Free Images, Blogs & eBooks
We all know how insanely expensive some pictures are. You need free images for your blog & website, browse iStock Photos and get a semi-stroke. Some photographs are sold for as much as 100$. WITH LIMITATIONS on how many units you can sell, using this picture.
This is madness. I´m not accusing photographers to have made a poor job & educational decision. I understand that if you have made a famous picture of Albert Einstein or Monroe, that you want to cash in on it.
But a random picture of a natural occuring stone formation? Please… you went somewhere on holiday and shot pictures. Nature and nature alone is responsible for your picture. You barely deserve any credit for this. Why do you think that you can charge 80$ for it? Upload it as a free picture and don´t punish us for your choice of not going to university or for the great decision to study arts/photography. These people are modern robber knights… highwayman.
How much does a writer charge for his book that he has spent months over months on? 100$?
Let´s disregard this for a moment, I´m pretty mad at this “business”, and try to find out how we can get free pictures for blogs and ebooks.
What are non free images for blogs & eBooks?
Every single picture you find is a paid image. That´s the rule of thumb. Basically every picture out there is copyright protected. That means that you can be held liable for conducting copyright infringement.
Unless explicitly noted, any image you find on the internet could be copyrighted, which means you could be held liable for copyright infringement. Are you up for taking that chance? Those of us who prefer to stay legal will typically be looking for images with some form of a Creative Commons license.
Various Types of Image Copyrights
Attribution: CC BY
Allows you to distributing, tweaking, and building upon the original image for personal or commercial purposes You must credit the creator.
Attribution-NoDerivs: CC BY-ND
You may distribute the UNCHANGED picture for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You must credit the creator.
Attribution-ShareAlike: CC BY-SA
You can tweak and build upon the original image for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You must credit the creator. Any new image you create, that is based on the original image will have the same license and availability for commercial use by others.
Attribution-NonCommercial: CC BY-NC
You may tweak or build upon the image non-commercial purposes, you must credit the creator. Any new art you create will not carry the same license as the original image. Still must be used for non-commercial purposes only.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA
Permits you to tweak and build upon the original image for non-commercial reasons only, provided that you credit the creator.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs: CCBY-NC-ND
Grants you the right to share the image as long as it´s unchanged, for non-commercial purposes only provided that you credit the author. This is the most limited license. So let´s find the pages that offer the best free images for blogs & eBooks!
Free Image Pages
I was never a fan of saving the best for last so here we go. You basically can choose to only use my option number 1 to get free images for your blog, e-mail, ebook, website etc
You will find the most famous pictures ever taken on here. Highly recommended and a blessing to everyone in need of beautiful free images.
Wikimedia Commons is by far the place to browse for any photo and image you can think of. It is such a huge resource for famous natural formations, famous people, huge events, memorable historical events and random pictures and the most important paintings of all times.
This site basically is an image search engine. It searches the biggest free stock image websites and even allows you to filter your search results. For example for the license, size, etc…
Everything can be found here.
Flickr’s The Commons is the little brother of Wikimedia Commons. The difference is that you can find pictures shared by the average Joe there. Many pictures revolving around common day life can be found there. Not only that but you will also find pictures of famous monuments, etc.
You might need to browse for some time, because among the masterpieces you will find a sheer mass of low quality pictures. But it´s well worth the search.
4) iClipart
You are looking for clip art? You have trouble searching for it via a word processing search? Look no further iClipart is the best place for you.
If you are looking for the high quality versions of the free images for blogs & ebooks you will have to pay a one time fee. Standard pictures are free.
5) Stock xchng
Stock.xchng is a another free stock photo page. In order to be able to choose the free stock images for blogs, you will need to sign up for free.
This Hungarian site also offers paid versions of pictures.
6) Morgue File
Gruesome name! Awesome free pictures! Highly recommended!
Not my first pick. You will find a lot of really low quality free pictures there. On the bright side it has many different categories available. Therefore if you are looking for something specific it might be worth a look. Microsoft Office Images can be a hit-or-miss when it comes to finding a good image if you have something specific in mind. You’ll find a lot of images that look like basic stock images, but you can also find a good selection of higher quality ‘generic’ nature shots.
Images are categorized in an easy to use and navigate interface, which is also a big plus.
This probably is the most obvious choice. But like I said early, usually every picture has some kind of copyright.
You will need to set up search filters to find free pictures. You will still need to credit the source.
9) RGB Stock
Typical free photos for your blog and eBook. Not much more to say. Good quality – bad quality. Sign up required.
9) Fotolia
Many paid images and few free ones. Sign up required. Use as last resort…
Since you might be looking for icons for your blog & eBook I present you this bonus. This is an amazing site to find various icons and logos.
They are all free and come with a free-to-do-whatever-you-want license. You will find lots of pictures, icons and logos that can´t be found otherwise.
Here you go. I guarantee that you will find as many free images for blogs & eBooks as you need!
Free Images for Blogs & eBooks
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