You may not want to accept it, but your blog could be better. It has nothing to do with your writing, but with the way the human mind works when it comes to the internet. You need something more than just great writing to get and hold the attention of your potential readers. You need something pretty, something catchy. You need to include pictures and graphics.

There are plenty of royalty free images for blogs online. Enough so that you can find at least one to fit any topic. And it is important that the image pertain to your topic, because eye catching pictures and flashy headlines are what pulls the reader in. If the picture does not match what you write, the reader will leave disappointed, never to return.

If you do not believe me, there is actual science backing these claims. The idea of using royalty free images for blogs is not a new one, and the concept translates to many other fields as well. Think back to the pie charts you got in math class, or the line graph at the quarterly board meeting, putting all of those growth numbers into visual perspective. Those all work under the same principle of keeping the mind focused on a subject using images.

In education, it is known as differentiated learning. It uses the idea that added visuals help the learner. It gives the mind something additional to focus upon while still relating it to the subject. That visualization of the writing activates both the image and the reading part of the brain. Just reading words only gets people so far, and some absorb information through reading better than others. While almost all people retain information the best through visualizations. By combining the two, it ups the staying power because the imagery helps to cement the rest of the information in. By applying an image to the information, the memory of the data is more clear and stays longer.

Using images in your blog is not cheating. In fact, it may be the only way for you to truly get the volume of readers and return traffic that you want. By getting readers to read a whole article, with the help of some visuals, they are more likely to be invested in the topic, and therefore more likely to comment upon and share your article as well. Those are just the first steps to breaking out as a blogger.