Did you know that there are things you need to do before uploading an image to your blog? These things can keep you legal and help you know what you need to do before you put that picture on your site!

This post contains affiliate links, meaning that at no extra cost to you, we get a small percentage of a sale- we use that money to help support our site and our families.  Thank you!

1. Make sure you are legal! – Many bloggers don’t know that you can’t just do a google search for an image and use it on your blog. Many images have copyrights and you could even be sued for using an image that you don’t have rights to use! I’ve heard several horror stories of bloggers being sued or taken to court over a simple image they didn’t realize they weren’t allowed to use. Make sure you have rights to the images you are using, and if you are not sure, just take or make your own images! Better safe than sorry! — Get stock photos from a place like deposit photos where you can see the rights that you have for the pictures as you get it, instead of just snatching something you like off google.

2. Once you’ve selected the perfect image for your post you need to resize it. You can do this in PicMonkey (my favorite, free photo-editing site) or another editing program. Size the image down to whatever proportions you will be displaying it on your blog. Having huge images actually slows down your blog, so this can really speed up your site if you start sizing your images down. I didn’t know this when I began blogging, and had to go back and re-size them all on year. That was not a fun task, so it’s good to know!

3. Watermark – This isn’t a requirement, but a personal choice. I watermark all images that include people in them, to try to protect myself and my family from people snagging our images and using them somewhere without our consent (like the lady who had her innocent blog photos stolen and used on a porn site. Not even kidding). Learn how to watermark your photos here.

4. Rename your image – Instead of leaving the image name as something like IMG_0492 change the image name to something relevant to your post. You can do this straight from picmonkey as well. When you are done resizing and watermarking, save your image to your computer. While saving you have the opportunity to rename the image. For example, the photo above is now named “how to resize your image in picmonkey.jpg”. This helps with SEO, because if some one is searching how to resize an image, now that photo or this post may show up in the search. It also can translate to pinterest, when some one pins from our site, it will grab that descriptive name, instead of a boring image number.

What things do you do before uploading an image to your blog? 

The post 4 Things You Need To Do Before Uploading An Image To Your Blog appeared first on Becky & Paula.

We know that a photo can all too often make or break a post, but what is a blogger to do if she can’t afford a DLSR and a fancy light kit just yet?

Today, we have some tips to help you take better images on a budget! This post has affiliate links.

If a full light kit isn’t in your budget yet, you can get a ring light for your iphone for around $10. I love using these for in-kitchen shots as well since my light kit stays set up in my office.

You can also purchase peel and stick wall coverings to use as backdrop against your food. My countertops look like something out of a 1980s home and they don’t make for very classy looking photos. I ordered this roll of faux wood covering for a neutral background that is tasteful and will match most things. Here’s a shot I took on it yesterday with my phone. It clearly needs editing for lighting and such (I just snapped this shot to send a friend to show her I had set it up) but you can get the basic idea of what it looks like.

There are many options, you could get faux marble countertop and different colored wood or even this gorgeous brick. If you don’t have a solid white table to work with, be sure to get a roll of white covering to use as a solid background.

I purchased a table similar to this one from Ikea for staging photos. (The table I have has been discontinued.)

I like that it’s on wheels so I can easily push it to different parts of my home depending on what kind of an atmosphere I need for my shot. It has a shelf underneath which creates storage space for my photo props when I’m not using them. I keep it set up in my office between my light kit.

During the holiday season I keep a mini tree set up complete with ornaments! This comes in handy when I’m staging Christmas photos as early as the beginning of October. You can get a mini tree affordably here.

The view from my desk… Merry (early) Christmas, bloggers #christmas #bloggers #amblogging #holidays #bpbloggers #amwriting #blogger #bloglife

A post shared by Actionable Blogging:PaulaRollo (@actionableblogging) on Oct 12, 2016 at 1:46pm PDT

I also watch Target, Kroger and other stores for clearance place mats or individual dishes.

I like having a variety of dishes to choose from for different recipes, so grabbing something new at a fraction of the price always seems like a good idea. I look for things like clear mugs to show off cocoa recipes, and decorative plates that will work with various colors of food items I might be cooking.

Lastly, if you can invest in the Tasty Food Photography ebook by Lindsay Ostrum, do it! She takes the most AMAZING food photos and her book is filled with actionable, tips that can make immediate improvements to your photos, even if you aren’t taking pictures of food. Her tips would work for other types of blog shots as well.

Do you have favorite affordable photo props? Where is your favorite place to purchase them?

The post Affordable tools for better blog photos appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Have you ever heard the saying, images can make or break a blog post? I hate that this is true, but it is! You can have a brilliantly written post but it will still fall short of it’s true potential without a great image.

It’s time to get intense about it.

What does that mean? That means we’re scheduling our next live blog intensive and this month, we’re covering IMAGES. 

For the most part this will not be a photography course. It would be way too hard to try and show you how to take solid photos with a DLSR or even an iphone via live video. . . So what are we covering?

