Successful new bloggers create or use beautiful and compelling images in all their blog posts. Using images within your written text makes your blog more readable and look more professional. Most people will be first drawn to reading your post headline, then scan the text for subheadings, pull quotes, and photographs with captions.
These indicators help readers decide whether to stay and read more, or hit the Back button and find content that’s more relevant. Walls of unbroken text turn off visitors and are difficult to read.
You need to be very careful when using others’ images in your blog posts. You can’t assume that just because an image is on the Web that you can use it. Unless you’re using purchased stock photography or clearly marked Creative Commons images, you can’t be sure you’re using the images legally.
This is especially true of images you find from search engines, most of which are fully copyrighted. When in doubt, ask for permission before you post someone else’s work. If you offer to link back to that person’s website, you’ll find that many people would be happy to say yes to such a request.
So how do you make sure an image is legal to use in your blog? You have several options for legally obtaining images:
Take and use your own photos: One of the better investments you can make in your blogging business is to have a good digital camera and use plenty of your own original photographs in your content. You don’t need to be a professional photographer, but good photographers have an advantage as bloggers. Compelling images create another reason for readers to come back to your blog.
Use stock photographs: An alternative to taking your own photographs is using stock photography. Stock photography can be expensive, but sometimes can be appropriate. iStockPhoto is a good resource for affordable stock photographs.
Search for photos that use the Creative Commons license on Flickr: Creative Commons is an organization that helps copyright owners protect their work in various ways.
If you want to find other people’s images to use in your blog posts, you need to find works using the Attribution, Attribution-ShareAlike, or Attribution-NoDerivs licenses because you’re using these images in a commercial way if you make money from your blog, or plan to in the future.
Here’s how to find photos with Creative Common licenses on Flickr:
Go to Flickr.com.
If you have a Flickr account, sign in. If you don’t have a Flickr account, you can still search for photos.
Enter a keyword into the Search field at the top-right of the page and click the Search link.
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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/use-photography-and-images-in-mom-blog-posts.html
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