Ahhhh…the ever-changing face of the internet. From new social media start-ups to the umpteen-million new websites that can be found on google each day, it’s basically a full time job if you want to get found out there in the inter-web world and your first “viewer” impression is critical.
Today, I’m not talking about search engine optimization or what the best e-commerce platform is, but I’m talking about making a killer banner for your Etsy (or facebook) page.
Last year at this time, I wasn’t working so I had more brain cells to devote to creating jewelry, homemade soaps, dog treats and such for our Etsy store. I was able to put together a nice banner in no time at all. This year after giving our Etsy store a facelift and reorganizing some departments, I realized the most important thing would be to update the banner. This is one of the first visual impressions a customer will get when coming to our site or any site. Unfortunately, this year it has proven to be a challenge to do this simple task-probably the happy brain cells I had last year while not working, promptly left when I started working in Camden, NJ for a sock manufacturer. But that’s another story. 🙂
Anyway, I finally figured it out and wanted to write clear, concise steps for those of you, possibly not so computer savvy, looking for an easy (and free) way to update your banners.
I tried this on both picmonkey.com and befunky.com with the same, positive results.
Hopefully you have a great photo that will be indicative of the products you sell or something eye-catching for your facebook page to capture the viewer’s attention. Photography is a whole different animal that I won’t tackle here, but make sure your picture is very clear, has interesting subject matter and good lighting.
Now, I will walk through the steps using picmonkey today, but both picmonkey and befunky are very similar in how you can edit the photo to make your banner.
1. Firstly, upload your photo
2. Next, you will resize the photo. Etsy banners need to be 760 wide x 100 tall (and Facebook banners should be 851 x 315). So, using Picmonkey, I went into the “Resize” option on the left sidebar, entered 760 in the first box, but left whatever is in the next box as is for now so it will keep the proportion. Hit the “apply” button so it will save your first edits.
3. Then, you will crop the photo. Using Picmonkey, I leave the drop down menu for cropping (once again, on the left sidebar) at “no fixed proportions” and then type in the boxes below, 760 x 100. Here, you can drag the frame to whatever part of your photo you want to use. This is where actually picking the photo comes in very important. Make sure it’s something you can crop or use a small portion of. Pick something that is horizontal, too! Not a close up of a persons’ face, or you’ll wind up with possibly a great view up their nose with nothing else in the shot. Make sure you hit “apply”.
4. Now you have your picture where you can do the fun stuff; add blurry edges, frames, a starry sky or whatever you desire. On Picmonkey, the choices to edit are along the side bar to the left. So, for my purposes, I played around with some sparkles to highlight our “jewels” and then added a graduated darkening frame and our store name. Be sure to play around. There’s an undo button, so don’t worry. Just have fun and you’ll wind up with a great creation!
And if you want to see this creation live, check out the link to our Etsy store. We’d love to see you and I hope this was helpful!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/GlassyEyedGals
Let me know if you have any questions or comments or how yours worked out!
365 Days To Unstuck 