Creating blog images

I ran into a situation recently where I wanted to pin a friend's posts to my Pinterest page, but was unable to differentiate the pins... because my colleague doesn't use images in each post. Thus, when I pin them, each post looks exactly the same.

I am an image junkie. I can't remember which post is about what without that image cue. This is why I use Pinterest as my bookmarking system: I have much higher rates of recall if I use images.

Images, despite the web being pretty much open access, need to be our own creations, or must be borrowed from others with express permission. There are some rough exceptions to the permission aspect: if you were doing a supportive review of a product or service, you could probably use the logo or a product image to illustrate your review without worrying. A company is unlikely to pursue someone for copyright over free advertising.

It is easier to create an image than to get permission to use an image belonging to someone else.

Like all of us, my friend is VERY busy (and a prolific and very thoughtful blogger). I had let him know a while ago about my problem, and he had tried to solve it. However, he had not been able to find a good solution that suited his branding.

Today I said to him "Leave it to me. I will find you a simple and free solution".

My friend brands all his posts with his profile photo, and a blog header photo. So I thought that using his profile photo embedded as a picture in picture - PinP - within each blog's background image would probably work with his branding. The PinP image could equally be a logo, a banner, or a phrase box or call out symbol. This is our brand 'anchor' image.

So here is my solution, for all of us:

1. While we are out and about, take lots of close up photos of things that relate to our brand using our phones. I say phone, because we nearly always have our phones with us. Download our images to our computer, and use these as our background image.
2. Create whole page words or symbols in MS Word or PowerPoint and save as a jpg. Use these as our background image (like the copyright symbol above)
3. If we get stuck for illustrating images, then we can try word clouds using key words from each of our posts at http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/ or http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html. Again, send our images to our computer, and use these as our background image.
4. If we want to make a quote image, we go to Recite, at http://www.recitethis.com/#/
5. Download Gimp. Gimp is image manipulation freeware that allows us to create PinP graphics.
6. Watch Pocket Lenses (2015) video clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnIGX8rHfP4 to see how to create those PinP images. Use our key brand anchor as the PinP image (like my example on this post)
7. Import our newly created image into our blog post. Align it somewhere near the left top corner (if that suits our branding), as images have the most eye-appeal in this position. Done!

I hope that helps all of us :-)

Sam

References:

• Gimp (n.d.). Downloads. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ 
• ImageChef (n.d.). Make Word Mosaic. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/
• Pocket Lenses (2015). How to make a picture in picture collage using GIMP. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnIGX8rHfP4 
• Recite (n.d.). Turn A Quote into a Masterpiece. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from http://www.recitethis.com/#/
• Tagxedo (n.d.). Tagxedo - Creator. Retrieved 16 June 2015 from http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html