Who doesn't like good photography? Our eyes are naturally drawn to images, particularly striking ones, and the images we find often lead us into the content of the article associated with that image. I don't know about you, but the first things I notice when looking at a magazine, newspaper or website are the images. I don't just pick up any magazine in the rack at the grocery store; I pick up the magazine that has the image I find most compelling on the front cover. The same is true of websites and blogs. I tend to gravitate toward blogs that consistently contain good photos.

Great examples of successful blogs that make excellent use of images include :

Design Sponge - This popular design blog draws from a number of different sources to include brilliant images that accompany every one of their pieces.

ProBlogger - ProBlogger has one of the most popular blogs in for those who want to make money online through their blog. Even though it's difficult to find images to pair with articles on topics such as "increasing your blog's online presence" or "improving your SEO" but somehow ProBlogger manages to find photos that are tangentially related to the post or that constitute a related idea.

Jolly Mom - This parenting blog incorporates a sunny photo with every blog posted to add to the overall appeal to the blog site.

Incorporating images into your blog is one of the best steps you can take to improve the look of your blog, and you have a number of options at your disposal to begin doing so. Here we'll explore a few of them.

1.) Using free images

There are a number of free stock photo sites you can turn to when searching for images to pair with your blog posts. Some of the best-known ones include stock.xchng, EveryStockPhoto, and FreeDigitalPhotos.net. Even though the photos available on these sites are free, it's still important to credit the person who took the photos or otherwise cite your source when you add the photo to your blog. Most free photo sites have information on how to credit the free photos you use.

2.) Buying stock photos

Sometimes you just can't find what you want among the free photos you find online. If this is the case, you may want to invest in buying high-quality stock photos. Two of the best-known stock photo sites include Fotolia and iStockPhoto.

3.) Take your own photos

With a good quality digital camera and a little creativity, you can often shoot many of your own photos for your blog. Photoshop can make the photos you take jump off the page if you know how to use it right.

In conclusion, if you want to boost your blog readership by drawing in new visitors to your blog, you should consider adding images to your blog posts. Not only will doing so make your blog more attractive to your regular readers, but it will help attract newcomers as well.