Graphic Design Portfolio

A quick copywriting tip to get more subscribers

Published on Thursday, November 5, 2009 – 9:00 am | 19 brilliant comments »

leaves

I recently wrote an article for Freelance Folder about how to get more subscribers by adding an email subscription box and within the comments, Troy Peterson left a great tip on how to optimise the copywriting to maximize subscription signups and I thought it was worth sharing…

One thing that will improve your signups as well, is to replace “Subscribe” with “Get Updates”.

Many people tend to associate “Subscribe” with some type of commitment. This is typically carried over from the old days of Magazine subscriptions, where people had to commit for a year and pay a price.

Even with the name “free” on it, people are still hesitant.

I recommend trying “Get Updates by Email” or “Get Updates by RSS”.

Of course, it’s always good practice to do a before and after testing to find the best results… but, it’s well worth the small effort to make the changes.

Below you can see how I have worded my new subscription box, along with a few other minor adjustments.

Subscribe

Update 6/11/09: I’ve slightly updated the copy to what is seen above.

Could it do better? What’s your opinion?

19 comments thus far »
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The Most Linked to Pages of Top Design Blogs

Published on Monday, August 10, 2009 – 6:43 pm | 25 brilliant comments »

JCD LInk Love

Yahoo! Site Explorer has a function that allows you to see the most linked to pages from any website so I ran through some of the top design blogs and compiled their most popular pages here.

The pages have been categorised into five broad categories: Freebies, Tutorials, Inspiration, Web Design and Articles. Read more »

25 comments thus far »
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9 Up & Coming Design Blogs

Published on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 – 12:01 am | 27 brilliant comments »

Yesterday marked the 10,000+ subscriber milestone for Just Creative Design so I thought it would be appropriate to share the love and help some up and coming design blogs.

These blogs are all relatively new to the scene but I believe they deserve a bit more exposure… these particular blogs make a consistent effort to make the design world a better place by offering fresh perspectives, original articles, and great resources for all. I would recommend keeping an eye on them as I can see them going far.

You may also be interested in the OPML file so you can import all the feeds at once, rather than having to subscribe to each site one-by-one. You can download the OPML file here (right click, save target as) and read a tutorial on how to import the OPML file into Google Reader.

Web Designer Depot

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Web Designer Depot is probably the newest blog in this list but they have already got pages and pages of quality articles. The articles are written by numerous different authors (including, soon to be, myself) so the topics are quite diverse, which is why I think the domain name is a bit deceiving… Web Designer Depot site is for all designers, not just web designers.

Suggested Articles:

  1. Large Website Backgrounds Do’s and Don’ts
  2. Video Game Design Between 1990-2008
  3. 100 Websites With Outstanding Artistic Design

Subscribe:

Subscribe Subscribe to the ‘Web Designer Depot’ RSS Feed

iDesign Studios

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iDesign Studios, run by Selene Bowlby is a great place to go for web design resources, small business / freelancing tips and much more. Selene has a quite unique writing style which I find quite easy to read not to mention how in depth / well researched her articles are. A great resource and a blog I highly recommend.

Suggested Articles:

Subscribe:

Subscribe Subscribe to the ‘iDesign Studios Blog’ RSS Feed

Design Cubicle

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Design Cubicle, run by Brian Hoff, is another relatively new blog on the scene but it’s getting up there due to Brian’s original design related articles. The topics range quite a bit so the best way to know what he posts about is to explore his site.

Suggested Articles:

Subscribe:

Subscribe Subscribe to the ‘Design Cubicle’ RSS Feed

Colorburned

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Colorburned, run by Grant Friedman, is a blog that posts on a large variety of design related topics but what makes this blog stand out is the amount of freebies given away and the regular interviews with well known bloggers / designers. Grant also sells some high resolution textures.

