Even non-geeks can create infographics—here’s mine

Now I know why PR firms and graphics artists charge a fortune for those big, detailed infographics you see everywhere, like these on Pinterest.

They’re very difficult to plan, draw and execute.

The one below took me about an hour and a half to create on Easel.ly, a free tool that’s still in beta. It’s a bit buggy but has responsive email support which really impresses me.

I’ll be explaining how I did it and I’ll show you the guts of the site when I host the webinar How to Easily Create Free and Inexpensive Infographics at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, May 24. If the time is inconvenient, register anyway because I’ll record it and send the video and audio replay links and the PowerPoint slides to everyone who signs up.

I’ll be covering things like bar charts, pie charts, doodles, Wordles, maps and flow charts. I’ll show you which free tools to use to illustrate quotes and turn them into colorful images to pin on Pinterest.

And I’ll give you lots of ideas on how you can use infographics to market whatever you’re selling, and things you should do BEFORE you start experimenting with these tools.

Here’s my first effort at doing something this detailed. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body. But I wouldn’t hesitate to offer this to, say, a blogger, along with a guest post on the same topic. What do you think? Comments?

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  • Filio

    Hi Joan, as always you are full of great ideas and ways to share them. Thank you, and thanks for the heads-up on Mari Smith’s webinar (10 facebook tips). It was a fantastic webinar.

    • Joan

      Glad you liked the infographic and the Facebook webinar. I especially appreciate the fact that Mari made both the video replay and the transcript available. She rocks.

  • Flora Morris Brown, Ph.D.

    I love these infographics that are popping up everywhere, but after looking at what the geeks charge to create them I’m convinced I need to learn to create my own.

    I’m not surprised that it took longer than you thought to create your first one. Their seeming simplicity doesn’t fool me. I know that I’ll have to be in a quiet space and frame of mind to create my first one, but I look forward to it.

    Thanks for helping us stay close to the cutting edge.

    • Joan

      I’m astonished, Flora, at how many of these programs, and the websites that review them, proclaim them to be “drop dead simple.” I’m finding several that I just hate and I’ve bailed out long before I could complete them. But a few are really fun! I’ll share the good, the bad and he ugly on Thursday. You are so right that you need to be in a quiet place. And you need to have a lot of patience.

  • Denise Wakeman

    Joan, love your infographic and the fact you made it yourself. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body and creating infographics seems so intimidating due to the cost fact to have them designed. I’m going to be checking out your recommended resource. Thank you!

    • Joan

      This took much longer than I had hoped, Denise, and I almost gave up. But I stuck with it to the end. And I’m including it in my webinar because the templates are much more attractive than I’ve seen anywhere else, and the company answered my two email questions promptly. My research has shown that the vast majority of infographics tools that other people have dubbed “easy” are not, according to what my non-techie brain tells me. Thanks for stopping by. I’m learning from you all the time!