Great-looking featured image helps capture the attention of your potential readers and drive traffic to your blog.
This works especially well on YouTube where images have a prominent place in search results.
Custom featured images will get you even further because they show that you really care about your content and your readers.
Differentiate your blog
There are plenty of free resources like Pexels or Unsplash where you can download stock photos and use them as your featured images.
But that’s what everybody is doing and your main goal should be to differentiate your blog from your competition.
Take a look at featured images of famous bloggers like Ryan Robinson, Neil Pattel or Adam Enfroy.
They don’t use stock photos from free services. They take care and create their own unique featured images.
Promote your brand
With custom featured image, you have an opportunity to promote your brand as well.
People sometimes share these images on Pinterest which might work for you as another source of traffic, but it can also help you build brand awareness.
All you have to do is include your logo or the name of your blog to featured image.
I apply this strategy for Smart Profit School and TodayWP blogs. Even though the logo is subtle, it is there.
This is something you can never achieve with stock photo.
How to Create Your Own Featured Image
I love Figma. It’s free, it runs in a web browser on any operating system and it has very powerful tools and features.
To help you get started crafting your very own and unique featured images, I created this video where I show the whole process in details.
Don’t forget to use main colors that corresponds to the color set of your blog and include your logo or the name of your website as well.
