads of great content, of course. I also see lots of images and graphics to compliment that great content.

Alice and her awesome writers are no fools. They know we’re all busy, we’re easily distracted and we could easily miss a piece of great information we need if not for a few well placed web graphics.

Do you have to be a graphics designer with mad skills to do what the Contentrix team does? No way! You just need to know how to use the tools and resources available to get the job done quickly and easily.

As a teacher of web and graphics creation for small business I’ve learned a few tools and tricks to help draw the eyes in with graphics so they follow through to the content and get ALL the benefits it delivers.

Here are four ways to spice up your content with good web graphics:

1. Use Stock Photos and Graphics – This is a great option and works well in most cases. You can get stock photos all over the web in a range of costs from free to hundreds of dollars per photo. Some of my favorites are Deposit Photos (paid), iStockPhoto (paid) and Stock.xchang (free).

2. Take Screenshots – There’s nothing like a good ol’ screenshot to demonstrate what you’re talking about. Screenshots can be essential if you’re trying to get your readers to follow along with something technical but they can also be used just add visual interest and let your reader see what you’re talking about without leaving your website.

The old school way to create a screenshot was to click and hold down the control key (Ctrl) and then click on the print screen key. Then you open up a paint program like MS Paint (located in your computers Accessories folder) and you click ‘Edit’ > ‘Paste’ to add your screenshot and save.  I just tested this out again and am actually surprised it still works really well and also at how nice of an editor MS Paint is now!

I was going to recommend a program I’ve been using for many years to you, SnagIt from TechSmith, but I’m now thinking you don’t even really need it at all if you just want something quick, easy and free you should just go ahead and use the Print Screen and paste into MS Paint technique!

Snagit does have a lot of extra snazzy features (like a scrolling webpage screenshot with links) but that’s not always necessary.

3. Take Photos – Alice does a great job over at Vegetarian Lost of showing us what an amateur (You’re not a professional photographer, right Alice?) photographer can do when they have a passion for the topic. The food she pours her heart into creating and then sharing with us veggie lovers is very awesome looking. See:

You can do this with many different visual topics. Even topics like marketing, PLR and business content can be ‘spiced up’ with photos of you in your office, doing a presentation, reading a book you recommend and so much more. Get creative! Show your passion for your topic. One thing that comes to mind is a local Fish & Chips place I’ve been meaning to photograph because they’ve added a big ‘Breakfast’ sign to their window. I don’t know about you but I don’t picture Fish & Chips as breakfast food so I was going to write a marketing piece on how sticking to your niche makes good business sense. That’s an example of how photos can even give you content ideas!

4. Graphics With Fonts – I’m pretty sure I learned this from Alice as she does it very well. Here’s an example from the top of the site:

If you’re using WordPress it’s not always easy to format ‘fancy’ or ‘different’ fonts from what your theme is set to. The best way to do this would be to just create a graphic with the fonts laid out exactly how you’d like them and then add them to your site.

Think you need Photoshop and years of graphics design schooling to do stuff like that? You don’t! You can download GIMP for free at Gimp.org and away you go. As you learn to use the program you can get more advanced with your techniques and learn to make web graphics to promote your business. It’s a smart way to save yourself money and add more income opportunities to your business.

If I may I’d also like to invite you to check out the training videos I’ve created on how to make graphics for your business. They’re available right here: Graphics Mojo

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About the Author

Angela Wills got herself an internet connection in 1996, built her first website in 1999 and has been amazed by the power of the internet to build lasting relationships ever since. She is a blogger, affiliate marketer, podcaster, email newsletter publisher and lover of all things internet marketing.

Visit Angela Online at MarketersMojo.com