The Importance Of Image

Stock Image of Sunrise

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING!

Content comes second!

Agree?

If you want to keep your reader on the page, or even attract new readers, you need to provide some eye-candy to keep them on the page. Plain text is such a turn-off when it  comes to presenting anything, and it doesn’t matter how good or important the text is, unless it’s an academic text or novel. images help keep readers on the page and give readers a more pleasant and memorable experience than just plain text would.

Images get visits!

Well tagged images will also increase your search engine ratings as well as bringing in visitors searching for images associate with your tags. Even If you are not using your own hosting or html to display  images, simpluy giving them an appropriate name will help your ranking rise. For example a lens about ‘widgets’ will do a lot better if the uploaded photos are called widget.jpg, bluewidget.jpg, widgetwoman.jpg. If you are using html use of the alt attribute will also help if you use an appropriate description. SemperFidelis has written an entire lens about how to optimize images to get Traffic From Image Searches.

Where do I get Images to use on my Website or Lens?

Many people will just blindly steal images from others by  finding  them on Google Image Search. This has 2 big drawbacks – Firstly it is theft and you could be prosecuted for stealing, or improper use of copyrighted images. Secondly, it can take for ever searching google to get the image you  want and then you  have to take the trouble to seek permission for it’s use if you wish to legally use it.

The other alternatives are often sited as being sites such as Photobucket or Imageshack, both of whom provided a limited free account for you  to upload images to so they are hosted online and can be used elsewhere online. Many  members actuallymake their uploads free for others to embed in their websites.  The disadvantages of this are that unless you are paying a subscription, you  may well use your allocated ‘bandwidth’ by too many people viewing your images, either on your own pages, or becauseyou enabled others to embed them elsewhere too. When you reach your capped limit your images will show with a simple placeholder image informing the viewer that the image is currently available.

A similar program to photobucket and imageshack is Share-A-Pic, there are no restrictions on bandwidth here at all. You also can accumulate credits for people viewing your images. The disadvantages are that the code provides a thumbnail of the image and only clicking on it will reveal the bigger image, also viewers will be subjected then to pop-up advertising. Though that said it is still great for many uses.

But Where To Get Professional Stock Images?

Good Question! You  don’t want to be spending time uploading and coding an image to appear to the public if it is amateurish. So, the solution is to look at Royalty Free Stock Photos. These are widely available online and companies like iStockPhoto and 123RF specialise in providing millions of stock images for you to browse and most are avialble for under a dollar in price. 123RF even have a huge range of stcok images for free download, when chcecking this evening I discovered they  have oer 18,000 currently available. From Stock Photos of Lions, to Stock Images of Lice, all subjects are catered for.

Recently I have been checking the free stock images on 123RF on a weekly basis and seeing  which images are available for free. With several hundred provided daily I usually find 2 or 3 great images I can use to go and spice up a few of my lenses. The free images are provided by members who usually earn a percentage of the sales of their work release a number of free downloads for a period of 30 days in the hope that it will bring more traffic to their actual part of istockphoto.

Learning the Squidoo ABC

Have you been looking for a simple start-up guide on how to Squidoo in a few easy steps? Here’s a good blueprint for creating lenses that have the potential to help you position yourself as the go-to expert for your niche:

First, register for a free Squidoo account if you have not already done so. This just requires you to enter your name and email address, and then pick a username and password before you agree to the terms of service for the site. You will have to create a lens to begin with, but don’t concern yourself about getting this to a stage to publish, perhaps youcan use it later as a lensography where you can showcase all your squidoo content or just a simple bio. So when selecting your url and title, use your username here.

Then you’ll get to learn how to Squidoo by building your first lens! You can use the new Squidoo Quick Builder page to help you do this where you have one screen to register your new lens rather than four separate screens.

It’s located at squidoo.com/build/quick, where you’ll enter your lens title, choose a URL, pick a category, let others know how it should be rated (G, R, or X), and add a tag or more. A good tip on how to Squidoo properly is to not use Quickpick to choose some modules from this screen because then you have to go in and reorder them anyway, so save that step for later. Enter your captcha code and click the Done button!

Try to get the keyword(s) into your URL and the title and make sure your tags are all relevant to your niche topic. Because of Squidoo’s new nofollow rule on tag pages, you don’t need to enter all 40 tags now – just use as many as you want in your content and it will serve you better in your quest to rank high in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

The next step in learning how to Squidoo is to build the layout of your lens! Start by clicking on Add Modules at the top. Here are some important modules that work well on lenses (and remember that all modules will have a built in introduction Text module):

1.) Text/Write – for all of the valuable content you plan on providing. You can hyperlink to your domain and add code to insert a banner ad here.

2.) Amazon and eBay – for those who want to sell tangibles from their lens. The description area can be hyperlinked to your domain, too)

3.) Guestbook – A very important part of the web 2.0 experience, a guestbook allows others to let you know how you’re doing as well as what they need from you in the way of more information. This is another module where you can hyperlink in the description area.

4.) Poll – Ask a question and post several answer choices for your audience. You can hyperlink these choices so that before or after their participation in your poll, they can link out to one of your sites.

5.) RSS Feed – If you have a blog on your domain, insert a feed for more traffic to it! It will post excerpts of your latest entries and update on a regular basis.

6.) YouTube Videos – if you’re employing video marketing techniques, then you’ll want to showcase your videos right on your lens using the one video per module rule so that visitors never have to click out and leave your lens to view it!

7.) Twitter – a Twitter module is perfect for marketing involved in social networking whose Tweets are followed by many people.

8.) Blackbox, StickyNote, Talk Bubble, or The Most Important Thing – all modules that allow you to make one link or message stand out on your lens.

After you add the modules that you want, click the preview lens layout button and order them any way you want, with the guestbook at the bottom so they can sign it after seeing all of your hard work.

Then click the Save button and it will take you back to your lens, where you can begin editing each module. After you edit it, make sure you save it and publish the lens after you’re done.

Free Stock Image

If you want to learn how to Squidoo and make a really good lens, you’ll also want to add images! You can find a free stock photo site or use iStockPhoto and buy the smallest versions available that relate to your niche. Personally I prefer 123rf.com for supplying images, the ones on this post are from their constantly updated Free  collection, and are of an  excellent quality for sprucing up your lenses. You’ll need one for your introduction and ideally one for each text module you include on your lens.

After publishing, join some groups on Squidoo so your new lens gets exposure! Then visit Squidoo and ask for a SquidAngel to visit your lens to bless it, though only do this if youthink it  worthy of a blessing as angels can ding your lenses too! If you’ve done a good job, the blessing will help your lens rise in the ranks!

Learning how to Squidoo can be intimidating even for the best writers or most prolific website designers. If you’d rather hire professionals to build your lens for you I would highly recommend Lewis and Tiffany at http://www.BuildMyLens.com Their lens design service is excellent and their finished lenses do extremely well conveying the professionalism that you want to be known for in your niche!

Lastly, have fun and leave a comment with a link to your lenses!