A good infographic is a means of giving readers a general overview of a subject that can then be converted into social currency in the form of talking points, sharing, tweets and Likes. An infographic should mix text, data and images in order to create one single message. A message that is considerably stronger than it would otherwise be if it had have been left to text, data or images alone.
A good infographic can therefore consist of anything from graphs, charts, maps and diagrams to pictures, symbols and designs.
A life insurance infographic may well consist of a graph showing longevity expectations of various age groups along with a photo of a baby and an aged person with a block of text pulling both together.
A successful infographic should be eye catching, even beautiful to the extent it can be adored with its mix of colours and shapes.
It should be able to be identified with one glance and the viewer drawn to looking closer so that he or she can’t help but interact with it. It should be like a good headline. One that makes you read on until you become impatient in wanting to share the new found knowledge with a friend. Likewise a good infographic should make you want to place it in an email and distribute it around your social network.
Related Posts: How To Get Free Mass Traffic To Your Website
Think Outside the Box and Come up With Original Ideas
The beauty about creating infographics today is that there is no need to hire a top level web designer to get the desired result of attracting more visitors to your website or blog. You may well have to think outside the box a bit but all the tools you need are at your disposal online.
The following suggestions might go some way to helping you create outstanding infographics that will turn your visitor numbers around overnight:
Don’t fear asking for assistance
The following resources can help you become the artist you never knew you were, but it sometimes takes that little bit of help from a pro to get off the ground. There are specialized websites available to get you started and if you feel insecure go to them, by all means.
You will soon get the confidence to create beautiful infographics yourself. Just as life insurance gives you peace of mind, infographics will give you the confidence of a creative artist.
Look around for ideas
It doesn’t matter if you are naturally creative or not. At some stage we all have to look around for inspiration. There is an unmeasurable number of infographics posted on the web every day of the week. Flickr has thousands to mull over on their website alone.
All over the web you will find quite simple infographics as well as quite sophisticated ones. To start off your search, ask Google.
Think image
You wouldn’t have a presence on the web if you didn’t have something to say. A web page means you have content of some description and there are many web professionals who are far too conservative in that their pages consist of a headline, miles of text and a photograph or two.
Every blog need a certain amount of data. Data of all kinds. It could be industry news, sales figures or product information. This data is far more impressive if it is portrayed in the form of an infographic. Check out your blog and imagine how it could be presented in an infographic form. Your life insurance infographic could entertain an element of character portrayals in the form of mum, dad and the kids, all enjoying life on the front lawn of their contemporary home, the next portrayal could consist of the mother and kids living in a tent on the fringe of the city with a cemetery in the background. Strong stuff but it would convey a message.
Data gathering
When you look around you will never be short of data to use on any infographic idea you might be formulating to brighten up your blog. But don’t fall into the trap of knocking up a couple of infographics just to brighten up your site.
They must convey a message and the message must be instantly recognisable. If you don’t feel you have enough of your own data start doing a bit of research and use this new found knowledge to create even better infographics.
Make use of your resources
After you have put yourself in the right mindset by establishing a vision and after you have collected all your data, you are ready to give it a go. It will help a lot if you have a basic understanding of how to use Photoshop and an open-source image editor. Give them a try before getting down to the serious business of actually building the infographic, so you get a feeling of what you are capable of.
Wordle is worth downloading as it is capable of great work. Another is Visual Communications Lab, an IBM program that will see you looking like a professional in no time, it is basically automatic and creates graphics on whatever you feed it. If you have a Mac you will find Omnigraffle will do all that the others do but only for the Apple.
Related Posts: Increase your Website Traffic for Free with Social Network Sites
It’s up to you now, have a look around, and you will be amazed how much brighter and more eye catching your new look blog will appear as it attracts new visitors. Remember, an infographic can brighten up a blog on any topic, in any industry, so take a fresh look at the product or service you might be promoting.
Would you like to create an infographic that drives traffic to your website?
Join the discussion by leaving a comment below and please spread the word by sharing this post with your friends.
Stay up to date on our latest posts by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or subscribing to our RSS Feed.
