Hey there! I hope your morning is off to a great start. I decided I’m going to keep this week’s post short and sweet and introduce you to a great resource for anyone who uses photos on your site. It’s called JPEG Mini.

Now photos are a BIG part of keeping your customers and new visitors engaged on your site. They’re even more important if you are selling products online. Anyone who has ever sold anything on Ebay or Etsy already knows that you need to take several photos to make it crystal clear what you have for sale.

We also do it to try to avoid any misunderstandings that could lead to a return down the road. Plus the absolute worst thing that could happen is that you go through all of the trouble of hiring a professional photographer to take fantastic photos of you and your merchandise but those files!

Those camera raw files are HUGE – and no joke to upload or download. JPEG Mini let’s you put your photos on a “diet”.

Speed is critical on the web. If your site takes more than a few seconds to load – swoosh! You’re customer is out of there. I know it’s scary, believe me I’ve been there.

Here’s the thing. As boring as it can be – you’ve got to do it. If you don’t have photos that are resized and optimize for the web on your site, all of that hard work you put into the very products and services you’re trying to sell could be in vain. All because your customer can see what their buying.

So while those camera raw files are great for archives and printing images in a large format (like a poster or a billboard), it’s not a good idea to upload the original files that your professional photographer gave you.

Yes I know you don’t own Photoshop or any fancy software that can help you reduce them. But that’s where JPEG Mini comes in. It reduces your photo files size down by as much as 80% without losing their quality.

That can give your website A LOT of speed and a faster website is what we’re going for here. You can see a great (4 minute) video tutorial from McKenzie Sue Rucker here and JPEG Mini has more extensive tutorials on their YouTube channel as well.

This is great for anyone who publishes lots of photos for say an e-commerce site or photos with a wide-angle or panoramic views. It’s very easy to operate – you just drag and drop images in and JPEG Mini. You can try JPEG Mini for free or you can purchase JPEG Mini Pro for a very affordable $59/month.

Now that may seem a little pricey, but I can tell you its way cheaper that asking a professional photographer to do it for you and it’s something you can use over and over again.

For those of you who already have Adobe Creative Suite – it also comes with Lightroom and Photoshop extensions. You can even rent out server space just for your photos – if you’ve got an extensive archive.

Just take a look at the screenshot below or your can check it out for yourself at jpegmini.com Well that’s it for me this week but I’d really like to hear from you.

Question: How do you manage your photos on your site? Do you shoot with a professional grade camera or do you stick with your phone? Share your comments and questions below.

Like what you see? Then join the conversation!
If you like this post, please “like” it on Facebook or share it with your friends on Twitter or LinkedIn.

This post was updated on May 16, 2020.