If you follow along with any of my blogs (including Single Dad Laughing), you know that I use a lot of stock photography. And why shouldn’t I? Awesome images make any post ten times more grabbing when a user clicks in, and chances are, other people have already taken the perfect shot for my message.
I’ve tried several different stock photography sites, and I think that for almost every blogger, their best bet is going to be Deposit Photos, as seen in this ad here (you can click it and try downloading a few for free):
Let me tell you why they are now my number one go-to for stock photography (for all my blogs).
First, they have a subscription service for low-volume downloaders that is reasonable. I have yet to find any other stock photography site that offers that. There are some sites with a bigger selection of images, images of celebrities, etc., but you’re also going to be paying three to eight times more to be members.
Subscriptions are also nice to have because you aren’t as limited as you are with pay-per-download options. For example, on DepositPhotos, I can download five images per day. Any image. I can also throw vector images into the mix.
And while that’s nice, it doesn’t necessarily set them apart. What really makes them my go-to is that with my subscription, I can download any image in ANY size that it’s offered.
When it comes to pay-per-download options, I was always finding myself purchasing images that were much smaller than what I actually wanted to use to make my blog posts look awesome. They didn’t stretch across my entire main column, which sucked. But, it was always better than paying a couple extra bucks for the next size up. With DespositPhotos, I don’t have to worry about that. I can download images that are high enough resolution to put on huge posters or park benches if I wanted.
Of course, if you’d rather pay image by image because the subscription service is too pricy for you, they offer credit packages at a buck per credit. One credit will download the smallest image, usually about 400-450 pixels on the longest side.
As for selection, they have millions and millions of photos available to search through. I was curious how many photos there were of women with red peppers in their mouths, so I did a search. They had nine pages of results, including the image I’ve included to the left. Click it. You’ll notice that you can view it at a full 1400 pixels, which is only a fraction of the 5,616 pixels I downloaded it at.
They also make it easy to filter the results so that if you type in something like “smile” you can narrow it down to men by telling it to remove any photos that are also tagged “woman.”
So, if you’re ready to make the investment and move away from the subpar free images that you can find (or even the illegal images you’re using without permission), try DepositPhotos. Take it from me, I’ve saved you a lot of work with this recommendation.
Dan Pearce, My Big Blog Secrets
