Where do you get your images for your online content?
Do you purchase them, find free ones, take them yourself, or.... do you just find them online and post a reference link? If it’s the latter I advise that you be careful.
I ask because I talk to so many business owners that believe/ have been told that it is okay to post any image they like as long as they post a link to where they got it or post it with a watermark with the photographers name. This is not true at all.
We want to advertise our business and get our information out there with beautiful images for as inexpensive as we can but often get content illegally without realizing it.
Since this comes up so often I thought it could be helpful to mention it. Reminder to protect yourselves, protect your business, do your research and respect the artists and photographers who are trying to run their business as well.
Here are the ways I would recommend to find images (not in any particular order):
1. Purchase the images and the rights to distribute them 2. Take them yourself 3. Hire professional photographer or illustrator 3. Use images online that are Public Domain (no copyright) 4. Use a free stock photo site (some require attribution)
Free Stock Photo Sites: pixabay.com pexels.com unsplash.com picjumbo.com foodiesfeed.com freeimages.com imagebase.net One of my favorite places to get images, illustrations, fonts and templates is Creative Market. They have 6 free items a week, but I also purchase many things from them. creativemarket.com