How to Find Free Images for Your Blog | Video

You’ve got your blog  post written, and you’re ready to hit publish. But you need one final component to make it shine — an image to illustrate the fantastic article you’ve written.

But you’ve got no time. The post you wrote was supposed to be out yesterday. How can you quickly find an image that will convey at least part of what your blog post is about, look great, be the right size, and optimally be free?

Well it’s your lucky day! I am going to share some fast easy ways to find photos to use with your blog, or to liven up a social media post, for free. The video below will show you two ways I quickly find free images for my content marketing needs. Following the video, I’ve listed a third source.

Google Search

OK, so the number one place I search for photos when I’m in a time bind is on Google. Google search offers great filtering tools to find copyright free images you can use for whatever purpose. Here are the steps to take:

1. Do an image search in Google
2. Click on Search Tools on the menu top right, and another menu will drop down
3. Click on Usage Rights
4. Choose from the drop down menu. I always choose “Labeled for reuse with modification,” as this give me the right to modify the photo, such as overlaying text.

That’s it! You can watch the video to see how I use more filters in Google Search to find the right type of photo, and how to download and attribute them from Wikipedia or other sites.

Pixabay

The number two place I look for photos is Pixabay. It’s completely free, and you don’t even have to register to use the site. They’ve got lots of really cool, professional photos. In the video I show you how to search for and download photos from Pixabay.

Flickr

The third place I get photos from is Flickr. The photo management and sharing site offers filter searches for several types of license uses, including U.S. Government works. All you do is type in a search, and in the right upper corner you’ll see the label “Any license.” Click on that and the drop down menu with available options will appear.

Summary

There are plenty more sites to find free images, but just make sure you follow the requirements of each portal, and attribute when necessary. After all, it’s a cool thing that all these photographers and artists are letting others use their images for free.

Let me know in the comments box below if you have any free resources you’d like to share!

Happy image hunting!