Author - sicksens

13May

Best of Tuts+ – April

April was an enormous month for Tuts+. In one month Tuts introduced Creative Sessions, teaching the theory behind the techniques and practices that get used in tutorials and by professionals in the field. We also saw Cgtuts+ and Activetuts+ commence their Premium Programs and introduced Moneybookers as an alternate payment method, for those who don’t have PayPal. On top of that we also introduced Pre-paid memberships so if you don’t have a credit card, you can still become a Premium Member. Here’s a selection of the best from each site, just in case you missed it amongst all the action.

Psdtuts+ – Photoshop Tutorials

  • How to Create an Incredible Typographic Illustration – Part 1

    All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. In this two-part tutorial, we’re going to learn how to bring a simple proverb into a complex typographic illustration that achieves a level of realism without actually using any photos. Yes, we’re going to build this idea from the bottom up. In the first part, learn how to model your own objects in Cinema 4D and prepare them for isolation in Photoshop. Continue Reading

  • Give a Photo a Complete Glamour Makeover With Stunning Light and 3D Effects

    Have you ever wanted to see what you would look like after a complete makeover? Today, I’m going to show you how to transform a regular, every day photo into a real glamour shot. In this tutorial, you will learn how to retouch a model’s face and subtly manipulate her hair. In addition, we will enhance the canvas by adding attractive lighting and 3D effects. This tutorial requires considerable Pen Tool skills, but with perseverance and a passion for design, you will certainly be able to achieve great results. Continue Reading

  • Create an Angelic Sculpture Made of Ice in Photoshop

    Sometimes all you need to create an incredible photo manipulation in Photoshop is a rough sketch, some nice imagery, and some knowledge of how to use Photoshop’s transformation tools. In today’s tutorial we will demonstrate how assemble an angelic ice sculpture from a rough sketch and some beautiful scenic photos. Continue Reading

  • Turn a Flawless Blonde Beauty Into a Sword-Wielding Fantasy Action Hero

    In today’s tutorial we are going to turn a flawless blonde beauty into a sword-wielding survival huntress. To do this we are going to make her skin sweaty and dirty, her dress stained and torn, we’ll add blood stains to the sword, manipulate her hair, and create a post-apocalyptic background full of smoke and fire effects. It’s gonna be a gas! Continue Reading

  • Quick Tip: Create a Realistic Paper Texture in 5 Minutes

    In this quick tip tutorial, we will learn how to create a realistic paper texture from scratch in just 5 minutes. To do this we will use some simple filters and effects. Let’s get started! Continue Reading

Activetuts+ – Flash, Flex and ActionScript Tutorials

  • Exclusive Freebie: The Piecemaker XML Gallery

    To kick us off in style, here’s the awesome Piecemaker gallery created by Björn from Modularweb. Besides the freebie, you’ll find extensive documentation and a tut explaining the native 3D features of Flash CS4. Over to you, Björn.. Continue Reading
  • A better way to build flash banners

    A Better Way to Build Flash Banners

    Banner development is often plagued by multiple files, fragmented code and messy timelines. This tutorial will show you how you can create a project template to serve as a solid base which will help you develop robust banners quickly, freeing you up to focus on bringing the creative idea to life. Continue Reading
  • How to Create a Flash Menu in 20 Minutes

    How to Create a Flash Menu in 20 Minutes

    Imagine you’ve promised your client he will have that menu idea you told him about later on today, when you meet. You open up Flash and begin a rough but great example, which you can code or extend later. During this tut we’ll focus on making just such a menu; as customizable as possible, without using any classes, just component parameters. Read More
  • Quick Tip: How to Automatically Resize an Image to Fit the Screen

    Quick Tip: How to Automatically Resize an Image to Fit the Screen

    This Quick Tip explains how to use an image as a website background and scale it proportionally to the stage size. It’s great for when you’re using a SWF that’s full-height and full-width inside a webpage. Read More
  • Throw Objects by Creating a PanAndThrow Class

    Throw Objects by Creating a PanAndThrow Class

    In this tutorial we will be mocking up and finishing a pan and throw class that will allow us to add this effect to any element we want. To accomplish this, we will create a image viewer – but not your average viewer. Here we’ll have zooming, throwing, panning.. Almost sounds like a ninja app, huh? Visit Article

Aetuts+ – Adobe After Effects Tutorials

  • Discover How To Recreate the Sherlock Holmes End Credits Effect

    Discover How To Recreate the Sherlock Holmes End Credits Effect

    After Effects, my dear Watson! This tutorial uses hand drawn elements, textures, and pre-matted motion elements to recreate a look that is similar to the Sherlock Holmes credits. It gives you basics to build on. The great thing about this effect is that it is made to look organic and not 3D and effects heavy, but it still turns out looking really professional. It does not require very much expertise in free hand drawing seeing that all you have to do is trace a still image. Take this tutorial and build upon it to create something awesome. Visit Article
  • Create A Realistic Glass Reflection

    Create A Realistic Glass Reflection

    Transparency is an important element to reflect in one’s relationships and if we can help you in that area it’d be our pleasure! In this tutorial you’ll find out how to create a realistic glass reflection on a 3D object, created within After Effects. We’ll then simulate a normal pass and have it reflect the environment with the “normality” free plug-in. Visit Article
  • Get Caught Up In A Spider Web Tutorial – AE Premium

    Get Caught Up In A Spider Web Tutorial – AE Premium

    Learn how to use Trapcode Form to create a stylistic and dynamic Spider Web. This tutorial will show you how to “think outside the box” when it comes to using plug-ins to get away from that “preset” look. Visit Article
  • Welcome CS5! An Intro To The New “Roto Brush”

    Welcome CS5! An Intro To The New “Roto Brush”

    A HUGE welcome to After Effects CS5! In this tutorial, I’ll be going through and explaining the new “Roto Brush” tool included within CS5. It isn’t a “keyer”, it’s not quite a “magic wand”, I wouldn’t even call it a “pen”. You’re just gonna have to watch the tutorial to find out what this amazing new feature is made of! Visit Article
  • 61 Mesmerizing VFX Breakdowns

