How To Add a Unique Thumbnail Image [those small square images on your blog homepage]

If you go to the homepage of your website you will see all the images next to each blog post preview. All those images are 100 pixels wide and 100 pixels high. By default every blog post you publish with use the same little image. You can see an example at www.SquidooCool.com. See all the squid images? They are put their automatically. Your blog will do the same with every new post you write, with the small image currently displayed on your blog.

It is also possible to customise the image on a post-by-post basis. This section is about how to achieve that.

So to post an image you need to make it 100 pixels x 100 pixels.

* So if you have an image you would like to use, you now need to make it 100 x 100. The easiest way to do this is by going to www.easycropper.com. Click the big arrow in the middle, then type in Width: 100 and Height: 100, and upload your image using the Browse button. Then clicking ‘Continue’ will take you to the next page where you will need to drag the image around to align it correctly. You can also shrink your image using the bar just below. Dragging the button to the left will shrink your image. The preview you are seeing will seem all choppy, as if you have lost the image quality. But don’t worry. The final image doesn’t come out choppy. It comes out fine. So when the size is right, click Crop It! Now save that image to your computer somewhere. You have just made your article thumbnail! Woohoo!

* So now that you have an image that is 100×100, you need to upload it somewhere. The easiest way is by using the Image Upload feature right there on the Write Post page that you’re on. Next to the Add Media button just above the text box with your article in. It’s a little icon of a square, and when you hover your mouse over it it will say ‘Add an Image’. Click that and a box will pop up in the middle of the screen.

* In the top left of the box you will see a button ‘Choose files to upload’. Click that, and you will be asked to find your 100×100 image using the window that opens up. So find it on your computer and double click on it to select it.

* You will now be taken back to the pop up box, and you will see ‘crunching’ on the right hand side. When it has finished ‘crunching’ you will see your image in the box with a load of options. Just scroll down the box a bit to find the ‘File URL’ button. Click that, and in the box above it you will see the location of the image.

* Highlight the ‘File Location’ that you now see in the ‘Link URL’ box, and right click on it. Then click ‘Copy’. The file location is now copied to your Clipboard.

* Now close the pop up box by clicking the little cross in the corner of it. NOT your main browser window. Just the little box you just uploaded the image into.

* You will now be looking at your blog post page again. So now scroll back down the page right the way down to the ‘Custom Fields’ section.

* You will see a box on the left with – Select – in it, and one just to the right of it titled Key. Either click Select and then click ‘post_thumbnail’, or just type post_thumbnail into the Key box.

* Now, right click in the ‘Value’ box and then ‘Paste’. And you will see the ‘File Location’ appear in the box.

* Just below that you’ll see a ‘Add Custom Field’ button. Click that, and wait for the options to move. You’ll know when they do. They move up a bit and flash yellow. When that’s done, you’re ready to publish your blog post!

* Just whizz back to the top of the page, and click ‘Publish’ on the right side.

And you have just successfully published your new blog post, and added the thumbnail to it too! The thumbnail will now show on the archive pages, the search result pages, and the homepage. It looks pretty cool, doesn’t it?

The next time you do this image thumbnail thing you probably won’t need to look here. When you do it from memory, it takes about a minute.

Lewis