"The Offer" is much, much more than the price you're charging for your product or service. In fact, I count EIGHT major components that great offers share -- and we're going to take a detailed look at ALL of them.
This is crucial stuff: While most marketers and copywriters spend most of their time developing major themes, headlines and opening copy, we often sleepwalk through the copy that showcases the offer.
We're all guilty of it -- and that's a big, BIG boo-boo: A compelling offer can easily boost response and average sale amount by 20 percent, 30 percent or even more!
In contrast, an ill-conceived offer can depress or even kill response -- and it can also drive your fulfillment costs into the stratosphere, leaving your ROI in the dirt.
So grab a cup-o-Joe and get comfortable. Unless I miss my guess, just thinking about the offers you make on the Internet, in direct mail, in print and in your TV and radio promotions is about to add big bucks to your bottom line.
WELCOME TO THE DAYS OF ... "BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE!"
In the old days, merchants and customers hammered out most purchases face to face. The buyer haggled for the best price and asked the merchant to sweeten the pot by adding something extra.
The advent of mass marketing changed all that, of course. Today, direct mail consumers are accustomed to having your best offer presented to them on a silver platter.
And now as never before, the pressure is ON. With every passing day, our prospects are exposed to ever-more-amazing offers -- especially on TV, in the mail and on the Internet.
Click on your TV and you're likely to see Ron Popeil giving away what seems like a whole kitchen-full of free gadgets when you buy his rotisserie oven -- or Billy Mays cutting his price in half, doubling the amount of Orange-Glo you get AND giving you free squee-gees and other goodies.
It's getting ridiculouser and ridiculouser.
When I first launched Health & Healing back in the early 1990s, we offered a total of four free gifts: Two with your one-year subscription, one more if you signed up for two years, and one more if you responded within ten days.
Last week I submitted sales copy for a health newsletter that offered a total of SEVENTEEN free gifts!
What's that you say? You don't sell kitchen gadgets, cleaning products or health newsletters?
Doesn't matter. The simple truth is that your prospects are being conditioned to expect the moon -- not just by your competitors, but by every direct mail marketer out there. Any marketer who ignores this sea of change in consumer attitudes does so at his own peril.
What's more, if the number of free gifts prospects expect you to offer has more than quadrupled, the rest of every great offer has also become more intense and complex.
ANATOMY OF A POWER-PACKED OFFER
Just about every great offer you'll see is comprised of eight major components:
1. Rationale: Great offers begin with a clear, credible explanation of why you're about to give away the farm.
Maybe it's a "Special Introductory Offer:" You're so sure that once the prospect experiences the benefits your product provides, he'll be a customer for life.
Or, maybe you're so worried about a current or impending crisis in his health, finances, happiness, -- whatever -- that giving him all this good stuff is the only ethical thing an ethical person like you could possibly do.
Whatever your rationale for the amazing, astonishing, truly spectacular offer you're about to make, put it up in lights!
Better yet, use it to position yourself as a concerned advocate and your new customer's greatest champion.
2. Discount: Several things to think about here ...
FIRST: It's important to establish your regular price and make it seem like a really good value.
To make your regular price believable, specifics are crucial.
Tell your prospect where your product has been offered or sold for full price or even how many thousands of folks have paid the full price for the product. (In his Internet promotions, one of my buddies even includes a link that opens a separate web page on which the product is offered at full price!)
Then, demonstrate why even at full price your product is a screaming deal. Show how your product will save them or make them many times your regular price.
SECOND: Present your discount in a way that dimensionalizes your role as your prospect's advocate and champion.
After stating and justifying the regular price, I often say something like, "But it's so crucial that you get this help now, I don't want you to have to pay that much ..."
How BIG a discount should you offer? In cases when my client allows me to establish pricing, I always go for the 50% Introductory Discount.
"You SAVE HALF!" and "HALF-PRICE OFFER" and "HALF-OFF!" have great visceral appeal. Anything else feels kind of stingy -- anything more strains credulity.
THIRD: Take the time to marvel at the piddling amount the prospect will pay. Here again, comparisons will serve you well.
When possible, quantify the monetary benefits the product will deliver and compare it with the almost insignificant price.
Break the regular price down to a daily or weekly figure and compare it with something far more trivial that they spend more on without even thinking about the expense: A gallon of gas, a cup of Starbucks, etc.
3. Purchase Options: Depending on what you're selling, determining how many purchase options you offer the customer can be a thorny decision to make.
The key is to offer a low-end price point that will get you maximum numbers of new customers, PLUS one or more higher price points to increase your average sale and return on investment.
In the newsletter industry for example, we typically offer a one-year and two-year subscription. (As a rule, the two-year subscription costs somewhere around 1.8 times more than the one-year subscription. That gives prospects a strong incentive to choose a two-year subscription.)
On some occasions, a three-year option is also offered, usually as an impulse item: "Join me for two years for just $179 and get a third year for just $19.95!"
When selling nutritional supplements, I've found that a maximum of three quantity options is generally best. Prospects may be invited to order a one-year supply, a six-month supply or a three-month supply, for example.
The key here is to avoid presenting prospects with too many choices. Your chances of losing the sale increase with every extra second your prospect spends trying to decide which offer to go for.
