Inside this world of blogging, Pinterest is a huge source of traffic. It’s something that should not get overlooked and every post should have a Pin Ready image. In other words, it should be ready for Pinterest. But maybe you’re struggling to create the picture or you want an easier way. Well here is how to create a Pinterest image the easy way.
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THE TRICK
I have no idea why it took me so long to figure this trick out. But I want to save you some time and tell you the trick to easily create a Pinterest image. Are you ready? It’s a template that you can use again and again.
Simple right? Here is another bonus if you do this, it will help make your blogs brand consistent, it will become noticeable! Now if you happen to have a brand style for your blog, great work! But for those of you that don’t, it will make this process even easier. You can see exactly how to create a blog brand style on this post. And for a bonus, I have a FREE template for creating a board to store the info!
Now that you have the trick and you have a blog brand style, let’s look at one more thing before creating a template.
THE IMAGE SIZE
I feel that there are a lot of different opinions out there about the optimal Pinterest image size. But there is one thing everyone agrees on and that is that your image should be vertical.
Now because we are talking about the size on an image. I am going to share the size I use. After lots of research I was finding that most suggest 720px wide but this seemed a little large to me. So I decided to check the actual size of the images on Pinterest. What I found was that the size that was displaying on my computer was actually 564px.
After looking at a couple of different images on Pinterest I decide my optimal image size was 600×900. I would suggest using a ratio of 2:3 or 2:4. But you decide what is best for your blog! SIDE NOTE: Something to think about is a retina display computer, it is recommended that your image is double the regular size. So the image size would be 1200×1800, not 600×900.
TIP: When saving an image make sure the file size is not greater than 200KB but shoot for something below 150KB. The larger the file the longer it takes to load on your site but it also takes up more storage space too.
CREATE A TEMPLATE
I personally like to use Photoshop Elements to create my templates but you could use other FREE online options like Canva.
Because you have a blog brand style, you should have an idea of what elements you want in your images (aka: border, background, overlay, watermark, colors, and design). If you’re not sure what elements you want, scan Pinterest for some ideas! Pick about 4 different main elements (watermark & colors do not count) and each element will be a template.
I like using Photoshop because I can have one file that has all my templates in one (aka: different layers). So this tutorial will be using Photoshop Elements.
CREATING TEMPLATE:
- Create a new file (ctrl+n on PC)
- Name the file “Pinterest Template” or whatever you would like.
- Put your image size (mine is 600px and 900px) have your resolution be 72 and click OK.
- Create your templates, have one template be one layer of the file. (ctrl+J on PC)
- Add a text box for each of your font choices and add your watermark.
- Save your file as a Photoshop File (.psd).
CREATING PINTEREST IMAGES
- When creating your image for Pinterest write the text first (make all the template layers invisible – eye icon).
- Add the desired template layer that fits the text best.
- Make addition adjusts: color, overlay or/and adjust text placement.
- Save the image for the web (ctrl+shift+alt+S on PC)
- I always like to save the image as a Photoshop file first; renaming it first (this way I can fix something later if needed).
- Then save for the web making sure the file size is not larger than 200KB.
- TIP: Adjust the “Quality” and click the “Progressive” box (I adjust the quality to about 70 but don’t go lower than 60)
ADD IMAGE TO BLOG
Something that needs to happen while you’re uploading any image to a website is that the ALT text needs to have a short description inside of it. In other words, write the main point of the post plus write something that will hook a reader.
Now for something I just figured out, how to hide an image on a post. This image will not display inside a post but if someone clicks on a Pin It button it will show then. In other words, more images to pin!
TIP: Make sure you are adding at least TWO different pinnable images to one post.
If you’re not sure how to hide an image, check out my post that has the step-by-step tutorial on how to hide an image plus the code!
Also, I decided to share the process in video form on creating a Pinterest image. So here is how I created one of the images for this post.
CREATE A PINTEREST IMAGE THE EASY WAY
I am pretty sure you know the importance of a Pinterest friendly image on a blog post. But save yourself some time and make a template to create your Pinterest images. Plus make sure you are saving your image to a smaller file size and added an ALT text inside WordPress. I hope that by creating a Pinterest template you will have more time to work on other important things.
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