Today is Day 2 of the Be A Better Blogger series. We're using the outline offered by Collis Ta’eed in his article titled 31 Days To Becoming A Better Blogger, and our topic for the day is:
Start using more images in your posts.
Readers like images — they help set the tone of your blog post, illustrate metaphors and generally make your posts more interesting to look at. You can use a free stock photography service, but you can also...
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This is a great topic for blog improvement, as it has been widely agreed that images grab your visitors attention and help to generate more interest in your content. I know there are many times I am scanning a blog or scanning through my RSS Reader, and will stop to take notice when an image grabs my eye.
I generally use iStockPhoto to find images to use in my own blog posts. Their site is incredibly inexpensive and easy to use, so I will usually start there even though there are free image options too.
There is a great tutorial on ProBlogger that will teach you the basics, from free image editing software to actual HTML image tags:
An Introduction to Using Images on Blogs
The most important thing is to get the formatting and spacing right, so that it aligns well with your content and blog layout. I like to use smaller images and align them at the top left or right of a blog post, like I did in this one. These are great for drawing your visitors' eye into a particular topic.
Other images to use in blog posts are illustrations or screen shots within the content. This helps to break up long articles and keep your readers attention longer.
The task for today is to publish a blog post with an image in it. If you have questions or need help, use the comment section below to reply. Otherwise, leave a comment below and give us a link to your blog post with an image in it!
This one counts as mine 😀
Best,
p.s. Fortunately today's task was much easier than Day One. That one took me longer than expected, but at least I am officially caught up now and ready to move on to Day 3 😉
About Lynn Terry
At first I used small pictures to accent many of my posts, but now I use full size pictures because I think it's much more eye-catching. I had originally created a photo gallery on a stagnant .html page, but then recently started created blog posts for each project I had photos for.
Basically I "feature" each project with pictures submitted by my readers along with a quote from them on an individual blog post. Then I email the reader whose project I'm featuring that day with the link directly to that individual blog-post. I suggest to them that they leave a comment and check the box to be notified of followup comments, so they can be notified whenever someone comments on their project.
In the case of this project, "Formica Counters Never Looked So Good" the member emailed the link to their friends and family & within a week that post had well over a dozen comments. 😉
http://thefamilyceo.blogspot.com/2008/03/becoming-better-blogger-day-2-using.html
Day 2 down! 29 to go!
Those full size pictures work great in your posts, Carrie - well done! That is a good example of using illustrations to compliment the content. A reader could easily scan your blog post and be impressed enough to go back and read it through, or get the gist and click straight on the order link 😉
You can find tons of free high quality images online to use on your blog. The one I've been using is at http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ Just be sure to read the licensing for each group of images.
Some people want a link back, others don't, but I try to always at least link to the original on flickr.
That wasn't as easy as I thought. I spent far too much time looking for the perfect picture. And then when I came back here I thought, "Hmm... too similar to the subject of Lynn's image? Maybe I should change it?" Sorry, I can't take any more time to search for another! 😮
Hi everyone, if you are using WordPress, there is this free plugin which allows you to search the huge Flickr database photos and add them to your posts with 1 click. More info here: http://www.photodropper.com/add-photos-blog/
I personally found it very useful!
I love using pictures and screenshots in posts and try to use them often on my blogs. Black and white text just gets so boring after 50 posts of nothing but text it's hard to stay focused.
Thanks for the resources, Paul & Kendra! 😀
Linda - I'm guilty of that too, which is why I usually just go straight to iStockPhoto and do a search. It may not be free, but its fast & easy and they have great variety so I always find something to use right away.
Thanks, I started doing this but was limited in those I had. It is great to be around marketers like you all.
I personally like incorporating as many photos as possible in my sites, unless it's an article and we need to focus on the information.
Here are 3 very good resources. You can check them out. I think Skellie's (the second one) is the best by far.
http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2007/100-legal-sources-for-free-stock-images/
http://www.skelliewag.org/a-complete-guide-to-finding-and-using-incredible-flickr-images-162.htm
http://www.etechbuzz.com/how-to-make-your-post-attractive-using-images
Finding pictures to illustrate my posts isn't usually the issue, it's choosing between them. Leinad takes lots of pictures at every event. Sometimes the cataloging and tracking takes longer than anything else.
Picture captivates the attention of the readers, and it a nice suggestion that it should be made use of. However, it must not be overused, too much of everything is bad.
Sometimes I use Dreamweaver to create a table to create a blog post with images, then paste the code into my blog. Tonight I read the link provided in this post and learned that the align code allows text to wrap around a picture. I really didn't know it did that. I know basic HTML and never really used that code. Thanks for sharing this post because now I can create posts more easier with images!
Sweet - the alignment code is great. I use it too! You can also add in code for spacing. For example hspace="10" will put 10 pixels of space horizontally, and vspace="10" vertically.
This is something I really need to do. Here's a start:
http://wahmdaily.com/generating-traffic/6-steps-to-successful-viral-marketing-through-forum-posting
and another:
http://wahmdaily.com/internet-marketing/viral-marketing-101
A nice touch I think. 🙂
~Cynthia
Looking good, Cynthia!
Here's an example that works real well for my personal blog:
http://carriewigal.com/2008/03/24/bridging-our-differences/
And then I totally revamped my business blog to get the theme's all to jive with one another...there's actually three wordpress blogs on this one domain. Up until now I've been really guilty of just writing text on my business journal, but today I wrote a post (announcing the new web design and structure) and included a picture. 😉
http://wigglewigal.com/2008/04/04/wigglewigalcom-gets-design-makeover/
Excellent examples, Carrie!