The Insider’s Guide to Free Blog Images for Commercial Work

Though designing your website or blog does not begin with images as we discussed in an earlier post, images ultimately have great importance and many resources exist for free blog images and commercial use photos and graphics.

The importance of images and graphics shouldn’t be news to anyone. Think back to when you began school as a child. How did your teachers teach you to read? The process included images. Many images related to the topic in your reading.

Even before photos could be used in books, articles, and magazines, drawings and sketches were included.

Yes, many studies about websites exist showing varying results from the proper use of images on your blog or website. Despite the various results, all show what should be obvious. Using relevant images improves viewer engagement and increases the number of visitors.

One study by Social Bakers helps you understand just how important imagery is. Social Bakers found 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook include images.

Search Engine People collected 12 important facts about image use you may want to consider.

The University of Indiana found in its studies, that 65% of the population is made up of visual learners. This researcher alone should clue you into why infographics get such high engagement.

What’s the Effect of the Wrong Kind of Image?

You will read much more often about using images and how important they can be to getting both readers and sales.

But there is a downside. Social Triggers discusses this more in-depth. The bottom line for use of images remains relevancy.

Ask yourself, does your image actually add to what you write?

If not, it can actually cost you sales and readers. When you place an image in your blog post, article, or sales page it must add to the message presented. If not, then you should consider removing it.

The study he cited by Social Triggers show how using images for purely decorative purposes or images that are not relevant to your topic or product can significantly reduce your conversions.

Tips to Know Before Choosing an Image

To help you get the best images, these tips will help you make the best choices.

• Original images are best for starting so when compressions get used, the best image possible is presented.
• The most common image file extensions are .png, .jpg, .gif. Many others exist, but these give you the highest compatibility.
• Use these rules for image composition
• If you’re discussing details, your image should show details
• For graphic images, use these guidelines.
• Avoid using grainy, blurry, washed out, or dark images unless they have a very specific purpose related to your written content.
• Do not use high resolution images on websites. For the most part, they can’t be viewed in high resolution by the web viewer, and they will significantly slow the loading of your web page.
• When discussing details, use an image that is a close up of the detail so it is easily viewed.

Finding High Quality, Free Blog Images

Of course, all the tips and advice above is worthless if you can’t find good images.

No single source will have everything you need, and professional images from stock sites can be very expensive, even when royalty free.

When choosing free blog images from the various resources you MUST pay attention to license requirements. Even free images may restrict you from commercial use. Many require you include attribution. You must comply or you open yourself and your business to legal problems.

That being said there are many free image resources including photo blogs and image search sites where you can find image of high quality. Many of these include commercial use rights.

Photo Blog Free Blog Images and Commercial Image Resources

This list is in alphabetical order because, no single source will provide you all the right images. Many will disagree with which is best and which is not best. Thus, alphabetical order eliminates the arguments.

• Designers Pics. FREE Hi-Res photos for your personal & commercial use. Attribution not required!
• Gratisography. Free high-resolution pictures you can use on your personal and commercial projects.
• ISO Republic. Free and premium stock images.
• Jay Mantri. Free pics. Do anything. Make magic.
• JÈ Shoots. Cool & free photos for You! Photos for business or personal use in high resolution for free.
• KaBoom Pics. Great place to get breathtaking Free Pictures for business or personal projects.
• Life of Pix. Free High-Resolution Photos, No Copyrights Restriction. Images for Personal Commercial Use.
• MoveEast. This is a journey of a Portuguese guy moving that decided that every photo should be used for free. Help yourselves and use them.
• New Old Stock. Vintage photos from the public archives. Free of known copyright restrictions.
• Skitter Photo. All images on this website are completely free to use for any purpose. When pictures are published on Skitterphoto, they are released into the public domain using creative commons CC0.
• Snapwire Snaps. License and commission photos from 200,000 of the world’s most talented photographers.
• SplitShire. Free Stock Photos & Images for commercial use.
• Startup Stock Photos. Free Stock Photos & Images for commercial use. Startup Stock Photo. Free photos for startups, bloggers, publishers, websites, designers, developers, creators, & everyone else.
• UnSplash. Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos.

Photo Search Engines.

These sites search through many sources of online images for you. The searches bring up good and bad images, however the images come from royalty free locations. Once again, these sites are listed in alphabetical order because no one will agree that one site is necessarily the best over another.

• Flickr. Almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world.
• FreeImages. A site by Getty Images. Over 388,000 images for free.
• MorgueFile. A post production file. Free photos for creatives, by creatives.
• PhotoPin. Search millions of Creative Commons photos and add them to your blog posts easily.
• PicJumbo. Totally free photos for your commercial & personal works.
• Pixabay. All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0.
• Public Domain Images. High quality copyright friendly images, not copyrighted and no restriction for their use.
• Stock Photos for Free. Site presented by Graphix Stock. You can download over 100,000 completely free stock photos from around the world!
• WikiMedia Commons. A database of 32,426,274 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute

What’s the Best Way to Get the Right Image?

Regardless of all the free resources, when it comes to getting the exact, perfect image for your sales page or blog post, hiring a professional is the best way to get it.

Professionals already have their own resources for creating images. Whether it’s a camera or access to quality graphics and images for creating, they have it.

Professionals also have lots of training in the theories and practical use of creating and using images and graphics. This makes using them yourself much, much simpler. When you have the resources, you should use a professional for highest impact from your images.

Consensus Conclusion about Free Blog Images and Commercial Imagery

The authoritative data shows (to no surprise) how using the right images gains readership and sales.

Humans love visual learning, and images provide a key element of the process. People remember and respond to the right images.

Using the free blog images from the various resources is a great place to begin when you don’t have the resources at hand to hire a professional for your needs. Just be sure you don’t violate any copyright or commercial rights when publishing. That is YOUR responsibility.

Be smart, and choose images that help tell the story and add to what you write about. This way, your results from image use will grow to amazing levels.

Be sure bookmark, and share this with others you know needing these resources.