I hope all of you are very fond of adding an interesting featured image to your blog post. How do you find them ? Do you make one of your own or get one from a stock photo source ?
How effective are featured images in converting links into clicks ?
I try to make them most of the time. Nothing big, only simple but expressive images.
You can effectively use icons in feature image to make it flashy enough.
Using icons ? I just a very interesting example on a blog. They were talking about themes and this featured image was something like you described.
I tend to use StockPhotoSecrets. I have a paid Island that allows me to download and use 200 images per year which is more than enough. Reasonably priced and good quality images.
This is the first time I have heard of them. Mostly people recommend Unsplash and a few other sites.
There are a lot of resources now. Google's first page will be more than enough for a life time.