The following question was asked by our own Johanna Cunningham...
Q: How do I add images or photos to my Web site?
OK, everyone tells me this is simple but I just can't figure it out.
How do you guys all get the photos on your websites? I see all these really cute pictures, pictures that are animated, and links to other websites with photos. I would love to dress mine up but I don't know how.
Signed,
Frustrated
A: It can be a bit tricky if you've never done it before, but here's some quick steps to get started. In no time, you'll be an image-posting fool!
Dear Frustrated
Great question, and one that gets asked frequently. I'm not sure if you were asking how to add images to your own Ryze profile, or to your own Web site, but either way, the general advice is the same.
Getting started: It's as simple as using the image tag:
The "img" in the above tag stands for image. "src" stands for source. The source of the image is going to be the Web address of the image. If you are adding an image from your own Web site and the file path is the same as your web site, you will be able to just type the filename of the image here, like this:
Now, if your images are in a directory other than the one your HTML document is in, you will want to link to it using the full address of the image. So, if your image is located in a folder of your Web site called, "photos", you would use this url as the image source:
If you want to center the image on the page, you would place the center tag around the image tag, like this:
This will place the image in the center of the screen, like so:
How to wrap text around an image
To allow text to wrap around an image, you just need to add one of these commands to the image tag:
So, the image tag would look like this:
Now just type in your text and it will wrap around the image, rather than jumping to the bottom of the image. Here is an example.
This will give you the following:
Here is an image
This text should wrap around
the image like this.
Notice how the image is on the left
and the text is to the right?
You've got it!
To align your text to the right of your image, use the same formula above, but change the " align = " part to say, "right" instead of "left". The image will be on the right and your text will wrap around the left of the image, like so:
Here is an image
This text should wrap around
the image like this.
Notice how the image is on the right, now
and the text is to the left?
You've got it!
The filename does not have to end with .jpeg. You could also use a .gif, .png, or .jpg file as well. .jpg (or .jpeg) and .gif are the most common image file extensions used on the Internet. If you have images in other file formats (such as .psd, .tif, .eps, or .bmp) which you want to use on your Web page(s), you will want to convert them to .gif or .jpg . This can be done with most image editing programs.
Some popular graphic editoring software programs:
 What about just using another image available online?
There are many articles available online instructing folks to copy an image's location and paste it to your own Web site (called hotlinking), and is a BIG no-no.
Hotlinking images from other Web sites which are not your own is bad because the image does not belong to you and may not be in the public domain (and could be copyrighted).
Moreover, hotlinking is stealing bandwidth. Saying "It's more complicated, but that way [their] site doesn't have to serve up graphics for your personal page." Right you are. But you basically are using up this other Web site's resources when you do that. Like hooking up your cable TV from your neighbor's, instead of your own.
It is highly recommended that if you want to use an image you see on another Web site, that you ask the Web site owner for their permission to use it, and then if they grant the request, save the image to your computer FIRST, then upload the image to your Web host server and serve the image using the methods outlined above.
You may also find an image to be in the public domain, meaning it is available for anyone to reuse, post and share. You can find many Web sites offering images for the public domain here http://www.google.com/search?q=public+domain+images.
There are also tons of Web sites offering free and paid (but royalty-free) stock images and photos. Here is a link to a page with a list of 40 such free stock photo sites: http://www.thewebsqueeze.com/articles/40-free-stock-photo-sites.html.
I personally recommend the following sites, myself, as great sources for free stock images:
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