How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start

Evergreen content engages and educates readers for longer without a huge amount of effort. Once you master the art of writing “timeless” content, you can ensure your articles, e-books, and tutorials stay relevant for years to come.  Below, I’m going to show you exactly why evergreen content should be part of every marketer’s content strategy, …

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How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start

Evergreen content engages and educates readers for longer without a huge amount of effort. Once you master the art of writing “timeless” content, you can ensure your articles, e-books, and tutorials stay relevant for years to come.  Below, I’m going to show you exactly why evergreen content should be part of every marketer’s content strategy, …

The post How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start

Evergreen content engages and educates readers for longer without a huge amount of effort. Once you master the art of writing “timeless” content, you can ensure your articles, e-books, and tutorials stay relevant for years to come.  Below, I’m going to show you exactly why evergreen content should be part of every marketer’s content strategy, …

The post How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

The post How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.

How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start

Evergreen content engages and educates readers for longer without a huge amount of effort. Once you master the art of writing “timeless” content, you can ensure your articles, e-books, and tutorials stay relevant for years to come. 

Below, I’m going to show you exactly why evergreen content should be part of every marketer’s content strategy, and I’ll explain how to craft your own timeless pieces. 

What is Evergreen Content?

Evergreen content is content that is optimized to stay relevant and drive traffic for months or even years at a time. 

It doesn’t have an expiration date. It’s centered around a topic that people will be interested in for years to come. 

Examples of topics that might be considered evergreen include:

  • how to write a will
  • how to lose weight 
  • ways to cook chicken
  • ways to generate passive income 
  • how to optimize your site for SEO 
  • how to build a blog 

It doesn’t matter what season we’re in, or what year it is: There’s always a healthy number of people searching for content on these topics. 

Marketers tend to write about evergreen topics because it’s a relatively easy way to bring organic traffic to their website. There’s always going to be some interest in the topic, so you won’t struggle to find an audience base.  

For example, if you Google “choosing the right SEO,” you’ll find one of my articles on the first page:

evergreen content - SEO agency post example

It’s evergreen because SEO isn’t fading out of style anytime soon. Businesses will be searching for SEO advice for years to come. 

A little later, I’ll show you ways to improve your chances of holding a first-page ranking for a long time, but for now, just remember one thing: If it’s evergreen content, it persistently matters to people, and you should be writing about it.  

Here are some examples of time-sensitive content that aren’t evergreen:

  • seasonal articles e.g., Christmas gift ideas
  • announcements and news posts 
  • posts about current but temporary issues e.g., Covid-19 or a sports season

If it’s a niche topic you expect people to lose interest in overtime then it’s not evergreen, because people naturally stop thinking about it (and searching for it online). 

Here’s an easy way to remember it: 

Evergreen content is ever-relevant.

Why Is Evergreen Content Important?

OK, so that’s what evergreen content is, but why does it matter? Well, a few reasons, but here are the three most important. 

1. Evergreen Content Boosts Search Rankings

Did you know that 75 percent of people never scroll beyond the first page of search results? If you’re not on the first page, it’s unlikely people will ever find your content. 

Evergreen content helps boost your Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (“E-A-T”) score on Google. The higher your E-A-T score, the more likely it is you’ll secure a first-page ranking on Google. 

How can long-lasting boost your E-A-T score? By helping position you as an authority in your industry. 

To be clear, the level of “expertise” you’ll need to secure a good score varies depending on the subject matter. 

For example, you’re more likely to rank on the first page if you’re a highly qualified doctor writing an evergreen post about weight loss than if you’re a general member of the public talking about weight loss tips. 

Why? Because Google recognizes how important it is for someone to be qualified before they offer medical advice. 

If you have expertise in your industry, you can increase your chances of a first-page ranking by producing quality evergreen content in your field.

2. Evergreen Content Draws in Organic Traffic 

Organic traffic is simply how many people visit your website after finding you on a search results page, rather than clicking through a paid ad. 

How does evergreen content help you draw traffic? Here are a few ways: 

  • It answers a question, which there’s always a healthy level of interest in, so you can assume people are regularly searching for an article just like yours. 
  • Readers are more likely to find your content, since (you guessed it) there’s a sustained level of interest. 

The result is more organic traffic landing on your website. 

