If you have your own blog or website chances are you are looking for free pictures or images. This is
especially true if you have started out recently and do not want to splash out for images as yet. In this post I will show 5 sources of free images.

Why using images in your blog or site is important

Engaging content will lead to more readers and more social sharing, which is good for SEO by the way. Choose colorful images that describe what you are trying to say. If you have to explain your image then you have selected a wrong one. Always use at least one image above the fold (before you have to scroll down on the page).

Source 1: Create your own images

This sounds like cheating, not really. This is not as bad as it sounds neither is this that hard. This is also a fun activity if you have a kid(s). Let me explain with the help of some images. See the ‘BLOG’ images and you would know what I mean. Obviously you can’t always create a great image for the message that you are trying to convey and that’s where the below image sources come in handy.

Source 2: FreeImages.com

Most images on freeimages.com have no restriction once in a while you may find an image where you have to get permission to use the image. I haven’t tried using a restricted image or tried getting permission yet. This site is great source of free images with very little restriction unlike the other sources below.

Source 3: Google Images

Google images can be a good source for good free images as well. Be aware you can’t use all images in Google images. You have to use search tools and then filter the images by usage rights. I use only images that are marked as “Labeled for reuse”.

Source 4: Flickr.com

Flikr is another great source for free images. Similar to Google images you can’t use all images from Flikr. I only use images with license which are marked as “Commercial use allowed”. You can search for images with this usage rights but please check license condition for each image before you use.

Source 5: Pixabay.com

Pixabay is also a good place for free stock photos. Similar to freeimages.com, you can use most images from their image library free of cost. There are some images that you have to pay for.

Info on Additional Sources for free images

Pat Flynn has an awesome article with loads of additional sources (see the addendum on his post) where you can look for free images. Give it a shot if you want more images.

Note: If you are looking for pics on a very specific niche like sports coverage say Golf you might struggle to find pics of this nature on the above sources. You may have to do specific research to find sources for your niche.