Great Images Matter. Do Not Let Cliche Stock Photos Ruin Your Message.
It is hard not to stop and notice when a blog, email or newsletter uses an obvious stock photo for their visuals. Even actor Vince Vaughn is making fun of stock photos, marketing his movie (see the photos here). You want the image you use to ADD to your content, not distract from it. Remember, online readers browse and scan they do not read until they find something that is interesting to them. Using a bad photo only hurts, not helps.
The last thing anyone wants is for the reader to stop and take notice of something other than a concise message, a distracted reader will not get the message the page is trying to put out there.
Great images and graphics are as important as concise language and good grammar. The point is to get the message out in the most straightforward, entertaining way. Some image sites offer obvious stock images and other offer quality graphics to bring a page up to the next level but not all sites are created equal.
Remember if you're making the commitment and investment to blog consistently, post on social media you believe that inbound and content marketing work. Don't undermine your own hard work by using ugly photos.
My Favorite 14 Wesbites For Awesome Stock Images
1) Death To The Stock Photo
This website sends quality images for free to an email address, and a set when the user first signs up. The images are typical stock photos and they are variable and professional.
2) Little Visuals
They also send images straight to an email address every day. The images are better than most found on webpages that advertise as stock image warehouses.
3) Unsplash
Ten free images every ten days with subscription. These images are high resolution and way outside the box when it comes to the idea of stock images.
4) Wikimedia Commons
This one has so many to choose from, and they are free for use but attribution may be needed so read each usage agreement. There are both videos and images, great for specific topics that general images can not do justice to.
5) Picjumbo
This site has totally free photos for your commercial & personal works, mostly abstract photos.
6) Share As Image
We use the pro service ($8/month) but there is a free version to find and create great images with text overlays.
7) Pablo by Buffer
This was created by the social media tool Buffer. It's free (with a Buffer account) and appears VERY similar to ShareAsImage, but I'm not sure about the depth of stock photo library for Pablo.
8) Pixabay
Great photos with lots of topics.
9) IM Free
Lots of photos and grouped by topic. The only downside is photos have to be attributed (say who took the photo and link if possible).
10) New Old Stock
is all antique photos, taken by government agencies and other sources.
11) Public Domain Archive
Loads of cool photos, old, new and interesting.
12) HubSpot
HubSpot makes awesome marketing software for inbound marketing (of which we are a HubSpot partner who sells the software as part of our inbound marketing engagements) but they have lots of photos. The quality isn't the same as many of the other sites, but they do have lots of holidays/office etc.
13) SumAll
Unlike traditional stock photos these are really cool graphic illustrations. Certainly worth checking out.
14) StockSnap.io
My recent favorite - easily searched and many cool images.
At the end of the day....
Remember, the point of your blogging is to create content that makes you valuable to your readers who you want to become customers and clients. Take the extra step to have classy stock photos, it's worth it.
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