Calls to action in interactive media are usually buttons or links that begin a process. Making these important calls stand out requires some designing further than, and in addition to, the underlined hyper link.

The text and words used in calls to action are topics of another discussion. For this tutorial I am focusing on the design elements of a graphical button and specifically simple gradients with a 1 to 2 pixel gap from the border created in Photoshop. This tutorial is similar to the previous one on creating cool graphical text, but changing a few things and applying it to buttons.

Step 1.
Create your call to action text on its own layer. I like to use a bold typeface. Sometimes the text will look better if it is in ALL CAPS other times all lower or Initial Caps. This is a matter of design taste and should mesh with the other elements to some degree.

Step 2.
Now that the text size is set we will create a shape on a new layer below the text. The shape I am using is the Rounded Rectangle tool. Make the shape go passed the edges of the text but not so much that the text is lost inside the shape.

Step 3.
Now that the shape is centered underneath the text we need to make a selection of the shape and create a new layer for the gradient.

Go to the shapes layer in the Palette window and click on it, then create a new layer just above it. Now Control or Open Apple click on the shape layer thumbnail in the layer palette window to make a selection of the outline of the shape. Now go to the top menu for Select then Modify/Contract and enter a value of 1 or 2.

Step 4.
With the selection still showing and the new layer selected click on the gradient tool. Select a gradient that is a color in full opacity, white or black, that goes to transparent. Now click on the top and go vertically to the bottom just above and below the selection outline of the shape. That is our gradient layer. I also like to cut the gradient, using the rectangle selection tool, through the middle horizontally.

Step 5.
Making the image, button, obvious that it is something to be clicked is the main goal. Contrast in color plays an important role in this by establishing precedence. If I create a light tan background and then a button on top that is white with gray text, it will most likely be lost into the background. High contrast lights on darks or vice versa are best.

Size is another factor. Making a tiny button with your call to action on it may work for most users that are savvy and looking for it, but don’t eliminate users. Making the calls large enough not to be swallowed by the other elements will ensure it is not missed.

Arrows are design elements that guide a users eye in a particular direction. Using arrows before or after calls to action can help with calls that are not contained within an image.

Additional imagery can help push the idea of the call to action. Imagery can also help with branding and theme of a design. The main purpose would be to keep the button simple and obvious, but including an extra element such as a product can work and make the graphic more appealing.

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Last week I wrote about how to create great header graphics for linkbait pieces. Now I would like to go a bit deeper into that and explain how I create graphical text, text that is an image, that stands out and screams to be noticed.

Like the last tutorial mentioned, it is important for your article to have an image associated with the content of the article. When you go on Digg and see a link to a story without an image or photo what do you do? Well, I tend to not click on that story and move on down the line. The same holds true, to some degree, to linkbait pieces and the inclusion of catching header graphics.

For this I want to focus on making the text into a graphic in Photoshop and giving it some sort of simple, easy to do treatment or styling so that it can standout a bit more. We are going to use a few Layer styles and a simple technique to give the letters a bit of depth.

Step 1.
Create a layer that has the text you are going to be using on it. I like to use a large, bold faced font like Arial Bold or Impact. It is also important to think about color and contrast at this point. I created a dark gray background and put the text in white on top.

Step 2.
Create a slight Outer Glow and Stroke on the text layer and. If you are using light colored text on top of a darker background outer glow is the best choice, however if the background is lighter than the text use a Drop Shadow to make it stand out. To create the outer glow and stroke effect got to the Layers drop down menu and the Layer Styles sub menu and select each effect.

Step 3.
With the text layer selected make a selection of the letter forms by using Open Apple or Control and clicking on the layer thumbnail in the layer palette window. This will make a selection of the text. Now go to the Select drop down menu then go to Modify/Contract and enter a value of 1 or 2.

Step 4.
With the selection still active, create a new layer above the text layer. Using the Gradient tool, select a gradient that uses a black to white, color, or just black to clear. Starting from either the top or bottom of the letters create a gradient that you like.

This is one way to add an extra little push to your graphical text when creating linkbait header graphics. The steps are easy to do and require a bit of extra time, but the advantage of having someone stay on your content or intrigued to go further is paramount.

I hope that you can use this simple technique in your next graphic! If you have an idea or something you would like to see covered please let us know (blog [at] 10e20.com). Thanks!

