As we continue our epic journey to create the perfect banner, part two features a meeting with writer Miukio Yushima, whose mastery of words is like the sharpness of a sword. He met us in a sunset bamboo grove, swearing at young shoots, in order to hone his command of short sentences.
Let us remind you that in the first part of the tutorial by the great digital artist Hotsushika Kakusai, we created a brush from wool from the tail of an Amur tiger, grew Madagascan rice for perfect rice paper and bought paints at an art supply store. We have decided that our banner will be blue, 300 by 250 in size. Now we have to write the perfect text for the perfect banner.
Miukio Yushima stopped insulting plants and began mentoring. “To write an ideal text, it is not enough to be in harmony with consciousness, you need to have a clear idea of the goal and the experience you have experienced. Therefore, now you will go to a small village on the ocean, where you will work as fishermen for a year. Peer at the ebb and flow of the tides, write poetry on the sea sand, dedicate your songs to salty spray and foam. Let’s talk after this.”
We spent a year in salty labors, struggling with waves, failures and poverty. We’ve had good days and bad days. We wrote the novel “The Retreating Shore” and brought the manuscript to Miukio Yushima. The master nodded absentmindedly and promised to read it one day. And then, putting the manuscript aside, he said, “The banner should be simple, like haiku poetry. I shouldn’t have sent you to the ocean shore. You should have learned simplicity and brevity, but you became verbose like sea waves rolling onto the shore, for there is no end to them.”
Fearing that we might be sent to drive caravans across the desert, we hastened to say that it seemed that we had reached the required degree of detachment and were ready to issue the slogan – Moonrover is the best affiliate network on the moon.” The master was amazed at our zeal and was forced to admit that it sounded quite succinctly. “But what about the second part of the banner? No less important? What is your call to action?” “Join us,” we blurted out. Miukio Yushima fell into deep thought. “I jumped to conclusions, I have to admit. You have grasped the essence. Your banner is simple and clear.”
“Your call to action is good, but not perfect. Where is the offer of a discount? Where is the promise of benefit? As an apology for my haste, I will help you, heed the “Join us – it’s free.” Now this is the perfect call. And I will not take with you a fee. Just use it.”
With that, we’re back to banner master Hotsushika Kakusai. He has aged a lot in a year, just like us. Now we had a color, a size, a tagline, and a call to action. Which we proudly reported to our mentor. “But do you know your audience? Do you understand who your banner is aimed at?” the teacher asked with melancholy in his voice. – “Words are just words, we need conversions.”
A little heatedly, we answered that we had been doing affiliate marketing for several years and knew our audience well, and also knew how to use free analytical programs. “Oh, yes. Now I see that you have learned a lot, but now I will knock you off your feet. Do you know what kind of image should be on your ideal banner? You have decided on the color scheme, but where is the high-resolution image and most importantly what What kind of picture is this? Ha-ha, go to a fishing village for a year and…”
We replied that we had already done this and the picture would show an ocean wave, because the moon, where the hash office is located, and the tides are interconnected. Hotsushika Kakusai became noticeably depressed at our response. Everything was ready for the banner. When the perfect JPG was ready, we were going to bow to the mentor and invite him to the sushi bar to celebrate the event. But here a new revelation from the master awaited us. “Creating a banner, even a perfect one, is only half the battle. Now I have to teach you how to position it correctly and how to handle it. This is part of the art.”
The great banner ceremony lay ahead of us. You can read the rest of the story here.
