Plain and simple – logo creation is not that easy (and really not that cheap).

Hiring a premium-level firm like UBD or an e-famous independent artist can run up a considerably large bill. Somewhere close to $1k will get you a handful of very well made drafts. Fortunately, when you work with professionals, you’re going to get your money’s worth. Not a bad way to go at all, but not all of us can afford that level of service.

We can hear you telling yourself right now, “That’s just too much money.” Hold onto that thought, as we’ll be answering that later on in this post. What do you do if $1k+ is well outside of your budget?

Time is always of the essence, and logos can chew away at your time like you wouldn’t believe. Trying to sift through an endless number of artists/designers/firms, comparing pricing, then going on to potentially rejecting drafts that come your way can take FOREVER. Trust us, we occasionally have to hire other people to do work for us, and tracking down legitimate help is PAINFULLY SLOW. Like pull-your-hair-out type slow. Luckily, we have the skills (obviously) to handle all creative work in-house, so we have a backup plan for logos. Not everyone is in our position, though, so we’ll help you get your backup logo plan later in this post.

So, here are a few strategies we recommend to develop logos:

Get Specific

Have an idea in mind before you even go looking for help with a logo. While it’s always great to let a designer run free with an open concept, you’re also leaving yourself open to a surprise when you get drafts back.

Keep It Simple

You probably won’t want to go overboard while thinking of a logo design.

Is It Printable?

Think about your logo being printed on a plain, white business card. MOST logos will want to adhere to a color scheme that looks appropriate on a white background. It just makes your life easier down the road when expanding your marketing and branding efforts.

This isn’t a rule, but simply a kind suggestion.

Show The Draft(s) To Others Before Deciding

Okay, so you’ve got yourself a draft but aren’t sure if it’s the perfect logo for your business… How do you make sure it’s good? Show it to other people!

Try to avoid only showing your drafts to people in your office. You’d be surprised how often honest opinions can be drowned out by group dynamics. Test your designs against “non-techie” folks before actually using them in live marketing.

Sounds good, but I’m not a designer and don’t have a lot of money to invest into my logo…

First off, it’s totally okay. We’ve all been there. Sometimes the most creative solutions to problems come forth when cash and resources are low.

By now, you have most likely heard about 99designs.com and how great they are for crowdsourcing design work (logos included). We’ve used their site before, and it’s pretty amazing to see how many talented designers answer your calling when needed.

There are two ways in which you can really use 99 Designs to help with your logo design:

1. Start a new project with them, and have tons of designers design something for you (starting at $211)
2. Or, you can try their new “Ready-made” logos for only $99

99 Designs is a pretty incredible resource when you think about it. For only a few hundred bucks, you can have a group of talented designers take a shot at making your perfect company logo.

If you’ve only got $99 to spare, they’ll let you choose from a HUGE number of awesome logos that will most likely work for you.

To summarize, here are a few options:

• EXPENSIVE – Pay a very talented design firm or independent artist to create your logo.
• PRETTY EXPENSIVE – Crowdsource your logo design on 99 Designs, or on a similar site.
• INEXPENSIVE – Get a “Ready-made” logo for only $99.

Hopefully you’ve got a basic idea of how to get started with your logo, and where you will be able to get one made for you. As an extra help to you, here’s a quick link for 99 Designs:

When we do consultations with our clients, prior to starting the design, colors are always a paramount piece of information that we must have. Choosing a color palette for your design can be a daunting task. Not everyone has an eye for design, which is why I’m going to put up a few resources that will take the guess work out of finding a color palette.

Color Blender

Color Blender is a very cool, free tool that will automatically choose five matching colors to your main color choice.

The interface is designed with an RGB (Red Green Blue) slider, and a group of seven small variants which will allow you to make small changes to your main color choice.

Once you’ve chosen the color palette for your design, simply copy the color is either RGB format, or in html hex code. Check out the screenshot below:

Let a Picture Inspire You

This is definitely one of the easiest ways to choose colors for your design.

