Ways to find images for your blog
(and none of them are called Flickr)
Google, Grow your business, Yahoo |
Image by poppet with a camera
The use of images on Web sites and blogs varies and they logically range from visually illustrating the point the accompanying text is delivering, to simply balancing a page’s layout to make the text easy for reader consumption.
A Web site with nothing but text is completely unheard of; that even those static pages of the early to late 90s, as rudimentary as they may be, utilize graphic elements (remember the crudely animated rotating envelope and the creepy dancing baby GIFs during the dark ages of AOL, Tripod and Geocities?).
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| Yes, for some reason, this creepy/annoying dancing infant became a popular site graphic during the 90s– a precursor of what we now call a meme. |
Photos and artworks create an atmosphere for a page and thus are sometimes largely responsible for drawing in readers into your domain. It’s important for Web sites to produce their own images to showcase what they have to offer, this enables the marketing department to control how their products and services are presented to their demographic.
As with writing styles and information dissemination processes, blogs are a different species as you also get to incorporate even those images not of your creation. As such, we often see multiple copies of the same photos when we do specific image searches online. If you’re a blogger, this is probably one of the ways you can get by especially if you possess neither the artistic proficiency nor the proper equipment to craft your own selection of images.
As you may notice, while we here at SEOP.com’s blog sometimes craft our own artworks to accompany a handful of our posts, we also use Flickr for finding great photos that relate to our different topics. And we’re not alone as this site is oftentimes recommended for finding great images and discovering talents for commissioned work.
Here are some of the other great places to look for images.
Google and Bing Search
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Both search engine giants have included image search to their stable of features which run of their own indexing engines and so you’ll get different results with any given inquiry.
Google Image Search and Bing Images display their results optimized for power users with good filters to make sure you find exactly what you’re looking for. For instance, both of them would let you specify the color scheme and image orientation and whether you want a photo or an illustration and search for other images with similar attributes. Their image SERPs come with large thumbnails (with Bing offering different zoom options) and good image details like the image sizes, file formats and Web pages of origin.
A word of caution though: both are search driven and so they will present you with all the images they’ve indexed online which, of course, will give rise to copyright issues. If you find a photo you want, it’s always best to click through to the site it’s been affixed to and read more about how to legally use it. lest you risk take-down notices and even getting sued with copyright infringement. And neither would be good for your online reputation.
On the other hand, if you find it imperative that you use a photo you’ve come across and the site didn’t mention any usage rules, make sure that you obtain permission in writing first by contacting the owner.
DeviantArt
DeviantArt is a site that mashes together online art portfolios with social networking essentials and so you can easily search images from its registered users which includes both independent and established traditional and digital artists, photographers, designers and animators. It’s a great for yet to be used stylized photos, finished artworks, sketches and 3D renders which you can use on your blog.
However, since this is an online database of portfolios populated by passionate artists, it’s also best to ask the artists for permission before use. You’ll be surprised how many of them, as extremely talented as they are, will willingly allow their works be used for many materials just as long as they are attributed. Just make sure to personally inform them precisely how their works will be presented, where they’ll appear and if you plan any kind of modification because, as artists, they also have reputations to build in the art industry and your intended use could potentially demean or distort them.
In this site, you can also discover new talents which you can potentially enlist (or hire) to provide new graphics for your campaigns.
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RSpears @ August 4, 2010
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