How to build quality graphics

At first, I recommend you at least give a try to hand drawing. It will boost your creativity a lot and you will learn how to sketch ideas fast.

Now to the graphics itself. There is one aspect of webdesign that is very overlooked, but is probably the most important of all. Typography

Even if you design the best website ever, no one will stay there for more than 2 seconds if you typography is a mess. There are lots of resources, but the best website on webdesign in general is SmashingMagazine. It's like the ultimate knowledge base. If you can read and learn all that is there, you will be better than most professionals.

If you don't want to invest in Photoshop, there is Gimp ... but I really don't recommend going that way

You can try these pruoducts Easy-Web Graphics - Graphic Design Packages, Banner Design, E-book Cover Designing, Mini-Site Graphics Packages-Mega Pack

You can learn more about each product by simply clicking on each products page or get them all together. Many of them allow you to use Gimp and/or Photoshop Elements which is less than $70.00 to purchase.

If you are inexperienced, your graphics will tend to look amateurish and diminish the perceived value of your product and the effectiveness of your squeeze page.

The first real question is: Do you really need fancy graphics for them? Maybe not.

However, if you do need them, you could...

1) Hire someone to do it for you.

Check one of the freelancer sites like elance or this forum's "work for hire" section.

2) Use clip-art and stock images.

Just search Google for royalty-free clip-art and stock images. You can also take a look at clipart.com.

If you decide to take a shot at creating your own graphics, concentrate on keeping them SIMPLE and CLEAN.

Don't get caught up in trying to be fancy and using a bunch of filters to create "effects" (even though it's fun). You don't want gaudy-looking graphics.

Regards,

John

Without going into a ton of details, the two following programs will get you off and running with a quickness and cheapness!


NOTE: Since the following programs require no coding skills "Drag and Drop", they rely on absolute positioning. This is a controversial topic and I don't care to discuss it as this is geared towards newbies with no graphics or coding skills that want to get something nice accomplished for themselves.


Xara Web Designer 6:
Price - $49.00 US
URL - xara.com
Support Forum: talkgraphics.com


Comes with a ton of NICE premade templates and graphics.
Feature List - xara.com/us/products/webdesigner/features/
Video Demos - xara.com/us/products/webdesigner/tutorials-demos/


In my opinion, for $49.00 you can't go wrong. If you hit a snag, hop over to talkgraphics and they will get you on track.




Serif WebPlus X4:
Price - $99.99 US
URL - serif.com/webplus
Support Forum - forums.serif.com/forumdisplay.php?f=13


This is another good program for newbies to get rolling with.
NOTE: This program has a bigger learning curve than XARA Web Designer.


Feature List - serif.com/webplus/x4/feature-list
Video Demo - serif.com/webplus/x4/videos/


Serif also has Desktop publishing program called PagePlus which you can make some really nice ebooks really fast all from within the one pro..


URL - serif.com/pageplus/
Video Demo - serif.com/pageplus/x4/videos/


Best of luck.

My little opinion...

1-Of course use photoshop...
2-Use Brushes for graphic, (tons of them online )
3-Use royalty free images (images always make the design look perfect)
4-Use Style for fonts (if you want to have great font design easily without having difficulty to blend them)
5-For color option n blending.. you may do some research >> Color Scheme Designer 3