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Last week I was featured in a USA Today article about the craziness that continues to swhirl around Yahoo. Will it be AOL? Will it be Microsoft? Will Rupert jump in? Jeff Graham wrote an interesting article about what a combined AOL-Yahoo company would be like for users. Personally I feel that a Microsoft-Yahoo combination makes more sense (and this was reflected in my comments):

AOL and Yahoo “are shells of their former selves,” says Chris Winfield, president of New York-based 10e20, which helps companies with their search-advertising campaigns. “I don’t see how combining them makes either stronger.”

and then later:

MySpace has a rich $900 million deal for Google to provide search ads on its site. Put MySpace with Microsoft and say goodbye to the Google deal, says Winfield.

“Microsoft-and-Yahoo is the only legitimate shot at a real competitor,” he adds. “Microsoft has the drive to compete. The same can’t be said about (AOL owner) Time Warner.”

From an Internet marketers’ perspective of having a company to help balance out Google’s domination - I think that Y!+MS just makes a lot more sense.

The idea is to pull the reader in further and also pull text from the main body of text. You have seen these allover, if you read an article online or in print today it may have had a pull quote in it and that may be the first thing your eye went to and read.

Step 1.
First I isolated the text that I wanted to use for the pull quote. I pulled the sentence from the paragraph and brought it into Photoshop. Using a large typeface, Baskerville, I rendered the sentence on two lines.

Step 2.
Stylize the quote. You can create pull quotes in so many ways. One that I like to do is with one large quote mark to the left and under the first few letters. I used a much larger size for the “ and put it on the bottom layer. Then I wanted it to be subtle so I made the color a light gray.

Lift outs are a similar technique but are focused on drawing attention to not just text within a larger body of an article but rather a graphical element or an area of text. Lift outs are less popular than its cousin the pull out but sure enough if something is being explained to you in a document it will usually go to the lift out to be sure you see what it is referring to. I created some lift outs for a post Jake wrote here about going local in Stumbleupon. They are very basic, but get the job done.

Lets say, for example, I want to show how the sidebar navigation on National Geographic’s website and how they order the various options. I want to show that ’shop’ is third from the top.

Step 1.
I need to grab a screen shot of the website and bring it into PS. I want to crop it so that I am just working with the specific sidebar section that I want to bring attention to.

Step 2.
Now since the font in the sidebar is some sort of sans serif (looks like Arial Bold) I can easily enough re-create it. This is a big advantage whenever something needs to be made larger. The other way to do this would be to just scale down the entire sidebar and keep the part I want to highlight the same original size.

Step 3.
This is where I am going to add the graphical element of a box or rectangle underneath the word I just recreated. I am going to use the shape tool and make a white colored rectangle under the word shop.

Then I need to show where this was coming from. To do this I am going to create a new layer under the rectangle shape and then use the Polygonal Lasso tool. From the left side of the rectangle create a triangle that has its point on the origin of the area the word came from. Fill the Lasso selection in with white.

Step 4.
Add any finishing touches like a drop shadow, fade or color, to make it stand out a bit more. To do this I merged the white rectangle layer with the triangle and then applied a drop shadow to this layer through the Layer style options. Here is what my final layers palette looked like before I merged the layers to create the drop shadow.

Both of these techniques are great to utilize when creating how to documents, articles or blog posts. The secret to an effective pull quote or lift out is simplicity. Get rid of lots of excess colors or unnecessary graphical elements, just focus on highlighting the content (text or specific area) and let minimalism work for you.

Thank you to Matt McGee for recommending we do this tutorial. I hope it was helpful. If you have an idea or something you would like to see covered please let us know (blog [at] 10e20.com). Thanks!

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The information is interesting enough to hold my attention and I want to see which gadgets they selected and also find out what it is that I can’t get-yet.

However the main graphic header is obvious and could have been worked on a bit more to capture the interest of those people that may be on the fence about whether or not to read further into the piece. So lets get into how I would have used stock photos and created a more compelling graphic to try and lure some more eyeballs into the piece.

Step 1.
First what I did was find a way to incorporate the idea of the world and how these gadgets are found on the other side of it. I searched for a good stock image of a map, or in this case a globe, with some clear outlines showing Asia.

Step 2.
Then I wanted to show someone who looked sad or depressed that they are on the opposite side of where the electronics are being made. This wasn’t too hard to find this guy staring at a phone, with a search query of “reaching”.

