DIY Covers Review
It seems everyone has an e-book these days, doesn’t it? Well, except for me of course. Maybe one day I’ll be an internet millionaire and have desires to write an e-book telling all about how I made my millions online? For the time being, I had to settle for getting a little practice creating an e-book cover and store the experience back for a rainy day when (and if) I ever decide to write an e-book.
A while back, my good friend Sarah who had such a big part in helping me get the rating system set up on Nice Stylesheet asked if I would like to take her new DIY Covers for a spin. Of course I said yes. Last night I finally had a chance to try out DIY Covers and here’s what I think:
Ease of Use
I wouldn’t consider myself a Photoshop guru, but I definitely know my way around it. I could easily fire up Photoshop and create a cover myself, but after trying DIY Covers out I’d never attempt to do it manually in Photoshop. You can see my e-book cover above, which took all of 10 minutes to create. If I had created the cover myself, it would have taken much longer than 10 minutes for sure.
With this pack, you can create amazing covers without tons of Photoshop experience.
Not Just for E-Books
I only had to opportunity to try out the DIY Covers Review Pack, so I was limited to creating an e-book cover, but don’t be fooled, the full product does so much more. With the full product you can create: e-book covers, covers for software, quick reflections for your covers, CD graphic and lots more.
Give It a Try Before You Buy
Contact Sarah for a free download of the same review pack that I test drove and see for yourself how easy it is to create great covers in no time at all.
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Comments
As a designer I put so much emphasis on the quality of a product reflecting in the quality of it’s website, too much probably.
The DIY page is a perfect example of findability issues:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/findabilityorphan
I’m sure it’s a great product or photoshop set of actions, not sure.
Sorry, it’s just too much for one page, and breaking it into pages with a website navigation it could be so much more.
Posted on Wed Apr 9, 2008
Nice review Deron… also I second Ty’s sentiments. I think the product site needs some information architecture attention.
Posted on Thu Apr 10, 2008
The site is being redone, it’s no reflection on the product whatsoever which is why the review sites are more important to us right now as is the offer of a free action in the review pack.
Posted on Thu Apr 10, 2008
Ty and Sam: Yeah, I know what you mean with it being to much for one page, but as unlikely as it sounds, these types of sales page seem to convert well. I’ve seen many people making a killing from these types of sales pages.
SarahG: That’s good your redesigning. I think you could really differentiate yourself form the competition with a well designed site. You just don’t see many actual sites for products like this. Most are all these types of sales page. I always though you could probably convert more sales with a regular looking site, but maybe I’m wrong? I have to believe a redesign will only help the sales though. Good luck Sarah.
Posted on Thu Apr 10, 2008
Deron;
I loved your post. I always thought I was the only one who didn’t have an e-book! haha.
I don’t think people are quite ready for my e-book entitled “How To Crack 2,000,000 on Alexa!”
Cheers!
Scott - http://www.manvsblog.com
Posted on Fri Apr 11, 2008
Scott: Nope, you’re not along my friend! Actually an e-book has never crossed my mind. I really don’t know what I would write about that hasn’t already been written ten times over by other people? Maybe one day I’ll have the proverbial light bulb moment where I say “Ah ha! I could write an e-book on that!”
I wouldn’t worry about Alexa too much. For one, everyone starts somewhere. Even the biggest bloggers and earners online had no traffic at some point in their career. Two, Alexa is skewed anyway since they only track visits from people that have their toolbar installed. So in theory, if none of your visitors have the Alexa toolbar (or Firefox plugin… I think?) then they don’t track the traffic.
Posted on Fri Apr 11, 2008
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My name is Deron Sizemore and I am a web designer, web publisher, blogger and serial internet entrepreneur living in Lexington, Kentucky.
Cheers for the review Deron. Glad to hear you found it so easy to use
Posted on Wed Apr 9, 2008