Hello again!

I think you often need to correct your photos and images.
For example you may need to reduce their size, make them more sharper, or simply to improve their Hue/Saturation or Brightness/Contrast.

If you are looking for how to correct photos easy and convenient on the Internet - then you are on the right place. Half an year ago, a flash based online application for image editing was released. Not only that - but it is totally free. With this application you can make easy and fast adjustments to your images.

The application is called Sumo Paint.

Welcome to Sumo Paint

Sumo Paint may sound ridicolously - but this program has 40% of the functionality of Photoshop.
And mainly these options that you will need in your everyday work.

For example, if you want to correct an image, before you put it in the administrative area of your website.
There is nothing easier than that! First go to the official website of Sumo Paint - click here.

After that click on the big orange sumo fighter - this is the logo of the flash application
After you click you will need to wait for a few seconds for the program to load.

And voila - welcome to your new little free online Photoshop.

Sumo Paint offers many features for opening and modification of images, but I will show you the most standard way. First you will need to choose a file from your own hard disk!

Choose FIle -> Open from my Computer (File -> Load from my local computer)
A standard dialog window for searching for file is displayed - it shows the most popular extensions - jpg, jpeg, gif and png.

Find a photo that is one of these types, select it and click Open. The image will be loaded in a new window inside the application.

Now you can start working on the graphic.

Photo editing

Now if you want to scale proportionally the image you will need to choose the following menu:
Image -> Image Size…

Before you choose size first click on Constrain Proportions. This will guarantee that the resize will respect the ration between width and height - so your photo won’t be stretched or spread.

For example if you have an image with 1024×758 you can resize it to 800×600 or 640×480 - just write 640 for widht and the height of the image will automatically become 480. In this case the image is 530 x 354 so it will not need a resize).

Press ok and your image will be reduced in size.
Now you can put your image within the content of your website and it will not brake your layout and design. Usually when you reduce an image there is a quality loss (pixels). The images go blurred.

So to fix this you can choose Filters -> Sharpen.

You will see that your picture is becoming more clear now. If you slide the button to the right the image will become even clearer. But beware - don’t overdo it because the image will preexponated and it will look unnatural.

If you think that the graphic needs change of its Brightness/Contrast choose Adjustments -> Brightness/Constrast/

If you want to change the hue and saturation of colors choose Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation.

Play around with the options and if you are happy with the result choose Ok.

If you are ready with the changes on the image it is time to save it on your hard disk (before you upload it to your website). To do this you need to choose File -> Save to my computer and choose the filetype(.png or .jpg).
If you choose Jpg you can set the quality of the saved image.

That’s it!

Success!

Congratulations!
You just finished the modifications to your image.
Now you know how easy it is!

A few more words about Sumo Paint

At the time of this post Sumo Paint is at version 1.01. This is a serious achievement for an application, that is completely free.

Sumo Paint is really really popular and in future it will acquire even more users and fans. (There are nearly one million users from 190 countries so far). Keep in mind though, that in future it may become a commercial application.

Sumo Paint has many more features, than just resizing.
I will list just a few of the major ones:

Sumo Paint has layers and layer effect
Your images can be comprised of layers - like a stack of sheets. In addition you can have individual layer effects to each of these layers - along with transparency and blending modes.

Full toolbox
Many different types of instruments for selection, hatching, drawing and painting with pencil and brush, an eraser, filling with gradients and solid colors, shapes, text tool, etc. The tools it has are more than enough for most of your needs.

Filters and color corrections (Filters and Adjustments)
You can shift colors and color schemes and create interesing effects with your images.

Option to store your art online
On the official server of Sumo Paint.

To learn even more about the application, you can have a look at the online manual:
http://www.sumopaint.com/help/

Sumo Paint offers many more - so why wait.
Take full advantage of its features!

If you want to add something, please drop a comment.

Your website is completed and deployed - is it time for web marketing?

Yes! Don’t be late!

It’s wrong to think, that your website on its own will get you more enquiries, orders and business. Even if it has a unique design and the most original content in the world! With no advertising no one will ever know, that it is so unique and original.

The conventional (offline) advertising should be part of your marketing - not the whole marketing

You can’t rely only on your offline advertising. The fact that you have stylish business cards, brochures with detailed information and even pens with your logo on them - is simply not enough. Because what if nobody is looking for you - how are you going to show or give them your stylish business cards or classy brochures?

Via Snail Mail?
(A research is showing that 90% of the printing material you get in your snail mail ends as junk)

What are the advantages of the combined marketing campaign

It is always better if you use combined offline and online channels.

Let me explain…

Usually the options are two:

1. Your clients are finding you on the Internet

Let’s say through an advertising banner or Google advertising in the search results (Google AdWords). Your company may be registered in some of the popular directories as well.

Usually, your potential clients are looking for what you offer. They will come to your website and will look around to see if you are stable and reliable. At that point, if they are confident enough that they can trust you and you look serious - they will make a request, will send you an email or even will call you.

From here on it depends on you how you’re going to talk, how they will be treated and how prepared you will be in a potential meeting - what will be your printing materials - and how will you present your company in the best possible light.

2. Your clients are finding you offline

For example, trough a recommendation. Lets say, John Smith’s brother-in-law told him, that you make great websites. He has given him your business card or simply your phone - and John is calling you.

In this case your potential client is only part of your offline campaign. But when you meet you tell him - look at our website, look at our portfolio; even type on Google our name and you will see we are popular.

In short, the online and offline advertising are deeply interconnected.
It is always better to combine both media.

What is the price of the online advertising

The price of the online advertising always depends on your budget. But the recommended prices can be measured in the following way:

If the price for website design and development is x, the price for offline material is x, and the price for online advertising is somewhere between x and 2x, then the total costs for your campaign will be between 3x and 4x.

The practice has shown us that with such advertising budget in 80% of the cases you will get full return on your investment (4x) within 3 to 6 months after the start of your campaign. Of course, this depends on the quality of your products and services, and how you treat your clients (the quality of your sales personnel and your customer service).

So: If all other conditions are met, you should return your investment within 3 to 6 months.

It’s worth it

In 6 months at most you will benefit a perfect net profit. Your only expenses will be to keep the online advertising running smoothly - preserve the good channels, and discontinue the ineffective ones.

When you expand you will notice, that at some point your online and offline budget will match. At that time you will have many websites, you will participate in successful affiliate programs with banner rotation, and you will take advantage of the Pay-per-Click opportunities of Google and Yahoo.

Simultaneously your offline advertising will spread and will make your name popular (branding). You will have advertising in magazines and special publications within your field - if you have a mass-product you will have billboards.

And then again if your product is super-mass-product - you will invest a cosmic budget into a tv commercial. The opportunities are limitless.

So don’t be late!

Write

In case you want to add something, feel free to write a comment on this post.

We intend to update the Blog and the website on a regular basis - so stick around every now and then
We wish you a pleasant time with Media Domino.
Bye for now!