It should look funny, like I am pushing the notion that all the good toys are so far away. It took some isolating various elements of the man, like the hands, and then transforming them with the rotate tool and scale to get the position looking right.

Step 3.
After the image of the person is put in place I wanted to add the phones and other gadgets to the opposite side. I isolated a few of the easier to trace ones and cut and pasted them onto the main image map.

I also duplicated a few of the layers to make it look like there was a lot of things there. This was meant to look like a big pile of toys, just out of reach of our person who represents the people that can’t get them.

Step 4.
Finally, I need to add the text of the title and a few finishing touches. This can be in a simple bold font and made it on top of a dark background color to make it stand out from the main image above it. An effective technique can be to highlight or draw attention to a few key words like ‘You Can’t Get Here’ or ‘Cool Gadgets’.

Overall the graphic took me some time to search for the correct stock photos to use, then isolate the various images that needed to be cut and pasted and finally to render the article title onto it. Now, I feel that the piece would grab even those people that may have been a little hesitant to spend a minute reading into the piece. showing effort on the linkbait header graphic may be perceived as the content being of greater quality than if the header graphic was simply created in a few clicks of the mouse.

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This is a recap of a teleseminar I attended which was given by Steve Harrison. It was “Seven Things You Absolutely Must Know to Get Publicity in Major Magazines and Newspapers.” The intent of this call was to give information on how to get publicity and to impart this information; he provided mini interviews with various people involved in PR. Based on the information the speakers provided - there were actually more than seven things to know - there were 14!!

Silent Endorsement

He stressed that just one feature article about you in a major publication can bring you a flood of orders - overnight. When you get publicity, you get something that no other kind of marketing can give you - a ‘silent endorsement’. People assume that if you are the one who has been written up in something like USA Today, they figure you must be the best at what you do. It is a silent endorsement.

Publicity is free exposure without having to spend thousands of dollars on advertising. Publicity has great staying power. When you are written up in a publication, the people who read that eventually pass that on to other people by giving either the article or the entire magazine.

You can easily add reprints and copies of the media to your marketing material so that people can see the story and be impressed. Major TV Shows like Oprah on down have producers that are constantly reading newspapers and magazine to discover people. If you are quoted in one place, people are comfortable quoting you in other places.

People who book speakers for meetings and conferences, will often book people that they have read about. It creates an instant celebrity credibility.

The interviews started off with Anne Frith - Fashion and Beauty Editor at Women’s Day - Her magazine is looking for new products, experts and trends. She provided the first ways to get publicity in major magazines:

1. Target your pitch. Know the magazine; refer to a recent feature or column. Keep it focused to get the Editor’s attention. Read the publication and be familiar with the entire magazine to give an on target pitch.

2. Work with the Editor in the way that he/she likes to be worked with. Build a relationship with the Editor. They should understand a column that you do; they should ask you about follow up, meeting face to face is always helpful. If she’s met them face to face, there is more a chance for her to take their call.

3. Have a good name for yourself. Names that are memorable are more likely to get her attention. She gave an example of someone she met at the Publicity Summit - “The Clothing Doctor” and he ended up being a great fit for Women’s Day.

Features Editor Jamie Kissell (Women’s World) was the next one to speak. She is responsible for the sidebars of the feature articles that are located in the magazine. She has to find experts, and what she needs depends on the article that is featured that week. She also added to the list:

4. Know the magazine as well as possible. She said that she knows if someone hasn’t ever read the magazine. She doesn’t want to feel like the person is in it for himself or herself. It should feel like a two way street. They need to understand where in the magazine there might be a fit. You are judged by that first pitch - you need to go about it the right way.

5. Become friends with Editors. The experts she uses over and over are the ones that become friends. Be friendly - send an email every once and a while and just be friendly. Not everything has to be intrusive and you don’t always have to sell yourself. She gave an example of Eileen Silva, is a Naturopathic Doctor that she met, who is friendly and easily accessible. Jamie continually goes back to her and she gives her perfect bite sized information that she can use.

Jennifer Kushell was next and she spent the last 12 years working with young people to help them get the tools they need to be successful. The book they created ‘Secrets of the Young and Successful - How to Get Everything You Want Without Waiting a Lifetime’ has had phenomenal publicity success.

6. Need to think about the marketability of your book. Have to think about what will make a mass market book. Her book has the distinction of hitting the NY Times Bestseller’s List before the publication date.

