How images can enhance your website?
Images are the eye-candy of your website. They serve to attract viewers by enhancing the visual appeal. Internet users have a short attention span and so adding even just one image to a 1000-word article can brighten up the page and encourage the visitor to stay a while longer.

How to select the right images?
However, selecting the right images for your website is an acquired skill. Unsuitable or poorly cropped images in fact serve to detract from the overall appeal of the website. When selecting images it is important to identify with the editorial voice of the website. A picture is worth a thousand words, and you don’t want to be conveying the wrong message.

Some things to be cautious about
Also try to take into consideration how your audience will perceive the image. Will they in any way be offended by it? Does it contain any negative cultural references? Images must always be consistent with the overall message of the website, and more specifically with the content on the specific page it sits on.

Image partnerships
It is best to avoid posting unprofessional images taken at home or for personal use (this may be unavoidable in the case of personal images used for testimony articles). Try to build your image database by purchasing image discs or membership contracts with professional image vendors such as DesignPics.com or Comstock.com. In such cases, you will be prompted to sign a membership contract or license agreement pertaining to the usage of the images. It is important to read these over carefully so that you know the images you are purchasing are best suited for the needs of your website. The contracts will usually explain what kind of use of images is permitted and what is not.

Technical
Standard image sizes for TruthMedia websites:

* Index images must be 150×90 pixels in dimension
* The front page feature image is 150×150 pixels
* Thumbnails (or author pictures) are 55×55 pixels
* Article images are 150×90 pixels or 90×150 pixels (depending on whether the image is horizontal or vertical)

Tips for cropping and placement:

* It is better to crop out the forehead than the chin
* If the image is of a person, make sure that the person is facing in towards the body of text of the article or the webpage.
* Adding text to larger images is eye-catching, especially on the front page and for buttons/banners (advertisements)