If you’re in charge of composing boat loads of content on a regular basis, you understand the stress of coming up with content that is original and your own to avoid infringing on other’s copywritten or trademarked materials. As someone who has the responsibility to share new content amongst our social media platforms, blog, etc., I can empathize with you! The temptation of simply copying and pasting an image from a quick Google image search into your blog to spice it up, or the allure of using someone else’s music as a part of your grand idea to come up with a viral video campaign, can be frighteningly easy.
I’m here to tell you – don’t do it! You have more than a handful of available resources at your disposal, but these well kept secrets can be hard to come by. That being said, I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you! Enjoy!
Got writers block?
- Check out Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator, a tool I recently discovered as a part of their 30-day Blog Challenge. I would also highly recommend subscribing to their blog, because they are always sending helpful tips and tricks my way via email that make my content creation so much easier!
Need a free photo but don’t want to pay?
- Gratisography.com – Bells Design runs this page and has a variety of fun, professional images. The tagline at the top center of his page is, “Free High-resolution pictures you can use on your personal and commercial projects. New awesome pictures added weekly! All pictures were captured by Ryan McGuire of Bells Design and free of copyright restrictions.†Not convinced? Go to the Bells Design homepage and check out the “adorable version†of his website…it’ll melt your heart!
- Unsplash.com – I truly cannot believe the photos available on this website – they’re incredible. If nothing else, these images, updated regularly, will help satisfy that travel bug of yours! This page shares, “Free, do whatever you want hi-resolution photos.

 10 new photos every 10 days.†You’d be crazy not to Subscribe.
- And last but not least, Hubspot’s Photo Ebook tips – a great compilation of some themed “office type†images. Lots of smiling employees replicating co-worker interactions and client meetings.
Music resources…recommended by Kickstarter
I’ll admit that I haven’t played around with these resources, but in order to round out the selection of resources, I thought I would share these anyway!
- SoundCloud – Per their website, they are “an audio platform that enables sound creators to upload, record, promote and share their originally-created sounds.â€
- Vimeo Music Store – Per their website, “Vimeo is video + you. We put your videos first and give you the best ways to share, discover, and be inspired.†Vimeo music is the same, but with music…plus they make searching for music easy!
- Free Music Archive – Per their website, they are an “archive of public domain and Creative Commons licensed songs managed with a curatorial approach.â€
- ccMixter – Per their website, “ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.â€
And if after everything, you’re still not convinced that you should be selective about the types of materials you share from others, we invite you to watch a video explaining the 4 types of IP.
IP infringement can cost you dearly. Avoid the headache of time consuming and costly litigation and attorney fees and share content legally. Utilize the above resources. Or even create your own! Smartphone apps these days have made us all professional photographers (my favorites right now are ColorSplash, BeFunky, and BeautifulMess).
Happy Content Creating!