Designers and Bloggers, you’re going to love me for this one. ;-)
I’m about to divulge some SUPER information that will help people stay on your site longer, clicking around, looking at all your gorgeous images, again and again.
You see, when you get your pro images done, or even if you just take photos with your iPhone, those files can be large.
Large files = slow website.
There’s nothing more off-putting when you’re googling around for interior designers in your area than having to wait for their pics to appear on your screen when you’re on their website. That’s a good place to LOSE potential clients.
I know this, personally. I have been in meetings in clients’ homes, wanting to go to my portfolio on my website, pulling it up on my phone, and then getting frustrated as the whole thing just takes way too long. And it’s MY SITE!!!
Here’s a beautiful new tool that is helping my site run faster:
TinyPNG.com (Well, I’m working on it in my spare time.) It’s GOING to help my site load faster…soon! I love you, TinyPNG!!!!
This site is soooo easy to use. And FREE! You don’t have to log in or sign up; you just get on to the site and start using it, immediately. Within seconds after dragging and dropping your image into their dropbox (on the main page, btw; you don’t have to navigate around), your image is compressed and ready to download to your computer OR directly to Dropbox!
The best part is there is no noticeable difference in the quality of the images. Before, when I’ve loaded in smaller sized images to my site, they don’t look so hot when they’re enlarged. You WANT your images to be big. You WANT your images to be of highest quality. They make a better impact that way.
However, somehow, these guys have got the technology down. These images, blown up, still look great. BTW, images must be 5 MG or smaller to shrink.
Here is a large file of one of my project images:
Here is the smaller version, downsized by TinyPNG:
Amazing, huh?
I’m currently — during my spare moments (ha, insert smiley face emoji with tears) — doing this to all my images in my portfolio. AND I’ll be using this in future blogposts, too. I can’t wait to speed up the loading on my site. :-)
Here’s a screenshot of how much some of my images were shrunk down:
Wow!
This post about a historic Galveston, Texas cottage was full of high-res images, and I downsized them all with TinyPNG.
I learned about TinyPNG by listening to this podcast. You might want to check it out too.
A FEW HELPFUL LINKS:
Speaking of images, if you have a website and blog, you might want to give Tailwind a try. It's such a help in getting your work out there on Pinterest. Even today, it's my blog's number one driver of traffic.
Here's a really great app I use for tracking my mileage. I struggled keeping up with it for years and this is tremendously easy! (I need easy in my life!) >>> MileIQ
Lastly, check out these two pdf downloads I put together to help you with notes for specifications and furnishings budgets.