Free Image + Picture Resources
Where to find images for your site and how to use images is a question that gets asked a lot here in WA. There are quite a few resources here, so I wanted to collect them for future use.
I don't pretend to understand all the image laws, and there are varying opinions on what's OK or not OK to use on your site. Read to the bottom for my thoughts on legal issues surrounding free image website.
Be sure to read up the best you can on all the rules associated for any image you use for your site.
Kyle's Main Image Trainings
More Free Image Trainings
- Where to find images for your website
- How To Find Free Images To Use On Your Website
- Where to access a Free Image Library of thousands of images
- Free Images for a Website - Free to Use, No Attribution
Blog Posts With Some Good Links
- Free Images
- Free Images, Photos, Cliparts, Editors, Gifs, Graphics
- Where To Find Free Images
- How to Use Google Images for your Website Safely
Paid Image Websites
Personally, I try to purchase most of my images. I use Canstockphoto.com because you can buy cheap credits and get decent stock photos. Other paid websites can be quite expensive. For example a yearly subscription to Shutterstock costs me $3,000 USD, and I get 35 images per day, which don't roll over to the next day!
Another example: I bought an image credit pack from iStockphoto and it cost me $50 for 5 images, meaning I paid $10 per image.
Ten bucks isn't a lot, but when you have 100's of images on your website, that can add up. Plus, considering most images we use are purely decorative (not vital to understanding the written content), it makes it kind of a waste of money to pay that much.
Legal Stuff About Free Images Online
Using free images is not problem-free. Actually, anyone can upload images to free image websites, and if they upload a copyrighted image, YOU could be on the hook. This is mainly why I stick with paid images nowadays, but I exclusively used free images for many years.
Some image websites, such as Getty Images, are notorious for pursuing people legally for using images without the proper rights. Because of this, I occasionally see scaremongering about how you can or cannot use images on your website.
The truth is, most people have no problems most of the time. There are millions of people straight up stealing images online daily. Most of them never have any problems. That being said, those same people are creating memes, or just blogging for fun.
You're running a business! You need to treat your website like a business, not like a personal blog experiment.
Plus, I definitely do not condone taking images which are not yours. I have lots of images stolen from my website, including expensive graphics. It's very annoying. At the very least, I urge you to NOT take images from anyone else's website.
If anyone emails you to claim an image, just take it down. It's not worth arguing where you found it, or who is right or wrong in this situation. Suck it up, take it down, and apologize. Most of the time that'll take care of any problems. Pursuing copyright infringement is expensive, so unless they have a legal team in place, an apology goes a long way.
Free Product Photos On Flickr Creative Commons
Flickr is a website where people can upload personal photos and make them publically visible. Flickr Creative Commons is the section of the site with free-to-use images. Many times, you can find candid photos of popular products, but you can also just find generally good photos of people living their lives.
This is a great way to add "trust" value to your site. A highly polished site looks nice, but real-life photos look genuine in comparison, so can also work well.
Just make sure to use the proper attribution. There are varying levels of rights given to you, depending on which area you get the photo from. READ THE LICENSCING REQUIREMENTS. As a general rule of thumb, you should be at the very least linking back to the photo.
As I understand the rules, you also need to link back to the license/right page too. This sucks because now you have two outbound links per image, but better to have that than to steal images or have no images! You can simply nofollow these links if you are concerned, but actually I'm pretty lazy and don't nofollow them.
My pages still rank, regardless, but it's something to consider.
Other Solutions
Take Your Own Photos
You most likely have a smartphone, and if you are writing about a topic you are familiar with, you can just take your own photos. Smarthphone quality photos are fine for websites.
The added bonus is that these are 100% unique, and found nowhere else online. This is great for making your site stand out from everyone else using stock photos.
Even if the photos are not "perfect", the imperfections can add a perception of trust to your website. You'll look like an independent blogger and businesss owner, instead of a faceless corporate entity.
Create Your Own Graphics
You can also create your own graphics using free or paid tools online. Infographics are a great example of how creating your own images can help drive traffic and brand your site as unique:
You can also learn how to create cartoons, or edit photos using free tools like Gimp:
Canva:
- Hello: Canva
- Make Your Own Professional Logo With Canva...
- WOW! Canva Tutorial to Create Images with Eye Popping 3D Shadow Text
This route will take longer to learn and execute, but over a time span of several years, you'll put yourself in a position to be ahead of your competitors. Who else on Page 1 is creating unique graphics for their site?
Screenshots
Screenshotting stuff you see online is totally fine. This is another way to add a visual element to your page, depending on what you're writing about.
You cannot screenshot an image and upload it as your own. However, you can screenshot websites and text that are relevant to your content.
Outsourcing
Lastly, outsourcing is an option. Pay an amateur photographer a couple hundred bucks and have them take 1000 photos. You'll have a couple years supply of unique photos you now own the rights to!
SiteContent Free Images!
Now that Wealthy Affiliate allows you to create your content right here in your dashboard using SiteContent, you have access to tens of thousands of free photos that are OK to use for your website.
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/content
Recent Comments
46
More good info and what I have looked for. Now it's in one place, here. Thank you. I bookmarked it. :)
Thanks.
Think there are some more here:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/newventure/blog/fyi-free-images-sites
As an online writer, I had to learn a lot about this in a hurry. The one thing I'd like to point out is that you can't just help yourself to images even WITH proper attribution. We have one newspaper here that you can credit to the moon and back and you will still get a cease& desist letter from their attorneys. Ask me how I know. This is a great compilation of fantastic resources. Thanks, Nathaniell, for putting it together for us!
Good guide, thanks for the compilation Nathaniell, this comes in handy at a good time! Best regards....
Jack :)
Goodday to you Nataniell, I have wrote a blog on resources https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/loes/blog/images-photo-s-cliparts greetings Loes
Thanks. At the moment I am having trouble uploading images that I found on free image sites, so I'm working with support on that. Thanks for the resources.
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Bookmarked it - thank you.