4. Payment Terms: For most of my clients' new customer acquisition promotions, cash with order is king. But once a year or so, I also work with Boardroom on a "bill-me" promotion.
On the other hand, when crafting promotions for my clients' customer files, I often consider other types of payment plans -- here are just a few options you may want to consider ...
Payment Plan: When your key price point -- the level at which most of your customers will respond -- is relatively rich for prospects' blood, consider a "ThreePay" or "FourPay" offer.
You collect the credit card number with the order, then bang it for one-third or one-fourth of the total amount each month for three or four months.
By doing so, you effectively lower the perceived price point in your prospect's mind and should appreciably increase response.
"'Til Forbid:" When your products are delivered regularly -- weekly or monthly for example, this can be a great way to go.
You collect the credit card information up front and then bill the card at regular intervals (monthly is most common) until the customer tells you to stop.
Negative Option: You've seen this kind of offer most frequently in book club and CD club promotions. Each month, the customer is notified of the "Monthly Selection" and an "Alternate Selection." At that point, one of three things happens:
If he fails to respond, the Monthly Selection is automatically sent and his credit card is billed.
If he indicates he would rather have the Alternate Selection, it is sent and his credit card is billed.
And if he indicates that he does not want any selection that month, nothing is sent and his credit card is not billed.
The key advantage to all three of these offer types is that each one lowers the perceived price point. Instead of signing up for $348- worth of books per year for example, the prospect perceives he is only signing up for $29 per month.
5. Premiums: These are the free gifts that prospects receive along with the product they are purchasing.
Typically, in newsletter offers, premiums are timely special reports that provide important information and advice on topics closely related to the theme of the promotion.
Why are special reports such great premiums? Two reasons:
A) Timely special reports that can promise tremendous profit potential have a far higher perceived value than a hard-cover book (perceived value: $29.95) or any other free gift you could possibly offer, and ...
B) Printed reports cost only pennies to print and mail, and they can be delivered as PDFs or eBooks on the Internet for free!
When chosing the topics for the premiums you offer, it's important to make sure that each one emphasizes and clarifies your main theme and/or your product's USP.
It's also crucial to create a premium structure that makes the highest-priced purchase option far and away the most appealing to the prospect.
In a campaign for an investment newsletter we just completed, our main theme focused on tremendous opportunities in natural resource stocks -- gold stocks in particular -- and our main premium was a list of the editor's 7 hottest gold stocks.
Two-year subscribers were offered additional reports listing the 7 hottest silver and platinum stocks ... the 7 greatest energy stocks ... and the 7 best alternative energy stocks to buy now.
Prospects were faced with the choice of getting one free gift with a one-year subscription or FOUR free gifts with a two-year sign-up: A real no-brainer if you ask me -- especially since they take no risk whatsoever with your super-duper ...
6. Guarantee: The stronger your guarantee, the better. One-year guarantees tend to be the most common today. However, I have written Rodale promotions in which you could return a book at anytime in your lifetime for a full refund!
Cheaping out is the biggest blunder you can make in a guarantee. Offer a 60-day or 90-day guarantee and you're going to get a blizzard of refund requests two or three months out.
Delay your customer's decision date for a year, and you'll find that refunds fall precipitously.
Whenever possible, tie your guarantee to your product's performance. Set a specific benchamark: "XYZ will double your money in gold stocks every three months, or just let me know and I'll refund every penny you paid."
In cases where you have significant production costs -- or when there's a temptation for shady customers to take advantage of your generosity and get your product for free -- you may need to require that the prospect return the product or "the unused portion" in order to exercise his right to a refund.
If on the other hand, you're selling something that costs very little to produce -- a newsletter, for example -- you're better off telling prospects that in the unlikely event they decide to cancel, they can keep everything they've received from you completely without cost or further obligation.
7. Urgency Premiums: Prospects earn these additional free gifts by responding quickly to your offer.
Typically, these "Early-Bird" gifts are given to anyone who responds within 10 days. However, in Internet promotions, they can be for anyone who orders in the next ten minutes!
And I've used another type of urgency premium very successfully over the years ...
See, I figure that time is the essence: Every second that passes after I've presented my offer is an opportunity for my prospect to bail out on me.
Normally, in my direct mail promotions, some 60 to 80 percent of my orders arrive by telephone. That means 20 to 40 percent of my prospects are ordering by snail mail.
And that means they have to take time to fill out the order form, detach it, fold it, put it in the envelope and drop it into a mailbox.
Now, I'm willing to bet that significant numbers of prospects get part of the way through that process and then fail to follow through. In short, I sold them, but I'm not getting their orders.
The truth is, I do NOT want them to order by mail. So why not offer an extra premium for using the phone instead?
Combining a 10-day "Early Bird" bonus PLUS an extra bonus to incentivize folks to order by phone has been a key component of some of my biggest winners ever.
8. Fulfillment Considerations: We Americans are not known for our patience. Instant gratification is big for us.
Giving out our credit card info and then cooling our heels for four to six weeks stinks -- and I'm willing to bet that millions of sales are killed every year in this country simply because the prospect assumes it'll be a coon's age before his product and free gifts arrive.
