Finding Great Free-To-Use Pictures Online

Lots of people aren’t aware of the fact that you can’t simply download pictures online and use them for your own purposes. However, for those who are aware of it can often be a big restriction and hindrance when creating web pages and websites.

If you aren’t a photographer yourself or don’t have the time to go and capture your very own personal photos, it can be extremely time-consuming and expensive to get pictures legally.

As the majority of pictures you see online are copyrighted, there’s certain rules you must follow if you are going to succeed on the Internet.

Pictures from Google

Although not everyone has enough time to search Google every time they need to find a picture, it’s a very good resource that is free to use. Bear in mind that you can’t just grab the first picture you see from Google Images.

When you go to Google, click “Advanced Search” before looking for any photographs. Next, type in the keyword that you are looking for and scroll down slightly to filter your search.

You can choose whether you want only pictures that are labelled for reuse, labelled for reuse with modification and several other options.
If you want to alter the pictures that you are going to download, you will need to choose “labelled for reuse with modification”.

If you want to use them to make money (e.g on your website), you should choose “labelled for commercial reuse”. This type of search will bring up all the  free to use pictures.

Flickr & Free-To-Use Pictures

Flickr is a haven for photographers, and many people love sharing their handiwork with others. As a result, you can often use other people’s images and all they ask in return is that you give them a mention alongside the photograph.

You will often see on Flickr that the pictures have either “all rights reserved” or “some rights reserved”.  If all rights are reserved, you cannot use the Flickr pictures without the direct permission of the owner; however, you should look for the photographs that only have some rights reserved.

The pictures with only some rights reserved are allowed to be used by members of the general public as long as they attribute the work. Just like the Google Image search, you can do an advanced search on Flickr so that you will only view the photographs with some rights reserved.

FreeImages.co.uk

FreeImages.co.uk and other similar websites stock thousands of photographs that you can use absolutely free of charge. Whilst you can normally use them for commercial use, the secret is to read their terms and conditions carefully to avoid getting in trouble by using copyrighted pictures.

Sometimes, you may find that the best pictures are copyrighted so be careful when choosing. Like some photographs on Flickr, they may require that you add a link back to their website or mention where you found the photograph.

If you don’t mind stating where you found them, this could be the ideal option for you. You won’t have to pay a penny and all you need to do is advertise the source.

Use Images as an Affiliate

All Posters, for example, is a fantastic resource that can benefit your website in more ways than one. It is a website that sells prints for people to decorate their homes with; however, they have a good affiliate program as well.

By joining the affiliate program, you can advertise their posters on your website and earn commission if anybody buys any of them.
The good thing about this is that you get to use the photographs on your web pages as long as you include the affiliate link to give visitors the option to buy the poster.

Thus, you can use great quality pictures and potentially earn some extra cash each month!

Annie is a creative blogger for Dobovo, the free resource of affordable Kiev apartments.