    61 Mesmerizing VFX Breakdowns

    A subject we haven’t touched on for a couple months is the wonder of visual effects and compositing breakdowns. Take a look at the largest roundup of this genre to date! Visit Article

Audiotuts+ – Audio and Production Tutorials

  • Quick Tip: How to Create Interesting Drum Patterns Quickly

    Quick Tip: How to Create Interesting Drum Patterns Quickly

    Here is a quick and effective way of creating original and complex drum patterns spontaneously. I am using Logic, but the concept is not DAW specific. Visit Article
  • How To Recognize Frequencies

    How To Recognize Frequencies

    In the last installment we studied the first four octaves of the frequency spectrum with pink noise. Now we’ll continue with the rest of the octaves and revisit the others using music samples. Visit Article
  • 6 Apps & Websites to Get Your Ear in Shape

    6 Apps & Websites to Get Your Ear in Shape

    If you followed along with us a few weeks ago, you know how much interval ear training can help you as a musician and how to get started with training itself. If you haven’t read it, head on over to Boot Camp for Your Ear. This time, we’re going to look at a bunch of applications and websites that will help you with regular ear training sessions. Most of these go beyond intervals, of course. Visit Article
  • 8 Free, Cross-Platform Apps for Musicians

    8 Free, Cross-Platform Apps for Musicians

    Like most of us when we’re in the studio, it’s hard to get me to work with anything other than the industry standards; Pro Tools, Reason, Logic (which sort of falls into that category), and so on. But given the rising prices of just about everything under the sun, not to mention the chronic emptiness of the musician’s wallet, it’s worth taking a look at the alternatives out there that can be had for free. Visit Article
  • Basix: How to Record the Acoustic Guitar

    Basix: How to Record the Acoustic Guitar

    Recording acoustic instruments can be scary for beginners. In this day and age many people just plug in and play their instruments, electric guitars, basses and synths, never needing to record an instrument except the odd vocal track. True as it may be that we get better sounds out our guitar plug-ins and software synths with every update, we must not forget how to record a “proper” instrument, in the real world. Visit Article

Cgtuts+ – CG and 3D Tutorials

  • An Archiviz Workflow Overview in 3ds Max, Sketchup, and Digital Fusion

    An Archiviz Workflow Overview in 3ds Max, Sketchup, and Digital Fusion

    In this Architectural Visualization workflow overview you will learn how to use Google Sketchup for photo matching, create a Vray-proxy in 3ds Max, use Max script to speed up your workflow, reduce render times when creating a large scene, set render layers in 3ds Max, and do some post production in Digital Fusion. Visit Article
  • Model, Texture, and Render the Legendary Katana in Maya – Day 1

    Model, Texture, and Render the Legendary Katana in Maya

    In this 3 part Maya workflow tutorial you will learn how to model, texture, and render a Katana, the legendary Samurai sword. For the modeling portion, we will use Maya’s basic polygon editing tools, while UVlayout will be used to create the UVs, and of course Photoshop to create the textures. We will also briefly cover Mental Ray for rendering the final image. Visit Article
  • Create Convincing Looking Clouds using Pyrocluster in Cinema 4D

    Create Convincing Looking Clouds using Pyrocluster in Cinema 4D

    This tutorial will demonstrate the ease and versatility with which you can create convincing looking gas effects using Cinema 4D’s Pyrocluster. You will learn how to optimize your scene and tune it to your own visual tastes, while focusing on creating realistic clouds as the subject matter. The basic techniques, however, can be applied to a variety of different scenarios and effects. Visit Article
  • Create a Logo Dispersion Effect using Particle Flow and After Effects

    Create a Logo Dispersion Effect using Particle Flow and After Effects

    As you may know, when you get a grasp on particles in CG, the possibilities of what you can accomplish are nearly limitless. In this 3ds Max based Particle Flow tutorial, you will learn an easy method of dispersing a logo into particles using materials. Visit Article
  • Quick Tip: Simulating Chains using Reactor in 3ds Max

    Quick Tip: Simulating Chains using Reactor in 3ds Max

    In this short tutorial, you will learn how to simulate chains, necklaces, or pearls using an easy and very efficient method with reactor in 3ds Max. After watching this, you will be able to simulate chains in just a few short seconds, a skill which can prove to be very useful in countless different situations. Visit Article

Nettuts+ – Web Development Tutorials

  • Quick Tip: HTML5 Features you Should be Using Right Now

    Quick Tip: HTML5 Features you Should be Using Right Now

    With all this talk about HTML5 not being complete until 2022, many people disregard it entirely – which is a big mistake. In fact, there are a handful of HTML5 features that we can use in all our projects right now! Simpler, cleaner code is always a good thing. In today’s video quick tip, I’ll show you a handful of options. Visit Article
  • Combining Modern CSS3 and HTML5 Techniques

    Combining Modern CSS3 and HTML5 Techniques

    Just because some techniques don’t work in decade old browsers doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be learning everything you can! Stay on the cutting edge, as we use everything from CSS shadows and animations, to HTML 5 mark-up and local storage, to utilizing jQuery to work with the Picasa API. We’ll also take advantage of the excellent jQuery library, and review some best practices when coding. Visit Article
  • Quick Tip: An Introduction to jQuery Templating

    Quick Tip: An Introduction to jQuery Templating

    JavaScript Templating is a neat idea: it allows you to easily convert JSON to HTML without having to parse it. At Microsoft’s MIX10 conference, they announced that they are starting to contribute to the jQuery team. One of their efforts is to provide a templating plugin. In this quick tip, I’ll show you how to use it! Visit Article
  • 10 Kick-Ass Magento Templates

    10 Kick-Ass Magento Templates

    I’m proud to announce that ThemeForest is now selling Magento eCommerce templates at cheap prices that any business or individual can afford. We’ve launched with thirty-five awesome Magento templates, but we’re just scratching the surface. By the end of the year, ThemeForest will be the premier location for buying and selling Magento templates! Here are some of the best that we’ve launched with. Visit Article
  • Quick Tip: Notable New Features in Dreamweaver CS5

    Quick Tip: Notable New Features in Dreamweaver CS5

    If you’re a Twitter user, it was difficult not to be aware of Adobe’s CS5 global launch presentation. While they did an excellent job of promoting Photoshop and Flash, other applications, such as Dreamweaver, only received limited coverage. Nonetheless, take a look at some of the awesome new features in Dreamweaver CS5, slated to be released in mid-May. Visit Article