So if you can deliver faster, why not shout it from the rooftops?
I have a client who ships his product the very next business day. And I have reams of testimonials from customers who were amazed that their product arrived just three or four days after they ordered it.
Think I mention THAT little gem of a fact in my promotions for him? You bet your bippy I do!
Also: If you're not charging for shipping & handling of your product or premiums, why not put THAT up in lights? In an industry that routinely charges $6.95 or even more for S&H, your customers will love you for it!
GET OUT OF THE OFFER BOX!
A few months ago, as I was happily reviewing the results a new control had produced on its first outing, I had an idea.
Funny how many little stones can accumulate in your shoes before you notice -- but as I looked over the piece, I realized that one of the premiums had been bothering me all along. Reason: It had almost no connection at all with the product or with the main premium.
I quickly called the client and suggested a test: "Panel A" would be the control as-is -- WITH the oddball premium, and "Panel B" would be the control WITHOUT it.
To my surprise, Panel B won in a landslide. Not only did eliminating that premium lower our fulfillment cost, it also increased our response rate and average sale!
Turns out, the "HUH?" factor had been turning folks off!
The moral of the story: Allocate cells in every roll-out to test at least one component of your offer. Test a stronger, longer, more specific guarantee ... new titles for your premiums ... higher and lower price points ... new payment options ... the works.
Rabu, 25 Oktober 2017
Kamis, 12 Oktober 2017
Edit Your Digital Photos - More Info More Fun
Lighting effects - a change in the lighting can dramatically alter the mood of a photograph. In the past, photographers either had to wait for the sun to be just perfect or make use of special lighting in order to achieve the effect that they need. With lighting Photo Shop effects tutorials, you can adjust the lighting of a photograph even after it is taken. Think of the possibilities! You can take the picture of a sunset even in the middle of a cloudy day. You can light up the subject of a photograph even without using a flash. Photo Shop effects tutorials will even teach you how to make it look like you are living on an alien planet, by adding 2 different colored suns to your picture. The great thing about this is that, unlike other image editors which just paste a sun into the background, Adobe Photo Shop can really make it seem as if the addition does affect the lighting within the image.
Photoshop is arguably the best software to use for creating and manipulating graphics and photographs. Never has tweaking images been so easy, thanks to the tools and advancements Photoshop has provided. If you've always wanted to learn more about Photoshop but don't know where to start, you don't have to pay for classes to fine-tune your skills. You can get all the tips and techniques you need from some of the best illustrators and Photoshop experts on the web. Here are a few sites you might want to start with: http://www.good-tutorials.com If you need online tutorial on the most popular software in the market, this is a good site to start. For Photoshop alone, this site lists more than 13,000 single tutorials. That's enough to take you from your beginner state to full-blown Photoshop expertdom.
Learning photoshop cs with the photoshop cs tutorials. Techniques and Tools - After passing the basics, the tutorials can next lead you to navigate the selections on painting, drawing and creating shapes. This will dwell on how you can do filling, cropping, cloning, sampling, annotation and retouching. This part of the Photoshop CS tutorial will help you appreciate more how the Internet web sites and web in general are structured. You will see how graphics and animation basically operates.
Selection - Sometimes, you wish to create an effect on only one part of the photo. Adobe Photo Shop anticipates this need, and even better, lets you choose the shape of your selected part. When you've selected which part of the photo you wish to edit, all subsequent changes will then take effect on that part alone. It's as easy and simple as that! Mosaic - Remember your old art lessons in primary school and you had to create a mosaic project? Well, how about doing a mosaic version of your photo? It seems to require harder work with only your keyboard and mouse, but think again. Thanks to Adobe Photo Shop, you can create your own mosaic with just a click and even choose the cell size for your photo.
Another advantage of Photoshop is that it can work with several color models such as RGB, CMYK, Lab, Bitmap, Duotone and Grayscale. This allows any user a lot of flexibility in terms of image editing, giving him the power to play with every type of photo image there is. The newest version of Photoshop is v. 10, also known as CS3. It's integrated with Adobe Creative Suite, hence the 'CS'. The most popular, though is the CS2 which was made available in 2005. It has successfully integrated new tools and former plugins like color replacement, warping and multiple-layer select.
Understanding Contrast - You see this term being used a lot when describing art or even when discussing about adjustment levels of a plasma TV. But do you really understand what contrast is? To put thing simply, contrast is the ability of a certain object, in this case that would be Photo Shop, to display the contrast or difference between dark and light colors or the difference between black and white. In a monochromatic photo, contrast is especially important because it makes distinguishing various objects in the photo easier. In colored photos, contrast is important when the photo has a particularly dark background.
With Quick Fix you can perform basic editing functions to correct the most common digital photo flaws in one handy location. With a couple of clicks, smart fix and auto red-eye removal will give you an image that is ready to print. More handy functions are the skin tone adjustment tool, which makes skin tones appear more life-like and the straighten tool which gives you the ability to straighten and crop crooked photos. A couple of more advanced features which are very cool are the magic selection brush and magic extractor tool - I use them a lot in Photoshop CS2 and was extremely impressed with how they performed in Photoshop Elements Mac Version 4.0. With the magic selection brush, you scribble on an object and, providing there is enough contrast between it and the background, Elements will select it for you. The magic extractor is even better; it is simple to operate and allows you to separate objects from the background of an image in seconds extremely accurately (this works better than the extract function in the full-priced Photoshop CS2 - but don't tell anyone I told you!).