Suggested Articles:

Subscribe:

Subscribe Subscribe to the ‘Color Burned’ RSS Feed

Positive Space Blog

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Positive Space Blog is run by Anthony Zinni who is an active member in the online design community. Anthony writes about the culture of design, giving tips and more on a variety of topics. Positive Space Blog has a great community of readers who regularly add to the discussion.

Suggested Articles:

Subscribe:

Subscribe Subscribe to ‘Positive Space Blog’ RSS Feed

Fuel Your Creativity

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Fuel Your Creativity, run by Adelle Charles, is probably the oldest blog in this list and the one with the most subscribers but I thought it should get a mention in this list as FYC’s posts are always high quality. FYC offers freebies, interviews, news, reviews, resources and much more.

Suggested Articles:

Subscribe:

Subscribe Subscribe to the ‘Fuel Your Creativity’ RSS Feed

We Function

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We Function is run by Liam McKay who is another active member in the online design community. I am a big fan of Liam’s articles as they are often in depth and over the top (as in value). You will see what I mean when you read some of his articles. Quality and quantity!

Suggested Articles:

Subscribe:

Subscribe Subscribe to the ‘WeFunction’ RSS Feed

Design M.ag

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DesignM.ag is run by the write-a-holic, Steven Snell who writes for numerous design blogs, including Smashing Magazine and his own site, Vandelay Design. Steven’s articles are always choc-full of design related resources and I would suspect half of my delicious bookmarks are his posts.

DesignM.ag also features a great community news section with a prominent position on the site for your own article exposure. Great articles and exposure, what more could you want?

Suggested Articles:

Subscribe:

Subscribe Subscribe to the ‘Design M.ag’ RSS Feed (Articles Only)
Subscribe Subscribe to Community News Feed + Articles

Elite By Design

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Elite By Design is run by Brian Lovin, who is another active member in the online design community. Although Elite By Design runs by the tag line of ‘Web Design and Photoshop Inspiration’, the site offers a whole lot more ranging from tutorials right through to interviews and freebies… it just had a redesign too! Worth a look for sure.

Suggested Articles:

Subscribe:

Subscribe Subscribe to the ‘Elite By Design’ RSS Feed

Still Want More?

Check out my previous post 31 new design blogs of 2008 or the post: The best graphic design articles from 37 top design blogs as chosen by the authors themselves. Hope you have a great new year!

27 comments thus far »
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How To Get Sponsors For Giveaways & Competitions

Published on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 – 12:00 am | 23 brilliant comments »

Beg - Photo Courtesy Of http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuffer/

A lot of people have been asking how I managed to get $11,000 worth of prizes in my latest competition so I thought I would share with you how I managed to do so… I present to you how to get sponsors for giveaways & competitions.

There are 3 ways that work best (in order):

  1. Direct Email Likely Sponsors
  2. Call For Sponsorship On Your Blog
  3. Use Your Other Social Networks

1. Direct Email Likely Sponsors

Mail - Photo Courtesy Of http://www.flickr.com/photos/bright/

This is by far the best way to get sponsorship, especially for the larger prizes. Below I will guide you through how I wrote one of my emails to Threadless when asking for sponsorship.

Example:

(1) Gday Bob,

(2) This is Jacob Cass here from Just Creative Design, I hope this email finds you well. (3) I am a big fan of Threadless and the T Shirt community and (4) I was wondering if you could help me out in regards to sponsoring a shirt or two for a MASSIVE prize giveaway that I am holding on Just Creative Design for my blog’s 1st birthday.

(5) I have a loyal fan base of about 8700+ subscribers and the site sees over 20,000 page views a day so you would get some great exposure if you could kindly donate a shirt (or something else?) to the cause.

(6) I really want to give back to the community and my readers… Of course credit and links would be given back.

(7) Anyway, if you do have something to offer please get back to me.

(8) Thanks and hear from you soon.

