Give Each Blog Post a Pretty Face With Flickr

February 28, 2009 · Comments

happy face I was asked by a friend on Twitter where I got all the pictures that I use for my blog posts (like the one you see in the top left of this post). The answer is that I get them off Flickr. But there’s more to it than that. Here’s a quick run-through of how I use photos on this site, and some more about Flickr.

First, A Note About Creative Commons

The photos that I use on Flickr for this blog are licensed to be used under Creative Commons. That means there are some rules to using them, but if you abide by the rules, you can use them. (More on Creative Commons.). There are multiple rules for these photos. I use the least restrictive photos, found by searching using this link, which will give you any photos posted by people who simply want credit attributed to them for their work.

Attribution

First off, this post by Steve Garfield should be required reading. He’s right that Flickr’s system needs some tidying up. That said, I’ll write from the perspective of how I’ve been using photos and how I attribute them.

The word “attribution” in this case means giving credit to a person for their work. The photo above was taken (or at least posted) by someone who goes by the name M@rg. If you note above, I’ve made the photo clickable, such that it takes you directly to the person’s Flickr page. Further, skip down to the bottom of this post, and you’ll see an italicized area where I point out the photo credit.

The best way to give credit would be to have the text of “photo by” or something directly under the photo, but I’ve yet to figure out the proper html syntax to accomplish that neatly for my blog. (You’re welcome to recommend how, in comments). That aside, I’ve at least give two ways for you to realize who snapped the photo, and how to find more about him or her.

Make Sure You Share As Well

I love that so many people make photos available for use on Flickr. You should be sure that your own settings in Flickr are set appropriately. I’ve written about that here. Simply, go into your Flickr account and adjust your settings here.

Quick Recap

To use great photos from Flickr for your blog posts:

  1. Search for photos here.
  2. Provide attribution by making the photo link back to the original source, and by adding a photo credit.
  3. Share your own photos by updating your settings.

There. Anything else? Ideas? Thoughts?

Photo credit, M@rg

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  • Thank you!! I also like to use relevant pics with my blog posts and have trouble finding credits to go with them when I search elsewhere.
  • I've often wondered about this. Thanks for the post!

    Regards,

    Matt
  • jp
    Thanks for this, Chris. I HAVE always wondered where the great photos come from!
  • Very helpful information, Chris. I first learned about using Creative Commons photos on Flickr by following the links to images on your blog. Why not learn from the best?

    Many thanks for sharing your expertise,

    Irene

    http://twitter.com/irenekoehler
  • Great post, thanks Chris. I have tried to use Flickr for finding such pics in the past however have found the licensing a tad confusing . . . thanks for clearing that up.

    I have been looking at various different commons sites over the past few months and have listed some of my faves here: http://delicious.com/mfubib/assets
  • Great post Chris, like I really needed to say that.

    As a person who feeds his family from photography, I have a love/hate relationship with Flickr and Creative Commons.

    I think it is a great way for young aspiring photographers to get exposure and credit for their amazing talents. BUT I draw the line when Madison Ave. Agencies, or any size agency for that matter wants to scoop up someone's images for nothing and profit tremendously from it.

    Personally all my images are All RIghts Reserved, but if I had a quarter for every inquiry from a GIANT ad agency that contacts me via Flickr saying "You know we really don't have a large budget for this Zillion dollar account we are doing work for" I'd be a zillionaire.

    What are your thoughts on that side of things?
  • A recently released windows application called Ginipic does a great job at finding photos for use in blogs or presentations. It searched multiple photo search engines in parallel and can be told to look for photos with creative commons licenses only.
  • I love when I get really excited over the seemingly smallest things. When you pointed out that you set up the photo to click back to the person's Flickr page, it was giant "aha", even though in retrospect it seems so obvious. Thanks once again Chris!
  • You just saved me bucks from what I was spending at istockp... Love istockp.., but...

    I will forward.

    -R
    twitter.com/1080group
  • Chris, great writeup.

    In teaching business clients how to blog, I take them through the exact process you described. I found a great blog post on skelliewag.org that helped me understand how to source photos from Flickr for blog posts. I had been reading the Zenhabits lifestyle blog and was moved by the photos Leo included in his posts.