Photoshop is arguably the best software to use for creating and manipulating graphics and photographs. Never has tweaking images been so easy, thanks to the tools and advancements Photoshop has provided. If you've always wanted to learn more about Photoshop but don't know where to start, you don't have to pay for classes to fine-tune your skills. You can get all the tips and techniques you need from some of the best illustrators and Photoshop experts on the web. Here are a few sites you might want to start with: http://www.good-tutorials.com If you need online tutorial on the most popular software in the market, this is a good site to start. For Photoshop alone, this site lists more than 13,000 single tutorials. That's enough to take you from your beginner state to full-blown Photoshop expertdom.
Learning photoshop cs with the photoshop cs tutorials. Techniques and Tools - After passing the basics, the tutorials can next lead you to navigate the selections on painting, drawing and creating shapes. This will dwell on how you can do filling, cropping, cloning, sampling, annotation and retouching. This part of the Photoshop CS tutorial will help you appreciate more how the Internet web sites and web in general are structured. You will see how graphics and animation basically operates.
Selection - Sometimes, you wish to create an effect on only one part of the photo. Adobe Photo Shop anticipates this need, and even better, lets you choose the shape of your selected part. When you've selected which part of the photo you wish to edit, all subsequent changes will then take effect on that part alone. It's as easy and simple as that! Mosaic - Remember your old art lessons in primary school and you had to create a mosaic project? Well, how about doing a mosaic version of your photo? It seems to require harder work with only your keyboard and mouse, but think again. Thanks to Adobe Photo Shop, you can create your own mosaic with just a click and even choose the cell size for your photo.
Another advantage of Photoshop is that it can work with several color models such as RGB, CMYK, Lab, Bitmap, Duotone and Grayscale. This allows any user a lot of flexibility in terms of image editing, giving him the power to play with every type of photo image there is. The newest version of Photoshop is v. 10, also known as CS3. It's integrated with Adobe Creative Suite, hence the 'CS'. The most popular, though is the CS2 which was made available in 2005. It has successfully integrated new tools and former plugins like color replacement, warping and multiple-layer select.
Understanding Contrast - You see this term being used a lot when describing art or even when discussing about adjustment levels of a plasma TV. But do you really understand what contrast is? To put thing simply, contrast is the ability of a certain object, in this case that would be Photo Shop, to display the contrast or difference between dark and light colors or the difference between black and white. In a monochromatic photo, contrast is especially important because it makes distinguishing various objects in the photo easier. In colored photos, contrast is important when the photo has a particularly dark background.
With Quick Fix you can perform basic editing functions to correct the most common digital photo flaws in one handy location. With a couple of clicks, smart fix and auto red-eye removal will give you an image that is ready to print. More handy functions are the skin tone adjustment tool, which makes skin tones appear more life-like and the straighten tool which gives you the ability to straighten and crop crooked photos. A couple of more advanced features which are very cool are the magic selection brush and magic extractor tool - I use them a lot in Photoshop CS2 and was extremely impressed with how they performed in Photoshop Elements Mac Version 4.0. With the magic selection brush, you scribble on an object and, providing there is enough contrast between it and the background, Elements will select it for you. The magic extractor is even better; it is simple to operate and allows you to separate objects from the background of an image in seconds extremely accurately (this works better than the extract function in the full-priced Photoshop CS2 - but don't tell anyone I told you!).
Senin, 25 September 2017
Finding A Tattoo For A Woman's Tastes - Critical Female Design Info
Finding a tattoo for a woman's tastes online is hard, especially when you are looking for quality artwork. The web is just filled with so much generic art that is can seem impossible, as you may have seen for yourself. Some women even settle for design they aren't 100% in love with, which no sane person should ever do. Well, here is what you need to know about that kind of design on the internet, as well as how to find the good stuff.
Performing a search for a tattoo for a woman's tastes can be very difficult for most. I know, because I have seen it first hand. I tend to stress the word "settle", because that is exactly what a lot of women do when it comes to tattoos. Whether they are plain tired of looking thought all of the generic crud on the web, or they simply think they won't be able to find anything better, some females will get tattoos that they do not fully want in the first place. Needless to say, this generally leads to frustration and regret in the future.
Finding a tattoo for a woman's tastes online doesn't have to be that way anymore and here is what you need to avoid when searching for that perfect design...
The first and most important thing is what we are about to talk about right now. This has to do with the tools you are using to locate artwork, or any given tattoo for a woman's tastes on the web. If you are like 95% of the people around the world, you are using search engines. To make a long story short, search engines are pretty useless when it comes to finding good designs. Places like Google and Yahoo just lead you straight to the thousands upon thousands of cookie-cutter websites out there that have a large percentage of the generic artwork.
