How To Make Money | The Definitive Don’ts

Not Playing Nice With Images

Images are an essential part of any blog. They give readers something to look at besides huge blocks of text. Unless your blog is stuck in the early days of the internet, my guess is that you have at least a few images interspersed among posts. If you’re one of those people that use images with complete disregard for their licensing terms and so forth, your blog may be in a heap of trouble.

How Some Bloggers Choose to Find Images

Many people seem to think that they can head to Google image search, type in the image they are looking for, pick the one they like and put it up on their blog. Let me assure you that this is not the case. A majority of the images that Google image search brings up are copyrighted. That means you are not permitted to use the images without the express consent of the copyright holder. If you have images on your blog that were discovered through Google image search, my suggestion is that you remove them as quickly as possible. You may be infringing on someone’s copyright.

The Right Way To Find Images

There are numerous websites that offer free images for blogging. My two personal favorites are Flickr and Stock Exchange. They both provide a variety of high quality images that will complement any blog. Be sure to pay careful attention to the licensing terms for the images you choose.

Licensing Terms And Why They Are Important

Licensing terms basically tell us what we are allowed to do with an image. If you want to use an image, you MUST do everything that the terms specify. Let’s pretend you were to use an image from Flickr, and the image was licensed under a Creative Commons license. If the license specified that you were to attribute the image, you’d need do just that. If you decide not to attribute an image as per licensing terms, it will return to haunt you. Do what you’re supposed to do the first time!

A Final Thing To Consider

Sometimes you’ll come across an image on a blog or website that you absolutely need to have on your blog. If this is the case, be sure to upload the image to your own servers. People dislike it when you steal their bandwidth by hot-linking to images. Be courteous and host the file elsewhere.

If You Decide To Ignore This Post

If you decide to continue on your merry way stealing images and/or bandwidth I guarantee that trouble will be waiting for you just around the corner. It could be as harmless as a nasty comment on your blog or as fatal as legal action against you. Be smart, don’t misuse images.

Image: Pugno Muliebriter

images copyright licensing flickr google