Where Do You Get Images and Photos For Your Website or Blog?
If you’ve been following along this past week, you’ll know that I had to pay $450 to Getty Images for a copyright infringement. I explain everything in full detail in this post, so check it out and leave your comments.
Dennis Edell was very kind to donate to my cause. He has been a great friend and a true example of paying it forward. That’s what community is all about, and I feel blessed to have the online friends that I do. I suggest you check out his blog as he’s got some great stuff going on over there.
If you’ve ever been in my situation, or just want to avoid it at all costs, then this post is for you. It’s actually for me, too, as I wanted to find quality sites where I could get images, photos and clip art free to use for my site and blog.
I hope you’ll benefit from this as well as images should be a part of every blogger’s arsenal. They add character and flavor to blog posts. They keep them from being plain and boring, not that the content alone is boring (at least it shouldn’t be).
Every now and then I just like to add an image that corresponds with what I’m talking about. The problem is that there are so many places and avenues in which you can get photos and images.
What I used to do was go to Google Images and search by keyword or topic in relation to my post. From there, I would browse the images, and if I found a suitable one, I would just open it and save it to my computer.
While that’s a very simple and easy way to get images to use, it’s also not the very smartest way. As I found out the hard way, the images can contain a copyright, and without obtaining a proper license or giving proper recognition, you’re breaking the law.
However, there are websites that offer free images and photos for personal and commercial use. Some require a link back to the author or source, while others don’t require anything. Most provide a higher resolution photo for a small price, but this isn’t necessary.
Here are some of the Photo and Image sites I’ve found to be reliable and easy to navigate and offer free to use images:
SXC.HU – Stock.Xchng requires a free account to download images to your computer, but you’re able to use them for personal and commercial use. Most come with royalty-free rights, meaning you can use the standard images however you like, but certain restrictions apply. Make sure to read the usage rights for each image before you download them.
PDClipart.org – Public Domain Clip Art offers 25,000+ clip art images. Since these images are in the public domain, anyone can use these free of charge with no limitations or restrictions. Sometimes clip art is more ideal than using a high-resolution photo, depending on the situation.
PlublicDomainPictures.net – This is similar to PDClipart, but this site offers high quality photos that are in the public domain. You’re free to use these however you like. They encourage you to link back to the source, but it’s completely up to you.
FreeDigitalPhotos.net – This site offers a wide variety of images that are free to use. The only restriction is that you HAVE to link back to the image author.
FreeByte.com – There is a clip art, images, photos, fonts, icons and backgrounds section, which is basically a big directory of sites that offer all of the above. I didn’t take the time to check out all the sites listed (there are a lot of them), but I’m sure you’ll find this useful to find sites that offer what you’re looking for.
Last but not least, Flickr.com allows for photo sharing and usage. I’m not a member of Flickr, but from what I know you have to link back to the source and give credit to the user that posted the image. Correct me if I’m wrong.
So there you have it, those are the sites I’ll be using from now on to use for my site and blog.
Make sure to read the Terms and Usage Rights for each site and also for each picture you’d like to use. They are all different and can change for each picture. Some of the sites I listed have premium photos which require a small fee.
Where do you get your images from? Know of any other good image sites you’d like to share? Add your comments below…
Tags: clip art, copyright, copyright infringement, Dennis Edell, free images, getty images, photos, public domain
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Tagged with: clip art • copyright • copyright infringement • Dennis Edell • free images • getty images • photos • public domain
Filed under: blogging • online business • Resources • Useful Websites
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Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
Excellent list Alan, much appreciated.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Web Income Experiments DotCom Wins Hands-Down! =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing,
Glad to help. Have any other sources you’d like to share?
[Reply]
Dennis Edell from Direct Sales Marketing
Twitter: DennisEdell
@Alan Mater, I’m pretty sure I have a list around here somewhere. I remember collecting them at one point.
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Oops I Lied-HAHA =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing,
If you can find it feel free to post it here.
[Reply]
Twitter: AMater
says:
Here is a tip I received from Rob Hodgins, one of my Facebook friends…
“Wikipedia has a lot of photos that are either public domain or are released under the GPL. Either type of photo can be used for any purpose….even Facebook profile pics!”
Thanks, Rob!
[Reply]
Twitter: sallyneill
says:
Hi Alan, thanks for that list of free image sites, I often get scared of using images in case the same that happened to you happens to me, although I dont think I would be on the radar as much as you, never thought about wikipedia will have a look on there too, Sally
.-= Sally Neill´s last blog ..Alex Jeffreys Oil Rig Blog Hopping Made Easy =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Sally Neill, Welcome!