• How to choose a good stock photo
• Editing the photos you have
• Photo dimensions for best results
• Font choices to make your images shine
• Color matters
• Which picmonkey tool is Becky’s BFF
• Examples of photo updates that took posts from blah to viral
• How to make a great collage

We are even planning to feature some of YOUR posts and live edit new photos for a post or two so you can see the entire process!

The live blog intensive will be on July 14th from 7-9PM CST and costs $50

Your ticket includes:

• Live access to the blog intensive
• Lifetime access to the images  blog intensive replay
• 50% off code for the Part Time Blogger Full Time Income Blog intensive (This code will expire July 15th)
• The opportunity to submit a post from your blog for a live image critique during the intensive (not everyone will be selected, but we will choose a few from the intensive attendees to feature during the intensive!)
• Discounted ticket price (After the live intensive, the replay will sell for $99 – You’ll get to attend live AND get access to the replay for $50!)
• $198 value for $50

A few things to keep in mind, while it is a live event, and there are LOTS of benefits to attending live (getting to chat and get your questions answered in real time being a HUGE perk), you will also get lifetime access to the replay, so you can watch it multiple times or just watch it after the fact. We know finding a couple hours in an evening of the Summer can be a challenge, so we wanted to make sure things remained flexible for you. You can also still submit a post from your blog for consideration for editing and featuring during the intensive, even if you are not able to attend live. However, you will have needed to purchase your ticket before July 7th and submitted your post to be considered to have a chance at being selected. This will give us ample time to look over the posts and choose from them. After the live even the tickets for the replay go up to $99, so buying a “live” ticket even if you won’t be able to attend on the 14th is your best deal (shhh we’re only telling you this because Becky and I both love a good deal!) 

When you buy your live ticket for the blog intensive, you’ll get a confirmation email with the 50% off code for the Part Time Blogger Full Time Income Intensive, and a link to a google form where you can submit questions and a post from your blog for the image critique! Within 24 hours of the intensive you will be emailed a link to join the live event, so make sure you have bloggingontheside@gmail.com in your contacts list so you don’t miss the email!

We look forward to seeing you on July 14th at 7pm CST! – Purchase your spot here! 

The post Let’s Get Intense…About Images! appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Some of us (myself included) do not have photoshop.   I rely heavily on Pic Monkey.  I will never put a photo onto my blog without editing it.

Here are the 5 steps that I take every single time…

1- Adjust the exposure to make it brighter (brighter pictures look better on Pinterest & other social media).   You can do this automatically.   (see picture below).

2- Adjust the clarity & sharpness.  This makes a WORLD of difference!

3- Edit Colors  – did you see the post on which pictures are re-pinned the most?  Those colors would not have been my first pick.  I am more of a blue/green/pink type of girl.

4- Branding: I always add “Your Modern Family” or “Beckyandpaula.com” or our logos to my pictures.   (You can see it in purple in the picture above).   Paula and I have both seen what happens when we don’t add our names to our images… someone else takes it & makes it their own.  Learn from us. 

5- I change the size to 600 X 600 or to a pin-worthy image that I will upload directly to Pinterest like 500 X 1000.    If the picture won’t fit (like the one above), I would take that picture that I made and put it on top of the 600X600 square and then I would use the extra space to write the caption.

If you have any suggestions, we’d love them, as always!   Your comments help other bloggers, too!  Thanks!

Since you are working on editing photos, something else you know is important is the photo you start with. If you are a food blogger we highly recommend Tasty Food Photography by Lindsay Ostrum. (affiliate)

The post 5 things you MUST DO when using the photo editor picmonkey appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Scroll to the bottom of this post to grab one of our Free Christmas Images for “taking a blogging break“!

First off, Merry Christmas from all of us here at Blogging on the Side! We hope each of you have a wonderful week celebrating Christ’s birth with your friends and family!!!

After today, things will be quiet on this blog, until friday when the scheduled interview will go up. Each of us will be spending extra time with our families and enjoying the time away from being online quite as much.

Holidays can be stressful for multiple reasons, but don’t let blogging be one of them! Stats naturally go down during the holidays, and really, that’s a good thing! It means people are spending time with their friends and family, celebrating together!!!

If you choose to take a blogging break, enjoy it! We made some images for your convenience, and you can grab them here. Feel free to use them in blog posts or on social media to let your fans know that you will be taking a break during the holidays (Even if it’s just for the day).

We have made several images for you, different sizes and different designs!.  The first one is going to be the larger size for facebook or blog posts! (around 500 by 500)
The lower (mini) version is for your sidebar if you want one there.  (150X150)

To grab an image, simply copy & paste the code into your own blog (in the text section). Or you could right click on the images themsevles, save to your computer and upload them to your site or social media platform!

These are a fun way to let your readers know if you are taking a hiatus from blogging for the holidays! You could even write a post sharing why you are doing so and share the image there! They are free for your use, however you feel would be the best way to use them!

If you want to use this image, here is the code for it.  You would just copy this code & paste it back into your blog on the text part. 