Phototuts+ – Photography and Post-processing tutorials

  • Advanced Macro and Still Life Photography

    Advanced Macro and Still Life Photography

    You face special challenges when shooting objects that are close-up, or capturing still life. As with most subjects, many of these challenges have to do with light quality and quantity. With macro photographs, the challenge grows as the subjects get smaller. This article delves into designing for still-life and macro photography, outlines high and low-key techniques, and discusses the importance of depth of field. Visit Article
  • Quick Tip: 5 Useful New Features in Adobe CS5

    Quick Tip: 5 Useful New Features in Adobe CS5

    Today marks the launch of the latest edition of Adobe’s Creative Suite – CS5. In today’s Quick Tip, we’ll be taking a look at a few of the new features in Photoshop CS5 that are particularly useful for photographers. We’d also love to hear what you’re looking forward to, and whether you’ll be upgrading! Visit Article
  • Simple Steps for Shooting Amazing Silhouettes

    Simple Steps for Shooting Amazing Silhouettes

    Silhouettes can be an excellent way to add drama to a scene. The stark contrast and lack of detail in the subject infuse a psychological effect into the image that can be beautiful, mysterious, or even frightening. Today we’ll look at a few suggestions to keep in mind the next time you set out to shoot some silhouettes. We’ll also examine the settings used in some real-life amazing silhouette shots to see what we can learn from them. Visit Article
  • The Almighty Histogram – Your Guide to Better Exposure

    The Almighty Histogram – Your Guide to Better Exposure

    In this tutorial you’ll learn about the histogram, and what it’s able to tell you about your photography. If you’re going to use the back of your camera as guide to judging exposure, then you need the histogram. Understanding it fully will help you capture better, more flexible images! Visit Article
  • The Ultimate Guide for Buying Your First Digital SLR

    The Ultimate Guide for Buying Your First Digital SLR

    Let’s assume that you’ve been shooting with your “point and shoot” for a while now, and you’ve taken some pretty nice snapshots. But maybe you are starting to feel a little limited by what the camera is capable of doing. You’ve read up on photography, and there are things you want to work on. You feel it is time to step up! This guide will help you to understand some of the basic features of Digital SLR cameras (DSLRs), and hopefully help you find one that fits both your needs and budget. Visit Article

Vectortuts+ – Adobe Illustrator and Vector Tutorials

  • Time-Savers: 400+ Stock Images, Retro Vectors

    Time-Savers: 400+ Stock Images, Retro Vectors

    Stock images can save you many hours of work on illustration and allow you to focus your attention on the important task of designing. Finding the right vector for you, however, is a completely different matter, and can sometimes take just as long as creating a vector image yourself! That’s why in this post we have rounded up a total of over 400 retro-themed vector images which you can use in your own projects. Visit Article
  • How To Create Outstanding Modern Infographics

    How To Create Outstanding Modern Infographics

    Merge form and function to create outstanding modern infographics. In this tutorial you will learn that data doesn’t have to be boring, it can be beautiful! Learn how to use various graph tools, illustration techniques and typography to make an accurate and inspiring infographic Visit Article
  • Inspiration: Amazing 3D Typography

    Inspiration: Amazing 3D Typography

    Three-dimensional typography is something we’ve seen a lot of recently, and it doesn’t seem to be dying down, either. This post showcases a huge collection of 3D typography, and we have no doubt whatsoever that it is going inspire! Visit Article
  • Quick Tip: The Tilde Key Trick

    Quick Tip: The Tilde Key Trick

    This screencast covers fun with the Tilde key and Adobe Illustrator. Works with any Shape Tool, the Line Segment Tool, the Arc Tool, the Spiral Tool, and more. Use this technique to quickly make complex shape patterns. Visit Article
  • Create a Realistic, Vector Building Illustration

    Create a Realistic, Vector Building Illustration

    We have another great Vector Premium tutorial available exclusively for Premium members today. If you want to learn how to create realistic vector buildings, then we have a massive and extremely detailed tutorial for you. Visit Article

Creative Sessions

  • The Elements of Cute Character Design

    The Elements of Cute Character Design

    You’ve always wanted to develop a character which has the potential to enchant the world and to compete with Hello Kitty? In this article I’d like to present some elements making a character cute and lovable and to support you in achieving your goals. First, I talk about why something is regarded as cute. Afterwards I’d like to offer an overall view on cute proportions and as a conclusion consider general rules and tips. The goal is to create a manual of cute character design which can be universally used in the process of design. Visit Article
  • Roughly Speaking: Character Design Sketching Approaches

    Roughly Speaking: Character Design Sketching Approaches

    Character design comes in many styles, but they all start with the rough sketch. Often overlooked in online tutorials, technique and process videos, they are the foundation to creating quality characters. The following is an overview of rough sketches from some fantastic character design artists, with many different styles and approaches. Visit Article
  • Character Design – Nailing the Basics

    Character Design – Nailing the Basics

    If you’re thinking of becoming a professional illustrator, character design will come up as a client request again and again, so keeping up on current trends is a must. To get started creating your own characters, you’ll need to nail the basics, which includes: getting comfortable sketching, refining your process, and streamlining your overall approach. Visit Article
  • Creating Personal Character Designs with Precision

    Creating Personal Character Designs with Precision

    Designing a character can apply to both personal and professional projects. The character can be a mascot that works in the context of a multi-national brand, or it can simply be inspired by a well-known character within pop culture. The later is usually referred to as “Fan Art.” The character “Mickey Rat” first appeared in the early 1970’s as a subversive underground comic that I enjoyed as a kid. Many artists over the years have taken their own approach with the character, and this article goes over my creation of this vectorized vermin. Visit Article
  • How to Make an Animated Paper Robot

    How to Make an Animated Paper Robot

    In this tutorial we’ll go through the steps of designing and making an animated paper robot character. Not just a picture, this is a moving character that will sit nicely on top of your computer monitor. Push the robot body up and down and he stretches out his robot claws! We’ll start with the lines ready and learn the craft of coloring and then physically putting this paper character together.. Visit Article