All you have to do is find a cool picture that you like, preferably one that you think would go well on your blog or site. Once you’ve found the picture, you can simply copy the url of the image (right click on the image and click “copy image address” or open the image in a new window) and then watch as it automatically chooses your color!

You can use this color picker for free, at DeGraeve.com!

Well, That’s Easy!

That’s the beautiful thing about it. Using one of these two color pickers, or something similar, will save you time and effort. That of course means you can spend that time elsewhere!

Have you already been using a cool palette tool, or can you recommend one? I’m interested to hear what everyone has been using.

Establish What You Want to Convert

The first order of business is to figure out what exactly what offer(s) you’d like to call action to.

Often, site or blog revenue is the most sought after benefit, so go ahead and start there in your quest for conversion.

Ask yourself simple questions such as: Do I need leads, or maybe even email addresses so that I can employ targeted marketing? Do I need RSS subscribers? Do I need people to click on a large button so I make affiliate commissions? What are my competitors doing and is there any way for me to verify their success or failure?

As a side note, it can help to ask other web masters or people in the know for their opinion on what you should be calling to action. They may have insight into what you can make the most money with.

Once you’ve figured out what exactly will be your main conversion focus, it’s time to prioritize them. Be careful, though, you don’t want to be a cannibal! This concept is further explained after the three rule-of-thumb steps.

Properly Place and Implement

Now that you have an idea of exactly what offers you’ll be employing, it’s time to implement the offers so that they’ll convert best.

The easiest way to go about grabbing eyeballs is to put your offers in the most in-your-face places as humanly possible. Take our good friend, John Chow. If you’re new to his site, there is a pop-up that will literally darken the rest of the screen and force you to read his newsletter offer. Who wants to place a bet that his conversion increased after he implemented that feature?

That is an example of extreme call to action. Now, consider something more subtle. How about that blank spot in your header… or the top of your sidebar? People often scan their eyes from left to right, then move down, and then scan left to right. Knowing this, wouldn’t it make sense to put your call to action in the header, or at the top of your content area?

Chew on that for a bit while we move forward…

Disclaimer: THERE ARE ALMOST ALWAYS IMPROVEMENTS THAT CAN BE MADE! NEVER SKIP THE NEXT STEP!

Testing, Testing, Testing

I’ve written and spoken about how important this is many times. You will not improve, or see the most return possible from your site, unless you closely monitor your traffic for conversion. If you know what your readers/visitors are or aren’t doing, you can make INFORMED decisions about how to improve.

We make changes to our site very regularly, and they are often small changes. That being said, we sometimes get very big results…

Here are a few links to awesome testing software:

• Crazy Egg
• Google Analytics

I know a few of you “in the know” folks are screaming, “WHERE IS GOOGLE WEBSITE OPTIMIZER???” Well, it doesn’t work so well with WordPress… yet.

So How Do Cannibals Play Into This?

Well, now that you’ve followed steps 1,2, and 3, you’ll have a nice little set of data to work with.

The “cannibals” on your site are the links, calls to action, and anything else that stands in the way of you properly converting.

Find these cannibals, and exterminate them! If you have 3 offers, and two of them are performing poorly… get rid of them and only have the 1 offer! The two bad offers were cannibalizing your good offer, and it’s almost a sure bet that you’ll see improvement after you’ve removed them.

Make sense? Now, make dollars.

Take advantage of our blog, and ask a question if you don’t understand! If you’ve already been there, done this, then go ahead and comment on your method!

You know that having a lot of subscribers is great for your brand, regardless of the online presence you carry. It denotes authority on the blog or site’s topic, which then translates into even more subscribers!

The following are five tips and tricks to help you convert your visitors into loyal blog subscribers:

1. Should I display my subscriber count?

Let’s say that you’ve just started your blog and you have written ten great posts. Within that time, you’ve managed to reel in a solid 75 RSS subscribers and the trend is looking up-up-up. Should you show your count?

No.

It’s better to have your readers wonder how many subscribers you have than to show them you have very few.

Wait until you’ve reached several hundred to display the rss chiclet.

