7 Web Design Trends You Can’t Overdo With

Anybody who works in the field of marketing design will know that researching other logos and pages is critical in keeping up with the changing trends that permeate the web. Since what is popular is inexplicably decided and ever fluid, there is a risk of running behind if you don’t check regularly to see what is out there.
But in the last few years – and especially the last five or so – there are some design trends that are everywhere. This is generally because they are actually very good and easy to adapt to other changes in the marketing world. They are also able to be included in plenty of other more unique or new looks, which makes them basic style staples.
The problem is that this means they are overused. In particular, there are seven design basics that you will see all over the place, and you might want to keep an eye on if you want to try to use them yourself. Mainly because you run the risk of creating something that looks like any other logo or design that you will come across on the web. Who wants that? No one hoping to set their skills (or personal businesses and sites) apart from the pack, that is for sure.
Below are these seven trends that you have to be very careful if you decide to use them yourself.

1. Badges and Buttons

It used to be that you would see badges or buttons all over the web, and that wasn’t a surprise. It is a much more attractive way of presenting a gateway than an average link, especially with the dull, active and inactive text settings of the days or yore. You can also stack, line or place them in locations that are more pleasing to the eye, rather than just laying it out list a list or burying it in text.
Most commonly you will see these badges presented as bright, glittery boxes. They seem to shine thanks to the often-blended white gradient layers along with the block lettering and creative logo use. Since they appear to glow at you from the screen they can be really appealing.
But have you noticed who is using these the most? Companies such as Apple or social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have more or less monopolized the use of badges in the last couple of years. Need proof? Look at app download pages or the share buttons on blogs all over the web. It is almost a shock to see them used for anything else anymore.
This overuse added to brand association spells death to the badge and button as a multi-purpose design option for others.

2. Speech Bubbles and Megaphones

Social media and networking has presented a new way of communicating to people all over the world. Since that is its primary function on a user to user level (even marketing is within this line of usage), it stands to reason that speech bubbles and megaphones would be used in logos and banners.
After all, those are direct visual representations of what these sites have sought out to do.
But the idea of showing it to be a "talking" logo has become old and stale. I have lost count of how many companies use this now, and they all seem to look the same. It isn’t that a visual showing talking and listening can’t be utilized, but perhaps something a bit more creative than the now overdone comic-era speech bubble?

3. Fun With Opacity!

I think all designers have had their fair share of fun with the lovely Multiply and Overlay features in  Photoshop? By changing the opacity of any layer you can create a really cool effect with next to no effort on your part. It can change the entire look of a logo in an instant, and might make the difference between something standard and boring and something elegant and well designed.
Possibly the most recent example of how this old technique is being utilized is in the Microsoft Silverlight logo, which was a beautifully done one that is immediately recognizable to even those who only occasionally use Internet Explorer as their browser.
Since it is so versatile and is a tool of design rather than a method, this once doesn’t have the same problem of becoming boring like some others on this list.  But it is still easy to use the wrong blend of colors or shapes, which will be less than appealing.

4. Kawaii Illustration

I keep seeing these logos all over the place, especially when it comes to apps such as Seesmic and GitHub, two very adult, industry-oriented tools for power users looking for marketing opportunities on the web.
It is not something you would expect to see advertised by adorable, fluffy, giant eyed woodland creatures.
But lately they appear to be everywhere, and that in itself shows the popularity of the trend. No one seems to know what started it, but it doesn’t look like it will be going away.
The problem with using it is that if you are not very specific about how you are presenting it, the brand you are marketing might get lost in the cuteness that is the adorable animal.
Make sure to be clear about what it is attached to, and watch to make sure it is not too similar to those used by other companies and web apps.

5. Scripts, Slabs and Other Cool Fonts

I am going to take a wild guess and say you have used Archer more than once in a logo design. I don’t think there is a single designer among us who hasn’t, or used one very similar to the point of being almost indistinguishable. Since it was probably the most popular font of the last three years it would be silly to scold you for it.
But I will tell you to step away from the Archer now. Slab serif fonts are still a great tool, but keep in mind how often they are used and the way they have a tendency to make logos all look very similar.
Instead, try to go with a more unique, lesser used alternative to the old boys. If it is something you haven’t really seen before, use it! Try building a logo to fit the font rather than the other way around. This will give an immediate creative boost and set you apart with next to no additional effort.

6. Verdant and Plant-Inspired

In this case I am not going to say "be careful when using" this design choice. I am going to say to ‘be careful not using it’, because it a really ignored look. That is unfortunate because flora and fauna are great ways to present a natural and pleasant looking logo.
Depictions of nature give people a sense of ease, and even a plant related silhouette will seem warmer and inviting than many more modern and bare looking designs that have become the norm online.
But too much of flora is still no good.

