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So you’re writing a fantastic blog post, and need a a powerful image to accompany it. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?
Where can you find just the right powerful image?
This is where royalty-free images come in. Let’s first explain what the term ‘royalty-free’ means when it comes to graphics. It does not mean that the graphic is free, or that you can use it for any purpose you like. What it means is that you can purchase or obtain free, and download, an image for limited use without paying a royalty on each use.
In other words you pay once if there is a fee and then you use it as many times as you want for other uses, as long as they don’t go outside of the terms of service of the site you used to download the image.
Here are eight websites with royalty free graphics.
1. Clker.com
You can get both free and royalty free clip art and vector images from this site. Ensure that you read the terms of use for any picture or graphic that you download. Keep in mind that users are uploading pictures and images that they are certifying are free of copyright. This doesn’t always mean it’s true.
2. iStockphoto.com
Probably one of the most popular royalty free image sites where you can get footage, audio, images, vector art and more. The prices are higher than some of the other ones, but the image quality is top-notch. They have a couple different license types. Read the fine print before using. These images cost a lot more than some other sites.
3. Dreamstime.com
At this site you can download free images or paid images that are royalty free. They have a lot of categories and plenty of images to choose from. Again, read the fine print. If you look at the extended licensing options, you can quickly understand what you can and cannot use the images for. Notice that they recommend crediting the creator of the image.
4. stock.xchng
This is a source for some high quality images that are both free and royalty free. Again, it’s important to read the terms of use, and only use the images for what is legal according to their terms of service. You can look up images in various categories and it will display images for pay from istockphoto.com and then below that will be the free images that you can download without paying. Naturally the images from istockphoto.com are of higher quality and more relevant, but you can likely find something you can use for free, too.
5. MorgueFile.com
This is another website that offers some free images that are also royalty free. You can download images without even setting up an account. They have fairly high quality images and you’ll be sure to find something that you can use for your blog or website. You can also look at images from Dreamstime, Shutterstock and Fotolia here. You will have to get an account for the others.
6. Stockfresh.com
This is a great website with both royalty free stock photos and royalty free vectors of high quality and at good prices. The clean design of the site makes it easier to find good photos at the right price. What’s more is that when you pay for and download a photo or graphic, they pay the creator a fair price. Plus they have great customer service. Ensure that you read the license information so that you don’t use the images outside of the intended use.
7. Graphicstock.com
This site has royalty free stock photos, but many more royalty free vectors of high quality. Their prices are comparable to other graphic sites. They seem to have more vectors than anything, so it’s a good source for those.
8. Clipart.com
This site has weekly, monthly, and yearly download plans. I think they get some of their images from other sites. They have a large amount of drawn images, but you can occasionally find photos which suit what you need.I use this as a backup site- I have an annual membership and always start here, only going to the other sites when I can’t find something super specific and high quality.
Now that you see how many choices there are (and there are even more than this) and you have a better understanding of what royalty free images really means, you can start adding images to your website, blog, and online real-estate that enhances your online presence exponentially.