7. Help the editor or writer out as much as you can. She wound up being in Cosmopolitan and ended up getting a 4 page article out of something that was only supposed to be one or two pages. By helping the editor out by providing experts, interesting facts, interview etc. you can really extend the amount of publicity you get.

8. Think very carefully as to who is the reader. What’s the broad range of issues they will be dealing with. Think about it beforehand and before approaching a magazine/newspaper etc.

9. Remember that editors are busy. Jennifer prefers to contact media by using email because emails get more of a response than phone messages. Editors are busy, so she will follow up. Be persistent but respectful. She’s now at a point where media will contact her when they are writing a story. You need to build a relationship with the media, because they will call you again. She will always go the extra mile to give a journalist what they needs - because they will come back to her. She has to make sure that what she is talking about is relevant to them. Need to focus on what they need for that story and how to make it great.

10. PR is more than just press releases. When most people think about publicity - they think about a press release. The problem is that everyone is doing that. The strategy just puts you in the pack with everyone else. It’s tough to expect you’ll get much out of it. Steve also stressed that you don’t have to wait until your book is finished to attend.

11. Pitch to freelance writers. Another idea is to pitch to freelance writers that write for a bunch of different magazines. Then Steve presented freelance writers who also gave some interesting ideas on how to get publicity in print publications. Sheri Simco was first and she has written 21 books for major publishing houses and loves writing magazines.

12. Tie in with a major news angle. If you have a great selling idea and want to write articles - it is important to tie in with a major news angle. When you are pitching an articles editor, get the name of the editor before sending info. If you are writing on something that is in the news, you’ll have a better chance of getting a response.

John Grossman was another freelance writer on the call. He has been freelancing for over 25 years and writes for any number of publications depending on what interests him.

13. Content is important. It is obvious; it is the basis of getting published. Magazines publish stories. It is important to ask ‘what is your story’. You have to be able to summarize and get a good grasp as to what exactly is your story. Come up with the headline, and follow the headline with a sub head- in the process that helps bring the idea into sharper focus. A great story makes your eyes get wide with wonder, it makes the rest of the world around you go quiet; it makes you want to know more.

14. Use Google Alerts. If you are an expert on something, get Google Alerts on that topic and when news arises - get in touch with media in that area immediately and tell them you are an expert in that area. They are looking for experts and if you come to them, you have an excellent opportunity of getting publicity.

Overall, it was interesting to hear from a variety of perspectives from Editors, and writers and to people who have used media publicity successfully. Each had an interesting viewpoint and provided to the overall list of ways to get publicity in major magazines and newspaper. Thanks to Steve Harrison for organizing the call!

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The article from CNN is a news story that is generating 100’s of comments and opinions from people expressing how they deal with relationship status on Facebook.

The photo used is great. I think it conveys right away the feeling of being watched while on your computer. But I would have pushed it one step further and incorporated the Facebook logo on the computer where there is a blue space on the back of the monitor. It seems so obvious to me and would add that extra bit of information to the photo to make it almost tell the story.

Pushing the idea even further I added symbols of love and breakup, hearts and broken hearts. The message is getting even more clearer and now not only backs up the story, but tells it.

Finally I would insert a pull quote from the article that either makes the reader want to read and get pulled in, or expresses a main idea. These things are fairly easy to do and require a little extra time, but can push the run of the mill stock photo that much further and make it unique.

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SEO Class. This Friday (April 11th) I will be helping out Jim Boykin with his SEO Class. This is the first one since Jim took it over and brought it under the umbrella of his Internet Marketing Ninjas program and features some amazing presenters. I’ll be presenting on social media marketing tactics and attendees will also get to learn from Michael Gray, Greg Niland, Ted Ulle (tedster), Kim Krause-Berg, Barry Schwartz and of course - Jim Boykin. I think it’s pretty much sold out but if you really want to go, email me (cwinfield [at] 10e20.com) and I’ll see what I can do.

SMX Social Media (Long Beach). This is taking place on April 22nd & 23rd. The first SMX Social Media happened in October here in New York. The show was amazing. So many people have told me that they got so much out of it. Danny and the folks at Third Door are now bringing that show out west to do an encore of it in Long Beach, California. Going to this show for the networking alone is a no-brainer to me. There are still a few tickets available for this one and you can find them more info here. I’ll be speaking on the first day (along with Neil Patel) on the Social News panel.

If you are going to be at any of these events - please let me know so that we can chat.

