So, you’ve just put together what you think will be an awesome blog post. But, there a few spots you’d like to see images. Because as we all know, images help move the reader through your post and connect your writing to the visual and get more readership.
Or, maybe you need an image for your YouTube/Vlog intro?
When it comes to images you do not want to just search Google Images for the first one that makes sense, crop it and drop it in. That could potentially wind you up in court, or, at least a DCMA take down request.
One way to avoid all that messy stuff previously mentioned is to use royalty free images. What follows are my personal bookmarks to some of the better sites that allow you to use images royalty free for commercial and non-commercial work.
Pixabay
Pixabay – One of my favorites! Pixabay really set’s itself apart by offering over 730,000 high-quality photos, illustrations, and vector graphics for FREE. All the images on Pixabay are free for commercial use with no attribution required.
Unsplash
Unsplash – Beautiful photos added daily. Download without an account. Definitely one site to check out regularly.
PicJumbo
PicJumbo – This one isn’t completely free. But there are many free photos. A membership with more premium collections available.
Morguefile
Morguefile – One of the grand dads of royalty free photo sites. You can download and modify the images from Morguefile for free. If you use the image unaltered you must give credit to the photographer. Watch out for their site search the refers you off-site to continue your search on paid sites like iStock.
Free Images.com
Free Images – (Formerly SXC.hu) This was my original go to site for images for many years. And it’s still one I keep in rotation. You do have to create an account and there are some reasonable limits in the license that you might want to read over. Like, don’t use the image as part of a brand/company/product name.
Dreamstime
Dreamstime Free Images – This site has many free images in a free image collection which seems to be updated fairly regularly. Worth checking out if the sites on this list don’t work out.
What are your favorite sites for royalty free images for commercial use? Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments.
