I spend a lot of time trying to make my blog posts look good. You can’t just write pretty words and have people read. (Well, maybe SOME people can. But not me.) You need some aesthetics. You need proper spacing, emphasis (like bold and italics), quality photos and more.
I’m not a great photographer. I just have a nice camera. One I am almost embarrassed to say I’ve had over 2 years and still don’t know how to use properly. But when I do get a good photo to share on my blog, I have to go through eleventybillion a few steps to get them on my blog.
There are a few ways to do this. Let’s go through the basics of blog photos with some How-To’s, Tutorials and Tips and Tricks. (You didn’t know I was so awesome, did you?!)
Ready?
1. To Watermark Or Not To Watermark? That is the question!
A watermark on a photo is just a little bit of text or logo with your name to show that the picture is YOURS! Why do people do this? To make them look professional? Maybe.
But mainly to let people know IT IS NOT OKAY TO STEAL MY PHOTOS and use them on your blog, billboard or brochure. (Oh, how I love alliteration!) It’s super easy to screen-shot or right click on a photo and use it for yourself. But it’s not nice!
I mainly do it to protect my kids. I don’t want someone taking my adorable Asa playing t-ball and use it in a brochure for sporting goods without asking my permission (and paying me money)!
see? someone would LOVE to steal this picture!
So. I think the answer to the question is YES. Watermark your photos.
2. Watermarking for FREE
For the past few years I’ve been watermarking my photos on Picnik. Picnik is a free online photo editing site that is the best thing ever. You can do all sorts of crazy things on it–like add Santa hats, turn yourself into a zombie and make fireworks pop out of your head. But you can also resize, recolor and add text.
There are probably some other sites that do it. But I think Picnik is the most user-friendly and it is by far the snazziest. Let’s look at Picnik some more…
3. A Mini Picnik Tutorial
You don’t even need to register (but there are perks!). You don’t even need to pay (but if you upgrade there are even MORE perks!). All you do is click GET STARTED NOW!
Then you can choose to EDIT, CREATE or SAVE & SHARE. For watermarking, pick CREATE. From there click TEXT and start having fun! There are all different fonts, colors and accents to enhance your text.
{update 2/2012: Picnik is CLOSING in April! *sniff*}
4. Now what?
After you’ve created your watermark, just save it! And here’s the cool part. You can save it to your computer, to Flickr, to Picasa and more!
5. OK. But how does it get on my blog?
Well, there are 2 ways to do this. One is my personal fave: save it to Flickr (or photobucket). Why? Because these sites will generate HTML for your photos. Then you can just paste it straight into the HTML window on your blog posts! And on Flickr, you can even choose the correct size for your blog (small, medium, large and original!)
6. Doesn’t this take a long time?
Yes. Yes, it does. It can be so time-consuming that I sometimes give up and don’t watermark my photos. Then (because my posts are so awesome) someone else links to them or even posts a pic on their blog with NO CREDIT to me! I had a party planning blog link to a few of my birthday party posts and they posted pictures. Pictures I had NOT watermarked. And it made feel sick seeing all MY KIDS’ PARTIES ON THEIR BLOG. It was creepy.
And all because I was lazy.
So. If you wanna speed up this upload-edit-save-cut-paste ordeal on an online site, you’re gonna have to spend some cash…
7. You need to buy Photoshop Elements.
I got Photoshop Elements 
As with my camera, I’ve never really learned to use PSE to it’s fullest. (Clearly, this is a problem in my life..) But this week I discovered how to watermark, resize, rename and even touch-up a huge batch of photos with less than 5 clicks in Photoshop Elements. SERIOUSLY, where has this been all my blogging life?!
I was going to do a tutorial for you, but the video tutorial is so much better than I could do and I just want to make this video famous anyway. That’s how much it’s changed my life. So, watch it here: Create a Watermark on Multiple Images in Photoshop Elements.
8. Did you hear what I said?
Photoshop Elements has the ability to watermark, resize, rename and even touch up photos with ONE CLICK! Remember the t-ball photos? Resized to the perfect dimensions for my blog, renamed “4th of July” AND watermarked in less than 30 seconds. I kid you not.
9. SEO
I mentioned renaming my photos because did you know your photos can bump up your SEO? (That’s Search Engine Optimization, for all you scratching your heads.) If you keep your photos labeled DSC_093, well the only people that are going to be googling that is…uhm…NO ONE. So, change the name of your photo to “tangled birthday party” or “cars 2 movie review” (or whatever your post is about). Then when people are searching for info, they will find YOUR photo and YOUR blog!
It’s easy on WordPress because when you upload (or paste) an image, there are 2 fields to fill in: Title & Alternate Text. You can see my awesome example below…
But if you look in the HTML of your photo, you’ll still see the name of the photo from when you uploaded it, so if you can rename the photo before you get it on your blog, that will really help with your google hits. Did I mention you can automatically change the name of several photos at once in Photoshop Elements? Well, you can.
When I started adding titles to all my photos (especially on Impress Your Kids), my traffic went way up. In fact, most of my google traffic comes from photos, not text.
10. And Finally (if you’re not too overwhelmed and confuzzled by my screeching), some Photography Tips:
White On Rice Couple: Photography Tips {they photograph food–which is a really good way to practice because food doesn’t move like a 2 year old!}
31 Days to a Better Photo at My 3 Boybarians
Via U: a Photography Blog for Etsy Sellers {more inanimate objects!}
Top 5 Tips For Taking Professional Photos With Your Digital Camera
{thanks to Tricia, Ann Kroeker & #crafterminds for the suggestions!}
So. Did that make any sense at all? Do you have any questions? Any blogging & photography tips (I am slightly afraid that you’re all going to laugh at me and say, “UHM. YEAH. We’ve been doing this stuff for years!”)? Leave a comment! I’d love to chat!
:: :: ::
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: LINK UP! All you gotta do is WRITE a Top Ten post on your blog. LINK to me in it. Somewhere. Anywhere. I don’t care. Then PASTE the actual post’s URL in the linky below. And then, start lovin’ on the rest of the participants! I’m always blown away by the diversity, the creativity and the awesomeness of our Top Ten {Tuesday} posts! They are totally worthy of a click, a share, a like, a tweet, a stumble or even a pin! Have fun! And thank you for making Top Ten {Tuesday} so fun!
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