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Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at 11:30AM In Part One of the Banner Ad Hot Seat, I was able to place some of the ads into groups that had similar issues. In this half, we're going to be talking about overall hits and misses.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 5:00AM As with the previous Hot Seats, I'm going to try to discuss some overall points as they apply to ads with similar issues. First up: The selling point.
If you remember last year's Banner Ad Hot Seat, I had a similar heading called The Message. From that discussion:
I've already written about some of the Do's and Don't's of good Web advertising, so if you missed that, you might want to take a moment and review it. First, let's talk about an ad on a Web site. This is what I've experienced in Web advertising.
- People tend to jump over them on the way to the content
- If people do look at them, they don't look long
- People don't click ads freely -- they have to be enticed.
So...
- Your ad has to stand out visually
- It has to be compelling enough to get the reader to want to click on it
- And, most importantly, it has to deliver a message.
Let's face it, you can design the most beautiful ad in the world -- but if it doesn't convey a message, it won't be as successful as it should be. Let's take a moment to talk about message.
In this Hot Seat, I'm going to talk about one very important part of the Message: The Selling Point.
Monday, January 10, 2011 at 5:00AM
Q. I had a couple of questions to throw out for the workshop. I'm just scraping the surface of online advertising and I was wondering if you could go over some of the basics? (Or direct me to where that information is if you've already done that.)
Like when you mentioned, "leaderboard, skyscraper, square", is that strictly pertaining to dimensions or also to ad placement? I've got a pretty good handle, (I think) on the design aspects of advertising, but I'm a little lost when it comes to the lingo and I'm afraid I'm going to end up blowing half my budget on a tiny ad in the footer when I thought I was buying header space! (Or something like that.)
Jules
Friday, January 7, 2011 at 5:00AM Today's Archive Dive is a very rudimentary guide to hand-lettering that originally ran on Jan. 19, 2010.
In response to a request for a guide to hand-lettering, I prepared the brief overview below. But, as you'll soon see, I'm not such a wonderful letterer (especially when you look at my lettering this big). I am, however, a pretty good researcher, and much of this material was gathered when I was preparing to write "The Everything Cartooning Book."
The amazing Chris Eliopoulos, Webcomics.com subscriber and letterer for Marvel Comics, will be writing a step-by-step guide that will run here in the near future.
The basics I'm describing below apply to a pretty straightforward alphabet. As you get better, you will find small ways of personalizing this that will end up identifying your lettering as your own style.
Thursday, January 6, 2011 at 5:00AM Resolutions aside, this is the perfect time to get organized for a successful year in webcomics. Here are a few ideas.
