Content Marketing Institute

• http://seoperth.net.au Mike Haydon

  Having images on a post also massively help with Facebook sharing. You get a lot more interaction if you have a relevant image in the fb share than a generic image or none at all. I’d imagine it would be a similar outcome on Google+

• http://marketingtrenches.com Tracy Gold

  Joe,

  Thank you (and Skyword)for writing this post! Just last week I was having a conversation with a client about whether blog posts really “have to have” an image. Their in-house graphic designer creates lovely featured images for their blog, but has a lot of responsibilities to juggle. I’m sending this their way straightaway–not to mention improving my on (sometimes lackadaisical) efforts to provide images whenever I send a post to the CMI.

• http://www.tommangan.net/verbnerd/ Tom Mangan

  If you’re not in a super hurry, you can scan Flickr and ask for permission to post an image. Amateur shutterbugs will probably be flattered and gladly grant the rights; professionals will want to get paid.

  It’s far better to plan correctly on the front end get the proper rights, because most likely you won’t be revisiting the content later. If your ducks are all in a row there’s much less chance of somebody pulling their image and robbing the effectiveness of your post for Web search visitors.

• http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

  Great advice Tom. Thanks

• http://www.makemarketingsing.com Margaret Johnson

  So.. what is the proper etiquette for getting images for a blog post? I see many blog posts with images, and down at the bottom is an “image credit” where the photographer is cited. Is it then correct to assume that if the image is viewable, it is usable, as long as the photographer is credited? Or is there a mechanism for asking permission and is that the preferred method? Thank you – I’ve been wanting to ask this question for weeks now, and you’ve finally provided the forum for me to do so. Any help is appreciated.

• http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

  Hi Margaret…couple different ways.
  1. Go do a search on Flickr. Once you see an image you like, check the permissions. Many of those just want the link back and the credit. Every photo has permissions detail.
  2. Sign up for a service like Shutterstock (that’s what I use) to download photos whenever you need them.
  3. Take your own pictures
  4. Use a graphic artist to design an infographic.

  We use all four of these methods Margaret. Hope this helps.

• http://marketingtrenches.com Tracy Gold

  To add to Joe’s point 1, you can also do an advanced search in Flickr for Creative Commons licensed photos so that you don’t have to get your hopes up about a photo only to find that you can’t use it.

• http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

  Sweet Tracy. Thanks!

• http://www.tommangan.net/verbnerd/ Tom Mangan

  Creative Commons is for non-commercial use of images — using them in an content-marketing context is clearly a commercial use.

  That’s why I would just go ahead and send a Flickr direct message to the owner and ask for permission.

  Or, as Joe suggests, use stock images.

• http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

  Thanks for the clarification Tom!

• http://marketingtrenches.com Tracy Gold

  For some reason it won’t let me reply to Tom’s last, but within advanced search, you can check both: “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content” and “Find content to use commercially.” Problem solved!

• http://www.tommangan.net/verbnerd/ Tom Mangan

  For those who think these complexities don’t matter: when I worked for a big newspaper on the west coast, a photographer dragged me and and a half-dozen colleagues into court over what he considered improper use of an image of his.

  Our parent company brought in their favorite rainmaker lawyer to make hash of the guy’s case, but it was a pretty nerve-racking experience for most of us.

  Nobody will bother suing a blogging hobbyist with an audience of 12, but if you’re putting content on a large corporation’s website, that’s a great big bullseye for somebody who wants to claim copyright damages.

• http://marketingtrenches.com Tracy Gold

  I believe you Tom! Sounds like a huge mess. I’ll tread carefully.

  Luckily, most of our clients who have high stakes and high audience blogs also have the budget for professional images and custom design. For others with lower stakes and lower budgets, we use Flickr.

• http://www.makemarketingsing.com Margaret Johnson

  Thank you all so very much for all of this advice! It is much appreciated. My next stop will be Flickr to do some exploration. Then I’ll take all of this information in hand and make some decisions. I may only have 12 readers now, but I’m sure I’ll be famous very soon and would not want someone to come back at me with a lawsuit. Although perhaps at that point I’ll have the cash available to handle it. LOL.

• http://www.makemarketingsing.com Margaret Johnson

  I have explored Flickr. It seems that we can do an advanced search in Creative Commons, then search within that for those photos that are posted with different requirements. Attribution-only licensed photos are available, meaning we can use the content, modify or otherwise create a derivative work, and use the photo commercially. There are over 2 million images so categorized. That seems like a logical place to start for me. Am I missing something? Thank you again!

• http://socialmedia5000.com Toby Kronwitter

  This is a true word!

  I´ve been useing pictures for social Seo long before. My Pics are ranked most place 1 for keywords like:” LIKE, FACEBOOK, <—- this is only done by my pictures in the posts. You can have a look by yourself if you go to any google image search in the world and type: Like ore Facebook
  Check the Website Names. Mine is Socialmedia5000.com!!

  I got about 50 Refferers from google Images per day.

• http://www.tipsinablog.com Daniel

  Wow! Great post, Joe.

  I have heard that it was a good idea to have images(Photos) included into your posts and articles, though you never really get to see any concrete evidence to back up the claims.
  Usually, it’s said that photos will enhance the posts, adding another dimension, or as a way to break up the clutter of words.

  Well, I guess as they say , “People are visual” and that old chestnut ” A picture tells a thousand words”

  Now I have no excuse whatsoever, for not going off to find some nice images.

• http://www.joefalore.wordpress.com Joe Falore

  Great article, I had no idea that adding a picture could be such an important thing to do! Thanks for the awesome info!
  -Joe
  Check out my blog at joefalore.wordpress.com

• http://marketitwrite.com/blog Randy Duermyer

  Agree that images are important – both for users and search engines. We’ve been happy with stock.xchng (now owned by Getty Images at sxc.hu). Restrictions are clearly spelled out for each image, and if you don’t find something free that’s relevant, plenty of inexpensive stock photos are displayed right along with the freebies. We also make it a habit to notify the image owner where we’re using the image with a short link – even if it’s not required in the terms of use. That also gives us a link back to the post.

• http://www.annehoang.com.au Anne

  Similarly, I’ve read that including a preview to a newsletter sign-up also increases it’s conversion rate.

• http://pazer.blog.com Andreas Pazer

  Our website is generally a combination of all types of content. You have graphics; you have text, and sometimes Flash animations and videos too! We are all aware that search engine optimization of text content on our website is the key to getting top rankings for your web pages. Let this not lead you to believe that the images and graphics on your webpage add no business value to your website. Reducing the images and graphics would really make your website look really sad! You guessed it – there are always ways to get around such issues! And the way to work around this is Image Optimization.