The Captain Coder Podcast

Where to Find Images for Your Marketing (Legally)

October 25, 2022 Marisa VanSkiver, Captain Coder Season 2 Episode 22
The Captain Coder Podcast
Where to Find Images for Your Marketing (Legally)
Show Notes Transcript

One hurdle in creating digital marketing pieces for a lot of business owners is finding images they can use - and that they actually like.

It can be expensive to have photos shot for you by a professional, and maybe you need an image of a cityscape or something nowhere near you.

The problem with just going to Google Images?

You’re probably violating copyright laws and you’re putting your business and your content at risk.

There are better ways to source images to use throughout your marketing - legally!

Episode Show Notes and Links

Be honest. Have you ever gone to Google Images, grabbed an image there and just said, Eh, that's all right. And you used it in your blog poster even on social media. Now look, one hurdle in creating digital marketing pieces and what creates a lot of headaches for business owners is finding images they can use and that they actually like. And it is really easy to fall into the Google Images trap, and I get it. It can be expensive to have photos shot for you by a professional and maybe you need an image of a cityscape or something that is nowhere near you. But the problem with just going to Google images, you're probably violating copyright laws and you're putting your business and your content at risk. Now, there are better ways to source images to use throughout your marketing legally. Let's learn all about how to find images that you can use and actually love for your marketing. You're listening to the Captain Coder podcast. Each week I take you through actual strategies that can help you grow your online business. I'm your host, Marisa VanSkiver, AKA Captain Coder. You may be wondering why we're covering this today. What's, what's been coming up in my mind recently? Why am I thinking about images and legal images? Well, one, it's a teaching season for me. I teach October through basically March cuz I teach two classes over two eight week periods for Wichita State. We talk a lot about legalities and online marketing best practices. And so of course that kind of stuff is going to be front of mind for me. I also see people ask this question all of the time, How can I use images? Where can I find images that I actually like? But the number one reason I wanna talk about this today is there's a common scam going around the internet right now. Several of my clients have actually gotten this and have sent me panicked emails. So let me explain Right now, people are getting emails through their contact forms on their websites, just a simple contact form submission. And they claim that the website is using their copyrighted images. So whomever is submitting that contact form claims, Hey, this emailed message is a legal communication and you are using copyrighted images from XYZ company. And I have seen, I have seen some really big supposed communications from companies that are huge, one of them being Trello. That's one of the many that I've seen people get emails claiming to be from them. Now a few of my clients, like I said, have gotten this email in their inbox from their contact form and all of them panicked. Well, why wouldn't they? They're being threatened with a lawsuit through their contact form. Now here's the thing, how did I know that each of these were actually a new scam going around trying to get quick money out of business owners? Well first, let's be honest and I'm going to have my attorney <laugh> client on in a few weeks and I'm gonna ask her this question, but I highly doubt any legal communication would be sent through a contact form that just, uh, doesn't really fit for me just given my very rudimentary knowledge gleaned from years of watching Lot and order and other legal shows. Um, listen, let's be real. Most of my legal knowledge right now is coming from She Hulk. However, most importantly, I also know that when I'm sourcing images for their websites, I'm doing so from sources that are 100% legal for me to get images from. Now, when it comes to finding images you can use for your online marketing, you do need to pay attention to licenses. Each of these resources I'm gonna talk about here in a couple minutes, all of them have varied licenses that you need to make sure you're paying attention to. Is the image okay for a business to use? Are you grabbing it from just any corner of the internet? Bad? That's a bad thing to do. Don't do that. And if you are grabbing an image for editorial reasons, like in an article that you're writing or a blog post, are you at least properly citing the source if you're using it for that context? Because that's okay as long as you're giving credit back and you're telling people, This does not belong to me. This came from so and so. You know, there's still need to double check, but that can be okay. Okay, This can all get really complex and I get it. I was actually searching for images for the blog post attached to today's podcast episode. And when I was on Adobe stock, which I will talk about here in a second, I had to make sure that I was selecting ones that were licensed for commercial use, not editorial use. Could I consider a blog post, an editorial piece? Yes, of course I could. Do, I wanna take their risk that other people would consider an editorial piece because it's a blog on a commercial website. No, I don't wanna take that risk. So I made sure I picked one that was free and available for commercial use. So let's shortcut all of this legal step, all of this legal stress and instead go to the best sources for images on the internet. Now the first one that you can do is you can, there are actually quite a few free stock photo libraries out there available. And you know what, Some of them have really good images to use. You just need to be sure that depending on the images you're selecting, cuz they're all going to say this is a proper stock photo library is all going to have a little note there about how you can use this image, whether it's free for commercial use, whether you need to provide some kind of attribution back to it or some kind of note on your website about this. Link it back to the source. All of them are going to have some kind of fine print to say that it's okay on how it's okay to use those images for business purposes. Now you may have less of a selection with a free stock photo service. You'll still be able to find beautiful unique images that you can use on your website and in your marketing. Some of my favorite sites with free images that you can use include Unsplash Pixels and Free Pick. All of them linked in today's show notes. Now while many of the images you'll find on each of these sites might be similar because honestly creators can upload their pictures to different free sites and you're gonna find some of the same pictures on these libraries. They'll have a pretty good selection of free images for you to use. Unsplash and Free Pick actually both offer a paid upgrade now where you're able to get specific and more premium photos. But honestly, I often find what I like in the free versions so I'm okay. Now, of course, free is always great and I do tend to personally start on Un