For the past year, I have been keeping a list of things I’ve learned as a blogger. Or I guess I should say, “things I am learning.” Everything about blogging is a work in progress, but maybe the best hobbies in life are those that continue to challenge us. I’m hesitant to start posting blog tips because I never want it to sound like I think I have lots of wisdom. These are definitely things I am trying to teach myself too. :) Today I want to share my biggest pet peeve about blogging: not citing sources! This is important not only because artists deserve to be credited for their work, but also because you can get into some real legal problems! That’s what the “Or else…” is for in this post title. Nobody wants legal problems. If a source is so far removed from the original photographer that you really can’t find it, I think it’s decent to say “source unknown” and leave a little note or disclaimer to let readers know that they can correct you. Before that though, there are a few ways you can go about finding the source of the photo. This is my favorite method: 1. Find an image that you love and see where the link takes you. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and it will lead to a blog post with the original source. But most of the time, it will just be a photo url ending in “.jpg”.

2. Command-click (or right click) the image and copy the image url.

3. Open up Google Images and click the camera icon in the corner of the search box. Paste the url you copied and press enter.

4. You will probably end up with a few pages of links to Tumblrs and Pinterest boards. Keep scrolling! Among those urls, there will hopefully be a gem that will lead you to the original source. I thought this last url looked most promising since it’s of a blog rather than simply an inspiration board. (BTW, Ses & Jen Stylefiles is the prettiest blog!)

5. Find and follow the source urls that will lead you to the photographer.

See? Piece of cake. A few other tips: Read this article about the real possibility of being sued for using photos that are copyrighted. It is painful to read as it states that we are in no way legally allowed to use images that are copyrighted unless we have written permission from the photographer. Even sourcing the images doesn’t even make it technically legal. Sharing images by others is a very blurry line since many of us love when our images are blogged or pinned (when linked back to our page!).

– Google is your best friend, always. Think of some keywords to find the source of the photo you love.

– Citing our sources also applies to recipes or ideas for DIY projects. If your DIY project was inspired by your favorite blog or a product from a store, share that source with your readers! It’s a wonderful thing to be inspired by others.

– Put yourself in the shoes of the photographer. When I was in high school, I had a friend with cotton candy pink hair. She got an adorable kitten and I came over and we took a bunch of artsy pictures. One day, out of curiosity, I looked up one of the photos on a reverse-image-search website, similar to Google images. Someone had edited the photo all crazy and was using it as a Livejournal avatar. It was super creepy.

– Try to avoid blogging photos from places like Tumblr and WeHeartIt unless you can successful find the sources. Pinterest seems to be a little better at keeping sources with photographs.

– Also, try to pin images from the specific blog post pages. For example, instead of pinning from http://www.earlgreyblog.com, you would pin from http://www.earlgreyblog.com/2014/03/recipe-box-earl-grey-ice-cream.html. It makes it easier to find the source of an image especially if it’s a source within a source. If it sounds like too much busy work, try thinking of it as a challenge! Or read that article again. ;) Who knows, you might discover some new favorite blogs while you’re researching sources.