Including images in your blog posts makes them much more vibrant and interesting to readers. Putting them in is fairly easy if you understand the dynamics of HTML code and also know some of the limitations of picture hosting.
Hosting a Picture Online
There are a couple of blogging platforms that will host pictures for their bloggers to use in their posts. This is the simplest way of putting a picture online because the platforms used often incorporate quick image buttons to insert a picture into a text box as well as automatically pulling the picture up from your computer.
In platforms like these all you do is click on the control section of your text box where there is an image ‘icon’ or where it says ‘insert image’ and a pop up box will appear to guide you through the process. You will be asked to browse your computer for the required image and then it will upload that picture and insert it into your post.
Platforms such as ‘Blogger’ do this and it makes inserting an image a very simple procedure.
Using an Existing Image Online
One way many bloggers insert an image is by grabbing the URL of a picture already hosted online by someone else. This is somewhat unethical as you are drawing bandwidth off of the person hosting the picture and you may also be violating a copyright by using an image someone else owns. If you know the person hosting the picture and it is okay with them that you use it, or you are posting for a company and wish to use one of their pictures for your post you can use this method to make inserting an image easier.
Go to the image on their page and right click on it. A box will appear and at the very bottom you will see ‘properties’. Left click on the line that says properties and the properties box for the image will appear. Copy the URL (or address) of the picture.
In your blog post when you click on the quick link for an image insert the copied URL into the space for an existing picture online and when you finish the picture will appear inside your post.
Hosting a Picture Online
If your blogging platform does not allow for uploading pictures, or you are writing an article for placement somewhere else and need to insert a picture you will need to place the image online. There are many free services that allow image hosting but you must be sure that they will allow outside sources to link to them. If you own your own website you can host your pictures on that server and that is the most secure way of ensuring your picture will always be available to you.
Once you have the image loaded onto a free host, or your own website you simply copy the URL of that individual picture and place it in the control box for images on your blog page.
Image Coding
If your blogging platform does not have an automatic image generator you will need to know the code for placing an image inside of text in your articles. Place the cursor in your text box where you want the picture to appear and type:
< img src="Image URL" />
Insert the actual image URL between the quote marks where is says Image URL and your picture will appear inside of your blog post.
