If you completed some of the previous course assignments, you might have already experimented with adding photos and videos to your site, using the Image block and maybe the YouTube block. If you have a plan upgrade you may have even uploaded a video directly to your site.
Today we’re going to dive more deeply into how you can integrate a variety of media into your blog.
WordPress is the leading website and blogging platform on the Internet. What it is not, however, is a robust media editor like Photoshop. If you need to do some light editing to your images, you can use free or inexpensive, user-friendly online photo editing tools like Canva.com, Pixlr.com and PicMonkey.com. If you use Google Photos to store and organize your photos, it also has some pretty nifty editing tools as well.
For best results, make your photo edits before you upload them to your WordPress.com Media Library, post, or page. But also be sure to check out some of the built-in WordPress.com features covered in the next section.
You may not always be able to find the perfect image for your post. Maybe it’s relevant but not visually stimulating. Maybe it’s the perfect content but the wrong size or orientation. Maybe it just needs…. Something. Luckily, there are some really powerful tools available to help you turn the images you have into the images you want.
Let’s say I have a great image that was shot in portrait orientation (up and down) and I really need a landscape image to break up paragraphs in my post. I can still insert that image into the post and work with it to get what I need.
| Pro tip: The aspect ratio crop is also a great way to get multiple columns to stay aligned when you’re using images that aren’t originally the same size. |
There are two different places to change settings for your blocks. There’s a menu on the right-hand side of the editor where you can toggle between post settings and block settings and there’s a block settings bar in the editor that appears when you have that block selected.
Between these two sections you have a number of options, including:
- Alternative Text
- Title
- Caption
- Description
- Crop (Aspect Ratio or Selection)
- Rotate or Flip
- Scale Image
- Change the image style or “frame”
- Apply a duotone filter
- Apply a different filter
If your plan allows for it, there are also a number of plugins you could look for that may give you additional options for image filters, animations, and more!
WordPress.com has partnered with the popular, free stock photography site Pexels.com to offer all our users access to the Pexels library directly within the WordPress.com Editor.
To learn more about how to access and search the Pexels library, follow the step-by-step tutorial on this support page. You can also go directly to the Pexels.com site or Pixabay.com to search and download photos.
All images from Pexels and Pixabay are copyright-free. We recommend that you include an attribution credit with your photo, but it’s not required.
The other copyright-free media option that’s available within WordPress.com is for Openverse. Openverse is a search engine for openly-licensed media which gives you access to over 600 million Creative Commons licensed and public domain image and audio files. All files can be used free of charge. You can learn more about this option on this support page.
Featured images convey the theme or mood of a particular post, so you’ll want to be thoughtful when adding these to your blog.
Depending on your theme, featured images may be displayed prominently at the top of each post, as thumbnails on your post archives, in a slideshow of featured content on your Homepage, or in a grid of featured posts. Outside of your blog, your featured images may be displayed as preview images when you share your content to social media feeds — including the WordPress.com Reader.
To add a featured image to your post, follow the instructions on this support page. You can change your featured image at any time for any post, but it may take some time for social media sites and other external sites to update with the latest changes.
If you have a plan upgrade, you can upload video and audio files directly to your Media Library or any post or page. But even if you’re on the Free plan, you can still embed media files that are hosted elsewhere.
For example, if you want to embed a YouTube video into a post, you can use the YouTube block. If you want to embed a music file, use the Audio block and select the Insert from URL option to embed it directly in the post.
You can provide downloadable copies of various document types using the File block. Or, if you want to embed a PDF file into a blog post, follow these instructions. You can even embed a Google Doc by following the instructions on this support page.
Here’s an important caveat: You don’t have to add any of the above to make your site “more interesting.” If you love words and love experimenting with different ways to play with language to convey your deepest thoughts, then, by all means, use that gift to really make your blog shine.
Media like photos, videos, and audio files are more than just “eye candy,” but unless you have a lot of experience as a photo editor or artist, it takes time to learn how to create, edit, and select just the right visual content that will enhance the story that you’re sharing on your site. Don’t be discouraged if your images don’t look as perfect as the ones you see in your favorite blogs and magazines.
You probably have everything you need to start experimenting with photography right in the palm of your hand. Many smartphones have advanced features that let you crop, edit, and enhance your photos. There’s no need to invest in expensive digital equipment or camera kits — use what you already have.
Start small: if you blog about books, an easy option is to take a photo of the book itself. Think of creative ways to display it: on a window sill, next to a pretty porcelain cup filled with hot tea, or lying open on a table with an antique bookmark across the pages. When editing the photo, try using different filters and/or experimenting with the color contrast.
Or why not try something completely different and upload an audio file instead? If your blog is about life in a rural town, record a short audio file of the cows mooing in the pasture near your home. Live in a high-rise in the middle of a large metropolis? Head downstairs at street level during the busiest time of the day and record the sound of city life during the lunch hour. Or, conversely, record the sound of that same city in the middle of the night.
Imagine your blog as being your life’s canvas for exploring all aspects of your chosen topic. Use all the tools at your disposal to really showcase the little details that make up the big stories.
Write and publish a blog post that includes a storytelling tool you haven’t tried before. If you’ve never added an audio file to your site, now’s a good time to experiment! If you’re on the Free plan, consider hosting your audio files on a free audio hosting site like Mixcloud, then using the audio or Mixcloud block to embed your file.
Your media file doesn’t have to be long — even a few seconds is enough and can add a rich layer to the story you’re sharing in the post. Or maybe the sound itself is the story.
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