Images add a lot of value to the presentation of email messages you send out. BriefYourMarket Newsletters have built-in systems for correctly handling images, but BriefYourMarket Messages are free-form and give you a lot of options in the Image Manager, so mistakes can easily be made. Here are 3 common mistakes made with images and how to correct them:
Consider how the message will appear before the recipient clicks "download Images"
Outlook and most other email programs show the email without images when it arrives, they then give you the option to download images if you want to. This is done firstly to protect you from unsuitable images and secondly to save on download volumes as images tend to be large file-sizes relative to text.
When compiling a message, don't use too many images (appears as lots of red crosses when the message arrives) and ensure the text you include gives the reader enough information so that they know what the email is about and thus trust it enough to choose to download your images.
Keep image file-size as small as possible
Most modern cameras produce photo's with a file-size of over 1MB- this gives fantastic resolution and quality, but downloading 1MB over the Internet can take a long time depending on the connection speed. In BriefYourMarket we have a built-in cap on image file-size of 200KB to reduce this problem. Ideally images should be under 100KB- if they are too big, your recipient may have finished looking at your message by the time the images shows!
The simplest way of reducing an images file-size before you use it is to email it to yourself - outlook has a built in image file-size reducer when emailing image files. If you want a method over which you have more control use a graphics program - a good free one is Paint.Net available from www.getpaint.net Open the image and do save as and adjust quality to reduce the file-size.
Re-size your images before using them in a message
Every image has a pre-set size (dimensions - width and height) measured in pixels - if you are looking at an image file on windows explorer (e.g. your "My Pictures" folder), when your mouse is over the file, these "Dimensions" are displayed in a 'tool-tip'. An average email is about 600-700 pixels wide, so if you image is 1080 by 780 it is not going to work!
It is possible to upload a large image, then set its size in the "Image Properties" BUT some email readers (including Outlook 2007) completely ignore this and display the image at its original size which can the destroy all you hard work on formatting you message. So, the best solution is to set the images dimensions before you use it.
There are two ways to do this either in a graphics program such as Paint.Net recommended earlier - these programs have a "Image resize" function - or use the BriefYourMarket Image Manager: Upload the large photo using the image manager (details in help file), then when the image is displayed in the list click the 
"Create Thumbnail" Icon (above image) - you can then set the width you want (constrain proportions prevents stretching) and the Image manager will create a new image with the correct dimensions- you can now insert this image into your message. An example is shown below:
Original image (470 X 445)
Thumbnail created by BYM Image Manager: (100 X 100)
Happy Imaging
Derek Vincent
www.briefyourmarket.com