Picture from People.com
The content and writing might be the most important part of a blog, but when it comes down to it, you have to promote it so people can read it. And every little bit counts when it comes to getting traffic to your site and keeping your visitors intrigued enough read your article and come back.
So, below are the 5 reasons why you should include images in every single post.
1. Draws attention to your readers – Believe it or not, but images tend to stand out more than the title itself. For instance, if your blog is a celebrity gossip site and there’s a picture of a beautiful Jessica Alba in a bikini, I’m sure that will keep a lot of guys on your site for longer than usual. I used the lovely Halle Berry, caught your attention, didn’t it?
But try not to put non-relevant pictures as it might hurt you more than help you. Unless you can get away with it, then go for it! I hope I’m getting away with it! 
2. Gives your words support – Sometimes people need a visual aid to backup what your content is stating. Depending on your article, it can reiterate a strong message you’re trying to deliver. For instance, if it’s a news article about a mother saving her baby by lifting up a car then I’m sure that picture itself would speak a thousand words.
3. Brings in traffic – Believe it or not (and maybe this should have been number 1 – luckily this was in no particular order by importance) but having images in your posts can help you with traffic from search engines – if you do it right. All you have to do is add “alt meta tags” so it can be picked up by search engines spiders. I mean, Google’s Image Search is very popular.
If you don’t know how to, you’re in luck, I wrote about this a while back. You can read it here.
In addition, images itself tend to be popular in social bookmarking sites like SU, Digg, etc. I mean, people like the visual aids.
4. People will read other posts – Now this one isn’t a guarantee, but it’s a continuation of number 1 – it will attract your readers. If they manage to read your entire post and scroll down and notice another eye-catching image, chances are they’ll at least check out that other post.
Who knows? It might turn into a domino affect and they’ll check out as many posts as they can until the day ends. Then they’re definitely be forced to come back!
5. Did I mention it brings in traffic – “quality visitors” too! – I know this is the second time I’m mentioned this but to make money online, you need tons and tons of traffic, right? And every little bit counts.
Below is a screenshot of ‘some’ of my visitors from DatCurious.com that came from “Image Only” search engines. If you noticed that double digit visitors came strictly from the Image search engines on various days. (You can click on the image to make it bigger)
You know what they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words…” (or something like that). And a picture can mean thousands of visitors and more – and they will continue to come back too!
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Kick ass post dude, any tips on where to get free pics from with out having to do a ton of searching.
I keep comin back cause I like watcha write.
But I wouldn’t mind a picture of a hot dude! Say……Sawer on Lost? heeheehee…
Yup that’s true. Most of my traffic comes from images.google.
I agree with that. Although the onyl set back with putting up lots of pictures is that it can cause your page to load a bit slow sometimes. But ahh well,
Thanks for the tips. I’ll keep that in mind. We need to be mindful of picture copyright though, right?
Good info and thanks for sharing.
Nice Post.
Some good information to use in our persuite of traffic
Feed – you can always use stockphoto but I’m not a big fan of theirs.
Simple – Hey, but did Halle Berry not catch your attention?!
Hani – How you been stranger?!
Aronil – that’s only if you put HUGE sized images. They “should” be only around 15k and you should be okay.
Jim – Yes, definitely. As you noticed, I credited the source where I borrowed the picture from. But yes, you do need to watch out for copyrights…
Yoko – your welcome!
Semcents – I’m glad you liked the info!
Jay
DatMoney.com
DatCurious.com
Not really. I actually didn’t know who it was! lol
Images help spice up the post =D. I use images on every post and I like them.
Ever since Google decided to open the floodgates to image search, images are a GREAT traffic booster.
I get regular daily traffic to all my blogs, from Google images. But like you said “alt tags” are key.
I believe Wordpress has “alt tags” built in when you download an image through the dashboard.
Definitely another traffic source.
Nice post. Feed Flare, you can try to find some stockphoto’s at http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com/free_stock_photos/
Well I have posted some pics!! Little from my subject(contests and giveaways). I am in Italy right now(from US), so I have a few pics up of this trip!! Funny, dh and dd snowboarding for the first time in Italy!! You all gotta see dh he is so funny!! Yes traffic has increased a small amount! http://www.giveawaycity.blogspot.com
Thanks again for your advice. I just linked to you: http://blog.feefifoto.com/2008/03/thanks-to-jay-a.html#more
good strategy for any ads also.