OK, before I begin let me say that I use stock photography. Stock photos are a great convenience. I sometimes depend on it, especially in a crunch or when I just need someone smiling and expressing happiness for a call center spot. That being said, there comes a time when stock photography is so obviously staged, politically correct fluff that screams “I am STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY!”

You all know the image, a group of happy employees who all are various ages, genders and races. Everyone is sitting around a desk pointing to a computer screen in some bland office interior.

Sometimes only the top few results are ever used in a stock library search and those photos are everywhere. How do we avoid these pitfalls of overused imagery and photography?

Don’t use the top results when searching. Everyone will use these. Dig a little deeper into the search and find something that is a bit different. There are tons of examples out there today showing the same photo on a cover of a book and than used for another companies homepage.

One famous example from several years ago is used on both a software design book and a feminine hygiene product. It is kind of like showing up to your friends party and someone else in the room has the same exact outfit on. Check out Presentation Zens list of some pretty good free sites to get photos from.

Shoot people (with your camera that is). Find your own co-workers or target audience and get a real world situation. This is a bit harder but it can be perceived as honest and surely unique, or if it is not done correctly it can look cheap. Models are models for a reason, they are either good looking or fit a certain type. Hiring models and shooting the photos in house will ensure your photos are unique, but this is what you are paying for.

I had a friend that found a stock photo of a skinny, middle aged, good looking white guy for his about page on his accountant for hirer site. Almost every client he met that came from his website noticed that he was overweight and balding and asked about the photo, “Is that you on your website?” Not cool. He realized the problem, we shot a simple portrait with basic lights from the office and nobody asked him again.

However if you shoot your own company workers it may be a good idea to make sure that they sign a model release, if they are no longer with the company in the future it may become an issue or you will just have to re-shoot.

Think creatively. If you need to find something from a stock library think outside the box. Maybe even go for the situational shot or metaphors. Do you have a yoga site or how to get better sleep article, use clouds or water, images that evoke a response subtly can be very effective. Also creatively edit the image, crop into it or combine two or more photos together to create a new photo.

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Search Engine Strategies New York. Last month I had the pleasure of presenting at SES NY. I spoke on a panel called Social Media Marketing - What is it and What is it Good For? with people from Yahoo!, IBM, Comedy Central, Ogilvy and BlogHer. My presentation focused on three of my favorite social networks (Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon) and how to leverage them effectively for your business (with three case studies for each network).

Coverage of the panel can be found here, here, here, here, here and here. I also did a video interview with my Shimon Sandler which you can see on his blog. Thanks to Li for the picture.

AP Story on Ask.com. Back in early March, I spoke to Michael Liedtke from the Associated Press about a story he was doing on the big changes with Ask.com. The story titled Ask.com gets a makeover, lays off 40 ran in about 300 publications and contained my thoughts:

“No matter what (Ask) did, it just wasn’t enough to get people to leave Google,” said Chris Winfield, who runs a search engine consulting firm, 10e20. “This looks they are raising the white flag.”

USA Today story on Google’s DoubleClick acquisition. The next week I spoke with Jeff Graham from USA Today about the EU’s approval of the Google/DoubleClick deal and what it all means. Jeff wrote a nice piece titled Google closes deal with DoubleClick which contained my thoughts:

Getting the green light into the display advertising market “couldn’t have come at a better time for Google,” says Chris Winfield, president of 10e20, a New York-based firm that plans search marketing campaigns for businesses.

Winfield expects Google to weave DoubleClick into its existing self-serve advertising tools, which enable businesses large and small to create and submit ad campaigns online without the assistance of a salesperson.

“Yahoo may be the leader in display now, but if Google can make it much easier for anyone to launch a display ad campaign, they sew up the business,” he says.

The other cool thing about that article was that I got my very own USA Today site links (I guess because I’ve been so many of their stories):

Search Engine Land columns. I have also wrote three columns for Search Engine Land that I’d like to share with you. The first is called Five Simple Linkbait Metrics (& How To Measure Them Cheaply) and shows people how identifying & measuring social media metrics can be easy and inexpensive. The next was called Say It Right! The Art of Commenting On Social News Sites and deals with the often overlooked subject of commenting and how powerful it can be. Finally last week I wrote How to Make Your Content ‘Submit Worthy’, which deals with simple steps you can take to make your content more appealing to social media users (and especially power-users).

I hope everyone has been great and I would love to hear about what you have been up to!