Must Design

Want To Learn Graphic Design?
Don't know about you but I learn best now by doing. I'm too old to sit in a classroom and listen. If I can't Tweet, G+ and Scoop I don't learn. I love the approach for how we train doctors for learning Internet marketing:

* Watch One.
* Do One.
* Teach One.

That last phase, teaching, is where whatever you are trying to do becomes solid and real. This is why social media, blogging and great tools like G+ are so valuable. We can share, teach, learn simultaneously.

When I created my first website in 1999 we couldn't afford to hire anyone. I learned photoshop and enough HTML to be dangerous and we set off on a journey.

Marshal McLuuhan was right. Today the medium is the message, so marketers need to speak graphics too or be too far behind (waiting on someone to create something). If you want to learn great graphic and web design FOLLOW, READ and LEARN FROM the Museum of Modern Art's design team.

Not a huge surprise MoMA would have a rockin design team, but more than brilliant designers these guys share and play well with others too and that was a tad unexpected. I would become a snotty jerk if my designers were good enough to work for MoMA.

Friends are laughing now. I know I will NEVER reach such graphic design heights, but that's okay because I know and can learn from great design when I see it (as can you). MoMA design rocks and they share so learn from these gifted artists / designers.

Graphic Designers ROCK
I have more than tremendous respect and admiration for graphic designers. The ability to use tools like Photoshop and Illustrator to create MAGIC is something I will always envy. I know enough to know just how magical those skills truly are, so thank you.

I would LOVE to convince gifted visual marketers of the need to fix five mistakes I see over and over, mistakes that can HARM a websites bottom line and ability to scale.

I confess to making some of these mistakes myself. Easy to do when caught up in the NEW chase. I got so I printed out this list and keep it in view so it smacks me as a reminder while creating ideas for a new design.

Despite the list being omnipresent I forgot a subscription option on CrowdFunde.com two months ago, so EASY to forget these ideas:

** Email Subscription
Any websites lifeline is the LIST of supporters and subscribers they OWN. If Google changes their algorithm and PPC goes bankrupt you can always may your own list, so making sure the ability to opt in to that list is omnipresent is a CSF (Critical Success Factor).

** Keywords In Category Names
Think, "Do we want to win that keyword," when reviewing your navigation. You may select to have your URLs rewritten to be more keyword specific, but those internal links play an important role with Google's spider and SEO so KEYWORDS are a must.

** Research Keywords
My CrowdFunde co-founder Phil Buckley asked me if I thought attorneys or lawyers would be the most searched term. "Lawyers," I answered confidently knowing I was wrong (you never win these who will win questions lol). Attorneys is the winner and by a large margin. Don't write copy to what you THINK when it is so easy to do a little research and KNOW.

** The Tricky Part To Web Analytics
Here's the rub to web metrics. They operate in a constant seesaw dance with one another. Attorneys may be the most searched, but maybe that is because the Mass Tort guys have crushed the deck in some way (have no knowledge of that only using it as an example so please don't sue me lol). When you DESIGN with numbers you design better, but be sure to ask your SEO contact where the rubs are in the numbers. Rubs are numbers that LOOK one way but actually ARE another. Trust me you NEVER want to spend the kind of time in Google Analytics knowing where the rubs are requires, so ask.

** 80/20 Rule
One Internet marketing FRACTAL we discovered is 20% of the links, traffic, pages always get 80% or more of the value. Your job is to build a flexible framework so when your managing team SEES the emerging 80/20 rule you can easily shift the presentation to favor the 20 over the 80.

Now please take these practical, money making ideas and make them beautiful and THANK YOU for your dedication to BEAUTY in design and life :). Marty

This great infographic takes you through the initial engagement stages for new website design work, through research, landing page design, coding, validation onto final launch and search engine optimi

In spite of the tremendous expansion of the Internet, the power of the printed word remains strong and popular. Print media is where it all began and today w