How to create stunning images for your blog in five minutes

How To Create Stunning Images For Your Blog In 5 Minutes

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Last Updated on October 26, 2020 by Yovana

If you are a pro with Adobe Creative Suite and Photoshop to create stunning images, awesome! But most new bloggers are not. Especially since Adobe products can be QUITE expensive. There are plenty of online resources to get free stock images for your blog. There are also plenty of online resources for editing and optimization to create stunning images for your blog.

If you have not yet started a blog and want to, or are having trouble with where to start check out this post: How To Create A Self Hosted WordPress Blog.

You are probably feeling overwhelmed thinking about cranking out so much content and media, but it is a lot easier than you may think. It is all about simplification. We will brush through all the online clutter and straight to the point.

Here is where you will find where to go for the best images and how to use them to create stunning images for your blog in 5 minutes.

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That is all it should take, 5 minutes.

Anything that takes more time is a waste of time and that is the last thing you want! Blogs are labor intensive enough as it is!

Alright, we have 5 minutes so let’s use our time wisely. Always work smarter, not harder.

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Minute 1: Use your vision. Imagine what you want your image to look like.

What type of images are you looking for? What message do you want your images to convey?

So the first step is knowing what kind of image you want. This could be based on maybe your blog niche or a certain blog post you want to boost with some gorgeous imagery. Think of a good keyword or category word for the image you are looking for. Now, hold that thought. We will now use that thought.Adobe stock photos of various bicycles stated "Adobe Stock: Get 10 free images"

Minute 2: Search for free stock photos. Or take the photos yourself!

You can get 10 free stock photos from Adobe with my link! You can’t get very far for free with Adobe though, so here are 2 sites I love for continuous free stock photos, Pixabay and Pexels. The best thing about both of these sites is the quality of the images are fantastic and they are all FREE! I also have used google images in the past. The only safe way to use google images is to use the advanced search option, select free to use or share for the usage rights. However, the options that came up in google images weren’t often the cleanest or best looking so I got turned on to Pixabay and Pexels as a result.

Check out The Top 11 Resources For Free Stock Photos for more ways to get free stock photos or sign up for my freebie here.

Both Pixabay and Pexels have a search bar on their home page.

pixabay homescreen on a computer

pexels home screen on a computer

Use this search bar and type in the keyword or category of image you are looking for. Scroll through a couple until you find the one you think will be the right fit. Then select about 5 more from the same group.

Keep in mind that we will be adding some overlays and text to these images and using a variety of templates with these images.

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Minute 3: Edit your stock photos.

PicMonkey Photo editing made of win
The best photo editing sites I have used for my blog have been Canva and PicMonkey. All of the photos on this blog are actually from PicMonkey since I subscribed for a year. You can get a free trial to use Picmonkey with this link.

Alright so your blog has a general theme, right? Your photos and media need to match that theme.

What are the color scheme’s of your blog? Color scheme is the main colors of your blog. Each color has a color code that the html responds to. Copy/paste each of the color’s color code to a notepad instance, Evernote or One Note (whatever you use).

When you are editing your photo in PicMonkey, you will need to add some text that goes with a post title or similar. Use the text colors to match your theme colors and that is where you will use those color codes. You can also add overlays, frames, textures, crop, adjust, filter, you name it! Just play around with it and get familiar. Also refer to other’s blogs to see how there pictures look for a general idea. They should be clean and neat looking, without too much going on in them. So be careful not to add to much editing to the pictures.

This screen shot shows the PicMonkey interface while I was creating the featured image for this post. See what I did with the text and overlay? I added the post’s title, picked fonts that get the reader’s attention, modified the text colors to match my theme and added white transparent overlays for a nice, clean feel.

Example of  screen on how to create images on picmonkey

Minute 4: Optimize your photos for social media.

You will want to optimize your photos for social media sharing to networks on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can use the PicMonkey template repository to choose a template for each social media platform. The last icon on the left sidebar within the PicMonkey interface, that looks like a ‘t’, will take you to the templates. This way your photos will be the exact sizing and specs for optimal social sharing.

template screen on picmonkey

Refer to the vertical image I had at the beginning of the post. That is an image I optimized for Pinterest, using a Pinterest template on PicMonkey. Notice the clean design and how it stays within my blog’s theme colors and design. I try to remember to add my blog’s url at the bottom of images optimized for social media like Pinterest vertical pins, so people can see it and remember it before even clicking anything.

Minute 5: Include the finished products in your blog, share, pin and tweet!

So you are done editing your photos and optimizing them for social media? You are ready to post them bad boys! You can now add them as featured images of your post/posts and add them within your post too using the ‘Add Media’ functionality. Then you are free to share the finished product on your Facebook page and Facebook blog groups, tweet, pin on your business pinterest that links to your blog and on Pinterest group boards, and instagram it as much as your heart desires! The easiest and quickest way to do this sometimes after publishing the post is to use the Social Warfare plugin (what I use on my site) for optimal sharing ability straight from your page.

