Best Way to Get Blogger's Permission to Use Images in Round-up Blog Posts

Round-up blog posts are helpful content for readers, because they curate the best of a category or topic. Roundups are also great for bloggers, since they are somewhat easy to put together. However, what's the best way to get a blogger's permission to use their photos?

Here are my tips on how to automate blog roundup submissions with AirTable and protect yourself down the road at the same time.

Jump to:

• What are roundup blog posts?
• Can you post a blogger's photo in a round-up without getting their permission?
• How to get permission from other bloggers to use their photos
• What is AirTable?
• How to use AirTable to collect round-up submissions
• This all sounds great, can I just copy yours?
• 💬 Reviews

What are roundup blog posts?

Round-ups are a curated list of recipes or blog posts from your own website or others. An example of a round-up is "15 Healthy Potato Recipes" or "25 Free Quilting Patterns".

The blog post includes an intro to the topic, then a summary of each recipe or article in the list. This summary includes the title, a brief 1-3 sentence description, a photo (this is the tricky bit!) and a do-follow link to the post you're recommending.

These types of articles are helpful content for your readers because you have chosen a selection and grouped them together in one place for them to preview. Then, they can click on the ones that interest them.

These types of articles are also helpful for the bloggers you feature, because they can get a link from your site, which is helpful for SEO (search engine optimization). The more quality backlinks a website has can contribute to the site getting more traffic from Google.

Can you post a blogger's photo in a round-up without getting their permission?

No!

Their photos are copyrighted and it is illegal and unethical to use their photos without their permission. You can be sued for doing this.

You must get the blogger or website owner's permission to use their photo in a roundup post on your own blog post, in your social media posts (Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.) or in your email newsletters.

How to get permission from other bloggers to use their photos

To get their permission, you can go about it a couple of ways:

Option #4: Send an email

Send them an email and ask for permission. Include a link to the post you want to use and explain what you want to use it for. Their email or contact form can often be found on their contact us page.

This process is time-consuming, you have to do it one by one and you may not hear back right away.

PROS:

• One on one communication can help build business relationships
• You have more control over what recipes or articles you use in your round-up

CONS:

• Very time-consuming
• You have to find their contact info or fill out a form one by one (and with long round-up posts needing at least 15-25 articles, this creates a lot of work!)
• You have to wait to hear back, it may be days or weeks. Then, you have to go back and forth from the message to your draft post or spreadsheet inputting all the info.
• Hard to keep track of
• Lots of copying and pasting
• Not a lot of protection if someone comes back and says that you stole their photo. You have to go back and find the message you sent (if it's still there!) or take screenshots of everything for proof they gave you permission.

Option #3: Message them on social

Message them on Instagram or Facebook and ask for their permission. Include a link to the post you want to use and explain what you want to use it for.

This process is time-consuming, you have to do it one by one and you may not hear back right away.

PROS:

• One on one communication can help build business relationships
• You have more control over what recipes or articles you use in your round-up

CONS:

• Very time-consuming
• You have to reach out to people one by one (and with long round-up posts needing at least 15-25 articles, this creates a lot of work!)
• You have to wait to hear back, it may be days or weeks. Then, you have to go back and forth from the message to your draft post or spreadsheet inputting all the info.
• Hard to keep track of
• Lots of copying and pasting
• Not a lot of protection if someone comes back and says that you stole their photo. You have to go back and find the message you sent (if it's still there!) or take screenshots of everything for proof they gave you permission.

Option #2: Facebook roundup group COMMENTS

Submit request for roundup entries in Facebook group dedicated to that purpose. Those who have a recipe or article that fits your request will comment with their link, which gives you permission to use their photo!

PROS:

• Easy
• Less time-consuming
• Can get lots of responses in one place
• Usually hear back within 1-3 days

CONS:

• Hard to keep track of all the submissions and which you've used in your round-up as you're creating it.
• Lots of copying and pasting
• Not a lot of protection if someone comes back and says that you stole their photo. You have to go back and find the round-up post (if it's still there!) or take screenshots of everything for proof they gave you permission.

BEST Option #1: Facebook roundup group AIRTABLE FORM

Submit request for roundup entries in Facebook or Slack group dedicated to that purpose. Post link to your FORM, asking for submissions to be sent there. They fill out the form and all the responses automatically go into your AirTable spreadsheet! You can then organize all the submissions as you see fit. This also gives you a record of when they submitted it, should anyone reach out to you in the future saying you stole their photo.

PROS:

• EASIEST WAY
• Organized
• Protects you from blame in the future
• You get lots of responses in one place
• Usually hear back within 1-3 days.
• You automatically get an email when someone submits one of their blog posts to your form.
• AND, it automatically adds the submission to your free AirTable spreadsheet.

CONS:

• Have to setup form in AirTable (free service, takes 15 minutes)
• Some people will still comment in the Facebook group instead of using your form

I've been using Option #1 for awhile now and it is working beautifully for my food blog. I was afraid other bloggers wouldn't use the form, but they do! I made the form as short as I could, so it would be fast for them to fill out.

This new process has helped me to:

1. Stay organized as I write roundup posts
2. Keeps all my blog info in one place, since I already use AirTable to manage my blog posts, affiliate marketing programs, social media and more.
3. Protect myself should anyone accuse me in the future of stealing their photo
4. Connect with other bloggers and keep a record of who has contributed the most to my site for these compilation-style blog posts of recipes.

What is AirTable?

AirTable is an easy-to-use online platform for creating and sharing workflows, data and spreadsheets. It's what I use to manage my blog, so everything is one place and I can stay organized.

I bought the Blog Boss Management System AirTable Template, which was built with bloggers in mind. I then made some minor customizations to suit my needs as a food blogger.

One of the customizations to that system I made was to add this Round-Up Submission Form, in order to organize all the responses I got for round-ups here on my food blog, VeryVeganish.com.

Do you have to have the Blog Boss Management System in order to benefit from using AirTable for round-up submissions? Nope! You can just use it for that. But, once you start using it, you may want to expand by organizing more of your blog workflow there, too.

How to use AirTable to collect round-up submissions

Here are the steps to create a form for roundups in AirTable:

First, sign-up for a FREE AirTable account, if you don't already have one.

Then, create a new base for your blog. Or, download the Blog Boss Management System and use that for your base.

Open your new base, then add a new table by pressing the little plus sign on the top right.

Then, customize your fields, which are the columns. The names of each column will become the different parts of the form other bloggers will see when submitting their post to you (although some fields can be hidden from the public). I would recommend the following fields:

1. Your blog post/recipe TITLE (type: single line of text)
2. LINK to your post (type: single line of text or URL)
3. 2-3 sentences about your post/recipe (type: long text)
4. Which [insert your blog name] round-up request are you responding to? (type: single select, then under that add the options for round-ups you want submissions to. When you want to create a new round-up post, just add a new option to this list and move it to the top of the list, so it's easy to spot! Easy as that. Do not remove the old options, so your database stays organized.)
5. Type your full name and email below if you grant [insert your blog name] permission to use your photo in the post and social media and add a do-follow link to your post. This also helps me notify you when the post is live! (type: single line of text)
6. Created (type: created time - this records exactly when the person filled out the form for you)
7. Used? (type: checkbox - this allows you to mark which submissions you've used already)
8. Blog post this link was added to (type: single line of text or URL - this helps you track which blog post you used the submission for, since some may work for multiple round-ups)
9. Photo (type: attachment - this allows you to keep track and store which photo you used from their post)

Fields 1-5 will become your form others will see. Fields 6-9 will be just for you to see and use and can be hidden from the public form.

After you have your fields filled in, you'll need to create a form view and then customize that.

PRO WORKFLOW TIP: Add your round-up request script to the View or Base Description, so you have it for easy reference. This way you can copy and paste it into Facebook when you're asking for submissions.

This all sounds great, can I just copy yours?

Yep! I've put together my AirTable Roundup Request Form Template for you, along with instructions on how to customize it.

I hope this was helpful to my fellow bloggers. Keep up the great work!

How do you collect round-up permissions? Tell me in the comments below.