Use of illustrations in blog posts not only make them more attractive, but also help in conveying the message more clearly to the reader. Often many novice bloggers do not know the correct way of using illustrations in blog post. There are several issues related with use of images in posts, viz., how to find the correct picture, licensing issues, SEO strategy related to images, placement, spicing up the picture and much more.
Use of images in post can make huge difference in pulling more readers to your blog. A plain text post can be dull for most of the readers, even if you have written great content. Unless you are not popular like Darren, you have to put extra effort in every possible way to make your post look more attractive to visitors.
How to search images for blog posts?
Flickr is the most popular site used by bloggers for searching images. There is a large community sharing pictures with each other, giving you ample options to choose your required images. Another excellent free stock photo site is Everystockphoto, where you can find thousands of free and licensed images. Wikimedia Commons is also used by large community of users for using various types of media files, including the pictures. All pictures under this site are licensed under the creative commons license.Licensing Issues
If we are using images in our posts, we need to be aware of its license status. Some images are exclusively copyrighted and cannot be used elsewhere, without the written permission of the owner. Flickr allows you to license your images as per your needs. You can find thousands of licensed images on flickr, which you can freely use on your blog, provided you give appropriate attribution to the owner.SEO Concerns
If properly implemented, the images in your posts can bring huge traffic to your blog. A proper defined META description tag of your image can give your image higher rankings in SERP's of Google image search.Proper Image Placement
Do not put a large image at the beginning or end of the post. The starting section should always be reserved for the keyword rich section. Do not stuff too many images in a single post. If the image is large align it in center, else you can align on either side and wrap it around the post content.Spicing Up The Picture
Whenever you decide to modify any licensed image, make sure the owner has given the modification rights in his license. Various effects can be added to the images to make them more attractive. You can add shadow effect, magnify some part, put arrows, or bubble dialogue cloud in your image to explain things better in your image. All this extra work on images can be easily done by SnagIt.
Do you use images in your blog posts, or prefer plain text posts? Which software do you use to edit your pictures?
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