3. Evergreen Content Keeps Your Business Relevant 

It’s not just about generating traffic. It’s about ensuring you create valuable, relevant content for readers—and evergreen content helps you do just that.

Here’s why: Valuable content means lower bounce rates, since people stay on your page for longer.

Since evergreen content stays relevant, you can use it to show search engine’s that readers find your articles useful, which in turn helps boost your overall search rankings.  

The best part? The more valuable content you create, the more you impress readers—and keep your brand relevant in an increasingly competitive digital space. 

7 Tips for Creating Evergreen Content Right From the Start

To be clear, not all your content needs to be evergreen. Your audience wants to know you’ve got your finger on the pulse of your industry and understands current trends that impact them. Also, sometimes, people just want their fill of short, relevant, and entertaining news articles.  

However, it’s definitely worth crafting a solid hub of timeless, enduring content to impress your audience and set yourself apart from the competition. 

With all this in mind, here are seven relatively simple ways to write your own evergreen pieces.  

1. Choose the Right Topics

First, choose topics with persistent traffic potential. 

An analytics tool like Google Analytics can help here. Briefly, here’s how to distinguish between trending and evergreen topics. 

  • Trending posts: Typically have a high initial search volume which drops fairly quickly
  • Evergreen topic posts: Attract a high volume of traffic initially, but there’s still a sustained level of traffic over time

To get started, take a look at your own site and see what topics retain a high level of traffic over time. Are there related topics you can cover? 

Then, check out leading blogs in your niche. Identify potentially evergreen topics, run them through a competitive analysis tool to see which ones get long-term traffic, and decide how you can put your own spin on the topic to add value for your own readers. 

2. Use Appropriate Keywords

Now you’ve chosen a few topics you’d like to write about, you need to use the right keywords to ensure your posts appear in the search results. 

  • Use a keyword discovery tool like Ubersuggest
  • Type a search query into Google. Take some ideas for related keywords from the “people also ask” section. 

Let’s check out an example. 

Say you want to write about weight loss. When you Google “how to lose weight,” one of the top search results is a post from Diet Doctor

Here are the two main things we can take from this sample. 

  • The first paragraph contains multiple related key phrases including “trouble losing weight” and “weight loss without hunger.” 
  • Subheadings are also optimized around popular related keywords like “weight-loss pills.” 

Return to the search results and you’ll find people also ask:

  • How do I lose weight naturally?
  • How can I lose weight fast?

This is a quick and easy process, so give it a go! 

3. Avoid Specific Events and Dates

One of the quickest ways to “date” your content, and shorten its lifespan, is by using current dates and events. Here’s why: 

  • If the date’s relevant to the context or the wider understanding of an article i.e., anything about working from home during Covid-19, it’s not evergreen.
  • People stop searching for trending or date-related topics after a certain amount of time, so they won’t find your content. 
  • If someone finds your article even just one year later, they might assume it’s outdated and they won’t click on it. 

If you must use dates, be smart about it. For example, you could turn a “2021 Guide to Digital Marketing” into the “2022 Guide to Digital Marketing”, and so on. Or, make a plan to update content with a date annually. 

In general, you’ll want to avoid using dates or referring to current news events, where possible. 

4. Create Case Studies

Case studies won’t work for everyone. It all depends on your audience and the type of business you’re running. 

However, if your audience values in-depth, analytical content, consider writing evergreen case studies. Here are a few benefits of case studies: 

  • Case studies help boost your credibility within your sector. 
  • Readers can derive true value from in-depth case studies. 
  • You can make case studies evergreen by focusing on the core issues rather than dates or anything time-specific. 

Finally, by sharing real case studies with your audience, you can boost your company’s authenticity. Since 90 percent of customers value authenticity when choosing which companies to support, I’m thinking this is a win!

5. Write In-Depth Guides and Tutorials 

When people want advice, they very often turn to guides and tutorials. Why? Because they’re comprehensive enough to answer all the questions they have about a specific topic. (Or, at least they should be!) 

In other words, guides and tutorials make for excellent evergreen content ideas.

For example, if you type “keyword research” into Google, one of the top results is my own guide to keyword research:

Evergreen content - how to optimize content

It’s a guide, and it’s part of a comprehensive, three-part series on effective keyword research. I cover a huge amount of ground, and the goal is to ensure the guide is a “one-stop-shop” for your keyword research needs.  

