Capturing your readers’ attention with art is a well-known (it’s #10 on Guy Kawasaki’s list) and effective strategy for creating better blog. (Besides, it’s fun.) There are plenty of stock photo sites out there that offer art at reasonable prices (Fotalia and iStockphoto are two examples), but for many bloggers (especially those not out for commercial gain) there’s no sense in spending money to get good photographs on your blog.
The five sources I highlight in this article include:
Note that if you run a commercial, for-profit blog — a blog connected to your for-profit company, or a blog with something more than a few AdSense ads to pay for hosting, you need to pay even closer attention to the licensing terms. Many Creative Commons photographs, for example, do not allow “commercial use.” In this case, if you want to use them anyway, you should contact the photographer or artist first.
Here, then, are five sources of free, high-quality photographs for your blog:
Flickr
Flickr is by far my preferred source. Photographs here are very often high-quality and certainly unique, which sets them apart from everyone else’s “stock” photographs, I think, and adds a certain individual touch. To easily find photographs on Flickr that you can use, you need to search either for public-domain images or for those licensed via Creative Commons (you may be able to use other images, but you will need explicit permission from the photographer first).
Creative Commons on Flickr
- Look to the bottom of Flickr’s main page, and click on the link labeled “Creative Commons” (not “The Commons” — I’ll discuss that next), to the right of the “Explore” label.
- Then use Flickr’s search function at the top of the page, on the right side.
- Scroll down, and select “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content.” (If you run a commercial blog, you will need to also check “Find content to use commercially,” unless you plan to first receive explicit permission from the photographer first before using the image.)
- After your search results come up, click on the image you want to use. Now, you will likely want to use an image size appropriate to your blog, so click on “all sizes.”
- Then select the size you want to use (I find the “small” size the most useful in a blog post).
- Depending on your blog software, you may want to either download this image to your computer and them put it into your blog, or simply leave the image on Flickr’s site and include it in your blog via its URL. Either way, right clicking should give you the information you want in your browser.
- Finally, after you put the image in your post, don’t forget that you need to provide attribution. To get the full license information, look to the bottom-right of your screen on the main Flickr page for the image, and click on “Some right reserved.”
There are numerous appropriate ways to provide proper attribution, but I prefer to use the “title” attribute of the “img” tag to include an informational line like this: “Toby using a computer. For real.” by Flickr user Kevin Steele, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 license. (For an example, hover your mouse cursor over the full image of the cat on a laptop.) For more information on hot to properly attribute Flickr images, see how to write attributions for the Creative Commons licensed images you use on your blog.
The Commons on Flickr
Somewhat confusingly, Flickr also provides access to a the archives of a number of institutions and government institutions via “The Commons.” These are generally public-domain images, usable by anyone for any purpose, commercial or not. Most of these images are older, and most are black and white — you won’t find many (any?) shots of laptops or cell phones here!
- To find these photographs, look to the bottom of the initial Flickr page again, but click on “The Commons” this time.
- Next, search.
- Then proceed as above, selecting the correct size and inserting it into your blog post.
- While these are generally public-domain images, you may wish to confirm their copyright status. Scroll down the page, and look to the bottom-right of the page.
- If there are “no known copyright restrictions,” then you are not required to provide attribution — but it is still good practice!
The Creative Commons “Meta-Search” Engine
Creative Commons offers “convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations.” The point is to help you find Creative Commons-licensed works that you can use.
- Visit search.creativecommons.org, and enter your search terms in the box at the top of the screen. (If you run a commercial site, make sure you leave “use for commercial purposes” checked.)
- Results will show up immediately, but you may wish to try the various services Creative Commons supports. Just click on the service at the top, and results from that service will appear below.
- Your image results will not be from a uniform service. You may need to look carefully to make sure of the Creative Commons license the photographer is using — you shouldn’t trust the search engine to be correct.
- Unlike images from Flickr, you may need to host the images on your site instead of hosting them elsewhere. (Flickr can handle the load and allows you to host linked images on Flickr; others may not be able to.)
- You should use a similar style of attribution for these images that you might use for Flickr images, including the image title, the creator’s name, the license, and a link to the image’s page. (See my posting about how to write attributions for the Creative Commons licensed images you use on your blog.)
Stock.XCHNG
Stock.XCHNG, owned by Getty Images, provides free images, along with a selection of pay-to-use photos from iStockphoto.
- Use the search box on the left of the page to search for images.
- Check the usage information on the right side of the page.
- And also check the availability details below the image to see if the photographer has additional requirements for use, such as notification.
- “Standard restrictions” refers to the standard license terms from the Stock.XCHNG Web site:
We hereby grant to You a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Image on the terms and conditions explained in this Agreement and on the Image preview page FREE OF CHARGE.
(Read the whole license for full details.) As noted in the license, you may need to follow the terms listed under “availability” (see #3 above).
- Finally, download and use the image on your blog!
Zemanta
Zemanta is a Web-based tool for bloggers to add images and links to your blog posts. You can install a Zemanta plugin or extension, or simply use the Zemanta bookmarklet without installing anything.
Zemanta adds a small box to the right side of the screen that looks like this:
Click on an image to insert it into your post, or drag images over to place them where you wish. Simple. (You can be more specific about your search by click on “refine.”)
Zemanta also takes care of inserting the proper attribution for your use of images. By default, they are hosted elsewhere (which over time can be an issue, since I have had a few disappear over time).
“Freebie Images” by crestock.com
For now, this option is limited to WordPress only, because it relies on a WordPress plugin to function. (The main Crestock site sells images for reasonable rates, useful if you need high-resolution images.) Images provided via the plugin, unlike the site, are free and licensed under Creative Commons. You can even use them on commercial sites without worry. The main limitation is that the images are sized for use on blogs (and that the plugin is only available for WordPress).
- Install the plugin (for help, see Managing Plugins in the WordPress Codex).
- When creating a new blog post, you should see a “Freebie Images” box on the right side of the editing screen. Use the search box to find appropriate images, which are then displayed in the lower portion of the box.
- Then simply drag the image you want into your post. The plugin takes care of adding an image caption to handle attribution.
The plugin also has advanced searches available, if you need to specify a particular image orientation, etc. (For more details, see the Crestock site about the plugin.)
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