Hi everyone,
I have added some free images to my site: http://www.elenaphoto.com/gallery_free.php
They are "exclusive" to my site and have the same license as my regular stuff (you can't re-sell them), but are free of charge.
I will be adding more, this is just a start.
Feel free to visit and enjoy:)

Hi Elena, this will be interesting to watch, and I hope you are willing to share results with us. 

I refuse to participate in the huge free-image-database sites, but I have had freebies on Shutterstock a couple times and it was definitely to my benefit, but I fail to be persuaded that long-term donations are very helpful to anyone but the website itself.

How did you come up with the image gallery?  I kind of like the "free image of the week" idea where the freebie moves to 2nd place next week and then 3rd place and then falls off the freebie page.  It is also smart that you require registration as Luis said.  When you add a new freebie you can feature it in your blog so it gets people clicking through from your RSS feeds.

I have a few scrapbooking blogs bookmarked in RSS and I often download the freebies.  I rarely use them though, and almost never buy anything - I'm the worst kind of subscriber.  But the quality that goes into the freebies offered dictactes which site I will pay at though!  Some of them toss up their discards, and the others offer some amazing stuff that gives you confidence to spend money on their site.

Good luck! 

Quote from: luissantos84 on August 13, 2012, 10:35

i don�t agree on the free pictures but i understand why you are doing it, i would at least make them register

I agree, if they are getting a free image, the least the could give you is their email address.

Interesting thought, Luis and Tyler, but what would be the benefit of having the users register? Apart from slightly better click-through rate maybe.

Hi Elena, this will be interesting to watch, and I hope you are willing to share results with us. 

I refuse to participate in the huge free-image-database sites, but I have had freebies on Shutterstock a couple times and it was definitely to my benefit, but I fail to be persuaded that long-term donations are very helpful to anyone but the website itself.

How did you come up with the image gallery?  I kind of like the "free image of the week" idea where the freebie moves to 2nd place next week and then 3rd place and then falls off the freebie page.  It is also smart that you require registration as Luis said.  When you add a new freebie you can feature it in your blog so it gets people clicking through from your RSS feeds.

I have a few scrapbooking blogs bookmarked in RSS and I often download the freebies.  I rarely use them though, and almost never buy anything - I'm the worst kind of subscriber.  But the quality that goes into the freebies offered dictactes which site I will pay at though!  Some of them toss up their discards, and the others offer some amazing stuff that gives you confidence to spend money on their site.

Good luck! 

Thanks Lorraine! I tend to shoot constantly, even when I am not actively working on any stock project. This helps me to stay in good "photographic shape" Some images come out nice but if I don't think they are worth the effort of submitting to agencies (for example, if the subject is over-represented) I will be offering these photos for free. Sometimes I'd have a nice image but it's quality is acceptable only when downsized from original 24 MPs my D3X produces, so those would be good candidates, too.  
Thanks for suggesting to feature new freebies in the blog - that's a lovely idea!

I am interested because I need to build my own site too, I hope you don't think I meant your freebies were "questionable quality" - I was thinking out loud.  I think freebies are a necessary evil.  I wish there was a magic answer to what the best approach is!  Something I don't want to do, but I can definitely see the value in this strategy.  

I also offer free images on my personal websites (http://www.jareso.com, http://www.jareso.sk, http://www.jareso.cz etc.) and it seems to be good idea. I am just hobbyist photographer so my photos are not typical stock photos that drive most of the traffic, but I receive visitors from search engines for free photo searches. I mean people looking for free photos typing keyword phrases such as: "free photo" + thing (keyword) they are looking for in specific language, etc.
(My website is available in many languages.)

And some of these people are sometimes transformed to real stock buyers.

I offer all of my images that are present on my website(s) for (kind of) free.

Free are just small (360 pixels) non-watermarked preview images from my "Large preview pages":
Such as:
http://www.jareso.com/photo/283/rare-manor-house-in-pribylina/
http://www.jareso.com/photo/291/church-and-mountains-in-bobrovec/
http://www.jareso.com/photo/285/wooden-bell-tower-in-pribylina/
Etc.

But 360 pixels is (still too) small so I prepare section(s) of my website(s) where I will give away much higher resolutions of my images for free. Maybe even my whole portfolio (with certain limitations). I am still undecided. (I will still earn money from it. [Indirectly <� through referral.] And also through sales of higher resolutions and extended licenses of my images.) Simply I will do some kind of transformation of my personal website to free stock photo resource website (consisting of my stock photos). But probably not more than 800x800 pixels in resolution. I believe 800x800 pixels is big enough for website to be promoted and useable as free stock photo resource. I plan also to create some wallpapers from my photos (lets say about 50+ or so) in full resolutions for various displays, etc.
I have various plans, will see what impact it will have on my traffic and visitors...

All I wanted to say is that free photos are not necessary always "evil" <- they still can earn money indirectly.
Of course under certain and controlled conditions.