Image sourcing

Sourcing an image is required on our platform and captions are recommended. The caption should give a brief description of the image and the source should be formatted (John Smith/Unsplash). When you insert an image to your story, you will see an image caption, source and URL box pop up. There you can input all the relevant information and even include a hyperlink that will link to the image credit text if that makes sense for your image. If you choose to use the Unsplash option provided within our platform, the image credit and source URL will be automatically inserted for you.

Image credit It is important to source and make sure you are using images cleared of copyright restrictions not just for the potential legal repercussions, but also because just how you make money off of your writing, others rely on photography.

We realize sourcing images can be confusing. As a general rule, if you did not take the photo yourself or did not get permission to use it, you probably can't use it. There are also a few places that should always be avoided:

Newspapers, publications, media companies (they pay photojournalists and graphic designers for this work)
Professional photographers (this is how they get paid and using their work for free is not allowed)
Anything with a copyright or watermark

Here are a few places we suggest checking out for royalty-free images:

While we require a downloaded image in your article to use as a thumbnail, you can also include embedded content. If you are struggling to find the royalty-free image you want of a certain place or person, you can embed appropriate images from twitter, instagram, maybe even a google map. Once you find and copy the embed code, go in your article on our Creator Portal click the <> icon to paste embed code inside.

Where to find embed codes

Instagram, click on the three dots to the right of the photo and click embed
Twitter, click on the three dots on the top right of the tweet and select embed tweet
Google Maps, once you search, select a location (address, city, etc) select the share icon on the right and click the embed a map tab, you can select the size you want the map to appear