Writers and Writing

User Comments

1. 

   3/29/08

   bnsullivan

   I think it depends on the blog content, and the audience. For over a year now, I've been putting ONE illustration in each of the posts in all of my aviation news blogs. Sometimes it's a photo; sometimes an icon of some sort; sometimes it's the logo of a company or government agency. But it's my standard format there: always an illustration in the upper right hand corner.
   
   On my personal blogs, the situation is different. In The Right Blue, my ocean/diving blog, I sometimes do stand-alone photos, sometimes do "photo essays" with a collection of related photos that tell a story. But ALL of my word stories have at least one photo to "go with." Of course they're all MY photos. That blog gives me a chance to show them off.
   
   In my Virtual Scratchpad, most of the posts have some sort of photo or graphic -- e.g., one I did yesterday about Hawaii's Kilauea volcano had two of my own photos to illustrate (as will the sequel post). But on that blog I'm just as likely to use some other sort of graphic -- not just photos.
   
   I like images, and I prefer seeing some sort of illustration on blog posts, when appropriate, but I don't think unrelated photos/images help at all. They have to illustrate something, not merely fill up space on the post.

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2. 

   3/30/08

   Mewie

   My content revolves around practical advice. Pictures can reflect such advice but not as concisely.
   
   I use photos rarely - more for eye-candy (so the blog content doesn't look textfully boring) or to portray events/people that I am referring to.
   
   Ideally, I'd like to have a photo in each blog but this would require much work and time to either create or find an appropriate photo. Plus, I don't like pirating so buying stock photos can become quite expensive.

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   1. 

      3/30/08

      ThriftShopRomantic

      I always try to do one original photo, but yes, I don't want to just add photos gratuitously.
      
      It sounds like you and Bobbie don't feel your readership has been hurt on the blogs that just post with a single photo.
   2. 

      3/30/08

      legbamel

      Grammar does not lend itself to photos. I will include the odd logo or bit of punctuation. Unfortunately, cheesy clip art looks like just that if I try to force a pun or stretch the subject. I do have a few things in my sidebar to add color and visual interest, though.
3. 

   3/30/08

   wehireu

   I think photos and videos are a normal part of a blog. Most videos and photos need to be captioned so we know what we are looking at.

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4. 

   3/30/08

   MadameX

   I know I'm outside the norm on this, but thought I'd throw this in anyway (just to confuse the issue, maybe). Photos in the middle of posts bug me. Reading flows, and when you suddenly have to stop and scroll past a picture in order to finish what you were reading, it breaks the flow--I would think that would be especially relevant on a humor blog. I'm much more likely to abandon a post without finishing it if I keep getting interrupted by photographs--it's like I've already set the book down and the question now is whether or not it was compelling enough that I want to pick it back up.

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   1. 

      3/30/08

      legbamel

      If the photos/pictures are relevant, I don't find them that distracting. It's like reading a magazine article. You'll have plenty of images and captions, even pull-quotes. If the article is good, the pictures just give you something to look at while you digest it.
   2. 

      3/30/08

      MadameX

      I think the difference for me is in the layout. If I'm looking at a magazine page, I can follow the text straight through and then look at the pictures, or look at the pictures in advance. On a blog, because the text is physically broken up by the pictures and you have to physically scroll to get past them, they create more of an interruption for me.
   3. 

      3/30/08

      bnsullivan

      So, Tiffany, are you saying that you object to photos that are centered on a post, such that the text stops above the photo, and then resumes below it? If so, what about photos or other illustrations that are situated near the left or right margin of the post, with text wrapping around them? This is what I do almost always, because yes, it does make the read more choppy when the illustration is centered. On the other hand, in certain instances, e.g., a photo essay that is mostly photos, with text serving mainly as captions, I'll center the photos.
   4. 

