This post comes to us from the RealEstatePointe blog:

We create a lot of content for our client's websites--community pages, buyer and seller resources, pages all about the company, etc. We also blog and post to social media accounts for several of our clients. So, it is an important part of our business to be able to find good images to use royalty-free for a small cost, and even for free.

If you're blogging, remember that "a picture's worth 1,000 words" and use images in your blog posts. One image is good for short posts. For longer posts, you should break up the text with additional images.

Very important: you are responsible for the lawful use of any images you find online. Be certain that you are not violating the specific copyright laws associated with an image.

Creative Commons Image Databases

The Creative Commons Copyright License allows images to be reused. The image is still owned by the creator, but may be freely reused without the creator's permission. In most cases a simple attribution (photo by artist name and a link to their website or to the page where the image resides) is all that is required for lawful use.

I can't stress enough that you should read the terms of use and be sure to follow instructions for the lawful use of each image.

Here are the Creative Commons image databases that we use the most:

• Wikimedia Commons (we use Wikipedia for community research and find the photos here as our #1 source of area-specific images)
• Flickr Creative Commons
• Wylio

Public Domain Images

Images in the public domain either had no copyright, the copyright expired, or the image was released to the public domain by the author. Generally, you are free to use these photos without any attribution. Again, be sure before you use. Here is a list of some public domain image sources. Some are more user-friendly than others:

• PublicDomain Pictures.net
• StockVault.net
• FreeStockPhotos.biz
• PDPhoto.org
• TotallyFreeImages.com
• Library of Congress (harder to navigate/search, but there are some great resources here when you need something very specific)

Low Cost Stock Images

Of course, there are always stock image sites that offer low cost images. These sites are commercial, so are generally easier to navigate and provide photos from extra-small to extra-large sizes for your various needs. For blog posts, you can usually use the least expensive small or extra small sizes. Here is a list of some of the stock photo sites that we use:

• DreamsTime
• Shutterstock
• iStockPhoto
• BigStockPhoto

Happy Blogging!

To view the original article, visit the RealEstatePointe blog.