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31 Royalty-Free Stock Photo and Image Sites

Bob Angus — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:27:43 +0000

The internet is full of incredible, inspiring photos and images. Beyond the fun of browsing these pictures, you should be using them to enhance your designs, blog posts, social media and presentations. Almost anything you create can benefit from a picture. Here is a huge list of 31 royalty free stock photo services that you can use to add professional quality images in your next project.

Warning: Royalty free in many cases does not me free to use. Almost all images you find on the internet are likely copyrighted. You don’t want someone copying your creative work. Please don’t infringe on the copyrights of these easily accessible stock photos.

Please verify the terms or use for images from these stock photo services before using them. Even if a photo or graphic is not copyrighted, it is always good karma to mention or link to the creator.

Free stock photos, but don’t steal

Here are the three best websites to find absolutely free photos. For these you will see the term “Creative Commons”. Check out this excellent description of creative commons terminology.

1. Flickr – The best place to find unique photos from professionals and amateurs alike. Most of these images are copyrighted. For free images, go to the creative commons section. It is full of images that are free to use. Make sure to see very cool public domain photos from the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library.

2. Historical Stock Photos- A large collection of historical images that are now available to the public domain for free.

3. Google Images - Google image search makes it incredibly easy to find images of almost anything. Again, the use of many of these images is restricted. Just be prudent when using them.

4. Creative Commons Search - Use Creative Commons Search for more than just photos. You can also search for music, videos, writing and even code.

Top stock photo sites

Stock photo sites are royalty free, but not entirely free. These sites allow you to purchase a professional image once and use it for multiple times without having to pay a royalty each time. When using or joining these sites, make sure to review the terms of service for exact rules and regulations.

5. Stock.Xchng - This community where creative people can share their photos has approximately 400,000 images available. Most of the images are free, but you will want to contact the creator to make sure it is okay. Stock.Xchng is also now part of Getty Images (see below).

6. Fotolia - Fotlia has around 15 million images, vector art and videos in its archives. Images start from only $0.75 on a pay as you go model. If you use a lot of images, then it is worth a monthly subscription starting at just $75 for use of up to 5000 images.

7. iStockphoto - Millions of high quality images are available here. Each image has a different credit value. You can purchase “credit packs” or a subscription.

8. BigStock - Millions of low cost stock images are here too. BigStock also uses the credit approach for payment toward individual pictures. Their credit packs net out to a $0.99 starting price.

9. Alamy – Alamy says it is the largest stock image website with over 27 million images. Purchase images individually so that you don’t have to worry about wasting unused credits. They also have a cool iPad app.

10. ShutterStock - Shutterstock is the largest subscription-based stock photo agency. Thousands of photographs, illustrations, and vectors are added to their exceptionally high quality collection every day. Shutterstock is best for hi-res images for advertisements and print. It is a little more expensive with 1 hi-res image starting at $19, but well worth it for incredible images.

11. Corbis Images - Purchase image CDs that can be used for unlimited commercial use royalty free.

12. Getty Images - Most professional marketers know the Getty name. They are the leading provider of digital media worldwide with a range of assets – from royalty-free stock photography and editorial images to video, music and multimedia.

Specialized Stock Photos

13. Arabian Eye – Some of the most incredible imagery comes from the Middle East. Arabian Eye is a specialized resource for Middle Eastern pictures run by Corbis Images.

14. VectorStock - A lot of stock photo sites now include vector images. However, Vector Stock specializes in only royalty-free vector backgrounds, textures, icons and images. So they have access to some truly unique vector art.

15. Vecteezy – Vecteezy is another vector-only resource. Very cool, leading edge graphics can be found here.

16. Sweet And Talented – Do you want to include a picture of Angelina Jolie on your site? Or pictures from Harry Potter? Sweet and Talented is a great resource for photos of movie stars, musicians and celebrities.

17. PhotoEverywhere – Choose from over 3500 free travel stock images on this website. PhotoEverywhere focuses on well-known tourist destinations from cities like San Francisco to Caribbean beaches to the Scottish Highlands. I especially like that they offer panoramic images.

