How to Find a Wealth of Free Stock Photos

By: | November 10, 2015 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

Blog PhotographyDo you think it’s possible to cut corners with your blogging tasks?

I mean, you have the routine down pat, right?

You research, write, edit, publish, promote your link, and include a pinnable graphic for the Pinterest crowd to further promote your article.

What if you couldn’t include a pinnable graphic because you couldn’t include a photo?

The reasons why bloggers can’t include photos with their posts vary.

Whether you are too busy to take your own photo, too financially stressed to afford a phone with a good camera, unable to find the “perfect” photo to accompany a post, bed-ridden or wheelchair bound, the possibilities still exist for photos to accompany your posts.

Author, blogger, and former journalist Lysa Wilds has made it possible by authoring a book which provides resources for free stock photos like Moose. You don’t have to worry about where to find the photos or even about the licensing. Wilds dispenses with all concerns in her book The Ultimate Guide to Free Stock Photos.

Welcome to My Second Book Review

The Ultimate Guide to Free Stock Photos  Free Stock Photography Resource

Author: Lysa Wilds 

All opinions are my own.

What The Ultimate Guide to Free Stock Photos Means For You and Your Blog

In my post, 7 Tips I Wish I Knew When I Started Blogging, I recommended 5 free stock photo sites.

Lysa Wilds, from the blog Welcome to My Circus, has written an entire book full of ideas for places to find them, and the best part–they are all free.

You have heard of the necessity of having a graphic in your blog post. Pinterest wouldn’t be the success it is if we didn’t live in a visual age.

According to Writtent.com, Pinterest has amazing potential to get traffic to your blog. According to the site’s statistics, 10% of all Pinterest users log into their accounts many times each day.

Putting graphics on Pinterest help promote your blog. But… where are you going to get the pictures?

Bloggers who are disabled, or for any other reason unable to make a pinnable graphic, should not be at a disadvantage.

Also, many people don’t have the time, the tools, the knowledge or the desire to make their own graphics.

Using stock photos solves those dilemmas, but many don’t have the funds needed to purchase those photos or have the knowledge about where to find free stock photos.

Lysa’s book, The Ultimate Guide to Free Stock Photos, solves both problems.

Lysa has spent the last two years attempting  to hunt down resources that seem impossible to find and turning those into a valuable tool for ALL creatives to utilize despite what their finances look like.

According to Lysa, if you have writing talent and create amazing written content it means nothing if you don’t have equally amazing visual content!!

Lysa goes on to explain the mystery of bloggers whose blogs succeed without writing ability or humor. She explains that phenomenon by noting her realization that it is graphic design that helps those bloggers “step up their game,” and helped her step up her game.

Why don’t those bloggers wishing to “step up their game” just go out and take photos? After all, it’s 2015. You no longer have to pay to develop film. It would be totally free.

Lysa’s answer brings perspective. Many bloggers are bed-ridden or confined to wheel chairs and do not have the luxury of mobility. Since Wilds is herself a wheel-chair bound blogger, she would know better than anyone how valuable a stock photography resource is.

Wilds’ book is a life-saver for those bloggers, bloggers who may not be able to find a specific photo to fill a specific need, and any others wishing a book-long resource on where to find free stock photos.

Lysa’s book is a blogger’s gold mine. One of the photography resources is Jill Levenhagen, a Pinterest strategist. If anyone knows about great photos for blog graphics, it’s Levenhagen.

The impetus behind Lysa’s interest in photography is discussed as are her days as a journalist. Her discussion of her sister may seem irrelevant, but is actually part of her narrative of her journey to this gold mine– her book, a free stock photography resource.

In closing, Lysa reminds her readers, that, if all else is equal, you will get the upper hand on bloggers who have strong content and strong writing skills. You can have those and strong photos.

How to Own Your Free Stock Photography Resource

Starting at $4.99, depending on the format, Lysa’s book is affordably priced for her supply of free stock photo resources.

If you believe, as I do, that Lysa’s book is a treasure-chest full of free photography resources, the links to purchase her book are below. It is available in both Ebook and paperback form.

Here is the link to the eBook version:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017167LZW


Here is the link to the paperback version:

https://www.createspace.com/5820336


Bloggers, please share this post, so others know the advantages of having Lysa’s book as a resource.

Where are you getting the photos for your blog graphics? Are you using original photos, paying for photos, using stock photography with a free license like the Creative Commons, or a combination of all of these? I look forward to your views.