Also, the artwork they do have is over a half a decade old and is already plastered and scattered on hundreds of other websites already. Who knows how many females might already have that particular design inked on their body? That is not a good tattoo for a woman's body. With millions of people already seeing that single design, you can bet that somewhere near one hundreds females have that inked some place on their body.
Finding a tattoo for a woman's tastes should not be this hard, so here is how to avoid that type of garbage...
Now that we have excluded the main culprit, you will need an alternative tool to locate artwork. Not just any art, "good" original art, for the perfect tattoo for a woman's tastes. This is where you have met your new best friend and they are called internet forums. Forums are sensational tools with so much insider information hat you won't believe your eyes and for locating tattoos they are priceless. I can't even begin to tell you how many different times I have used them successfully locate those hidden websites out there that have original, quality artwork that is not spread all over the darn place. That's the kind of tattoo for a woman's tastes you need.
As an extra bonus, these also happen to be the sites that have the design that were truly drawn to be implemented as tattoos for women and men alike. This is in sharp contrast to those cookie-cutter places, which feature so much artwork that won't look half as good on your body as it did on paper or computer screen. This happens because of the artists that draw most of the designs at those cookie-cutter websites. Those places are filled with material that was drawn by artists with no knowledge of tattoos, which won't make a good tattoo for a woman's body. These crucial skills are needed to make designs that will look just as great once inked on a female's skin. Finding a tattoo for a woman's tastes at one of those generic sites will just make you disappointed. Forums are you surefire way around that.
Locating the perfect tattoo for a woman's tastes can be much easier than you think, so please don't just settle for all of that generic artwork that seems to litter the internet.
Performing a search for a tattoo for a woman's tastes can be very difficult for most. I know, because I have seen it first hand. I tend to stress the word "settle", because that is exactly what a lot of women do when it comes to tattoos. Whether they are plain tired of looking thought all of the generic crud on the web, or they simply think they won't be able to find anything better, some females will get tattoos that they do not fully want in the first place. Needless to say, this generally leads to frustration and regret in the future.
Finding a tattoo for a woman's tastes online doesn't have to be that way anymore and here is what you need to avoid when searching for that perfect design...
The first and most important thing is what we are about to talk about right now. This has to do with the tools you are using to locate artwork, or any given tattoo for a woman's tastes on the web. If you are like 95% of the people around the world, you are using search engines. To make a long story short, search engines are pretty useless when it comes to finding good designs. Places like Google and Yahoo just lead you straight to the thousands upon thousands of cookie-cutter websites out there that have a large percentage of the generic artwork.
Also, the artwork they do have is over a half a decade old and is already plastered and scattered on hundreds of other websites already. Who knows how many females might already have that particular design inked on their body? That is not a good tattoo for a woman's body. With millions of people already seeing that single design, you can bet that somewhere near one hundreds females have that inked some place on their body.
Finding a tattoo for a woman's tastes should not be this hard, so here is how to avoid that type of garbage...
Now that we have excluded the main culprit, you will need an alternative tool to locate artwork. Not just any art, "good" original art, for the perfect tattoo for a woman's tastes. This is where you have met your new best friend and they are called internet forums. Forums are sensational tools with so much insider information hat you won't believe your eyes and for locating tattoos they are priceless. I can't even begin to tell you how many different times I have used them successfully locate those hidden websites out there that have original, quality artwork that is not spread all over the darn place. That's the kind of tattoo for a woman's tastes you need.
As an extra bonus, these also happen to be the sites that have the design that were truly drawn to be implemented as tattoos for women and men alike. This is in sharp contrast to those cookie-cutter places, which feature so much artwork that won't look half as good on your body as it did on paper or computer screen. This happens because of the artists that draw most of the designs at those cookie-cutter websites. Those places are filled with material that was drawn by artists with no knowledge of tattoos, which won't make a good tattoo for a woman's body. These crucial skills are needed to make designs that will look just as great once inked on a female's skin. Finding a tattoo for a woman's tastes at one of those generic sites will just make you disappointed. Forums are you surefire way around that.
Locating the perfect tattoo for a woman's tastes can be much easier than you think, so please don't just settle for all of that generic artwork that seems to litter the internet.
Selasa, 12 September 2017
How To Get a Truly Unique Work of Modern Art for Your Home
If you're still searching for that one perfect piece of modern art for your home but can't find it in stores or galleries, consider a more direct route: commission a work yourself.
Commissioning a new work from an artist can bring your home's level of beauty, sophistication and style up to never before seen standards. It's your own unique work to keep and show off at your discretion.
But how does one go about commissioning a piece? And how can you be sure it'll come out the way you want?
It comes down to two things: artist selection and communication.
To find the right artist, you'll have to know what you're looking for in the work of art. It's a narrowing down process, and it's not really as daunting as it may seem.
If you've got something in mind, ask yourself -- where have you seen their work? At a museum? On the walls at a coffee shop? If you've seen something you like, you can always ask the owner if they have the contact info of that artist, and if you can contact them for a commission of your own.
But don't limit yourself to your own small corner of the world. Embrace the Internet! There are tons of platforms to find a style you like, and usually a way to contact the artist. Try DeviantArt, Carbonmade, or even Pinterest and Instagram. Use the search functions to find what you're looking for and the artist who creates it.
