Adding Images to Your MySpace Profile Buffalo NY

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Originally published at Internet.com

MySpace is the most popular social networking site in the world. According to Quantcast and Neilson Online, the site has over 50 million unique visitors a month. As far as actual user accounts, it's hard to tell how many there actually are as News Corporation, MySpace's parent company, does not release that type of information. However, it's generally accepted that there are well over 100 million user accounts by now.

One of the favorite things for people to do is post images on their MySpace site. Unfortunately, like many things on MySpace, this is not always easy to figure out. In order to help eliminate some of that pain, this article will take a look at how to go about posting images and pictures on a personal MySpace page. (I am assuming that the reader already knows how to edit his/her profile.)

The Basics

MySpace is not always clear on what it does and doesn't allow, e.g.: "Adding color, graphics, and sound to your profile page is fun and easy and requires only a basic knowledge of HTML or CSS." In our case, that would mean that you just upload an image to a directory and create a link to it. However, MySpace doesn't allow the direct uploading of images, except in the pictures section. That doesn't do much good if you want to display an image on your front page or in your blog. But there are ways of linking to other images. It just all depends on where they are on the Web. That's what we'll be focusing on here.

General Linking Instructions

Since you can't directly upload the image (except as mentioned above), that means the image must already reside on a server somewhere on the Web. That can be on an existing Web site that you already have outside of MySpace, or on one of the image hosting Web sites. (Be sure you don't link to other sites without the express permission of the site owner. Otherwise, you are stealing their bandwidth.)

So let's say you have an existing Web site located at http://www.someplace.com/, and you want to display your logo over on your MySpace site. First, determine what the direct link to the image is: http://www.someplace.com/img/logo.gif

Now, login to your MySpace account and click on the [Edit Profile] link. You need to decide where on the page you want to place the image. You will be previewing the page before it goes live so don't worry if you put it in the wrong place. You can always make changes, even after it goes live. Once you have figured out where you want it, create a link back to the image on your personal site:

That's it. Just plain, simple HTML code. It's important to remember that, whatever the original size of the image is, that is the size it will be displayed on your MySpace site. You can adjust the size in the img tag but it's best to allow the browser to determine the size, using the original graphic. One method is to create a special directory on your own site to hold images for linking from your MySpace page. That way you can determine what the size is you want, without changing anything that is also being used on your own site.

Linking to Image Hosting Sites

These sites are created for the express purpose of hosting images. They can be used for posting images that you don't want on your own Web site, or, as in our case, you can link to them from other sites. There are a number of these image hosting sites, including the more popular ones such as Photobucket and Flickr. You will need to set-up an account to use thhese services but for most of them there is no charge.

Photobucket

Once your account is set-up and you have uploaded some images, find the image you want to use on your MySpace page. Underneath the picture you will see a series of links. Find the one that says "HTML Code - Websites & Blogs." This is the code you want to use. It will look something like the link below (all on one line):

If you look closely, you will see that the code includes a link, along with the graphic. If you only want the graphic, just extract that section:

In the [Edit Profile] portion of your MySpace account, place the link in the section on the page where you want it displayed.

Flickr

Upload the photos you want to use to your account. Then, obtain the URL of the particular photo you want. Once you have done that, create the HTML link to the photo, e.g.:

In the [Edit Profile] portion of your MySpace account, place the link in the section on the page where you want it displayed.

You can also create a Flickr badge to display on the page. Complete instructions are given on the Flickr Web site.

Other Image Hosting Sites

Whatever image hosting site you choose to use, you should be able to find out how to link to the images in their help section. After all, that is a large part of the reason why they exist. If not, you can always ask questions over on the WebDeveloper.com forums.

Linking to Images Already on MySpace

If you want to display an image that is already on MySpace, you'll need to use a specific method for finding the link to it. Generally, when trying to determine the link to an image, it's easy to find it by hovering over it, right-clicking the mouse, and doing a "Copy link location" [Firefox] or "Copy shortcut" [IE]. However, if you try using that method to directly link to an image located on MySpace, it will automatically be removed and you'll be left with a ".." on your page where the image was to be displayed. But do not despair, there is an easy way to do it.

You'll need to use the Firefox browser to do this (you might be able to do it with IE but I'm not sure how). This technique uses the Web Developer toolbar addon by Chris Pederick.

First, find the page with the image you want to use. Then, on the Web Developer toolbar, click on the "Images" dropdown link. Then select "Display Image Paths". Now, on the Web page you should see the path to each image, highlighted in yellow, as shown at the right. Sometimes the path, without the domain, may be shown, e.g., /images/profile/forward_1.gif. Be sure to add the rest of the URL so the browser will know where to look. Also, highlight and copy the URL directly from the page itself. Don't do a "Copy link location" [Firefox] or "Copy shortcut" [IE] maneuver as it won't work.

Then, in the [Edit Profile] portion of your MySpace account, place the link in the section on the page where you want it displayed, using the img tag:

(Note: This technique is for linking to images on MySpace only. Do not use it to link to sites other than your own or image hosting sites.)

Using MySpace Apps

MySpace has added the ability to create "apps". Basically, according to the MySpace Web site, the "MySpace Developer Platform (MDP) allows developers to create applications that interact with MySpace members and their social data. With MDP you will be able to create compelling new products that integrate directly into MySpace pages and get exposure to millions of people around the world." You can find a complete listing of existing apps on the MySpace site. If you look under "Photos," you'll finnd a large list of apps that can be used for displaying and manipulating photos.

Recently, Photobucket created an app called "Top Pics". You can use this to display photos from Photobucket and MySpace, in a grid pattern.

Conclusion

That should just about cover it. With a little bit of imagination, you can create a dynamic MySpace page that will stand out from all the rest. Have fun! And don't forget to drop by my page and leave a comment!