A recent post at ProBlogger emphasizes the importance of visual elements and how they can alter the impact of the written word. Okay, what the article says is any blog post is better with pictures.
I agree and I try to use something for every post. It's not as easy as it seems. I am an amateur photographer, but even in my catalogue of pictures, I can rarely find something to go with every topic about which I write.
Not that I haven't tried to forage beyond my own small collection. Once I tried to find a simple picture of a dump truck, using the search terms of free pictures or royalty free pictures. Almost all links took me to sites selling pictures, but not allowing them to be used otherwise. Well, I'm not a professional blogger so I don't have any money top spend on pictures that will likely get used only once.
It seems as though every blogger out there has found a secret cache of free pictures/money with which to buy pictures. I just haven't found it yet.
So, fellow bloggers, when you can't find a picture for your blog post in your own collection, where do you go to find it? Outright free pictures are good, but I'm more than happy to use someones pictures in return for an attribution. I am always eager to promote someones good work to the one's and two's of my blog followers.
Yeah, I've found the same thing when I try to search for "royalty free" images... the stock photo sites come up. Funny how you'd figure that putting the search term "royalty free" would weed out the stock sites.
ReplyDeleteNow I just do a search for "dump truck" under Google images (leave "royalty free" out of the search parameters, locate one that was taken by a private individual, then contact them to see if they'll let me use it (with accreditation).
Either that, or run your butt out to a truck yard and start taking some snaps until you get chased off the property. :)