Social Media Commerce: Pay to Use Photos on Flickr

By Marsha Collier from Social Media Commerce For Dummies

Using photos on your social media updates or on your website is a great way to enliven them. You might have a specific image in mind to use, but don’t have the time or ability to shoot it yourself. On Flickr, if you find nothing in the free photos, you can find photos that can be licensed for as little as $20:

Sign in to Flickr with your Flickr or Yahoo! ID.

You can also sign in with a Google ID or a Facebook ID.
In the Flickr search box, type the name of the item for which you are searching. Click Search.

You will retrieve hundreds of photos matching your query.
On the initial search results page, note the text to the right of the thumbnails regarding photos licensed by Getty Images. In that text block, find and click Flickr Members.

You arrive at a page with photos that are available for use.
Next to the search selection box, click the Royalty Free option.

This option limits the search to images for which you do not have to pay ongoing rights.
Find a photo that interests you and click it.
To the right of the image, click View Pricing in the pop-up window.

You see the charges associated with using the image.
If the price is right, click Add to Cart in the pop-up window.
To pay for and download the image, following the on-screen instructions.