A picture is worth a thousand words and maybe some dollars too!
· 6 min read
One of the most frustrating things I experienced as a writer is where to find free photos for blog posts and other content. Tons of sites advertise stunning stock photos, but most require a paid account.
As a one-woman business, making zero to little money, paying for photos, especially for blog posts with uncertain potential, doesn’t make good business sense.
Words are powerful in their own right and valuable written content is a huge factor in engaging potential customers or clients. But a second and sometimes even more critical piece is the visual look of your content.
A picture truly is worth a thousand words and written content that includes stunning, eye-catching photos can be a key strategy to draw clients and customers to your website or blog rather than choosing a competitor.
It’s your title and your image that creates the first impression of your content. Without a clear, engaging image, you risk losing potential readers or clients and any potential income from them. If your feature image is lacking in quality, readers and potential customers are gone before they’ve even read your content.
When you work from home and especially when you have kids, time is your most precious resource. Stop spending hours looking for free photos you can legally use for your blog or other content. I’m going to show you where to look so you can find that perfect image and save time and money.
What I didn’t know when I first started creating content for the internet was that you can’t just use any random photo you find for your content. It’s less critical if you are using photos simply for your own personal blog, aren’t planning to earn any money, and you attribute properly.
But any blog, social media, or other content where you are potentially earning money directly or indirectly is considered commercial. This means you need to make sure you have the right license for all of your images.
If you are operating a blog that earns money in any way and you don’t pay attention to image licensing and proper attribution, you can get in some real legal trouble. Just citing your image isn’t enough. You have to make sure you are using it in alignment with the licensing on the image.
I’m not an attorney so I can’t give you legal advice. But the best way I’ve found thus far to find images for blog posts and other content is to look for Creative Commons (CC0)licensed images or valid public domain images.
The CC0 license indicates photos can be used, modified, and shared for personal and commercial use. It’s the broadest of the image licenses other than the public domain in my opinion. There are more restrictive license categories you can explore if you feel the need.
There’s still a lot of confusion over the proper use and attribution of images, especially when it comes to blogging and freelancing. If you’re ever in doubt, chase down the original photographer yourself and get permission directly from them if possible. If you can’t get a definitive answer, choose another image.
If you’re using someone else’s image in any part of your business logo or design, you should consult a copyright attorney to ensure you have proper licensing before you build your business image on a photo you legally can’t use.
There are some sites you can turn to who state they provide access to free CC0 images that you can use for your personal or commercial content.
I have no affiliate relationships with any of the companies listed. They are simply sites I’ve found valuable for locating images for personal and commercial use.
- All contents on Pixabay are released under the Pixabay license, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist — even for commercial purposes. It’s, of course, good etiquette to always provide credit to the photographer when possible to do so.
- Foodiesfeed offers great images for your food, drink, recipe, or restaurant content. If you write about food, nutrition, or are looking for food or drink related images, check this site first.
- For anyone looking to find real photos of routine activities and objects, Realistic Shots adds new high-resolution images for commercial and personal use every week.
- SplitShire offers just shy of 1,000 different high-quality photos free for commercial or personal use. I was very impressed with the rich, eye-catching colors and crisp clarity of these images.
- A large selection of great free stock photos can be found on Picjumbo, beautiful colors and stunning images created by photographer and designer, Viktor Hanacek.
- If you are looking for unique free photos and images you can use for commercial purposes, check out the gallery at 1 Million Free Pictures. I was surprised to find photos of everything from black and white photos of the subway in New York City to color close-ups of sugar cane.
- If you’re looking for free photos that are without copyright restrictions, make sure you take a look at the wonderful photos on Gratisography. Created by Ryan McGuire, these at unique and stunning images free for use. Categories include the usual animal, nature, people collections but if you’re looking for that odd whimsical photo, you’re more likely to find it here.
- Picography offers free photos and gorgeous images for you to use however you like. This is a much smaller collection. These are not the same boring stock photos. The collection includes stunning colors and tags including city, hospitality, scenery, wildlife, and technology for quicker browsing.
Popular Sites for Free Photos
No list of free photo sites would be complete without the biggest collections. If you haven’t found what you wanted, you can probably get it from one of these two sites. If you choose photos from here, make sure you crop them or otherwise alter them or you run the risk of using the same photos many others have used.
9. We all know about Unsplash, it’s one of the most popular image sites recently. Gorgeous photos from photographers all over the world, most of which you can use however you like completely free! Always double-check, but these photos are CC0 which means you can use and modify for personal or commercial use. Attribution appreciated but not required.
10. Pexels is another very popular site for completely free photos you can use for commercial or personal use. Photos are CC0 which means you can use these free photos for any legal purpose. Attribution is not required however I always do it anyway. Most major platforms and magazines will require attribution before accepting content for publication.
I recently discovered Librestock. This site basically pulls CC0 images from many other places on the Internet and includes them in their database. This saves a ton of time when searching for images. You can search, find the image you want, and then click through to the site which has it and download the photo.
With literally thousands of free photos available for your personal or commercial use, save your time and hard-earned dollars to invest in other areas of your business.
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