What if I told you that the secret to a successful blog post isn’t always the words you write but the visual content that you use to illustrate it?
Listen below to find out more about using visual content in your blog posts
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We’ve talked about images before. In episode 13 I talked about images for social sharing, in episode 9 we discussed creating a visual style guide.
Today I’m going to talk about the different types of visual content you can include in your blog posts. Images that will make your posts look more comprehensive and detailed and keep readers on site longer. I’m also going to share my tool recommendations that make creating those images easier.
Why Use Visual Content?
In my early blogging years I used to write for a site called Bloggertone (now the fabulous Tweak Your Biz). I remember getting a comment back from the editor on a post I’d submitted about Facebook landing pages. They suggested that I include visuals to illustrate my examples. I went back and got screen grabs and yes, the blog post was a success. Looking back at it now it seems bizarre that I would have written a post like that without images.
Lets compare our blogs to a magazine.
When is the last time you picked up a magazine that had not images in it? Without a cover? It’s often the cover that will grab our attention and encourage us to buy. Yes there are words on the cover but it’s the glossy colourful image that attracts our attention.
A blog is in many ways like a magazine, when I land on a blog article and there is no image it looks naked, I’m never quite sure if I’ve arrived in the right place.
Go back to that magazine, the cover made you pick it up but if you opened it and discovered lots of long articles with any visuals to illustrate them you’d probably put it down again.
It’s time to think about the other images we can use to enhance our blog posts. Here are some suggestions and some tools you can use to create visual content.
Quotes
When you read an article in a magazine you’ll notice that they have picked out specific, interesting quotes and enlarged them. When you look at the article from afar these quotes stand out.
These quotes serve two purposes for the reader. They showcase some of the most interesting content encouraging you to read and they also keep you reading knowing that you’ll be getting to ‘the good bit’ soon.
You can replicate this style on your blog. Look for the words of wisdom in your post. If there aren’t any, go back and add some. Now take these short quotes and create an image with them. There are lots of tools that make this process quick and easy.
Canva
I’m a big fan of Canva, if you haven’t tried it yet you should. Canva is a really easy to use graphics tool that you can use both on the web and mobile. It gives you templates to choose from and there are lots of elements and illustrations that you can use to create attractive images.
Here’s one I made earlier:
Wordswag
Wordswag is a mobile app and an old favourite of mine. It adds funky text overlays to photographs. You can choose one of their backgrounds or upload your own photo, type in your text and choose from the style templates they offer.
You will be overwhelmed with style choices so I recommend choosing two or three styles that you will use consistently.
Wordswag is available for iOS and Android and costs €4.99, it’s well worth it.
Here’s one I made earlier:
Adobe Spark
Spark is similar to Wordswag but you have more control. You can choose from a number of styles and it will automatically pull in a colour scheme based on the photo you are editing. This is the tool I use the most when I’m on the go. I also use it for my weekly Facebook Live promo images.
Adobe Spark is currently only available for iOS but they are planning to launch on Android in the future. It’s free to use.
Here’s one I made earlier:
Fontspiration
For something completely different take a look at Fontspiration. Add your quote and it gives you some really nice animation options. You can make the background flicker so it looks like the titles from an old silent movie. You can make it appear one letter at a time as if it’s being typed on a typewriter and coolest of all, you can make it look like the Star Wars titles.
Fontspiration is iOS only and it’s free.
Here’s one I made earlier:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLdk8xHDZtj/?taken-by=spiderworking
Graphs and charts
It’s much easier to understand data if it’s presented as a graph or chart. If you are quoting research or statistics try adding charts to your post to illustrate them.
If you are a Microsoft office whizz you can create graphs and charts using excel of powerpoint.
I prefer to use an online tool for mine.
Online Chart Tool
Online Chart Tool is so easy to use. Save your data from excel as a .csv, upload it to Online Chart Tool, customise your fonts, colours and labels and you’ll get a good, branded chart in minutes.
