You’ve thought about it, and may have even seen other bloggers do it, but using images in blog posts can be daunting…particularly if you don’t know the rules.
Unlike reading a newspaper or book, reading things off of a computer screen is different, and eyes tire quickly. By adding a relevant image to a post, you’re doing more than just beautifying your post. You’re breaking content up and giving your readers’ eyes a subconscious break. This is one of many ways to make your content user friendly. And ultimately, making your content as user friendly as possible is good because the easier a post is on the eye, the more likely it will be read.
No one likes to stare at walls and walls of text.
Here’s a run down of the dos and don’ts of using images in blog posts:
- DO: choose an image that’s relevant to your subject.
- DO: if you’re referencing an organization, you can use their logo (for more on this, see “Questions about Trademark”).
- DO: use images you’ve taken yourself. Not an option? Search public domain sites. Wikimedia Commons is a good place to start.
- DO: read Kevin’s post on using Flickr and other creative commons sites.
- DO: tweak your images. Adjust the image properties (border, alignment, dimensions) to ensure the image looks as it should, without appearing arbitrarily placed.
- DO: re-size the image if it’s too big (as a rule of thumb, re-size anything over 600 x 400 px). You can either use software already on your computer, or use Picnik, an easy site to use that allows you to perform basic photo edits for free (you can get a membership for more advanced edits).
- DO: see our FAQ about How to properly credit a photo source.
- DON’T: use Google Image Search. As tempting as it is, most of the images you will find are copyrighted images that aren’t fair use.
- DON’T: ignore copyright law. Just because you find an image that you like online doesn’t mean you can use it on your blog. After all, images are subject to the same copyright and fair use laws as written materials.
- DON’T: sweat the small stuff. If all you want is one go-to website that has great photography — and you don’t mind paying for it — then iStockphoto is one of our client favorites.
- DON’T: use poor quality images. Always make sure images have proportional aspect ratios (width and height).
- DON’T: be afraid to use more than one image. Pro Blogger uses a photo for each point in a bulleted list.
- DON’T: put the image at the bottom, keep it toward the top to lure in readers.The exception here is if you’re using multiple pictures in a post.
- DON’T: link the image back to the site where you found it. This is hotlinking, which is generally frowned upon.
Using imagery can be very effective in enriching your posts, and it isn’t difficult to do. Give it a whirl and see for yourself. Feel free to contact me with any questions on the issue, or if you simply need help uploading an image.
Further reading: