Photographs and graphics are powerful tools that give away the meaning far better than the words. Once you start your blogs only you may realise you need more photos to make it interesting. But, it is not necessary that you are a good photographer or you can afford a high end camera and at the same time you don’t want to be sued for using images illegally.
This is where stock images can help you overcome this problem. And as always, this post is for beginners who are looking for both affordable price and free options to acquire royalty free images for their posts. Here is the list of places you can find cool stock images:
Shutterstock
You might have noticed the image search results always have Shutterstock recommendations. That is enough to say the wide range of their photography collection. And the best part is you can use those images and graphics in your blog for a nominal fee paid. If you are someone looking for images to use commercially or professionally, then the nominal fee for shutterstock will be well worth it considering their huge collection of stock images on almost every topic.
When you are starting out, it is easy to get caught in information on internet that talks about free stuff everywhere. Once you start with your own blog or a site you might realize those options have a huge limitations. Few of them are not safe to use either. However, choosing a reliable app or service is important when it comes to the growth of your business.
Shutterstock is by far the best place to go for images. They offer a wide range of photographs for a variety of categories. Head over to their site and check for the options that suits your niche and compare it with other options to confirm your decision.
There are few other sites which offer a paid subscription to their stock images:
Where To Find Free Stock Images?
Even though the paid options like shutterstock is a recommended option, there are times when you can not afford that. In those times, there are a few sites that offer limited photographs by professional photographers.
Even though there are many places that offer free images, these are the few chosen ones to provide the best quality and you don’t need to be tensed about the legal side.
While using free stock images, there are a few good practises to follow. Giving credits to the photographer and the source is always the first one. But, here are a few more tips to use the stock images in your blogs
Best Practises To Use Stock Images In Blog
Explore the “New”
You might have noticed the same pictures being used in the blogs that talk about the similar subject and the whole internet gets saturated with those similar models. There is a simple hack to this. Explore your luck in the “New” section of these sites instead of the featured images. You might find a unique gems there that are fresh and new, also not used by many.
Customize
Even though you are using stock images, customized images adds a personal touch to those images and also to your blog. Using texts and overlays are the best way to achieve this. Have you noticed those quotes being displayed on the high quality images? Or Gifs with those catchy lines that instantly gets you?
If you are someone creative with your words, this is the best way personalize the blog. Also, it makes your blog stand out using the same stock images.
Filters
We live in the times of filters and presets. Try using different apps to change the tone of the images you use to match your blog content. The combination of filters and texts and overlays makes the pictures perfect to go for your blog. All it takes is some time and patience to reach that perfection. There are tools that help to do this too, which we will discuss in the coming blog.
SEO practises
Images are sometimes forgotten while doing SEO of the blogs. But, optimizing images for SEO is something that helps your blogs to be brought up in the search results.
“Quality” of the Images
While talking about the quality of the images, what you really need to consider the quality of the image relative to your content. That is a high resolution image of the same people discussing business can be an immediate fail for your blog.
Try to find the image that suits the message you are giving, demography and region. The quality of the image you use depends on how it relate to the context. Take some time to find the best image that suits your blog rather than an “HD” image.
Conclusion
Pictures are much more effective in conveying messages than texts. Great images also draw reader’s attention faster than words. Unless you are planning on a blog that is supposed to display your own images, you can use these images from different professionals and creatives from stock image sites. A little time spent on finding the right image and customizing it pays off with more readers and retention.
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