How To Find Images Online

Stephanie has single-handedly provided my How To post topics for several weeks in a row, but I’m nearing the end of the road.  If anyone else has suggestions for this series, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email.

So Stephanie says:

You should do a post for your how-to series about iStockPhoto…how it works, how expensive it is, what you use it for, etc. 🙂 Or you could do a broader post about where to obtain images for blog posts…

Great idea!  There are many places to find images on the Web.  Here are a few of my favorites.

1.  iStockPhoto

For blog designs and buttons, I get most of my images through iStockPhoto.com.  iStock uses a points system.  Each image is worth a certain amount of points, and each point costs $1.30.  You can purchase points in bulk with Pay-as-you-go credit packages and save a few pennies the more you buy, and you can also purchase subscription plans.  I prefer to buy the credit packages because my usage varies from month to month.

ANYONE can buy graphics through iStock.  They have photos as well as illustrations, and if you have a preference, you can select one or the other when you search for images.  Generally graphic images on iStock run from $5 to $20, depending on how intricate they are.  Photos vary in price depending on the size you need.  They start as low as 1 point and go as high as 10.

2.  Flickr

If photographs are what you seek, Flickr is a fabulous source for FREE photos.  I often use Flickr when I want to find photos for my blog posts.  You just want to make sure that you ONLY use photos with a Creative Commons Attribution license.  What does that mean?  According to Wilkepedia:

Attribution (by): Licensees may copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only if they give the author or licensor the credits in the manner specified by these.

In other words, you can use these photos IF you give proper photo credit, which I always do at the bottom of my posts.

3. Stock.XCHNG

Stock.xchng is a free stock photo site.  This is worth checking out when you want to add photos to your blog posts.

4.  dreamstime

I’m not as familiar with dreamstime but it’s worth checking out.  It seems to work much like iStockphoto and appears to be all photos.

5.  Vecteezy

Another site I just discovered is Vecteezy — a source for free vector images.

Do you have a favorite place to find images online that I didn’t mention here?  Please share in the comments!