How to post a pic from your computer to Instagram, you ask?

So, I've been trying to figure out for about 3 months, how in the heck do you you "repost" or post an image from the computer to Instagram.  Let me begin by saying Instagram is stupid and I hate it.  Who ever started Instagram had issues with following through, because I find the whole thing confusing.  Not, this-is-too-hard confusing, but this-makes-no-sense-stupid confusing.


Instagram is an app on your smart phone that allows you to post and share your photographs and images with other followers.  You can follow your friends or find new ones in Instagram Land.  You can use #hashtags that will allow other followers to search and find any pic that you post with that specific #hashtag.  For example, if I posted a whale, I could add #whale, so people can search for that term and find all pics with #whale.  This can also be used to expose your pictures to more followers.  If you have 5 friends, only 5 friends would normally see your pictures.  If you added #hashtags, it would get out to more users.

This is why I hate Instagram on the computer.  Besides signing into Instagram to use other Instagram apps such as Webstagram, Statigram, and Followgram, I don't use Instagram frequently.  In fact, the only thing I have found it useful for, is to change my settings and to put a link on my blog to my profile.

Now Instagram is way more useful on your phone.  You can scroll down to see your friends pictures, like their pics, and leave them comments.  This is what I would have done for the PC version of this app.  Now there are several sites like the 3 I mentioned that are PC friendly, but I haven't found one that I'm completely happy with.  Followgram is good if you want to comment and look at your friend's pics.  But you cannot privately message your friend, you can only leave a comment.  One cool thing, is you can can a QR Code for your page, that you can link to your blog and other people can scan it with their phone to get to your profile so they can become a follower.  On Statigram, it keeps track of the pics that you have liked, your followers and who's following you, and gives you the options to share pics (even if they're not yours) to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, G+, and Pinterest.  Also if you press on Snapshot, you can get the specific link to that photo-say if you wanted to email to someone without social media.  You can copy and paste the link.    Statigram also allows you to private message, and the really cool part is that it keeps track of your daily stats.  I know this is VERY important to some bloggers that love to see the numbers. It keeps track of your pics-how many likes, how many you have, follower info, monthly analysis in every form of info combinations possible, and can figure out when it's the best time to post for you. IN.TENSE.  Webstagram is a combination of the two, but isn't pretty.  You can look at the top pics, the top 100 tags, who is the most followed in the world, and has their features posted at the bottom of the "Tools" section.

Fun Fact from Statigram Snapshot

Don't you just love that smirk? That was the first time I played with Instagram on my phone. It has been stuck as my profile pic since, and I haven't tried to change it but hoped it would do it by itself eventually.

My Instagram Profile via computer @Karries3

So the phone version is a little different.  My Instagram Profile via iPhone:

 You have the option to take a picture using the app, or you can get it off your camera roll, so you are able to use pics that are older than the app or if you forget to use the app.  No worrying if you forget to use it, which is a good thing for me! It's pretty simple and user friendly.  You have 5 buttons at the bottom of the screen (L>R on above photo): Your feed (house icon), Explore (star): search users and hashtags, functioning camera phone (camera icon), News (heart), Profile (rectangle).  What's so special about Instagram, is that it allows you to edit your pic. They have premade filters, such as 1977, Inkwell (black&white) or normal. Then you can rotate your pic, elect a border, and play with the saturation.  You basically just play with them to see if you like one better than normal, and when you pick it out you go on to the option of sharing your pic with facebook, twitter, tumblr, email or Flickr.

 Examples of the filters

Inkwell

1977

Normal

Normal

Pretty easy, huh?

........Until you realize that you can only use the pics on Instagram that you have taken on your phone.  Those apps I mentioned do not include the option of uploading pics from your computer to share on Instagram.  This is why I think the app is stupid.  So last night I FINALLY figured out an easy way to do it!!

I used a website program called Dropbox.  It's a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. NEVER email yourself a file again!  There are two super simple steps to read through before you start to install!!!

1. Go to  www.dropbox.com on your computer by using THIS SPECIAL LINK
This is my special link to the website, that will allow me and for every person that joins and installs (free) Dropbox on their computer 500 MB of bonus space.

This is what your Home Screen will look like once installed on your computer. 

***SEE that teal circle? That's where you go to get your special link to give to your friends!


2. Search for the Dropbox App on your phone and Install it.

Now after you install the App on your phone, the pics from your phone will be transferred to your computer's Dropbox and the pics from your computer's Dropbox will be installed be installed on your phone. Criss Cross!!!

  This is your home screen on your iPhone:

I've also found it extremely useful to have:

 

I don't actually know for sure if you need a website that hosts your photos.  I just found it useful to use while writing this blog post. Tomorrow I'll talk a little about how I learned to edit my photos.  Yeah, I'm 33 and not a computer genius.  I'm pretty smart, so I'm sure there are more people like me out there that may find this useful.