When you need images to enhance your blog, you want to make sure the photos you use aren’t violating copyright law. However, purchasing photos every time you need one can get expensive.
Here are five places to find images for publishing on your blog, both free options and those that are very inexpensive.
1. iStockphoto
With iStockphoto, you can pay as you go or set up a three month, six month, or 12 month subscription. If you’re only going to use images sporadically, then the pay-as-you-go option makes sense. If you need a lot of images on a regular basis, however, a monthly subscription to this site might be your best option for the money. Plus, iStockphoto offers a free photo of the week which is a nice touch.
2. stock.xchng
Arguably the most popular free photo site, stock.xchng offers more than 350,000 images you can use for your blog – absolutely free. Some photographers may require a link back or credit in some form, however, so be sure to read the fine print and comply with what they’re asking. They have a simple search feature which allows you browse by keyword, or you can do an advanced search to really narrow down your results if you are looking for something specific.
3. Shutterstock
Shutterstock offers a huge database of stock photos – over 18 million, to be exact – so this site definitely has a lot going for it in terms of volume. With Shutterstock, you can pay for a subscription or pay for images on demand. Obviously, subscribing either monthly or full a full year is the way to go if you will be using images frequently, but if you only need a few, you can use their “Images on Demand” option and pay for one photo or 5 photos upfront.
4. Stockvault
Another free photo site, Stockvault offers a modest 29,000 images available, so you will not get the same results as you would with a paid photo site. However, the website is nicely designed and easy to use, and the photos you can find are fairly good quality. You can search by category or keyword, but if you are looking for something very specific you may have a hard time finding it with this service.
5. Everystockphoto
Everystockphoto is a search engine for free photos. If you don’t feel like dealing with the hassle of going to several individual sites, you can use this service to browse literally thousands of photos from a variety of categories. You can search by keyword or advanced search methods. While this site indexes photos from all of the other free stock photo sites out there, you will still have to sign up for accounts on the individual photo sites that host the images you want to use.
Using Stock Images
When searching for images you can use on your blog, it’s imperative that you find photos that will not violate anyone’s copyright. While free stock photo sites are useful, keep in mind that these sites will not always have the volume and quality available with a paid stock photo site.
These are arguably some of the best places to find images to use on your blog, but always do your research and choose one that makes sense for you.
And if you want to know what I personally use for my sites and the StudioPress demos, you can head on over to Bigstockphoto to look around
Don’t forget Flickr
This is a great article on Flickr and creative commons.
http://www.skelliewag.org/a-complete-guide-to-finding-and-using-incredible-flickr-images-162.htm
Hi Keith, I have aware of FLickr for some time now they seem to rather a nice collection.
Hi Rob
Most of my graphics come from Flickr.
The article I mention shows you how to find the best creative commons images.
I use the images and provide a link back.
Brilliant.
That’s great Keith, I also place a link at the bottom of my blog informing my readers were my images come from….
Great post – someone was just asking me about this yesterday. I like to recommend Morguefile.com, too – free images, and attribution isn’t required but you have the option to donate to the person who supplied them.
Hello Dorian, that’s nice to know thank you for sharing this info.
I’ve also been liking compfight.com, which is a more visual search engine for Flickr that can be filtered for Creative Commons and other licenses.
Yes, compfight.com is pretty much what I use. A simple backlink to the author’s page and you’re good to go.
I usually just go to creativecommons.org and use their search engine. That way you know that you aren’t violating copyright.
That’s good advice, and something I’m sure many folks can benefit from. Thanks for sharing that Matthew!
I always download the free image that iStockPhoto puts up. You can build up a nice collection over time, and eventually you end up with a good stash you can check in on when you’re looking for a certain type of image.
That’s such a good idea and I never would have thought to do that. I usually look at the free image and think, “Nah, can’t figure out where I would use that” and then forget all about it.
Nice post Brian- great information for use to know. I often get any images I use for my blog post from http://creativecommons.org/ they are safe as far as I know to use…This topic opens up new concerns as well.
Nice post Brian- great information for us to know. I often get my images I use for my blog post from http://creativecommons.org/ they are safe as far as I know to use…This topic opens up new concerns as well. Sorry a few typos reposted.
Thanks for the great post Brian.
Depositphotos.com is another nice site for stock images. They offer a free trial of five images per day for seven days. Good for anyone starting out with a website or blog and needing their first few images. They have a good library.
Getty bought stock.xchng a couple of years ago and basically ruined a good thing. The site now exists for the most part to promote and sell the images on iStockPhoto. stock.xchng used to be a good communal effort with some high quality work, but for the most part those images were moved to iStock and now you have to pay for them. iStock is good for what it is. And you still can find some good images on stock.xchng. But …
Awesome post Brian.
But i would like to add 123RF.com in this list too. They provide cheap and high quality images with price as low as $0.21/image. Besides that, they provide free images daily too!
Lynn, thanks for the mention of that site.
Brian,
Great post! I’m always on the lookout for great photos and have added a few more sources thanks to your post.
Appreciate it!
To see a few more resources read my article on:
Where To Find Free Images Online For Your Website or Blog
http://www.drostdesigns.com/where-to-find-free-images-online-for-your-website-or-blog/
Thanks Brian – good resources. And thanks for starting the conversation – great stuff in the comments! Thanks everyone -
Very helpful. As always.
Your site’s quickly becoming one of my favorites.
Dave
Thanks so much Dave – that’s quite nice of you to say!
Thanks Brian for sharing these websites. It helps a lot. This speaks a lot on why you blog. (3. To Help Others)
Thanks for the list, Brian. I wasn’t aware of all of these. I used to use iStock, but have recently been using fotolia.com instead. I generally can find what I need and they seem to be cheaper.
Thanks for these useful websites list. I need some free stock images for my blog posts.
I am surprised that you didn’t mention Dreamstime free photos section when writing about 5 best places to find free photos.
http://www.dreamstime.com/free-photos
Dreamstime is one of largest resources (top 4) for commercial stock images.
They have also free stock section on their website and it contains hundreds of thousands of high quality free photos!
Trying to find some photos for my blog and I stumbled onto this post. Thanks for the help! It answered the exact question I had in mind.
Just published a post on where to find free and premium images for your website or blog:
http://www.wmwebdesign.co.uk/website-design-free-and-premium-images-for-your-websites-and-blogs/
Many of the suggestions are from the Genesis community.