FreelanceSwitch

  • Keeping In Touch with Prospective Clients

    Keeping In Touch with Prospective Clients

    A lot of your success as a freelancer will depend on your persistence. It takes many forms – your persistence in learning and improving your skills, the persistence that’s involved in bringing a long, difficult project to completion, and the topic of this article, persistence in keeping in touch with the people who may do business with you. Visit Article
  • Turning Your Knowledge into Products

    Turning Your Knowledge into Products

    One of the big downsides of the freelance world is that when you’re not doing billable work, your income goes to zero. So, there’s a lot of talk about creating income streams that aren’t dependent on your selling your time. Visit Article
  • Why I Believe in Pricing Work Based on Value

    Why I Believe in Pricing Work Based on Value

    For freelancers, the question of how to price your services is always up for debate. Should you charge by the hour or per project? What should your hourly rate be? What type of payment terms should you require? The answers to these questions will vary based on your industry, your reputation, and your personal preferences for your business. But there is one thing that I believe should factor into every pricing decision you make: Price your services based on value. Visit Article
  • Setting Your Standards as a Freelancer: A Few Suggestions

    Setting Your Standards as a Freelancer: A Few Suggestions

    Having standards is important when you’re trying to find and work with clients on your own. It’s surprisingly tempting not to stick to your standards: a quick project that you wouldn’t normally take can look pretty appealing if you’re having a slow month. But sticking to your guns can be important in more ways than one. If you take that problematic job, not only are you doing something that you don’t want to do, but you’re also likely to hand in work that you know isn’t as good as you could do. Even worse, that sub-standard job can take up the time you need to find higher paying clients, sticking you in a position where you can’t afford to move forward. Visit Article
  • Get Business Buzzing with a Buzz Piece

    Get Business Buzzing with a Buzz Piece

    Most business models can attest to the power of a buzz piece. This marketing tool provides valuable information for prospective clients, the ability to transform readers into customers and a ton of exposure. So if you don’t have one, you should absolutely consider it. Here’s what you need to know about buzz pieces. Visit Article
We’ll be publishing the best of Tuts+ each month, so you get to see the best of everything.
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13May

Create a Chalkboard Icon Using Photoshop and IconBuilder – Screencast

In today’s screencast we will review a tutorial originally written by author Leslie Nayibe. Leslie’s tutorial demonstrated some of the fundamental processes of creating an icon in Photoshop. Today, we will be recreating that tutorial in video format.   View the written version of this tutorial Create a Chalkboard Icon Using Photoshop and IconBuilder
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13May

Fabric Inspired Grunge Brushes – Premium Psdpack

Today, we have a new set of Premium Brushes available for Psd Premium Members. This set was crafted by Grant Friedman of Colorburned and includes 20 high resolution fabric inspired grunge brushes. If your next project calls for a grungy fabric inspired look, then this set is perfect for you. Learn more at the jump!

New Fabric Inspired Grunge Brushes

This new Premium Psdpack Pack is available for Psd Premium Members today and includes 20 high resolution brushes ranging somewhere in the neighborhood of 2500 pixels by 2500 pixels. Members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! A preview of the brushes are below.

sample

This new Premium Psdpack Pack was created by Grant Friedman of Colorburned and is available for Psd Premium Members to download today. Grant is the Associate Editor of Psdtuts+ and creates loads of professional quality Photoshop brushes on a regular basis. We’re excited to partner up with him on this release.

pack

Psd Premium Membership

As you know, we run a Premium membership system that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!), which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, and Premium Packs like this one! If you’re a Premium member you can log in and download the tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course join today!


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13May

New Tuts+ Site ‘Mobiletuts+’ Launched

We’ve been burning the midnight oil at Tuts+ HQ to bring you Mobiletuts+, the youngest member of the Tuts+ family. It’s all about quality tutorials for mobile developers – all mobile developers, regardless of preferred platform. Topics will include native development with the iPhone, Android, Windows and Blackberry platforms, cross-platform development with tools like Titanium and Phone Gap, and techniques for building mobile web apps and mobile accessible web sites with HTML 5. Visit Mobiletuts+ or read more after the jump.

Whether you want to create the next killer app or become a pioneer of the mobile frontier, we’ve got you covered! In addition to publishing top quality tutorials, articles, and Quick Tips, Mobiletuts+ will be the first Tuts+ site to offer regular multi-media updates on the hottest mobile industry news. We will also be publishing interviews with successful mobile developers to provide you with the most effective real-world development techniques and strategies.

“But I’ve never done mobile development before!”

No problem! Mobiletuts+ will grow with its users. Initially we’ll be publishing lots of content on the fundamentals, like our first tutorial: An Introduction to iPhone SDK Development. We’ll be hitting all the major mobile development platforms with our introductory content, then moving on to the more advanced stuff. If you’re a veteran mobile developer, stick with us! The advanced goodness is almost ready to rumble.

Meet the Editor, Mark Hammonds

    Mark Hammonds, Mobiletuts+ Editor

  • Like all our Tuts+ sites, Mobiletuts+ is helmed by an expert. Mark Hammonds is a software engineer, author, and entrepreneur living in the D.C. / Baltimore area.

    In addition to his work with OmniTI, where he develops high-performance web sites and mobile applications, he is also the co-founder and CTO of Somba Mobile and was among the first developers to publish applications in the iTunes App Store.

Contribute!

If you think you have the skills to create screencasts, written tutorials, articles or Quick Tips for Mobiletuts+ it’s easy to familiarize yourself with the guidelines and become a tutorial author. We’re hungry for user contributions and pay a negotiated USD rate for each tutorial, article or Quick Tip we publish. Submit your concept today!


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12May

Define Competitors: Step 4 of the 8-Step SEO Strategy

Posted by laura

This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

Congratulations on making it halfway through building this SEO Strategy document with me!  Do you feel your value as an SEO rising?

If you’re jumping into the 8 Step SEO Strategy here in Step 4, or just need a recap, you can find the previous three steps here:

DEFINING CATEGORY COMPETITORS

Step 4 is a simple one where we’ll be defining our competitors in SERPs for use in dissection in the Step 5.