Regards,

Jacob Cass
http://justcreativedesign.com

Reference:

  1. Always address the person by name if you can find it. Look hard for it.
  2. Introduce yourself.
  3. Add a compliment relating to their business. Do not make it a generic email.
  4. Ask for sponsorship.
  5. Tell them what they will get out of it.
  6. Tell them why you are doing it.
  7. Don’t assume they will sponsor you.
  8. Close nicely.

2. Call For Sponsorship On Your Blog

Call - Photo Courtesy Of http://www.flickr.com/photos/occhiovivo/

The second recommended way to get sponsorship is to write a blog post asking your readers if they will sponsor something for your competition or giveaway. Tell them what they will get in return. Make it easy for them to sponsor. You can see my original call for sponsorship below.

In a few weeks Just Creative Design is turning 1 year old and to celebrate I am holding a MASSIVE design group writing project with LOTS (I mean lots) of prizes. This is going to be huge!

Back in June I held my first group design project and I managed to gather $5000 worth of prizes (including an electric guitar) when I had less than 2000 subscribers so I wonder what can be done with 8300+ subscribers?

I am not going to tell you much more for now but if you want to sponsor you will get many links back to your website from this website and from other blogs posting about this contest - plus a warm giddy feeling that you are donating.

To Sponsor

To sponsor a prize please email me (jacobcass [AT] justcreativedesign [DOT] com) with the prize you are kindly willing to donate along with a link to your website so I can link back to your site and the value in $ of your prize. For prize ideas see what was donated last time.

Excited? I am.

3. Use Your Other Social Networks

Help - Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/assbach/

If you have a good following in any social networks send out a request for sponsorship in that network. Everyone has their own preferred network (ie. Digg, SU, DesignFloat, Twitter) so use them to your advantage.

Personally I am quite active on Twitter and Facebook… I sent out numerous Twitter’s asking for sponsorship and then those messages then got retweeted by friends and so fourth. Follow Me On Twitter.

I also have a Just Creative Design group on Facebook of which I sent out a mass message to all of it’s members asking for sponsorship.

This mass message method doesn’t usually work as well so I would try doing the first two methods, it really does pay off.

Well there we have it, how to get sponsors for giveaways and competitions! What other tips do you have?

23 comments thus far »
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7 Secrets You MUST Know To Give Your Blog The Edge

Published on Friday, November 21, 2008 – 6:46 pm | 55 brilliant comments »

Although these tips may sound common sense to some, for others it isn’t (hence the secret)… If blog owners implemented these 7 tips, their blog would certainly have an edge over the competition - The funny thing is, so many blogs don’t!

Here is a list of 7 things you can do to give your blog more of an edge… These are based on my observations and personal experience of dealing with blogs on a daily basis.

  • Format your text - This is my biggest tip. The amount of blogs that I see with huge chunks of text is amazing. People on the internet do not read paragraphs, they read in sentences. Try to keep your paragraphs down to 3-4 lines tops. Use headings, sub headings and bullet points.
  • Tell your reader the whole article in the first two sentences - This is another huge tip. People will decide if they want to read your article based on the opening two sentences. Ensure you make your opening paragraph a killer and of course, the headline.
  • Always use quality images in your posts. An image will invite people to read your article so ensure it is not a crappy one… make it relevant to the post. Try to use a consistent image style / size for your blog posts so people know what to expect. Separate long articles with images. I use the free stock sites sxc.hu and compfight for my images (ensure creative commons is on).
  • Put more time into your post. If you spend an hour crafting a post, why can’t you spend another 15 minutes spicing it up? Add relevant images and links throughout your post. Proof read at least 4 times.
  • Give back to your readers. Hold competitions and giveaways. Offer prizes and give link love. Don’t offer crappy prizes like ‘advertise on my site’ - give something of value and ensure that they want it. For example, my latest book giveaway. Look at the prizes you give away as investments, not costs.
  • Get onto as many blog rolls as possible - Ask blogs in your niche if you would like to do an exchange. Tell them what you have to offer and ask kindly. On that note would you like to be added to my blog roll? Use the form on that page if you would like to be considered for addition to my blog roll.
  • Do to others as you would like done to you - I like this tip because it is so true. Ensure you reply to every comment and email. Link to other sites and articles just as you would like done to you. This applies to all aspects of blogging and life in general.
  • Give more than expected - I wonder how many of you noticed that I gave you 8 tips, not 7? If you give your readers more than they expect they will always be pleased. Remember the saying “Under Promise, Over Deliver.”

