So, you’ve finally stopped procrastinating and written a beautiful article for your blog. It felt great, because the idea has been bugging you for a week and now you’re finally done. You’ve taken our advice and filled the text will bullet-pointed lists, lots of sub headlines, and used clear and fun language. It’s a masterpiece. Now, the real question…
Will anyone read it?
We Don’t Read, We Scan
The truth is, very few people will read anything on the web. At the very least we’ll only scan the text. How do we choose what things we scan and which we click through? Our eyes make the decision based on what we’re attracted to. And nature tells us we’re most attracted to: Photos of people!
Photos Make Us Want to Read Your Information
Imagine two identical blocks of text. One has photos of beautiful people and one is just black text on a white background. I’ll bet you don’t have to think much about which article to read. So before you post any article, take some time to find some complementary photos to accompany the text.
Here are some of our favorite sources:
- www.istockphoto.com – stock photography from $1 each, even cheaper with a subscription.
- www.shutterstock.com – Subscription site for stock photos 12/month for $49
- www.gettyimages.com – High quality stock images prices can be very expensive.
- www.fotolia.com – Stock photos for $1 per and up.
Pick Challenging or Humorous Photos to Enhance Your Points
Often we just pick the first couple photos that seem to fit what we’re talking about. Take some time to find photos that really enhance your talking points. If it’s funny, challenging, or bizarre, your audience is much more likely to stop and take a look.
Try searching for “fish humorous” or “fish bizarre” instead of just “fish.” You’ll have a lot more fun with the photos you find and so will your audience.
A Picture is Worth 1000 Words and at Least $1
It is totally worth the money spent on a professional photo. Most royalty free images should only cost you about $1 per photo for a web-quality image. You’ll really enjoy choosing the right images to go with your article from a professional gallery service and you won’t have to worry about being sued for a stolen photo from Google Images. Paying photographers is the right thing to do. Royalty free means that you can reuse the image and don’t have to buy it for a single use.
Crop Your Photos Dramatically
One trick I like to use to make my blog content pop is to crop the photos to match the text. There’s no reason to use standard photo shapes. Most computers come with free photo editing software that makes cropping photos extremely simple. I often use a dramatic horizontal crop to accentuate the text width or use a tall photo crop to match up to a bullet point list.
Have fun and play around with what works best.
Eager for more? Read Zeke’s additional blog tips:
