20 Unsplash Photos That Have Been Used To Death. Please. Stop.

They don’t help, and they make you look like a newb.

Did you know 7.5 million blog posts are published every day on the internet?

47,000 of those daily posts are posted here.

I know, right? Wth?

It’s nuts.

47,000 posts every day.
1,958 new posts every hour.
32 new posts every minute.

Some people think writing “more” is the way to get seen.
So they post a lot. Sometimes, twice a day.

Yup. Those two daily posts are definitely going to float right up to the top.
Nevermind the other 46,998 posts that went up the same day.

lol.

You can’t “quantity” your way to the top.
You can only “quality” your way there.

How to shoot yourself in the foot…

Everyone wants to be seen. If you didn’t, you’d be writing in a journal with a pen. But here’s the problem. Wanting to be seen and being seen are not always the same animal.

When readers get to the homepage, there’s a whole bunch of stories to choose from. And you have exactly 3 ways to get their attention.

Title.
Subtitle.
Cover image.

Honestly, most people kind of suck at titles. That’s a real long topic so we won’t go there.

If you’re already a little weak on titles, maybe don’t use a photo that’s been used at least fifty thousand bazillion times? I might be exaggerating.

But just a little

How not to pick a cover photo, tip #1

Here’s what some people do. Type a word or two into Unsplash and then just yank something off the first page. Because dang it, you already spent so much time on the story, you’re not wasting yet more time picking an image.

Don’t do that.

Know what that gets you? Nothing.