How to Easily Increase the Value of Your Blog Post/Article by 1000 Words

There’s a way to add a 1000 words value to your blog post.

It’s easy.

It’s quick.

And most bloggers (excluding the successful ones) don’t do it!

How to do it?

Add a picture.

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

That may be a cliche, but I believe it is a true one.

Eight Solid Reasons to Use Pictures in Blog posts and Articles

1. People love images – would you look at a poster with just words?
2. A picture instantly conveys meaning.
3. Blog posts with pictures rank higher. (Not surprising, as spam bloggers can rarely be bother to add images).
4. Click through rates from social media sites are higher when users see an image, which is often displayed automatically.
5. Images appear in google image search, bringing more people to your blog post, and may sometimes be shown in search engine results. See Google’s own tips for maximising SEO benefits from images.
6. Images help break up blocks of text in a blog post and increase readability.
7. People often share great images, which can mean more exposure on sites like pinterest, twitter and Facebook.
8. It’s a lot easier than writing another thousand words!

5 Great Tips for Using Images:

1. Don’t steal images! Bloggers can and have been sued for stealing images. Use a cheap stock photo site (I use fotolia, where most images cost little more than a dollar), or search for images licensed for reuse. Wikipedia often allow images to be reused (usually with an attribution link) and flickr have a creative commons search, with images available for reuse.

2. Use an alt tag: Not using an alt standard is breaking web standards – use an alt tag with a relevant keyword in and it could help your seo and bring more visitors in from Google Image Search. Make sure the file name of the image and the alt tag match the content of your blog post, but don’t stuff hundreds of keywords in there!

3. Pin your images: Use pinterest to reach even more people. While you are at it, why not start a group board with other people in your niche, which means you work together to create a board and share followers.

Want to know more? Check out these tips for using pinterest to promote your blog.

4. Make sure the image matches your content.

5. Don’t forget psychology: Images can convey trust, raise subtle fears or increase desire for a product. For example, an image of health in a post about e-cigarettes can subtly remind a smoker about their desire to be healthy.

Have you got any other tips for using images in blog posts? Let me know in the comments below