What images can you use in a blog post?
While there are absolutely no restrictions on what images you can add to your blog post, isn’t it better to have those images which have a logical connection with your post topic? Basically, you can use three types of images in a blog post:
- Directly Related to Blog Post Topic: If the post is about blogging, you can add an image of a person typing on his/her computer, writing something on a pad/notebook or simply an animated version of the words “blogging” or “blog”.
- Indirectly Related to Blog Post Topic: If you wish to make the readers think a bit about the image you have used in the post, choose one with an abstract meaning related to the post topic. Suppose the post is about “The Best…..”. You could take an image with a black and white collection of objects – say balls – and add a colored object to it, thus making it better than the others!
- Unrelated to Blog Post Topic: You could use an image which has absolutely no relationship with the post too! For example, using comic strips or something like “thought of the day” would most likely be appreciated by you readers!
Where can you find images for your blog posts?
The internet is a finitely infinite source of images, which be tapped using search engines! However, here are a few places you can find amazing images for adding to your blog posts:
- Stock Photo Sites: Search for them using keywords like: “Your Topic” + “stock photos”, example ones include http://www.sxc.hu/ and http://www.freepixels.com/
- Other Blogs: If you don’t care about having unique images for your blog, other blogs on similar topics could be a great source! Make sure the blog owners don’t have any objections though.
- Publish Photo Sharing Sites: Picasaweb.Google.com, Flickr.com, Photobucket.com etc. are great places for finding images, again pay attention to copyright and always link image credit.
- Social Networks: Facebook, Google Plus and now even Twitter networks can help you discover some insightful images about your post topic. Since only the cool images are likely to go viral on social networks, you can easily discover them by scouring networks related to your topic or say a group about blogging or photography.
- Use original photos/animations: If you can’t find the type of images you are looking for, why not buy some from a professional photographer or shoot them yourself? Make sure you use a high resolution camera though, your mobile phone’s picture probably won’t make the cut.
- Amazon, with the EasyAZON WordPress plugin you can quickly and easily find images for Amazon products including posters and insert them into your blog. This also doubles over as a revenue source because if the image is clicked on you may get a sale or referral sale commission from any other item the user may buy on Amazon.
Why should use images in blog posts?
Other than aesthetic reasons, images in blog posts could be used to focus on specific points in the post using a flowchart, make the post topic more visible and also gain a lot more search engine traffic through image search engines!
“A painting is worth a thousand words”
– the next best thing is a digital image!
I’m a Generalist Researcher working on a Theory of Reality, Horticulturist, Blogger, Natural Systems Analyst and Amateur Architect