Freepik.com - A Great Resource for Images & Pictures
If you're active here on ActiveRain and other online blogging forums you undoubtedly need pictures from time to time to enhance your message. Pictures and images are a great way to further your point, hook a reader, or have fun with your topic.
But using images straight from the Internet without any regard to trademark uses and restrictions can get you in trouble. I really don't have much experience with what kind of trouble you can get in by using images without approval, but I know it can get sticky and cause trouble I personally don't want.
Don't Use Images You Don't Have Permission To
Since I started blogging years ago, one of my biggest fears if I used images that didn't belong to me was being required to go back through hundreds or thousands of posts and removing or replacing the pictures I didn't have a right to in the first place.
In fact, when I first started blogging in 2009 a company sent me a cease and desist letter requiring me to remove a picture they said I used illegally and they demanded a ton of money for the usage. It turns out the company was sending out these letters en masse trying to defraud bloggers out of their money. I never did use any picture inappropriately- never have, never will. But at the time it scared me!
Where Can I Find Free Pictures to Use?
But my honesty and ethics about picture usage still left a void of where to get quality pictures for my blogs and other projects. I've tried a few different services, most of them requiring a purchase of each picture individually. They don't cost very much, but if you need more than one or two images be prepared to shell out some cash.
That's how I found FreePik.com. Its a great website that has thousands of professional, quality pictures you can use two different ways. You can either give credit for the picture usage in the blog you post, or you can purchase their monthly service for $9.99 a month. Not too shabby if you're blogging every day.
My FreePik.com Experience
Recently, I used FreePik.com for a major project and it saved my butt. I needed pictures that ripping free ones from Google just wouldn't do the job. Plus it could be dishonest and illegal if the images weren't free to use commercially. But FreePik.com let me buy their monthly service and use any picture on their website I wanted!
The only thing you must be aware of when using FreePik.com is that you are required to download a license for every picture you use. This will keep you out of trouble if you ever get questioned about where you obtained the picture.
By the way, the picture I used here on this blog is from FreePik.com!
Do you have a great source for good blogging photos and other images? I'd love to hear what my fellow ActiveRain members have to say and where they get pictures from!
Take care and thanks for reading~
-Todd J Garrigus
Comments(8)