18. bigfoto.com - bigfoto.com offers completely free images from around the world. Just make sure to include a link back to the creator or their website.

19.Trip Album – This site is in French, but is very easy to navigate. Trip Album has incredible photographs of exotic places in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

More stock photos for great prices

20. Dreamstime – Dreamstime is quickly becoming the most popular source of photographs for advertising agencies, magazines and media companies. The reason is that they have a very focused selection of memorable images that start at just 20 cents.

21. everystockphoto.com – Everystockphoto.com is a combination image search engine and blog that lists millions of photos from many sources.

22. freerange – As a free-to-join membership site, freerange makes it very easy to find exceptional photos. The cool thing is that photographers are rewarded for giving away their images for free by getting a share of freerange’s ad revenue. So you get free images and the photographer still gets paid. Win-win!

23. Depositphotos – Images start at just $0.50, but their monthly subscription programs bring your costs way down.

24. Thinkstock – Very high-quality professional images that come in packs starting at $99 or through subscription programs starting at $199 per month.

25. Photl.com - The unique feature of this website is that these photo images are not widely circulated and are contained only in photl.com base. Download up to 40mb worth of images daily.

26. 123RF – 123RF is a fantastic image search engine. Many of the images are free for the low-res pictures, which is perfect for most blogs or websites.

27. morgueFile – morgueFile is a haven for creative professionals. Very cool imagery can be used free as long as you aren’t using it commercially (like re-selling it or claiming that it’s yours).

28. Epictura – Epictura is a bank of 11 millions stock images perfect for corporate communication. They edited and compile stock pictures from Corbis, Pixtal, Fancy, Denkou & PhotoAlto and thousands of agencies and photographers.

28. RGBStock – RGBStock is a smaller site, but completely free for use on your blog or website.

29. Pixmac - Pixmac has millions of stock images. Prices start from $0.92 per image using a credit purchase model.

30. Jupiterimages – Jupiterimages has compiled over 2.5 million royalty-free stock photos and illustrations from Getty Images and other premium-quality collections.

31. StockLib – Last but not least, StockLib is a subsidiary of Epictura. They have over 11 million royalty-free stock images from as low as $1 for use on your blog.

There are hundreds of other royalty free stock photo websites around. These 31 recommendations should be plenty for your project though. These sites offer unimaginably huge selection, but I bet you can find other very focused niche stock image sites if you need to dig deep. What sites do you use or recommend?

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this list are affiliate links. However, my recommendation of these stock photography websites is not based on my financial gain. These are the sites that I use and fell they are worth sharing.

© Bob Angus for bobangus.com, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: best practices, content, free resources, graphics, list, photography, web design

Free Website Launch Checklist and Daily Tracker

Bob Angus — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:00:54 +0000

If you are launching a new website or even just want to track the daily tasks of maintaining an existing site, then you want to have a simple checklist and daily tracker. Here is a spreadsheet that I use when starting work on a new website. It is also the same sheet that I use every day as a daily tracker for BobAngus.com. Best of all, I am giving this to you for FREE!

Click here to download Website Launch-Daily Action Plan Template v1.0 (Microsoft Excel format)

This launch checklist provides the core elements of a good website launch plan, including tabs dedicated to:

Master Go-to-Market Plan: This plan gives you the primary building blocks leading up to your website launch, like market overview, site objectives, competitive analysis, financial forecasts, keyword lists, building your website and driving traffic.
Monthly Goals: Add key measurable website metrics that show the “health” of your website. These metrics can often be found in your website analytics.
Daily Task List: Here are a few categories of daily activities you can do to successfully grow traffic and regular visitors to your website, including creating new content, building social media connections, and participating in relevant communities.
Weekly Task List: More valuable tasks, but these you just need to track weekly, like reviewing web analytics reports, identifying new offers, adding to your keyword list and general website maintenance.
Site Tracker: Additional tabs, like a sitemap list, a changelog and a social media account list, that track major or one-time updates to your site. This history of changes is perfect if you want to switch back or remember key details. It’s easier to record something here than try to remember it on your own.

Make sure to customize the basic website launch template, checklist and daily task list to your specific needs. I am sure that this free version will help you get a great start to your project. Plus you can use it to cut down your planning time and focus your efforts on creating a fantastic website.

