It’s no secret that adding photos to your blog posts is one of the most effective ways to enhance your blog and attract attention to your writing.
When it comes to finding great quality images, you basically have 3 options: stealing, buying, or using Creative Commons-licensed photos. The first can get you into serious legal trouble, the second costs money, so #3 is often the most attractive.
Flickr has millions of Creative Commons licensed photos available in its database. What we’ve done is created a plugin that simplifies the entire process of finding and adding incredible Flickr images to your posts (just like the one below).
photo credit: MumbleyJoe
With the Photo Dropper plugin, you can now search millions of Flickr photos and add them to your Wordpress posts with just 1 click, all without leaving your Wordpress dashboard. Attribution links are automatically added underneath the images to comply with the Creative Commons license rules. It’s the easiest way to add photos to your blog. Period. And best of all – it’s Free!
If you run a commercial blog, please be sure to go to Options > Photo Dropper and check the box that says “Show only photos that can be used commercially” which will exclude photos marked non-commercial. You should always check the specific CC license on the source page before posting since you’re ultimately responsible for adhering to the license. Yeah, it can be a little confusing. See this article for a better explanation.
Download Photo Dropper and test it out yourself.
Questions? Feel free to leave feedback. Instructional videos coming soon…
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{ 102 comments… read them below or add one }
Ben Cook 02.20.08 at 6:44 pm
Simply amazing plugin! This is going to be a big time saver.
Thanks very much!
Neerav 02.20.08 at 8:05 pm
Love the plugin – just tried it on a WP 2.3.2 site with the keyword “Sydney” to see which photos it found for my city and it made some good choices
Just added this URL to Stumbleupon – hope you get lots of traffic
PS Found your site via a link on Greywolf’s SEO blog – http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/wordpress-add-photos-plugin/
Jason Lankow 02.20.08 at 9:07 pm
beautiful work this is perfect!
Keiron 02.21.08 at 1:30 am
Fantastic,
You’ve created exactly what I was discussing on my blog in my last post!!! I’ll be posting about it now!
Anne Helmond 02.21.08 at 1:43 am
Well done, thank you so much. This is going to be one popular plugin!
Festivals in PA 02.21.08 at 4:48 am
Thanks! This will save time and add value to my site. I am sure the plugin will also drive you quite a bit of traffic – so the best of luck to you!
Also found via Graywolf – http://www.wolf-howl.com/
Zak Nicola 02.21.08 at 1:44 pm
Great plugin, works really well. Good thinkin Graywolf, so glad someone ran with the idea.
The Crazy Colombian 02.21.08 at 2:48 pm
I have not yet had a chance to test this plugin because at this stage I am hosting my blog at Wordpress.com (maybe if enough of us suggest it to them, they will add it to the standard funcitonality offered to free blogs?)
I started revamping my blog in preparation to turn it from a non-for-profit hobby into a secondary revenue stream over the coming months. As such, I have been reading Problogger and Skelliewag, and found both blogs absolutely chockers with good advice.
One of Skellie’s suggestions that I put to immediate use was to use images that are available under Creative Commons from flickr; In one of her posts (link) she explained the various types of licenses, and even gave some links to the various Flickr CC licenses search pages.
Your plugin takes her concept to an entirely new level! On behalf of the blogging community, I wanted to say “Thank you” for developing this awesome plug-in. I can’t wait to use it once I move my blog out of wordpress.com!
-The Crazy Colombian
Ps/ Does anyone have recommendations on commercial hosting sites that will allow me to host a couple of Wordpress blogs with different URLs at a minimum price? I am considering Bluehost and siteground. Comments?
Carrie Hill 02.21.08 at 4:35 pm
This is the neatest thing since sliced bread (was bread ever sold NOT sliced?)
Anyway, great plugin!
~Carrie
Diego 02.21.08 at 4:51 pm
Not working for older WP version 1.5.
