3 Reasons to use Watermarks on your Blog Post Images

  It been a while since Paul from SpiceUpYourBlog sent me this email about including watermarks …

I wrote a comment on your post for the feedburner email form.
The comment was about your use of watermarks on your images, i was just going to ask why you use them as i personaly see no advantage in using watermarks on screenshots.

Instead of replying him personally I thought of writing a complete post on Why I include watermarks on my images. Watermark is actually the logo to text included in the image which shows the source of the image. Like in all the images of our tutorials we include the line “Picture by www.inTechgrity.com”. Mostly the watermarks are translucent so that it does not block the original image from being viewed properly. While some may take this negatively, but personally I feel some strong reasons behind including this…

#1 Branding your Tutorial Images by Watermarks:

Branding is must in this world of blogging. It helps making the blog popular and unique. So, just like your blog design and blog posts, the images should also be branded properly. The best way to do this is by including watermarks on your image. It tells the user that it from YOUR blog only and is unique.

Also if the image is shared, it will spread your Brand along with your image which will bring more readers and more traffic to your blog. You can even use the picture along with the tutorial in social networking sites like facebook, twitter etc to spread your brand without actually linking the URL. This reduces the chance of marking your post as spam whereas helps spreading the Brand name of your blog.

#2 Content Uniqueness and Originality = Trustworthy visitors:

Branded watermarks depicts the originality of your tutorials. It tells the user that, all the screenshots have been taken by the author. So it has been performed by the author and is not copied from any other source. It increases the trust of your readers towards your blog.

Personally I feel safe doing the steps of a tutorial which is described by a watermarked image, as it makes me feel that the author has already performed this step. So it is safe for me to perform as well.

#3 Preventing content theft:

You take a screenshot, use it on your tutorial, but we never know what may happen with the picture. Some may use it on their tutorial to claiming it to be his own taken screenshot. This happens greatly if you share your self designed pictures on your blog.

Watermarking the image is the best preventive measure which can be taken against this kind of content stealing. Removing watermarks from an image is a hectic process in Photoshop. So, once you have watermarked your image, you can kind of feel safe sharing it online or through emails.

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That is what I feel about watermarking my own images in my tutorials. Note that I never watermark images which I have used from other sources [i.e, not created by me], instead I give a link back to them.

Do you use watermark on images. If not then why? Do give your opinion on this!

Image Credits: 1, 2, 3