If you have additional tasks that you recommend, post them in the comments. I love the feedback and will be able to make updates.

© Bob Angus for bobangus.com, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: business models, search engine marketing, SEO, social networks, traffic, web design, Wordpress

Launching a New Theme for BobAngus.com

Bob Angus — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:14:48 +0000

Welcome to the new BobAngus.com! A complete redesign of my blog theme has been a long time coming. My primary goal is to increase the total amount of time you spend on this site. Great content is the #1 way to achieve that objective, but an excellent theme is incredibly important to properly deliver that content.

The new theme is based on Stephan Miller’s More than Multiple Widgets theme. (...)
Read the rest of Launching a New Theme for BobAngus.com

© Bob Angus for bobangus.com, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: angus, blogging, plugins, themes, web design, Wordpress

Changing a WordPress theme can be a painâ€¦ not anymore

Bob Angus — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 05:51:41 +0000

I am in the process of a making the switch to a completely new WordPress theme. It feels like changing the tires on a car while the car is moving. Any blogger who has made a complete theme change or who is constantly tweaking their theme knows the feeling. You only get a final visual of the update when you publish it live. Yikes! Your readers are exposed to even the smallest hiccup as the result of your tinkering.

I have created an entirely new, temporary blog to address this issue during my theme overhaul project. I installed the new theme and I am now in the process of tweaking and testing. Even after I launch, I am sure that I will make minor modifications at least twice a week.

There Is an Easier Way to Change your Theme

Two recently released WordPress plugins allow you to safely test drive a new theme as the administrator role. Meanwhile, your visitors are still viewing your blog under the old theme. Either of these plugins should be a part of every bloggerâ€™s set of plugins.

Theme Test Drive by Vladimir Prelovac (Special thanks to BlogPerfume where I read about Theme Test Drive.)
User Level Themes by Double Black Design

Both plugins work with WordPress 2.3.2. Both are version 1.0. So I expect some updates will be coming, though I personally did not run into any difficulties with either. The only troubleshooting that you may need to do is to delete your cache or simply turn off WP-Cache entirely.

Wow. Just think how much time I can spend tweaking and testing themes now!

Prime Angus Filets: Links this Week 1-4-2008

Bob Angus — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:00:24 +0000

The first week of 2008 has gone in a blur. It took all my will power to not spend too much time this week reviewing the many eye-popping 2007 stats posts. After all, I know that the key to John Chow’s 2007 success has been action, not daydreaming about somebody else’s fortune. Here are some of the articles that I found incredibly useful in taking direct action to hit my own blogging goals.

First, I spent time analyzing where I can improve using basic SEO strategies. I started with keywords. My goal is to maintain a #1 rank for anyone who searches for Bob Angus, but I need to improve significantly across several other sets of keywords. SEO Design Solutions offered a good guide with SEO fundamentals called How to Extend your Keyword Empire in 3 Simple Steps.

Updated: Terry at SuperAff.com posted a good tip on Tracking Hot Keywords For New Blog Subscriptions.

Next, I am addressing link building. I refuse to take the shortcut, blackhat route or just buy links. One should build links that are sustainable, valuable, and trustworthy. One starting point is to analyze the competition and develop an external relevance profile for them. Hamlet Batista unleashed something that you will not find in any ebook with Revealing your Competitor’s FULL External Relevance Profile. Also, Earner’s Blog continues his series on link building with a good reminder to think outside the box in Link Building Guide Part 3 – Aboutus.org

Finally, I am quickly coming to a realization that I need to change my blog design. Skellie of Skelliewag.org delivered a great guest post on Blog Perfume called 8 Clever Ways to Lower the Bounce-Rate on Your Blog. The tips are design-oriented more than content-oriented, but they address a critical issue for low traffic blogs like bobangus.com. Each visitor who â€˜bouncesâ€™ out of your site is a lost opportunity to gain a loyal reader or new subscriber. It is time to change my WordPress theme.

Image of the Week

Rue Pachinko by Renaud Bec is amazing concept art for the Red Steel video game by Ubisoft. For more incredible video game concept art, see the annual collections from IntoThePixel.com.