2. Clearly display the RSS call to action.

This one is a pretty simple concept. Put your RSS call to action in a place where people can see it. If people can’t find it, you won’t convert.

I prefer to place RSS subscription elements in the top right corner of the blog, with a graphic that catches the eye.

3. ALWAYS provide an email subscription option.

Not everybody uses an RSS reader such as Google Reader. Make sure that you are providing the option to have your posts sent to them via email.

You might be shocked to hear that you can convert email subscribers at a rate of 3x or more in comparison to normal subscribers by using tip #5.

4. Use plain english.

Try to avoid metaphors or figurative speech for the RSS headline. If you keep it simple with something like, “Receive Blog Updates” you will draw appropriate attention.

Not everybody understands what RSS is, so make sure that you keep your readers’ profiles in mind.

If you are running a blog on tractors and dump-trucks… it would be safe to say that your readers won’t be tech-savvy. Thus, you won’t convert if you say something like, “Get your RSS right here!.”

5. Offer exclusive content.

This is by FAR the most effective way to increase your RSS subscription. If you can offer to your readers something special, something that they can’t get any other way than signing up to your list.

If you can couple that with using a service like Aweber then you are golden! There are a few, very distinct benefits to this strategy:

• email capturing for your own list (building an email list is a MUST)
• thought-leadership
• people who sign up for the exclusive content count towards your rss following

The people that sign up to receive exclusive content from you are your target market. Get them into a list and then offer them your products or services of value.

If you employ these tips, I can assure you that you will see results. That being said, these certainly aren’t the only ways to increase RSS subscription. Don’t be shy, share your tips below!

Our Director of Marketing, Josh Mullineaux, has redesigned and relaunched his personal blog. Josh is one of the co-founders of UBD and a long time friend of Matt and myself.

Josh has been blogging since May of 2007 on the topics of personal finance, business, and personal development. Josh’s previous blog design was one of the very first three-column header layouts (even before John Chow).

Check out Josh Mullineaux dot Com and let him know what you think of his new design and layout!

For the panel, Matt was asked to redesign a British Columbia boating blog, www.boatinginbeautifulbritishcolumbia.com. This blog is owned by Heather, an attendee of IZEA Fest.

What did Heather have to say about Matt’s redesign?

My blog had been chosen to receive a makeover, along with 2 others. Matt Blancarte from Unique Blog Designs (UBD) designed a new logo for me, he cleaned up the sidebars, adjusted colors and uncluttered the site. I love the new design and he will be in touch to discuss further information once he is back in the office. I CAN’T WAIT!!! It looked fabulous and the comments from the ustream discussion board were very favourable and complimentary. [...]

You can read more on Heather’s blog, here.

The design isn’t live yet, but we are in the coding process and it should be available shortly.

You can watch the entire panel discussion below. Congratulations to Matt and the other panelists for an insightful look into the world of strategic and purposeful blog design.

Online video chat by Ustream

We first redesigned John’s blog back in August of 2007, which was also the launch of our brand. We are happy that John chose us to redesign his blog again this year.

Some of the highlights of the new design:

Less Scrolling Required
One of the biggest complaint about the old theme came from readers who run low resolution displays. When viewed on a 1024×768 screen, very little of the post was viewable without scrolling down. We’ve fixed this problem by moving the content way up. You can see the different in the comparison screen shot.

New Photo Gallery
John Chow dot Com Version 3 features a photo gallery where you will be able to view my photos. I have tons of photos from my travels that never get published because of space limitation. Right now, the gallery only have a few car and food pics. However, I’ll be loading it up with photos from trade shows and other stuff that you may find interesting.

You can read about the blog design here.

We look forward to seeing John in person this weekend at IZEA Fest!

UBD worked with Yahoo! to add functionality and relaunch their popular Yahoo! Mail Blog.

You may be asking yourself, why is UBD reporting that the Yahoo! Mail Blog relaunched? Well, we are truly honored that we recently had the opportunity to work with Yahoo! to redesign and relaunch the official Yahoo! Mail Blog. Our Chief Marketing Officer, Josh Mullineaux, met Ryan Knight from Yahoo! at the Blog World Expo last November. It gives us great pride to have worked with one of the pioneering companies of the commercial Internet.

