Properly Attributing Photos on HubPages

I recently completed the HubPages Apprenticeship Program this last December, and it was an eye opening experience. There was nothing earth shattering or anything like that except for the fact that I had to come to terms that I had been an internet thief for years without even realizing it!!

I had been using photos that were not mine for many years - without properly attributing them - and during the HP program I came to realize that this was a real big no no!!

A photography hobbyist, I had also published many of my own photos on my hubs, but I had also erroneously been using photos that I had no right to use. Especially since here at HubPages we make MONEY on our hubs, and using someone elses photo on your own site is strictly forbidden here at HubPages.

The eye opener for me was on one of the months when we went through the use of the photo capsule tutorial. Not only were there very detailed instructions on what photos could be used and when, but one of the requirements to be in the HP program was that each and every one of my hubs had to adhere to the HubPages publishing policy (so a word to the wise here, if you are improperly using photos and get into the Apprenticeship program, expect to have to come into compliance)

Now that was interesting for me, having to go back through all my 200+ hubs to properly attribute each and every photo (which I had NOT been doing)

It's not rocket science to understand - I mean after all there are rules and grabbing random photos off of Google search is not OK, not unless it has been authorized to be utilized with commercial permission. How to know if you are using a Google image that is alright to use?

Here's how:

1. On your Google images search page, type in what you are searching for (let's use the word "door" for example)
2. After you enter search and images of lots of doors pop up, go to the top right and there will be a little spoke wheel icon that you need to click on.
3. Select advanced and when the new screen pops up go down to "usage rights" and select "free to use, share or modify, even commercially"
4. Now search "door" again and you will get a screen with door photos that you are allowed to use. You are not done yet though!
5. Click on that door photo that you want to use and go to the page where it was originally posted. Get the attribution information so you know how to credit your photo.
6. Download your photo and upload it to your hub.
7. You are now legally using a photo of a door! (and make sure that you properly attribute the image within the photo capsule)

Besides using photos for commercial use from Google, you can also use photos from Wikimedia Commons and Creative Commons from Flickr There are also some stock photo sites that will let you use their photos, but those photos are usually pretty limited. You can also buy photos from some sites and/or get a subscription service.

Currently, 95% of the photos that I use in my hubs are photos that I have taken myself. In the last few months, I have started taking photos of alot ot things so that I now have my own little stockpile of images. Some of the more generic ones I can also use on more than one hub.

If you have a digital camera, it's a good idea to do this and start making your own little photo stockpile too.