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More photos for your tourism promotions

By Becky McCray

A boardwalk trail winds beside a rock face.

An interesting hiking trail at Clifty Falls State Park in Indiana. Photo by Sarah Stierch [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Photos are key for tourism promotion, so you can never have too many great photos to use online. However, most photos you find online are NOT public domain, so you do not have the right to use them.

One great resource that brings together many different types of images that you are allowed to re-use is Wikimedia Commons.

“Everyone is allowed to copy, use and modify any files here freely as long as they follow the terms specified by the author,” the welcome page explains.

You’ll find photos of all kinds, from amateur to professional. Some are licensed with Creative Commons licenses, some are public domain. You’ll also see photos with the “GFDL” or “GNU Free Documentation License” which allows re-use under certain limits. Each photo has its own page explaining the permissions and limits.  Take the time to review the restrictions before you use any photo.

Next to each photo are icons for easy downloading and linking. The link text includes the correct photo credit and license info.

I found it very easy to use. Rather than download and save a larger size of the photo, I downloaded a small version of the photo to include with the post, then linked it back to the original Wikimedia page.

For most small towns, I found only a few photos. Recreation areas, like state parks, usually had more photos available. The photos come from a global audience and include locations all over the world.

Thanks to reader Alex Morris for suggesting we cover this in our photo resource series. Previous photo resource articles include:

  • Finding photos to use online: Flickr Creative Commons
  • The US government has tourism photos for you
  • and a reminder: If you don’t do this one thing, you might as well delete all photos from your site

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
  • Zoom Towns: attracting and supporting remote workers in rural small towns - December 10, 2020
  • In an economic crisis, spend your brainpower before your dollars - November 25, 2020
  • Video: How to fill empty car dealership buildings for the holidays - November 6, 2020
  • How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here - October 20, 2020
  • The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis - October 6, 2020
  • Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
  • Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals - September 11, 2020
  • Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
  • Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020
  • Economic self defense for small towns  - June 7, 2020

April 9, 2013 Filed Under: rural, social media, tourism

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  1. Visual, Visual, Visual | Entrepreneurs and Their Communities says:
    May 15, 2013 at 9:39 am

    […] Read the article that reminded me of the importance. http://smallbizsurvival.com/2013/04/more-photos-for-your-tourism-promotions.html […]

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