25 Sites for Killer Free Images

By SaRita Custis

Chief Business Growth Strategist

One of the challenges we see regularly is people having trouble standing out from the crowd in social media.

As funny as it sounds, one of the best things you can do is use images in all of your posts that grab people by the eyeballs as they’re scrolling through the sea of messages in their feeds.

What kinds of images? Here are a few things to look for:

Bold colors

Striking faces

Funny expressions

Unusual poses

Illogical or impossible structure

Something shocking

Anything that evokes emotion (funny, cute, irritating, etc.)

If you’re not a photography buff – and a prolific one at that – cool images can be expensive. That’s where we come in :).

We’ve put together a list for you of our favorite sites where you can find FREE images. And we’re talking about top-of-the-line, professional quality photos, vectors and clipart that you can use to get more attention.

One important note: There are hundreds (maybe even thousands) of sites that allow you to use their images for free in exchange for acknowledging the source (aka attribution). We’ve done our best to scrub the list and only include sites that don’t have this limitation. The sites we’re listing only publish Creative Commons Zero (CC0) and public domain images, so you can use them on social media or your website without attribution. If you’re putting them on your website, though, an attribution is always a nice thing to do.

Important note #2: When you share someone else’s image on Facebook, you do need to edit it first. You can (and should!) personalize it with your own branding. You can add a quote, adjust the colors and focus, or even chop it up with your image editor and make a brand new composition. Get creative and have fun with it.

OK, one more important note, then we’ll be done: If you’re using an image that has a registered trademark, you MUST acknowledge it. For example, if you have a picture of an iPhone, include a statement like “Apple, the Apple logo and iPhone are trademarks of Apple, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.” Our recommendation: use images that have a registered trademark only as a last resort.

And now, without further ado…

25 Sites for Killer Free Images

Normally we would write a little description about each site, but we quickly realized there are only so many ways to say “this site has great images that are free for you to use.”

Visit the sites when you need free images, bookmark your favorites, and make your messages stand out from the noise.

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