Related Post:

4 Simple Ways to Start Blogging Creatively

Other Book Reviews from MostlyBlogging.com:

The Great Paradigm Shift: Your Content Will Go Viral in 2 Minutes

Sources:

writtent.com/blog/10-reasons-you-need-to-create-a-cool-infographic

  1. Charles Rogers

    Thanks Janice. “A picture is worth a thousand words” This subject is old territory for discussions between you and me. A great banner photograph gets 5 times more likes than written content! My statistics prove it. Especially kittens and puppies are great attention grabbers. You can write an essay on “the meaning of life” and it won’t be anywhere near the attention as a puppy licking a kitten.
    A writer short write a story and then find a photo illustrate it. However if you want attention on the Internet, find a great pictur of a puppy, kitten, horse and child. The write what you want under it.
    Stock photographs provide you with these banners.

    • Lysa Wilds

      I couldn’t agree with you more Charles, images of puppies and kittens along with babies, adorable chichildren, love, and anything that will and does create emotion, any emotion, will and does generate traffic more traffic than anything else does. After all we only have a split second to convince someone to click on our links as our attention spans are ridiculously short these days with all of the content available on the world wide web today and the faster the speed of our internet connection the shorter our attention spans become. All you have to do is take note of your own browsing habits as the perfect example of what your potential readers will and will not click on.

      Make your day a beautiful one!

      Much love,
      Lysa xx

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Charles,
      I appreciate your comments. I actually plan to use them and link back to you in an upcoming Pinterest article I am planning. People don’t understand why some graphics do better than others. As you said, animals do great! Thanks for the comments and the inspiration and the interest in Lysa’s book.
      Janice

  2. Lysa Wilds

    Thank you for the kind words and the wonderful review of my book. Like I point out in the book great content may be King but on the internet of you do not have equally or better visual content to accompany it you are fighting an uphill battle.You only have seconds to caprure

    • Lysa Wilds

      Oops! I hit the post comment button on accident. Back to what I was saying…

      As you have pointed out before, we only have seconds to capture the attention of a potential reader online.We have all heard a thousand times how headlines need to have emotional words to be effective, to create enough of that emotion to get a reader to click on your link to see and read more. Well as Charles points our above, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” And how true that is. With a headline that creates emotion accompanied by a graphic or better yet a photograph that matches the emotion you are guaranteed to get more traffic.

      The best part about “The Ultimate Guide to FREE Stock Photos” is that it contains about 40 different 100% Royalty and Copyright FREE stock photo resources that will not cost you a dime! Heck, several of the websites within the book will go so far as to send you their latest images vi email weekly and monthly.

      As you mentioned above the Pinterest Strategist and in my opinion the Queen of all things Pinterest, Jill Levenhagen ans hwr amazing photographs make an appearance in my book.Many may not know that Jill is also an amazing photograoher that offers her stock photos for FREE for use on your blog. Who knows better than Jill what photos you need to create enough emotion to get that reader to click on your post.I have been using her photographs in my blog for almost a year now so I can honestly say they help drive the traffic that sticks around.

      Bottom line is, if you want to make a dramatic difference in the way your blog is perceived and the amount of traffic passing through you MUST step up your game visually and my book will help you do just that. With the resources I’ve collected over the last two years that now reside within the pages of “The Ultimate Guide to FREE Stock Photos” there will NEVER again be that perfect image you just can’t find!

      Again, thank you for your lovely words about my book in your review. I’ve made myself available all day to answer any questions that your readers may have.

      Wishing you all a beautiful day!

      Much love,
      Lysa xx ?
      Welcome to my Circus
      http://welcometomycircus.com

      • Janice Wald

        Hi Lysa,
        I owe YOU a thanks. My review of your book has been reblogged twice, and, as a result, I have met wonderful new bloggers. There is interest on my site, and, apparently, all over the Internet. You wrote a great resource!
        Janice

        • Lysa Wilds

          Hi Janice,

          No thank YOU for the wonderful review! Sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier My laptop totally died on me. I knew it was on its last leg but had hoped it would last a little bit longer.

          Thank you for the compliment about my book being a great resource. We will work on holding the giveaway in the next day or two.

          Much love,
          Lysa xx ?

  3. Keith Lunt

    Throughout my career as a web developer I’ve been amazed at how often customers don’t realise that you can’t just pick an image off Google images and use that. Just last night I bounced back a customer’s images for this reason and his response was that he would use a filter to make them look different! Not what I wanted!

    A resource of free stock images is a good idea. I’ve got various sites bookmarked but what you have done is great thinking. I’ll share your ideas over on my blog in a few days if you are happy for me to do so.