    Many people new to blogging think they need to do everything themselves. This can apply to photography as well. One client wanted to write a blog post where he described the many different hats he wore as a consultant. A couple of weeks went by and he kept saying he couldn't write the blog post until he took a photo of himself wearing a lot of hats piled atop his head. He finally posted with no photo. I decided to take a chance by finding a photo of hats on Flickr under the Creative Commons license and updating his post. I wasn't sure how he would take it but... he LOVED it! I explained about CC licensing, why it's important to credit the photographer and how it would help to pull readers deeper into his blog posts.

    It was the turning point for him in social networking (I think) and now he happily hops on Flickr to source photos for his blog posts!
  • wordwrangler
    I add a photo caption by typing the photo name and photographer name, then highlighting it and clicking the add link button. A box pops up for you to add the URL to the photo and photographer. I paste those URLs in there and click done.

    You can see the result in my blog.
  • wordwrangler
    follow up: my blog is here:
    http://mikem33607.wordpress.com/
  • Awesome info! I've been meaning to do better with including pix with my posts. Thanks!
  • Nice post Chris - as a copywriter, it seems like I've always written to an image. I continue to use this kind of thinking with my blog as I always try to marry up an image to the core concept: www.obsessedwithconformity.com. I also like how Creative Commons has stepped up into the virtual realm to help curb unlimited use of Intellectual Property. I personally think that IP is going to be a bigger issue in the coming years. CC is at least trying to do something about it.
  • Thanks, gang. I'm glad it worked for you. : )
  • Chris,
    Try this css:
    div.photoleft {float:left;border: 1px solid #999; padding:5px; text-align:center; color: #000; font:9px/.9em Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}
    div.photoright {float:right;border: 1px solid #000; padding:5px; text-align:center; color: #000; font:9px/.9em Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}
    and enclose the picture in this:


    Photo by Ingrid Fuller

    Of course, you can take the border out if you like. Let me know if this works for you.
  • I have a bit of a problem with the way Flickr does things. I am a big Flickr user and if you look at my profile you will see that I have no problem if someone uses one of my photos on their blogs. However, that blog must be not for profit. Secondly, I like to be asked if it is okay to use my photo. I don't care that you link back. I want to be asked first:)
  • In addition to the citation and link back, I also leave a comment on the Flickr photo page thanking the person for making their image available via CC and linking back to my post so they can see how I have used it.
  • @Joe - I don't know what to tell you. There's still a market for pro photographers, and I think that quality deserves payment. For my blog posts? I am just as happy using the stuff people put up for free just to share. To me, they're two different things.

    @LadyExpat - those are good things to wish for, but then that's something with the way Creative Commons lays it out, too. There's not really an "ask first" license at current (that I'm aware of). There's a non-commercial setting in Creative Commons, so that one can be met. But the other is trickier.
  • Thanks for the help, Chris. I have set up my account and will use it in the future!
  • Wow! That was fast. It was only hours ago I posed the question. Thank you, Chris, for a great step by step process and relevant links. I will try it out!

    Ben Strong; @amver on Twitter
  • Sorry the css code didn't show on my last post.

    Just add [ style="width:100px;" ] to the div class= and use the image size you are adding. It will automatically wrap the text under the picture.

    Hope that helps.
  • Great post! I include photos in all my posts, but normally just search in google. This is more focused, so thanks!

    -Rachel (@bostonmarketer)
  • I think it's important to stress that when bloggers are using photos off Flickr, they remember to attribute the photos they use to the creator. That message seems to get lost sometimes ~ at least according to some of my Flickr friends who discover their photos have been used without any attribution. Maybe more bloggers need to be encouraged to take their own photos.
  • A great site I've found recently is www.compfight.com. Compfight is a search enging for flickr. it's fast and loads many more photos onto one page so that you can see a whole lot at once. it also allows you to search according to the type of copyright attached to the photos.
  • And especially if you are using Flickr to source free photos, you can take advantage of Flickr's built in tools to post photos on your blog.

    At Flickr.com, go to:
    "You" >Your Account > Extending Flickr

    and you will be able to connect Flickr directly to your blog. This will save you the step of copy pasting the code AND allow you select formatting rule like if your photo will be left or right aligned to the text, where the credit show up and if you want an border around your image.

    It supports Blogger, Moveable Type, Typepad, LiveJournal, Wordpress, Manila and Vox.

    Here, people may say, "But it posts it live to my blog! I don't like that!". For Wordpress, someone has created a solution. I use it on all my blogs and client's blogs. Flickr blog this to draft was created by Donncha, a well know developer of Wordpress.

