Finding great images for blog posts can often be a big pain in the neck. There are plenty of royalty free stock image sites around but that’s a great option only if have an unending supply of money to spend on subscriptions. Sites like Pixabay offer some great free images for download but using them as is isn’t always the best option.
So how do you get the best images for your blog posts? You improvise. Here are some handy tips to create fantastic images for your blog posts.
- Use images that portray powerful emotions. People relate to it more easily and will share them as well.
- Keep your images relevant to your content and age groups so that readers who view your image can relate to it.
- If you use images from royalty free stock image websites, add, text, effects and such and customize it to make it your own.
- Never use pixelated, blurry images. Your text and objects must be crisp, clear and focused.
- Make sure your images have a good resolution (not less than 72dpi for online use).
- Photos captured on your digital camera must be taken in natural sunlight, but not under direct sunlight.
- If you are using props to convey a story, make sure you don’t stuff too many of them in your shot.
- Take multiple images from different angles on your camera so you can choose the best one later.
- Capture high quality images on your iPhone or Android device and directly import them into SnagIt to make them blog ready.
- If you are selling a product, encourage your users to snap a picture of them with the product and share them with you on social platforms. If you find any of them worth using on your blog, you can give them credit for it.
- If you take photos inside a room, make sure that you have a spotlessly clean background.
- Save all your images as PNG files instead of JPEG.
- Avoid showing too much information in your image. For instance if you are capturing a screen window, just highlight that part of the screen that you want to showcase.
- Don’t always add serious images to your content. Include something lighthearted and funny to break the monotony.
- Use less text in your images. Let your image do all the talking.
- If you want to express multiple ideas in one image, use a collage. Canva has plenty of ready to use frames and templates you can use.
- Use contrasting colors to bring out your content. A light background and darker text or vice versa will instantly grab reader’s attention.
- If you have trouble finding the right colors for images you are creating from scratch, make use of websites like Color-Hex to find the right color combinations you can use.
- When picking fonts for your images, keep the main title big and bold with simple, smaller text for subtitles.
- Avoid using too many colors, fonts, and shapes in your image.
- Image placement is crucial. Keep large images in the article centered. If you align images to the left or right of your content, make sure they are small so that they don’t compete with the content for space.
- Use a premium WP plugin like Social Warfare to generate viral traffic. This plugin optimizes one image for all platforms except Pinterest. You can create an additional image for Pinterest using Canva.
- Use the right image size for each of the social platforms you intend to share your images. Canva readily offers templates for the various social platforms, but if you are not using Canva, use the following dimensions.
- Google + : 2048px x 1152px;
- Twitter: 1024px x 512px;
- Facebook: 851px x 315px;
- Instagram: 640px x 640px;
- Pinterest: 735px x 1102px;
- Don’t forget to optimize your images for search engines.
- Always place an image above the fold. This will encourage the readers to scroll down below and view the rest of the content.
- Images sizes are crucial for site speed. Make sure you use the appropriate image size for your blog post and optimize using tools like PNGGauntlet or WordPress plugins like WPSmushIt.
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