Happy blogging!

Shoot me an email at daniella@iliketodabble.com with some of your results using the tips above. I’d love to see what you came up with!

Related:

The Top 11 Resources For Free Stock Photos

21 Top Tools To Help Boost Your Blog

Idiot Proof SEO: How To Improve Your Google Rank

How To Create Killer Blog Posts

How To Create A Beautiful Blog Using Free WordPress Themes

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57 thoughts on “How To Create Stunning Images For Your Blog In 5 Minutes”

  1. Pingback: Google

  2. I think other web site proprietors should take this site as an model, very clean and excellent user genial style and design, as well as the content. You are an expert in this topic!

  3. Thank you for another informative blog. Where else could I get that kind of info written in such an ideal way? I’ve a project that I am just now working on, and I have been on the look out for such info.

  4. Thanks for this helpful suggestions and tips! I’ve been telling my bestfriend about this as well. She is a newbie in blogging. I’ll share this link to her!

  5. Most of my blogging time is spent on photography and editing. That feels like a lot of wasted time if I could speed up the process!

  6. I’m still learning on how to make great creatives for my blog and this totally helps me out! Thanks so much for sharing this knowledge, sometimes its hard to find good things about how to create great images for blogs, not just content!

    1. Yes, I hear ya! Check back for more awesome blogging tips and sign up for my freebie where you get even more useful things for your blog!

  7. Very nice tutorial! I use Picmonkey for mine, too. I tried, really really tried, to learn Photoshop. I’m still trying to learn. Picmonkey, though, had virtually no learning curve for me. I use Pixabay a lot, as well, but keep forgetting about Pexels!

  8. Chanel van Reenen

    These are such great tips! I use canva the most for my graphics and love all the options they have for free!

  9. What a helpful post for new bloggers! I’m just over 6 months in and am still getting to grips with everything. I try and use as many of my own pics as I can, but there are some really fab stock photos out there. I really like to use wordswag but I’m also hoping to use Canva too as I’ve heard how good it is.

  10. Thanks so much for sharing this post. I always want great pinable pictures but it seems so hard. Thanks for sharing will use you tips to create my future post images.

  11. Great tips! Pixabay and Canva have been lifesavers for me when it comes to finding and editing pictures. It’s so nice that there are great free programs available.

  12. Lately I have been using stock photos more often. I really need to up my own photography game though, but I need a nicer camera. I really love using Canva too, it is amazing for Pinterest graphics especially.

  13. One of the time consuming parts of blogging are the photos! I think it would be nice to take less time to get pictures and edit. These sites are definitely worth checking out.

  14. It’s tough to be a blogger because photography is part of the job. I’m a mother too and sometimes, I don’t have time to take all the pictures. I think free images are a life saver.

  15. Journa Ramirez

    Great images for blog posts make them more entertaining! This will be very helpful for bloggers.. Helps save time!

  16. Good advice and tips for those looking to build their blog. When taking your own pictures it’s good to have a great camera and research how to use and even check out tips to even better your photo taking skills.

  17. Great tips and advice. For my blog I take my own photos for the recipes I bake or cook and the DIYs I do with my kids. Very helpful information to help build your blog.

  18. Thanks for the reminder that I really need to up my game. Good images are SO important 🙂

  19. Great advice I am always spending way to long editing photos and I feel like I have worked all day on one picture. I think I will be a lot more productive now

  20. On behalf of fellow bloggers everywhere, thank you! There are so many good tips in here. I’m always on the hunt for some good free stock photos!

    1. Thanks! Always happy to help! Sign up for the newsletter to be notified of all new content and upcoming freebies :)! Either tonight or tomorrow I hope to put a post out about how to easily monetize using just wordpress plugins!

    1. Yes, Photoshop is always the best! I would definitely recommend that over picmonkey if you already have it! Sign up for the newsletter to be notified of all new content and upcoming freebies :)! Either tonight or tomorrow I hope to put a post out about how to easily monetize using just wordpress plugins!

  21. I think many forget steps 3 and 4 and just slap the first image they get their hands on on their blog or website, so thanks for reminding us to edit and optimize for social media.

  22. OMG you just saved my life. I have been using Pixabay and Pexel, but their stock is very limited. Now that I know about Google free photos, a whole new world has opened up for me. Thank you!

  23. Great tips! I always have problems sourcing non-copyright images (don’t want the internet police going after me, lol) and I’ll look into your suggestions – especially Pixabay!

  24. This is great. The sites you mentioned are the best. Pixabay and Pexels provides the best stock images for free and Canva is a great tool for editing images. Awesome post.

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