7. Quadrangles

What are these things? Seriously, they are lopsided and fit no actual shape known to man. They are somewhere between a rectangle and a trapezoid, and they are everywhere these days. Which is interesting, because symmetry was once considered a great ally to the designer, especially for logos.
The problem here is that quadrangles can appear so uneven that it gives an off-putting look to the entire logo. You have to balance it just right, and without proper color schemes, font and placement it just looks wrong. I have never personally liked one I have seen, though I can see why those who like fun and modern designs might get into it.

Tell Us Your Own!

There are so many trends out there we can’t keep up with them all. Which do you see that could be used correctly, and what ones are a flop? Let us know in the comments.

Surrealism Art: Everything But Ordinary

Surrealist artworks are described to be inspired by the imagination, subconscious and fantasy. This surrealism art movement from the 1920′s was influenced by the psychologist Sigmund Freud, who pioneered studies of the human’s subconscious mind. Thus, Surrealism presents subjects in a dreamlike , if not strange, way.
In line with the teachings of Freud, a French poet, Andre Breton, in his book Manifeste du Surrealisme, said that rational thinking (conscious mind) represses the creative mind (subconscious) when composing art. He defined surrealism as getting in touch with the repressed mind to try and expressing absurd images and ideas such as insects coming out of a human body or a hand holding a human brain, among others.
Today, the movement is still practiced in painting on canvas, sketches and digital art. Here are examples of modern Surrealist art pieces:




















These bizarre art works portray normal subjects in an irrational way that can make people feel uncomfortable. However, the abstract themes conveyed by the images stretch our imagination and encourages us to look beyond their absurdity.

News

Improve Your Blog’s Revenue, Traffic & Bounce Rate By Using WordPress Menus & Static Pages

One of my pet peeves with some blogs is the lack of static pages, which can make browsing and finding information a complete nightmare.
By default, most WordPress themes are designed to display the content newest to oldest and by category.
While this organization works for some blogs (news oriented), it’s not ideal for every approach — especially tutorial/how to websites.
For example, this blog is not a tutorial blog.  It’s my “latest news” blog where I highlight information about Internet marketing, blogging, etc.  So I’m OK with having the content primarily sorted and filed by category.
My static site is my tutorial website that explains how to create a website, and it’s my main revenue generator.  That’s largely because of how the content is organized — lots of static pages with a logical content organization — which makes the site easier to reference.
Since so many people are opting to go with WordPress instead of a traditional static site these days, I’m going to show you how to make it function more like a static website to help you with conversions, bounce rates, SEO and provide a better user experience for your readers.
This post is fairly long, but stay with me.  It could drastically improve your traffic and sales.

The Example

Let’s pretend you are building a website on how to plan a wedding — a topic where the information is best presented in a certain order instead of random posts sorted by category.
Most bloggers would approach this by writing a bunch of posts about wedding planning and file them into various categories.  Over time, a lot of the important content will get buried in the archives and there is no logical organization to the content.
So when someone stumbles upon the site, they find the latest posts in all sorts of categories instead of finding an organized presentation that shows all the important wedding planning tips you want them to see.
This can make for a confusing experience for people trying to navigate your blog and find what they need to plan their wedding.

Static Pages are the Answer

I’m sure you already know by now that creating Pages instead of Posts with WordPress is the way to display important content that you don’t want to get buried over time.
Pages should highlight information you want every visitor to read and they should be easy to find every time someone comes to your blog.
The problem is many WordPress themes don’t provide a lot of real estate in the design for you to highlight many of your pages.  So you either have to manually edit the code to create another menu (too complex for the average WordPress user), or make do with the menu you have.

Using WordPress Menus

The WordPress Menu feature is really powerful.  You can take your theme’s default menu and change it into a completely different menu with pages, categories, external sites or a combination of all three!
The problem is, most themes only have one menu.  Like many bloggers, you may run out of room and feel limited when it comes to using menus for your blog.
Well, I have been spending time on the WordPress Codex site and learning about theme development.  I took the default Twenty Eleven theme and learned how to add two more menus to the header area.
Now, instead of just having one menu below the main image (which I’ve always thought looked a bit odd), you can have a menu at the very top of your site and/or above the main image.
The picture below demonstrates where I’ve added the two optional menus.  I realize 3 menus is probably too much for most blogs.  So you can use the one(s) you want and disable the one(s) you don’t need using the Menu feature under the Appearance tab in your Dashboard.

