Have you been thinking about infographics and wondering how on earth to make an infographic? Well, I have been thinking about these data tools for quite a while myself. In my opinion they are far more effort to make then you would think. I really do enjoy looking at them and I love the way that they distribute information. On the surface they seem like they should be easy to create but they actually take a lot of time, effort and thought.
Why do infographics matter?
The simplest way to increase your traffic is through infographics. This has worked well for blogs like Mashable, and it’s what caused a huge spike in traffic at KISSmetrics.Within 2 years, we were able to generate 2,512,596 visitors and 41,142 backlinks from 3,741 unique domains from 47 infographics. Read the full article.
Infographics add authority
People tend to believe what they see because they comprehend it better. Doing research and backing it up in your infographic can add authority to your brand. Be sure to:
- Offer solid statistics
- Add well-respected resources at the bottom of the infographic
- Add graphs and charts that show those statistics in a visual way
source: Webhosting Secret Revealed
When I read this bit of information from WSR it made total sense to me. As a people we are extremely visual and that is how a majority of people comprehend information. I liken this concept to being a drafter. As a drafter I spent my days drawing out directions for shop guys so that they could build rail cars, steel poles or whatever I was working on at the time.
Sure we could have just given them a bunch of written directions with measurements but having a drawn translation of that information made it easier to for the folks in the shop. Providing data in a visual way not only helps us understand the information better but it also helps us see how it all fits together. If nothing else, it just makes facts and figures a heck of a lot more interesting.
What makes a good infographic?
Infographics are a medium, so amazing content makes an amazing infographic. Emotional appeal, concrete visuals, credible data points, and in the end, amazing art work, all go into an excellent infographic.
Truly terrible infographics don’t hit on any of these marks; they simply try to graphically represent “something.”
from Dave Snyder is the CEO of Copypress, a content lifecycle company. via: Marketingland
How the heck do I do that?
That is the question that I kept asking. It is funny to me how much pressure this digital life puts on us content generators. I hear people all of the time say things like “outsource that” but not everyone can afford to outsource everything all of the time. What are we to do if we don’t have the resources, a.k.a. cash to outsource the making of an infographic?
The good news is that there are free resources out there to make infographics. The bad news it that even with the free resources, it does not mean that they will fit the criteria of a good infographic. In my opinion it takes a great deal of talent to make take some data and create a visually appealing, emotionally appealing and viral infographic.
I made an infographic
I decided to give it a shot and made my own infographic, pasted below. I went out gathered some stats, found a free tool and went to town making an infographic. In my opinion it is total crap. It is not visually stimulating and it is not emotionally appealing. I guess the only real question is, is it good enough? Is my infographic worth the digital bytes that it is chewing up?
Free Infographic Tools
http://offers.hubspot.com/how-to-easily-create-five-fabulous-infographics-in-powerpoint
These days there are several free choices for Infographic templates and it can be a lot of fun picking one out and making one. On the other hand it can be quite time consuming and overwhelming trying to create an infographic. I used Easl.ly for making my infographic above. I chose a pre-defined template and then started filling in the blanks. I found the tool easy yet frustrating but I did prefer it over the PowerPoint option provided by Hubspot.
I changed my mind, I found a little change in my pocket
Awesome! My suggestion is that you head over to Fiverr and find yourself a reasonably priced designer. If you have not been to Fiverr before then you are going to fall in love with this site. If you don’t even want to do the research you can hire a company that will do it all for you starting at $79.
What are the steps to creating an amazing infographic?
Finally, if you want to learn all of the steps to create an amazing infographic then I would suggest reading this article from Neil Patel. This guy is the king of growing blogs and so you can trust that he knows what he is talking about. In the article Neil outlines the five main steps to create a successful infographic.
- Find your data
- Find a designer
- Wireframe it
- Create your title
- Promote that Infographic
When it comes to finding data for your infographic do not be afraid to think outside of the box. I am of the opinion that every industry has at least one infographic in them. If you run an air conditioning company consider making an infographic about how to change a filter. If you run a party supply company then consider making an infographic on how to throw a kids party. If you are a mommy blogger consider making an infographic about getting the kids out the door in the morning. In the end your job with an infographic is the same as it is with a blog post, be the answer to a question.
[su_box title=”What do you think?” box_color=”#81c11d” radius=”6″]What do you think, will you be creating an infographic? Do you find infographics interesting? Share with us in the comments any tips that you have about creating infographics.[/su_box]