We’ll only be looking at search engine competitors here, and not comScore, Hitwise or other types of industry-defined competition by Uniques or Page Views, or any other metric.  For the SEO Strategy we’re building here, we’re concerned with Search, therefore we’ll stick to competitors in search results only. 

I can already hear you saying – this is easy – just do a search for your keywords and see who shows up.  True.  That’s part of it.  But because we’re going to do some serious dissection in Step 5, we’ll want to make sure we get the right competitors to dissect and compare ourselves against.

We broke our keyword research out into categories in Step 2, so we’ll want to define competitors for each category (or pick just a few important categories – especially if you're working on large enterprise-sized sites).

What I mean when I mention defining competitors by categories is this: If I am working on a site all about celebrities, my competitors might be OMG, TMZ, Perez Hilton, etc.  But that’s only at the high level.  My keyword categories from step 2 might cover subtopics like celebrity photos, celebrity news and more. Each of those subtopics has someone who is dominating those rankings.  It may be the same one or two sites across the board, but it’s likely that each subtopic will have different high-ranking competitors.  We want to know specifically who’s doing well for each topic.

HOW TO FIND YOUR COMPETITORS

There are several ways you can do this. If you’ve already got a method you like and want to stick with – by all means do (and if you’re compelled to share your method with us in the comments – you know we love to hear it).  I’m going to give you an example of how I pull this data together. 

Here’s how I set it up:

Grab a new Excel worksheet and name it something like ‘Competitors’.  Create one tab to keep track of your overall site competitors, and if you’re tracking any subtopics on your site (likely the keyword categories we defined in step 2), create a tab for each one of those that you’re going to do competitive research for.  We’re not going to do any calculations or fancy stuff with this worksheet – it’s just for keeping track of your competitors in one place.  You can use a Word doc or good ol’ pen and paper if you want too.

Excel category tabs

The easy way to figure out who your competitors are is to type a couple of terms into the search box and see who shows up.  So let’s look at that method. Here’s what I see in the top 5 results for [celebrity gossip]. 

Google Search results for celebrity gossip

Take note in your Excel sheet of who’s appearing in the top rankings for a couple of terms for each tab/topic.  You don’t have to look up the competitors for every term in your keyword group, just pick a few and make note of what comes up.

You can also choose to check the top rankings in all three search engines, or just pick one. It’s up to you.  In the end you’ll be looking for which site(s) show up the most often for this keyword group.

Another method of doing this is to use SEOmoz’s Keyword Difficulty Tool.  The cool thing about the Difficulty Tool is that you get extra insights along with your top competitors.  But for this example I just want to get my top-ranked competitors in a downloadable csv file that I’ll just copy and paste into my Excel sheet.

To get this info, type in one of your terms:

Enter keyword into SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty Tool

Below the difficulty score and authority comparison graph are the top-ranked results...

SEOmoz Keyword Difficulty Results - Top ranked competitors for celebrity gossip

...and at the bottom of the page you can export the results.  I’ll do the same thing for a few more terms that represent the topic I’m researching, and add the results all to the tab for the topic.

In the end I have something that looks like this – here’s my general terms (there’s only two for this example, but the more terms you can use the better idea you’ll get of who shows up in the rankings the most):

Comparing top-ranked competitors for general celebrity terms in Excel

I’ve highlighted the sites that show up in the top 5 rankings for both terms and made a note of it on the top.  This is a competitor I know I want to target.

Here’s another example of one of my subcategories:

comparing top-ranked competitors for celebrity news topic in Excel worksheet

Here I see two sites appearing for multiple keywords. I’ve highlighted them and made note of them at the top.  These are competitors I’ll be targeting for my competitive dissection of sites for the Celebrity News subtopic in Step 5.   Again, there’s only 3 terms in the screenshot example above – I recommend pulling the data for at least 5-10 per topic.

Note that you can also choose to target 2 competitors or 5 competitors for each category – whatever you prefer (I usually like to do at least 3).  The more sites you choose the more work you have to do in Step 5, but the more insight you’ll get back. 

That’s the jist of it folks.  Now you have targeted competitors defined for each topic you’re interested in.  In the next post we’ll look at how to dig into the competitive landscape to uncover site features, content, and SEO strategy that should be built into your site in order to outrank your competitors. This is where we really start to take SEO to another level. 

In the meantime, if you use any of the vast selection of SEO tools out there to define your competitors, or just do it in a different way, please share with the readers in the comments!

 


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12May

Quick Tip: Use Photoshop to Turn Day Into Dusk

Taking photos at night is not an easy task. Photos taken without adequate lighting often look dim or grainy; they typically don’t look the same as what we see with our own eyes. That is why it is sometimes easier to convert a daytime photo to night using Photoshop than it is to try to take the same photo in the evening hours. In today’s tutorial we will demonstrate a quick technique to make your photos look as if they were taken at night. Let’s get started!

Original Image

Before we begin, let’s take a look at the original image that we will be working from.

Step 1

Open your image in Photoshop. Now create a duplicate of the Background layer. Next we’ll be creating the filter stack which will help us preserve the picture’s details while darkening it. Now convert the duplicate layer to Smart Filters (Filter > Convert for Smart Filters) so that we can edit the filters whenever we need to.

Step 2

This image shows the Filter Gallery with a stack of filters in the lower right panel of the window. This is just an example of how a filter stack looks like – some of you probably didn’t even know that you can do this. We’ll be creating our own stack in a minute.

Step 3

Now, open the Filter Gallery (Filter > Filter Gallery) and we’ll begin making the filters stack. As a note, you could also do this by applying individual filters on the layer, stacking them in the Layers Palette, but I prefer to use this approach because I think it’s quicker this way, and probably because it has a lower impact on memory usage as well.

Next, make sure you clear the stack if you have used it before by clicking the Trash icon at the bottom of the stack panel until you only have a filter left in the stack.

Step 4

It’s time to get messy. For the first item in the stack, choose the Accented Edges filter from the Brush Strokes category. This will accentuate the picture’s edges, preserving its details while darkening. The values used are as follows: Edge Width: 2, Edge Brightness: 38, Smoothness: 5.

