Image Management on the Mall

Each seller account comes with 10 megabytes of disk space for uploading images, but sometimes that is quickly used up. What to do?

1. Make sure your images are not too large. If your images are really big - over 100 kilobytes - you should consider resizing them. If your images are so large you have to scroll sideways, then they are too large. 400 - 600 pixels in height or width should be large enough. This will greatly decrease the amount of disk space needed to store them.

2. If your images can't be made smaller, maybe they can be compressed. This will make them take up less disk space without reducing the size. JPEG format can be compressed, and sometimes it can be compressed quite a lot without any noticeable difference in quality. You can try 20% compression, or sometimes this is the same as 80% quality, depending on the software. If your image doesn't look good after compressing, undo and try a lower compression (or higher quality).

3. If you still are short on disk space, purchase extra disk space - you can buy disk space in chunks of 20 megs for $10 a month.

4. Use a free image hosting service. This is usually a great bargain because you get a lot of room for images for - well - free. That's hard to beat. Some image hosts are better than others in the amount of space they allow and the speed at which your images will be displayed.

No matter how or where your images are stored, it's always a good idea to size your images so that they load quickly for customers browsing your shop. Most people these days are on high speed internet but some people are still on slower dialup. If your images load slowly on a high speed connection, they will be unbearable on a slow connection, causing you to lose customers, but fast loading images will help your customers have a great shopping experience.