Blog ideas from a Singapore freelance copywriter's blog
One of the most common problems blog owners find themselves with is where to find quality images for their blog posts.
While there is no shortage of professional image libraries such as Shutterstock, Getty Images, Adobe Stock and others, these premium stock libraries usually also come with premium price tags. Expect to pay anywhere between $10 to $50 for a single web quality photo.
And in case you’re wondering what “web quality” means – that’s a standard resolution image that’s good enough for your blog, but not good enough for print. (That’ll cost you a lot more.)
So what should you do if you’re on a budget?
Simple. Just look for stock libraries that offer free images.
But first, here’s some terminology that’s important to know before you start using these images on your blog.
Terminology: Know what these mean first!
Royalty-free
These are images that you can use without needing to pay the intellectual property owner a royalty or licensing fee on for each use or volume sold. With that said, don’t mistake “royalty-free” for “free”. You may still need to pay to purchase royalty-free images.
Attribution-free
While most images that you’ll find in stock image libraries are free to use, they usually require some form of attribution – usually in the form of crediting the photographer (or image owner) and linking to their website or portfolio.
Now that you’ve got a gist of what royalty-free and attribute-free mean (and know that neither share the same meaning as “free of charge”), here’s a few of my favourite free stock image libraries.
Free stock image libraries
Creative Commons (search.creativecommons.org)
Not so much a “stock image library”, but more of a collection of free stock images from around the web.
Here, you’ll find images from a wide variety of sources, including Flickr, Google Images, and more.
Before using an image downloaded from the search results here, check the licensing agreement make sure that the image is free to use, and if you’ll need to give the proper attribution to the intellectual property owner.
Pixabay (pixabay.com)
This is my all-time favourite site for free stock images. In fact, Pixabay’s my first (and usually last) stop whenever I need any free images to use on my blog. I really only go elsewhere when I’m looking for specific images that I can’t find on this site.
The key advantages of Pixabay’s images are that they’re free of charge, royalty-free, and attribution-free. Now that’s an outstanding combination.
The only downside of this library, is that though the quality of their images is good – the quantity is somewhat limited.
Pexels (pexels.com)
Pexels is a fantastic source for high quality royalty-free, attribution-free photos that you can use to bring life to your blog articles.
With a convenient search function that allows you to browse photos according to category, popularity, or even colour, this is a great place to come for inspiration – if you’re ever stuck wondering what image you should use for an upcoming blog post.
Or hire a freelance copywriter to do it for you
While some of my clients (notably, the big brands with ample budgets) are able to fill their articles with beautiful, professionally photographed images featuring their products, services, and businesses, smaller companies usually don’t have that luxury.
For these clients, I usually help them out by purchasing lower cost images from quality stock image libraries. Don’t underestimate the time taken to find (and purchase) images that will resonate with audiences and encourage them (either explicitly or subliminally) to click on that link and read your blog post.
So if you feel that your time is better spent on your business, and not on writing blog posts and sourcing for images, contact me. I’ll be happy to help.
All the best with your blog!