WordPress database error: [Table 'wpressbw.flickr_post' doesn't exist]
SELECT value FROM flickr_post WHERE name=’per_page’
WordPress database error: [Table 'wpressbw.flickr_post' doesn't exist]
SELECT value FROM flickr_post WHERE name=’commercial_only’
WordPress database error: [Table 'wpressbw.flickr_post' doesn't exist]
SELECT value FROM flickr_post WHERE name=’sortbyinteresting’
The Baldchemist 02.21.08 at 10:39 pm
Only 3 options? How about taking your own? That is far more satisfying.
C’mon start working with some meaningful creative of your own! The Baldchemist
John Stevens 02.22.08 at 4:00 am
Very many thanks for this.
Have trawled through Flickr via CreativeCommons.org search, but this is definitely excellent and a timesaver, as long as you don’t just keep playing with it!
Any chance of making this into a plugin for MTOS (Moveable Type Open Source) as well?
Only kidding. Well done and many thanks for excellent work.
XIII 02.22.08 at 5:24 am
Brilliantly simple idea, those are usually the best.
Diseño Web 02.22.08 at 8:59 am
Well done work, many people have this on mind.
PT from Prime Time Money 02.22.08 at 9:03 am
Can you search for images that can be edited? Can you edit the images within WP?
J. Pisano 02.22.08 at 9:23 am
This is exactly the time-saving program I was looking for. I wonder if this can be done for yoto-photo too? Thanks for a great, easy to implement product.
J. Pisano -mustech.net
iantrepreneur 02.22.08 at 10:01 am
wow this is what I am looking for finally something simply and easy
Coqui 02.22.08 at 10:31 am
Plugin sounds cool.
But you still have to be careful with the Creative Commons photos as the owner can specify different options.
Take for instance the photo in this post, The owner has specified
Attribution.
Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
No Derivative Works
Sio if you are making money with your site (asdsense etc.) then you should not use a phot with this CC.
Is there a way with the plugin to specify the exact creative commons licence that you want to search?
admin 02.22.08 at 10:39 am
@PT: No, it’s only meant to be a quick way to add photos. If you want to search for editable photos and modify them, you still have to do it the old fashioned way – there’s no way around that.
@Coqui: In the plugin’s settings there’s an option to specify that your blog is commercial which will exclude non-commercial licensed photos. I’ll try to make that more apparent in the instructions.
Missy 02.22.08 at 11:32 am
Oh this is a true keeper, i use photos on every blog post and i have several blogs. So you can imagine the time this will save me.
Great job on coming up with this awesome WP Plugin for us bloggers. Will stumble, digg, and promote it as best i can. Thanxs!
Missy.
Erin 02.22.08 at 11:59 am
Great tool, thanks so much. There are a lot of really useful plugins coming out, and this tops the list!
Prof Kienstra 02.22.08 at 1:19 pm
Great plugin! One thing if i may make a suggestion? some people (for ex. myself) use darker backgrounds, in that case the CC is not presented as nice as it can be. Maybe an option in your plugin? I’ll be changing it for me. However.. Great work!
admin 02.22.08 at 1:33 pm
@Prof: Good call. I should probably replace the graphic with a transparent png or gif.
UPDATE: I have replaced the CC image in the newest version with a transparent png. That should be better (and I’ve aligned it to be centered with the text).
Your suggestions are always welcome. Thanks!
Joel 02.22.08 at 1:52 pm
Lately, I was thinking somebody should be writing a plugin where they can search and add photos …something like tag suggester…you can have photo suggester….and there you go….
Great plugin….
Live Crunch 02.22.08 at 2:10 pm
Hey thanks for the plugin, I was looking for something similar but never had time to code it my self
Anwayas I used it , trackback to here and also did a demo picture of wordpress.
Copes Flavio 02.22.08 at 2:43 pm
Good work, really well written and useful! I don’t have any more excuses not to use images in my blog
Matt Collinge - the 604homesguy 02.22.08 at 3:44 pm
Another thing to make me wish I used WP.
Bruce 02.22.08 at 4:02 pm
Amazingly cool!
I’m already putting images with my posts based on an excellent how-to post by Skellie on SkellieWag. However, this saves me oodles of time.
Once again, great plugin.