You can download my theme here and use it if you like.
The good news is that it’s a child theme.  So that means it still uses the original Twenty Eleven theme’s functionality. So when WordPress updates the theme files, you will still receive the updates and not lose any of your own customizations.
Here’s a video that shows you how to activate and deactivate the two new menus I’ve created for my theme.
Popout

How to Improve Your Blog’s Navigation

Whether you use my 3-menu theme or not, this section is very important.  I will show you how to make your blog navigation more intuitive and useful by using static Pages and the WordPress Menu feature.
You can apply these lessons to any theme, however if your theme only has one menu then it may be more challenging (especially if you want to highlight your post categories in your menu).
Let’s go back to the wedding planning example.
Instead of using your theme’s menu to highlight your post categories that send people to a list of your random posts sorted by date, we are going to create 4 static landing Pages that represent the 4 main topics of your blog.  These Pages will be linked from your main menu.
So in your WordPress Dashboard, go to Pages and then select Add New.   Create your landing pages.  For this example we will name them…
1) Budgeting
2) Hiring a Planner
3) The Ceremony
4) Invitations

The reason I am creating Pages instead of Categories is because we will be highlighting these 4 topics on your navigation menu.  And when your readers click on any of the 4 topics from the menu, they will be taken to a static landing page instead of a dynamic page that displays a random hodgepodge of all your recent posts (which is how most WordPress blogs are setup.)

Here is what your first landing Page may look like.

We are going to add these landing pages to the WordPress Menu because they contain important content that your visitors need to read.  The idea is we want these pages to remain visible on your blog no matter the date!  That’s the purpose of static pages.

Notice the two links below the opening paragraph on the Budgeting landing page.  These are links to 2 more WordPress Pages that are “children” of the Budgeting Page.
When you create a new Page in WordPress, you are given the option (in Edit mode) of choosing a Parent for that page.  So I created two more Pages called What You Should Know and Best Ways to Save and assigned the Budgeting Page as their Parent.  Then I linked them from the Budgeting landing page.
Note:  You don’t have to assign a Parent to these pages, but it’s a good habit to get into because some themes (Thesis) will automatically add your child pages as drop-down options in menus.
Now I’m going to show you how to highlight these important static pages on your theme’s navigation menu.

Using The WordPress Menu

When you go to the WordPress Menu section (under Appearance), it will automatically tell you how many menus are available for your theme.  As I already mentioned, my child theme will give you three menus.  See below…

So we’re going to create a brand new menu on the very top of the blog (you can call it whatever you want.)  This menu is going to consist of the 4 landing pages we just created (Budgeting, Hiring a Planner, The Ceremony, Invitations) and any child pages you created.
The child pages will show up as drop-down options underneath the main topic as illustrated below…

Once you’ve created your Pages, setting up this kind of menu is super easy.  Just go to Menu under the Appearance tab in WordPress and click the + sign to create a new menu.

Name the menu whatever you’d like.  I named mine “Main Menu” since it’s at the top of the blog and links to my most important topics.
Now you’re going to add your 4 new landing Pages (and their children) to the menu by scrolling down to the Pages section and selecting all the appropriate pages.   See screenshot below where I’ve selected the parent Page “Budgeting” and all its children.

Now we want to make sure the child pages show up as drop-down options when you hover over Budgeting.  You do that by simply dragging all the child Pages over to the right so they are indented.  See screenshot below…

Repeat this for all the Pages and children you want to add to this menu. Save your menu when you are done.
Now when you refresh your blog you should see your main topics in the new menu.   When you click the main topic (Budgeting, for example) it should go to the static landing Page you created.
When you hover over each topic, it should also display the child pages as drop-down options.
 

What About My Posts and Categories?

Don’t worry.  I’m not suggesting you abandon creating Posts and using categories.  Obviously you still want to keep creating and highlighting new content.
I’m just trying to help you improve your blog’s navigation so your readers can find your most important (static) content.  When you have a tutorial/how-to site there is certain content that should always be accessible. That’s why you want to make good use of Pages and highlight them from your menu(s).
There are a few ways to highlight your recent posts and categories on your menu:
1) Simply add the Categories to your menu like you did the Pages above
2) Use my Twenty Eleven child theme and reserve one of the extra menus for your Categories
3) Create a new Post category called “News” or “Updates” and make all your existing Post categories children of this new category.
Add the “News” category to one of your menus and the sub categories as drop-downs underneath.  Now your readers can find your most recent posts and view by category if they wish.
Now you’ve got the best of both worlds with WordPress.  You can feature your most important and potentially highest-converting static content while continuing to highlight your recent work (latest posts).

