Sourcing Free Photos And Graphics

Images and photos sourced from Government websites are often in the public domain and may be used freely on your website.

Here’s a cool tip for sourcing royalty-FREE (and free) graphics from the public domain.

Richard, one of our writers msg’d me this on skype:

[3:18:12 AM] Richard Kaulfers: Whats up bud, here is a Military Public Affairs tip. You can Profit off of anything and everything posted on a .gov website. How can this be useful? FREE Graphics and Images of some pretty cool shyt.

[3:18:32 AM] Richard Kaulfers: and .mil

[3:26:47 AM] Richard Kaulfers: Learned about it yesterday. I asked who ownes the Content I produce for the military. My teacher (18 years in the field says.) The government, which is owned by the people of the USA which have free access to what ever we produce. I cannot my self profit from it but “You” can. If I take a picture with Uncle Sams Camera of some awesome plane crash ect…you can make T-shirts, mugs, do what ever you want with it.

[3:27:31 AM] Richard Kaulfers: use it for cool images for blog posts, ads, what ever.

[3:28:58 AM] Richard Kaulfers: Like these images http://www.af.mil/photos/mediagallery.asp?galleryID=9127

I did some digging to verify this is true.

And it is!

Wikipedia adds the following:

Works of the United States are often in the public domain. An easy way to find such images is to search with the restriction to site:.gov OR site:.mil. Again, be creative and vary your search terms. Not all images on the .gov or .mil sites are public domain, however. In case of doubt, ask. In case of doubt, ask. You’re on the safe side if you can find a public domain notice that says something along the line of:

In general, information presented on this web site, unless otherwise indicated, is considered in the public domain. It may be distributed or copied as permitted by law.

Remember, when you use any images on your business website, it is considered…

COMMERCIAL USE.

So ALWAYS get permission, pay licensing fees, or best yet, use images in the public domain when possible.

Of course there are other ways to get graphics and images for your website.

We have an EXTENSIVE module on graphics and their psychology in sales in the IBA Training. So far this has been one of the favourite modules of our students. I encourage you to consider the training for this information alone!

Make sure to check it out here:

http://jimyaghi.com/ylacademy

~jim

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