Posting images on Web forums is relatively simple, but involves several steps. The following discussion will help you understand the overall process, as well as some of the options that you can use to maximize the effectiveness of your image presentation (and, the associated marketing, of course).

The image must be scanned and sized appropriately for Web presentation. While scanning and sizing images is an art in itself, and one that won’t be discussed here in detail, it is important to recognize that “size matters” in this case. The objective here is to allow the image to be quickly downloaded by viewers working on connections of various speeds, while maintaining good visual impact and viewer convenience. Too large an image results in both slower downloads (the file is bigger), and viewer inconvenience – they may be forced to scroll to see the entire image. Keeping the vertical dimension of the image at 450 to 550 pixels in size usually works well. The horizontal dimension is more flexible due to the usual landscape shape of most monitors, but should be less than 600 pixels in most cases.

Once the image is scanned and properly sized, it must be “Web-accessible”. That means it must be located on a server that is both connected to the Internet and allows “external references” to files stored there. Most free servers stopped allowing external references to images long ago, meaning that a paid service is usually required for posting purposes. Numerous options exist for Web hosting services, but make sure that the service you select runs a fast server with ample “bandwidth” – the amount of data that can be transferred from the server at any given time.

A slow server will either cause browsers to “time out” waiting for the download, or the slowness will cause viewers (potential customers) to lose patience and move on. Photogserver.net is among the most reasonably-priced options.

Once you have arranged for service from a Web hosting provider, upload the images you want to use, following the procedures outlined by the service you have chosen. Most hosting services use a program called FTP (file transfer protocol) to upload files. Various FTP software packages are available on the Internet – some free, some “shareware” that has a relatively low cost. The FTP "client" software (the part running on your PC) will connect to the FTP server software running on your service's host computer, and will transfer files, including "binary" files like images, in a reliable way. Your service provider can give you specific instructions on how to connect to their servers. Many FTP client, such as the inexpensive FTP Voyager program I use, have graphical interfaces that allow you to simply drag and drop files onto your server. Some free FTP clients use a command-line interface, and are a bit more involved.

Once you have uploaded your images, each file will have a specific location on the global Internet that can be referenced in your posts on forums. That location is called a URL (universal resource locator).

Depending on the nature of the service you have subscribed to, your images can either be displayed, listed, or both. The specific procedures used to obtain the URL vary slightly based on the nature of the service, but we’ll describe both here. Note that these instructions are oriented to PCs running Microsoft Windows. The specific procedures for Macs (or, UNIX workstations, if you’re a well-equipped techie) will be slightly different, but will follow the same general concepts.

If the service you subscribe to allows you to list the images in your directory, the procedure is fairly simple. Locate the file you want in the list and left-click once to highlight that file name. Then, right-click and scroll down to the “Copy Link Location” option on the pop-up menu, and left-click on that option, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

This copies the URL into your PC’s memory.

Alternatively, you can double-click on the index listing to display the image, and then right-click on the displayed image to obtain its URL by doing the same sort of "Copy Image Location" operation as described above, and as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Most forums provide a convenient interface for posting. Usually there is a link entitled something like "Post New Message" above the forum's message listing.

Click on that link, and a posting form will be displayed. Enter the text you want for the message, and then prepare to enter your image URL. Most forms have fields for both an optional site link (e.g. for pointing to your Web site), a title for that link (without a text title being typed in, the link won’t show in your post), and an “Optional Image URL” as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Place your cursor in that field, and left-click your mouse. Once your cursor in anchored to that field, you can paste the URL you previously copied into memory by either pressing the control key (CTRL) and the “V” key at the same time, or using the graphical method. To use the graphical method, right-click your mouse, and scroll down to the “Paste” option. Left click on that option, and your image URL is pasted into the field. That image URL will look something like http://www.your-server/your-directory/your_image.jpg.

Note that your image must be an actual image file with an appropriate extension, such as .JPG. You cannot use an HTML page as an image in a post. Browsers will display various types of image files, but JPEG files are the most commonly used. If you get some other image format (such as BMP), it is best to convert the image to the JPEG format for posting. BMP files are huge, and will result in very slow downloads. Additionally, not all browsers support the direct display of .BMP images.

Armed with this information, you can now go about posting your images on Web forums, and market yourself in a professional manner.

Some forum scripts also allow the use of actual HTML code within the body of the post. That allows you more flexibility in posting, as you can emphasize text with bold or italic, and place images where you want them in the post. Although a full discussion of HTML is far beyond the scope of this document, here is a simple example of commonly-used HTML code for image posting:

Note: remove the spaces after and before the angle brackets.

The border option puts a simple black line around the image, and the value (2 in the example) is the width of that line in pixels. The border code is optional, and its use depends on the nature of the image you are posting. If the image already includes a drop shadow, for example, you probably won’t want to use the border option.

Note that there are no spaces around the equals sign, and that the image URL is placed inside double quote marks. Each “tag” in the HTML code has an opening angle bracket (<) and a closing angle bracket (>). The “center” tag will cause the image to be centered on the page, and must be followed at the end with a closing center tag, preceded with a forward slash (/). If you forget the closing center tag, everything else on the page will continue to be centered once displayed, messing up the display of the forum messages.

One of the most common problems encountered when trying to post an image is discovering that your hosting service doesn’t actually allow external links to your images. Typically, you’ll follow the instructions given here, click on the “Preview Message” button, and the image will be displayed along with the post on your PC screen.

Unfortunately, if your host doesn’t allow external links, your image won’t be seen by others, even though it displayed on your screen. That’s because your PC is retrieving the image from your browser cache memory, rather than actually getting it over the Internet. The only solution to that problem is typically getting a new hosting service.