winner winner chicken dinner

What do Royalty Free, Creative Commons, and Public Domain mean? Is it all free? Do I need to add a credit? Help!

As you might know, you can’t just find an image, photo, song, etc. on Google and use it like it’s your own.

Pretty much anything that has been “created” has copyright protection and using it without permission, payment and/or a credit can land you in trouble unless the creator has expressly said “Do whatever you want without a credit!“.

Below are some of the main licence’s that are available.

When going through the websites mentioned in this post it’s very important to do your own research and pay attention to the type of license it is under and what restrictions that places you under.

You might need to give a credit, pay a fee, or you might have to do none of that. But make sure you check! Sometimes the rules vary from country to country and I am not a lawyer so you’ll have to read the T&C’s CAREFULLY

A huge list of Royalty Free, Creative Commons, and Public Domain websites

Photos and Images

BULK IMAGE RESIZER

Photo’s, images and graphics and all free, wow I love that word.
Here is a free online image resizer
Pexels ~/~ Old Book Illustrations ~/~ Gratisography ~/~ Wikimedia Commons ~/~ Unsplash ~/~ LibreShot ~/~ Dreamstime ~/~ NASA ~/~ Morguefile ~/~ Freerange ~/~ Flickr Commons ~/~ FreeStocks.org ~/~ Public Domain Pictures ~/~ Pixabay ~/~ Magdeleine ~/~ ISO Republic ~/~ Public Domain Vectors ~/~ FancyCrave ~/~ 1 Million Free Pictures ~/~ Camarama ~/~ CreativeCommons.Photos ~/~ Crow the Stone ~/~ Epicantus ~/~ FindA.Photo ~/~ Free Stock Photos ~/~ Jay Mantri ~/~ Realistic Shots ~/~ Reusable Art ~/~ Skitterphoto ~/~ Medical Heritage Library ~/~ Europeana Collection ~/~ Free Media Goo ~/~ Free Nature Stock ~/~ Free Stock Image Point ~/~ FreeImages.Pictures ~/~ FreePhotosBank ~/~ StockSnap.io ~/~ Startup Stock Photos ~/~ The British Library ~/~ The Public Domain Review ~/~ Viintage ~/~ Public Domain Archive ~/~ Pic4Learning ~/~ Photogen ~/~ ABS Free Pic ~/~ Image*After ~/~ Publicdomainfiles ~/~ ShotStash ~/~ JESHOOTS ~/~ DesignerPics.com ~/~ Everystockphoto.com ~/~ Negative Space ~/~ Death to the Stock Photo ~/~ SpaceX ~/~ Stockvault ~/~ Foodies Feed ~/~ Foodie Factor ~/~ FreeImages ~/~ Fancy Crave ~/~ FreeImages.red ~/~ From Old Books ~/~ FreePhotos.se ~/~ Pic Pac ~/~ PDPics ~/~ Picdrome ~/~ Burst ~/~ UPICM ~/~ Yale University Art Gallery ~/~ Unrestricted Stock ~/~ The U.S Department of State ~/~ Trunklog.com ~/~ BARA Art ~/~ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library ~/~ The Defense Visual Information Center ~/~ DrStockPhoto ~/~ Makerbook ~/~ Fotoscopy ~/~ FreeUse.io ~/~ Skuawk ~/~ FreeQration ~/~ US Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library ~/~ NOAA Photo Library ~/~ A Digital Dreamer ~/~ Abstract Influence ~/~ USDA Agricultural Research Service ~/~ PolarFox ~/~ Photo Rack ~/~ stokpic ~/~ Focus Fitness ~/~ Large Photos ~/~ Iwaria ~/~ Oliur Rahman ~/~ Stocka ~/~ Shutteroo ~/~ Creative Vix ~/~ Barn Images ~/~ Snapwire Snaps ~/~ Snappy Goat ~/~ Little Visuals ~/~ Visual Hunt ~/~ Phototeria ~/~ Public C Photo ~/~ Photos-public-domain ~/~ 4 Free Photos ~/~ Clker.com ~/~ Image After ~/~ Stock.XCHNG ~/~ Yeah! Stock Photos ~/~ The Stocks ~/~ Freetems ~/~ Google LIFE ~/~ MMT ~/~ Raumrot ~/~ Wonderstock ~/~ RGBStock ~/~ Paul Jarvis ~/~ Stock Up ~/~ Stockpic ~/~ Smithsonian ~/~ StockSnap.io ~/~ NOBL Web ~/~ Snapographic ~/~ TurboPhoto ~/~ PicJumbo ~/~ Pickup Image ~/~ Cupcake ~/~ Bossfight ~/~ Freely Photos ~/~ New Old Stock ~/~ SplitShire ~/~ Picography ~/~ Travel Coffee Book ~/~ Tookapic ~/~ Moveeast ~/~ Moni’s Photo ~/~ Splashbase ~/~ PicMelon ~/~ PLiXS ~/~ Glyphs.co ~/~ My Stock Photos ~/~ Slon ~/~ nappy ~/~ Soul Photos ~/~ Nomad Pictures ~/~ StyledStock ~/~ Lensicle ~/~ PixZoyd ~/~ Avopix //OneLeft Media ~/~ Duion ~/~ Topers Photos ~/~ MarblePics ~/~ DavAlign ~/~ The Famous Artists ~/~ Totally Free Images ~/~ Free Vintage Illustrations ~/~ My Public Domain Pictures ~/~ National Archives ~/~ Images in the Public Domain ~/~ Online Archive of California ~/~ Realgraphy ~/~ FreeImages.red ~/~ Pickle Jar ~/~ Street Will ~/~ Life of Pix

