Image Improvement-Content and Graphics Part 1

April 1, 2008 by elaineb · 5 Comments

Think for just one moment about these questions, What do I sell? How is my website`s presentation? Better yet, how is the presentation of me? Think back to when you were starting your store, what was the feel you wanted for your store? Is your about me page`s content matching that feel?

Web content writing is hard. When you are on the web, you rely on as few words to give you the information you need. Bloggers are not faced with the same agenda, since blogging is a type of journaling. However, long blog post are lovingly called haikus and the hate of reading them is posted all throughout the web.

Here are a few tips to get it right:

?Web content delivery to the point. I want you to visit Michael Kors.com and look at how they have written their product description. Descriptive words are ok. Just remember descriptive words are like frosting on cake, too much frosting and you start missing out on the cake. (Read: Cake=$$)

?A picture is worth a thousand words. Imagine you are called in for an interview to be a top exec in a prestigious company. Are you going to wear jeans, or your Chanel suit? If you said the Chanel suit, then you understand the value of first impressions. Every time a new customer comes to your site, they are going to “hire” you for your product. Then why would you put in pictures of your product that is less than perfect? You will in fact lose money each day product looks like it was photographed on your bed linen.

?Go Feng Shui on your writing. I include myself in the bunch for this one. I wrote in an earlier post, how something that may mean a thing to you and nothing to your customer. In writing, what means something to you, will mean something else to your customer. Ergo, if you write on your about me page “I am a stay at home mom,” and to me that means someone with a home business or home office. To a buyer, it may mean you are working in the middle chaos of home and you are distracted and perhaps would not buy from you.

?Minimal sophistication- My mother has this gross Spanish saying, that literally translated means that a closed mouth gathers no flies. This is a lesson on less is more. Less does equal to sophistication.

?Your website is a frame to your items. Not the other way around! Would you buy an over embellished picture frame for a very classy black and white picture? I recently had the opportunity to rework mychicthings.com, a site that was very tastefully adorned, in hind sight, too adorned. The tone on tone color and graphics were blending her product into the site. Her new, cleaner color scheme is a step up from the last version.

There is much more I could say on the matter. Everyday I shop on the web and find myself tangled in confusing information, straining to see images and assaulted by color. Nonetheless, you have a choice. Choose wisely grasshopper!
Love,
Elaine