Using Photos and Images on a Fishing Guide Site

Author: Dan Mccart

Using photos and images on your fishing guide site is more of an art than a science. We use pictures to either give information or to enhance the information we provide in text. Below we will address five different ways to use photos and images on your fishing site affectively.

Brand your logo. Your business is just like Nike and McDonalds. If you see the swoosh or the golden arches you know who it is. A nice logo will give your visitor more of a feeling of a professional service. It can be fancy or plain but should do 2 things; be easily read and the message should be very clear. I typically recommend you incorporate your primary lake or town into your logo (i.e. JR Guide Service - Lake Fork or Jr Guide Service - Orlando Florida). That provides a good amount of information on your logo that customers can see at a glance. When you use your logo to make banners for fishing directory sites, they should be consistent and professional.

I get tired of seeing a picture of a guy holding up a fish. Only because it is done so often on every site. I can see that on a lot of other sites... so why does that help me select you as my fishing guide? I understand you want to convince your potential clients you catch big fish, so how about you consider some other methods. Do you want to see a guy standing in the inn zone and call that the picture of the touchdown? No. You would want to see a picture of him running or passing for it. So show more of the action. One method I personally like to see is a 3 picture sales pitch. Three pictures next to each other with (1) picture of clients and you standing around drinking coke and smiling and laughing, then (2) picture of a fish on, bent pole, maybe fish splash then (3) yes, then you can show your picture of the guy holding up his fish. This tells me a story of having fun, heartpounding action and the big catch I could have. Also put the fishermans' name under the photo. This makes it more fun for them to see it on your website and they will come back. Be creative and fun. Maybe have a row of pictures of the same guy and the fish he caught. Row and row of that tells the viewer that not only do you catch fish but more than just one.

Since I need to keep this short let me just mention some of the don'ts. Don't put in fuzzy pictures or bad pictures. Don't put in a bikini holding up a fish unless you think that would be ok with your clients (you may lose some family business). Don't use a bad picture of yourself; make sure you look fun and professional in all your pictures and put a caption under it stating it is you. Don't randomly just put pictures on your site, make sure they relate to the text surrounding it. Lastly, don't show pictures of you fishing. They are hiring someone to help them fish not to watch you.

Other images on your site need to be organized and attractive. Typically these are banners for sponsors and other sites. Try to create some type of presentation, rows, columns, grouped together, centered or something. Too many times I see them just thrown on the page which makes it look unprofessional and sort of sloppy. Not words you want your guide service described as. Many of the great sites reserve banners on their main page for fishing directories and sponsors and put the rest on their links page. You really need a links page to hold all the links and banners you should have.

Those are a few of the basics of using photos and images on your Fishing Guide site. It isn't rocket science, but it is worth putting a little work into just like the rest of your site. Don't just stick them in there as easy as you can. Make photos and images work for your business and your site. A picture or image can be worth a thousand words... so what are your site photos saying?

About the author:

Dan Mccart is the co-owner of Fishing Links Org - http://www.FishingLinks.Org , thousands of listings including Fishing Charters and Fishing Guides .