When it comes to communication and direction, that's all up to you. Think about yourself and how particular you're going to be. Some people will accept anything the artist hands over, and some have distinct ideas about what's good or not. You know yourself, but chances are the artist doesn't. So it's on you to communicate your vision clearly.
It's never to soon to start forming your overall vision. Artists require communication, and if your vision is not concrete enough, the artist might fill in all the blanks for you. And while this might sound attractive, it can be a dangerous thing. Once an art project is complete, it's not easy (or cheap) to redo any or all of it. If you don't like the artist's vision, then chances are it's because it didn't line up with YOUR vision, and that's because you didn't communicate your vision well enough to the artist.
To make sure you get what you want, you should narrow the communication options down to their specialty. What medium does this artist typically work in? Is that the medium you want for your piece? Be honest with yourself and your artist: are you attracted to their own style, or is it just that their style happens to most closely match the vision you have in your head?
It's also important to find out how many commissions the artist has performed previously. If they've done a lot, they likely will have their own set of questions to ask you, the client. Please answer all the questions honestly and completely. The more you collaborate and communicate, the happier you'll be with your finished piece.
Keep in mind: "surprise me" works out well less than most people think. You can surprise your guests when they see the piece at first, but you don't want to be surprised by your commissioned artist.
Whatever your tastes are, the more selective you are in finding an artist and the more communicative you are to that artist, the better your fine art commission is bound to come out.
Commissioning a new work from an artist can bring your home's level of beauty, sophistication and style up to never before seen standards. It's your own unique work to keep and show off at your discretion.
But how does one go about commissioning a piece? And how can you be sure it'll come out the way you want?
It comes down to two things: artist selection and communication.
To find the right artist, you'll have to know what you're looking for in the work of art. It's a narrowing down process, and it's not really as daunting as it may seem.
If you've got something in mind, ask yourself -- where have you seen their work? At a museum? On the walls at a coffee shop? If you've seen something you like, you can always ask the owner if they have the contact info of that artist, and if you can contact them for a commission of your own.
But don't limit yourself to your own small corner of the world. Embrace the Internet! There are tons of platforms to find a style you like, and usually a way to contact the artist. Try DeviantArt, Carbonmade, or even Pinterest and Instagram. Use the search functions to find what you're looking for and the artist who creates it.
When it comes to communication and direction, that's all up to you. Think about yourself and how particular you're going to be. Some people will accept anything the artist hands over, and some have distinct ideas about what's good or not. You know yourself, but chances are the artist doesn't. So it's on you to communicate your vision clearly.
It's never to soon to start forming your overall vision. Artists require communication, and if your vision is not concrete enough, the artist might fill in all the blanks for you. And while this might sound attractive, it can be a dangerous thing. Once an art project is complete, it's not easy (or cheap) to redo any or all of it. If you don't like the artist's vision, then chances are it's because it didn't line up with YOUR vision, and that's because you didn't communicate your vision well enough to the artist.
To make sure you get what you want, you should narrow the communication options down to their specialty. What medium does this artist typically work in? Is that the medium you want for your piece? Be honest with yourself and your artist: are you attracted to their own style, or is it just that their style happens to most closely match the vision you have in your head?
It's also important to find out how many commissions the artist has performed previously. If they've done a lot, they likely will have their own set of questions to ask you, the client. Please answer all the questions honestly and completely. The more you collaborate and communicate, the happier you'll be with your finished piece.
Keep in mind: "surprise me" works out well less than most people think. You can surprise your guests when they see the piece at first, but you don't want to be surprised by your commissioned artist.
Whatever your tastes are, the more selective you are in finding an artist and the more communicative you are to that artist, the better your fine art commission is bound to come out.
Senin, 21 Agustus 2017
Media Arts and Animation Degree Online Program
What does Media Arts and Animation Degree Online Program have to Offer?
The presentation of any product is one of the key factors on which the sales ratio rely completely. Of course the product has to maintain the quality standards but other than that, to sell a product, it needs to be well presented. Apart from sales perspective, when it comes to entertainment, it's very important to make things look as real as possible on screen. For instance, a film is being shot and there is a stunt sequence in which the actor has to jump from a very tall building. Now in this sort of a scenario it's pretty likely that the actor will deny to shoot that scene (unless it's Tom Cruise) because of a lot of risks involved and the stunt sequence is also very necessary for the movie to progress. So instead of risking a human life, that stunt could be performed on a computer screen using a graphic designing software and thanks to so much of the hard work from the industry, its really not that hard to create stunts like that. Media Arts and Animation Design has traveled a long way. There were days when simple JPEGs and GIFs images were created on Corel Draw but now there are advance graphic designing software programs like 3D Studio Max, Adobe Photo-shop and Adobe Flash which creates high definition graphics. These software programs have unlimited possibilities and it all depends on the imagination and the creativity of the graphic designer that how he/she does that. The tools are there to create a perfect motion picture using nothing more than a computer system but it's very important to learn those tools first in order to be on the top of your game. For that matter, many top accredited online universities and top accredited online colleges are offering Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program. Media Arts and Animation Degree Online module is basically a branch of Visual Communication Degree programs. If you choose to get into any of the top accredited online university or top accredited online colleges to learn the art of animation and design then this degree could be the best option for you.
