To Design Great Information Products, Keep It Simple!
Design matters. In fact, design matters a lot right now in Internet marketing. I spend quite a lot of time on packaging my information products and designing web pages. You can't afford to have these look amateur or cheap. Regardless of what's been said about "not judging a book by its cover," people still buy things based on what they look like, not on what they contain.
On my web sites, I usually create two types of landing pages, using two different design variations. One of them has a headline at the top. There are some bullet points that talk about benefits. Then there is an opt-in section at the bottom.
The other design is a modified modern version. There's a video clip at the top. The headline appears underneath that, and the opt-in section is again at the bottom.
These are essentially the same, the only differences being the use of the video and bullet points, and the placement of the headline. But they do attract different prospects. Many prefer to read information, while others prefer to see and hear it. We could have incorporated both on the same landing page, but in testing, we found this works much better.
One general rule I have discovered is that, for opt-in pages, it's best to design it so that there is no scrolling required. When you have to scroll, you have to look around and figure out what's going on. Instead, it's best to show everything, right there at once in a single window. The whole offer appears on the screen just as soon as it pops up.
I try to make all the things I design for information marketing-especially web pages as well as information products-so simple that nobody could screw them up. I make it so it's impossible to not figure things out.
A good rule of thumb to use, by the way, is a combination of something called eye gravity along with dominant visual elements. Let me explain how those work.
We have been trained through hundreds of years of type and print appearing in newspapers and books to start at the top and go down the page to the bottom. That's what's meant by eye gravity.
We also read from left to right in the Western World, so there is a pre-existing visual hierarchy. We can use that hierarchy to our advantage in information marketing, too. We want to put our dominant visual element-the largest one, which is usually also the main or most important one-at the very top.
So at the top, you put your biggest element, whether it's your video, your picture, your headline, or whatever the largest one is. The second biggest one, which should roughly be half the size of the first one, goes underneath that one. Then the next one should be less dominant and go underneath.
So now you know why we designed our two landing pages that way. A huge video goes above a headline. A headline goes above bullet points, and so on.
Don't get all fancy. Don't use lots of fonts and colors and all kinds of fancy graphics. That just distracts. Watch what Apple does. Go look at their website. I look at it regularly and borrow design concepts from them.
Usually Apple will have a page that's one font and one color. The headline is bold and the sub-headlines are bold and a little smaller. Then, the copy is smaller than that. It's all aligned left. It's just simple, simple, simple, but it looks so clean.
Look at the details. Notice how the lines are spaced. Notice how they're aligned. Notice what font they're using, too. These guys have the best designers in the world. They get paid the big bucks to make these designs.
Being overly creative and original with design in information marketing is typically a waste of time and money. Learn from the professionals. This is an area where copying is good. So make your designs simple. Don't get complex. Make everything obvious. Design matters.
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Neil Asher ([http://www.neilasher.com/freestuff.htm]) has built five multi-million dollar companies from zero, including one he took to $8 million in sales in under two years. He has created and sold successful franchises in England, Italy, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. Visit his web site for access to 17 FREE videos, 6 FREE books and two hours of audio training, revealing "How To Make BIG Money Selling Information Products On The Internet...Even If You Don't Have A Website And You've Never Sold Anything On The Internet Before."
On my web sites, I usually create two types of landing pages, using two different design variations. One of them has a headline at the top. There are some bullet points that talk about benefits. Then there is an opt-in section at the bottom.
The other design is a modified modern version. There's a video clip at the top. The headline appears underneath that, and the opt-in section is again at the bottom.
These are essentially the same, the only differences being the use of the video and bullet points, and the placement of the headline. But they do attract different prospects. Many prefer to read information, while others prefer to see and hear it. We could have incorporated both on the same landing page, but in testing, we found this works much better.
One general rule I have discovered is that, for opt-in pages, it's best to design it so that there is no scrolling required. When you have to scroll, you have to look around and figure out what's going on. Instead, it's best to show everything, right there at once in a single window. The whole offer appears on the screen just as soon as it pops up.
I try to make all the things I design for information marketing-especially web pages as well as information products-so simple that nobody could screw them up. I make it so it's impossible to not figure things out.
A good rule of thumb to use, by the way, is a combination of something called eye gravity along with dominant visual elements. Let me explain how those work.
We have been trained through hundreds of years of type and print appearing in newspapers and books to start at the top and go down the page to the bottom. That's what's meant by eye gravity.
We also read from left to right in the Western World, so there is a pre-existing visual hierarchy. We can use that hierarchy to our advantage in information marketing, too. We want to put our dominant visual element-the largest one, which is usually also the main or most important one-at the very top.
So at the top, you put your biggest element, whether it's your video, your picture, your headline, or whatever the largest one is. The second biggest one, which should roughly be half the size of the first one, goes underneath that one. Then the next one should be less dominant and go underneath.
So now you know why we designed our two landing pages that way. A huge video goes above a headline. A headline goes above bullet points, and so on.
Don't get all fancy. Don't use lots of fonts and colors and all kinds of fancy graphics. That just distracts. Watch what Apple does. Go look at their website. I look at it regularly and borrow design concepts from them.
Usually Apple will have a page that's one font and one color. The headline is bold and the sub-headlines are bold and a little smaller. Then, the copy is smaller than that. It's all aligned left. It's just simple, simple, simple, but it looks so clean.
Look at the details. Notice how the lines are spaced. Notice how they're aligned. Notice what font they're using, too. These guys have the best designers in the world. They get paid the big bucks to make these designs.
Being overly creative and original with design in information marketing is typically a waste of time and money. Learn from the professionals. This is an area where copying is good. So make your designs simple. Don't get complex. Make everything obvious. Design matters.
= = =
Neil Asher ([http://www.neilasher.com/freestuff.htm]) has built five multi-million dollar companies from zero, including one he took to $8 million in sales in under two years. He has created and sold successful franchises in England, Italy, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. Visit his web site for access to 17 FREE videos, 6 FREE books and two hours of audio training, revealing "How To Make BIG Money Selling Information Products On The Internet...Even If You Don't Have A Website And You've Never Sold Anything On The Internet Before."
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