All images, pictures, drawings, and so on are owned by the person who originally created them and are protected under copyright laws in the United States.
Therefore, if you’re a U.S. business or using images on your blog owned by an individual from the United States, then you need to either have permission to use that image or pay to use that image. Alternately, that image needs to hold a copyright license that allows you to use it on your blog without paying a royalty or asking permission.
That’s a lot to consider. How do you find images to use on your business blog without violating copyright laws and without having to pay or ask for permission all the time?
Fortunately, there are websites that provide free stock photography or images with Creative Commons licenses that allow you to publish them on your blog as long as you provide attribution with a link back to the owner (as well as any other requirements listed with the image).
Following are several trustworthy websites where you can find images that you can freely use on your business blog as long as you follow the requirements published with each image:
1. stock.xchng
Stock.xchng offers a variety of royalty-free images that you can use on your business blog for free as long as you follow the restrictions provided along with each image. The site also offers a lot of premium images, but you have to pay to use those.
2. morgueFile
MorgueFile, like stock.xchng, offers a variety of stock images that you can use for free as long as you follow the specific requirements attached to each image (typically just providing attribution is enough).
3. Picapp
Picapp is a great solution for people who need images of celebrities or current events for their business blogs. Images are published on your blog with a link back to Picapp where visitors can find more images (it’s like a form of advertising for Picapp and how it’s how they’re able to allow you to use the images for free). Image owners are paid when their images are used by publishers and bloggers like you.
4. FreeFoto
FreeFoto offers a wide variety of royalty-free images that you can use for free as long as you provide attribution. These images do include a small FreeFoto watermark.
5. Dreamstime
Dreamstime is another good source that you can use to find free images that you can legally use on your blog. You can also access Dreamstime images through morgueFile.
Image: stock.xchng
