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Creative Ramblings > Blogging > 10 websites to find free images for your blog

10 websites to find free images for your blog

9 Aug, 2012 Blogging Great Resources Tips Permalink

In this day and age, writing high-quality articles is not enough. Visitors want to be entertained visually.

Adding images to your content will certainly make a difference in the experience of your audience, while increasing your chance of being found in search engine results.

“Now, how do I find great pictures without breaking my piggy bank,” you ask. Do not worry, I have just what you need! Check out the list below.

An important reminder

When you use other people’s pictures, make sure you include the sources:

Of course, you can always use your own images. In this case, do not forget to watermark them and/or include the link to your blog.

If you do not have any photo-editing tool installed on your computer, you will find what you need in this article: 10 tools for editing graphics and images. You can also try PicMarkr (watermarking) and PhotoFiltre.

Do you know other websites that provide free photos for bloggers? If so share the links in the comment section below this article.

For more useful blogging tips, check out my latest release, The Little Big eBook on Blogging: 40 Traffic Generation Tips.


Creative Commons License
This article by Cendrine Marrouat is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

About The Author

Cendrine Marrouat is a journalist, blogger, content curator, author, and workshop facilitator located in Canada. She is the founder of two social media blogs: Social Media Slant and Creative Ramblings. On March 6, 2012, she released The Little Big eBook on Blogging: 40 Traffic Generation Tips, a comprehensive resource that provides bloggers of all levels with essential information and precise guidance to attract quality traffic to their blogs. She is currently working on an eBook on social media strategies that should be released before the end of 2013.
  • http://www.chrissybizsolutions.com Christian Bryant

    Wonderful resource I’m sure I’ll use time and time again. Thank you!

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      You are welcome, Chrissy! Glad you found the article helpful!

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  • http://flickrcc.net Peter Shanks

    My personal favourite is http://flickrcc.net an image search engine which shows a selection of Creative Commons licensed images from flickr.

    It’s easier to use than the flickr search pages and also lets you edit those images that are licensed for editing

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello Peter,

      Thank you for the link! I see that it is your website. What gave you the idea to create it?

  • http://www.durhamwebdesigner.com/ Larry James

    I use the PhotoDropper WordPress plugin to embed Creative Commons photos from Flicker. It works great and automatically adds credit to the photographer in the post. By the way, I love the your website and I have subscribed.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello Larry!

      Thank you for your comment!

      Glad to know you like the plugin. Any other resources you like?

  • http://www.seoagencysydney.com.au/ Richa

    As they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Adding images surely enhance the look and attractiveness of a post. Thanks for sharing these great resources. I have used Flickr and photo drop and they are pretty good. Will surely check the other ones out.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Glad you found the article useful, Richa!

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  • http://www.ladycaos.eu Diletta

    Can I suggest also Wylio (5 free pictures per month) and Openphoto.net? Not the biggest archives but I often found useful images there.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello there, thank you for your suggestions! What kind of photos do you find there?

  • http://www.iw-design.co.uk Mark

    A great list, which I have book marked for future reference. Thanks very much

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Glad you found the list helpful! Thank you for stopping by!

  • http://nozzl.com Steve Woodward

    Don’t forget the granddaddy of all free image sites: Wikimedia Commons. The sister site of Wikipedia has more than 13 million photos and graphics files, almost all of them freely usable. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      I didn’t mention it because everyone knows the website. But you are right, it’s a great place to find pictures. ;-)

  • http://www.writingyourlife.org Patricia Charpentier

    This is great information. Have you had any problems with viruses being attached to downloaded images? Just recently I’ve been hit hard with viruses, and the only downloads I do are images for my blog. Just wondering.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello Patricia,

      I have never had any issue with viruses. How did it happen to you?

  • http://www.chambermusicsedona.org Kristine Follett

    I got the link to this article from Mari Smith and just want to thank you very much for this list of resources. We are a small non-profit. I manage the newsletter and other marketing so am always looking for images to enhance our offerings and make the newsletter more interesting. These will be a huge help to us. Thank you again!

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello Kristine,

      Glad to know that the article is helpful!

      I hope you continue visiting the blog.

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  • http://creativeaces.com Joann Sondy

    How sad! Did you know that most professional photographers are small business owners and entrepreneurs and you’re banner proclaims to help these business with social media. As a graphic designer, I always recommend that businesses begin to build their own library of images by purchasing images. The reason is two-fold: 1) purchasing an image secures usage and 2) many photographers (pros and beginners) offer images for sale via microstock or other sources.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello Joann,

      Thank you for your comment.

      Some photographers choose to make their work available for free. Others choose to make it available through microstock and other sources. Not all of them take pictures to make money. Some share for the sheer pleasure of it — like any other artist in this world.

      Now, I will ask you a question. Why would bloggers write articles for free? A lot of them are small business owners and entrepreneurs as well, often with extremely small wallets. The obvious answer is: To help others, establish their expertise, and build trust. Imagine me asking for money to people who want to use or read my articles. Would you say the same thing then? Would you tell me that it is sad?

      There is a huge difference between using a picture for a commercial project and using a picture for a blog. Why?

      1) A commercial project has, in essence, a dollar sign behind it.
      2) An article in a blog is written to serve the needs of an audience. The blogger does not make money off of the article. The only money that they will make is if they get clients in the long run.

      So, as long as a blogger respects a photographer’s wishes and rights, the issue does not exist.

  • http://twitter.com/stevenjosephr Steven

    Thanks for the links. Images are always important for a blog or web site to add some eye-pleasing visuals. Of course, people should also use their own pictures to add a personal touch.

  • http://keystoclarity.com Louise Crooks

    Dreamstime is great too! Just search on free images and it will pull up an archive for you.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Agreed!

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  • http://www.socialsparkmedia.com Fran Eleazer

    Great article, I bookmarked it to refer back to, but now the list is gone! I guess I should have bookmarked each site. Was the list taken down for some reason?

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello Fran, thank you for stopping by. The list is not down. I just checked.

      • http://www.socialsparkmedia.com Fran Eleazer

        I see it now. Hmmm…wonder what happend? Earlier it said “Listly error”, or something along those lines. Thanks again, I’ll bookmark them all this time.

        • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

          Glad you can see it again. Probably a bug on List.ly, the service that I used to create my list…

  • http://netmediablog.com Nwosu Desmond

    This is indeed a great list and am bookmarking it right away to use for my blog, i just read a post about copyright infringement from Getty images and the way they have been suing bloggers for using their images, so to avoid getting into problem even without knowing it, it is better i get my images from sites that offer them for free. Thanks though.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Glad you find the list useful.

  • http://consumerdepot.blogspot.com/ vonamsa

    Thank you. Your information is very useful

  • http://www.insidemyrocket.com Inside my Rocket

    Thanks – excellent list.

    Every now and then Smashing Magazine is offering free “stuff” – everything from web templates and icon sets to images/graphics:

    http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/freebies/

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Good to know, thank you!