People want well-written posts. People also want attractive images in posts. It's even better if the images relate to the written content.

Thumbnail images attract more clicks to any post. Images can help guide a reader's eyes down the page and through your post. But too often, writers are not also visual artists. They write up a post then remember it needs a couple images.

What's a writer to do?

Find Free High-Quality Images

Many websites that offer royalty-free photos also have restrictions and conditions on the using the images. The difference in what free might mean is sometimes explained as "free as in speech vs. free as in beer."

Some Creative Commons images are only shareable for non-commercial purposes. Some can be reused as-is, but not modified at all. Perhaps the most common restriction is an attribution requirement, meaning that your "free" use of the image depends on crediting the original artist. Failure to do so could land you in trouble.

One of the best places to get truly "free" images that you can use and modify, for commercial purposes or not, with no cumbersome conditions, is Unsplash.

The CC0 No Attribution License

Using the CC0 license, an artist offers their work to others for copying and modifying for commercial or non-commercial purposes, with or without attribution, everywhere, in perpetuity.

"To the greatest extent permitted by, but not in contravention of, applicable law, Affirmer hereby overtly, fully, permanently, irrevocably and unconditionally waives, abandons, and surrenders all of Affirmer's Copyright and Related Rights and associated claims and causes of action, whether now known or unknown"

Artists share their work on Unsplash for a variety of reasons. One is the possibility of gaining additional exposure. Some artists might appreciate you going the extra step of attributing the photo to them. But many members are simply providing their own photos for open use by the community as their way of giving back.

Unsplash makes it very clear in their license that attribution of the images (or where they came from) is NOT required. But if you choose to attribute images you share, they do make that possible.

Make The Image Your Own

There are no restrictions on using the images for commercial vs. non-commercial purposes. Use them for whatever it is you need to improve with images. The images on Unsplash are typically high-quality, high-resolution images - much more so than they need to be, at least for web publication purposes.

There is plenty of room to find a piece of an image that you like; then crop it out, touch it up, and turn it into a work of art all your own. You don't need to be an expert or have the latest software to add your own personal touch to these stock images. (The examples here were all edited in MS Paint and/or Photos.)

Many of the images on Unsplash can be improved to suit your own purposes with even a little editing. Really, it's all about the context you have to place them in - what part of the image best serves your post.

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Maybe you need your image to be a particular shape.

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Sometimes you might want to change the images substantively -

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Perhaps you want to focus on a particular subject -

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Maybe you want to change the tone -

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​Maybe get more personal by getting up close

Whatever imagery your article needs, there is a wealth of freely available visual art out there which has been made available for you to use - with full liberty and at no charge.

Unsplash also offers their convenient 'Unsplash Instant' Chrome plugin that changes your start page to a random photo from their collection. That way you can download random intriguing images without devoting blocks of time to browsing stock photo sites.

Unsplash is by far my favorite CC0 image site. Be sure to give it a look. In my next post, I'll look at a few more options and discuss their pros and cons.

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Questions for the comments:
Have you used Unsplash? Where else do you find images for your posts?