Visage
Visage adds a bit more finesse to your content. It can be used for any sort of graphical content but I particularly like the charts. You can choose from a variety of different chart types and add multiple charts to one image. It lets you store visual assets including your brand colours, fonts and logo for easy access. It’s really easy to use and it’s free for up to 5 images a month.
It is a bit harder to create using Visage than Online Chart Tool and as far as I can see you have to add your data manually but it offers a lot more customisation.
Screen Captures
My blog posts are full of examples and tutorials. I describe them in words but I also rely on Screen captures to illustrate these examples. Sometimes it’s much easier to show people what to do than describe it.
When you choose a tool for screen capture you’ll want one that will let you annotate your images as well as capturing them.
Skitch from Evernote
Skitch from Evernote is my go-to tool for screen capture on both my computer and phone. It allows you to take full or selective screen shots and annotate them with arrows, highlights and more. If you’ve seen a tutorial on my blog or powerpoint from me it was probably created using Skitch. It’s free to use.
You can download Skitch for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android
Here’s one I made earlier:
Snagit
Snagit does everything that Skitch does and more. You can capture full web pages rather than just what you can see on screen and capture video as well as stills. Snagit costs $49.95 for a single licence.
Step by Step
If your tutorials are real life rather than online you can take photographs of each step along the way so readers can easily follow along.
You can share your how to images one by one and break them up with text or you can bring them together in an instructographic.
Instructogrphics are popular on Pinterest and can drive traffic back to your site from there. Do a search on Pinterest for instructogrphics and you’ll find great inspirataion.
Pic Monkey is a great tool for making Instructographics. Here’s a tutorial on creating them.
Infographics
Infographics, as opposed to Instructographics are highly shareable. An instructographic takes you step by step through a process. An Infographic illustrates statistics and numbers in a visual way.
If you have conducted research for your post this is a great way to illustrate it but you don’t have to do original research. You can bring together stats from across the web into an infographic, just make sure you credit your sources.
Different readers will consume content in different ways, some will prefer the written word others will find Infographics easier to consume. Including them in some of your posts could mean you are reaching and retaining a larger number of readers.
I’m back to my old favourite Canva again for creating infographics. They have graphs and charts that you can add to their templates to quite easily create something. The problem with Canva is that the more people that use it the more familiar readers will become with their style. If you want your graphic to look at bit different it’s worth looking at the alternatives.
Piktochart
Piktochart is a tool specifically for creating infographics. You can start from scratch or use one of their templates. They have a drop and drag interface which makes creating and editing simple. You can use this tool for free or upgrade for more features.
Venngage
Similar to Piktochart Venngage offers a drag and drop interface, templates and icons. It’s free to get started but you’ll need to upgrade if you want to download your Infographic. Prices start at $16 per month.
Stock photos
If you don’t have a good bank of quality photographs of your own you’ll need to acquire stock images for your content. If you do use them try and steer away from the ‘people smiling and pointing’ type. Look for something that is an analogy of what you are talking about or something visually striking. Once you have chosen your image bring it into your photo editing software and apply your style to it.
I use Adobe Stock for my images. This gives me 10 images a month for $29.99. If you have no budget there are several sites that you can source free images from.
My favourites are:
Unsplash – large format beautiful images
Pixabay – 1000s of searchable stock images
Blogging challenge
Now it’s your turn. Go look at your blog, does it look visually pleasing? Could you make your posts better by illustrating and highlighting some of it?
Try at least one of the tools listed above and use it to illustrate your post. And if you do create something cool leave me a link in the comments, I’d love to take a look
A proposition for you
Before you go I’ve a proposition for you. The one-year anniversary of Blogcentric is speeding towards us and I’d love to feature some of you. If you have made changes to your blog as a result of listening I want to hear your stories and record a short slot for the anniversary edition. So get in touch, email me amanda@spiderworking.com with your stories and we’ll set something up.
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