First thing to consider is the image size…

Max file size: 50 kb
Image Size:
250 x 250 Square
200 x 200 Small Square
468 x 60 Banner
728 x 90 Leaderboard
300 x 250 Inline Rectangle
336 x 280 Large Rectangle
120 x 600 Skyscraper
160 x 600 Wide Skyscraper

Once you have determined your image size it is time to begin creating your ad.  You can use 

Below are best practices to use when creating you image ad.  Again this is strait from Google

1. Use a compelling call to action such as “learn more,” “buy now,” or “visit us today.”
2. Prominently show your display URL which typically contains a company’s name, is a major component of a text ad. You have more room in an image ad, so don’t be afraid to use your brand or logo as well.
3. Include details like prices, delivery details, and relevant special offers.
4. Relevance is key. Make sure your ads lead to a relevant landing page.
5. Use appropriate capitalization-the nice thing about display is that you can have all caps. Try to use these effectively.
6. Promote a sense of urgency in your display ads if you have time-sensitive pricing or offers. Use phrases like “hurry!,” “limited time,” and “special offer” to capture a user’s attention and push them to take action.
7. Keep it simple. No one responds well to clutter-get your point across as simply as possible.

-Include clear images of your product and/or people using your product, which will help users connect with an advertisement.

-Align all of your advertising messaging, which will help build a more cohesive brand. If you have effective advertising offline, chances are it will be effective online. Make your online image ads consistent with your television and print ads.

-Interactivity can be effective, but keep it simple and don’t make people work for your message. Get your message across and then let users interact.

-People have short attention spans-that means if you don’t entertain them or grab their attention right away (within three seconds!), they’ll move on and your message will be lost.

-If you have a multi-ad campaign, or if your ad contains several frames, make sure that each ad stands on its own merit. One way to achieve this is to include your brand or logo in every frame.

Google offers more detail about their best practices at this page.

There are policies that you must consider when creating an ad they are detailed here  Image Ad Policy page.

Why WordPress???

Because it is the best. According to www.builtwith.com there are nearly 4.5 million websites using WordPress and this number is growing.  Using WordPress in comparison to other CMS (content managment systems) platforms means better themes, safer sites, less confusing admin panel, more developers available for advanced development.  Out of the box WordPress is a great option for your new site…. but you want it to look great.

Why Themes???

A better question to ask is why design from scratch.  It is always in the best interest of your time to find a theme that will give you a visual and functional starting point.  Most themes cost around $30 or less depending on the subscription service you sign up for.  $30 is a small price to pay to save yourself hours of work.  And yes… I use it, Higher Edge Web is using WordPress with the Elegant Themes’ Nova Theme.

Elegant Themes

Elegant themes WordPress themes have a high level of visual appeal, functionality and usability.  They currently have 72 themes and  back them all with solid support response of 6 hours or less on average.

Price: $39 / year for unlimited access to all themes (this is a great deal)
Visual appeal: 10/10
Functionality: 8/10
Usability: 9/10
Overall value: 10/10
Visit Elegant Themes

Woo themes creates great looking themes with a very extensive admin panel interface.  With aver 120 themes with a wide range of functionality they are a great choice for a starting point.

Pricing:  3 themes for $70.
Visual appeal: 9/10
Functionality: 9/10
Usability: 9/10
Overall value: 9/10
Visit Woo Themes

Templatic has a number of quality themes containing advanced functionality.  Many of thier themes have an emphasis on specific uses such as eCommerce and geo tracking.

Pricing: starting at $65 / theme or access to all of the themes for $299
Visual appeal: 8/10
Functionality: 9/10
Usability: 8/10
Overall Value: 8/10
Visit Templatic Themes

There are many other great sites out there for premium WordPress themes, these are just my favorites. I have used all of these theme companies and have had great results with them… I hope you do too.

Details and pitfalls to consider…

• Storage and Bandwidth

• Most hosting companies today offer unlimited bandwidth and storage… I would recommend that you find one that does.   Why stress about bandwidth and storage when many great hosting services offer it unlimited.

• Server Speed

• This is a very important detail to consider.  Many hosting services crowd their shared hosting servers with too many accounts.  A crowded server will cause your site to operate slowly.  Many visitors will leave a slow site!!!

• Customer Support

• Even with years of web development experience I still need tech support for various issues… so will you.  A good tech support will have a free number to call as well as email and ticket support.  I prefer to use phone support because you can solve your issues quickly and fully explain your problem without writing a novel.  How do you know if a hosting company has good tech support??? Call them.   Even the best tech support may take 20 minutes on  hold… that not bad… put the phone on speaker and work on something else.  But don’t wait an hour, this is too long.   When the support representative answers… Can you understand them?  Not to discriminate but if you can’t understand your tech support due to language barriers they simply can’t help you.