My hope is that my “stupid mistake” will prevent other bloggers and website owners from making the same one. I’ll be A LOT more careful on how I get my images from now on.
I don’t know how much I’m on the radar, but I guess it was enough for someone to notice.
Glad to have helped, and I hope to see you around more often.
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Yeah, you definitely need to be careful with images these days. Although many blogs will get away with it, once you become a little more high profile you can bet people will come knocking.
I use creative commons search for images which I can freely edit but I always make sure to link back to the original photographer on Flickr and other websites.
.-= Murlu´s last blog ..A Crash Course On Holding Your First Blog Contest =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Murlu, First of all, welcome to my humble blog. It’s great to have you here.
Yeah, I found that out the hard way.
Thanks for the tip!
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$450 – Ouch! Then again, it’s less painful than being dragged off behind a wall and being beaten with a length of rubber hose!!!
Another little tip (if you have the time and inclination): take your own photos, learn how to use the Gimp and modify the images. I’m building a general information blog around dogs and there’s no end of people out there happy to let some lunatic with a digital camera take photos of their pets!
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@James@discount codes, Welcome to my humble blog.
LOL… In that case I would gladly pay the fine than take a beating!
That’s a great tip! The problem is that it’s harder to do that with my particular niche. There may be some times where I could do so, or even create an image from scratch, but most of the time that’s not an option. Still a great tip worth mentioning. Thanks!
[Reply]
I don’t even want to start trying to guess what you niche is!
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@James, LOL…
Well, I do cover quite a range of topics, but they all have to do with working from home, in one sense or another.
Stick around, and you’ll see.
[Reply]
Will do
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Twitter: kaiserthesage
says:
Hi Alan,
Your experience is definitely an important issue that should be more visible and I think it’s worth sharing to other bloggers to avoid encountering the same problem you’ve had. I never thought of this issue before, until I came across your site. And it is BAD for business. I’m beginning to think that I should be more aware of the images I use.
I mostly grab images from deviantart.com, and I’m not really sure about their conditions regarding republishing of their photos. But thank you for sharing other networks where I can get images from for free.
Regards,
Jason Acidre
.-= Jason @ Affiliate Marketing Blog´s last blog ..Top 6 hurdles for an affiliate marketing newbie =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Jason @ Affiliate Marketing Blog,
I couldn’t agree more. It’s a tough lesson and one I’ll be sure not to repeat. Glad to have helped open your eyes a bit.
I’ve heard of deviantart before. I’ll have to look into that one. Hope you find the other sites useful.
Thanks for visiting my blog, and hope to see you around more often.
[Reply]
Hi
I use the WordPress plugin Photodropper to search for Creative Commons content on Twitter – makes it all really easy!
.-= Neil@debt advice free´s last blog ..My 4 Priorities For a Happy Life =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Neil@debt advice free, Awesome… I never heard about that plug-in before. Thanks, Neil!
[Reply]
Neil from debt advice free
@Alan Mater, Of course when I said “Twitter” I meant “Flickr” – D’Oh
.-= Neil@debt advice free´s last blog ..My 4 Priorities For a Happy Life =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Neil@debt advice free, LOL… I knew what you meant.
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Adding images and photo will make your site more lively.Make sure you get from the right source which is offered free, if not you will get yourself in trouble with the copy right thing.Thanks for the list.
.-= jimmy @affiliate silver bullet system´s last blog ..Why You Don’t Know How To Use One Way Link Building =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@jimmy @affiliate silver bullet system,
Yeah… if you checked out the post I linked to, you’ll see that already happened. That’s the main reason I posted this.
Know of any other sources to get images from? Thanks!
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Twitter: imstrategies
says:
Great post Alan. A couple of these I know about, but this adds more resources to my list, thanks!
.-= JR @ Internet Marketing´s last blog ..Google Mayday Update, Caffeine and Tanked SERP Ranks =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@JR @ Internet Marketing,
Glad they can help!
[Reply]
Twitter: clickonportal
says:
Anything with the word free I’m there! (Well, not exactly anything, for a lot of things anyways.)
Thanks for the nice photo recommendations, saved the link for this post.
.-= Mici @ Click On Portal´s last blog ..Why You Should Break Up your Marriage with Your Free Domain ASAP- =-.
[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater
@Mici @ Click On Portal,
I’m sure you’ll find them helpful.
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