As part of my training with John Thornhill’s Partnership to Success, he mentioned that my blog would be enhanced with the use of some good images and he recommended using the service provided by ‘Pexels’. They offer a wide range of images that can be used for free. All photos on Prexels are licensed under the Creative Commons zero (CCO) license which allows you to use them free for any personal and commercial purpose and attribution is not required, although Pexels do appreciate a mention!
The photos can be edited, text added and modified in any other way. They can also be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin pages. They are free for any commercial purpose and can be printed on t-shirts or for any other legal purpose. You can also submit your own photos to Pexels and after the curation team have chosen the best ones you will be notified by email, this usually takes one or two days.
I found that, unlike some sites, it was a very quick process from initial registration to downloading the chosen photographs. I have printed some off and made notelets for my wife to use as thank you notes and the quality is very good. There is also a useful range of textures and the photographs are listed under a number of different headings although you can key in your requirements and appropriate photographs will appear very quickly.
Pexels Plugin
This plugin helps you search, browse and download those photos directly to your WordPress site, giving you the benefits of hosting them (cropping, compressing, caching etc.).
FEATURES
- Search and browse thousands of free stock photos from Pexels
- Add ANY image to your WordPress Media Library with one click
- Use the image inside your post/page content
- Use the image as a Featured Image
- No attribution required (really!)
SCREENSHOTS AND DOCUMENTATION
- To start searching and using images, simply go to your post/page editor, click on “Add Media”, and choose the “Pexels Images” tab
- How the Plugin works – visit the Pexels Documentation page to see the screenshots and documentation.