Enhance your blog posts with free high quality images

Photo by Bob Lee

One of the easiest ways to enhance your blog posts is using high quality images. This breaks up long sections of text and adds interest to your articles, especially when you can find relevant images which complement your written content.

There are many premium photo sites, such as Dreamstime and Fotolia from which you can purchase high quality photographs to use in your blog posts. But if you are just starting out or are working to a tight budget, it’s extremely useful to source out free images instead.

In this post, I’ll offer a guide to some of the best sites from which you can source free high quality images to enhance your blog posts and website content. The images found on these sites are all royalty-free and you will not be charged to use these, though depending on the terms of each site there may be restrictions on usage and attribution.

Stock Xchng

Here you will find a huge variety of royalty-free images which you can use for personal projects at no cost. You will need to register in order to download images (which takes a few minutes at most), then you will have access to full-size photographs from a massive range of categories.

It’s simplest to perform a search using keywords which are relevant to your post content than wade through the categories as there is simply so much on offer!

Be sure to read the terms of use for any images you would like to use. Some contributors require that you ask permission before using their images publicly, while others restrict the use of images on commercial websites. If in doubt, it’s best to email the contributor before using to ensure you do not break the licensing terms and conditions. However, most images are offered with the general restrictions of the site.

Visit Stock Xchng

Picfindr

This image search engine sources royalty-free, stock quality images which you can use for any purpose (even for commercial use!).

The site is still under development, so occasionally you may experience isssues with the site and unusual results when searching. Overall though, this proves a useful site for sourcing “copy-left” licensed images for unrestricted use in your blog posts and online articles.

Visit PicFindr

Stockvault

This photo-sharing site offers a wonderful selection of images which you are free to use in blog posts and online articles (though not for commercial purposes).

You do not need to register to download images from Stockvault, however in doing so you can benefit from exclusive member-only features.

Find images by browsing categories or performing a site-search. And be sure to check out the competition results on the home page for articles which showcase the best imagery found on the site

Visit StockVault

Every Stock Photo

Here is an excellent resource for searching through (literally!) millions of royalty-free images for your blogging projects. If you can’t find something suitable from Every Stock Photo for your latest blog post, it’s probably not available for free on the web

The licensing for each photo is clearly displayed and explained below each image, which helps you to understand at a glance whether the license will be suitable for your web projects. Most images require only attribution, though you should check to be sure.

Many of these images are sourced from Flickr’s collection of Creative Commons licensed photographs, while others are resourced form other sites which offer royalty-free, no-fee usage.

Visit Every Stock Photo

PicApp

Picapp offers a fast and easy way to embed licensed stock images into your posts. Using this free service you can use high quality images under license from Getty Images, Jupiter Images, Corbis and more with no cost to yourself. Instead, ads are displayed which help contribute towards royalty payments for the image contributors.

I haven’t personally used Picapp though you can read a review of this service by Kevin to learn more.

Visit Picapp

DeviantART

DeviantART is arguably the largest community of artists on the web. Here artists and graphic designers share their works publicly, and many offer their designs for others to use with varying licenses and restrictions.

If you are searching for stock quality images in particular, you can find these by browsing through the menus on the left hand side. Alternatively search through the vast collections using keywords which are relevant for your post content.

Be sure to check licensing restrictions and ask permission for use when required!

Visit DeviantART

Free Stock Photos

This is a relatively old but useful collection of stock-quality photos from around the world which can be used for both commercial and personal use.

Browse through the categories to find your ideal photo which are organized by international location near the top of the home page.

Visit Free Stock Photos

Free Foto

This well-organized site offers smaller-sized photos for free non-commercial use. Larger images can be purchased for a small fee if required.

The organization of Free Foto makes it easy to search for your ideal post image by browsing through tree-like categories of your required genre. Alternatively you can perform a site search to find results based on keywords for your post content.

Visit Free Foto

I hope this article has provided you with some useful and interesting resources for sourcing high-quality photos to enhance your blog posts. Please feel free to add your own suggestions by leaving a comment below.

Written by Amanda Fazani from Blogger Buster
Posted on November 24th, 2008 and filed under Design & Coding
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