Blogging Elements

3 Bookmarkable Resources To Find Visuals and Images For Your Blog

Posted on 15. Apr, 2009 by Ashwin in Blogging

I was pretty happy with the source of images for this blog here, but then, I wondered if it’s a good idea to rest all our eggs on one basket. I then decided to go ahead and see if there could be better, cheaper, easier royalty-free image directories on the Internet and needless to say, I was humbled.

We, at blogging elements, started out with just one website called the good, old istockphoto.com and I guess we were pretty much excited about the range of good quality images that site has. Exploration always goes unchecked and I figured that sxc.hu is yet another favorite for bloggers. This site is totally free to register and almost all the images there can be used for free.

Searching thus, I came across three different posts which I think every blogger — rookie to professional — must read. Apart from the huge size of the lists itself there are other things I noticed which are worth talking about.

• Presentation Zen: Garr Reynold’s List in a  post called “where can you find good images?” is a good start to find a neatly categorized list of websites you could find plenty of images for your blog. Although the list itself is small, the way he categorized them is very helpful indeed and depending on what kind of websites you are looking for, and you could just click and fly. You may also notice the beautiful layout of his blog.
• Robin Good: Robin’s Blog Master New Media looks more like a mainstream news and information blog. But all of his posts are pretty solid ones and I just love the design. However, the point of the post was to give you a heads-up on an incredibly long, ultra-detailed list of sites where you could find images on the Internet. Robin Good has the mother of all lists, perhaps. He has a mini-guide titled ” Where to Find Visuals and Images For My Blog” in parts. Also notice the menu type list summary that shows up in the side bar? That’s pretty thoughtful, I must say and It is an amazing way to keep the reader hooked to the blog. It almost works like an ebook of sorts.
• Virtual Hosting: Now, this site also has a Mammoth list of 100 stock photography sites which is a must have resource. No one one list is all-inclusive and the lists just keep growing. So it’s better to have access to more information than just enough. Check out the post on virtualhosting.com called ” 100 Legal Sources For Free Stock Images“

If you have come across any lists such as these, please do feel free to mention it here in the comments section for the benefit of our blogging community.

Tags: Better Blog design, Blog Design, Blogging Elements, Images and Visuals for Blogs, Presentation Tips, Stock free photographs