What’s more, tutorials and guides are a chance for you to showcase your authoritativeness and build trust in your brand. (Which, as we know, can improve your search rankings.)

6. Update Your Content Regularly 

No matter how hard you work to create evergreen content, you’ll still have to update it occasionally. Strategies change, new research and tools come out, and content becomes less fresh over time. If you want to keep your content ranking well, you’ll need to update it.  

How does this work? By updating content, you’re creating a new publication date, which gives your post an instant boost: most first-page results are published within the last few years.

Here’s a few tips for updating content:  

  • Add a little more information, or change a few stats. 
  • Freshen up the images.
  • Change any outdated details. 
  • Double-check spelling and phrasing. Could you phrase something better?   

For a more detailed guide, check out this complete guide to giving your content a facelift. 

7. Repurpose Your Content

Finally, once you’ve got a great piece of content it’s time to make it work for you. One of the best ways to make the most out of great content—and reach as wide of an audience as possible—is to repurpose content into different formats. 

Here’s a few ideas: 

  • Build an infographic to share elsewhere.
  • Repost the content and remarket it across social media. 
  • Around 85 percent of web users enjoy video content, so repurpose an evergreen article into a shareable video. 
  • Got a positive review or customer testimonial? Use it to link back to your content.

These are just a few suggestions, don’t limit yourself!

How to Maintain Your Evergreen Content Ranking

You’ve compiled your evergreen content and you’re ranking well. Great! 

Now comes the tricky part: how do you keep your first-page ranking for the months (and years) to come? Here are two suggestions. 

  1. Promote your content to ensure people can always find it on your website. Share it on social media, and consider adding fresh hashtags to increase exposure. 
  2. Link to evergreen posts on other pages across your site. Not only will this help you draw more traffic, but internal links are another simple yet highly effective way to boost SEO.

I recommend using these techniques alongside other strategies like content repurposing and refreshing to maximize your chances of maintaining a first-page ranking. 

Conclusion

Evergreen content is timeless. It never goes out of fashion. If you want to draw organic traffic, educate your audience, and position yourself as an industry authority, it needs to be part of your content marketing plan. 

Don’t just dive in, though. Identify the topics that matter to your audience, do your own research, and put a fresh spin on them. Use the right keywords to improve your chances of ranking on Google, and don’t forget to update your content whenever you feel it’s a little stale. 

What does evergreen content mean to you? 

How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start

Evergreen content engages and educates readers for longer without a huge amount of effort. Once you master the art of writing “timeless” content, you can ensure your articles, e-books, and tutorials stay relevant for years to come.  Below, I’m going to show you exactly why evergreen content should be part of every marketer’s content strategy, …

The post How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start

Evergreen content engages and educates readers for longer without a huge amount of effort. Once you master the art of writing “timeless” content, you can ensure your articles, e-books, and tutorials stay relevant for years to come.  Below, I’m going to show you exactly why evergreen content should be part of every marketer’s content strategy, …

The post How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start first appeared on Online Web Store Site.

The post How to Create Evergreen Content Right From the Start appeared first on ROI Credit Builders.

How to Create a Services Marketplace

“Got skills? Sell ’em.”

This mantra has seen millions of freelancers turn to the internet and become location-independent.

That’s not all.

Over the last decade, service marketplaces have sprung up and distributed how we work and live.

For instance, Airbnb, a marketplace for vacation rentals, has over four million hosts who have welcomed over 800 million guests. Food delivery service marketplaces are expected to reach $154.34 billion in 2023.

The success of current platforms is one of the main reasons entrepreneurs are looking to get into the business.

In this post, I’m breaking down everything you need to know about service marketplaces and how to launch one people will use.

What Is a Service Marketplace?

A service marketplace is a website or app for buying and selling services. Freelancers, private individuals, or companies in various industries can advertise their services and get hired by people who need their help.

The most successful service marketplaces cater to a specific market and redefine how we manage our lives.

For example, Upwork and Fiverr have changed how companies find freelancers for gigs. These online marketplaces have also made remote work more accessible to millions of people around the world. Meanwhile, Uber and Airbnb have disrupted how we travel, created more jobs within the gig community, and given homeowners a way to make extra cash on the side.