Backgrounds and textures

Textures are great for giving dimension to your website, a depth and casn make your content seem to pop off the page, they are also great for adding to photoshop images and after effects videos too.

Lost and Taken ~/~ The Pattern Library ~/~ Mayang’s Free Texture ~/~ Free Stock Textures ~/~ WebTreats ~/~ Webdesignerlab ~/~ TextureZoom ~/~ Textures.com ~/~ Photoshop.cc

Videos and 10 second moving Backgrounds

Creating an impact is the way to go, making your site memorable, what better way by adding a moving background image BUT watch the file size as increasing your load time with a video can be super annoying and detrimental to SEO rankings.

Mazwai ~/~ Pixabay ~/~ Pexels Videos ~/~ Vimeo ~/~ Motion Elements //Videezy ~/~ NASA ~/~ Life of Vids ~/~ Videvo ~/~ Coverr ~/~ Distill ~/~ Dissolve ~/~ IM Free ~/~ Flickr Creative Commons ~/~ Footage Crate ~/~ Free HD Footage ~/~ Free Loops ~/~ XStockVideo ~/~ Stock Footage for Free ~/~ Vimeo Free HD Stock Footage ~/~ Cute Stock Footage ~/~ Alex Free Stock Video ~/~ Archive.org ~/~ Pond5 ~/~ Clip Canvas ~/~ Detonation Films ~/~ Hollywood Camera Work ~/~ Ignite Motion ~/~ Open Images ~/~ orangeHD ~/~ The Tanuri Experiment // The NewsMarket // Wikimedia Commons ~/~ Fancy Footage Club ~/~ Clipcanvas ~/~ Motion Elements ~/~ Motion Background ~/~ IgniteHD

Music and sound effects

When you add music to your site please be careful, alot of people don’t like to have music come on right away, so disable it on mobiles is always good?

Jamendo ~/~ AudionautiX ~/~ Josh Woodward ~/~ TeknoAXE ~/~ PacDV ~/~ Music for Makers ~/~ Bensound ~/~ Incompetech ~/~ Free Soundtrack Music ~/~ Musopen ~/~ Twin Musicom ~/~ TimBeek ~/~ Our Music Box ~/~ McFarland BEATS ~/~ FXhome ~/~ Free to Use Sounds // Zapsplat ~/~ Sound Bible ~/~ The Motion Monkey ~/~ Sound Image ~/~ SoundGator ~/~ 99sounds

Icons, logos and vector images

Icons and Logos are great ways of creating Branding for your company but always remember that free logos etc are used by the masses so to get anything bespoke will be very difficult.

