A complete guide on how to create AI blog images

Finding the right image for your blog post can be a real headache. You know the routine: endless scrolling through stock photo sites for that one perfect visual, only to settle for something generic that you’ve probably seen on ten other blogs.

This whole song and dance is a huge bottleneck for content creators. It slows you down and can make your brand look a bit uninspired.

Fortunately, there’s a better way. AI image generation lets you create unique, relevant, and on-brand visuals in seconds. Some modern platforms, like the eesel AI blog writer, even bake this feature right into the writing process. It doesn't just give you text; it builds a complete, ready-to-publish article with all the visuals included. It’s the same tool we used to take our daily impressions from 700 to 750,000 in just three months.

What are AI blog images?

So, what are we talking about? AI blog images are visuals made by artificial intelligence from simple text descriptions, or 'prompts.' You just type what you want to see, and the AI creates it.

This is a huge leap from the old ways of doing things.

With stock photography, you're limited to what's already in a library. The images are often generic, and you’ll see the same ones pop up on competitor sites. Plus, licensing can be a pain.

Hiring a designer gets you custom work, but it's slow and expensive, which isn't ideal if you're trying to publish content consistently.

If I cant create own ones, I use most time Bing. The App comes with copilot and is free to use. Copilot get the images from dall E. The pictures are not perfect, but free and good if you give concret instructions.

Reddit

The anatomy of a high-performing blog image

Before we jump into the 'how-to,' let's quickly go over what makes a blog image work well. It's about more than just looking nice. A good image needs to do a few jobs at once.

First, it needs contextual relevance. The image should actually relate to the text. If you're writing about email marketing automation, a picture of a workflow makes more sense than a generic photo of someone smiling at a laptop.

Second is brand consistency. Your visuals should feel like they belong to your brand. That means using your color palette and sticking to a consistent style, whether you prefer realistic photos, illustrations, or 3D icons. This helps people recognize your content.

Third, clarity and composition are key. The image should be easy to understand instantly, even as a small thumbnail on social media. A clear focal point without too much clutter is the way to go.

Finally, don't forget SEO optimization. A good blog image can help your search rankings. This means using descriptive file names and alt text so search engines (and screen readers) know what the image is about.

A comparison of AI image creation workflows

You’ve got a few different ways to create AI images for your blog. Let's look at the options, from the most streamlined to the more hands-on.

The integrated workflow: Using an AI blog writer

One efficient method is to treat image creation as part of the content generation process, rather than a separate task. When it's part of an integrated tool, it just happens as you generate the content. You provide a keyword, and you get a full article back, visuals included.

That’s how the eesel AI blog writer operates.

It doesn't just write; it builds a complete piece of content. Here's what it does:

• It looks at your article's structure and the text in each section to automatically create and place relevant images.
• It also creates other assets like tables and infographics to make your content easier to read and understand.
• To add more credibility and keep readers engaged, it can even pull in relevant Reddit quotes and YouTube videos.
• And because it's all done with your brand in mind, the visuals are always consistent.

This approach saves a ton of time. You're not manually writing prompts, downloading images, and uploading them to your blog. The images are generated based on the surrounding text, so they're always relevant. Plus, all the SEO stuff is handled automatically.

Pricing is simple: the Early Bird plan gets you 50 blog generations for $99. You can also try it for free to see how it works.

The manual approach: Using standalone AI image generators

Another option is to use a standalone tool. A lot of graphic design platforms now have AI image features, which is handy if you don't mind doing the work yourself.

Canva is a popular choice here.

Its Magic Media™ tool can generate images from text prompts in various styles. You can then edit them directly in Canva with tools like the Background Remover.

Canva can generate okayish pictures and is free for quite a lot of generations

Reddit

The workflow involves several distinct steps. You write your post in Google Docs, then switch to Canva to create your images one by one. This means writing a specific prompt for each visual you need. After that, you have to download them all, upload them to your CMS, and then manually add the alt text.

This multi-step process requires manual work for each image. Effective prompt writing is also important to generate visuals that align with the article's tone and message.

Canva has a free plan, but the AI features are limited. For full access, you'll need a Pro subscription, which is around $120 a year.

The technical workflow: Automating with APIs

If you're comfortable with tech, you can build your own automated system using APIs. This means connecting different tools to work together.

For example, you could use a service like Zapier to link a database like Airtable to an AI image model like OpenAI's DALL-E. You could set it up so that every time you add a new blog title to Airtable, an image is automatically generated.

The workflow involves setting up a trigger in Zapier, connecting to the OpenAI Image Generation API, creating a prompt that pulls from your data, and then saving the image URL.

While this offers significant control, it also has considerations. It's complex to set up and maintain, requiring technical expertise. It can also become costly, since you're paying for multiple services. A paid Zapier plan starts at $19.99/month, and that's on top of API costs like OpenAI's DALL-E, which charges about $0.04 per image. A challenge with this method is that images generated from high-level information, like a blog title, may lack the specific context of the article's content.

Best practices for creating AI blog images

Whatever workflow you pick, a few tips can help you get better results and create images that add to your content.

• Write detailed prompts. If you're using a manual tool, be specific. Instead of "a person working," try something like, "a minimalist flat illustration of a content marketer analyzing a dashboard on a laptop, using a pastel color palette of blue and green, on a clean white background."
• Match the style to the placement. Think about where the image is going. Hero images should be bold and grab attention. In-content images should explain a specific point. Images for social media need a clear focal point that looks good in a square format.
• Iterate and refine. Your first try might not be perfect. That's fine. Tweak your prompt and generate a few versions until you find one you like.
• Don't forget the SEO basics. This is a big one. Always optimize your final image file for search. Use a descriptive file name (like ai-blog-image-workflow.png) and write good alt text. This is a manual task in most workflows, but it's done for you by platforms like eesel AI.

For a more hands-on look at how these tools work, the video below offers a great walkthrough of creating blog images with AI.

This video tutorial explains how to use AI tools like Canva to generate unique and compelling images for your blog posts.

Streamline your content creation

Sourcing or creating images for your blog manually takes up time that you could be spending on writing. AI image generation is a fantastic solution, especially when it's built into a workflow that treats visuals as part of the content creation process from the start.

Instead of jumping between different tools, you can use one platform to turn a keyword into a complete, media-rich article. The eesel AI blog writer automates this entire process, helping you publish better content, faster. We used it ourselves to grow our daily impressions from 700 to 750,000 in just a few months. Give it a try for free and see how it works.