I could go on forever but Daniel from Daily Blog Tips has already listed 101 more blog tips that you should implement. You may also like to read about how to boost your search engine rankings.

What else would you add?

55 comments thus far »
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29 Great Wordpress Plugins That I Personally Recommend

Published on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 – 9:00 am | 79 brilliant comments »

One of the cool benefits of using Wordpress as a CMS (Content Management System) is the ability to use plugins which allows you to add on extra features with just a few clicks.

I am going to showcase the particular Wordpress plugins I use on this blog and the reasons for doing so.

Akismet

It is one of the best spam filters going around. Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.

Why? To stop spam from reaching your blog comments.

All in One SEO Pack

Out-of-the-box Search Engine Optimisation for your Wordpress blog.

Why? To get better search engine ranking results.

Better Comments Manager

Better Comments manager allows you to view your comments post wise, it also allows you to reply to your comments from within the admin panel without you having to visit the site to respond to comments.

Why? To save time when replying to blog comments.

cforms

cforms offers unparalleled flexibility in deploying contact forms across your blog. Features include: comprehensive SPAM protection, Ajax support, Backup & Restore, Multi-Recipients, Role Manager support, Database tracking and many more.

Why? To easily create forms on your website. You can see this page as an example.

Chunk Urls for WordPress

This plugin shorten urls in comments so that they won’t break your site.

Why? Some commentators leave a full web address in their comments, this plugin shortens it to a smaller and still clickable link.

Commentluv

A plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog in their comment. It will parse a feed from most sites that have a feed location specified in its head html. I have currently disabled this plugin in the past week due to a small glitch it made on my website (it put >> at the header of my site) however it is a great plugin.

Why? To give your commentators some link love and to encourage commenting.

FeedBurner FeedSmith

This plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.

Why? To accurately record how many subscribers you have on your blog.

Google Ajax Search

Adds a Google AJAX Search box on your site. Options include searching your site through Google Blog Search and/or straight up Google, a second search option is available that is perfect for flickr.

Why? For a more accurate search result. You can find an example of this at the top right of this blog.

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO and autmatically upload it to Googles servers for you.

Why? Get your pages searched my Google more often.

Homepage Excerpts

This plugin shows excerpts on the home page rather than full posts. You can customise how many you want to display as full posts.

Why? Useful to shorten page load times on the front page.

My FTP

A WordPress FTP like plugin that can be used to manage folders and files via the WordPress admin panel.

Why? To save launching FTP Clients or logging into your control panel to upload files. This is useful if you travel a lot such as myself and are always in your admin panel.

NextGEN Gallery

This is a great plugin that allows you to have a customisable photo gallery with cool effects.

Why? Check out my graphic design portfolio to see it in action.

NoFollow Free

Remove the nofollow tag from your blog’s comments with a lot of options. Supports multilingual and a Top Commenters sidebar Widget.

Why? To encourage more commentating and to let loyal commentators benefit from commentating on your blog. Read more about nofollow here.

Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu

Replaces admin menus with a CSS dropdown menu bar. Saves lots of clicks and page loads!

Why? Save heaps of time by shortening your page loads and clicks in your Wordpress Admin. A must have.

Random Redirect

Allows you to create a link to your blog which will redirect someone to a random post on your blog in a StumbleUpon-like fashion. You can also specific in the URL `random_post_type` or `random_cat_id`.

