In the last few days I have had to tell a couple of clients about royalty free images and how they can’t simply use any image they find to promote their business. It prompted me to think about writing this article to help you stay on the right side of image copyright.
Using images to promote your business without copyright permission can lead to a nasty fine. This happened to us when we first launched our business. So we learnt the hard way. In fact, it nearly put us out of business.
There are a couple of things you should know….
- Searching for images online
Just because you can search Google or Bing for images, this doesn’t mean you can simply use them. In fact I would suggest you don’t at all.
- Using a service such as shutterstock or other imagebanks
Because they give you the ability to download watermarked images, this still don’t give you the proper permissions to use these images in a commercial capacity. You still need to pay for usage.
So what can you do as a business to get imagery you can use?
Buy images from an image library
Sign up with an image library such as depositphotos.com where you can buy the rights to use images for as little as $1 each. So they are not expensive.
DIY
With your mobile phone you can take images yourself using your phone. These will be good quality for online use. Plus the added benefit is these images will be unique to you.
Hire a photographer
This could be pretty extreme and possibly expensive but this could be an option if you are looking for something special, or creating a theme.
As you can see there are a few ways you can use and find images to be used online and in your social media activity. Avoid simply lifting imagery from the Web.
If you are outsourcing anything involving imagery (content, social media, etc) then do make sure your outsourced partner are using licensed images. If they aren’t, you could find yourself facing a hefty fine.
