Adobe Illustrator is my go-to software for anything and everything design-related. It's the one program I truly couldn't work without.
And while it's easy to assume that the program's primary focus is illustration based on the name, there is so much more to this design software.
With tools for type, color, photo cropping, image tracing, drawing, and much more, it has innumerable benefits for bloggers and business owners, alike.
To get your creative gears turning, here's a look at 40 ways Adobe Illustrator can take your blog and/or business to the next level.
First impressions are crucial, especially in business.
Potential customers and clients make judgments about your business within the first few seconds of coming into contact with it, whether it’s through your website, your social media accounts, or a simple blog post graphic.
And those initial thoughts - whether they’re spot on or far off from what you want them to be - are within your control. You have the opportunity to make a killer first impression through high-quality, branded visuals.
If your blog is a large part of your business or you’re hoping to drive more traffic back to your site through your blog, you have to have eye-catching blog graphics to not only generate a positive first impression, but to encourage readers to share your posts on sites like Pinterest and be seen by an even wider audience.
So how do you create eye-catching blog post graphics? And better yet, how can you set them apart so they’ll stand out from the rest and be recognized time and time again?
“When I discovered YouTube, I didn’t work for 5 days.” - Michael Scott
Video platforms like YouTube (and more recently, Periscope) are easily the world’s greatest time-wasters. We’ve all been guilty of losing track of time on YouTube at least once, because videos are easily consumable, very addicting, and highly entertaining.
As a matter of fact, studies show that a whopping 78% of us watch videos online every week and 55% watch videos online every day.
Which is why Youtube is also the world’s greatest overnight-success-maker. If you’re on the production-side of a video and you’ve come up with a clever idea, you might just have a viral hit on your hands.
Video holds a lot of potential for interaction, engagement, and shares for creative businesses. And for that reason, it’s one of the best visual marketing tools you can use.
But it producing videos can be a little overwhelming, can’t it? Even with helpful video tools out there like Animoto, many of us struggle to come up with simple ideas for video content that would appeal to our audience.
And that’s where this post comes in. I’ve rounded up 40 easy, engaging video content ideas to help get your creative gears turning. My hope is that you’ll find a few ideas to implement and as a result, bring your business more exposure.
If you’re looking for a good way to kill at least an hour of your time, type in the word “infographic” in the Pinterest search bar.
Thousands of clever graphics will pop up on everything from “how to make a salad taste awesome” to a baby’s first year in a review. There’s even an infographic that answers the pressing question, “Is your dog sleeping a little too much?”
Then, after you’ve admired the genius creativity behind them, take a gander at how many repins and likes each of those infographics receives. Thousands upon thousands.
In fact, infographic volumes have increased by over 800% in 2 years. Publishers who use infographics grow in traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t.
What is it about infographics that makes them so appealing? And better yet, how can you come up with some clever infographics for your business so it gains more exposure through likes and shares?
I have all the answers for you in this post.
Is your headline the first thing you consider when you sit down to write a post?
Probably not, but creating a catchy blog post title is one of the most important aspects of each blog post. It's the gateway to your content; it convinces people to click or scroll right past your latest post'.
In fact, studies show that 8 out of 10 people will read your headline but only 2 out of 10 will read your entire post.
Here are a few pointers for drawing in potential readers and a couple "templates" to help you create a catchy headline for your upcoming posts.
If you ask 100 people about SEO, you might get 100 different answers. And frankly, it all depends on what you're trying to accomplish through your blog or website. We can relate to the uphill battle of trying to get your content in front of countless people through search engines, so today Jake and I are partnering together to share how you can create content that will rank higher in search engine results.
Recently it came to light that Google is reconsidering how they rank websites. According to an article by New Scientist, Google is researching the possibility of changing what they will look for when ranking websites. Rather than basing a website's ranking off of the number of quality inbound links, Google will possibly base search rankings off of facts. Read the article here and the proposal here.
This article has gotten a lot of attention primarily because of its political implications. Many seem to think that this is one step towards censorship because Google would be the determining party for what is factual and favor that information in search rankings. Regardless of your political leanings, this also has implications for blogging. How could this impact you? Keep reading.
Out of all of the comments and emails I receive about Squarespace, SEO is by far the topic that is most frequently asked about. So today Jake is taking over this Friday series to cover search engine optimization on the Squarespace platform and clear up some misconceptions.
There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there about Squarespace and its SEO capabilities. Most agree that it has an easy-to-use content management system and the templates look clean and professional, but for some reason Squarespace can't shake the idea that many people have about its poor SEO capabilities. In fact, several people have contacted Elle & Company telling us that they would make the switch to Squarespace if they hadn't heard that another blogging platform is better for SEO. But is this really accurate?
SEO is one of those topics that has the potential to make your eyes glaze over.
If you have a blog or a website, you're probably aware that SEO is important for gaining traffic and ranking high in Google searches, but chances are, you might be a little intimidated by it all and unsure of where to start. Jake is my lifesaver when it comes to helping me with Elle & Company's search engine optimization, and today he's sharing the basics to help you get started and improve your SEO, too.
