Images Make Articles Stand Out
Readers love pictures. Adding pictures to articles can increase effectiveness and earnings potential. The key is to use royalty free photographs that relate to the topic under discussion or the message you are trying to convey.
Just because a photo or image can be found online does not mean it can legally be used any way you desire to use it. Many website images are copyrighted and belong to the site owner or the designer who is using them.
There are a couple of ways to safely and legally practice royalty free article illustration. One is to directly download images from sites that allow images to be published on websites and in articles. Another method is to purchase a collection of images via software collection on disc or by download.
Sample MorgueFile Photo
MorgueFile.com features a large collection of royalty free photos. Categories include people, nature, business and more. It is also possible to search by emotion — i.e., sad, happy, anger, fear, etc. Many of the photographers represented on the site make contact information available and ask that you send them an email to let them know where their photos will be posted.
Carlos Porto at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
FreeDigitalPhotos.net is another good source of royalty free illustrations. Registration is not required. Attribution is. If you choose to use images from this site, you must include a link acknowledging the photographer and the site.
Should you want to use the photos without referencing the site, you have the option of purchasing rights to do so.
Image collections are available in all price ranges. Amazon is, of course, one good place to find them online. Local discount stores and online stores carry a variety of royalty free image and graphic collections.
Increase the impact of your articles by adding royalty free illustrations. If you are downloading images from different sites, I recommend saving them in separate folders.
Separate Downloads by Site
For instance, putting all Morguefile photos together makes it easy to find images that do not require attribution aka a link to the site.
Likewise, putting FreeDigitalPhoto files into their own folder helps remind you to create that link. Consider saving these photos by the name of the photographer. This too, makes giving credit where credit is due much easier.
Adding royalty free illustrations to articles is one way to improve article ratings. It isn’t necessary to spend a lot of money or time doing so. It is important that credit be given where required.
One Comment
Very informative article and EXACTLY what I was looking for!! Thank you, great read for sure.
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