With the relaunch of the Yahoo! Mail Blog, our objectives included the following:

• Update the elements of the Yahoo! Mail Blog to their specs
• Integrated “Threaded” comments with a unique author response to reader comments
• Increase the promotion of social media syndication and RSS readership options
• Code the design into a WordPress Theme compatible with WP 2.5+

What did the Yahoo! Mail Blog Community Manager, Ryan Knight, have to say about working with us?

I’d been interested in revamping the look and feel of the YMail blog for a while, and if I’d known how easy it would be working with UBD I would have done it a long time ago. The design work was perfect and they helped add a lot of much needed functionality to the site. The readers love it! - Ryan Knight, Community Manager, Yahoo! Mail

Thanks, Ryan! We enjoyed working with you, as well!

Visit the Yahoo! Mail Blog

Matt has been blogging since July of 2007, and he has been working with UBD since its August 2007 inception. Matt’s blog focuses mostly on design, business, and personal development. He just published a detailed post on the thought process and features that went into his new redesign.

In addition to being a blogger, UBD’s lead designer and a professional nice guy, Matt will be speaking on the “Blog Design panel” this year at IZEA Fest, a conference for bloggers and new media enthusiasts. IZEA Fest is being held September 11-13, 2008 in Orlando, Florida. In addition to speaking, UBD will also be exhibiting at the event.

Head on over to Matt’s blog and let him know what you think of his new design. Congratulations on the new redesign, Matt!

What do private ads, affiliate ads, Google ads, and pretty much all other forms of advertising have in common? They all can benefit from proper placement on your blog. In this article, we will go over the basic blog layout (i.e. header, sidebar(s), content, footer) and a few very simple ways that you can more effectively place advertisements for high conversion.

Header Ad Placements

The header is the “top” of your blog. Most headers consist of the blog’s title/logo, a navigation bar, search, and maybe a few images. While these features are important in design, you can utilize the space directly above the header to place an ad. The header area is most likely going to be where your readers will look at first glance, so consider placing a banner advertisement.

Sidebar Ad Placements

Two Column:The upper area of a sidebar is a GREAT place for 125×125 block advertisements. I am sure you’ve seen them all over the place, but just in case that you haven’t just check out any major blog and you will spot it immediately. Block ads are all the rage, and for good reason! They convert quite well, and they are easily adjustable to fit most blogs.

Three Column:Try placing a skyscraper ad in the middle column if you have a double-right or double-left sidebar. Your readers will scan their eyes over it to look at the far-sidebar elements, so you may end up converting a bit more efficiently.

Content Ad Placements

Posts are a great place to position your ads for conversion. You can accomplish this is three ways: images, contextual ads, or affiliate linking.

Using images can be very effective if you place them near the top of the post. People often scan for the titles of posts, so place your image ads near the title! Using a simple text wrap around an image like John Chow can be extremely effective. I wonder how much he charges for that prime real estate…

Contextual ads are a great way to advertise on your blog. Just make sure that your SEO is properly done, and your content is written in a manner that the ad program can illicit the proper keywords for targeted ads. Kontera is a very popular place to get started with contextual advertising. Give it a try!

Now that you’re already thinking about putting ads in your posts, consider placing affiliate links in articles that are related to your affiliate offers. You can very cleverly write some pseudo sales-copy to help encourage people to click on your offers… but that is another story altogether. Check out Affiliate Pro for a paid solution to make this process much easier.

Footer Ad Placements

To be honest, the footer is not a place that I would recommend placing an advertisement. It is generally one of the lesser trafficked areas on any web-page, although lately a lot of bloggers have been opting for active footers that are populated by plugins. My recommendation is to keep ads within the posts and the upper portion of your blog!

Your Thoughts

What kinds of strategies would you recommend? Have you had any success with a particular way of using ads on your blog? Please let us know by leaving a comment!