Why? So people can browse your website in a random manner. Pretty useful for someone new to the website or those looking for something random. You can test it by clicking here.

Robots Meta

This plugin allows you to add all the appropriate robots meta tags to your pages and feeds, disable unused archives and nofollow unnecessary links. You can read about robot meta tags here.

Why? To disable posts or pages that you do not want appearing in Google Search results.

RSS Feed Signature

Add a customised signature or tag-line to your RSS feed(s).

Why? You could use this for any reason. Personally I use it for copyright, ebook advertising and related posts.

Simple Tags

Extended Tagging for your blog. It features Auto Completion, Suggested Tags, Tag Cloud Widgets, Related Posts, Mass edit tags and more.

Why? A very powerful tagging system. The related posts feature is what I find most useful.

Subscribe To Comments

Subscribe to Comments is a plugin that allows commentators on your blog to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments.

Why? It is one of the most popular WordPress plugins out there for the simple reason that it helps foster a community around your blog by encouraging commenters to come back and stay engaged in the dialog.

SRG Clean Archives

This plugin is designed to display your archive listings in a clean, uniform, single-query fashion that’s Search Engine friendly on a dedicated page or in your sidebar.You can see it in action on my blog.

Why? Never have to worry about updating your archives.

Twitter Updater

Updates Twitter when you create a new blog or publish one.

Why? Saves me time as I do not have to Twitter about new blog posts, It does it for me. I also have my Twitter updates sent to my facebook account automatically so advertising is all automated. Very useful.

Ultimate Google Analytics

Enable Google Analytics on your blog. Has options to also track external links, mailto links and links to downloads on your own site.

Why? To track your website stats in Google Analytics.

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the Wordpress installation to the latest one provided by Wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions. It also has a one click automatic function.

Why? Save a lot of time and effort by using the one click upgrade option.

WP-Cache

A very fast caching module that speeds up your site. It’s composed of several modules, this plugin can configure and manage the whole system. You can even tweak the plugin to make your site even faster. Another option is SuperCache however I am yet to figure out what plugin is better?

Why? To make your site run faster and more responsive.

WP-Polls

Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. You can easily include a poll into your WordPress’s blog post/page. WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and css and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you wanted. It supports multiple selection of answers too.

Why? To easily host polls such as the Mac or PC one I held earlier.

WP-Print

Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.

Why? Let your readers easily print your articles without your sidebars or advertising.

Wordpress Database Backup

Backup your data automatically everyday!

Why? You should always have a backup of your Wordpress blog. This is a must.

WP Widget Cache

Cache the output of your blog widgets. It will significantly reduce the sql queries to your database and speed up your site. Quite a new plugin which works great.

Why? To make your site run faster and more responsive. Works in conjuction with WP-Cache and SuperCache.

If you are after some more great Wordpress Plugins I would check out this powerful list of wordpress plugins and this must have wordpress plugins post.

What are some other plugins that you couldn’t live without? Are there any here that could be replaced with something better?

79 comments thus far »
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How Giving Away A Free Logo Design Benefited The Whole Community

Published on Thursday, August 21, 2008 – 12:36 pm | 24 brilliant comments »

Influential Blogger

Back in May I ran a competition where I asked JCD readers to comment why they should be the winner of a free logo design, designed by myself. In total there were 65 entries however I ended up choosing Janette Toral from Influential Blogger as the final winner of the free logo design.

I chose Janette to be the winner based purely on the fact that the new logo / badge could be used by many people rather than by just one individual, thus benefiting the whole community. I am now briefly going to go through the process of creating Janette’s logo and also show you the logo in use.

Background Information

Before I explain the logo design concept I shall give you a bit of background information… The  purpose of Janette’s website Influential Blogger is to get people all over the world to vote for the most influential blogs that are emerging each year and to narrow it down to the top 10 most influential emerging blogs for the current year.

