Pictures on blogs? necessary or not?

[Kym]

Im just wondering what people think of pictures on blogs?
I dont have any!
Im wondering if it is beneficail or not?
Any ideas?
Thanks - Kym

[Blaine Moore]

One of the Blog Mastermind lessons deals directly with how best to use pictures and photos on your blog posts, but yes, they are worth using. They pull in the reader's eyes and keep them interested in what they have on their screen.

[Kym]

Well that makes very good sense!
Of course you want your readers to stay engaged for the longest possible time - I thought that would happen through amazing content! It does make sense to give them a little eye treat now and again though.
Thanks Blaine

[ezmoney]

There is another reason you should include images in your content.

Google Images!!!

Google Images indexes images from the web. When people search Google Images, they may click on your images and land on your site.

I get some good traffic from Google Images.

[CodrutTurcanu]

There's no blog that I like that is not using picture in a way or another.

You could use Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing and get graphs, buttons, images, etc.

Try it and see how your blogging results start to improve. Once you start using pictures, your blog will breathe more life and visitors will stick to it longer than before.

[mintblogger]

Exactly, use of images not only makes your post sticky but also gives additional traffic from Google Image Search, provided you have embedded them in right way (fox exp: given appropriate <alt> tag to each picture)

Here is an excellent post from Tibi Puiu about use of images in blog posts Images In Posts: Where to Find and How to Use Them. | Lost Art Of Blogging

[diana]

During a recent survey many of my readers told me that they wanted more pictures. I tend to include one in about every post.

As mentioned previously, if you name them appropriately and tag them they also help with SEO.

I find free images at MorgueFile and through the various free hosted albums such as flicker and photobucket. Occasionally I purchase credits for iStock (great quality) and I take my digital camera everywhere--which is great for my regional blog.

Got a secret from a pal of mine and now host the photos I take in an album offsite with a keyword phrase to optimize further.

[masmilele]

Originally Posted by Kym

Im just wondering what people think of pictures on blogs?
I dont have any!
Im wondering if it is beneficail or not?
Any ideas?
Thanks - Kym

Speaking as someone who has been writing for many months and always used multiple images, here's my two cents on images:
1) Yup, they do result in significant traffic from Google Images. It recently started picking up for me and is rising.
2) I started using them to break up long paragraphs and give people a break when reading.
3) They are great for humour.
4) The definitive guide is:A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images
5) The best quality images: Istockphoto hands down, and Flickr is an extremely close second.

Hope this helps

[quentin]

People who come to your page are not just looking for information but an experience.

Over 50% of them are not readers and the ones that do read usually read around a 6th grader level.

Pictures can covey so much more than just words.

Say I was talking about streaming audio here is a picture I may use.



Don't just use pictures for the sake of using them but be creative and weave them into your text.

Get the idea.

Quentin

[CzechFolks]

Yes, you should use pictures. They can increse traffic to your site but the content is the most important part of your blog.