Where to Find (and Create) Free Images for Your Marketing Efforts

If you’re just starting out with social media marketing or blogging for a business (your own or someone else’s), you’ll quickly realize the importance imagery holds. And for those who lack the equipment, expertise and expensive technology to create their own graphics, finding usable material can be difficult and intimidating.

But guess what? It’s not as hard as you think.

Here’s a quick rundown of the best free image solutions for business owners, bloggers, social media marketers and anyone looking for better ways to bring quality imagery to the table.

Getty images

Getty Images recently made a significant majority of its expansive image library free for public use. With an easy-to-use embed system, they’re giving users the opportunity to share licensed images on their own websites and social outlets without having to pay a dime.

From The Verge

This is an awesome opportunity for bloggers who need high quality stock photography on a limited or nonexistent budget. Just make sure you’re following the rules laid out by the stock image service; the rules for commercial use and how it’s defined is a known grey area. While blogging for yourself with no direct profits being accrued as a result of the images’ use may be okay, using the embeds in services you’re rendering for another company may not. Getty’s embed system plays a very new function, and I’m certainly not a lawyer so think for yourself before using these types of images in places of possible contention.

The possible con to this new feature is that we may be seeing ads bleeding into these same embedded images in the near future. Getty is quietly reserving the right to do so in any free photo that’s embedded as part of their new offerings.

So, at the time being just hope for the best and plan for the impending advertising in this developing scenario.

Creative Commons

But perhaps you’d rather avoid the possibility of excessive ad pollution in your content. Here’s an alternative created in the spirit of “sharing is caring”.

Creative Commons is a special type of licensing in which the creator essentially designates their image free to use and share. There are different levels of CC licensing that instill different allowances and restrictions on use of an image, so some are more tolerant than others.

Some are extremely flexible, letting users do as they wish without care for why they’re using it or what changes they’re making to the original. Other licensing options may prevent commercial use, manipulation to the image, and more.

Here is a summary of the most common Creative Commons licensing options:

From Creative Commons

Once you’ve become well-acquainted with how CC works, take a look at what’s available for your own use.

Flickr has a massive (and growing) database of photos licensed under Creative Commons, and this is by far one of the best places to glean images for use in blogging. Their archive allows users to filter their search for specific licensing, so you know just what you’re getting.

Keep in mind that each type of CC licensing bears requirements, so it’s important to read the fine print and follow the rules associated with any image you’re using. Many require attribution (written credit and a link to its creator), and some require attribution in a very specific way. Always ensure that you’re giving credit where it’s due and respecting the licensing that allows you to use the image in the first place.

Free, easy-to-use photo editing programs

Sometimes just finding an image doesn’t quite cut it. You may need to make something a little more unique that’s all your own, and for this you’ll need a program with image editing and manipulation capabilities.

But you don’t need to fork out hundreds of dollars for Photoshop to become your own creative genius. There are free (and legal) alternatives to doing so.

Pixlr is a completely free and extremely versatile image editing suite. It lends users the abilities to create layered images, use a lasso marquee to cut out photos, draw, crop, create text, dodge and burn (lighten and darken areas), blur, smudge, sharpen and more. And it runs right from a web browser – no download necessary.

From Pixlr

GIMP is a similar tool that utilizes the same functions as Pixlr but gets a little more in-depth. It’s not available for use straight from a browser, but it’s still a free download that will do just about anything you need it to when customizing images.

Jump into one of these powerful programs and give them a spin if you’re in desperate need of a photo editing fix.

Have any input on free image solutions? Let us know in the comments below.