Newbie Giveaway- graphics that lead to your downfall.

[Sarah Harvey]

Okay this is about Newbie Giveaway.com

I decided to sign up and see if anything "new" would capture my attention and once again I am struck by all the weird graphics some of the people use to promote their products. Some are just poorly designed, while others make no sense at all.

Here is my personal list of graphics that either "should" or "should not" be included.

1)Your Web-Based Help, Support & Service Desk - I had a look at the site and was thinking of signing up, but strange enough the poor graphics led me to believe that the software itself cannot be that great! (Page 14)

2)Now the following was actually intriguing and I decided to sign up immediately.

Creative Blogging Ideas
Contributed by: Peggy Baron
Are you stuck on what to blog about? Here are 42 blogging ideas to help you add great content, get more interaction from your readers, brand yourself as an expert, and make you money with your affiliate links! (Page 15)

3)Now this seemed interesting but the graphic was just wrong. Could hardly see the text on it that read: Atmospheres. "Atmospheres - Eyeball glue for your web site" (Page 3)

4)Now this I did not get: Expired Domain Fetcher
What does "It's Texas Size" and a dog have to do with the product? o.O (Page 3)

5)Now if vanity speaks.... "lLet's Build a Web Page" Videos
Contributed by: Claudia Moncalvo Beltran (page 4) - explain how a picture of the woman (I assume its the owner of the product) will be of any benefit to the reader?

6)Another weird graphic that makes no sense... I imagine some fish-i-ness: OPT-IN E-MAIL MARKETING
Contributed by: Jaco Joubert (page 4)

7)Aargh! I went and clicked on the download button for "Gift Manager Pro" and was presented with a site that in my opinion... naw! I am not going there. Revamp and Redo Team in Process- Please do not Visit! lol (Page 5)

8)Create Your Biz in 1 Day for Under Ten Dollars
Contributed by: Vicki Hale - Not bad little graphic, just wish it wasn't so fuzzy! Cute smiley face (Page 5)

9)Is it a post box? Maybe multi-dimensional post boxes within each other's space? o.O
Click Cutter - A "MUST HAVE" Automatic Instant Internet marketing research tool (Page 6)

10)Okay, I must admit this graphic is somewhat okay-ish...but still wrong! In soo many ways
13 Fantastic Marketers / SEO Software Tools (inc MRR ... value $ 800.00+ )
Contributed by: Derek Pryde (Page 7)

11)"My Ad Zoo"!!!!??? okay................. I guess it's monkey business as usual.
Free Membership 89 Email List Blasters Mail to Millions.
Contributed by: Rene Keiser (Page 8)

12)Blue, White, Yellow and Green? Now Yellow and green on it's own go together, and so does blue and white, but all the colors combined for a business card? You would not see me handing out something like that. The graphic can be improved upon 100%.
Free Lifetime Membership To Affiliate Cash Books
Contributed by: Dave Offen (Page 10)

13)Page Rank Paranoia needs a desperate revamp.
Want to be #1 on Google?
Contributed by: Andy Machin (Page 11)

14)Alright..........what does NSRFU have to do with Free Url Shortening URL Tracking Service? o.o
Free URL shortening URL tracking service.
Contributed by: nitin chandarana (Page 11)

Overall, the rest of the graphics are fine, just wish that people would learn to create several sizes, so you have a nice little size for giveaways like this. It would look much better if half of the graphics isn't stretched or skewed because of the script resizing it.

Have you ever wondered how people perceive your graphics. In my opinion it can turn away potential subscribers if done badly.

List some graphics that you think could do with a makeover. It doesn't have to deal with the Newbie Giveaway at all.

[David_Thompson]

Sarah, this is one of the reasons most people
say giveaways are a waste of time and not
worth signing up for...

It's up to the giveaway owner to review each
and every product so it's of a good standard,
because the better the products the better
the outcome...

--David

[Fabian Tan]

Graphics are very important.

Nobody would buy a crappy looking car over a swanky looking one if they had a choice.

One of the most important advices anyone can give in creating an info product is to get the best graphics you can get for your money.

Fabian

[Ernie Lonardo]

Sarah it seems the owner of the giveaway you're reffering to is perhaps a newbie himself.

When people launch their first giveaway they tend to drop their filters and let every product through as they think that the more JV partners they accept or the more products they have, the more better off they will be.

Little do they know, they are hurting their reputation and doing a diservice to their visitors.

[LivingCovers]

Many just don't realize that fact, Sarah. The mindset of most JV giveaways is
to put as many info products up without considering the overall quality, in
terms of graphics, delivery, quality etc.
The quality of the graphics especially is of the least concern to them. Not knowing that people sometimes judge the quality of a product just by having a glimpse of the cover.

I've seen many offers like that too that didn't interest me simply becos of the poor
graphics. And i went for those that were professionally designed instead.

Olatunde.

[Kevin Riley]

Phew! So glad to see my name wasn't on this list. I guess our graphic passed muster.

Fully agree. Graphics make a big difference because they speak to our emotions, which can sway our decisions.

[Bev Clement]

Talk about confusing there is newbie giveaway and the newbie giveaway at the moment.
I was going to contribute to one but when I took a look through it wasn't just a graphic problem but too much of the products were rehased. The rehased products can be got from many membership sites.

If you are going to take part in a giveaway, then you should look at Kevin & James' offering in the newbie giveaway as they have created a brand new product.

