Picture this- you write a great blog post and add a compelling image and then you get an email that you are in copyright infringement!
As an early blogger I knew I needed to add a picture to my blog posts, but I faltered a bit with WHERE those pictures should come from. After realizing that several of the graphics I used could get me into copyright infringement trouble, I started to ask around Twitter for some advice. I quickly discovered that it wasn’t easy to find reliable, safe and FREE sources for graphics and pictures.
Over the years I have turned to two main resources that I wanted to share with you so that you can save searching time and aggravation and get straight to the writing! Be sure to watch the video for the full demonstration.
#1- Flickr. Hands down my favorite place for photo sharing and networking. This site has a social network connected with it and is a wonderful site. That said, if you simply type your search word into the home page and click “search” you are going to find content that you shouldn’t be using because it is protected. By using the advanced search from the search drop down and clicking on “creative commons” content, you will find photos that you can safely add to your blog post.
#2- Stock.xchng. At first glance it seems that you have to pay for these images, but if you dig a bit deeper there are two tiers of content. After performing your search you will see “premium” results (which cost money) and below that are the free images.
Remember that regardless of the fact that these pictures and images are safe to use, it is good manners and common courtesy to give credit to the photographer/artist by including a credit line and link back to the original image.
These are my two favorites, but I know there are a lot of other options out there. Let’s use this post as a pool of shared knowledge. Where do you find your photos and images for blog posts?
CC Licensed image courtesy of liako on Flickr.com.
