photo-sharing sites

Are Free Photos Really Free?

Photographer

Photo Diego Hernandez

Short answer YES – if they are original images from US government websites, such as those from the NASA, FDA, Ntl. Park Service, DOT etc.  Other countries have photos on similar government websites that are free to use.  After all, taxpayers had already paid for them. 

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Free Image Sources
Here are examples of more websites, which offer free, professionally taken, and photoshop-enhanced images, together with ordinary everyday shots.   However, there are some requirements we must meet in order to use even free photographs.  Some of these photo sites require registration (free), but it’s more than worth it.  Each stock site will give you the guidelines when you search for an image as to how you can use that image.  Think attribution or the possibility to make changes on the image.

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Get the Latest Free Stock Photos Directly in Your Inbox
Here is a short list – an excerpt from our upcoming book:

111 Tips to Create Your Videos
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http://www.lifeofpix.com/

http://www.Freedigitalphotos.net

https://www.negativespace.co/

http://publicdomainarchive.com/

http://www.istockphoto.com

https://www.pexels.com/

http://isorepublic.com/

https://pixabay.com/

https://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp

http://www.dreamstime.com

https://morguefile.com/

 

https://publicdomainvectors.org/

https://www.goodfreephotos.com/

http://www.fotosearch.com/

http://www.ancestryimages.com

http://www.photogen.com

http://www.historicalstockphotos.com/

http://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/digital-underground/2017/open-access-at-the-met
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If it Says “Free Photo” – is it Really Free?
Before you download read this Indies Unlimited article where many copyright traps are shown.  https://www.indiesunlimited.com/2014/02/10/if-it-says-free-cant-i-use-it/

P.S.  Don’t forget to carefully choose the resolution that you need, especially if the image is for the print of a high-quality book cover.

 

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Find New Free & Royalty-free Photo Sites

Free-Photo-sites

 

It’s quite a while – actually more than three years – that I posted a list of FREE photo sites on the internet.  To keep you updated, here are more websites added, which offer free, professionally taken and Photoshop-enhanced images, together with everyday shots.  Carefully choose the resolution that you need, especially if the the image is for print of a high-quality book cover.  Some of these photo sites require registration (free), but it’s more than worth it.  Each stock site will give you the guidelines when you search for an image as to how you can use that image.
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Get Our Latest Free Stock Photos Directly in Your Inbox

https://www.negativespace.co/

https://unsplash.com/

http://www.lifeofpix.com/

https://www.pexels.com/

http://isorepublic.com/

https://pixabay.com/
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Royalty Free Sites:

https://www.shutterstock.com/home

http://depositphotos.com/

http://www.istockphoto.com/

https://us.fotolia.com/
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Improve SEO Through Your Photos
There is more to it, than just placing attractive photos on your blog or website.  Here are some tips how you can optimize your photos to improve SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and to get more traffic to your website or blog.
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Reduce the File Size of Your Photos
NOT the dimensions of the image, but the pixel size.  When you re-size a photo manually in WordPress (for example) you only change the dimensions, and the amount of pixel stays almost the same.  A file size of 1.8 MB can be easily reduced to 300 Kb without compromising the quality for the viewer.  Adobe Photoshop or Adobe “Lightroom” software can be used to re-size the photo’s pixels – not the dimension!  Important: Make a copy of your original photo BEFORE you re-size.  Otherwise it would be lost forever and you would keep only the lower pixel version. There is no way back!
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Name your Photos
File593730.jpg or DSC_8405037.jpg is not helpful for Search Engine Optimization and is totally meaningless to search engines. Keywords in the photos name should be separated by hyphens, NOT underscores, and shouldn’t be squeezed into a single word, e.g. Antique-Leica-Camera.jpg.
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Always Use ALT Tags
Wordpress makes it easy for you when adding photos to your text.  The fields for Title, Description, ALT and caption are build-in, so you can fill them out easily.  Search engines can’t “see” photos, but “read” keywords, that describes your image. Keywords that you use on your web page should work together with the keywords you use for your images.
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Royalty-Free Image Sites
Sometimes you just can’t find what you want at the free image sites, so it’s always a good idea to play-it-safe and pick up an image from one of these Royalty-Free image sites.  It will save you a lot of hassle with copyright infringement down the road.
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Get more tips how to use photos for the internet:
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/how-to-use-photos-on-the-internet/

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100-plus Ways to Promote Your Book for FREE

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Travel-Case

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You might have read and saved already almost a hundred websites to announce your book for FREE from these reader communities and blogs*:

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/50-web-links-to-let-your-book-go-viral/
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/part-2-45-more-websites-to-promote-your-book/

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However, there are even more possibilities to promote your book without incurring costs:

1. Show off your cover image
To submit a cover image of your book including a description / link – if it is an outstanding and creative book cover, show it here for free:

http://pinterest.com/111publishing/books-worth-reading/
http://bookcoversanonymous.blogspot.ca/
http://bookcoverarchive.com/
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2. Use photo-sharing sites to show your cover image
http://Flickr.com
http://500px.com/
http://DeviantArt.com
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3. Participate in a cover image contest
E-book Cover Design Awards by Joel Friedlander, for example this one here: http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2013/08/e-book-cover-design-awards-july-2013/
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4. Show your book trailer everywhere
Upload your trailer not only on your website and blog, but also on Goodreads, Amazon, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and FB, but also on more than twenty major sharing sites, starting with YouTube and TubeMogul. Add a link to each of them on your website or wherever your book is sold.

See also an extensive list of video sharing sites for your book trailer in this guide book:
111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer”.
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5. Google+ and its communities
There are dozens of reader communities alone on Google+ (for example ours http://bit.ly/VmtVAS) and you can access them from your main Google+ page. On all Google+ sites, images of your book’s cover can be shown, along with lengthy descriptions – several times a day on your own time line, however, on communities better only once in a while, not to be perceived as spammer.
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Don’t forget the Basics!
Use your free author pages, that are provided from Amazon, Goodreads, Pinterest, Google+, FB, LinkedIn, and certainly your own webpage and your blog, where you can show a variety of your book’s cover and images from the content.
Why I mention this?  Too many authors don’t take advantage of these free webpages, they get from online retailers and at their social media sites and where they can show and describe their books to lots of potential readers … 

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* These blog posts are officially copyright registered. To link to our blog posts, and let your own readers know about these websites, please use the RE-BLOG link on top of this page. Thanks! Please learn more about re-blogging here:
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/re-blogging-vs-copyright-infringement/

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only $ 159 for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/ Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 840+ of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK

http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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Tagged: book trailer, DevianArt, Flickr, Google+ communities, photo-sharing sites, promote your book for free, SavvyBookWriters.com, savvybookwriters.wordpress.com, www.thebookdesigner.com