To learn animation and design, a lot of tolerance and skills are required. You might have to wait for months or years to gain the perfection you are trying to achieve but one thing's for sure that you will create that perfection. And after all, one of the benefits of getting into top accredited online universities or top accredited online colleges is that you learn everything with perfection and are given ample amount of time to develop an understanding of all the given tools and software programs to achieve what you want. You will be working with software programs like Adobe Photo-shop, Adobe After Effects, and 3D Studio Max.
Course Outline
Some of the courses offered by top accredited online universities and top accredited online colleges in Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program are:
· 2D Animation
· 3D Character Animation
· Acting/Movement
· Advanced 2D Animation
· Advanced 3D Modeling
· Advanced 3D Textures
· Advanced Life Drawing/Gesture
· Advanced Modeling/Animation Topics
· Camera and Lighting Techniques
· Character and Object Animation
· Color Theory
· Digital Composition
· Digital Editing-- Video, Audio
· Digital Imaging for Multimedia and Web
· Digital Ink and Paint
· Drawing and Anatomy
· Fundamentals of Design
· Intermediate 2D Animation
· Introduction to Digital Composition
· Life Drawing and Gesture
· Portfolio Presentation for Animation
· Pre-Portfolio Presentation for Animation
· Pre-Production Team
· Storyboard Rendering for Animation
· Visual Indication
· Web Animation
Career Opportunities and Salary Info
Once after completing Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program of top accredited online universities or top accredited online colleges, you would have to go for an internship after which you would be able to join a regular job. Internship could even be started before completing the degree program so this way you would be able to save some time. You could target jobs like Storyboard Artist, Texture Artist, Computer Modeler, Computer Generated Special Effects Artist, Creative Head, Media Consultant and a lot more. The salary depends on the sort of the job position you are on to and the experience. You would be able to earn around $80,000 or more per annum after successfully completing Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program from any of the top accredited online universities or top accredited online colleges.
The presentation of any product is one of the key factors on which the sales ratio rely completely. Of course the product has to maintain the quality standards but other than that, to sell a product, it needs to be well presented. Apart from sales perspective, when it comes to entertainment, it's very important to make things look as real as possible on screen. For instance, a film is being shot and there is a stunt sequence in which the actor has to jump from a very tall building. Now in this sort of a scenario it's pretty likely that the actor will deny to shoot that scene (unless it's Tom Cruise) because of a lot of risks involved and the stunt sequence is also very necessary for the movie to progress. So instead of risking a human life, that stunt could be performed on a computer screen using a graphic designing software and thanks to so much of the hard work from the industry, its really not that hard to create stunts like that. Media Arts and Animation Design has traveled a long way. There were days when simple JPEGs and GIFs images were created on Corel Draw but now there are advance graphic designing software programs like 3D Studio Max, Adobe Photo-shop and Adobe Flash which creates high definition graphics. These software programs have unlimited possibilities and it all depends on the imagination and the creativity of the graphic designer that how he/she does that. The tools are there to create a perfect motion picture using nothing more than a computer system but it's very important to learn those tools first in order to be on the top of your game. For that matter, many top accredited online universities and top accredited online colleges are offering Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program. Media Arts and Animation Degree Online module is basically a branch of Visual Communication Degree programs. If you choose to get into any of the top accredited online university or top accredited online colleges to learn the art of animation and design then this degree could be the best option for you.
To learn animation and design, a lot of tolerance and skills are required. You might have to wait for months or years to gain the perfection you are trying to achieve but one thing's for sure that you will create that perfection. And after all, one of the benefits of getting into top accredited online universities or top accredited online colleges is that you learn everything with perfection and are given ample amount of time to develop an understanding of all the given tools and software programs to achieve what you want. You will be working with software programs like Adobe Photo-shop, Adobe After Effects, and 3D Studio Max.
Course Outline
Some of the courses offered by top accredited online universities and top accredited online colleges in Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program are:
· 2D Animation
· 3D Character Animation
· Acting/Movement
· Advanced 2D Animation
· Advanced 3D Modeling
· Advanced 3D Textures
· Advanced Life Drawing/Gesture
· Advanced Modeling/Animation Topics
· Camera and Lighting Techniques
· Character and Object Animation
· Color Theory
· Digital Composition
· Digital Editing-- Video, Audio
· Digital Imaging for Multimedia and Web
· Digital Ink and Paint
· Drawing and Anatomy
· Fundamentals of Design
· Intermediate 2D Animation
· Introduction to Digital Composition
· Life Drawing and Gesture
· Portfolio Presentation for Animation
· Pre-Portfolio Presentation for Animation
· Pre-Production Team
· Storyboard Rendering for Animation
· Visual Indication
· Web Animation
Career Opportunities and Salary Info
Once after completing Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program of top accredited online universities or top accredited online colleges, you would have to go for an internship after which you would be able to join a regular job. Internship could even be started before completing the degree program so this way you would be able to save some time. You could target jobs like Storyboard Artist, Texture Artist, Computer Modeler, Computer Generated Special Effects Artist, Creative Head, Media Consultant and a lot more. The salary depends on the sort of the job position you are on to and the experience. You would be able to earn around $80,000 or more per annum after successfully completing Media Arts and Animation Degree Online program from any of the top accredited online universities or top accredited online colleges.