Smashing Magazine ~/~ Flat Icon ~/~ MrIcons ~/~ Pixeden ~/~ Vecteezy ~/~ Material Design Icons ~/~ Glyphsearch ~/~ Endless Icons ~/~ IconBug ~/~ Perfect Icons ~/~ Soft Icons ~/~ Free Clipart Now ~/~ Webweaver ~/~ Freerange Stock ~/~ Logodust ~/~ Freepik ~/~ Gravual ~/~ WPClipart ~/~ Behance ~/~ Free Vectors ~/~ Vector4Free ~/~ Web Design Freebies ~/~ Captainicon ~/~ Good Stuff No Nonsense ~/~ DeviantArt ~/~ Dribble ~/~ Best PSD Freebies ~/~ Iconfinder ~/~ GraphicBurger ~/~ Designbeep ~/~ Oxygenna ~/~ Dafont ~/~ Free Goodies for Designers ~/~ FreebiesBug ~/~ Iconmelon ~/~ PixelsMarket ~/~ GraphicsFuel ~/~ Fribly ~/~ Icojam ~/~ Blurgraphic ~/~ Public Domain Vectors ~/~ Icons Shock ~/~ CSS Author ~/~ Creative Tail ~/~ All Free Download ~/~ Ego Icons ~/~ AlienValley ~/~ Aiconica ~/~ Public Domain Clip Art ~/~ Dreamstale ~/~ DuckFiles ~/~ Open Clipart Library ~/~ Clker ~/~ Open Photo ~/~ 1001 Free Downloads ~/~ All Silhouettes ~/~ GraphicsBay ~/~ NounProject ~/~ Iconmonstr ~/~ Fusionplate ~/~ Dryicons ~/~ Glyphicons ~/~ Entypo ~/~ Endless Icons ~/~ Iconic ~/~ Icons8 ~/~ IcoMoon ~/~ Vectorish ~/~ Vector Goods ~/~ Fontello ~/~ IconArchive ~/~ Iconathon ~/~ Entypo ~/~ Pixabay ~/~ Cool Vectors ~/~ Spread ~/~ Free Vector Maps ~/~ Vector Portal ~/~ Vectors for All ~/~ 123freevectors ~/~ Vector EPS ~/~ Squid Ink ~/~ Blugraphic ~/~ Vector.me ~/~ Qvectors ~/~ Lightstock ~/~ For Designer ~/~ Vectorian ~/~ Web Design Hot ~/~ Vecto2000 ~/~ Freevectors.me ~/~ All Vectors ~/~ Vector Junky ~/~ Vector Open Stock ~/~ Logo Open Stock ~/~ Magic People ~/~ Digimadmedia ~/~ Scalablegfx ~/~ 365psd ~/~ Openclipart

Fonts and Typography

Adjusting the font on your website can have a huge impact on how your website is perceived, rule of thumb- use only a maximum of 4 fonts per site, otherwise it can seem very confusing for the reader. Below are some great sites for obtaining free fonts, I will be creating a post later on – how you go about changing your fonts on your site. SUBSCRIBE TO BE INFORMED

Smashing Magazine ~/~ Public Domain Files ~/~ Behance ~/~ Font Squirrel ~/~ 1001 Fonts ~/~ Open Font Library ~/~ Font Library ~/~ Google Fonts ~/~ Wild Type ~/~ The League of Movable Type ~/~ Font Fabric ~/~ My Fonts ~/~ All Free Download ~/~ DaFont ~/~ Artimasa // Ten by Twenty ~/~ Fontcab ~/~ Neogrey

Conclusion

There are probably many more free websites, but rule of thumb here is please protect yourself and read the the licence attached and follow the criteria set out for you to use the relevant media.

Being a web designer is about transitioning the thoughts and goals of your client in to a dynamic digital interface for their clients that appeals to them and turns clicks into long-time customers, sounds easy eh, but after a few years and consequently a few mistakes by not asking the the relevant questions, I have trimmed it down to the 10 broadest and necessary questions that need to be asked.

I have also found that a majority of clients see these questions as unimportant, not necessary and sometimes just downright inconvenient. Hopefully, in this “post”, I will dispel the myth that I am just wasting your time asking questions and being nosey?

If you are colaborating with a web designer who isn’t asking you these questions or any questions, take the lead and bring them up and provide answers to them sooner than later. If you are unsure of the answers to any or all questions please don’t rush them and say anything to get them finished, these questions will impact your end site significantly.

So here goes, we will start off with some easy ones……

1. “Can you describe your business in a few sentences?”

By compressing your business into a sentence or two, you are essentially giving your designer your “elevator pitch.” This is great for defining your business for use on the homepage. All you need to do is keep it brief, in fact brief is good as a majority of your potential customers will choose to scan rather than read lengthy text, so brevity is your friend here.

2. “Who are your main competitors?”

By knowing who you are competing against,  helps me to research how others in your field handle their websites. He or she can then determine what seems to be working well for some of them, and not as well for others. The idea is to not copy what others are doing, but rather to learn from the benefit of their experience, as well as from their mistakes.

3. “What is your USP?”

