I have been blogging for a long time.  17 Years, to be exact.  In my blog posts, I will often link to an image or somewhere on the web.  This is a terrible practice.  Here is why:

I just downloaded a wordpress plugin to find broken links in my posts.  I have almost 600 broken links.  The images disappear.  The pages no longer exist.  I don’t mind those links possibly not linking anymore, but the broken images suck.  Especially the ones that used to be on my Picassa site.

Best Practice:  Upload the images INTO wordpress.  Don’t rely on someone else’s site.  Bring them directly in.