Senin, 07 Agustus 2017
Step By Step Guide For Building An Art Affiliate Website
Five steps (or slightly more) to build and start making money from an Art affiliate website.
1. Select an Art Affiliate Program.
Some of the current/active ones are: Art.com, Allposter.com, 123posters.com
Things to compare:
a. Commission structure
b. Cookie retention time
c. Conversion rate
d. Discounts and promotions
e. Data feed
2. Choose a Domain Name and Hosting Company
Domain name
a. Domain suffix: There are many options - .net, .com, .biz, .info etc. The domain extension .com is the most common extension that most people prefer or type when they are searching for a website.
b. You can check availability for your selection at internic - internic.net/whois.html
c. Never use trademarked names: simple reason is to avoid future lawsuits.
d. A quick survey from friends and family can provide you the feedback on whether the domain name is easy to remember, spell and type.
e. Some common domain registering companies: yahoo, godaddy, networksolutions and register.com
f. Don't make the primary domain too long and avoid using hyphens in your domain.
Hosting Company
a. Disk Space: When comparing web hosts disk space should not be a major deciding factor as most sites need less than 5MB of web space.
b. Bandwidth: For starters 5 GB of bandwidth is enough. Ensure that the hosting company offers upgrades to existing accounts when your site grows.
c. Technical Support and after sales service: Check if hosting company provides technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
d. E-mail: If you have your own site, you would probably want to have email addresses at your own domain, like info@mydomain.com, etc.
e. Control panel/ Web based tools: This tool provided by majority of hosts allows you to manage different aspects of your web account yourself. It has various tools like add, delete, and manage your email addresses, and change passwords for your account.
3. Build the Website
If you are technically savvy you may build the website on your own. You may hire an experienced web developer or hire a freelancer to build your website. This will provide you a quick to market website.
4. Perform Search Engines Optimization (SEO)
a. Build BackLinks
· Submit your site to free and paid directories.
· Register with major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com.
b. Generate free and paid Traffic
· Buy Adword TextLinks to generate traffic.
· Buy traffic from established companies.
· MSN and Yahoo offer coupons using their targeted keyword services.
· Buy banner Ads
c. Refresh your content
· This provides users the incentive to re-visit your website. Do not get frustrated as it takes time for each search engine to index your pages. Typically it takes between 2-6 months for pages to be indexed.
5. Regular Monitoring
Monitor your error and access logs via the control panel, usage reports and sales reports via the affiliate programs toolkit to ensure you are targeting the correct products to your visitors.
1. Select an Art Affiliate Program.
Some of the current/active ones are: Art.com, Allposter.com, 123posters.com
Things to compare:
a. Commission structure
b. Cookie retention time
c. Conversion rate
d. Discounts and promotions
e. Data feed
2. Choose a Domain Name and Hosting Company
Domain name
a. Domain suffix: There are many options - .net, .com, .biz, .info etc. The domain extension .com is the most common extension that most people prefer or type when they are searching for a website.
b. You can check availability for your selection at internic - internic.net/whois.html
c. Never use trademarked names: simple reason is to avoid future lawsuits.
d. A quick survey from friends and family can provide you the feedback on whether the domain name is easy to remember, spell and type.
e. Some common domain registering companies: yahoo, godaddy, networksolutions and register.com
f. Don't make the primary domain too long and avoid using hyphens in your domain.
Hosting Company
a. Disk Space: When comparing web hosts disk space should not be a major deciding factor as most sites need less than 5MB of web space.
b. Bandwidth: For starters 5 GB of bandwidth is enough. Ensure that the hosting company offers upgrades to existing accounts when your site grows.
c. Technical Support and after sales service: Check if hosting company provides technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
d. E-mail: If you have your own site, you would probably want to have email addresses at your own domain, like info@mydomain.com, etc.
e. Control panel/ Web based tools: This tool provided by majority of hosts allows you to manage different aspects of your web account yourself. It has various tools like add, delete, and manage your email addresses, and change passwords for your account.
3. Build the Website
If you are technically savvy you may build the website on your own. You may hire an experienced web developer or hire a freelancer to build your website. This will provide you a quick to market website.
4. Perform Search Engines Optimization (SEO)
a. Build BackLinks
· Submit your site to free and paid directories.
· Register with major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com.
b. Generate free and paid Traffic
· Buy Adword TextLinks to generate traffic.
· Buy traffic from established companies.
· MSN and Yahoo offer coupons using their targeted keyword services.
· Buy banner Ads
c. Refresh your content
· This provides users the incentive to re-visit your website. Do not get frustrated as it takes time for each search engine to index your pages. Typically it takes between 2-6 months for pages to be indexed.
5. Regular Monitoring
Monitor your error and access logs via the control panel, usage reports and sales reports via the affiliate programs toolkit to ensure you are targeting the correct products to your visitors.
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)