It’s Friday at Weekly Blogging, which means it’s time for our weekly discussion post. This week: does an image improve a post?
I can’t make up my mind about images. In the time I’ve been blogging, I’ve included images on some posts, usually relevant images, but sometimes it’s tough to find something suitable.
Some of my blogs have an image on almost every post – Top Ten Blog Tips is a good example. In this case, the image is also used as a thumbnail on the homepage and the category pages. If a post doesn’t have an image, a default thumbnail is used (the domino).
Here at Weekly Blogging, and also over at Ben Barden, I don’t use images very often. Would images improve your enjoyment of the posts I write? Does it make much difference if a post is already good? Can it help a bad post to come off a bit better?
A tutorial with screenshots is not the same as a blog entry with an image or two. The screenshots serve a purpose – they make the article easier to follow.
A great image can work wonders. It jumps out at you. The reader’s attention is drawn to the image. On the other hand, a poor image will not help a reader to determine what a post is about. I do read a couple of blogs that use images that don’t relate to the post, mainly because the content is good.
As for image-only posts – sometimes this can work if the photo is good and it’s relevant to the blog. But it doesn’t work so well when the photo is not that great or it’s totally irrelevant. Why not write a proper blog entry, and put your photo posts into a separate gallery?
An image can get someone’s attention. But it won’t usually keep their attention. You need good content for that. Some of my best posts have been free of images, and people still enjoy them and comment on them. Do I need to use images unless they actually add something to the post?
What do you think?
Do you use images in your posts?
Are they relevant to the content?
Does it make a difference to you if other blogs use images? Do you still read if they don’t?
I prefer to use images the way children’s books use illustrations – to help tell the story. While I used to search images more often when I first started out blogging, I rarely do that anymore. For one thing, I prefer to use my own images rather than stock images or things found on an internet search, and for another, I just don’t have time.
I do like images on posts, but prefer them to be for the purposes of telling the story rather than an attention grabber. For example, if I were to post about say, writing a book, I’d much post a picture of my desk or a semi-candid picture of me actually writing than a stock image of a typewriter. I prefer the personal touches like that.
Images themselves won’t stop me from reading someone’s blog – that all depends on the actual content.
I really dislike images posted just for the sake of having an image. Second to that, I don’t really like people who don’t even use their own photos, drawings or illustrations of some kind. If you wrote the post yourself why not illustrate it too. To me it makes the whole thing look silly to add an image you borrow from someone else, likely someone who posted to Flickr or some such site and allows that kind of anonymous use. I look for attribution on the images, but it is not always there.
I don’t know why people don’t just skip using an image if they can’t create one themselves. If you work on a solo blog then you may not have time. But it looks kind of cheap and tacky to stick one on just because “they” say you should post with an image. If you work on a network site then why can’t they find a few people on the network to create artwork for the site? It’s just laziness in that case. That’s how I feel about it. I do draw my own illustrations when I post an image with a post. I don’t post many images but I’d like to do more. I used to post one a week on my personal blog.
[...] at Weekly Blogging, I ask: does an image improve a post? I think it does, if the image is both eye-catching and relevant to the post content. So, [...]