Today, I'm going to ‘teach' you how pineapple images help brand a website about online English teaching. Yes, I know it seems like there would be no connection, so you'll want to read on!

But, first, a quick introduction:

My name is Jason.

I ditched the 9-5 in pursuit of paradise and created a website all about online income. This quickly became a website much more specifically about online teaching. Why? Because I came to realize that online ESL was the entry-point of digital nomad income…as well as being a cool little job. DigiNo now tries to document everything there is to know about the world of online education…whilst also helping people find a job, train them to make the job easy, help them travel the world and earn an online passive income through teacher referrals.

Now, let's get into some website branding and share how the pineapple helps to reflect the image of my teacher paradise.

Pre-Pineapples Era

When I first started my brand, it was all about making money online and ditching the office for a more nomadic lifestyle. Aka, beach life!!

I started using pictures of paradise and beaches in South East Asia for my blog post featured images. My website was definitely not going to have images of office cubicles, the anti-paradise. 

My website became my vision board

Everyday I was staring at pictures of palm trees and white sand. Forever working towards actually getting to paradise.

Unbeknownst to me, I was actually creating an incredibly practical vision board. Rather than just staring at pictures of paradise and “law of attraction-ing” myself towards them…I was editing them, cropping them, colour correcting and publishing on an online teaching post.

In other words, I was using my vision board to actually put the work in towards my vision…rather than staring, visualizing and…wishing. It’s an amazing thing that tends to happen when you consistently go after what you love.

And it worked:

Paradise Images or Pineapple Images?

But once I finally made it to paradise. It didn't feel authentic to keep on staring at these pictures everyday. Those paradise vibes were achieved and kind of fading. My mentality had changed…and I needed a new goal.

The trouble was that I had created a brand around paradise with the use of all these images. I had added a tagline to my site of – Online Teacher Paradise. And it was resonating with visitors.

I was receiving 40,000 visitors a month all looking for online teaching work or reading about how to make their life a paradise through the job.

Surely I couldn't revamp my brand that drastically?

Heavy rebranding would risk losing all this traffic I had built along the way. It’s like a restaurant switching from French cuisine vibe to a Hawaiian pizza pizzeria overnight…the regular customers will think they must have come to the wrong place!

That's when pineapples floated to the surface. The pineapple vibes were on high.

Moreover, I became fascinated by minimalist pineapple photography.

Why? Let me explain. I know you’re going to ask since it's such a randomly odd fascination.

Pineapple Images Help Brand but Subtle and Authentic

No longer would I be so in your face with my concept of paradise. It wasn't subtle to be shoving all these pictures of sand and sea in people's faces.

It felt so incongruent to be using beach and palm tree pictures when I’m not even much of a beach go-er! Plz keep that secret safe! It was all meant to represent a concept of paradise…but I was getting messages from readers like “Enjoy the beach today!”

I wasn’t being authentic with my audience. It felt as if I was a false hope peddler. A con man. A timeshare salesman promising visions of paradise through online ESL teaching.

But it wasn't false hope. Looking at the situation with the many eyes of a pineapple, I could see I was finding my own little piece of paradise outside of the office 9-5 with my new nomadic lifestyle.

But that was it…”a little piece of paradise”…not a full-blown Richard Branson Necker Island.

A Little Piece of Paradise

So, this is when I swapped the beach imagery for pictures of the pineapple. A much more subtle way of expressing an exotic lifestyle.

Here are some examples of pineapples pictures I used for my posts:

The Pineapple Imagery Process

To create these images for DigiNo, I would download them from Unsplash after a pineapple keyword search.

Next, I would drop them into Canva and add my logo and the article title.

I didn’t feel the need to add any filters as the sunshine in the pictures did that for me! I love that Pineapple Supply Co. actually encourages you to use the photos for helping your business in some way.

I would always endeavour to keep logos, text and the pineapple as mutual focal points. This new minimalist approach no longer saw my featured image hooks getting dragged into the tide:

But Why Did Pineapples Reflect My New Message So Well?

It's the little things in life.

My business isn't some big world altering franchise like Tesla or Apple.

It's a simple website that looks to make its readers lives just a little sweeter.

I didn't want to burst into their office and replace their desk with a flood of the Southern Thailand waves. Talk about a majorly overwhelming lifestyle change there. Paradise, sure, but it was just too much!

I wanted to pop up on their computer and hand them a Pina Colada through the screen.

By this I mean, I wanted readers to feel welcomed! I’d give them an instant taste that this website will satisfy their Google search query…making their day just a little sweeter.

And so, I chopped the towering palm trees for a toucan teaching ESL on his Pineapple MacBook:

This is my nod to not being a world-altering, paradise enforcing brand like Apple…and not wanting to either.

I simply desired to add a little bit of sunshine to my little niche audience.

And thanks to the images I found on Unsplash by Pineapple Supply Co, I found a way to reflect that without completely altering the theme of my brand!

Less is more.

But how was this change in branding received by my audience?

Have I seen a positive response from the DigiNo Community?

Absolutely! The minimal design on the site kept the message focused. My readers found the subtlety of the pineapple not to drown out the fact that it is an education niche…and not a tropical paradise travel niche.

With my bounce rate dropping from clearer imagery, it inspired me to focus less on writing about how great your life could be if you start teaching online…and more on the little prickly issues my audience was facing in the job.

Standing Out

I feel this devotion to using imagery and creating a recognizable brand is what makes DigiNo stand out from other online ESL teaching blogs in the niche.

I wanted the site to be exciting, playful and fun…all things that I found online ESL to be.

Images of Pineapples vs Coconuts

I experimented with coconuts, but they just don't have the same kind of instant communication of vibrancy that the pineapple does. This experiment didn’t last too long.

After my coconut experimentation, tapping into the pineapples for my own branding became clear as day. This image comparison below should help you see it too.

Coconuts just didn’t have the worldwide symbolism of hospitality and welcoming that the pineapple radiates.

Why?

They are tough to crack! (Needed to get one dad joke in here!)

But really, when you finally get inside the coconut, it’s not exactly a burst of colour!

That isn’t the kind of symbolism I wanted when promoting connectivity with my audience.

And I don’t think I am the only one that has thought this deeply about pineapples vs coconuts…

Photos at my fingertips!

…After a quick search on Unsplash, it appears there are over double the amount of pineapple photos available compared to coconuts images. As a bonus, there’s even more potential images to make use of in the pineapple photo collections in the Pineapple Supply Co. Store.

So the pineapple really does seem to have a widely accepted and easily reflected message. The pineapple emoji sharing frequency will also tell you that!

I always share each of my posts across most social media platforms to grow brand awareness and recognition…and to spread a little bit of paradise, of course.

I may even start including a pineapple emoji in the caption too!

Benefits of Using Pineapple Images In My Website Branding

As a quick summary, I found 5 major benefits of using pineapple images in my website branding tweak:

1. Reflects the idea of paradise and happiness in a minimalist way.
2. Creates space to promote article content as the focal point in featured images.
3. Allowed me to alter brand design strategy without a dramatic theme alteration.
4. A subtle way to welcome organic search visitors from all over the world and make their journey a little bit sweeter.
5. Gives my readers a little hint of paradise with each article, yet strong enough to stand out from other websites in my niche.

That’s how and why pineapples for a website about online teaching have a connection. I didn’t have to go full-blown-all-things pineapple, or revert to a pineapple clip art logo.

Remember, it’s about the little things.

If you’d like to explore the Online Teacher Paradise, you can head to DigiNo in the card below. And feel free to connect on social too! Disclaimer: I’m still working on how to pass that Pina Colada to you through the screen ???