    • Lysa Wilds

      Thank you Keith and would love for you to share the information on your blog. If you are interested in reviewing my eBook on your blog as we’ll please let me know and I’ll be sure to get you a copy of it.

      As not only a blogger but a creative in many ways nothing is more upsetting than your work being “stolen” and passed off as someone else’s. In my book I repeat several times that although the images may be royalty-free and copyright free giving each photographer attribution for their images that you use is the moral and professional thing to do.

      I am also often amazed by the fact that more people do not know that images and written content on the internet is, for the most part unless specified otherwise, copyrighted material and they cannot just use whatever it is that they’d like.

      I offer up my “super secret” stash of about 40 different free stock photo resources in “The Ultimate Guide to Free Stock Photos.” There are even a few icon, vector, illustration, and mockup resources included.

      Let me know if you’re interested in doing a review of your own about my book on your blog.

      Make your day a beautiful one!

      Much love,
      Lysa xx

    • Janice Wald

      Keith,
      After rereading your comment, I recalled an incident where a new blogger started a photo blog, reactions to photos he had found on the Internet. When a few of us asked him if he had the licenses to the photos, he seemed ignorant about our concerns.
      Fortunately, Lysa’s book addresses the legalities of photos because too many people want to “stick their head in the sand” where legalities are concerned.
      I know of another blogger that actually was sued by a photographer and had to hire a lawyer.
      Janice

      • Keith Lunt

        Hi Janice,

        Yes, I hear loads of stories so this book is going to be useful. Earlier this year a customer had one of the biggest libraries on his back because the sky in his photo looked the same as the sky in their photo (mostly blue!). However, in this case he’d kept the trail of where the image had been provided from and eventually it was sorted. But it can be very expensive just ‘finding’ images the wrong way.

        • Janice Wald

          Hi Keith,
          I love writing on blogs. The stories we hear! Thank you for sharing this. That is just crazy. People who aren’t mobile don’t have the choices we are fortunate to have.
          Janice

    • Lysa Wilds

      Thank you and I look forward to you stopping by my site!

      Make your day a beautiful one!

      Much love ,
      Lysa xx

  4. Pingback: How to Find a Wealth of Free Stock Photos
  5. Pingback: How to Find a Wealth of Free Stock Photos
  6. Antionette Blake

    I have found quite a few sites with awesome stock photos and they are all FREE – gotta love it.

  7. Melinda

    Janice, if it’s free, it’s for me!! I can only do free!
    Thanks for letting know how this hugely valuable resource.
    Lyssa, thanks for doing all the work for us!

    • Lysa Wilds

      You’re very welcome Melinda!

      Make your day a beautiful one!

      Much love,
      Lysa xx

    • Janice Wald

      The book, a lifetime resource, is about $5.00. The resources in the book, all the photos, are free.
      However, I am in communication with Lysa about having a giveaway on my site. I will keep you posted.
      Janice

    • Janice Wald

      Keith,
      After rereading your comment, I recalled an incident where a new blogger started a photo blog, reactions to photos he had found on the Internet. When a few of us asked him if he had the licenses to the photos, he seemed ignorant about our concerns.
      Fortunately, Lysa’s book addresses the legalities of photos because too many people want to “stick their head in the sand” where legalities are concerned.
      I know of another blogger that actually was sued by a photographer and had to hire a lawyer.
      Janice

    • Janice Wald

      HI Richard,
      Thanks for writing.
      I used Pixabay for a while. I am familiar with the site. For those that can’t take their own photos, I recommend it. Thanks for the reminder.
      Janice

    • Lysa Wilds

      Hi Richard,

      You are absolutely right they are both fabulous resources for public domain images and both are included in my book along with what the different licences mean in regards to creative commons and public domain you’d be surprised how many people are clueless, misinformed, or just plain ignore the licensing associated with images. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!

      Much love,
      Lysa xx

  8. SB

    Stock photos are always welcome. This is a very good tip, even though I use Wylio and the license terms option in Google images as well as Unsplash and Deviant Art. Sometimes, it is really difficult to find what I need. The more options, the better. Hope you’ve been well. x

    • Janice Wald

      Hi SB,
      Thank you for your comments regarding my review and Lysa’s book. You sound very knowledgeable about all the options. You are right. Sometimes it is difficult which is why she wrote the book.
      Janice

  9. Jen

    Thank you for all of the suggestions. I will be checking them all out.

    Jen
    #blogbooster

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