Images are a vital part of a blog post, especially for teacher bloggers. However, for something so important, there isn’t really a right or wrong place to include the task of gathering images in your workflow. Let’s chat about it so you can figure out where it will work best for you.

Episode Highlights:

Gathering Images First

Writing the Post First

Which Option is Best?

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Stephanie 0:00

Images are a vital part of a blog post, especially for teacher bloggers who want to showcase their awesome products. But for something so important, there isn't really a right or wrong place in your workflow to include that task of gathering blog post images. So let's chat about it. So you can figure out where it will work best for you.

Stephanie 0:22

Hey there teacher business owner, it's time to give your bank account a break and pause that ad campaign. I'm your host, Stephanie Royer, and I'm going to show you how to pay less for traffic.

Stephanie 0:33

Welcome back to the podcast, we're going to continue the discussion of the content creation process in the hopes of identifying places where your workflow might be a little sticky. Images can make or break a blog post. So I wanted to be sure we addressed it in this series.

Stephanie 0:50

When I started thinking about where images belong in the workflow, I realized it was basically the chicken and egg dilemma, which comes first writing the blog post or gathering the images. I don't want to bury the lede here - there really is no right or wrong answer as to where this goes in your workflow. So let's chat about why that is.

Stephanie 1:11

The first option would be to gather your images before you write your post. So you might collect them in a Google Drive folder or on air table wherever it is that you keep track of your blog post stuff, you will gather your images and have them in one place. Now as a TPT seller, this is an option that would be pretty easy for you to implement. You already have stellar product images at your fingertips, and you likely have some images of your products in use, that you've been using on social media. So these can easily be incorporated into your blog post, depending on the topic you're covering. So all you have to do is just gather them and make sure you have them ready to go.

Stephanie 1:52

The positive of doing it this way is that you already know what images you're going to be including in the post. You might choose different wording to describe an activity based on how it's being used in the image. You can also adjust the talking points of your blog posts to fit the images you have. And that can save you time in the long run too because instead of taking more pictures, you just adjust what you're actually saying in your blog post.

Stephanie 2:21

The drawback of doing it this way is that you have to make sure you have all of the pictures you need before you write the blog post. And so sometimes you might need to take a few pictures in order to make sure you have everything you need before you get started. And so it's possible that you create a bottleneck for yourself, because you're putting off the blogging until you have time to take the pictures.

Stephanie 2:46

The second option would be to write the entire post first, and then you gather the images that you're going to need to supplement the post. The benefit of doing it this way is that you can guarantee you have images that fit what you've written.

Stephanie 3:01

For example, if you're talking about how you can turn math centers into fine motor practice by adding jumbo tweezers and pom poms, you can snap a quick picture of that to go with it. This ultimately might work better for your post rather than just using staged product images of the math center task cards that you have on TPT. You know, like your mock ups.

Stephanie 3:23

But on the other hand, the challenge with writing the post first and then gathering the images is it's another opportunity for a bottleneck in your content creation process, you might end up sitting on a bunch of blog content that's ready to go. But you just haven't had time to take fresh photos or create graphics to go with that content.

Stephanie 3:46

Now it's time to think about which option makes the most sense for your business. Again, there is no right or wrong answer only what works best for you. So gathering the images before you write the post could be the best option for you if a few things are true. So first, you probably want to already have a substantial photo bank of your own products between the staged photos, the mock ups as well as showing them in use in a classroom. It would also be a good option for you if you have your content mapped out well in advance. So it's easy for you to request pictures from your photographer or take them yourself before you sit down to write the post. You also might like gathering the images first before the post. If you're the type of person who just wants to be done with the blog post as soon as the words are written. You don't want to spend a lot of time on those post production tasks. And finally, you might like to gather images first because if you plan to ever outsource your blog posts, you'll likely want to get used to gathering your images first. Because just as an example in my client work, I write the blog post and get it uploaded to WordPress with all of the images In everything, I do it all for my client, and all they have to do is review it and click publish. So all of my clients have had to get used to that process of gathering the images and uploading them to air table for me before, it's time for me to write the post. And then what I do is I just adjust my talking points in the blog post based on the images that are available.

Stephanie 5:24

So now let's talk about whether you might be more of a candidate for gathering the images after you write the post. So this could work well for you, if you have a limited number of images to work with. And you know that you're likely just going to have to take some photos anyway. So in this case, it would be wise to just wait until you know exactly which images you're going to need after writing the post, because you know, you're going to be pulling out your camera and creating mock ups anyway, it could also be helpful to wait until after you write the post, if you are writing a post that includes a brand new product. Again, if you're going to be taking new pictures anyway, you might consider waiting until you've written the post. And then taking care of the images after you write the post could be a good idea. If you're the type of person who dragged your feet when it comes to blogging, you don't want to have yet another prerequisite task between you and getting the words written. And so if you don't mind taking pictures for your blog posts, you might consider then gathering those after you've written the words, it's like the whole eat the frog first.

Stephanie 6:31

Now for my own blog that I created many years ago, I would fit most of the criteria for writing the blog post first, because I don't have a bank of images. I'm a lifestyle blogger and I just come up with the images after the fact, I almost always have to take fresh pictures, or locate stock photos based on the talking points that I used in the post. However, the images are not my favorite part of the blogging process. And I know that I would be the type of person who would leave blog post drafts just sitting there for months, if I waited until after I wrote the post to gather the images. So knowing myself and my patterns of momentum, I choose to gather the images before I write the post. So for me, personally, I identify the goal of the post, do my keyword research, create the outline all of the things we talked about. And just kind of as part of that process, as I'm identifying the talking points, I make a list of the images I'm going to need, I grab them, and then I'm ready to write, it doesn't take that long. I don't let grass grow under my feet when it comes to getting the images for a blog post.

Stephanie 7:44

And so you might choose to do it a different way. And that's totally okay. The important thing is that you have images to support your blog post content, and you aren't creating a bottleneck in your workflow. You might even decide to have two image checkpoints in your workflow. You might gather what you can, and then write the post. And then snap a few additional photos for the opportunities that come up as you write. Whatever you decide, just make sure that you create a rhythm that you can stick with. So your workflow can help you consistently create content for your blog.

Stephanie 8:19

We are going to be pausing this content creation series for next week's episode, because it's the last Saturday of the month. And as you know, we've earmarked that for our Let's pay less discussion. But don't worry. The topic we're going to cover goes hand in hand with what we've been discussing about blogging workflows. So be sure to follow the pay less for traffic podcast so you don't miss it.

Stephanie 8:44

Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, I'd love it if you could share it with a teacher because bestie you have created high quality resources. Now let's help teachers find them. I'll see you next time.