<img alt=”Merry Christmas – I blog on the side (Family, Faith &amp; Friends come first).  See you after Christmas!” src=”http://www.blogger2business.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/button-1.jpg” width=”500″ height=”500″ />

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-791″ alt=”Merry Christmas- I keep my blogging on the side, so I will see you after Christmas! ” src=”http://www.blogger2business.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Merry-Christmas-button.jpg” width=”150″ height=”150″ />

We hope you enjoy these images and have a very Merry Christmas!

The post Free Christmas Images appeared first on Becky & Paula.

I hadn’t planned on writing this post today, but when I was looking for a new juicer to buy, I noticed something….  and it made me realize why EVERY image should be edited.

This post contains our affiliate links, because we love what we are sharing!

Take a look at this picture.  Its great, right?   I would use this picture on my blog, without questioning it…

UNTIL I saw their edited image.  Look at this new one:

They are the exact same image!   

All that they did was adjust the exposure and the clarity (maybe even the temperature) but it made a huge difference.   It makes it look so much more professional! 

I notice this with my own images… a 20 second adjustment with pic monkey will make such a big impact.

I just wanted to show you so that you will see that all pictures, even great ones, can use a little editing.

Short & sweet post today, but if you feel like reading a little more on images, check out these posts:

The post why EVERY image should be edited appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Have you been wondering how to make a faded box on your images so you can write in some text? That is one question that was brought up in our Facebook Group this week — join here, so we made a tutorial to answer this question!

We will be working with this photo today:

To start, open picmonkey.com and click the “edit’ button.

This will then allow you to choose from any image on your computer. Select the image you are wanting to put text and an faded overlay on, and it will take you to the editing screen.

On the left of the screen (see the pink arrow above) you will see a butterfly symbol. This is for overlays. Select an overlay option. For the image above, I chose geometric shapes and then the rectangle. This popped up as a big black rectangle. I pulled it into position and then changed the color to white, using the overlay box to the right of my image (see photo above). Then, I used the fade bar to make the overlay translucent (see pink arrow on the right).

Using this affect you can add text to an image, but still see portions of the image underneath! I added text using the “T” symbol in picmonkey, right above the butterfly “overlay” symbol. So my image turned out like this!

The post How to Make a Text Overlay on an Image appeared first on Becky & Paula.

This post, as with any on Blogging on the Side, may contain affiliate links to products & companies that we love!

My friend Keri asked me recently how to put an image on a large white space.  I have to do this a lot because my featured image size is a perfect square.

Start with PicMonkey.  I use PicMonkey for every post, on Blogging on the Side & Your Modern Family. 

I just take an old picture & resize it to the size that I want, so say 600 X 600.  You have to take the “Keep Proportions” off!

Now go ahead & change the Canvas Color to white.

Now click on overlays (the butterfly icon is overlays) and UPLOAD YOUR OWN.  Pick the image that you want to use for this spot.   I scale it to fit & make sure to leave room somewhere for words.  

Now add the picture …

Drag the corners to the size that you want.

Add some words & anything else that you want….

That’s it!

Click here to learn more about PicMonkey.

If you want to learn how to edit an image on PicMonkey to make it stand out, check out this post: 

The post How to put image on a larger white space appeared first on Becky & Paula.

I just wanted to share where we get free images!  If you are following this thread on our Blogging on the Side Facebook group, you will get a ton of info there!  (If you aren’t a member…. just request to join & we will approve you!)

Here are some places to go for FREE images for your blog…

The post Where to get FREE photos for your blog appeared first on Becky & Paula.

I keep reading more and more about media kits.  I had never done one, but then I read an article that said that “3 out of 5 sponsors prefer them” so I decided that I better get to work.   Then, coincidence would have it that someone posted about Media Kits in a Facebook group that I am a part of that they were going to charge $50 for a kit and I was going to go ahead and purchase it.
Before I hit that purchase button, I googled “Media Kit” and it brought me to The Grant Life’s post on how to make a media kit and I decided that I can do my own, but I was going to have to use PicMonkey.

Here is how to make it:

1- Go to PicMonkey

2. Create a collage:

3. pick a photo (you can’t get started without doing this)

3. Chose a layout

4. Square deal is really easy to work with for a media kit…

5.  I liked this one, but use what works for you:

6. It will look like this.

7. Start dragging your images into place.   (you can remove the cells/squares that you don’t want to use).

8. Take a screenshot of your social media icons (to make it cohesive to your blog).  Add it to your square.  I had to do this in EDIT because it kept shrinking my image.  (You will EDIT the page when you are ready to do more…)

(here is how to get to edit:

& here is how you would add an image to your collage:

Ok- now just add your details & your own image, etc…

Here is my finished product (I made two and I’m sure I will continue to edit them…)

Well, its certainly not perfect, but it works and it shares my information and lets them take a little peek into who I am.

I hope that helped.

Make that your goal tomorrow… it will take you about 15-20 minutes.  Good luck!!  Share your link with us below when you finish (and have it added to your SPONSOR/AFFILIATE page on your blog)

The post Make a Media Kit with Picmonkey appeared first on Becky & Paula.