Uncover treasure: 7 free photo websites await!

Now that you have chosen the right topic to write on, it is important to choose the right photos to go with your write-up. High-quality and visually pleasing photos capture the attention of your readers and make your content more engaging. People are naturally drawn to images, and compelling visuals can make your content more memorable and shareable.

Photos have the power to convey emotions, tell stories, and evoke a particular mood or atmosphere. They can enhance your written content by providing visual cues and adding depth to your narrative. A well-chosen photo can evoke curiosity and draw readers into the article.

The good part is that using good photos doesn’t mean you have to be a professional photographer or invest in expensive equipment or buy expensive photos available online. There are over a hundred websites from where you can download FREE images! The key is to select images that are relevant, high-quality, and visually appealing, enhancing your readers overall user experience and engagement.

According to Kanwal Gurleen Singh, Head-Training & Placements, Assistant Professor in Marketing at Apeejay Institute of Management and Engineering Technical Campus in Jalandhar, who is also an independent content strategist consultant, an article without an image is like a boat without rudder, it will go nowhere.

All great content writers will vouch that visual presentation is the key to attract more traffic to a magazine and or a website. “If it is soothing to the eye, it will be soothing to the brain. It is human nature to get attracted to images, visuals, graphical representation and shy away from long written content or plain text. Hence, one has to carefully select the number of images, which can complement the text, and yet at the same time, not distract the reader from the main topic,” Singh said.

But we all know that buying images is expensive. So what are the options available? How can you source license-free images or simply free images? “There are hundreds of websites from which you can source very good images,” Singh said and listed a few of them.

All great content writers will vouch that visual presentation is the key to attract more traffic to a magazine and or a website. It is human nature to get attracted to images, visuals, graphical representation and shy away from long written content or plain text. Hence, one has to carefully select the number of images, which can complement the text

Kanwal Gurleen Singh, Head-Training & Placements, Assistant Professor in Marketing at Apeejay Institute of Management and Engineering Technical Campus in Jalandhar

Unsplash has been a great source of free images for content writers, world over. It has over 3.48 million photos with around 2,65,000 contributing photographers; it generates more than 16 billion photo impressions per month. The library contains hundreds of high-quality photos that cover a wide range of niches. The disadvantage? It has fewer options with respect to illustrations, vector files, and videos.  

Pexels is a great stock image site that contains thousands of high quality and free stock images as well as videos. It is a very well-organised collection of free stock photos. It is also an excellent platform for photographers who are looking to build their self-branded portfolios. All images are supplied under the Pexels License, which is a creative commons zero license that enables users to access and use every image on the site, free of charge and without attribution.

Pixabay is one of the best free stock media sites available, as of now. It is damn easy to use, and has a nicely built website. Pixabay is the first choice of many great content writers around the world. The website offers thousands (in fact millions) of photos, videos, illustrations, vectors, sound effects, music, and GIFs for free.

 Stocksnap.io is curated from user-submitted photos and hundreds of new images are added each week. The images are completely free from copyright restrictions, and StockSnap.io lets you search by keyword.

For designers, developers, bloggers, and social media marketers, FOCA Stock is a website that offers no-cost images, motion graphics, templates, and other creative materials. All free content is CC0 licensed, allowing for both personal and professional use.

Freepik is an image bank website that also provides illustrations, vectors and other related graphics. While most services are free, you have to subscribe for some additional benefits.

All images on DesignersPics are taken by Jeshu John, and users can use them in both their personal and professional projects. This initiative offers everyone including students who needs free photos, and several new images are added every month.