Visual content like photos and videos has always been more appealing to the human eye and can attract more attention than written narratives. Marketers have always used photos to attract the attention of their customers, providing them with an eye-catching visual which gives the customer a view of the item which he’s going to buy. In recent years, blogging has become a huge trend in the market and again visual content is a key component of it; providing the viewers with a narrative as well as a photograph can become more appealing.
Big companies also generate a budget for the hiring of a photographer and a graphic designer who’s only duty is to make eye-catching photographs so that they can be used for the promotion of the company. When it comes to bloggers, although some do use their photographers, most of the content creators rely on the internet. Hiring employees for photography and designing can be expensive so an easy and brilliant alternative for that is to create global storage of free photographs and make them available for everyone.
Best stock photo websites provide the user with photos which can either be paid or non-paid depending on the provider. As everyone knows that visual aid is required to make their content more appealing website like Shutterstock provide paid services; you have to pay to download images from Shutterstock. On the other hand, there are some websites from which free downloading is available, anyone can access these sites and download the content for their use. A few of the free stock photo websites are, Unsplash, Stockvault, Pexels, and Picjumbo, etc.
Why should you start a free stock photos website?
in this modern era, content is very important to make sales. Organizations use stock websites to pick-up visual aids to make their advertisements more attractive. Here are a few reasons why should invest your time and a little amount of money into stock photo websites.
Demand for Visual Content: premium and original quality content is the demand for senior marketing officers. Companies, as well as individuals, use free stock websites to get photographs for their marketing purposes. Other than that the paid websites provide a guarantee that the image will not appear on every corner or network.
Uninterrupted supply of Photos: if there is a free stock photo website many people upload their photographs on that website and which is then open for the use of others. In recent years smartphone cameras have improved so much that they can be used for creating high-quality content. This means that there is a huge number of contributors to the stock website. Everyone can contribute to free websites.
Competitive Business Advantage: the competition in the stock photo market has grown as websites like Shutterstock do not allow every contributor’s content to appear on a high position which means that the contributor’s dissatisfaction increases. This allows the new platforms to get an easy entry to the market as well as the contributors.
Entry to the Stock Photo Market
Entring the market is very easy for new platforms. New contributors are always ready to provide their content to the website. With proper marketing tools, the owner of the free platform can create a hip for the website. This can easily attract people who have an interest in providing their content. Keep in mind being a free stock photo website doesn’t mean that there is no money involved, there is always a fee involved. Licenses are always present; one of the most common license types is that of Royalty-free, which provides many usages right at minimum cost.
A royalty-free stock license gives users the right to use the image for commercial, personal or editorial purposes without any limitation of time. In the end, you do have to pay for the photographs you download but don’t have to pay repeatedly instead one time payments are made.
Free Stock Photo Websites
Many platforms can be found on the internet which is providing free content to the users. This content can easily be used for blogs and marketing puposes. The prominent websites which provide free images are as follows:
Unsplash
One of the leading websites in the market, Unsplash has a collection of 300,000 high-quality images that are contributed but over 50,000 individuals, and this number is constantly growing. Although Unsplash does not provide the same volume as the paid websites, the photos are top quality and there is a great chance that you will find what you are looking for on this website.
Gratisography
This website has a unique aim. They say that they are the ‘world’s quirkiest collection of high-resolution free stock images”. They give chance to the contributors who make unique and unorthodox pictures and only the most peculiar images get the chance to be published on this website.
Pexels
You can not mention free stock images without the mention of Pexels. They have a vast well-organized collection of images. In addition to that, they also provide free stock videos as well. Most of the bloggers use this website for visual aids.
Stockvault
This is another great source of stock images and wallpapers. They do have a small collection as compared to Unsplash but they are on the rise and competing head to head with other free stock photo websites.
Prikwizard
This website brings a new addition to the industry. It has a huge collection of unique stock photos but it also provides basic editing, like adding text before downloading. Although the basics are free, the paid versions are also available which add to the online editing tools.
As you can see all the websites do have their competencies and bring something new to the table. The industry is growing very fast and new platforms like this are always emerging providing new services to the users as well as the contributors.
What’s in it for you?
If you see this from a user’s perspective, you can have a wide range of photographs at your disposal which you can use while making blogs or presentations as well as in marketing. It can save a lot of money. The cost of hiring a professional photographer is very high as compared to these websites.
If you see this from the perspective of the platform provider, is equally as beneficial for you. Individuals from all over the world will be providing you with their content and even a larger number of users will be using that content. It becomes a win-win situation. You can get financial benefits only by providing a platform over the internet.
Conclusion
If you wish to make a free stock photo website, bring something new to the market and be innovative in your approach. Keep a large scale plan in your mind about the website you are going to create. And then decide how you will make the website and what services you will provide as you have seen that every free stock website has its projection which differentiates it from the rest of the websites.
On the other hand, you can even hire professionals who can help you set up a website and even assist you in managing the website. This can give you a huge boost in capturing the stock imagery.