Being a crafter almost since birth, I still love handmade craft items. I don't get off the computer enough to craft anymore, but I enjoy visiting the art and craft websites to see what others are making. A few years ago, I decided to start making web graphics for these art and craft websites, as a way to stay in touch with my "craftier" side.

After a little research, I noticed that there is a strong trend toward specialized web graphics on these websites. Like the decor in your favorite restaurant creates the atmosphere for your dinner, the web graphics used on these websites set the tone for what that site has for sale. By using the right web graphics on a craft site, you can give your customers the feeling that they are virtually walking into your craft studio or your brick-and-mortar store. This can go a long way in helping your site make a lasting impression on your customers. Crafters in general are visually oriented. In my experience, I have found that a crafter is more likely to purchase a handmade craft item, such as a quilt, if it is displayed well in an online store. If you are a quilter who loves quilts and enjoys shopping for that perfect fabric, which one of the two layouts below would make a better impression? Which one gives the impression that you are "inside your favorite fabric store"?

Layout One or Layout Two

The web banner graphics that you use for the online advertising of your site can work in the same way. Put yourself in the shoes of that quilter again and ask yourself which of these two banners you will remember. When online advertising began, the web banner was the best way to bring traffic to your website. By placing web banners on other websites, you could get web surfers to click on the banner and visit your site. However, once the novelty was gone, banners became less efficient in getting those "click-throughs". That's not to say that the use of web banner advertising is dead. Not at all. It has just taken a more realistic approach to advertising, in the form of building brand awareness. Advertisers have a saying that a potential customer needs to see an ad at least three times before they will take the next step toward making a purchase. That's why making that lasting impression on your potential customers is so important to building brand awareness and name recognition for your site.