So you’ve just completed writing your company’s latest email campaign, but it’s still missing something. It needs some eye-catching images to make it pop. Images are also important when people share your email campaign, as social networks like Facebook automatically scan for an image to use as a thumbnail when linking to your content (see image below). This entices more people to click on the link to your campaign.
The problem is, finding the right photo to use can be a hassle, especially if you have no budget to buy stock images, or hire a photographer. At that point you might be thinking your campaign doesn’t really need an image, or worse, you might be tempted to snag an unlicensed image from Google images- and that can lead to legal troubles later on.
Don’t worry! There are thousands of free images available online that you can use legally, if you know where to look. Most of these sites explain how you should go about attributing the image’s creator, which generally means you must publish an acknowledgement to both the site and the image creator on the same page or screen where the image is used. Not a bad trade, huh?
To help you in your search, here are 6 resources we use to find free stock photos:
Flickr
Flickr has a large selection of photos from amateurs and pros alike. Just be sure to use their ‘advanced search‘ and then check off ‘Creative Commons-licensed content’ and ‘content to use commercially’ (as shown above). Click here to visit their site.
Stock.XCHNG
This library of over 400,000 images covers many topics, and is a great place to start searching for free images. Just be sure to read carefully over their attribution agreement before using anything from their catalog. Click here to visit stock.xchng.
Wikimedia Commons
There are plenty of public domain images available at Wikimedia Commons. Click here to visit their site.
FreeStockImages.net
This site also has a collection of icons and fonts. Click here to visit their site.
Morgue File
This site makes a lot of stock photo lists, and contains high-resolution stock photography images free for either corporate or private use. Click here to visit their site.
FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Click here to visit FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Of course, you’ll find there are many more sources of free images online if you search for them. Just be sure to attribute the image’s creator as per their site’s instructions, and you should be good to go! What resources have you used for free stock images?