Wednesday, March 21, 2007

How To Put A Picture On Your MySpace, Blog, Forum, eBay, etc.

Here is a guide for how to put pictures on your blog, MySpace, website, online journal, eBay, Facebook, community, or web forum. If you don't have your own dot com, get one today from OtisWorks.

Step One
Choose a photo. You can use a photo you took that you have on your computer or you can use a photo someone else took.

Step Two
Upload the photo to your website or a web host. Follow the directions at the websites below to create an account and then upload your photos.

Just take your time and read all the directions. It can be confusing sometimes. If you get too confused, just take a break and come back to it later. Most of these places have help available. Find the "support" or "help" link and email the tech support with your questions.

These are places you can store your photos online. This a a good idea if you want to share the photos easily, if you use multiple computers or don't have a computer (and only use shared computers at the library or at school), or if you don't have much space on your computer for storing pictures.

Step Three
Put the picture code on your blog, MySpace, website...

In Picassa and in Flickr you can choose "blog this" to send the image straight to your Blogger blog. Flickr has additional settings to allow you to send the photo to your WordPress blog, Blogger blog, or other blog.

In Photobucket and in TinyPic you can select the code that's appropriate for your use and copy it. Then you post that code on your MySpace, your blog, eBay or whatever. TinyPic doesn't make you register, which is nice and fast, but it also makes it a little tricky if you want to find that picture again later because you don't have an album all your own.

Picassa is photo software to use on your computer, too, not just hosting (storing) your pictures on the web. It makes it extremely easy to organize and fix your photos, but it has some limitations. If you want to get fancy, I suggest Adobe PhotoShop. If you use PhotoShop, get a book to learn how to use it or take a class.

Step Four
Double check to make sure your photo isn't too large or too small by previewing your post (forum post or journal entry). Double check to make sure you have the right picture and you gave the photographer credit. Then you're done! Hurray!

P.S.
If you use someone else's photo, make sure you have permission to use it. Then, when you use it, you should give the person who took the photo credit and add a link to their site, if they have one. Do not steal copyrighted images even if Google image search makes it easy and even if you, me, and your mom have done it before without repercussion. It isn't nice to steal other people's work.

Here are some places you can find photos that pool Creative Commons licensed photos (just be careful to select the appropriate license and follow the rules):