Benefits of Implementation

- Static pages make your blog easier to reference and they improve your visitor’s overall user experience.
- When your navigation is logical, your readers can find what they need and they are more likely to return to reference your content.  They will also stay longer and view more pages (improves your bounce rate).
- When people return, they are much more likely to buy products you recommend and sell, which will increase your blog’s revenue.
- This can also be beneficial for search engine optimization because your content is organized logically and it gives the engines a better idea for what your site is about.  Having more static pages can potentially boost your search engine traffic in the long-run.

What About Other Themes?

I chose this theme because it’s the WordPress 3.0 default and everyone has easy access to it.  Unless you’ve removed it, you should still have it installed.  Also, it would be quite difficult to explain this for every theme since the code is drastically different.

This is a great example of when premium themes like Thesis come in handy.  You can actually create drop-downs in your navigation menu without having to edit the WordPress Menu.  It’s part of the Thesis Options panel. So Chris Pearson was actually ahead of the game when he created Thesis.

The Twenty Eleven theme also has extremely clean code and is a good theme to use if you’re interested in learning more about theme development and modification.  You can really do a lot with this theme if you spend time learning about the inner workings (hooks) of WordPress.
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I really hope you found this post useful.  I know it was lengthy, but I want you to understand how important site usability really is.  If you need a theme with more menu support, be sure to download my Twenty Eleven child theme.
Good luck and I look forward to hearing how this works for you.

Oct 3, 2011 5:30 PM

Tai’s YouTube Earnings & His Message for You!

by lisa

1 person liked this

If you follow my Facebook page, you may have seen the picture I posted last week of myself and Tai, who playfully calls himself “The Asian Wonder.”   We met at a local WordPress meetup on September 24th.

Tai approached me at the end of the session to let me know that he recognized me from YouTube.  He eagerly opened his laptop and revealed his recent earnings with the YouTube Partner program.
His excitement was refreshing, and he really wanted me to share his story with my audience.
Even though Tai’s YouTube earnings aren’t through the roof (yet), they are proof of what is possible.  If you can earn $30 per month then why can’t you triple that next month, and then triple it again the following month?
I can recall my first $14 commission check I earned back in 1998.  I was still in college, so $14 felt like a million dollars.
And I remember thinking, “If I can make $14, I can make $28.  And when I made my first $100 I knew I could double that and so on.  There’s something so motivating about seeing the fruits of your labor no matter how small the amount.

Tai’s Story

You have to meet Tai in person to appreciate his energy, but you’ll get a sense with his colorful e-mail below.
Yo Lisa,
It was good meeting you at the WordPress Meetup this past weekend!!!
Thanks for all your words of encouragement for a beginner such as myself in the internet marketing biz.
When I first got into internet marketing in late 2009, I thought that Adsense was a joke and a scam cuz I had never met anyone in real life who had made money from it.
But then I ran into your YouTube video on “How To Make Money With Google Adsense” at the beginning of this year and I liked how you kept it real and it didn’t sound like a bunch of hype and B.S. so I put aside my limiting beliefs and gave it a try.
I don’t have a lot of time because of my day job so I got motivated to do youtube videos for my fitness niche after I watched your “44 YouTube Videos & 8400 Subscribers” since it’s easier for me to demonstrate on video how to work out versus writing about it.
I took my sweet ass time to implement your advice but after making over 80 youtube fitness videos, I finally got invited to monetize my youtube videos 4 months ago, however, my retarded ass never bothered to submit my videos to youtube for monetization until 2 months ago when I asked my girlfriend to set aside a day to submit all my fitness videos for monetization on 8-21-11 and BAM!…
Immediately I started making money the very NEXT day!  (See Below) I couldn’t believe it!

I know you and others have been saying it all along that it was not B.S., but for some reason it seemed more real when the adsense money started rolling in.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not a whole lot as you can see in the screenshot below, however, it is a HUGE start for me and has boosted my confidence tremendously simply by knowing that I’m gonna be making at least $30/month of steady passive income without me having to do anything.  And it’s only going to get better with time.  WHOOOPEEEE!!!!
I’m ballin’ now! lol 

Looking back in retrospect, the biggest mistake I made when I first got started was I didn’t have enough belief that it would work for me and the other thing was that I did not take enough ACTION!
Let your audience know that they got to get off their ass and TAKE ACTION!!!!!
Whoever takes more action and implements more of what you talk about will simply get more results.
I will keep you posted with my progress so that you’ll know that someone out there is listening and taking action!!!  BOOYAH!!!
Peace
Tai “The Asian Wonder”
Your Online Personal Trainer
www.PersonalTrainerTai.com
I hope you weren’t offended by Tai’s choice of words, but I wanted to post the e-mail “as is” for effect and realness.   As you can probably tell, Tai’s an energetic person and now he is channeling that energy to improve his online business through video.