      3/30/08

      MadameX

      Yes, Bobbie, that distinction is important. In fact, I was thinking as this discussion progressed that The Right Blue is one exception--I enjoy your photographs and don't feel that they're a distraction at all. Without consciously thinking about placement, I thought that it was simply because they were so well integrated into the text, but now that you raise the issue, I think that placement makes all the difference. It's when an image is centered and you actually have to scroll past it to continue reading that I find it disruptive.
   5. 

      3/31/08

      bnsullivan

      Thanks for the kind words, Tiffany. It's good to know you're enjoying The Right Blue.
   6. 

      4/01/08

      angelawd

      I agree with you on that. It's also annoying when the photo file is so big that the blog takes a while to load. I lose interest.
      
      However, I do like images in blogs in general.
   7. 

      6/30/08

      Norski

      MadameX,
      
      I'm glad you went into detail on your photo preference.
      
      You definitely wouldn't like my "Sauk Centre Journal" (not officially a blog - it's a twice-weekly set of posts on one of my websites).
      
      I've been running a half-dozen or so photos per post lately. There's a major street project going past my house, and I've been applying the 'picture is worth a thousand words' principle to illustrate what's going on.
      
      Offhand, I can't think of a way to put viewable photos outside the text flow, and still connect them to the relevant text - but then, I hadn't thought of doing so.
      
      Thanks for providing a new viewpoint >< and some mental exercise.
5. 

   3/30/08

   cdeering

   I think one photo at the top that keys into your subject is enough. Unless a story calls for a photo to explain or add information, additional photos are redundant ... unless of course you are discussing antiques, or quilts, or tools, or something you have to see to believe.

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6. 

   3/30/08

   StellaCarter

   Except for my blog logo, I don't have a single picture on my blog. I like that it's almost all text. In future, maybe if I have a really good picture (or some kind of artistic concept or whatever), I'll post it, but I prefer keeping it plain. I'd rather not add a photo just for the sake of a graphic.

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7. 

   3/30/08

   wehireu

   I think photos should go at the beginning or the end of a blog article. This way they don't distract from the text.

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   1. 

      6/30/08

      Norski

      I see you're with MadameX, in a way.
      
      Pretty good point, actually.
8. 

   3/31/08

   ThriftShopRomantic

   Well, this has been very educational, gang. And it sounds like I'm on the right track after all.
   
   I guess I worry too much about readers' attention spans, but there are readers out there who would actually be happy to read the words of a post, and not just skim for pics and gist.

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   1. 

      4/01/08

      angelawd

      It was informational for me, too. Thanks for bringing up the topic!
   2. 

      6/30/08

      Norski

      Ditto.
9. 

   4/03/08

   rcmiller

   Writing is an Art form and we can become apart of the whole media arena and make tons of money mention coach purse or sex and u will have a full audience, but if writing comes from your heart and soul then what you want to express is the intensity of your writing. You have to personally decide what is of most importance, success can be measured in many ways. Ten people who read and feel a sense of joy and then come back to read again are more important to me then thousands who read and never return. The key is to stand up and lead with your writing and not follow it will separate you from those who will fade away.
   Answer to the question Pictures will get you more blog hits, but are they the blog hits you want. Direction is important...

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   1. 

      4/03/08

      cdeering

      I agree with your ideas. When I write, I try to bring humor and heart into it. Occasionally politics or something of great issue... short sweet and to the point is best I think. Thanks for your comments. I would like to add you to my friends.
   2. 

      4/13/08

      nardeeisms (guest)

      Agreed - Nards
10. 

    4/03/08

    JoyChaser

    I think it depends on the content of the blog. My webnovel has few if any pictures, as I'd like the readers to form their own mental images of what they picture a scene to look like. On the other hand, JoyChaser should have more photos than it does: I'm just notoriously bad at motivating myself to hunt good photos down and add them to my posts.
    
    I do agree with MadameX; I'd rather the photo be at the top or the bottom, instead of breaking the text in the middle. I can't count the number of times I thought an article was done because of the picture, only to find out later that I missed the second half.

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    1. 

