Why Infographics Matter

There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, this is exactly the reason why infographics are very popular with Internet users. Most Internet users scan content rather than read content, because infographics make it very easy to scan for information they are embraced by the users.

That’s the reason they are some of the most shared and linked content in a website. Although there are many benefits to using them, very few bloggers are actually using them in their blogs. The biggest reason is laziness, but another valid reason is that they don’t have the design and technical skills to come up with an infographic.

Mentioned below are some easy-to-use tools to quickly create infographics. If you know any other tool feel free to mention them in the comments section.

Additionally: Studies show that visual content can increase blog engagement by up to 94%, proving that infographics are not just attractive but extremely powerful for retention and sharing.

Google Public Data Explorer

Public Data Explorer is another great free tool by Google. There are predefined data sets uploaded by Banks, European Union and various other organizations. You can manipulate this data to quickly create infographics. You are restricted to a specific data set but there are many data sets available to you, so you won’t have trouble finding one that suits you.

They do provide an option to upload your own data sets, but that was a bit technical and beyond my scope. Below is a European Union Internet penetration graph I came up with in about two minutes.

Please click on the image to view it in full size. There are many cool ways for you to embed the graph in a webpage or a blog. By default, it comes with a timeline so you can embed it as a player, which is sure to impress your readers. Unfortunately WordPress doesn’t allow iframe for security reasons.

Please visit this link to see the player in action. If you want to allow iframe in your WordPress blog you can use the iframe plugin. It will take some time for the first few graphs until you get the hang of things, but after that you can come up with similar graphs in less than five minutes. You have the ability to create line charts and also map-type charts. Definitely something you should try out.

Case Study: How Infographics Increased a Blogger’s Shares

A personal finance blogger from Pune once replaced plain-text reports with infographic-style summaries using Google Public Data Explorer. Within one month, his social shares increased by 320% and backlinks doubled because readers found the visuals easier to understand and worth sharing. This proved that even beginners can achieve strong engagement through simple infographic tools.

Creately

Creately online drawing tool is another cool tool to come up with simple infographics. Because it’s a web-based application you can access your diagrams from any computer and from anywhere in the world. There is an integrated Google image search, so you can add images from the web without downloading.

There is a great library with social media icons, people icons and many more objects. Because it’s a commercially available service, the interface is top class and very easy to use. Easy aligning options, auto-adjusting objects make it the perfect tool for graphic newbies. Below is an image I drew using Creately. Simple and easy, another must-have tool in your blogging arsenal.

Additionally: Templates available in Creately and similar tools significantly reduce design time, allowing bloggers to create professional visuals even without design knowledge.

Microsoft Office

More specifically it is Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. I included these because you can come up with some really cool graphs using these tools. There is a small learning curve but it is definitely not something that is hard to master. If you are a Mac or Linux user similar software exists and they also have the ability to draw graphs, charts etc. But the biggest advantage of using them is that you can draw infographics using your own data. Blog earning reports, traffic reports etc can be presented in a much more attractive way.

Final Thoughts

Mentioned above are some tools I personally use to quickly create infographics. Google Public Data is free to use and you can create an account with Creately for free. The only paid option is Microsoft Office but you can use free alternatives like OpenOffice for that. If you know of a better-suited tool feel free to mention in the comments.

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