James 02.22.08 at 4:05 pm
Any chance of this making it into a Live Writer Plugin?
Looks very handy!
Warren 02.22.08 at 5:17 pm
I’m borderline giddy about this. If it works as promised, this will be a huge help to a lot of bloggers.
Ryan McFarland 02.22.08 at 7:37 pm
Great idea for a plugin. I’m a little concerned though. I like my photos on Flickr to be used by others. But I specify in the description that attribution should be directed to my personal site and not my Flickr profile. I don’t want to change the license of all of my photos — but I sure hate all that pagerank juice just pointing to Flickr.
Mary 02.22.08 at 8:10 pm
I love this, it’s heaven sent. I only wish it would allow me to have more of a say of placement with the image. I’ve tried tinkering with the code for the first image I used, but I can’t align it to align/combine with the text (sorry if I don’t have the right lingo
)
I did check to be sure that the photo owner allowed public usage and as Flickr allows one to leave a comment to the photo owner, I did so to thank him for providing it, and how it was used.
Marenda 02.22.08 at 11:46 pm
wow I love it can’t wait to try it out thanks
SuMu 02.23.08 at 2:17 am
Great plugin, brilliant idea, thanks!
colbert 02.23.08 at 5:38 am
great plugin. I used to have trouble finding good free pics but no more. thanks again
Richard St.Cyr 02.23.08 at 8:48 am
Can you use Photo Dropper with Type Pad?
Thanks
Richard
Stephen Hopson/Adversity University 02.23.08 at 8:56 am
I’ve downloaded this heaven sent plug in. Thank you! It’ll be a huge time saver, I’m sure, as I’m always using Flicker photos for my blog.
What I’m wondering is if there’s a way to find previously used photos in the same way we can find new photos? For instance, I use some photos over and over again for my gratitude posts (i.e. I use gratitude related photos).
Can this plug-in be modified to go in my photo database within Wordpress to select previously used photos? I wonder….
Thanks!
Ben 02.23.08 at 11:51 am
If you use Photo Dropper, will it display a link back to the photo owner like “photo credit: MumbleyJoe” above?
benc 008 (AT) sbcglobal (DOT) net
wpmu user 02.23.08 at 11:53 am
Does it work on Wordpress Multiuser????
Lane 02.24.08 at 8:04 am
I also am having trouble with placement. Adding align=”right” to the first img code lets the text wrap around the image, but then the credits sticks out beside the image, rather than below. I don’t know HTML well enough to fix it.
Shanker Bakshi 02.24.08 at 11:56 am
NOT WORKING
When i change parameter in Admin > Option it says
Cannot redeclare flickr_post_install() (previously declared in C:\Domains\shankerbakshi.com\wwwroot\wp-content\plugins\photo_dropper\flickr-post-plugin.php:18) in C:\Domains\shankerbakshi.com\wwwroot\wp-content\plugins\photo_dropper\flickr-post-plugin.php on line 17
Scooti 02.25.08 at 8:47 am
Hey,
Just wanted to let you know that there is a great way to post quality, recent and legal pictures on your blog with a new platform called PicApp (www.picapp.com).
Although currently in Beta, you can get a username and password by emailing: discover@picapp.com
Try it! You might just get hooked on it…
thanks 02.25.08 at 8:27 pm
Thanks, extremly function!
marika 02.26.08 at 9:25 am
This is a beautiful plug in. Thank you!
A suggestion
I’m wondering if there’s a way to publish specific photos?
For instance, I have some photos in flickr. I have to be searching again and again until they show up. If could probably just put the flickr url (in another box maybe under search) and have it published by the dropper
I wonder….
Bill 02.26.08 at 7:27 pm
Running into a bit of a problem… displays my write page I see the search box, then the entire page goes blank. Ideas?
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Owen 02.28.08 at 4:41 am
Great work mate! .. This plugin is indeed essential! It’s going to save me loads of time whenever I need an image on my post!
Solo Programmer 02.28.08 at 11:08 am
@Lane you need to use a span around the image and caption and apply the float style to the span. I just figured this out and post some more details on my blog about how to do it.
