There’s no doubt about it, images
increase views on a blog. According to digital marketing expert, Jeff Bullas, “Articles with images get 94% more total views. Including a photo and a video in a press release increases views by over 45%.
“60% of consumers are more likely to consider or contact a business when an image shows up in local search results.”
If your not using images, you may be missing out on increased interest in what you write about. And isn’t getting people to actually read your posts what you want? If it’s not, why the heck are you blogging for in the first place? If it’s purely for your own satisfaction, go for it. But for most of the people I know who blog, myself included, we want people to read our posts and in many cases, take some type of action.
If you’re selling products from your blog, images definitely increase the interest of the potential buyer. However, the quality of the product image is essential.
When using images you want to make sure you follow a few simple guidelines. Avoid copying images off of Google without either paying for the images or getting expressed permission from the photographer. If you miss this key point, you could set yourself up for a lot of problems.
You can utilize services where you pay for single use of an image. There are plenty to choose from such as iStock, Bigstock and Shutterstock.
If you’re looking for ample choices on photos check out Pixabay. They have lots of free images you can choose from. Be sure not to use the ones with watermarks. This means you likely have to pay for the watermarked images.
The least expensive and safest bet is to use your own photos. But make sure they are not blurry and as high quality as you can get them. The best part of using your own photos is being able to edit your photos into a real masterpiece you can call your own.
I recently discover Canva and love how easy it is to edit and create my own images. I can also buy images they provide for $1.
Another resource I recently discovered is BeFunky. Fun, fun, fun photo editor.
Here are a few of my “first attempts” at both Canva.
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not an artist or editor. But I’ve been having lots of fun with Canva and BeFunky.
I know the more I use each of these, the better I will get. (Isn’t that true for anything we do!) For my first few, I’m pretty happy with the results.
Regardless of what route you go, images do make a difference. Think about it. Amazon wouldn’t sell anywhere near what they do if it weren’t for the images of every product listed on the mammoth site.
For example, I recently bought a table water fountain for my office. I liked it so much, I bought a couple of my clients the same water fountain.
If I were to try and describe it without a picture, you may not get the actual feel for what it looks like. But with an image, you know exactly what I’m referring to.
The image b
elow lets you know if this is something you would be interested in…or not. Click the image to go to Amazon for the full description of the water feature.
Put careful thought into the images you use. Make sure they tie into your message. Avoid simply throwing something into your post just because you heard you need images.
As with anything, the more effort you put into what you’re doing, the better.
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