Check out other pictures and images on my Flickr photos.

© Bob Angus for bobangus.com, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blogging, Links of the Week, SEO, web design

Back to Basics: Learning CSS

Bob Angus — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 05:28:18 +0000

One of my 2007 New Yearâ€™s resolutions has stalled out. I am getting nowhere fast on my objective to launch 10 new content websites by May. 10 sites?! That should be a slam dunk, even if I am focusing on my projects only a couple of hours a day. Well, I wasnâ€™t making headway. So it is best to raise a red flag now, rather than in March or April.

Not being afraid to ask for help, I called my good friend Phylise at Skidmore Collegeâ€™s University Without Walls. She helps build fantastic distance learning courses and websites. She even helped my Mom develop and manage an online course using Dreamweaver.

My basic problem is that I have all of my site plans and a website design, but I donâ€™t know where to start actually developing my site. My Dreamweaver tutorials and training guide help me learn how to bold text and place images. Free templates give me very little to work with. Where do I start?

Phylise asked me two questions:
1. How well do you know HTML?
Answer: Not well. I can hunt and peck the CSS on my WordPress theme enough to change the header image.

2. Will your site be database driven?
Answer: Yes. I want to dynamically display data and build forms to store data.

Her response was simple (and kind). Paraphrasingâ€¦ â€œBob. You need to learn how to build your own style sheets. Weâ€™ll worry about learning MySQL and writing PHP scripts laterâ€¦ Much later.â€

She pointed me to CSS Zen Garden and CSS Vault as excellent resources. Also, I am jumping ahead in my Dreamweaver training guide to the style sheet chapter (Lesson #6).

Hmmm. I may have to ramp up my time to 4-5 hours a night to meet my goal.

Flipping Website Real Estate for Profit

Bob Angus — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 05:49:31 +0000

Youâ€™ve heard of flipping a house as a profit strategy in the real estate market, right? First, you buy a fixer-upper house for a dirt cheap, below market price. Second, you spend some time and money sprucing up the home. New paint, replace carpets, mow the lawn, etc. Then, you put the shiny new gem back on the market and sell it for a sweet profit. Well, the same strategy works when you invest in website real estate.

Way back in August, Super Affiliate Marketing Blog had a great post on flipping web real estate. Jon details three key redesign elements to turning a low traffic dud into a website worth buying. First, the designâ€¦

Is it too crappy to look at? Do you need to change it around? Chances are pretty good that you will need to make some alterations. Whether you should redo the whole thing is again, up to your taste and budget. Remember, you already spent $500 on this, and your goal is $3k, so you donâ€™t want to go overboard with unnecessary beautification operations.

Then, Jon drills down on steps #2 and #3 â€“ usability and monetization. Mixed in with these steps, he gives invaluable guidance that can give you the edge to maximize your ROI. For example, focus on generating statistics like unique impressions, page rank on Google and Alexa, and some basic contextual advertising revenue. Then, provide a mini business plan with current site metrics and future projections in your â€œfor saleâ€ message. Help make it simple for a buyer to pay top dollar.

Also, it is vital that there is an active marketplace to buy and sell web real estate. Of course, the real differentiator that maximizes your overall profits is to understand the potential buyer and donâ€™t burn bridgesâ€¦

Remember, that even though you are selling a property that doesnâ€™t really interest you much in holding onto, you are selling it to someone who finds it as a good deal or investment, so you must treat it with respect, because this property may be someoneâ€™s baby sometime soonâ€¦

â€¦ put some contextual ads onto it if you like, get the stats program working again, collect as much real data as possible on the current situation of the site, and then make projections of 3, 6, 10 and 12 months. Base those numbers ONLY on the current situation of the site. If you just go off and make numbers up, they wonâ€™t buy anything else from you ever again, and you may also sabotage your reputation on your first deal, which can suck.

Here is the link to the full post. The marketplace and profits are there for you. Check out Biz MP for developed websites or The Domain Name Aftermarket by GoDaddy for just domains.

© Bob Angus for bobangus.com, 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: business models, results, web design, web real estate