Web Design Tips: Branding Your Site with a Professional Header for Under $20

If you owned a brick and mortar store, you’d hire someone to create a sign to hang above your door. A well made sign does three things; it tells everyone who passes the name of your store, it tells potential customers that you’re a professional and it sets the tone before anyone walks in.

A web banner is your ecommerce store’s sign. It’s the first thing people see when they hit the page and it could be the last thing if it’s not done right.

• It has to be neat.
• The correct size.
• Readable and it should tell the visitor something about your business. 
• Are your products whimsical or dark? Are you selling romance or luxury? Are you all about hard edges or soft lines?
• You could hire a graphic designer for $50 an hour to create a banner or you can try one of these techniques and spend under $20.

Hire a designer on Fiverr

Fiverr (http://www.fiverr.com) is a freelance marketplace loaded with excellent graphic designers who will happily create a header for under $20. Technically, you can hire someone for only $5 (thus the name of the site) but you’ll get a better product if you double or triple the $5 starting price.

Look for sellers with high star ratings, then skim their portfolios to get a feel for their style.

Tip: If you’re still developing your brand, hire a cartoonist or logo designer first. They’ll help you create a branded icon that you can use on all of your marketing materials.

Hire a Student

Many high schools now teach graphic arts. Talk to the school’s guidance counselor about hiring a student to do the work for you. Or see if the teacher would be willing to use your project as a lesson in return for a small donation to the classroom. It’s a little more effort but you might find an up-and-coming gem of an artist who will design for you whenever you need something.

picmonkey

Do it yourself with PicMonkey

PicMonkey is a free, online graphics tool that makes it easy to create very professional looking graphics.

From the front page, choose Design - - > Custom then type in the header size.

Tip: the size of your header banner depends on which IndieMade template you’re using for your store. Make sure you know the correct size before getting to work on your creation.

Click the Text Tool and type the name of your store. There are a variety of fonts to choose from but keep readability and tone in mind when you choose. From there you can add graphics and all kinds of effects. PicMonkey even groups options by themes such as Celebrate and Sweetheart for easy mix and matching. It’s the overlays that take your graphic from amateur to amazing so experiment with the options before choosing the one you like.

If you like the tool, you can open up more options by upgrading to a pro account for $4.99 a month.