Why Should You Create a Service Marketplace?

The service industry is lucrative. In the U.S. alone, the consumer service economy is worth a whopping $9.7 trillion.

If getting a slice of that pie isn’t enough to tempt you, here are some of the top benefits for creating a service marketplace.

  • You don’t need to be a professional: While understanding the industry you’re helping is a must, you don’t need to do the work. As an owner of a services marketplace, you only need to focus on attracting sellers and buyers. For example, you can start a website for personal trainers without having the skill.
  • It’s easy to build: These days, there are various marketplace software providers to make the process of launching your site quick and simple. Some of the top providers are Sharetribe, Shopify with Multi-Vendor Marketplace Extension, and Arcadier.
  • It may be more profitable than an e-commerce marketplace: Unlike Amazon, when you provide services rather than goods, you don’t need to figure out things like shipping and inventory. Fewer costs mean higher commissions for you and your sellers.
  • You can outwit, outlast, and outplay the competition: Sites like Upwork and Thumbtack are wildly successful because they make finding and buying services faster and cheaper. In a world where time is a scarce commodity, creating this level of convenience could give you the upper hand over your competitors.

How to Create a Service Marketplace

Curious about how to start your marketplace? Here are the top four things to keep in mind if you want yours to become successful.

Do Your Research to Find a Niche Service Marketplace Idea

The trick to finding a winning service marketplace idea is understanding the needs of sellers and buyers.

Apps like TaskRabbit and Postmates are successful because both companies figured out how to solve a problem by making it easier and cheaper to sell and buy those services.

Here are some tips for researching your niche to find a business idea:

  • Identify inefficiencies: What tasks are time wasters? What services in a marketplace would help people save time?
  • Improve trust: Are there tasks in your niche that people want to delegate, but a layer of trust is needed from both parties?
  • Costs: What services would help people save and make money if available online?
  • Overcome hurdles: What hurdles does your niche experience? How would a marketplace eliminate these hurdles or make the process smoother?
  • Bring fragmented markets together: Are people offering certain services on places like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist? Would a marketplace for that service improve the user experience for buyers and sellers?

Build a Website for Your Service Marketplace

Once you have an idea for your service marketplace, the next step is to create your website.

There are a few places to do this, including:

  • WordPress: Buy a WordPress service marketplace theme or build your site from scratch. If you go with the latter, check out my guide on the best e-commerce site builders.
  • Marketplace Platform: As I mentioned earlier, there are sites specifically made for this purpose.

Whichever option you go with, there are some key features you need to include to make sure it’s a great experience for everyone involved.

  • Buyers and seller profiles: User profiles for sellers and buyers help to build trust and credibility. Both parties will feel like they’re dealing with a real person, and it can help the seller build a reputable brand on the platform. You should consider adding fields like descriptions, testimonials, certifications, and photos.
  • Listings and searchability: How your listings will look on your service marketplace depends on the type of services your users are listing. Besides providing tools to showcase offerings, you also want to make sure it’s easy for buyers to search and filter through your listings.
listings on a services marketplace
  • Bookings: No matter what you’re selling, a solid booking management system is essential for your marketplace’s success. You want to give providers the ability to control their availability and workflow. On Upwork, users can decline gigs, and on Fiverr, you turn a gig off to prevent unexpected bookings.
  • Payments: Another crucial factor in running a successful service marketplace is how you take payment from buyers and pay your providers. Most sites usually take a commission from each transaction and pay the seller after the deduction. If you plan to do the same, you need to set up a transaction flow to ensure the process is as seamless as possible.
  • Reviews: Reviews build trust and are essential to making sure everyone feels safe using your platform. As the marketplace’s owner, you can use feedback to kick off any users who are harming your platform’s trust.
reviews for services marketplace

Optimize Your Service Marketplace for Local SEO (If Applicable)

Want to create a niche service marketplace for your city, region, or country? You’ll need to optimize your site for local SEO.

Local SEO is similar to organic SEO, but it focuses on the geographical element and is aimed at a group of people from a specific area.

To grow their market share and start attracting users, local traffic is a top priority for anyone selling in a certain market. In fact, 46 percent of Google searches are local, which means you’re potentially leaving a lot of money on the table by not optimizing for local SEO.