• Pricing

• Depending on your specific needs the best shared hosting will run you between $10 and $20 a month.

• Multiple Domains

• You may only ever need one domain to be hosted but if you need more be sure you are purchasing the correct hosting package.  Some hosting packages will not allow multiple add-on domains… simply determine your needs and purchase the package that suits them.

• Unlimited Features

• The best hosting services will include the following at an unlimited (or near unlimited) level.  Databases, sub-domains, parked domains, FTP accounts, email accounts, storage and bandwidth.

• Money Back Guarantee

• The best hosting service will include a money back guarantee for maybe 30 days.  This is important to have.  If for some reason you determine the hosting service you selected does not suite your needs, you can switch to one that does without loosing any money.

There are a number of other features that you may require from a hosting services but the above list should give you a good idea of what to look for.  Below are two hosting services that are recommended by Higher Edge Web.

Lunar Pages

  Lunar pages comes highly recommended by Higher Edge Web as it is the hosting service used for this site.  US based customer support, no server overcrowding, unlimited everything, 30 day money back guarantee, good pricing  and much more.  Go to Lunar Pages hosting site

Host Gator

  US based support, unlimited everything, very affordable pricing , no server overcrowding, 45 day money back guarantee and more.  Note the graphic to the left represents the base plan but to have unlimited domains the pricing is around $10 per month.  Go to Host Gator hosting site

It was built on the WordPress platform.

www.flickr.com – Free

Flickr offers a wide range of images and photographs that are all available for download, BUT you can only use certain ones publicly.  To find images that you can use go to advanced search and towards the bottom of the screen you will see creative commons search criteria. If you are using the images with a non profit or for a non-commercial purpose select the top check box “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content.”  If you are using the images commercially then the second check box must also be checked and would like like this image.

www.istockphoto.com -Buy Credits

iStock photo is my favorite resource.  The images are must be purchased using credits, but the quality and range of photographs and graphics is the best.  There prices vary on the type of image, the size of the image and how many credits you buy at a time.  The image to the right is off the iStock site showing their current rates for credits.  Before you buy, there are a number of promo codes also available which can be found doing a Google search.

There are many sites and resources out there to use.  The Creative Commons Website is also an excellent resource for finding images, video audio and more.  Wherever you find your images be sure to ensure that they are royalty free.

Every successful website needs 3 main attributes:

1. a visually appealing layout (ie. this hotel website or this business website or this church site designed by Higher Edge Web)
2. to have the functionality to serve your organization’s purpose
3. to be easily found by the people you want to find it

We will start with the first attribute, a visually appealing layout.  This is not to say that your business’ website needs to be cluttered with flowers and birds, but if your business’ website looks like this this horribly designed electronics store visitors will immediately leave.  Depending on the business, it’s website must be designed to appeal in a visual manner to the visitors that will be coming to the site.  An online retail store should be clean and streamlined in the body layout and easy on the eyes to highlight the products like amazon.  A  real estate agent’s website (like this one) should look comforting and maybe high-class, drawing the visitor in to learn more.   The bottom line is, people like visually appealing things.  It is human nature and with web design it is no different.  Determine who your visitors are when they are coming to your site and then design a website to their visual liking.  Check out our design portfolio.

Functionality is the ability for your site to do what you need it to do, either for your client or your business.  If your business is a local classified ads paper, then your website needs to have all of the functionality for users to add ads, manage ads, manage payments, search ads and be secure.   But also included in functionality, your site must be intuitive, by that I mean that your site should be naturally easy to use and navigate.  This is an extreme example of site that is confusing and hard to navigate.

Last, but arguably most important, is your site’s ability to be found.  This is a large topic covering everything from SEO (search engine optimization), online advertising, content writing, social network marketing, video marketing and much much more.  Depending on your business and business’ objectives a certain mix of these marketing tactics will have to be used.  The be easily found attribute is the most expensive attribute to outsource, but there are some aspects you as a business owner or site operator can do yourself after some research and learning.   For example, writing a blog is a great way to bring traffic to your site, and who is better to write a blog about your business or industry than you?  Other areas of involvement for your and your business can be video marketing, social network marketing and link building (finding similar sites and having them link to your site). Check out our services.

You as a business owner, site operator or individual could design, code, and market the site all by yourself, but thats not what you do.  Lets say your business is designing and selling a line of shoes.  That makes you a shoe maker, not a web designer, developer and marketer.  To bring this into perspective, even some small web development firms out source their SEO (the be easily found attribute) to SEO firms and their design work to graphic designers… Why? because that is not what they do best.   I recommend to business’ to jump in where they can with the marketing efforts, but stick to what you do best, running their business.  Write a blog and write regularly, create a Facebook page and stay active, create a Twitter account and a Linked In account and start driving traffic to your site.

James Moelk
Founder & Developer

Cheers
Founder and Operator
James Moelk