Just Do It!

The biggest takeaway from Tai’s story is obviously, just do it!  Even if you have no interest in YouTube and the partner program, this message can apply to any venture.
How many things have you put off because you feared failure or you assumed it wouldn’t work?   Are you sabotaging your business because you lack belief and confidence?
I hope Tai’s story provides the motivation you need to get moving on tasks you’ve been putting off!

Sep 29, 2011 4:27 AM

My AdSense Earnings Breakdown – Let’s Compare Stats!

by lisa

You don’t typically hear from me twice in one week, but my stats show how much you guys love AdSense-related posts, so I hope you don’t mind a double dose of Lisa this week.
I was playing around in the AdSense Performance reports as I often do, and decided to create a few graphs showing the breakdown of different earnings by category so we can compare our stats.  Here are the ones I focused on:
- % of Earnings by Unit Size
- % of Earnings by Ad Type
- % of Earnings by Targeting Type
- % of Earnings by Product
If you haven’t switched over to the new interface (which isn’t so new anymore), then you’re missing some great reports — especially if you’re a stat junky like me.
In November, they will be shutting off the old interface and you will be forced to use the new one. So you might as well get acquainted if you haven’t already.

So let’s start with the first report I ran…

One of the reasons I redesigned my static site was because I wanted a column to accommodate larger widgets, images and the 300×250 AdSense unit.  Many of you told me how well the  unit converted for you and boy were you right!
My CTR (click through rate) for the right column unit on 2 Create a Website increased by 65% and my Page RPM (page revenue per 1,000 impressions) increased by 59% in August.  I also switched from all text ads to text and image ads.  The new 300×250 unit was the biggest reason for my record month in August 2011.
For awhile, the 728×90 unit was winning consistently, but it tied for 2nd place last month.

Text ads have always performed best for me so this is no shocker.  But I will say that text and image ads on my static site outperform my blog by far.   Text ads performed so poorly on my blog, it wasn’t even worth the time and space.
My blog tends to receive traffic from a lot more savvy users (particularly IMers, seasoned Webmasters and bloggers, etc.) compared to my static site.   In general, these people are less likely to click on ads.  And of course, traffic has a lot to do with it as well.  My static website receives a lot more traffic than my blog.
The 728×90 unit is the only one that converts here.  I don’t get that many clicks, but my Page RPM (page earnings per 1,000 impressions) is fairly high and makes it worthwhile.

Contextual Ads
I would imagine most of you probably earn more from contextual ads like me.  These are the ads that are simply targeted by page content.  In general, ads with the best bid and quality score end up on your site.
Placement Ads
Placement ads can earn you more per click because these advertisers are willing to outbid all the contextual advertisers to place an ad on your site specifically.  It’s very important to ensure your site is optimized and accessible to placement advertisers.

To do this go to “My Ads”, click “Custom Channels” and click the channels you want to make “targetable.”  Next to Targeting, check the box that reads “Show this custom channel to advertisers as a targetable ad placement.”

Prior to doing this, (last Summer) my percentage of earnings from placement ads was 6% of my overall earnings.  It is now 12%.  That’s a 100% increase.  So make sure you set your channels to “targetable” and become accessible to people who want to bid exclusively on YOUR site.
Interest-Based Ads
These are ads that show up based on where the user has visited.  So if they were on a car website before coming to your site, they may see a car ad even though your website is not about cars.
I have turned off Interest-Based ads in my account (Under “Allow and Block Ads” / “Advanced Settings”), but I learned that 3rd party networks can still serve them up.  So that explains the 7% in earnings even though I have opted out of Interest-Based ads.

This report shows that most of my earnings come from the Contextual ads and images on my site.  Hosted AdSense for Content is related to the YouTube Partner program and other 3rd party ads that may show on your site.
This breakdown has been pretty consistent for me over the years. There was a slight increase in the Hosted AdSense for Content over the past year (YouTube),  but nothing major.   I combined Search and Feeds because they were roughly the same and so low compared to the other categories.

What About You?

So how does your breakdown compare?  Any similarities?
Keep in mind, the reporting Interface doesn’t breakdown the percentage.  I just did some simple math to figure that out, and I created the pie charts in Excel to make everything easier on the eyes.
I’d love to hear from you.  Let’s chat!