Step 5

Next, add a new item in the stack by clicking on the button next to the Trash icon you clicked earlier to empty the stack. This will duplicate the first filter and will be added above it. Now choose the Dry Brush filter from the Artistic category, and give this filter the following values: Brush Size: 6, Brush Detail: 9, Texture: 1. This will help us darken the photo.

Step 6

Finally, add a last item in the stack – Crosshatch from the Brush Strokes category, with the following values: Stroke Length: 9, Sharpness: 6, Strength: 1. This last item will sharpen the other two filters.

Right now, it doesn’t look very promising (check the image below), so we need to fix this. Make sure the smart filter layer is selected and from the Blending modes choose Linear Burn, and then give it a 40% opacity.

Step 7

Now it looks better, but it doesn’t look much different from the original. But after applying some adjustment layers, you’ll see that these filters have a big impact on making it look like it was really shot during the evening.

The first adjustment layer that we’re going to create is Brightness/Contrast. Give it a brightness of -50 and a contrast of 0.

Step 8

Next, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with a saturation of -20 (the other two controls must be 0). Now add an Exposure adjustment layer with an exposure value of -0.45, an offset of 0 and make sure Gamma is set to 1.

Step 9

Wait, there’s something more to add. Add a Vibrance adjustment layer with a vibrance of +20 and 0 saturation. Finally, add a Levels adjustment layer, then select the Red level from the Levels dialog and give it the following values: 0, 0.91, 255. Do the same thing for the Blue level with these values: 0, 0.79, 255. The final result is below!

Additional Example

In this example I’ve used a value of 40% for the layer’s opacity. This value of 40% will be used for large images and landscape pictures (and I’m not referring to the page orientation). In case of a portrait or a small picture, you should use a value of 15%.

Before applying the effect.

After applying the effect.

Download the Action

We have provided the action for this tutorial in the Extras folder for this tutorial’s download which is available exclusively to Psd Premium Members.


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12May

CMS Expo: A Gem Among Marketing and Technology Conferences in the Midwest

I had the pleasure of speaking at the CMS Expo last week in Chicago. This was the first time I had attended this conference I was not sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised at how great it was.

The CMS Expo is a learning and business conference devoted to Content Management Systems and website services. It features a number of tracks centered around business and technology themes. The five tracks at this year’s conference were Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal, Plone, and Business. I’m still working on getting them to feature my favorite CMS next time. The first four tracks were specifically focused on the respective CMS featured while the business track covered marketing, research, best practices, social media, and other business-specific topics.

I gave two presentations for the business track: “7 Habits of Highly Effective Websites” and “Twitter for Business“. Both went very well and got great feedback. It was a great crowd and I had lots of excellent questions and discussion.

Here is what I liked about the CMS Expo:

  • Everyone was extremely friendly and outgoing
  • The speakers were great
  • The conference website was very useful and well done
  • The facility (Hotel Orrington) was excellent
  • The organizers really put on a great event with lots of networking
  • It is expensive, which means higher-quality businesses in attendance (yes, I liked this)

The only thing I didn’t like so much was the fact that everything tended to run late so I had to cut both of my sessions a little shorter but this was a fairly minor issue.

I attended some great sessions on Google Analytics and market research and had a great time meeting new people. Those who are more interested in technical tracks, especially related to one of the feature open-source CMSs, would find the material very valuable. I poked my head into a few of these sessions and also noticed lots of positive Twitter chatter about these tracks. Many of the speakers at the CMS Expo were original founders and developers of some of the CMSs represented.

The attendance at the 2010 CMS Expo was around 400 and and it also included a full group of great exhibitors who did a fantastic job of marketing themselves and contributing to the environment. They were even giving away iPads! I was also interested to see so many speakers and attendees from far away places, including France, and Norway.

The climate of the conference was definitely one of fun, learning, and helping others and it was a pleasure to be a part of it. John and Linda Coonen (CMS Expo founders) did a wonderful job and I look forward to next year’s event.

If you work in marketing and/or technology, consider attending next year’s CMS Expo. It will be well worth your time.

This post was written by Michael Reynolds

Michael is President & CEO of SpinWeb. SpinWeb creates professional websites for businesses and nonprofits. Michael conducts regular educational workshops and seminars and is available for speaking engagements on the topics of Internet marketing, technology, social media, business development, extreme productivity, and networking.


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12May

Create a Beautiful and Dramatic Scene With Photo Manipulations – Basix

Today we will learn a number of techniques to help you add drama to a photo manipulation. We will to do this by learning how to combine two pictures to create a picturesque background, how to draw long hair manually using Photoshop brushes, as well as how to add some adjustment layers to add dramatic effects to the final image. Let’s get started!

Resources

Step 1

Create a new file, size 1600 px wide and 2122 px high at a resolution of 300 pixels/inch. Paste field to new file.

Step 2

Add layer mask. Activate gradient tool. Draw linear gradient from black to white.

Step 3

Zoom in until you can see all the details. Paint unneeded background with black to remove it.

Step 4

Paste sky underneath field layer. The colors will not match the field so we will have to fix it. From the adjustments panel click Color Balance with setting shown below.

Step 5

Download the girl picture. Create new path and with pen tool draw path around her. Avoid selecting her hair. We’ll just recreate it in a few steps.

Step 6

Hit Cmd+Enter to convert path into a selection. Copy the girl and paste it into the new background. Press Cmd+T for transformation and while holding shift drag its corner until she is the appropriate size.

Step 7

Before we proceed with this tutorial, we will need to fix some small details. She has transparent sleeve and it has to reveal some background behind her. To do this, add layer mask, select soft brush with low opacity (10-20%), then paint it with black.

Step 8

Activate field layer. Select some field behind her. Hit Cmd+J to duplicate it to a new layer. Then hit Cmd+shift+] to move it to the top layer.

Step 9

Add a layer mask to the new field. For masking grass, Photoshop has a very useful brush in its default set, named Dune Grass. So, right click and select it. Remove the check mark in front of Color Dynamics.

Next, make sure your foreground color is set to black and layer mask is selected. Start painting until the girl looks like standing in the middle of the field.

Step 10

To strengthen the illusion that the girl is standing inside the field, it’s a good idea to have something in front of her. Change our brush to standard round brush, paint some flowers with white to reveal it.

