I get a lot of comments on how I use images in all of my blog posts. True, I have a good amount of experience with Adobe Photoshop and use it every time I post… but you can get the same aesthetically pleasing effect by placing images in your posts effectively. I have seen blogs with too many images and too few images.

It is essential that every post has at least one image inside of it in my opinion. Using pictures that don’t clash with your design make things easier to read, and more enjoyable. I stand by my belief that using dynamic images in your blog posts will increase your traffic drastically in the long run. Lets figure out how to do it correctly and effectively!

Put an Eye-Catching Image on the Top of Each Post
If you look back on some of the best-looking posts I have put out as of late, you will notice a common theme: there is a “fun” graphic at the top that holds your interest and encourages reading (example, example, example). I am amazed that more people do not do this, as I have found it one of the most fool-proof methods to increase your readership. After experimenting with the placement of images in my posts, I settled on the rule of thumb, picture-at-the-top method, because it really draws readers to your content and makes the entire post more enjoyable.

Give Your Images Their “Personal Space”
WordPress has a nifty feature on the “insert image” function that allows you to put a horizontal and/or vertical spacing between your images and your article’s content. People that don’t use this are foolish. Take a look at the images in this post, see how the text is buffered around it? I usually tack on a 10-to-12 pixel horizontal spacing around each image to ensure that things don’t clash with my text. If you have your images running up and almost touching your content… you are missing out.

Match Your Background Colors
If you have an image, make sure that it either has a border or has a matching background color. This is where Adobe Photoshop or another similar photo-editing software comes in great handy. What I typically do, if the backgrounds to not match, is simply cut out the entire background area and fill it with the color white. It’s really that simple, and it makes things look so much better.

Use Images That Rock
This is the most often asked question of all. “Where do you get your images Jim?” Well, I’m not telling! Okay, fine I’ll tell . There are a large number of websites that you can use, but I would first off recommend a stock image website like iStockphoto and Stock.Xchng. iStockphoto is my most frequented website, and the images do cost money… but boy are they worth it! If you want to be thrifty, use images from Stock.Xchng… the largest free stock photo website on the internet. Finally, if those don’t provide good results, I occasionally use Google Images to pull up some good looking publicly available pictures.

Stock images are great, but I recommend using more of your own images than anything else. Whenever I review a website, I always take a screenshot and offer my readers a look into their websites. If you don’t want to go through this trouble, Alexa.com has screenshots of every site it tracks. Take screenshots of things you like, get permission to use them, and fire away!

Optimize Your Pictures For Speed
Finally, it is important for all of your images to load quickly. This does not mean that you need to destroy the quality of your pictures! If you use some editing software like Photoshop, you can effectively lower your “quality” without making it appear any different. I prefer the .jpg extension, but .gif images can be optimized as well. If people are waiting more than two seconds to see all of the images in your post, they are going to lose interest. Make sure that everything is streamlined and efficient, and always sacrifice quality for speed!

Here’s the bottom line: Images are a necessary part of every blog post. Unless your blog is strictly business professional, you need to spice things up with some flavorful pictures in order to hold the interest of your readers. Using images effectively will increase the amount of time people spend on your website, increase returning visits and increase your traffic flow.

-The Net Fool

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