I have used the system of thought of including a picture with every single post. Be it relative to the post’s content or just a random picture pertaining to the subject, it is a subtle addition that can give a face-lift to any blog. We may not like it, but this generation of Internet users has a seriously short attention span. In an age where multi-tasking between Facebook, iTunes, AOL Instant Messenger, and Blogs, it has become a problem to capture the interests of these “do-everything-ers.” Pictures however can provide that spark of interest or lighten up a page that would otherwise appear like a long boring block of text, something which the everyday multitask-er is not to keen on reading.

Some may argue that your content should be as straight forward as possible and not include random “crap” thrown in order to clutter the page as little as possible. While I agree with this to a certain degree, it is far more effective and aesthetically pleasing to most hardcore audiences to include a picture. When I say a picture, I mean any picture!

For example, if I made a post about ad revenues and click-through rates using different ad services and included a picture or a graph about my earnings and results, it would be very relative to the content while still lightening up my page. However, even in cases such as my “Blogging on the Go” post where there were no relative pictures, I just slapped on a picture of a Blackberry using e-mail because it was relevant to the content, and in my opinion Any Picture is Better than No Picture.

Have you had any experiences with the use of using pictures in your articles? What is your reasoning behind using them, and did they prove useful to your average time per page rate? Is there a specific style you like using your images (on the top, center of the text, or the on the left of the text)?