Flickr 'angel_caido'

I really HATE stock photos (at least the cheap ones). They just suck for the most part and I get nauseous every time I see those lame stock photos of a person with a laptop and their hands up in the air. I’m sure you know which ones I’m talking about, eh?

I also don’t like ripping off other images just to get better photos. So what’s a good solution for good photos for your website, blog, Squidoo lens, Hubpage?

Flickr!

Dig around on Flickr for a little while and you’ll see some really interesting, engaging, and captivating photos! It’s like night and day compared to free or $1 stock photos.

The question then is how, when, and where can you use them for your marketing website or page?

Flickr users can choose to offer their photos for use by others under a little something called creative commons license, which you can find on Flickr with a filter under their advanced search, or browse this page:

Flickr Creative Commons Photos

There’s several different licensing rules contributors can set, but as Internet Marketers you’ll need to mainly focus on 2 categories that allow for commercial use, which are:

This generally means you can use the photo and alter it into a derivate form, as long as you give proper credit.

This one basically means you can use the photo “as-is” with no alterations, and must give credit.

For giving credit, there’s multiple ways to do it and Creative Common’s language is kind of open to interpretation and subject to some specifications by each contributor. I’ve used my own interpretation for credit on this post, but there’s a good short thread on Metafilter for how to credit creative commons work with a comment by someone who says they used to work for CC.

A great example of a blog making extensive use of Flickr photos is the health blog called Disease Proof. Have a look on there and see how captivating and engaging it makes all the posts. And while you’re at it, read the excellent diet advice they have on there…good stuff.

If you think an issue like photos is trivial, think again! Dave and I have seen many split test results of our own, and seriously, things as simple as a good photo, a headline tweak, etc…can sometimes make all the difference in the world when it comes to getting visitors to stick around, click through, and ultimately making a sale. You don’t have to use Flickr of course, but be creative and interesting…it’ll go a long way.

Oh…and here’s another cool tool for finding Flickr photos based on color. Play around and check it out:

MultiColr Search Lab

By using Flickr, you too can add wonderful and interesting photos to your site just like this one (Doh!):

Flickr 'spaztacular'

Or wait…maybe this is a better example.

Flickr 'walkadog'

Thad

photos by angel_caid0, spaztacular, and walkadog via flickr under creative commons license.