    Using these two methods makes it easy without the need to mess with html code.
  • I actually try to use as many of my own photos as I can, that way I don't have to worry about it at all. When I use someone else's photos in a post, I almost always attribute the person that took the picture, I have forgotten a few times, but it wasn't purposeful and I go back and attribute it as soon as I realize that I screwed up. I am not going around trying to make any money off their picture, unless it is purely by accident.

    Creative Commons is confusing on Flikr, I have started using Zemanta as a blog helper and whenever I have used one of their pictures it is attributed directly under picture in the entry???? I am not sure where they get the pictures though and am a bit curious...need to do more research on that one :)

    @LadyExpat asking first would be the ideal situation, but if I am trying to get a blog entry posted and I notice that the photo has a request before using, I will probably not use the image and use another one, I just don't want to take the time sometimes, have I asked for permission first - absolutely but not very often. Which means that the person's images aren't used as often as it could be, if at all.

    I know that there have been times I would have preferred that someone had asked before using an image of mine, but as long as they are not making money off them and it is used in "reasonably" good taste -- no porn, overthrow the gov't, drugs, etc. I don't have too many problems with their use. But it is the owners choice on how their images are used not anyone else.

    Perhaps Liz's solution is a good one if you use the image put a comment and link on that page and if the owner objects of the way you have used their IP, they can ask you to take down their image, which I would immediately do.

    But thanks Chris for trying to clear some of this confusion up.
  • You can also try Compfight. Or maybe a few of Idee's products: http://labs.ideeinc.com/
  • Hey Chris,

    There's a plugin mod for that. I have used it under Thesis theme and others: http://www.thesistheme.org/photo-dropper-thesis/

    Basically, you are writing your post and click a button above the text area. Type in a keyword in the little window that appears and search for the image you want. After finding it, you select from three image sizes and everything else is done automatically. The mods suggested by the side allow you to put a Polaroid-like frame around the pic. The results are really good!

    My blog is in Brazilian Portuguese, but you can see results under "big" (Porsche) and "medium" (skies + chicks) sizes over there, if you want. It's the link on my name upthere, pronounced "gee-OH-go".

    Cheers, D.
  • rob
    Chris, are you using the "blog this" feature from flickr? What's your process? Use "blog this" and compose everything from Flickr? Often I feel I have to download the correct size then upload it again to display it - then create attributions.
  • This is what I use to place an image to the right of my text. The angle brackets might get stripped out in this comment.




    Photo credit: Flickr person
  • Didn't work.
  • My Creative Commons terms prohibit the commercial use of my photos. but now and again a publication gets in touch and asks.

    In that case, because my photos aren't all that special, I ask for Kiva vouchers. As they come in increments of $25, and help support entrepreneurs in developing countries through microloans, in many ways it makes it more likely that they'll pay. Check out Kiva.org now!
  • ahockley
    Even though I'm a pro photographer I license my entire Flickr stream as Creative Commons. I'm always glad to see folks use my work for their blog posts, and the exposure from Flickr has led to quite a few paying clients for other work.
  • @Andres

    That is a great idea! I share my photos on Flickr as Creative Commons. Recently a museum contacted me about using one from election day for a democracy exhibit and asked about payment and being credited. Since I'm not a professional, I told them there would be no cost but to please credit me.

    I am going to suggest Kiva next time for compensation!
  • Diogo mentioned that there is a photo dropper plugin for thesis, but there is a also a general Wordpress plugin that searches flickr and inserts the credits just below the photo -- Photo Dropper. I think that might help speed up your blogging workflow for inserting a photo and the link.
  • I make all of my photos available on Creative Commons on flickr. I'm a little behind in my updates, but still.........................

    Please feel free to use any of my photos, with attibution of course.....LisaNewton
  • I use Flickr photos almost every day. When a shot is licensed for use with attribution I send a note to the author regardless. I just think it's polite and I have some good relationships building as a result.

    My blog is for a very specific niche - hockey goaltenders. As a result, when a photographer has taken shots of a goalie I can be fairly certain that they'll be taking lots of other goalie shots and chances are, they'll be interested in seeing my blog. So building that relationship becomes even more important for me. In fact I get shots sent to me now by photographers. It's been great.

