Choose the images for your blog carefully

As the old saying goes, an image is worth thousands words. It can also be worth thousand of dollars for your blog.
Images draw reader’s attention before he or she starts reading your article. It’s natural, after all, the image is much more ‘in your face’ than the words. And here lies the problem – how to chose an image, that would incite the reader to read the article?

Everything on your blog needs to be in harmony. If the images are too dominant, you may distract the reader. If they are boring and/or of poor quality, reader may not be interested to read your article. Or, even worse, reader may lose interest in your blog altogether because bad images just make the whole website look amateurish.

To chose the right image, you need to think like a designer. If you look at the composition and something seems off, than it probably is, even if you cannot define exactly what it is. To avoid choosing wrong images, there are 5 basic questions you need to ask.

1. Does the image carry the message of the article well?

It is very important to chose an image related to the topic of your article. The closer it relates, the better. An image that has nothing to do with your topic will only confuse reader. Remember, the first thing reader sees is the headline. The second one is the image. If these two are unrelated, the chances are the reader will simply ignore the article. Especially, if you are writing about anything related to money. People are very careful when it comes to articles related to money or money making, and they always look out for scams. Therefore it is imperative to be very sensitive when it comes to your article presentation, both verbal and visual.

2. Are the colors distracting?

Not too long ago, it was very popular to have images of all colors included on your web site. Animated gif was a king and blinking text was considered a special effect that would grab anyone’s attention. Those times are gone. These are the times of professional appearance. If you need to grab reader’s attention with highlights and images with 16 million colors, then you are doing something wrong. Don’t get me wrong, flashy banners have their place, but it is not a place inside of your articles. Any animated image is automatically associated with advertisement and thus readers are prone to just ignore the whole article. But even too colorful not animated images evoke similar association. So keep it professional and within color range of your blog overall design. Do not be afraid to play with the images in an image editor. Just because the original image is too colorful does not mean you cannot use it. Just tone it down and adjust the brightness. You can even experiment with several variations until you find the one that fits the composition best. Just take your time.

3. Are the proportions too small or too big?

The size matters. Make the image too big, and it will take over the article, or even the whole web site. Make it too small, and it will go unnoticed. You can use bigger images and have them positioned across the whole article, or you can make smaller ones and have the text flow around them. It is your choice and you simply need to experiment and see what works the best.

4. Is the resolution satisfactory?

Resolution is important for two reasons – it affects loading time of your page, and it also affects the overall look of the image. Avoid using pixelated images. They make the whole website look cheap and amateurish. But also try to avoid using high-resolution images as these may increase the loading times, especially if you use several images on one page. Again, strive for balance between quality of the image and its resolution.

5. Do I have rights to use the image?

Copyright is a big issue these days and you need to be careful when it comes to using any copyrighted material. Chances are, if you get your images from Google image search, you are using copyrighted images and you can end up in a heap of trouble for it. Many of the images you find on the Internet are simply taken from another blogs and websites, more often than not without the owner’s permission. Just because you can download the image does not mean you own the license. But these days, there is no need to resort to Google image search, With prices for professional photos and illustration falling rapidly, any serious blogger, especially a blogger that wants to make money online, should chose professional stock photo services, such as istock.com or 123rf.com. With prices less than $1 per image, truly professional quality, and thousands upon thousands of images to chose from, settling for anything less and risking copyright infringement would be a foolish choice.

So here you have it. Just ask yourself these five basic questions before you place an image in your blog and you will see a dramatic improvement in overall quality of the design, make your readers more interested in your articles and make yourself a better blogger and marketer.

Happy image hunting.

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