Guest post by Rachel Horwitz

Lisa is a big proponent of blogging for authors. Blogging helps you build a following, engage with your readers—making them loyal and supportive–and it’s a great way to improve your SEO for your entire website and get more visitors.

Lisa’s even had a client contacted by a top 10 publisher just because they saw his blog!

Here’s a tip for increasing readership and viewers: Add pictures to your posts.

Pictures help readers connect with your written content instantly. A picture can be bright and eye catching or can be more topical picture to help readers them understand the subject matter. People love pictures. Here are some tips about how to get the most from your images:

• Pin the images on pinterest, bringing a direct link back to your blog (engaging new readers and links help with search engines).
• A picture post on facebook with a link to your blog can get more people clicking through.
• On Twitter, images are more likely to get clicked than a regular link.
• 60% of readers are visual learners. (Hubspot)
• Photos help to convey the tone of post.
• Photos help viewers understand metaphors or examples explained in your post.

Photos send you on the fast track to gaining more blog followers and increasing your traffic. Returning blog readers will be continuously engaged by the visual content and new blog visitors will stick to your page and possibly even subscribe to your posts if your visual content draws their interest.

The more photos in your blog post that are relevant, interesting and can make your audience smile, the better.

On a related subject, gifs or short and snappy videos can also help convey your message to readers in a way that they can understand faster than reading through your post. Gifs are a short clip of an image that replays, whereas videos can be used as a call to action.

Any subject can be sparked to life by images, and for any author with a blog, adding and using visual content will grow the reach, virality and popularity of your blog.

Here are some incredible stats courtesy of Hubspot:

1. 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. (Sources: 3M Corporation and Zabisco )
2. 40% of people will respond better to visual information than plain text. (Source: Zabisco )
3. On Facebook, photos perform best for likes, comments, and shares as compared to text, video, and links. (Source: Dan Zarrella )
4. Pinterest drives sales directly from its website — of people with Pinterest accounts, 21% have purchased an item after seeing it on Pinterest. (Source: PriceGrabber )
5. Viewers spend 100% more time on pages with videos on them. (Source: MarketingSherpa )

Ask your questions about blogging here or share your own experience of using images in your blog posts.