       4/13/08

       ThriftShopRomantic

       That's certainly good to take note of when laying posts out.
11. 

    4/13/08

    markstoneman

    I've heard people suggest having a photo at the top of a post as eye candy for those who are using StumbleUpon. I like having an image or two, but I don't have to have one, and I often don't offer them myself. Of course, Jenn, your Peeps post absolutely depended on photos.

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    1. 

       4/21/08

       ThriftShopRomantic

       Well, sure-- some posts absolutely need the pics. I think certain blogs wouldn't be the same without them. One of my friends has a gardening blog, and without the scenic flower pics, it just would lose so much.
12. 

    4/14/08

    MeghnaK

    I try to use one photo at the top in most of my posts. I think that placing more photos distract the readers and also that takes more time to load. It also depends the types of posts.
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

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    1. 

       4/20/08

       uniquenurses

       I am beginning as a writer and began with some blog topics.Now use one photo at the top and if it is long,another midway related to the topic.The people who generally come are not interested in reading, for the most part, no matter how good I think it is. Even if they are interested in the topic it is not read.Several have told me and very few want to read the squidoo or AC articles I have done.This is frustrating.now I am using more videos..
    2. 

       4/21/08

       ThriftShopRomantic

       That's what I was wondering, too. Do people have the attention span online to read a post that's more than just a handful of paragraphs?
       
       I hate to think it's gotten so we can't be bothered to process more than that.
    3. 

       4/21/08

       brigid

       Well, my impression is that a lot of people checking stuff online are in a bit of a hurry and don't want to read large blocks of text. Pictures help by being nice to look at and don't require a lot of cognitive work.
       
       And some people just have trouble reading for a long time on a computer screen. I know I do sometimes. For some reason pictures aren't as hard on the eyes as text.
    4. 

       4/22/08

       bnsullivan

       It may depend on the urgency of the topic for the readers, and how salient it is for the reader. Examples: I noticed a distinct spike up in time spent on certain articles on my aviation news blogs (per Google Analytics), such as articles related to the British Airways crash at Heathrow earlier this year, and articles about the recent grounding of so many American Airlines planes that caused thousands of flight cancellations.
       
       Another very recent example from one of my personal blogs: I wrote a two-part series on living near Hawaii's active volcano -- one part was background information about the volcano, and the second was about health consequences. The volcano (Kilauea) began a more vigorous eruptive stage last month, and is emitting noxious gases at more than 10 times the background rate, causing health problems for a lot of people, including yours truly. Anyway, almost as soon as I published those articles, they began to get very steady search traffic, and although both articles are a bit long, people are reading the whole thing, based on statistics for time spent on those pages.
       
       In sum (with apologies for getting a bit long-winded above!), I think the more urgent the need for information, or the more self-involved people are with the topic of an article, the more likely they are to sit still and read the whole thing, even if it's a bit long.
       
       P.S. FWIW, these articles all have photos as illustrations (the original topic of this thread).
       
       Bobbie
13. 

    6/30/08

    thwartingmoons (guest)

    I think a lot of stories benefit from images/illustrations in the body of the work.
    
    Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut is a good example.
    
    Not to shill, but to illustrate the conversation:
    
    tis-strange.blogspot.com/2008/04/no-hands.html
    
    I wrote this short story based on a photo I saw in the newspaper, so naturally the story follows form. There is also a photo I found of Barbara Bush which is pretty priceless, and works well as a footnote in the story, like a snide comment in italics or brackets:
    
    bp0.blogger.com/_4RG8e7859iI/SA4dngIauQI/AAAAAAAAAi0/SqL8KYI9L28/s1600-h/ba...
    
    That's one of the things I enjoy about blogs, the multimedia aspect. It's also why collections of blog posts don't work well as books a lot of the time because of the lack of links and interactive media.
    
    There's something satisfying about clickable Easter Eggs and images and videos and other media besides text in blogs— that goes for blogs that do fiction, non-fiction and essays too.

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