How to get free images for your blog
You might be the most amazing writer – but it’s not enough to get your content seen. Research has shown that articles with images get 94% more views than those without. So how do you lift your content to the next level with some amazing pictures? And get free images for your blog? And preferably for free?
Take your own pictures
This is the first prize and it will make your blog more authentic and unique if you share your own images with the world.
If you are sharing about your children, take pictures of them.
If you are sharing recipes, take pictures of the food you’re making.
If you are travelling somewhere, take pictures of the sights.
The list goes on but you get the drift. You don’t have to be an amazing photographer, grab your phone and make it happen.
Tips for taking your own pictures
We once had a photographer at our #Jozimeetup and some of her suggestions were:
-use natural light – not direct light
-use different angles – try and catch your children unaware and not posed
-use catchlights – try and get the light in your subject’s eyes
-when photographing products take great care with the background – you can use wrapping paper, scrap booking and of course, most importantly, the product in use.
Sites for free images for your blog
These are the ones I have found most useful which don’t have copywrite requirements.
I have found Pixabay to be my first stop, even for clip art images.
Once you have inserted your image, you can also put a credit underneath.
Google Images
If go to Google => Images => Tools => Usage rights => Creative commons licenses – you will find images which you can take for free. These aren’t the best, though, so I would first recommend looking at the above sites, and if you still can’t find the image that you want, you might have to then pay for it by rather going to the “Commercial and other licenses.”
Conclusion
Remember that people respond to images faster than they would to text, so it’s a vital part of your blog post to have images in place. Your post might get lost without them.
Where do you get your images?