MMO: Project IP Web Design

Stage two of Project IP was designing the site.   If you click on the image above you will be brought to the full layout of the site in png format.

With this web design I wanted to keep it simple. That is my style which you can probably infer from creadiv.com itself.  I am looking for a layout that doesn’t have a lot going on. I simply want to present my information in way that the user will be able to easily find what they where looking for.

I know I said this site wasn’t a blog, but you are saying… “It sure looks like a blog”.  That’s because in the traditional sense of the word it will be a blog, by which I mean it will be powered by wordrpess.  However I don’t have any intent on adding daily updates as I would with a blog.  The purpose of the site is to have a passive income which will be delivered through ad placements based around high quality content.  So why am I choosing to power it with Wordpress?  Simple, Wordpress is great.  I can easily add content.  I can easily build navigational menus, I can easily optimize my articles for search.  So although I may not be updating the site frequently Wordpress still puts together a nice package for your informational site needs.

So now we come to monetization.  The actual process of monetizing the site won’t come until much later in the development process, but it is something that needs to be thought about when you are designing your site.  You must take into consideration how you will be able to convert your users into buyers. For theiphouse.com I have chosen to have 3 types of ads.  The first you will see is a standard 468 x 60 banner ad built into the header of the site, a hugely succesfull ad style and placement in the affiliate sales arena.  The second the newest hippest trend of having 4 to 6 125×125px square ads in the sidebar, which has quickly become one of the most popular forms of advertising.  The 3rd good old fashion adsense ads. I will be placing a 250 x 250 px square adsense unit floating directly inside each post in order to get as many ads into the viewers minds as possible.

And just to be cute, Check out my subscribe icons.  I thought it would be unique way to help the brand of the site.  Let me know what you think.

 If you are building your own site along with me, post a link to your design.  If you are looking for help ask a question. If you are awesome subscribe to my rss feed.  If you like emails subscribe via email.  Remember only you can prevent forest fires help me acheive my goal of 100 subscribers by June.

Project IP: Branding Your Site.

Branding your site is an extremely important part of the development process.  Your logo will set the tone for who and what you are.  It will be the first thing your viewers see, and it will definetly give them their first impression of the information that you are presenting to them.

So what does this mean to you?  It means that you need to create a logo that will impress the audience that you are attracting.  You will need to identify how your logo is going to be used and what you want to portray with it.  The logo for theiphouse is not going to be used for marketing purposes, so I don’t intend to make the most memorable logo that you would see. The logo is going to be used as an agent for welcoming people to my site since I have determined that the major sources of traffic to the site are going to be from search engines, and referring sites, not from advertising.  I am giving away information and a simple tool, I am not going to be selling anything so advertising with the logo isn’t really necessary.

With the idea of how I was going to generate my readers, and the knowledge of what I wanted the logo to do I set out to create a logo that was bright and welcoming.  I want people to see my logo and think that it was professionally done and that the information on the site was valid and interesting.

So I started with my original logo for the site and started modifying and adjusting what I felt needed to be changed.  The logo was already solid, but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.  It depicted a house with my name on it as seen below.

I felt that this logo was a good starting point, but i want to liven it up a bit and get my full name into the picture so I changed the font to a more friendly rounded type, added a gradient to my house to soften it up, and added the word the into the picture incase people did remember it, I didn’t want the going to iphouse.com and not theiphouse.com.

Finally I started of thinking of ways to make the logo depict the content of the site a bit more.  Yes, the house was good for the name, but this wasn’t a site about building homes, or your home address it is about a technology based topic.  I decided to use the quite familiar symbol of the feed icon to show that the house was high tech. 

So the final logo came out pretty easily.  I didn’t spend any money on designing this logo so my budget is still fully intact, and the logo is simple and welcoming just as I hoped it would be.  You can generate the theories behind your logo and develop it cheaply as well. If you need any help leave a comment and we can start brainstorming for the application purpose of your logo.

Don’t forget to sign up for my rss feed to keep track of this projects status.  Plus it would be a help to me in achieving my goal of 100 subscribers by June.  I look forward to seeing if you have any logo designs worked up, or helping you in creating your site.