I was impressed by new follower.
First, he sent me nachos.
Then, he sent me an airplane.
Virtually, of course. But, he sent me the photos of the items in the comment section of my blog posts.
Many bloggers don’t even know it’s possible to insert a graphic into a comment.
My article How to Create Better Blog Content… explains the need for your blogs to empower readers by educating them about your topic.
This post will explain how to inform your readers by showing them the answer in the comments section of your blog post instead of just telling them.
Not all readers are alike.
Some learn by listening, some learn by manipulating objects with their hands, some learn by reading, but the majority learn by looking at pictures.
According to research, the brain processes information in pictures over 600 times faster than writing.
Even if you’re not a die-hard visual learner…visuals still work on you. Even if for no other reason than it’s easier to watch and feel than read and decipher. Most people would rather watch the movie than read the book. Whether it’s a meme, photo, illustration or infographic, the data is clear: Our brains love visuals.
If a reader asks you a question in the comments section of your post, are you going to know how to insert a screenshot or any other graphic in order to visually answer the question?
My post 4 Surefire Ways Never to Run Out of Blog Topics advises against answering readers’ questions in the comments section.
Instead, you should answer the question in an entire blog post. However, what if the question doesn’t lend itself to an entire blog post?
Your posts should be 1,000 words or more to increase your SEO Ranking. What if, try as you might, you can’t expand your answer into a 1,000 word (give or take) response?
Suppose, on the other hand, you are too busy to elaborate in a new blog post, but you want to help your readers as soon as possible?
Tweet: Put a graphic into a comment in order to educate your blog readers. http://ctt.ec/zXB99+
I received this comment from a reader:
This is a useful post. I’m just starting to explore Pinterest, but I’m damned if I can find where to put any tags.
After deliberation, I did not feel I could expand the answer into a 1000 word post, so I wanted to answer her question in the comments section. However, what I clearly needed to ease her stress was a screenshot showing her where to put the tags.
As a teacher I am taught that it is more valuable to show than to tell. In order to show her where to tag her Pinterest pins, I needed to make a screenshot and insert it into the comments section.
Blog readers need to see the answers to their questions.
I circled the pencil which brings up the edit tool. I drew an arrow to the screen where she would find that tool.
Certainly she would need to edit the default that comes with the graphic. “Popcorn” would not enable bloggers searching Pinterest for blogging articles to find me.
My reader would be better empowered by seeing these items instead of just reading about them with words.
Now let’s take this screenshot and use it to answer the question in the comments section.
How to Insert a Screenshot into the Comments Section of a Blog Post
Directions for making a screenshot (if you already know how, you can jump to the next section):
1. When there is something on your computer screen you want to show your reader, hit the “Print Screen” button.
It will now be copied onto the clipboard.
2. Bring up Paint or a comparable program.
Click “File-New”.
3. Paste your screenshot into the photo-editing program.
4. Edit your screenshot as needed. As you can see, I added a circle and arrow, made them red, and cropped my screenshot.
5. Save.
I always save to my desktop just to make my graphics easier to find.
Directions for inserting the graphic into the Comments Section:
1. Go to Add Media, and upload the screenshot, photo, or other graphic you want to insert in your comment to your media library.
2. Once you’ve uploaded it, click the Media Library tab.
3. Click the graphic.
4. Copy the graphic’s URL.
Copy the entire URL even if you can’t initially see all of it. The URL is now on your clipboard.
5. Start typing the answer to a reader’s question.
If someone asks you a question, hit “reply” and respond to them just like you normally would.
6. Save your comment.
7. Edit the comment.
6. Click “img” for image on the screen that comes up.
You are telling WordPress you want to insert an image.
7. Paste the URL of the graphic you want to insert where it asks you to.
8. Type in a description of your image. I called mine “popcorn”.
9. Click “okay” and “update”.
10. You now have a large graphic inserted into a comment!
In closing, any graphic would work to empower your visual learners. In this post, I used graphic, photo, and screenshot synonymously.
However, there are many other graphics you can bring into your comments to help your visual learners. Infographics and charts are other examples.
You can not take a uniform approach to helping your readers since people learn differently. You may love to express yourself in writing, we are bloggers after all, but according to studies, your readers will learn faster by looking at a graphic. Considering how busy people are, whether they are visual learners or not, they will appreciate you for the graphics inside your comments since they will save them time trying to understand the information.
**Update: Instructions for how to get a graphic into a comment on your own blog have been presented in this post. Instructions for how to get a graphic into a comment on someone else’s blog is explained the the comment thread. Instructions for how to get a graphic into a comment on a non-WordPress blog is also explained in the comment thread.
Readers, if you think others can benefit from this tutorial about how to insert a graphic into a WordPress blog comment, please share.
What kind of blogger are you? Do you think you would use this skill of inserting a screenshot into a comment to answer a question or illustrate a point? I look forward to your views.
Related Post:
How to Quickly Get Comments on Your Blog
