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Hi HN, I built this MVP because using an image editor to create thumbnails for my blog posts was time consuming. Good thumbnails can bring a lot of traffic to

by justhw 6y ago

Hi HN, I built this MVP because using an image editor to create thumbnails for my blog posts was time consuming. Good thumbnails can bring a lot of traffic to a post specially when shared on social networks. There are just 4 templates now and will add more. Please try your blog posts and I would love to hear your feedback.

onli 6y ago
This could be great in combination with a blog plugin. I'm not sure how useful it is for entries that already have a nice image, don't those posts already look great in most social networks? And if you are interested in traffic generation like that your entries probably have at least one image placed somewhere and the necessary HTML tags to use them set up. When the article has no image it seems more useful, with the image insertion feature you have there :) I took a moment to understand that the form changes the background of the generated image, because the first entry of mine I tried already had an image, so I did not get what `background` was referencing. To just offer to download the image then might be not enough. Many authors won't know how to embed them as an image used by social networks. Not sure how to solve that without going the plugin route, a smaller step could be presenting the needed html, or showing a guide how to use the generated image with some popular blog engines?
- justhw 6y ago
  Great points. It definitely could use clearer steps and instructions. Thanks much for your feedback.
johnchristopher 6y ago
Why is it better than opengraph ? (excluding platforms that don't use opengraph tag)
- justhw 6y ago
  This is for opengraph. It gives you a nice image you can link to in the open graph meta tags.
  - johnchristopher 6y ago
    Ah, got it.
  - oneeyedpigeon 6y ago
    In fact, the end result is something very similar to Twitter Cards.
- ChrisArchitect 6y ago
  it's not! inaccessible text preview, image should already be in your post meta if you want it to show up in a twitter card. :\
egorfine 6y ago
hey, a bugreport for you: not all sites have favicon. I specifically chose to not have one on my site, so URLs like 'https://egorfine.com/en/articles/painless-meetings/ https://egorfine.com/en/articles/painless-meetings/' will render a "broken image" icon on the top right.
- justhw 6y ago
  Thanks egor. Are you also purposely not using title tags and description tags as well? I ran a couple pages from your site and they're all the same. May not be good for SEO as well.
  - egorfine 6y ago
    Yeah, it's sort of intentional. It's a personal page that has zero useful content (except maybe https://egorfine.com/en/articles/ https://egorfine.com/en/articles/) and is mostly kept as a dumpster with misc stuff accumulated over the decades.

by justhw 6y ago

onli 6y ago

This could be great in combination with a blog plugin. I'm not sure how useful it is for entries that already have a nice image, don't those posts already look great in most social networks? And if you are interested in traffic generation like that your entries probably have at least one image placed somewhere and the necessary HTML tags to use them set up. When the article has no image it seems more useful, with the image insertion feature you have there :) I took a moment to understand that the form changes the background of the generated image, because the first entry of mine I tried already had an image, so I did not get what `background` was referencing. To just offer to download the image then might be not enough. Many authors won't know how to embed them as an image used by social networks. Not sure how to solve that without going the plugin route, a smaller step could be presenting the needed html, or showing a guide how to use the generated image with some popular blog engines?

justhw 6y ago
Great points. It definitely could use clearer steps and instructions. Thanks much for your feedback.

johnchristopher 6y ago

Why is it better than opengraph ? (excluding platforms that don't use opengraph tag)

justhw 6y ago
This is for opengraph. It gives you a nice image you can link to in the open graph meta tags.
- johnchristopher 6y ago
  Ah, got it.
- oneeyedpigeon 6y ago
  In fact, the end result is something very similar to Twitter Cards.
ChrisArchitect 6y ago
it's not! inaccessible text preview, image should already be in your post meta if you want it to show up in a twitter card. :\

egorfine 6y ago

hey, a bugreport for you: not all sites have favicon. I specifically chose to not have one on my site, so URLs like 'https://egorfine.com/en/articles/painless-meetings/ https://egorfine.com/en/articles/painless-meetings/' will render a "broken image" icon on the top right.

justhw 6y ago
Thanks egor. Are you also purposely not using title tags and description tags as well? I ran a couple pages from your site and they're all the same. May not be good for SEO as well.
- egorfine 6y ago
  Yeah, it's sort of intentional. It's a personal page that has zero useful content (except maybe https://egorfine.com/en/articles/ https://egorfine.com/en/articles/) and is mostly kept as a dumpster with misc stuff accumulated over the decades.