For those of us who run a blog, it can be difficult enough to generate quality content regularly, without also having to worry about how we will find good pictures to go along with our articles. Sometimes, you do not even need a terribly specific picture, but maybe just a general picture of someone who is working at a desk so that you can visually let your readership know that your article is going to have to do with productivity, or the workforce. Visual cues from blog images are incredibly helpful when it comes to engaging your readership, and breaking up text.
You might have already run into this situation, where you look for quality images or photos and find that they require you to purchase them before use. However, with a little bit of knowledge, finding free images for blogs could be easier than you expect.
- Are those blog images free?
- Find blog images free to use.
Finding free blog images can be tricky. Have you ever stumbled across the perfect photo, and realized that there was nothing there to say that you could not use it? Unfortunately, just because you do not see anything saying that you must give attribution, or credit, or payment, does not mean that the image is free. If the original creator of that image finds that you have used their image, which may very well be protected by copyright, they are within their right to sue you. So what is the solution?
There are actually several websites set up for the sole purpose of supplying blog images free for the taking. A quick search for free blog images should point you straight towards those sites, but even if they advertise that the images are free to use, there may still be some stipulations. For example, an image with a creative commons license is free, most of the time. Here is what you need to know about the licensing terms, and what the common abbreviations are for them.
If the license term of the image states that “attribution” is required, then you must credit the original creator of that image. Sometimes this is abbreviated with “by” in parentheses.
If a license term states the image is “non-commercial,” then you can use it, just not for anything that you will make money from. The abbreviation is “nc” in parentheses.
A license term with “no derivatives” specified means that you cannot change the image from its original form. The abbreviation is “nd” in parentheses.
If you see “share-alike” then any derivative work you create is licensed under the original license as well, and may be abbreviated by “sa” in parentheses.
Free blog images may not be all that hard to find, once you know where to look, but they can be confusing to grasp if you are not familiar with the lingo, licenses, and abbreviations. The key is to never make an assumption about whether an image is free, or restricted. Always look for more information, and only select images that you can verify are free for you to use.