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Use images to increase the size of your short posts

Here’s a quick tip for your short blog posts : Use images to buff out your post and increase the size of it

This is a technique which I use a lot, if my post is very short I’ll simply add an image or a screenprint to increase the height of the post.

There are a few reasons why I do this :

  • Images brighten up your posts
  • I don’t like posts which are just one or two sentences long
  • To make sure the site design is not messed up

The last point I mention is one of the main reasons I use images in short posts. Post pages on Blogging Tips currently have two 125 pixel high banners at the right hand of posts therefore any posts with just a few sentences will mess the design up a little. Obviously, I want to avoid this and that’s where the images come in.

Check out this post I wrote 4 days ago. The post was just a quick note to let readers know about an interview I had taken part in for CSS Juice had been published. The post did not require more than a few lines to let readers know about it therefore I took a screenprint of the interview page and posted it in the post to make sure the height of the post increased.

A simple tip but one which is very effective when your post does not have a lot of text.

:)

Kevin Muldoon is a webmaster and blogger who lives in Central Scotland. His current project is WordPress Mods; a blog which focuses on WordPress Themes, Plugins, Tutorials, News and Modifications and useful resources such as 101 Places To Find Images For Your Blog Posts.

9 comments - Leave a reply
  • Posted by Aaron on 17th Sep 2007

    I just used that tip on one of my posts.This blog is very useful. :)

  • Posted by Adnan on 17th Sep 2007

    You forgot to add an image Kevin…

    Lol j/k yeah you're right about the image thing, and in my opinion, it just makes the whole post look nice, regardless of what you have to say. Feedreaders these days are dull, and as you said, images just make reading so much more bright and fun!

  • Posted by Marko Novak on 17th Sep 2007

    Hm…where do I put adsense then? :grin:

  • Posted by Chris Coyier on 17th Sep 2007

    As a little tip for WP users… a lot of themes default to removing the "blogroll" on single pages, as a way to reduce the length of sidebars since only one article is being displayed.

    If you take a look at your sidebar.php file, just put anything you want only on the homepage and nowhere else within the php statement that starts like this:

    <code>

    if ($check_home == '1')

    </code>

  • Posted by YellowFans on 17th Sep 2007

    Nice tips there.. i will try to apply ti on my blog later. thanks for sharing

  • Posted by Todd K. Edwards on 18th Sep 2007

    Thanks for the great tip! I try to put a picture or video in all my post's to give the reader a visual, because text can get boring from time to time! I know that from personal experience. I get bored to easy! :shock:

  • Posted by Dana Wallert on 18th Sep 2007

    A great piece of advice! I notice that I tend to get more comments and a better response from any post when I include an image or two.

  • Posted by Supernegro.com on 18th Sep 2007

    I always make sure to include an image with every post – coming from the magazine world I know the value of attaching a choice visual to help accent the text.

    However, let me ask this: when is an image considered to be too big? Especially when one user can have a screen that's 11-inches and another could use a super-sized monitor. Are there any applications that let one simualate how images would appear on various monitors?

  • Posted by Kevin on 18th Sep 2007

    Supernegro seems to be using a theme with a fixed width therefore there shouldn't be too much of a difference between browsers etc