Your Images-Photos in Your Articles
We need your help in determining the path of this potential new feature.
We recently started sharing information about possibly including images in your articles. What we’ve discovered thus far is that there are many Expert Authors who feel it would be an excellent, almost necessary, feature. On the other hand, there are an equal number of members who think that it’s not such a great idea.
We need some input from you on the following questions:
- Size? – What size (in pixels) should the small and/or full-size image be? (We intend to only allow 1 image per article.)
- Location? – If the image is part of the article, where should it be located? The top (figure 2), middle (figure 3) or bottom of the article?
- In-Line Text Link? – Would you prefer that there be no thumbnail at all and instead have the article contain only an inline text link to the larger image? (figure 1)
- Premium vs. Non-Premium Feature? – Should only Premium members be given the thumbnail or full-size inline image option and non-Premium be given the inline text link only?
- Essential vs. Complimentary Images? – Should we allow images that are essential to the value and purpose of the article or just images that are complimentary to the article? In other words: If the image were removed from the article, would the article still make sense?
Personally, I have great reservations over this feature and have resisted it for a long time. My primary issue is that I suspect a lot of members will want to include an image that is essential to their article … so essential, that if the webmaster or ezine publisher who reprints their article doesn’t include the photo … both the author and EzineArticles will look stupid. Plus, we have data that suggests having images in articles may actually reduce your click-through rate.
Please leave a comment below in reply to any or all of these questions. Also feel free to give us your input on any other concerns or considerations about this potential new feature that we may not have mentioned.
Thanks in advance for your assistance!
Richard Rosts’s idea for allowing a link in an ezine article for an author’s images should solve your issue. Personally, I have a Health article, “Fix My Aching Back”, that with three small images is worth 3,000 words. (If you ever experience a sacroiliac pain, you will appreciate such images…)
I now receive requests from your ezine readers with questions for wordy descriptions, when I can refer them to the same article with images on my website.
October 25, 2010 at 1:50 PM[Reply]