This year there were a total of 177 entries and the winners were announced on August 11th at a dinner function held in Manila, Philippines. You will find the photos from the dinner below.

The Brief

Naturally, I start my logo design process in the usual way and get all the information I need off the client before I begin designing but to cut a long story short, after all our discussions and emails, Janette and myself concluded that a unique, simple logo somehow incorporating a ’spotlight’ was the direction that we would go in.

There would be two versions of the logo; one version for the header of her blog, and another ‘badge’ version that would be placed in the sidebars of the 10 winner’s blogs. This meant that the logo had to work at small and large sizes - this also being one of the principles of good logo design.

Janette also stated that the badge version of the logo had to have the words ‘Emerging Influential Blog for 2008′ and that it had to convey to people to “watch out for this blog”.

You can see the logo (badge version) below and the header version at the top of this article.

Influential Blogger Badges

The Concept

Crown Lights The concept behind the final logo was to portray a crown shaped out of 5 rays of light. The crown is a symbol of power, legitimacy, strength, righteousness, victory, triumph, resurrection, honour and glory… all traits that an influential blogger has. The ray of light is a symbol of ‘being in the spotlight’ and also of being searched, (ie. a torch) which relates back to the actual purpose of Influential Blogger… to search out the most influential blogs.

The Challenges

The Semiotics

The challenge in creating this logo was not creating a crown or spotlight itself but bringing both of these icons together to form one identifiable logo. This took a lot of sketching on paper and also a lot of experimentation with gradients and transparency in Illustrator. Janette and myself finally decided on the simple transparent / gradient concept which you can see in the final logo above.

The Effects

I purposely made the logo not look too much like a crown, nor too much like a spotlight so as not to put too much light on each one (excuse the pun) rather, have the the image as one identifiable logo that could be seen as two separate objects. I achieved the this through the use of gradients and transparency which effectively shows that the rays of light are not solid objects.

This technique of using two objects / icons is also very much alike my personal JCD logo seen at the top of this blog… the logo can be seen as a pencil, as well as the initials JCD.

The Text

Another challenge was the actual amount of text that had to be included in the badge version of the logo. As previously mentioned, the logo had to work both at large sizes and small sizes, such as when people placed the badge on their own blog. For this reason, I was limited to placing only 1 or 2 words per line.

To help counter this limitation I used different sized text and shading to give hierarchy to what is read first. On first notice you will read the word Influential Blogger, then later read “Emerging, For 2008″.

The Colour

The colour blue was chosen based on surveys that I conducted of what colour people associated with the word ‘potential’ and also the personal choice of Janette herself. Below you can see some colour variations on an earlier concept of the logo.

Early Concepts

Below you can see the final logo to be used on the header of Influential Blogger.

Influential Blogger

Below you can see the final badges again that were used on the blogs of the top 10 influential blogs.

Influential Blogger Badges

Photos From Award Ceremony

Below you can see some photos from the Influential Blogger award ceremony that was held in Manila.

The dinner turn out in Manila.

Influential Blogger Dinner

Receiving Recognition

Influential Blogger Dinner

Certificate of Recognition Award. Notice the badge logo?
Influential Blogger Dinner

The Function Room
Influential Blogger Dinner

There are a lot more photos of the event at the links below.

Write-ups

Not only did the logo make its way to the dinner at Manilla, onto all of the Influential Blogger Certificates and videos, it also found its way onto many of the bloggers websites who were involved in the ‘competition’ of which you can see some of the write ups below…

The Benefits Of Giving

As you can see, by offering your services for free you can get a lot of exposure for your work along with benefiting the community as a whole.

It hasn’t been the first time that JCD has given something away for free either… We have given away over $5000 worth of prizes away in a Graphic Design Group Writing Project and we have also given away prizes here and here and here and here and here and here and we also offer a free type classification ebook. What are you offering for free?

As always constructive criticism, questions and feedback is welcome.

24 comments thus far »
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