Free stock photos to promote your products

Are you looking for royalty-free stock photos or images?
Do you need an image to throw into a product, presentation, post, or page?
Are you looking for an easy starting point in your next search for the “perfect image”?

"That was the thing about pictures -- they were worth a thousand words, but sometimes they weren't the right ones. --Melissa de la Cruz — The right picture is worth a thousand words.

The source of your free stock photos is important

If you use copyrighted images, you can be held legally and financially accountable for using property that isn’t yours. Using someone else’s image without permission is like stealing.

What are the right kinds of free stock photos?

Thankfully, there are standard copyrights that give an informed user a shorthand for understanding if a photo is allowed to be used by them.

For example, “CC0” copyrighted images are free to use (if you credit the owner of the image).

Where to find free stock photos and images

Thanks to paid advertising and misleading copyediting on web sites that sell photos, search engines do a lousy job identifying web sites that offer CC0 and free stock photos.

Here are more than 2 dozen free stock photo sites I’ve found in my research (plus some bonuses).

I’ve sorted the list in roughly the order I’ve found the most value. The sites I use the most are at the top; sites I use less often are toward the bottom. Because each has somewhat different themes and contributors, you may find you have different preferences.

Let me know your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below!

Thanks to everyone who’s shared these with me over the years (see credits at the bottom)!

Paid

Fact is, sometimes I can’t find quite the right photo.

Since amazing marketing requires projecting the aspirational future of my prospect, sometimes I need to find just the right photos of the right people in the right situations having the right experiences. Here are the sites I’ve used so far, when all else fails:

Images

istockphoto.com
Dall-e
This page lists several more.

Icons

https://thenounproject.com/

Give Credit Where Credit Is Due:

Offer proper attribution for the source of the photo.

Many thanks to the following for your contributions to the above:

Members of Ray Edwards Copywriting Academy
Members of Sam Ovens Consulting Accelerator
Right Management
YourOnlineGenius
Many others

Photo credit: https://quotefancy.com/fun-quotes

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The Author

Dylan Cornelius

I am the creator of the Career Acceleration Academy.

I have more than 30 years experience in business and leadership, including degrees in psychology and business, working as a recruiter and team leader building and leading small and large, collocated and remote teams, in Silicon Valley and around the world.

I am glad you're here!