When creating your website, think about the search terms people in your area would use to find the services you offer. For example, “need help moving in [city].” Another thing to consider is the keywords service providers would use to find a gig, such as “freelance writing jobs in [city].”

local SEO for your services marketplace

While Google usually automatically assumes people are searching for services or products in their area, making sure your location’s name is involved is essential in case someone is coming from out of town.

Create a Marketing Strategy for Your Online Service Marketplace

Below, I’m breaking down the simplest marketing considerations to think about when you want to open your online service marketplace.

What Problem Do You Solve?

You can have the best marketplace with all the bells and whistles and still not succeed if you don’t have a specific problem to solve.

You need one to stand out from everyone else and make sure you’re attracting the right people to your platform.

For example, the problem Upwork solves is finding reputable freelancers quickly.

Who Is Your Audience?

Your marketing strategy will flop if you haven’t taken the time to understand who your target audience is. This involves determining what demographics you’re targeting, including age, background, consumption habits, and more.

Google blogs in your niche, and read the comments to see what questions people ask and how they talk about their problems. Hop onto Quora and see what questions people are asking.

If you want more information, create a market research survey. Send it out to people in your network who would be a good fit. You can take it a step further and post your survey in relevant Facebook groups to get even more feedback.

How Should You Grow Your User Base?

Your next step in your marketing strategy is finding sellers and buyers to join your marketplace.

Luckily, there are quite a few ways you can do this without investing in paid search or social media advertising. You just have to know who your target audience is and where they hang out online.

  • Facebook and Reddit: Find relevant groups in your niche and engage with users by answering their questions. Some groups even have self-promo days, which you can use to get more eyeballs on your site.
  • Craigslist: Are your sellers hanging out on platforms like Craigslist already? Find them and tell them about your marketplace. This is how Airbnb initially grew its listings.
  • Link building: Research blogs in your niche where it would make sense for them to link back to you. Once you have a list, send out a personalized email and ask for the link. 
  • SEO: Traffic from organic searches is free and incredibly valuable. People searching the phrases you’re ranking for are leads who have the problem you’re solving. Don’t skimp on investing time in researching your keywords and optimizing your site for SEO.
  • Paid advertising: If you have the budget for paid ads, take advantage of the different platforms. Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are highly targeted and can help you get in front of the right people with minimum effort.

Examples of Service Marketplaces 

Here are some of the most well-known and successful marketplaces:

  • Upwork: Upwork is one of the biggest service marketplaces for freelancers. You can use the site to find writers, designers, web developers, and more.
  • Talkspace: Talkspace is an online therapy portal. You can use the site to connect with a therapist who matches your needs instantly. The marketplace makes mental health care more convenient, accessible, and affordable.
  • TaskRabbit: TaskRabbit is a same-day service marketplace platform. It connects its users to skilled labor who can help with various tasks like furniture assembly, home repairs, or basic errands. It saves you time trying to find the right person for the job and allows you to compare reviews, ratings, and prices.
  • Postmates: Postmates is similar to UberEats, but there is a core difference. While both apps offer food delivery from restaurants, Postmates takes it a step further. You can use the app to get groceries and other goods delivered straight to your door.
  • VIPKid: VIPKid connects English teachers with students around the world. What sets the site apart from other marketplaces is its application process. VIPKid screens teachers before they are allowed to work on the platform to ensure they’re knowledgeable and will give the children a good learning experience.

Conclusion

A service marketplace can be a profitable business model if you’ve done your homework. Before investing in hosting plans or platforms, make sure you have a problem your marketplace can solve.

Despite the competition you’ll face, if you have a solid niche and you market your platform to the right people, you can achieve the same success as the Upworks and TaskRabbits of the world. 

What problem do you think a service marketplace will solve in your industry?

A Deep Dive Into Facebook Ads: How to Create, Optimize, and Test Facebook Ads

As a savvy internet user, you might think no one clicks on Facebook ads. You’d be wrong. Facebook is on track to make over $60 billion in revenue this year from advertising. Someone’s clicking. How do you get them to click your Facebook ads? More importantly, how do you get them to buy your product or sign up for … Continue reading A Deep Dive Into Facebook Ads: How to Create, Optimize, and Test Facebook Ads

Stock Photos are Dead: Create These Blog Images Instead

The use of blog images in posts is a no-brainer.

