It’s relatively easy to find photographs available either in the public domain or released under a creative commons license to use in your blog. Using illustrations, though, can do a lot to bring color and life to your blog posts. I’ve compiled a list of websites that offer a huge variety of all types of illustrations including clipart, vector images, flash images, and more. By using royalty free images you can create highly engaging visual effects to your blog posts or theme without high per image fees.

Dreamstime is my current favorite spot for finding all types of images. The prices are very reasonable and they are of very good quality. Downloading images requires that credits be purchased, the more credits you purchase at one time the lower the per-credit cost. There is also a monthly subscription option for greater savings when using many images per day. Dreamstime also has a separate search engine for free images.

IstockPhoto is very similar to Dreamstime the price per credit is higher and illustrations require more credits but the selection and variety of images is extensive.

VectorStock also sells images using a credit system but limits their selection to vector images and illustrations (no photographs) The images on this site seem to be mostly design elements rather than stand alone images. This site is a great resource for theme and template design.

VectorArt provides free and open source vector art. The selection is limited but being free, it’s a good place to look for images as a starting point.

Clipart.com provides a wide selection of clip art on a subscription basis.

It’s always a good idea to review the licensing agreement on any image before using it on your blog in anyway. Most free images require that the artists information be displayed on any page that has the image on it. Some royalty free images may have special restrictions placed on them and how they can be used.