Step 11

Now let’s draw her hair. But before doing that, make sure the layer mask is active. Paint her hair with black using a soft, low opacity brush until it is transparent.

Step 12

Load the hair brush set. This set consisted of some long premade hairs. Using the brush tool, Cmd+click her hair to sample its color. Open brush panel (F5), click and drag the inside preview box to rotate brush tip. Once you’ve found perfect size and position click to draw an instant long hair. To get a natural color, be sure to sample various color from the hair.

Repeat this step until you have enough hair.

Step 13

After step 12 you may find that the result isn’t entirely realistic. If you look closely you may find that there are repeating objects in her hair. This is a common problem when using premade brushes. The best way to avoid this is by drawing some hairs manually.

Grab the hair brushes set from here. Lower your brush opacity to 15-25%. If you use a tablet, then that’s a good thing. You can activate its Pen Pressure from the Brush Panels.

Manual painting is not easy. It may help to work with a lot of layers. That way you can always delete layers that you don’t like. Below are the steps I took while creating the hair.

Step 14

Now, we need to add some lighting to the girl. To do this we’ll use non-destructive dodging and burning. Hold cmd and click New Layer icon. Choose Use Previous, Mode: Overlay, and Fill with.

Activate burn tool, set opacity to 20% and start painting to make her darker. Do the same with the dodge tool for opposite effects. Remember, if you hold alt while dodge tool selected, then you’ll have burn tool. Same thing happen to burn tool.

Step 15

Now, I’ll add dark border around the image. Hit ctrl+A to select all. Click Edit > Stroke. Use very large width and click OK. Soften the border using Gaussian Blur with a very big radius.

Step 16

Hit ctrl+T. Hold ctrl and drag its corner until you find nice lighting.

Step 17

To add fake light draw a poligonal selection and fill it with white. Add very big Gaussian Blur and lower down layer’s opacity to 30%.

Step 18

Draw the girl’s shadow on the field.

Step 19

Grab the butterfly set. The butterflies are already in a transparent png file, so you just need to select it and drag it to the image. Resize it to match its proportion. Don’t forget to add shadows for a realistic look.

Step 20

Load the floral brushes. Try to experiment with the brush shape. Combine them to get a unique shape like I did here, then add some text in the English font found from dafont.

Step 21

For final adjustment, select the sky layer and use Brightness/Contrast to raise its Lightness. I also added an adjustment layer Photo Filter with a warming filter on top of the image.

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and learned something new. You can view the final image below or view a larger version here.


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07May

Interview With Fantasy Artist Skam Works

Artist Maksimilijan Gecevic, better known as Skam, is a master of producing fantasy artworks. His visuals show vivid events unfolding in practically every illustration he creates. In our interview Skam talks about the benefits of being in a design collective as well as some of his upcoming projects. So let’s get into another interview with a great artist.

Q Welcome to Psdtuts+, please introduce yourself. Could you tell us where you’re from and how you got started in the field?

Hello, glad to be here! My name is Maksimilijan Gecevic and I am from Zagreb, Croatia. I went to a School of Applied arts and I’m currently finishing Faculty of graphic arts in Zagreb. Before I started doing digital artworks I was more into traditional techniques as it was mostly what we learned in school; the basics of traditional art. I got more involved in digital art in college where I started to combine those two techniques but later I found myself creating digital art and graphic design. It all started when I was creating some album covers, posters and logos for fun. But now I rarely sit and draw something traditional. I still draw sketches or doodles for some digital works, and knowing the basics really helps to improve digital artworks later on.

Q All your art has amazing imagery in it, where do you get the inspiration to create scenes like “Evil” and “Dreaming?”

Well, it depends. I get inspiration from everywhere, sometimes ideas just pop into my head. I see a movie or read something that gives me an idea. I like to think of a background story for every piece that I make, so basically, I do as much daydreaming as possible so I can come up with great ideas.

Q You are a member of SlashTHREE a great design collective, in your opinion what are the positives of joining a design collective and submitting your work. Has it benefitted you in any way yet?

I joined SlashTHREE about a year ago, and I have definitely improved since then because the artists there push each other to work on a higher level, giving each other critiques, pointing out things you might not notice, and they don’t let up until you show some progress. But seriously, joining collectives are great for artists to improve and grow. In the end, it gives more exposure to your work. So yeah, I definitely benefitted from it.

Q “Devotion” is a beautiful piece that was featured for SlashTHREE’s latest pack. Please talk about how you made this incredible illustration and what this piece is showing us.

With Devotion, I was inspired by couple of movies I saw with aliens so I wanted to create something with that theme, but in a way to show different kinds of connections, or call it relationship between humans and aliens, in a way I see it if something like that would ever happen. Basically the story itself is up to viewers to imagine, but one of the ideas was actually a love story behind it all. It was created as half manipulation and half illustration because I’m trying to include more painted and illustrated elements to my works so they could be less "cold“ like when they are 100% manipulated, but still on another level when there is some mixed media in it. The ship was mostly painted with some manipulated details, while cityscape was a stock, same for the girl which was exactly what I was looking for in this piece so in the end it turned out like I wanted to. Glad you liked it!

Q All of your fantasy scenes look absolutely seamless with the photo-manipulation techniques. Talk a little about what you put into them when making these illustrations.

I try to include both manipulated and painted elements in my work and blend them together in the end. The key to making these illustrations work is the details. Correct lighting is very important and it’s something that you can’t really learn from a tutorial; you really have to trust your own eye and make those decisions on your own. It is really important to learn, observe, and explore.

Q What plans do you have for the future of your graphic design career? Any upcoming projects you would like to talk about?

Right now my main goal is to finish college and create as many pieces as possible. I would love to make some kind of art book in the near future and I am working on some projects that are still in preproduction for a computer game but it’s still a bit early to make any announcements at this time. A bit further in the future, I hope to have my own design studio and do what I do now but I suppose we shall see how that goes.

Q Are there any specific techniques you use when designing that you would suggest to someone who is starting out in the same field as you?

I can’t say that there are any specific techniques that I use but I think the most important thing that any designer can do is pay attention to details, highlights, as well as depth of field; which can bring a new dimension to a piece. My best advice to a young designer is to experiment and search for tips on their own. When create something, feel free to make things your own way because that is what will become your signature.

