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Hi everyone, if you've been following my series The Art Of Marketing You with wallpapers...
- in part 1 we looked at the basic idea of marketing with wallpapers/calendars
- in part 2 we looked at why wallpapers are such a great (and inexpensive) marketing tool
- in part 3 we looked at how this idea can be applied to real estate
In part 4 I'm going to show you an example of how to put your own wallpaper/calendar together using a photo by Kathy McGraw, a free background image and give you the details of how to put the pieces all together. Let's get started!
To create your own wallpaper you'll need any graphics program, even basic software like Adobe's Photoshop Elements that comes bundled free with most digital cameras, scanners, etc. will be fine. Then you'll need...
a template background
This is a dark background with some light on the right hand side that I usually use for my art wallpapers and will work well with most photographs or images.
a photo
Here is a beautiful caterpillar photo by Kathy McGraw
descriptive text
I usually add a bit of text with either the title of the image and/or the photographer's name
calendar (optional)
It's not necessary but I started using calendars on my wallpapers about a year ago and noticed a significant increase in repeat visitors to my art website at the beginning of each month coming back to download the new calendar. It looks good and it's practical but not "in your face".
To make your wallpaper look as good as possible you'll need to keep in mind a few basic things. Take a look at the example below to see how I do mine. This is a good starting point but you can always adjust yours to suit your own taste or the size and shape of the photo/image that you use.
screen resolution
For this example, I'm using a background template that is 1024 pixels wide X 768 pixels high since that's the screen resolution most people have their computer monitor set to.
If you seriously get into marketing yourself with branded wallpapers, you'll probably want to do larger versions like 1600 pixels wide X 1200 pixels high for people using large monitors and higher screen resolutions but that is another topic for another day.
image size & position
After years of trial and error (lots of errors) I found that using an image sized 600 pixels wide X 600 pixels high works best for what I'm doing. Why? It centers well, leaves enough space at the top, bottom and sides to have breathing room for the text on the right and icons on the left.
image optimization
When exporting (saving) your wallpaper image, try to adjust the final file size to be under 100K. This will make the image download quickly and load faster on any preview page. If you don't know how to do this, I'll be doing a tutorial specifically on optimizing images for the web soon. Basically it means making them look as good as possible in a very compact file size.
When you see pages on the web that take forever to load, it's usually because people are using large image files and too many widgets. Neither one is good if you want your readers to stick around.
beware of icons
I used to do full screen wallpapers, they looked great but depending on the complexity and color of the image, it would sometimes make screen icons difficult to read so...
No matter what size photo you use, be sure to leave space, especially on the left where by default icons are positioned.
effects
For effect and because it makes everything look nicer and more 3 dimensional, if you know how to add shadows to text and images, it makes things look less "flat".
most important !!!
Last but definitely not least, remember that wallpapers are fine as a way to connect with people and to use as giveaways but not a good place to advertise yourself or your biz!
Kathy's new caterpillar wallpaper with the Sept. 2008 calendar is now available for download on her blog at California Real Estate and Life Thanks for the great pic Kathy, I love it! This example uses...
- the 1024 pixel X 768 pixel background I mentioned
- I created a project in Photoshop sized 1024 X 768 and then loaded in the dark background image
- next I added a photo by Kathy McGraw that I re-sized to fit the 600 pixel X 600 pixel format
- then I sharpened the photo a bit for extra contrast
- I positioned the photo 70 pixels from the top and 170 pixels from the left of the background image
- added the text with Kathy's name to the right of the image
- added the calendar just below the "photo by" text
- saved it as a file that is under 78K which means it will load quickly, even on a dial up connection
And voila, there you have the basics of designing a simple, clean, fast loading wallpaper. If you go back and read part 3 of this tutorial from last week, you'll see a few ideas & applications on how you can use this in the real estate biz.
another example
Dream Fragment # 4
If you want to see another example of a wallpaper using this background template, check out my current wallpaper/calendar here
Free background template/image
If you'd like to try designing your own wallpaper, you can download a blank background image from my website... download here
Yes it's free and you have my permission to distribute the wallpapers you create with it on any blog or website you like. I do retain the copyright to any and all images that I make available here on Active Rain but you are permitted to give away any wallpapers your create using my background image.
If you have any questions about this stuff, ideas or suggestions, let me know and I'll try to include or answer them in future posts.
If you're wondering how to customize your blog, take a look at our group's guidelines page for tutorials and graphics that you can download and use on your Active Rain blog.
Sorting through everything being posted in The Art Of Marketing You group can be a real challenge so... here are a few of the must read (on topic) posts from the past few days...
- Making the Most of Localism Sponsored Community, Part Deux by Rich Jacobson
- Makeover2Takeover Contest: "To the Winners go the Spoils!" by Rich Jacobson
- An Ambulance, A Firetruck and Localism, What Do They Have In Common? by Brad Andersohn
- The iPhone and Real Estate by Brad Andersohn
- The sign said "OPEN HOUSE" but I felt like I was entering a Used Car Lot! by Russell Lewis
- Not "JUST" Plagarism Anymore--I've Become "The Blog Watcher" by Carole Provenzale
- Do You Reguarly Check Your Spam Filter On Your WP blog by Steve Scheer
- A Blogger's Guide - The ActiveRain Version by Danny Thornton
- Crash course on blogging...... Just don't fall asleep !!! by Jeff Belonger
- One year and 200 posts later - the most important lessons learned by Faina Sechzer
- A need for Content Moderators on Localism? Bloggers - edit yourselves! by Melissa Marro
- Those good for nothing, lying, deceitful, group moderators on ActiveRain by Maureen McCabe
- TOP 8 Niche Markets, with Ideas For Each Catagory... by Jason Gardner
- Permission to be Real....Really! by Liz Moras
- Twitter in Plain English by Tina Merritt
- STACKING OFFERS UP LIKE PANCAKES by Allison Stewart
- Warning-Craigslist..Fraud and Ebay! Warn Property Owners! by Midori Miller
- Keeping it in the Family: Social Networking, Family Trees, Selling Real Estate by Brian Block
- Podcasting Has Entered My World - Come Listen by Candace Robinson
- Do You Toot? The Quandry of Self Promotion by Chuck Willman
- Opportunities Often Come Disguised as Problems-Raising Your Success IQ by Jo-Anne Smith
If you would like to participate in any of our upcoming projects, marketing partnerships or tutorials on creative ways to stand out from the crowd, please subscribe to my blog...
For more info about how we can help you stand out from the crowd, contact GiselleStCyr@garaughty.com
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The Blog Artist - marti garaughty
Posted by 
Marti, Thank you for the mention and I have lots of catching up to do. Your posts are always filled with so much helpful information it floors me. And Kathy's blog is beautiful, you did a wonderful job designing it!