Why you should use images excessively on your blog
This morning I went to a visual communication arts class and everyone formed a circle to discuss the evolution of newspaper layouts. I learned that the most striking difference between modern newspapers and those of the past are the ratio of pictures to text.
The first newspapers in America of course did not have images because of the limited printing technology available.
"Publick Occurences: Both Foreign and Domestick," the first multi-paged newspaper in America.
An 1898 Newspaper called "The Daily News"
But even when printing technology permitted the use of images, newspapers took a somewhat conservative approach to using images.
"The Russiaville Observer," a newspaper from 1922
A 1939 issue of "The Los Angeles Times"
A 1966 issue of "The Lafayette Journal and Courier"
Now compare those to your typical modern newspaper.
A 2006 frontpage of "The Washington Examiner"
A 2009 frontpage of "The New York Times"
A 2003 frontpage of the "The Gazette"
I don’t think anyone needs to take a visual communication arts class to realize that younger generations are more visually oriented than previous generations. We embrace mediums heavily populated with images like magazines, the television (moving images), the Internet and — heck, even our cell phones which have graphic displays and give us the ability to send pictures to one another. That is why blogs that don’t use images are so web 1.0 and will ultimately fail, unless the readers are a bunch of old geezers.
Images not only spice up blog posts visually but also:
- Grab the attention of potential readers. Images are the first thing people look at when they open a web page.
- Give readers breaks between reading large blocks of text. An image surrounded by text is like an oasis in the Sahara Desert.
- Help share meaning. Like the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
- Give your posts better search engine rankings. Search engines like Google look at the alt and description attributes as well as the file names of images to determine what a blog post is about.
Where do you find free images for your blog?
I have learned that the best way to get free images to use on your blog is to use the Creative Commons advanced search feature on Flickr. With Creative Commons images, you can use the images royalty free as long as you attribute them to the author. This usually means placing a link to the author’s photo stream at the bottom of your blog post.
Some of the free images on Flickr are professional quality as there are a lot of hobby photographers who use Flickr as a means to showcase their work. Flickr is the largest CC database but there are also several royalty free stock photo websites that you can search through if you don’t find what you want on Flickr. I can only recommend sxc.hu.
Choosing images for your blog posts
Choosing which images and how many to use in a blog post can be a difficult task. Sometimes blog posts are centered on topics so specific that no image would seem to represent the post very well. In these circumstances, I like to use a little tactic that I adopted from Alex, the guy behind Blogussion.com. I search for an abstract term on Flickr’s CC database or a royalty free stock photo site that may not even be very relevant to the post topic. For example, I might search for an image with the search term “confusion” if the topic of my blog post is a tutorial on how to change the width of your WordPress blog. Using this method has the potential to reel readers in even on the most boring subjects. I was greatly intrigued by the picture of a giant skyscraper near the top of a Blogussion post titled “7 Ways to Improve Your Blog in 2010,” and further provoked to read on.
Like in the Blogussion skyscraper post, it is okay to use images that have zero relevancy — not even abstractly — to the post topic. Yesterday I wrote about consistent blog posting and used the image of a sunset skyline to complement the text in the post. How did I go from consistent blog posting to sunset skyline? There is virtually no logical connection there but the image works well regardless of the fact that it has no direct relevancy to the post topic. As long as the reader has something to stare at, the post has a higher chance of being read.
Something rather than nothing
It is important that each blog post has at least one good image. Imageless posts will be ignored by a good percentage of potential readers because nothing exists to grab attention other than the headlines. Even the most boring images can have a dramatic effect on the popularity of a post.
Our generation has become intolerant to pure text mediums. People read less and spend more time ogling images. This means the successful blogger must do a little extra work to ensure that each post uses a sufficient number of images for visual optimization.
I certainly need to work on my ratio of images to text.
Be sure to leave a comment if you have any thoughts on this matter!
Tags: content
I do like using a lot of photos on my blog. I find that some people do complain about load time. When you have a fast connection, it’s easy to forget about all those that don’t.
This post is just a little scary. As I’ve been looking through blogs, I’ve found that as the ratio of pictures to text goes up, the quality of the writing itself goes down. Way down. How is it that we are reading more and yet are less literate than ever? But I suppose that at 40, I am more an old fart and less a member of the ADD generation. Perhaps I’ll start my blog on how to write so that you don’t need so many pictures.
I also use Snagit on my blog for photos its a very cost effective way to have photos on your blog and to express what you are trying to say. I also agree that images do grab the attention of readers it makes the post come alive.
I think theres no question that images (when used in the right manner) can attract users to certain areas of the post. Not only this but they can breakdown a large amount of text making it more readable and better presented.
People are visual beings by nature. Although you should have a well developed and clear message. A picture is worth a thousand words!