No one enjoys reading solid blocks of text. Break up your blog posts with attractive, relevant images that reinforce the subject or theme of the post. The right images make your blog posts easier on the eye and more likely to be read. Here are some tips for using images:
You must have permission to use an image. If you can shoot photographs or design graphics yourself, do it. Wikimedia Commons is probably the best internet site for finding free pictures and graphics that are in the public domain. If you don’t mind paying a small fee, iStockphoto is a superior source of photos and graphics. Exception to the rule: you can use a corporation’s logo as a graphic if the corporation is a subject of your post. Don’t even be tempted, however, to use Google Image Search; almost everything there is copyrighted.
- You’ll want and need to tweak the images you use. Crop the borders and adjust the alignment and dimensions as needed to make the graphic look proper on the webpage. Otherwise, it can look like you “just tossed something up there.” You’ll probably need to resize (smaller) anything larger than 600 x 400 pixels.
- Dozens of software programs are available for graphics, and many are good, but all you really need are Microsoft Office Picture Manager and Microsoft Paint; both are included with Windows 8. You may also want to look at Picnik, a site that allows you to perform basic photo edits for free and advanced editing for a small charge.
- Be sure to put an attractive graphic at the top of your page to draw in your reader; it’s equivalent to a newspaper putting a dynamic photo “above the fold” on their front page. A photo at the bottom of a long scroll is useless in helping you attract readers.
- If you don’t feel confident about doing all of this on your own, don’t hesitate to hire a social media marketing company to help with any aspect or all aspects of your internet marketing. A social media marketing company can provide the blog content you need and relieve your blogging anxieties.
