Writing a blog sounds easy to do but trust me, it is not only about compiling some good words on a particular topic; it is more than just words. You have to scratch your head to make your blog attractive, SEO friendly, and a lot more. And for all these, the picture plays a pivotal role to make your blog pop up.
Again, finding out a good and appropriate photo agency for your site or blog takes a hell of a lot of time. Still, people cannot find it out because you need to keep in mind the pricing, what you are getting from the agency, the quality of the images, the appropriateness, and also the legal aspect which is really important.
You may say that there are free photo agencies from where you can get free photos for your content, yes, indeed you can. But the hidden part is that there are also considerable legal risks while you are choosing an image from these free sites.
After seeing a lot of complications and headache that a blogger face while picking the best and proper photo agency for his or her blog, I have come here to lighten up your burden. Yes, today I am going to talk about the best photo agencies for you from where you can get the best quality photos without any legal complications for your blog to bloom it further. No matter what your content or niche is, you can still find an appropriate and quality one for your blog.
So without wasting more time, let’s go forward with the curtailed list of best photo agencies which will ease down your anxiety and burden.
Let’s begin.
Dreamstime Images
Dreamstime needs no introduction as the name speaks for itself. It is one of the best and most popular suppliers of royalty-free stock images in the entire globe.
What’s Unique in It:
It contains 53 million files with almost 16 million registered users worldwide. From this massive resource, you can find at least a few images suitable for your blog. On top of that, thousands of images are added daily to their site to make it richer and to provide you an excellent experience.
Starting their journey in 2000, Dreamtime has become a wider community to photo agency and they are growing day by day. It collects quality photos from photographers worldwide.
The best part is that Dreamtime does not add any random photos. Their expert editing team is there and each photo goes under their well-judged scrutiny and then the images get approval to be there on the site for the consumers. So, they do not compromise with quality.
Pricing:
Dreamtime has different packages and plans according to the users’ requirements and the pricing varies as per the number of photos, and the number of days. But the plan starts from as low as USD 39 / Month. There are few photos too which you can get for free.
Canva Photos
Canva photos provide you a number of options to make your blog dazzling, standing out in the crowd. It is very popular among not only the bloggers but also among Twitter, LinkedIn users.
What’s Unique in It:
Its Blog Title Design template is probably the best for the users. It really works smoothly with the clients’ satisfaction. The ever best part that Canva has created is its infographics template. It makes your work simpler, easier, and a lot more alluring.
Pricing:
With just USD 12 per month, you can get access to 50,000,000+ images. Here, I must say that they have few images for free to use but only USD 12 per month, and then BOOM! You are in the world of their massive collection of high quality and mesmerizing photos. That sounds quite wonderful and cost-effective too.
Story Blocks:
If you want to add some stories into the story of your blog, Story Blocks is your next web-destination. They have a huge collection of videos and a massive library of 408,000 images.
What’s Unique in It:
No matter, if you are a freelance creator, a YouTuber, or a part of a larger community, they have licensing that will help you to cover your blog or project appropriately with unlimited distribution.
Pricing:
The best part of Story Blocks is that they have dynamic and flexible plans and subscriptions for their users to make their experience better and excellent with Story Blocks. Only you need USD 9.00 and you have an access to their enormous library of high-quality images. From there you can choose the appropriate one for you. But, I guess, every picture of their library is alluring.
Here, one thing needs to mention that with only USD 5.00 you can also have an access to download but only to 5 images. But, only USD 9.00 and the entire library is open for you to use, seem more convincing, and cost-effective.
123RF
123RF’s database is the one ideal for you which can mesmerize and allure you easily with their gigantic, over 69 million stock of images, audio clip, vectors, and footage. Quite a giant library! Isn’t it?
What’s Unique in It:
You can also have an access to their advanced features and services such as 123RF Editor. This unique and potent feature lets you edit easily and swiftly the images using the filters available on their site. The surprise does not end here. You can also add texts and can even create covers for your social media pages or accounts. This is a highly suitable and preferable agency that suits all the bloggers or content creators out there, ranging from the startup blogger to the large media company.
Pricing:
Now, you must be thinking, such a brilliant agency with so many features must be very expensive for you. But trust me, it is not. They have two types of plans. The first one is On-Demand (from 0.70 per credit) and the second one is the Subscription Plan (from 0.18 per image). But among all the plans, the best one for the users is the yearly ones. Here, a USD 59 per month (for one year plan) will save you around USD 253 and will offer you to download JPEG/EPS files per day.
Shutterstock
If you search anything on Google and go to the ‘Images’ option and you have not found at least a single image with the Shutterstock branding, it is not simply possible. It is so popular all over the globe that I thought of not excluding it and obviously with valid reasons. Find out why I as well as the entire world are so crazy about Shutterstock.
What’s Unique in It:
Firstly the database of Shutterstock is massive. Its library contains more than 100 million images. Isn’t it enormous? And secondly, each day 50,000 new images are added to their database making it a gigantic beast. Now, you can understand why people are passionate about Shutterstock; it has the largest royalty-free collection.
So, you can fathom what it means; whatever you want, you can get that in here that too with lots of varieties.
Pricing:
Shutterstock has different plans and subscriptions according to the requirements of the users. The basic pricing starts from 49 USD per month with which you can download 10 images. There are 50, 350, 750 images download options with different prices and the entire details are given on their official website.
They have also launched ‘On-Demand Packs’ for adapted to the users’ benefits and requirements. The uniqueness of this plan is, no commitment is needed here from your side. Once you pay 49 USD, you can download 5 images any time within a year. For 29 images you have to pay 229 USD. This is a kind of one-time payment for one year.
This is my curtailed list of best photo agencies for a blogger. Now a few things you have to keep in mind before going for any agency, be it from the list or beyond it.
Always go through the images at first before signing up. Look through the images and decide whether they are appropriate for you and can serve your purpose. Then only pay for that. Do your own little research on the agency and then op for anyone.
One more thing, I want to mention. If you are a newbie in this industry and just pushing yourself to get started, it is always advisable to click your own photos. For a beginner, it is a bit hard to find out any cost-effective agency that can provide you your desired images at a pocket pinch. So my opinion is that create your own photos, no matter how ‘imperfect’ they are. They might not be as beautiful as the images in the library of these agencies, but still, they are unique and they are your creation. It is totally all right to use them in your blog.
Using your own Images will always add some extra values to your post and also it will create an individuality that will enable you to stand out in the crowd. It also portrays that you are not only writing but also you are experiencing your writing through the images and you are well aware of the content that you are creating.
This is a small tip for you.
I hope that this article is beneficial for you. And from here you will definitely find the ideal one suitable and profitable for you. Do not forget to make me know, which agency you have picked up and how your journey and experience are with that.
Happy blogging. Till then, stay connected.
pratyush2016 