Do you write a blog?  Craft a newsletter?  Manage your own website?  Then you probably like to occasionally plug in photos or images to accompany your articles or maybe to add some pizzazz to the page.  Did you know iStockphoto, a site that sells professionally created photos and more, also offers free downloads?

I've purchased iStock photos for my blogs and websites. For example, I purchased the background of Colleen Collins Books (the vintage green typewriter illustration) from iStock.  I also purchased the image for my nonfiction book HOW DO PRIVATE EYES DO THAT?

What's cool is that iStock also provides free downloads, too.  Sometimes an image or illustration will fit something I'm writing about on a blog; otherwise, I save the image for later use.

The only requirement is you need to register with iStock to access their freebies.  To go to their website, click here. 

Examples of Free iStock Image Downloads

iStockphoto offers free downloads every week in each of these categories: Photos, Illustrations, Audio and Movies.   Below are two free photos I've recently downloaded - nice, huh?  Below these photos is a banner for my new book Secrets of a Real-Life Female Private Eye -- the photo of the woman's eyes is also from iStock, and although it wasn't free, it was very inexpensive (a couple of dollars).