Images are an easy way to break up chunks of text, add context, or give your readers a more accessible medium through which to digest your content.

With the growth of written content online, it’s harder to have your content be unique from others. Writers need to adapt to the changing landscape.

How can you continue to engage your audience when so many bloggers have written on the same topics—and will continue to do so?

The answer is original imagery.

Blog Image Trends: Why Stock Photos Are Dead

With more content available on the web every day, it’s more important than ever to stand out.

While finding ways to put a unique spin on your blog post topics is critical, there are only so many angles on one subject. You need other types of content, such as photographs and illustrations, to make your mark.

Unfortunately, stock photos just don’t cut it anymore.

This reason is in part because blog images don’t only live on your blog. They make the rounds on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest whenever your posts are shared.

Chances are, your users have seen similar stock photos many times already, and they’re bored with them.

With so many articles to read, videos to watch, and social media news to ingest, the average reader won’t spend hours looking for the best article on your topic. They’ll choose the most visually appealing option nearly every time.

So before you use stock photography in your next blog post, ask yourself:

Will my readers interact with the same stale image they’ve seen numerous times when researching this topic? Or will they choose to interact with an original image that more perfectly captures the content?

Why You Should Use Interactive and Original Images on Your Blog

Your goal as a digital marketer is to increase conversions.

So how do you do this even better than you already are, given the changing online landscape?

There are plenty of ways to drive traffic to your website. But what’s more important is driving the right traffic—the users who will engage with your content.

Images can help. According to BlogTyrant, images can up conversions by over 300%.

But keep in mind the kinds of images you use can have an impact on your conversions, too.

For years, stock imagery was the norm. But, it’s time to move away from those pictures.

Original images offer authenticity stock ones can’t provide. They offer your readers a peek behind the curtain, allowing them to see a deeper side of your content.

Unique blog image content can offer other benefits, including increased customer trust and brand recognition.

According to Brain Rules, a slogan alone only sticks in the minds of 10% of people. When related imagery is added, though, retention rises to 65%. That’s an increase you can’t ignore if increasing brand recognition is on your radar.

Original image content has an often-overlooked SEO benefit, too, and that’s the improvement of Google’s E-A-T score. The E-A-T score lets Google assess content quality based on these three standards:

  • Expertise
  • Authoritativeness
  • Trustworthiness

How can original imagery improve your E-A-T rating?

Whether you shoot and edit photography on your own or you work with a digital illustrator, your unique imagery will have a personal spin. If done right, this will become a vital part of your personal brand strategy.

You show expertise by including images that clearly demonstrate you understand your content.

You show authoritativeness by having consistent, unique branding people recognize immediately.

You show trustworthiness by providing information through images that are accurate and increase user’s knowledge.

A strong personal brand will bump all three elements of an E-A-T rating.

Placing Images on Your Blog

Images, just like text, can also be perceived as “fluff.” Because of this, you need to know when to use pictures on your blog to optimize user experience and benefit your SEO.

You should use images to do three very specific things.

Break Up Large Chunks of Text

According to a study by Microsoft, the average attention span of heavy screen users is a mere eight seconds.

That means you have eight seconds to captivate your audience—and large blocks of text may make them click away pretty quickly.

However, you don’t have to write two sentence posts to make them take fewer than eight seconds to read. Instead, employ clever tactics to keep your readers engaged.

One tactic is to introduce other media, such as photos or digital illustrations. This creates a less intimidating reading experience while also making the post more visually appealing.

Explain a Concept

Some concepts are too abstract or complex to explain effectively in writing, especially if your audience isn’t strictly experts in your topic.

Custom diagrams and visuals can help readers understand the material.

Enliven the Content

As much as you like to think your content is witty and engaging, some topics just won’t interest readers for very long. You can use original visuals to add some life to otherwise “dull” content in these cases.

When Should You Use Custom Illustrations or Photos?

The cost of custom graphics may be prohibitive for some bloggers, but it is possible to find some middle ground.

Use custom illustrations and photography sparingly. Ask yourself where they make the most sense and insert them accordingly.

