I thought I’d try Pete’s photo technique, but all it seems to do is make traffic worse.

And, adding pictures to the top of your blog posts doesn’t seem to increase traffic either. Again, I think the big, big bloggers just feed us drivel to keep the rest of us all down. Seriously, does a pretty picture make you want to read a blog, or just look at the picture?

While it’s true that using images can break up long passages of text and help make the reading more relaxing and less daunting, an image in and of itself is not going to bring in the crowds. Unless, of course, the image is of some strong interest in and of itself.

For example, if you’re showing techniques, a photo is handy. If you’re talking about the image, or sharing a funny or newsworthy image, or something like that then, yes, having the actual image there is a good idea.

But, if you’re telling people how to save money or how to increase sales or whatever, do you think having a pretty picture is really going to draw people in? People aren’t going to link to your post just because you have a pretty picture at the top–they are going to link to your post because you gave them good tips on saving money, or increasing sales or whatever. Your post’s title will do more to draw in readers than a picture!

But, the most important thing is: Content. Content! Content!

So, go ahead and put pictures at the top of your posts, if you want, but don’t expect it to increase your traffic. Your time is better spent writing a quality post than hunting around for a pretty picture to post.

And, maybe that’s why the big name bloggers want us spending our time looking for pretty pictures instead of spending that time on writing a higher quality post…

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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