This is your chance to really distinguish your business from your competitors, your USP (Unique Selling Point) is what defines you and your business, it’s what sets you apart. If you have something unique to offer, then I need to know about it, so that it can be played up and specifically called out on your site. It doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering.  In fact, it can be something incredibly simple, such as offering “free delivery on all products”, for instance.

4. “Describe your current clients”

Letting me know who your current clients are is essential, this breaks down in the design stage of the actual site, a business with 90% women in the 40-65yr age bracket would not be wanting to look at a “Steely, Hard edged Corporate blue” website and would also make a big difference on search engine optimization(SEO) efforts, as well as social media integration. It is very important to be as specific as possible: gender, age, and annual income are major things to be considered in order to design the most appropriate site for your audience.

5. “What is your timescale for site completion?”

We both have deadlines, you need to have a date in mind, it keeps me on my toes and it also allows me to pace myself, so there is no mad dash to the finish line.

6. “What other websites inspire you?”

This doesn’t need to be within your market sector, it is about functionality, look, and results. The websites that you like have obviously done something that triggers something inside of you for what ever reason, this is also an obvious leading question for “What websites don’t inspire you?”

7. “What is your main aim for the website”

Or

“What’s your primary aim for the site? What do you want from it? Quote requests, sales, class booking, more memberships etc?”

And if your visitors aren’t ready to complete that, what would you like them to do instead? I.e. what are your secondary goals for your site? Newsletter opt-in to build your list, eBook download, Facebook like etc?”

I’m not sure if some businesses just like to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ but I’m alarmed at the number of small business that will often ask for a website ‘just because.’ They have no clear goals or direction for wanting a website other than they’ve been told they should be online.

I would NOT go into a web design project without making the client give me an idea of what they want their new website to actually do for them.

On numerous occasions in the past I’ve completely walked away from a project if a client has no idea. It goes straight in the too hard basket.

Every website should accomplish something, and it doesn’t even need to be the old cliché of ‘make more money.’

Does your client want the site to:
Educate your audience?
Encourage sales?
Collect email addresses and build a list?
Encourage onsite or social media interaction?
Get more inbound leads / quote requests / phone enquiries?
Increase brand awareness?

If you don’t know what you want your site to accomplish, then I would suggest a few so we can start the project with a key understanding locked in place.

8. “Who is going to be responsible for the website’s content?”

This is a question that often catches clients off guard. It is a bit easier to answer in the case of a redesign, but what if you are a new business starting a website from scratch? Do you plan on writing the copy for your own site? Unless you have experience writing for marketing purposes, I wouldn’t recommend it. Good Web copy-writing is a skill that can greatly improve user engagement when done right. I can’t tell you how many projects that have either stalled, or been abandoned altogether because a designer hasn’t received the content promised to them by a client. If your designer works with a copywriter, by all means, spend a little extra and go that route. It will take a lot of pressure off of you, the project will be completed faster, and you will end up with a much better product in the end. Well written copy sells. Period.

9. “What key search phrases would you like to be found for?”

Search engine optimization (SEO) is your key to being found on the Web. Your designer should be asking you this because your answers could have a big impact on not only the copy, but the overall site structure as well. Let’s say you run an Education Centre in the Southern suburbs of Sydney. You might want to be found for the terms “Further Education Sydney” as well as “Part -Time Courses, Sydney ” It would be a good idea to design two different landing pages for those different keyword phrases, rather than relying on being found through a more generic homepage.

10. “Do you have a style guide or any existing branding”

Generally you won’t get to work with a completely clean slate. They may already have branding and marketing materials created for their business.

Logos, brochures, old websites, posters and web banners are just SOME of the things that might be tucked away. And you may also find that the logo that they do have are not SVG or great graphics. Once you get everything, make sure you ask how strictly you have to adhere to the style / branding of the old material. You don’t want to create something only to find out that your client’s colour scheme is completely different.

In fact, ask the client if they have a ‘style guide or colour palette.’ Many companies won’t have one, but if you have a client that does, it means you’ll have something in writing that clearly explains the style you work needs to capture.

Last words

There is much more to your new website than just the visual elements. A good web designer knows this and will go beyond the basics. Each question here has a key purpose in encapsulating your companies ethos and branding, and your web designer should touch on all of them in order to make a fully informed design decision that will positively impact your business for years to come.

and remember……

'Design without intention is just....... Pretty....stupid' Click To Tweet

databaselinkmagnifiercrosschevron-up