Pictures are a great way to help your newsletter content resonate more strongly with your readers. Pictures can help explain your perspective on the subject matter of your articles and give assistance to visual learners in really understanding your content. Of course, you can also use pictures to provide comic relief and to help pique your readers’ interest. But without hiring a designer, how do you know which pictures to pick and where to get them?
Choose pictures that tie into the content somehow. Try not to be too obscure, you don’t want your newsletter to be a puzzle to readers. For instance, if you have an article about filling out forms, you can choose stock photographs of forms with pens, piles of papers, or something similarly connected. Don’t choose a picture of a hamburger because you personally like to eat hamburgers while filling out forms—that will only confuse your reader.
Find pictures that you have a right to distribute. You can visit the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/index.html), Every Stock Photo (http://www.everystockphoto.com/) and morgueFile (http://www.morguefile.com/) for free photos with few (if any) usage restrictions. Be sure you check each picture you attempt to use and verify that you have permission to distribute it on a newsletter.
Pick good pictures. Sounds like a no brainer, right? Well, think again. While you may not be looking for a photo shot by Herb Ritts, when using free photos you are often using amateur photos. You should choose those that are not out of focus, don’t have confusing or unpleasant Photoshop effects, and aren’t distracting. Photos that look too clumsy or unprofessional will detract from the professional look of your newsletter.
Use photos that are not offensive. Your newsletter photos should not show any offensive items, words, postures, hand gestures or body parts. When looking for photos, be sure to look at everything in the picture—not just the center—so that you don’t miss any hidden offenses.
