A photo really does say a 1000 words, and if you are a Blogger a photo can really help to get your story across. Statistics say that Blogs with photos have higher readership!
Here’s a few pointers on how to get photos easily onto your CPO Blogs:
Option One- Upload from your own Computer
You have the ability to upload photos directly from your computer to your Blog. However, your space will be limited to 30MB. If you plan on adding numerous photos to your blog entries Option 2 may be a wiser choice or you may wish to reach near your 30MB max and then switch to Option 2.
Option Two- Host your photos Online (recommended)
It’s recommended that you use a free an online photo hosting site like Photobucket, Imageshack, Flickr etc. They are free to signup and you’ll have virtually unlimited uploads so storage space will not be an issue.
Now that you have your photos uploaded one last important step is to resize your images before putting them on your blog.
How do I resize my photos?
Many online photo hosting sites allow you to resize you photos there, but with some of them you will be limited to their default sizes. Photobucket is one site that now has custom resizing capabilities. If you use a different hosting site but would still like to resize to a specific size I’d recommend using a Windows XP add-on called Image Resizer.
Once installed it allows you to right click on any photo and choose “Resize Pictures”. You can then customize to the size you want. (Windows Vista users will have to use the Image resizers that are available at the Online Photo Hosting Sites.)
How do I add a photo to my Blog entries?
Now that you have your photos resized appropriately you’ll need to upload them to a photo hosting site. There are many of them online but Flickr, Imageshack and Photobucket are the most common and easy to use. Sign up for a free account and upload your resized photos from your computer to the site. Doing this will assign a URL (a www address) to your photos. I know many of you are familiar with adding photos to your signatures and posts on our Message Boards, adding a photo to your Blog entry is just as easy, but differs a little. Instead of using the [IMG] code you’ll just need the direct link code. A quick way to get this is to right click on the photo and select “Properties” and highlight and copy the URL for the Image Location.
Once you have your photo and your URL, to get the photo into your Blog entry Take a look at the tool bar just above your post box:
Click on the “Insert Image”. It’s the small icon that looks like a tree. Once it has been selected you can paste in the URL of your photo then select the “Insert” button at the bottom. Your image should now be visible in your post. If not check to make sure the URL is correct.Remember to use the Direct Link.
What is the best size for photos?
Due to the size of our Blog template the recommended size of your photos should be a maximum of 400 pixels wide. This will also help to speed up the loading of your pages as well. Optimizing your photos as well can help to speed up your Blog.
What is Optimizing your Photos?
This photo’s size is 141k
This photo is 33k ( less than one third of the size of the first)
Do you see any real difference in these photos?
Optimizing your photos will do 3 things:
- It makes images quicker to upload
- It makes your page load faster for people looking at it
- You can fit more images into a limited space
If you are using Windows XP you can easily resize and optimize your photos using a Windows XP add-on called Image Resizer Once installed, it allows you to right click on any photo and choose “Resize Pictures” you can then customize to the size you want.
