“Captivate Readers by Adding Words to Images” by Joan Y. Edwards

Colorful images with enticing words are great ways to attract the interest of your readers or potential buyers. You’ve seen them on Facebook, websites, and blogs. It’s the same type of thing advertisers might use on a big poster, billboard, or flyer.

Here are a few terms that might help you.

• Logo – A symbol or other small design adopted by an organization to identify its products.

• Slogan – a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising. Add these to your colorful image to captivate readers.

• Meme – an image, video, etc. that travels electronically from one Internet user to another. These images usually have words with them.

How can you create images with words to captivate people who visit your blog or website? This will take me a while. I’ll try to simplify it.

1. Use software to draw and paint your own images or change other images.

• Corel’s Painter 12– Desktop. I use this to create my own drawings, paintings, and illustrations. If I have to change the resolution of images, I use this software. If I need to combine pictures into one, I use this software.

• Paint – This software is usually found on almost every Microsoft Desktop or Laptop computer in the Accessories. To find it, hit the Start button. Click All programs. Look for folder named Accessories. Inside this folder is a program called Paint. I use Paint to resize my jpeg, gif, and png images quickly and easily. Just click resize, then pixels,. Choose pixel size. For internet blogs and websites, images of 400  pixels works well. When you change the width to 400 pixels, it automatically fixes the length correctly in proportion to match the original picture.

• Paint Net If you don’t have Microsoft Paint or can’t find it on your computer. You can try this one. It’s free.  It’ll do more. It will change the image size and resolution, too.

1. Use software that can combine images, words, and other effects:

• Laughing Bird’s The Logo Creator Version 6.6 I’ve made a good many of the images for my blog using Marc Sylvester’s Laughingbird Logo Creator. When you buy this software, you can change them, add your own pictures, and text.
  Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Laughingbird.Software.

• Use websites that provide free images, you must give credit to artist or place selling it or in some cases, you don’t have to give credit at all. Check their terms and usage. Here are two I’ve used.

1. www.morguefile.com Newspaper offices used to call their file cabinets with pictures from past stories the morgue file. These are all high resolution pictures you are free to use.

2. www.pixabay.com – different sizes free to use on commercial sites.

3. Public Domain Vectors https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/clipart-for-commercial-use-free

4. Creazilla. https://creazilla.com/ clip art, vectors, 3 D

Take photos with your camera. When I first started to blog in 2009, I didn’t have any idea of where to get pictures to add except those I took myself. This is a really good plan. I created a series of blogs with pictures of props I thought would inspire writers.

References:
Here are links to my whole series on Image Props for Stories using pictures I took with my camera:

1. Joan Y. Edwards. “Props for Characters: Toys, Games, and Other Items:” http://joanyedwards.com/props-for-characters-toys-games-and-other-items/
2. Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #1:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-1-all-that-was-left-a-stapler-a-money-bag-and-a-bird-ornament/
3. Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #2:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-2-bananas-scissors-a-vacuum-cleaner-and-a-ferris-wheel/
4. Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #3:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-3-a-basketball-a-pillow-and-a-pair-of-boots/
5. Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #4:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-4-a-remote-control-a-basket-of-flowers-and-a-bandage/
6. Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #5:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-5-love-bug-dogcat-and-love-letter/
7. Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #6:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-6-coffee-maker-earphones-and-a-lamp/
8. Joan Y. Edwards. “Image Props for Stories #7:” http://joanyedwards.com/image-props-for-stories-7-pay-phone-blue-wildflowers-and-fast-moving-river/

Other References:

• Anita Li. “How To Create a Winning Meme:” http://mashable.com/2013/01/12/create-winning-meme/
• Anne Duguid. “How to Create a Meme:” http://slowandsteadywriters.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/how-to-create-meme_22.html
• Anne Duguid. “Memes and Themes:” http://www.writersonthemove.com/2013/03/memes-and-themes.html
• Karen Cioffi. “Creating Images Simple and Quick:” http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/2012/07/creating-images-simple-and-quick.html
• Pamela Vaughn. “10 Popular Memes Masquerading as Marketing Campaigns:”http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33197/10-Popular-Memes-Masquerading-as-Marketing-Campaigns.aspx

Related articles

1. The most commonly used Meme Font and a Tutorial how to create a Meme with Photoshop (diaryofdennis.com)
2. Paint.NET 3.5.10 (gratisfreeware.wordpress.com)
3. Using Paint.NET? Make It Even Better With These Great Plugins (makeuseof.com)

Thank you for reading my blog. I’d be honored if you would leave a comment.

Celebrate you.
Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards

Copyright © 2013 Joan Y. Edwards