Q Thanks again for providing Psdtuts+ with this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?

My pleasure, and thank you for having me! Thanks to everyone for reading this and I hope that I have inspired at least some of the young designers out there. Keep working, don’t rush, don’t give up and maybe we can collaborate on some projects in the future!

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07May

40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos
By Obaid ul Rehman About 70% of earth surface is covered by water. Aquatic life is quite adventurous and is vastly diverse. Life under water is full of many beautiful creatures which are rarely seen and many people can’t even name them. People love to see aquatic life and the unique creatures found in the oceans, for this we have compiled this post that is purely based on aquatic theme. Let us take a close look at these wonderful masterpieces of photography. We hope that you’ll like it and do not forgot to share your comments. Clownfish 10-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Surrounded 1-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Bend 2-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Sonata 3-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Seahorse 4-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Catch me if you can 5-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Angry 6-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Deep Red Sea 7-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Coral tree 8-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Dreaming Jellyfish 9-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Tentacles 12-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Turtle 32 45-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Dolphins 13-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Barbed Skate 14-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos The Cardinal & the Clowns 15-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Kiss of the Mandarin 16-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Underwater bridge 17-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Underwater Forest 18-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Underwater garden 46-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Aquatic Life 04 19-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Cuddly Cuttlefish 20-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Sea slug 7 21-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Roots 22-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Singapore 1 23-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Porcelain crab 24-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Squirt… 25-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Clown triggerfish 26-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Underwater 27-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Anenome like a rubber ball 28-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos The Jetty 43-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Meeting Of The Jelly Fish 31-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Eel 33-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Amphiprion ocellaris 34-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Silhouette of caretta 35-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Nautilus 36-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Anthozoa 39-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Sea Dragon 40-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos In the Space 41-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Hammer! 42-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos Lunch hmmm 44-water in 40 Beautiful And Amazing Aquatic Life Photos
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07May

Quick Tip: Create a Wood Panel Texture in Photoshop

In today’s quick tip tutorial we will demonstrate how to create a wood panel texture in Photoshop. Let’s get started!

Step 1

Start by opening a new document. For this tutorial, I chose 900 x 600 pixels with a transparent background. Fill the document with #473722

Step 2

Duplicate layer 1 and name this duplicate "fibers". Set your foreground color to #746045, and then go to Filter > Render > Fibers and use the following settings:

Step 3

Hit “OK” and you should end up with the following:

Step 4

Duplicate the previous layer and name it "knots". We are now going to add what I call knots in the wood. To do this, go to Filter > Liquify. In the upper left-hand panel, select the Twirl Clockwise Tool (C). On the right side panel, your settings may differ from mine depending on the size you made your document, but for the sake of this tutorial your settings should match mine: Brush Size – 151, Brush Density – 62, Brush Pressure – 100, Brush Rate – 50. Leave all other settings as is. On your document, click in the desired spot and quickly drag upwards or downwards with your mouse button still pushed. You should have something similar to this:

Step 5

Make a new layer and name it “separator 1?. We are now going to make the notches or separators in the paneling. Select the rectangular marquee tool and set it to a fixed ratio with a width of 4px and height of 600px and then place it somewhere near the left side of your document. Fill this block with #806d53. Should look like the following:

Step 6

Now we make the line look more realistic! Double click the separator 1 layer to bring up the blending options and match it with the following settings:

Step 7

Duplicate your first separator about 4 different times and place them so that they’re not evenly spaced. For added touches, you can place some text that looks as if it was carved in, like so:

Final Image

You’re all finished! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
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07May

10 Questions You Missed When Evaluating Sponsorships

Everyday I assist companies who have no idea how they determined their sponsorship budget, nor how they actually measure the impact of those expenditures on the bottom line. It’s not uncommon. Most marketing departments simply have a line item, called “Sponsorships”. When a regional or industry colleague calls and asks if they’d like to sponsor an event – it’s usually just a matter of whether the audience is relevant and if there’s budget left.

You’re losing money on your sponsorship investment. And you’re letting those companies who are coordinating these events off the hook. Your company can get better exposure, better results, spend less money… and target the exact prospects you’re seeking.

Here are 10 questions to help you evaluate your next sponsorship opportunity:

  1. What are the outcomes of the sponsorship that are going to matter to your organization? Don’t be fooled by stats and things that are easy to measure.
  2. What are the benchmarks of previous sponsorships opportunities that you’ve acquired? What are your goals with respect to them? Be sure they’re as specific as possible (“200 leads from women aged 30-55?).
  3. What is the return on each of those goals that are reached? How do they compare with your organization’s priorities?
  4. Do those objectives align with core drivers of your business.
  5. What metrics do you apply to other marketing mediums that can be applied to your sponsorship? (ie. close ratios, lead time, etc.)
  6. What are the emotional and behavioral states of the prospects you’ll be reaching? It’s not enough to understand their demographics – you need to ensure the intent is there as well.
  7. Utilizing primary research, are organizations going to be present that will drive business to you through their audience? Or are you just getting banner space on a website?
  8. How much money are you saving through your sponsorship? If you’re acquiring customers through sponsorships, you can save money by reducing sales travel and entertainment expenses that are typically associated with nurturing leads.
  9. How much of your customer base would be impacted by your sponsorship? How much of the sponsorship’s target would be interested in your products and services? If it’s 20%, you’re on the right track.
  10. How are you going to capture data? Capture data and then use the data to engage in meaningful conversations with your audience post-sponsorship.

If you’re a company who offers sponsorships, can you help answer these questions? By ensuring that your sponsors get a positive return on their sponsorship investment not only can you sleep easier – you can better evaluate the value of your sponsorship opportunities. Many companies underestimate their sponsorship by focusing on how many sponsor dollars they need rather than evaluating the value of their audience on sponsors!

This list was inspired by IEG’s 10 Factors Critical to Sponsorship.

This post was written by Julie Grice

Julie is the founder and CEO of Smart Sponsorship, a marketing firm specializing in assisting businesses to maximize their return on investment on sponsorship expenditures. Smart Sponsorship also assists companies build and price comprehensive sponsorship solutions to maximize revenue and impact for their customers.


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