A picture paints a thousand words, so it’s no surprise that having some images on your website will be beneficial. If you want to have a captivating website then adding images is a must, especially if you are a blogger who regularly updates your website.
There are many excellent places online where you can purchase images for your website, but these are often very expensive. Paying for images may be okay if it’s just for 2-3, but if you update your website regularly e.g. if you’re a blogger or if you have hundreds of pages on your website or plan to, then the costs can quickly mount up – making it very expensive in the long run.
You may be tempted just to do a Google search for specific images and copy & paste them into your website – DON’T – as sooner or later the angry copyright holders will come after you demanding payment. Copying other people images is a quick way to get into trouble, which could result in some expensive legal bills for you or your business. You wouldn’t want anybody copying your work without permission, so keep on the safe side and follow the copyright rules. Make sure you have permission to use all of the images on your website.
Fortunately there is a solution: websites that offer free images. The range and quality may not always be as good as those offered by the paid for image stockists, but with some patient hunting, you can often find some great photos for free.
Below is a list of some popular places to find free images online:
www.freedigitalphotos.net – More than 2000 images all of which are available free of charge, for business, personal, charitable or educational use. These free images are small sized, but perfect for websites. If you need a larger sized version then they are all available to buy.
www.morguefile.com – Great place for high resolution stock photos for your illustration, comp or web design needs. Images are all completely free. whether you’re an illustrator, art director, instructor or looking to add a defining visual to a presentation.
www.bigfoto.com – royalty-free photo agency offering free download of all pictures for personal and commercial use. Especially good for pictures from around the world, including America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Pacific. Also offer pictures under different themes such as nature, aviation, food, architecture, etc.
www.flickr.com – Huge number of photos covering everything imaginable. While many are not available for free, some of the photographers do allow free use of their photos. So search for the “Creative Commons” licenses to sort them out first. If you do use any images then make sure you link back.
www.stockfreeimages.com – The largest web collection of FREE images, with 901,657 images, royalty-free stock photos and illustrations. You can download several web size and high resolution images free of any charge. Once you download the images, you are granted a Royalty Free license to use them. This license allows you to use the images downloaded on websites, etc.
There are a number of other websites offering free images for you to use, but the ones above are popular and worth checking out. They are a good place to start getting free images for your website.