    I would also add though - don't restrict yourself to shots licensed with attribution. I have asked many photographers with shots "all rights reserved" and thusfar have only been denied permission to use their shots on one occasion. Perhaps it is because I am non-commercial, perhaps because people are generous by nature I don't know, but it's been a tremendous resource.
  • A very crisp and neat post on using Creative Commons photos. I have been thinking about using these for sometime and this give me a head start !!
  • Thanks for the tip. I most definitely need to spruce up my blog with some visual images. It's pretty visually boring at this point. Thanks for sharing, and explaining it all.
  • We've been using flickr photos in our blog as well, but our "attribution" act is only through making the photos "clickable". We're hoping that's enough.

    We would ideally also want to put some kind of comment at the bottom of the photo, but we don't know whether we can (first we don't really know how, second we don't know whether the free wordpress.com platform we're using can make this possible). We don't like doing the photo credit at the end of the post as it looks kind of out of place.
  • God_Am
    That's what I thought. I've always attributed when I can find who to attribute but hadn't thought about making the pic clickable. That's great. Thx for the post!
  • Hi Chris, thanks for the tip, I will be looking to use photos taken by others and its great to show the credit due. Have not got flickr, so will look into opening an account. Thanks for the post.

    Bethune
  • Hey Chris,
    Thanks for a very useful post. My friend kept telling me to use Flickr for photos, but I went there a couple of times and just felt lost. Also had a nagging worry in the back of my mind that I would use them wrong, didn't have the right permission, etc. This clears all of that up.

    You're awesome!
    Thanks,
    Jody
  • I keep practicing with my camera and uploading to my Flickr account just hoping you'll stumble into my lair there and find something appealing!
  • Chris,
    You have a few fans at the Ohio Attorney General's Office. Attorney General Richard Cordray brought in a communication team to improve our Web site and improve how we utilize technology. We are also very aware of cost, so we have implemented free services such as Twitter to communicate effectively and efficiently. We use Flickr for many of our photos, as well.

    I thought you might be interested in seeing how government has begun to adopt "new" technologies. Do you have any ideas on how we can continue to improve?
  • Batman
    Just one thought.... Or an idea, which may or may not necessarily be a good one....

    What about Twitpics?
  • TotallyTea
    Sorry if this has been suggested already, as I only skimmed the comments posted.

    Perhaps the simplest solution is to put the photo credit at the beginning of your post (single, standalone line before you start the blog entry), in addition to the other things you're already doing (eg, linking to the original source).

    @totallytea
  • Thank you for taking out time like this to share, really helps beginners for sure. Read information straight from Twitter. http://www.blufrogenergy.com/eaglinstacy
  • Chris, I think that what you mean by "photo by" can be accomplished on Flickr simply by using the link above the pics to "blog this", as I've done here with my own photo: http://meloart.blogspot.com/2009/02/books-and-m...

    Is that it?
  • Hi Chris
    Another great way of finding relevamt pics is to utilise Zemanta (a service which I first discovered through your blog). Zemanta actually suggests relevant photos from Flickr and you simply click on the photo you like and it gets posted to your blog.
    Regards
    Kevin
  • whoops, sorry about that typo *relevant*
  • ThankYou!
    I like to add photographs or graphics to my posts. I usually use photobucket, but the clarity is not always great!

    I love finding out new ways to perfect my blog!
  • Thanks for the great information, Chris. I will definitely start using Flickr for my blog photos.

    Do you know of any similar creative commons licensing for music? I like to produce short videos, and it's nice to have 5-20 second music clips at the beginning and/or end of the video. I like the idea of giving up and coming artists some exposure, and I don't really have the budget to purchase RF music for this purpose.

    Lane Reiss
  • Great question, Lane. I'd like to know that too. Have you tried Googling those keywords?
    Let us know here if you find anything, please. Thanks!
  • Chris Brogan
  • Great post Chris. Question: what do you suggest for CC license? What do you use? I updated my flickr account and chose "Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons AttributionNo Derivative Works". Any recommendation. I am not a professional photographer and todate haven't uploaded any but I hadn't thought about it until reading your post. I also read through the entire set of comments. Great thoughts by lots of people. How do I get a photo next to my comment like many have done?

    Ed Callahan
  • I'm always struggling for good pics, and I had no idea this was an option.

    This is me, headed over to flickr to open an account...

    Thanks Chris.