If you’re creating a landing page for a new product or service, for example, this would be the place to splurge. After all, you want this content to stand out from your competitors—what better way than with a custom graphic?

You can also utilize custom illustrations to drive a point home or explain data.

Whether a comic strip panel, a diagram, or a flow chart, you can use custom illustrations to share ideas with your readers in a way words simply can’t.

When Should You Create Interactive Graphics?

You can take your blog’s imagery one step further with interactive graphics.

Interactive graphics are custom graphics that support reader interactions like mouse pointer movement, clicks, or keyboard input.

This form of original imagery is commonly used in infographics, though other display types include side-by-side comparisons, flow charts, and graphs.

The most obvious use for interactive graphics is to catch the reader’s eye.

Perhaps more importantly, they can also be used to break complex information down into bite-sized chunks. For example, take a look at this nifty interactive graphic that shows users how Google search works without becoming overwhelmed.

Examples of Successful Blog Images

There are plenty of ways to use images on your blog.

Here’s one creative example from Oberlo:

Examples of successful blog images

Instead of one lengthy infographic, the content creators chose individual infographic “slides” to answer each question on their post about social media statistics.

This use of graphics achieves two things:

  1. It makes the information easy to digest.
  2. It makes it simple for readers to share the information on social media.

As mentioned above, one of the benefits of original blog imagery is the personal branding aspect. When you use a particular style consistently, it becomes synonymous with your brand.

Copyblogger provides an excellent example of this:

Copyblogger example of blog image

Their featured images consistently use quotes overlaid on eye-catching images. They work as a watermark of sorts, as anyone who sees their imagery elsewhere will be able to identify them as belonging to Copyblogger immediately.

And what about interactive content? Your options are only limited by your imagination.

Take a look at this comprehensive timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:

avengers blog images example

As you scroll through the timeline, new images and text content can be seen. This example tells a complex story in a linear, non-intimidating format.

How to Get Original or Interactive Blog Images

It’s never been easier or more affordable to get original and interactive blog images.

When it comes to hiring a professional, you have options. You can easily find freelancers on sites like Fiverr or Upwork or use a service like Design Pickle.

If you know of a digital artist with a style you like, you may be able to commission them. They are often more expensive than the freelancers you’ll find on the websites mentioned above, but they’re great if you need a specific style.

For bloggers strapped for time, there are services you can hire to do the heavy lifting. The service may be a creative agency or a blog content specialist. Either way, you provide details, and they’ll commission work on your behalf.

Do you have more time than money? You can also create blog images using tools like Canva, Pixlr, or PicMonkey. For a more professional finish, you can invest in a creative suite like Adobe Creative Cloud.

How Much Do Original Blog Images Cost?

As with most services, there are options for almost every budget.

If you hire a freelancer for a one-off gig, then the price varies based on the number of images, the complexity of the work, and how you plan to use the final product.

In some cases, you may be able to get a discount when you buy in bulk.

Commissioning a professional is likely to be the most expensive option. Unless you have money to burn, this should be reserved for high-impact projects, like illustrations for sales landing pages or campaign launches.

Tools to Create Blog Images

Whether you’re on a limited budget or just want to let the creative juices flow, you can opt to create your own images.

There are free and low-cost options, such as Canva and PicMonkey. These tools have limitations, including watermarks, if you don’t opt for premium memberships. You also need to be sure all assets used in your design are copyright-free.

For 100% original work, you may find creative suites like Adobe to be the best bang for your buck. With access to tools like Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, you can create and edit various blog illustrations, diagrams, and original photography.

There are plenty of tutorials available online for creating graphics using Adobe Creative Cloud—so if you’re unable to pay a designer for their services, you don’t have to just guess about how to do this.

Conclusion

There’s no need to scroll through page after page of stock photos to find the right images for your blog post. You can create original blog images, whether by yourself or with the help of a professional.

Original blog imagery, including photography and graphics, can take your blog posts to the next level. It also helps build your overall brand and take your marketing to the next level.

With plenty of options at your fingertips, from free tools to freelance artists, there’s no reason not to use original images on your blog. 

Which of the tools mentioned above are you most likely to use to create images for your blog? Or do you prefer ones we haven’t mentioned? Let us know!

The post Stock Photos are Dead: Create These Blog Images Instead appeared first on Neil Patel.