Splash and pixels myself, but I highly suggest having a subscription with a professional stock photo website, especially if you're using stock photos on a regular basis. Now for me, I'm building websites not just for myself of course, but I'm building websites for clients. So it's really important for me to have access to a good stock photo library that I can utilize. Cuz honestly my clients all don't all have photos that they can provide. But it just also helps with my own social media and my own marketing blog posts, all of those things. Personally, I use Adobe Stock because I already use the Adobe suite of software and I kind of prefer mostly their photography style to some of the other paid subscriptions out there. Adobe Stock is also a reasonably priced subscription compared to some of the others cuz honestly, stock photos can get pretty pricey when you're looking at some of these paid options, which is why there are so many free ones on the internet. Let's be real. Now, other paid subscriptions like iStock and Shutter Stock can provide you with a much wider selection, honestly, better search results and more unique shots. Believe me, if you spend enough time on Unsplash, you'll start to recognize Unsplash photography in other people's marketing. It's a fun game. I I highly recommend it. Not really, it's look, it's fun for me. Don't go waste your time digging into that for fun. I really need to realign my idea of fun anyway. <laugh>, I can distract myself talking to myself in a room that is problematic. Okay? The stereotype of some of these stock photo sites of having cheese or stock shots is true. And sometimes that's also a fun game. If you have a little bit extra time, just make sure that before you buy a license or a plan of any kind that you're looking for a few different types of photos and make sure that you actually like the selection that you're getting back. You know, it's, it's helpful to make sure that it matches your brand, how you feel about things and that you're actually going to be able to use the plan and the images that you're purchasing. Now, a lot of these paid options do have really small plans where you get only a few images per month or maybe a few per year because maybe you don't need as many, but you just wanna have the option there. Um, also see if you can find the weirdest shots. That's another fun game. If you happen to have an extra five or 20 minutes of time, you know, I promise I work guys, but sometimes you do go down a stock photo rabbit hole that is highly amusing. Now what a lot of people don't understand is that you would actually find free to use images through Google image image search, say that five times fast. Cause apparently I can't say it once. You just have to take an extra step to make sure that you know you're not vi violating copyright laws Now. So once you've gone to, say you've gone to Google Image search, you've typed in your search term, you've selected images, you'll see that you have in the top right of your search results. This is great podcast material I know, but there is a screenshot for you in the attached blog post@cappedcoder.com, LinkedIn, today's shoutouts, you'll see that you have a tools button. This opens up a few things for you to do to narrow down and filter your Google image search results. One of those is usage rights. Just select Creative Commons licenses from the dropdown. Now, you will wanna make sure that you click through to the source and double check the commercial use policy because even though they're under a creative commons, there are varying levels to the Creative Commons licenses and what that means you can do with that image. But it is a quick way to search through honestly, many free stock image sites at once and other places you might not be thinking of because let's be real, it is the all powerful Google and of course,<laugh> the easiest way to protect yourself and your business and to know and understand the copyright attached to the images you're using. Take as many as you can on your own. Look, I know that not all of us are gifted photographers. I have a decent eye when it comes to landscapes. Um, do not make me take pictures of people that doesn't tend to work out as well. I am getting better at the selfie game. However, uh, most of us though, we have a pretty decent camera in our hand for about 80% of the day. Let me do that math on that. How long do we all sleep anyway? Your own pictures not stock. Photos are honestly better for social media especially even if they're not the prettiest option. After all, those are more authentically you and your clients and your prospects will love that because let's be real, as service providers, they're, you are the ser, you are the person providing the service. You and your team are the people providing the service and people really want to get to know you. It's all about that personal connection and authenticity is key. Now, if you can have a photographer take a few headshots of you and your team, put together some ideas by going through Pinterest boards. Give your photographer ideas of what kind of shots you would like to have. Take notes when you're scheduling social media and say, Man, I really wish I had a shot, a picture of me doing this, that, or the next thing. And then just make sure after the photo shoot that they give you a piece of paper that says, basically you have the digital rights to these photos. That'll just cover you in the long run. Now, I was able to put one of my clients in particular at ease over the contact form image, right image, copyright scam thing that they got because I had in fact taken every single image used on her website. I knew that they were protected and that they were okay for us to use because we had generated that content internally. So if you create your own content, you don't have to worry about any of this. I just know that creating your own photos and videos even not really an option for all of us because we're busy. So you wanna mix and match. Now, there will always be a place, like I said, to use those stock photos. But when you can start with what you can do yourself and fill in those gaps from the places that are 100% legal for you to do now, listen your business, that is your baby, The last thing you wanna do is to take shortcuts that can put your business at risk. The next time you need an image, either make sure you're using Google Image, lose the proper way by narrowing down the usage race like we talked about. Or better yet, just start with a free stock photo website. I have heard horror stories and cautionary tales from other agency friends who had clients who had to shell out thousands of dollars for the improper use of images. Like they went to Getty and took images from Getty's website. Didn't think that through. Do not be that person. Respect the copyright, protect your business, and take just a few minutes longer to find images you can use legally. Thank you all for tuning in to our show this week. To catch more Captain Coder, you can subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app. Now, if you have any questions or you wanna learn more about digital marketing and how it can help grow your online business, follow us on Instagram@CaptainCoder or visit us online at captcoder.com. Can't wait to talk to you all again next week.