I wanted to pull out some information from one of my previous #TechTip posts and share it all by itself so that it stands out. I keep seeing blog posts in my feed that either have no image (which doesn’t stand out) or has some random image, like a picture of a share button, as the advertised image (which means no feature image was chosen).
Why Is This A Problem? If you shared an advertisement for a product on all of your social media, wouldn’t you want a picture of the product prominently displayed? You’re missing an opportunity!
How To Choose a Featured Image:
- Start a blog post. Title it. Write it.
- Before you click publish or schedule the post, look to the left side at your options.
- Click “Feature Image.”
- Click “Set Feature Image.”
- You can either use a picture you’ve already saved to your WordPress media, or you can find something new and upload it.
For my #TechTip posts, I always use the meme my lovely husband made. That is the image that shows up in any previews — on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, in the WordPress reader, etc.
The featured image will also appear at the top of your post when readers access your blog on a computer, so make sure you don’t put the same image first thing in your post as you’re writing it — readers will see the same image twice. Here’s what I mean:
My featured image — the one I chose — is prominently displayed and looks appealing!
Grab the Lapels 
Love a good feature image! I’d also suggest finding a high res. image (this can sometimes be tricky with book covers, I know I’ve struggled with a few), and testing it out in preview before hitting publish. If I can’t find a high res. image (and I have the time), I’ll sometimes paste it onto a larger white canvas so, while it may be a little small, it at least doesn’t look pixilated.
I’d also add that it’s helpful to look at preview before posting to see how your WP theme treats the image. One of the (few) things I don’t like about my theme is that it prints the post title over my feature image, so sometimes I have to have a play with the image to make it work.
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Great advice!
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Late here, but I have a couple of points. You need to be careful about High Resolution images in terms of size… They can be slow (and expensive) to load and irritate users.
There is also the question of copyright. You can’t just grab a picture from the Web somewhere and use it. You need to check whether you are allowed to use it, and whether you need to attribute it. Wikipedia is a great as ours because it always tells you if you are allowed to use it and what attribution you should use.
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Copyright is always an issue, though I haven’t found a problem with it because I take the image from the publisher’s website.
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Though in my experience publishers don’t always tell you on their websites that their images are free to use, under what conditions you can use them. And copyright laws vary greatly. I actually wrote to several publishers about this and some had to check with their legal departments. Practically, of course, we assume they are happy because we help promote books but legally the issue is not necessarily so simple. In Australia, at the AWW challenge, we ascertained that thumbnail cover images meet fair dealing requirements: I would love all publishers, in our digital age, to clarify upfront what you can and can’t do.
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Good point. I feel pretty good about fair use here in the states and would be happy to take down an image upon request, but you make great points.
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Thanks Melanie. It’s tricky on the internet because the law varies widely globally. Which is why I licence my own content through Creative Commons and make it pretty free to use.
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Featured images are very important! I love the meme your husband created for your tech top posts by the way.
I didn’t know that your featured image will show up first in your post? My featured image is always my first picture, so I wonder if you are seeing it twice then?
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It might just be my theme, so like Lectito said, it’s important to preview your posts.
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Ah! I was worried that maybe my previews somehow looked different. Gotcha!
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That’s a very good point. I’m rather lazy about that and am always irked when I see some not-so-lovely image being displayed and then must go and amend it on a case-by-case basis. Good tip!
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Thank you!
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Yep! Every blog post needs a featured image, especially if it’s going to be shared on social media.
I have yet to see featured-image-inception, but I will be sure to remember this post when I do.
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It might happen with certain themes, so simply hit preview to see what your theme does with your featured image. I think they are especially important for the reader feed. So many people use no image, so my reader feed looks like a bunch of words. We are terribly image-drive on the internet!
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I e been following your advice since the earlier tech tip – it’s easy to do, just a case of remembering before I hit the publish button.
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Nice job, BookerTalk! I always scroll down the left side of the screen and do a little mental check list before I hit schedule. I never write a post and immediately publish it, not only for organizational reasons, but so that if I remember something I forgot later, there’s still time to add it.
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[…] an image at random from anywhere on your page — which may have nothing to do with your post. Here’s how to easily choose a featured image. For my #20BooksofSummer challenge, I’m going to use the image Cathy @ 746 Books made for […]
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