Writing / Creativity / Marketing
A Collection of Boring Featured Images, You Need To Stop Using
And why it matters for creating better content
The featured/cover image is the first thing the reader sees. Nevertheless, too many writers hardly attach any importance to it.
I’m not saying that the images I am about to show you are boring. The problem with them is that they get boring.
Most online-writers are afraid of getting lost on page two of Unsplash suggestions. That’s why we see 99% of featured images a hundred times.
Let’s clarify why these images are so bad and what you can do about them.
There are two types of boring featured images.
Boring images can be divided into two groups — here’s how you can recognize them.
The Swiss Army Knife These images appear as a suggestion in almost every search.
The biggest problem is that they often show several things. You’ll see a good example in a moment — it’s the picture with the little boy and the book.
Some use it to write about children; some use it to write about writing; some use it to write about books. You get the point.
The reader sees the image so often and associates nothing with it. It is just a meaningless placeholder. Maybe even a sign of low-quality content.
The daily object They show something that you wouldn’t have to go on the internet for — pictures of things we see every day.
A smartphone, a banknote, or an avocado. The pictures show what the reader has already thought of. That may sound good, but it’s not.
A good headline arouses interest. A good subheading arouses interest.
A good picture should also arouse interest. This can be achieved by providing something unusual & unexpected.
Images You Should No Longer Use
Enough theory — let’s get down to practice.
The little boy with the book
Admittedly, the little man is cute. Still, it’s such a meaningless image. Is it about the boy? About his surprised expression? Is it about the book? You get the point.
Plants and pennies
The image is just too generic. People use it for all sorts of money themes. What’s more, only 10% of the image shows anything — the rest is empty. No face, no expression, no activating colors.
The typing hands
This image can be found in various search queries — that already show how generic it is. What’s more, nothing is striking about the picture — it’s just a computer.
Facebook on an old smartphone
When I see this picture, I always have to chuckle. Who is still interested in Facebook?
The terrified woman
At least, I think she is scared. Or is she happy? The picture looks very cold, but maybe even a bit cozy. Unfortunately, the woman in the picture is tiny and shows no expression. For me, the picture is meaningless.
I think that’s enough examples. Let’s move on to what we can do better.
5 Tips To Avoid Boring Pictures
1. Use associations
Tim Denning is a genius when it comes to choosing good images.
In his last 100 stories, he hasn’t used any of the images shown above — I promise. Recently he published a story with the word “genius” in the title.
When you search for that word on Unsplash, the usual boring images come up. So, Tim used free-association.
What do you think of when you think of genius?
I think of famous geniuses like Einstein, Hawking, Newton. In the same way, Tim then took a colorful graffiti of Einstein as an image.
2. Check if your image is getting overused
Especially on Medium, this is easy.
- Go to the page with the different topics on Medium.
- Click on the topic you are writing about.
- If you scroll down, you will see all recent articles that have been curated into that topic. Check to see if your image appears there as well.
3. Try out alternative platforms for images.
Apart from Unsplash, there are other great platforms for images.
You can use images from Pexels as you like, without having to give credit. The same applies to Pixabay — you can also find vector graphics and illustrations there.
4. Trim your image
You won’t always find the perfect title image.
In 90% of the cases, the dimensions just don’t fit. There is a simple trick: crop the image to fit.
Since you have all the rights to change the image, you can do that. For example, cut off the top 20%, and it will work much better as a title image.
5. Use screenshots
I’m not a lawyer, and I don’t know much about copyright. But it seems like using screenshots is often not a problem.
You can take a screenshot from a website and use it in your blog post — as long as your post refers to the content of the image¹.
Sources
[1]: https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/41115/legality-of-screenshot-of-another-website/41116
