Imagine Online Images Showing Off Your Images Scott Koegler
Showoff
Now that you've got your pictures in the proper format and quality, it's time to put them online so they can be used in your auctions and online stores, and seen by customers. There are lots of web sites that will allow you to upload your images and link to them. Image linking is especially useful for sites like eBay because it allows you to bypass the limitations and additional costs imposed if you want to show several pictures.
Village Photos allows you to upload images to its server at no charge providing none of your files are larger than 120 KB. Once your pictures are on their server you can use them to display your eBay products or for display on other web pages or auction sites. The site also allows you to create photo albums, making it a natural for family travel pictures, birthdays, and whatever other significant events you might deem worthy of publication. A paid subscription to the site removes the file size restriction in case you want to save larger files.
MyImgs offers a free five-day trial account and paid accounts starting at $2.50/month. The site is compatible with eBay, Yahoo! auctions and stores, and other web sites. Uploading is simple, and the site automatically generates thumbnails that are displayed in the main image list page. Paid accounts offer batch upload and download options as well as the ability to create collections of images or galleries that can be viewed from a single link.
2and2 is the most liberal hosting service in this collection because it is completely free and allows files as large as 4 MB. You don't even need to sign up for an account. Simply upload your pictures and the site assigns a URL (like http://www.2and2.net/mydog1234.jpg) that you can use to link to the image.
With 2and2 your pictures become part of a large collection of files that others have uploaded. You're free to browse through their submissions, just as other users are free to browse (and link to) your pictures. If you aren't particular about who browses your pictures, this may work fine for you. And while the site provides an option to put your images in a folder that isn't part of the general collection, it's still not protected from use by others.
Go Publish
Decide what kinds of tasks you need to perform regularly in order to get your images online and build your toolkit using these or other packages. Using these specialized applications can reduce the time you spend and make the job easier. They might even end up improving the quality of your pictures and, in turn, increasing your online sales.
