If you run a photography blog or a travel blog, you can just skip right over this post, since your blog is all about the snapshots from your trips near and far. But for those of you who are blogging about less visual topics on a regular basis, it can be tempting to dump your entire photo roll into the post (or posts) that document your vacation.

But before you start uploading every image you’ve got, put yourself in the shoes of your readers for a few moments. Would you want to look at 25 photos from your friend’s week at the Jersey Shore? Did you enjoy having to sit through slide shows from a family member’s trip to a theme park?

So when you’re sharing your stories on your blog, you want to include the essential pictures that bring life to your posts without overwhelming your readers with too many mediocre photos. Here are a few rules to keep in mind:

One photo of each “thing” is plenty
You don’t need to show every angle of the Statue of Liberty nor several shots of the same incredible sand sculpture. Pick the best one and move one.

No postcards – include some people
Skylines and sprawling vistas are nice, but we’ve seen them before. What we haven’t seen is your kid saluting the guards at Buckingham Palace or your sister smooching a dolphin. Make it personal and meaningful to connect your text with your pics.

Sprinkle in some humor
If there’s a photo that makes you laugh, it’ll probably entertain your audience as well… especially if it comes with a great story.

Use captions to add context
Don’t just insert an image in the middle of your post. Add some descriptive text so everyone knows what you’re looking at and why you thought it was so important to include it.

Serving-sized posts are preferable
Your trip probably took a lot of money and planning to pull off, and now you’ve got lots of great blogging material. There’s no reason to say everything all at once or to use up all your great photos in one epic post. Figure out how to divide up the trip and spread things out over multiple posts.

Got any other tips you want to share? Use the comments section below to tell us all about it.