The power of images is all too often overlooked by many bloggers. A good image not only grabs the attention of the reader and sets the tone for an article, it can make an article look more professional. Since blogging is often used to bring new visitors to a website through search engines, many readers don’t see your well designed homepage first but an internal page. As first impressions really do count, it’s vital to make an impact on your readers quickly if you want them to stick around.
Using images goes beyond simply how it looks on your site. Many online stories, articles and blogs are now shared through social media, and an image used within an article will often be used as a thumbnail for the link to your website. Having a memorable image here can really make your site stand out amongst the others. With a good image you can attract more visitors from social media even if you are not at the top of the list of topics being discussed.
So, where do you go to get a good image for your site? Unless you are a photographer yourself, then like most people you’ll naturally turn to the stock photo websites where you can buy royalty free images. The most well known stock photo website is iStockphoto which is certainly an excellent source, but it’s not your only option. So, lets take a look at the best stock photo sites, starting with long standing favorite, iStockphoto.com.
istockphoto.com is an amazing website loved by site owners around the world. It quickly changed the way that people buy and sell photography and illustrations online. However, prices for the best photographs are on the rise and sometimes you just want something different. So, here we present a selection of alternative premium stock photo sites, plus some useful tools for finding free photos.
Dreamstime.com is a relatively new player that’s built up a very nice reputation. It is a member of the Picture Archive Council of America and is a popular source of photographs for many advertising agencies, magazines and media companies. Like iStockphoto, images are sold on a credit system with subscription options. A selection of over 220,000 free images are available under a Limited Royalty Free License, which restricts you to using the image no more than 10,000 times. All free images are donated by photographers.
Next up is 123rf.com. This site brings a refreshing change and has a great image search engine. Again, images are purchased using credits; although credits can be a little more expensive than some other options. Many of the images are free for the lowest resolution or smallest size, and there’s a broader range of categories than some other sites.
Bigstockphoto.com has a set price based on the size of each image and offers credit packs. If you are after one or two photos, then this is a good way to shop since you don’t need to remember how the credit system works. They have a very wide selection of photographs, and although it’s not the cheapest, the ordering system is smooth.
Depositphotos.com is another competitively priced stock photo business. Individual images can start at 50¢, but having a subscription brings the cost of images down to as little as 10¢ each. They have many illustrations, vectors and backgrounds in addition to images. There’s also a greater depth to some categories, for example their medicine and health section contains over 1,000 photos of operations alone.
Fotolia.com is a London-based business with stock photos starting from 11¢ each. Fotalia describes itself as the first worldwide social marketplace for royalty free stock images and illustrations. They emphasize that the site is as much for designers and illustrators as for photographers so, if you are looking for illustrations this should be the first place you visit. They also have a small selection of free images.
Canstockphoto.com boasts 4.5 million stock photos and is one of the few sites where no membership is required. Many of the images are also available on previously mentioned stock photo sites. They also have a large collection of vector images and illustrations.
Finally, we have Alamy.com. Almany boasts 24 million stock photos with 15,000 new images added every day. You can tell from the start that they offer a much higher quality of photography than other sites. Images are often very well composed, artistic and dynamic. On their homepage they showcase some of their top photographers. You can search specifically for model released images too, which is something few sites provide. They also have a “creative” filter which includes more abstract images and some illustrations.
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