    George
  • nice article

    thanks for sharing
  • I agree - Zemanta makes adding pictures to blog posts a dream. I really like the photos they suggest. Zemanta also suggests some related posts to link to - I have learned about some great blogs from their suggestions. Once you start using Zemanta your posts become part of the suggested posts for others and I have gained some extra traffic that way too.

    Here is my write up on Zemanta http://blogtelling.net/2008/07/blog-me-up-checking-out-zemanta/
  • AM
    Thank you chris for the information. Described in a very user friendly way.
    cheers,
  • I agree with the others on Zemanta. I've been using it for a few months and while it doesn't often suggest a good picture based on my content alone, I can always enter search words to find something useful. And it automatically finds pictures that I can use legally, and it attributes them right under the picture just as you requested. I won't go back to searching FlickR by hand now.
  • Love this post today Chris. I have always wondered how i can start using flickers photo on my blog.

    Thanks
    :)
    Joyce
    www.beawealthyentrepreneur.com
  • Great concept! I LOVE Flickr as a user, but rarely think of using the CC photos there! Duh!!! Some things are so simple...as to be forgotten. Thanks for "re-reminding" me!
  • Thanks for this! Great idea and very informative!

    I have not used Flickr in forever, but I think I'll start using it again after reading this!
  • Hi Chris,

    Thanks for those links. I browsed each site a little bit, but I'm not clear on the best method for attribution if I use music clips from them. If I give proper attribution, is that all I need to safely use the music from these sites?

    On another note, I'd love to link my messages to a profile and pic, as many others have done here. I'm not seeing where to register my profile information, though. Any guidance will be appreciated.

    Lane Reiss
  • Thank you for this article. I'm new to the world of ecommerce & blogging. My marketing guy (www.precisionintermedia.com) forwarded your article http://www.chrisbrogan.com/27-blogging-secrets-...
    and 1 of your points was to give credit for pics. It took all day for me to figure out the flickr thing & giving credit (I didn't want to mess it up). This post has clarified that I did it correctly! One of my concerns was that the photographer wouldn't want me to use the photo for my blog but according to the rest of the comments it only sometimes becomes an issue.
    Thank you again from a newbie,
    Charane
    www.everythinggreenhome.blogspot.com
  • As a blogger and photographer I highly value key photos on posts. They do attract attention, provided they theme properly with the content. As a Flickr member I've had people inquire about using my photos for publication but as yet have had nobody offer payment. This brings me to the point of which CC licensing is in place - attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives, share alike. So the point is each publishing site thus far has not been very small or commercial. I have searched recently and found a photo on a large commercial site, with a link back to my photo on Flickr. So now I'm faced with approaching the site about addressing licensing concerns. Not only that but the article is written in such a manner that it might be considered defaming, especially since it has my brand/name on it clearly. The situation being a matter against a larger entity I had marketed which ended up shut-down as a pyramid scheme. This begs the point of informing your source that their photo is being used and having approval. Flickr terms of use states link-through of images, by doing so if the photographer pulls down the image it would disappear from all sources referencing it. If you approach the photographer and ask for a copy, then you'll not be under the terms of use of the host site. Thanking them through accrediting the source for discovery is a courtesy at that point.
  • Late to the party, but The Commons is a GREAT repository of high-res images from Federal, state, and now international organizations. http://www.flickr.com/commons

    @amandare
  • JG
    Thanks Chris!

    How to do if I using Flickr to store my images and link to my blog post ? I means reader only view my images from my blog.

    I am confusing of using Flickr.

    Thanks Again :)
  • Chris, Great post. I buy photos many times, but for some simple stuff it would be nice to use your system with FLICKR.
  • Really useful post. I have been using Flickr's creative commons feature for a while now, but was going into the advanced search on the site to find photos.

    This post gave me 2 great tips:
    - I love the idea of make the photo itself a link to the photographer's page
    - and I have now put the link to the search page on my bookmark toolbar so I can find it fast when I'm blogging.

    Thanks very much.

    @VandyMassey
  • I've been using this same technique for a while - I started it on my Linked Intelligence blog while I was at b5media - it just makes the whole thing more visually interesting. There's not enough money in blogging for most bloggers to pay for even microstock photography licenses, so thank you so much to all of the people who freely share their photos.

    By the way, another great site for free photos is http://sxc.hu aka "Stock Exchange". It's not a CC license, but basically the same as the CC Attribution license.
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