That and good graphics should be a given for any giveaway. And don't hype saying it is all brand new, when less than 10% of the products are.

[Alan Petersen]

Sarah--your observations cracked me up but you're are 100% right.

I just participated on my first giveaway (it was Wilie Crawford's viral rebrandable giveaway) and one of the first things I did was have a graphic designed by a pro. It's not that expensive to have a nice graphic done.

So that leads me to believe that if a product has a crappy graphic or none (like those pics) that they don't have the resources to pay $15-50 for a well design graphic so either they're not cutting it in IM or they just don't care about quality.

Right or wrong, I also passed on those with terrible graphics even if it's a "giveaway" I still have to giveaway my email address which I'm fine and happy to do--if the product looks interesting. When I'm skimming through a list of 200+ products guess what gets my attention first?--yep the graphics. :-)

As to the Texas one...the dog must be because of the Domain Fetching. Dogs fetch. And "big as Texas" is a known saying here in America but it probably doesn't mean much in other parts of the world. So not only poor graphic but using colloquialisms is not recommneded when you'll have folks from all over the world checking it out.

[David_Thompson]

Originally Posted by Bev Clement

Talk about confusing there is newbie giveaway and the newbie giveaway at the moment.
I was going to contribute to one but when I took a look through it wasn't just a graphic problem but too much of the products were rehased. The rehased products can be got from many membership sites.

If you are going to take part in a giveaway, then you should look at Kevin & James' offering in the newbie giveaway as they have created a brand new product.

That and good graphics should be a given for any giveaway. And don't hype saying it is all brand new, when less than 10% of the products are.

Bev, this is one of the biggest problems with
most people running giveaways, they are just
doing thinking about themselves and not the
subscriber.

If I signup to a site and see the same old stuff
I will unsubscribe ASAP, because that tells me
the owner doesn't really give a rats ass about
me the subscriber to look thru and make sure
the products are of top quality...

Quality products + good graphics = more subscribers.

--David

[Sarah Harvey]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I have to agree with everyone's view. When I browse a couple hundred of products, the first thing I look at is the graphic displaying the product, and once it has captured my attention, I will read the description and sign up.

To be honest if I was the owner of the giveaway event, I would have advised the contributors ages ago that the script will re size the pictures and ask them to re size it to the right size, or offer to help them with it.

[Chris Lockwood]

I don't think it's very nice to start a thread insulting people because you don't like the graphics they have for their FREE products.

Have you contacted any of those people about this, or did you just come here to bash them?

Quite often with giveaways, the graphics get distorted because the script resizes them. The gift contributors don't know this will happen because they usually are not told to submit a graphic of a specific size. The person running the giveaway may be unaware that the script does this as well.

Any graphic looks like crap if it is resized out of proportion, especially if it has text on it.

The intelligent thing to do would be to judge the gift on its own merits, not its graphic, especially if the gift has nothing to do with graphics.

But then that wouldn't be as much fun as bashing people, I guess.

[GrantFreeman]

I never got that far. When I clicked on submit, I got this stupid "Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?" javascript.

So I left

G

[Nicolaas Theron]

I wish I could see some of these graphics but I can't find any in that membership They're obviously too clever for me. Which doesn't take much...

Anyway, I've always maintained that it's better to use no graphics at all than to use poor graphics.

Even if it's a free product, you want to get it downloaded don't you? If not, what's the point of putting it up in the first place? Your graphics create the public image of your product. If you're going to use any, get it done properly. A good product image is a gift that keeps on giving in the long run.

[Earl Smith]

I agree that graphics are very important because they interpret what your sight or product is all about. If they are done poorly or make no sense to what its suppost to pertain to you can loose views and potential clients so be careful when choosing a design

[jasonl70]

What's eban think about graphics? lol..

I can say 1 year ago, hardly any of the "guru's" bothered much with graphics. Yanik, jeff walker, and others.. from what frank kern says, his niche sites are pretty scary looking as well.

I know with my squeze pages, I've done straight text versions like what was on eban's "double your dating", and have recently done much nicer graphical ones. I really saw no difference in conversions.

I've built a lot of websites over the years, dating back to 1995.. My mantra is " 'pretty & cool' only sells websites". They're moslty good for the ego. This is all only my personal opinion and experience though..

I haven't written off quality graphics, but I'm not sold on them yet either..

[GrantFreeman]

I finally checked out that site, and tried it with Safari and Firefox but it's like a ghost town. The site doesn't like Mac browsers, or Sarah done' scared the content right out of the site!

There are some really good lessons in this thread.

Anyone that wants to present a solid case about why quality graphics are important in online sales, and why crappy-looking graphics can make your conversion rates tank should study this.

Then apply the lesson learned in a sales page to get the point across.

People who make a living writing copy, and are damn good at it can rely mostly on the message without graphics because they are VERY good at what they do. In other words, they have developed the skill of WRITING a powerful message that automatically creates those images in the readers mind.

If that sales message converts better without graphics, then simply leave them out.

It's all about what "gels" with your offer and what your target market wants.

Grant

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by GrantFreeman

There are some really good lessons in this thread.

If that sales message converts better without graphics, then simply leave them out.

The lesson is apparently that people will complain about anything.

I guess people aren't aware that most giveaways require the contributor to submit a graphic.

[ecoverartist]

And all those contributors would have had to do is post here... they could have gotten some excellent graphic designer recommendations! *points to sig*