We all know that a pictures speaks a 1000 words and make a posts so much more engaging.
We’ve often been asked, Where are the best places to find royalty free images for your blog? Here is a list we’ve put together of sites where you can find images safe to use on your blog.
You CANNOT just pull any pretty image you find from a Google image search and use it in your blog. This is copyright infringement. Even if you give credit, you can still find yourself in a lot of hot water and on the receiving end of an expensive law suit.
There are only 3 kinds of images you should be using on your blog.

1. Your own pictures. The best kind of pictures to use in your post are your own.
2. Royalty free/creative common image. Meaning the copyright owner has licensed the picture free for use by others. Check the fine print though, as often you will still need to credit the image.
3. An image you have paid for a licence to use OR have asked for explicit permission from the copyright owner to use the image.

If you have not taken the picture, paid for it, been given specific permission from the picture owner or are 100% sure the image is royalty free you should never use it in a blog post.
So where can you find images that are safe to use?

Google image search to find creative commons images – You can still google image search for pictures, but make sure in the search options you are selecting the option to search via usage rights.

Wikimeadia commons – Brought to you by the folks at Wikipedia. Large resource of images, videos and sounds.
Creative commons search – Helps you search a number of different creative commons libraries.

Photopin – An easy way to search for creative commons images on Flickr.
Free stock image libraries

• Stock xc
• Pexel
• Boss Fight
• Morguefiles
• RGBstock
• Pixabay 
• Life of Pix
• Unsplash

Paid Image Libraries

• Graphic river
• Deposit Photo
• iStock Photo

It is not worth the risk using a picture that you do not have the correct permission for when there are so many other legal and safe options.
Know of any other great image resources? Comment please