@Bill are you going to the photo dropper search box, entering some text and then pressing enter? That doesn’t work (and I find myself doing it all the time). You have to actually click the submit button in the photo dropper area.
hipslu 02.29.08 at 4:38 pm
same problem as reported by bill – post-new.php loads, then it reloads to a blank page. source code of the reloaded page shows only an IFRAME with id=”iframeshim” and a blank src.
Jens Filipsson 03.01.08 at 12:48 pm
Hey, I really find this plugin interesting and useful, but I’m a little concerned about what will happen if the photographer takes the photo down? Is there an option to host the image yourself or does it have to link to the image at flickr?
Thank you!
// Jens.
Donna 03.01.08 at 5:52 pm
great idea but is there any way to align the photos with the text automatically? It’s annoying to have to go into the post’s code and add ALIGN=”left” or ALIGN=”right” or whatever.
marge 03.01.08 at 10:22 pm
bill, the same thing is happening to me except instead of a blank page it just acts like i presssed the save button
Silvia 03.02.08 at 4:56 pm
I installed and activated the plugin in my WordPress blog (version 2.3.2). After I type in a keyword in the search box, I am getting the following error message:
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/u1/langwitches/html/blog/wp-content/plugins/photo_dropper/flickr-ajax.php on line 65
Any idea why the plugin won’t work? Any help is appreciated.
Thank you
Bill 03.03.08 at 9:28 am
@Solo Programmer: The post form loads and then as soon as the loading is finished the entire screen goes blank. It is definitely an IE 7 behavior because it works fine in FireFox.
marge 03.03.08 at 4:02 pm
ive restarted it at least 5 times, uninstalled and reinstalled it, and it still isnt working
help please
NBWeb.it 03.04.08 at 3:40 pm
Great idea, but it does not work for me
I am using WP 2.3.3 with IT localization.
When i click on “search” it returns a blank “write page”, like if i was just starting to write a new post. No images at all.
Any help will be appreciated.
Regards,
Nicola
CircleReader 03.10.08 at 2:24 am
Hi, Solo!
1. Brilliant plugin; really simple, really useful function to add to WordPress. Congrats! And thanks!
2. Definitely needs features to make positioning and styling the photos & credits as easy as finding and adding them. Maybe on the options page you could add some “insert before” and “insert after” fields for the photo and the credit, so that users could specify
etc. as desired? Your instructions on doing that manually are great, but I want to use this plugin to avoid fiddling with code for my post-photos. I just want to be able to set it and forget it…and still have good-looking photos.3. How about checkboxes to filter for the other Creative Commons attributes, not just the “non-commercial” attribute? And putting a field for a Flickr url to a specific photo (Marika’s idea in comment #44) would be sweet!
4. Re: #50 from Jens – What about adding an “import” link that would grab the photo from Flickr and attach it to the post? (That would make two options for each size, hotlink to Flickr or import, plus the link to the photo’s page.)The credit information might be added into the description field? Or could it add the credit links in a way (new fields?) that would let them be inserted automatically with the photo from the post editor? [Sorry if this is just the crazy-talk of a non-coder...;-) ]
Dan 03.15.08 at 11:05 pm
Problem was on my end, please disregard. I got it fixed. I can use your great plugin again!
Paul Left 03.25.08 at 2:05 am
A great plugin – thank you. I had a small problem with my wordpress not validating at W3.org, and it seemed to be the way the plugin gives the CC icon the ‘absmiddle’ tag. When I changed this to ‘middle’ the site validated okay. So I made a simple change to the code to avoid this problem… see:
http://www.verso.co.nz/tools/60/photo-dropper-for-wordpress-validation-problem/
Thanks again for a really useful plugin!
Paul
admin 03.25.08 at 10:07 am
Thanks for the heads up, Paul. Trent brought that to my attention too recently. Will have to change it in the next update.
Eric 03.27.08 at 12:18 am
Thanks for writing such a great plugin! It must have been my luck because I found you need to add the function flickr_replace to escape single quotes in $photo['owner'] and in $owner['person']['username']['_content'].
Dana Huff 03.30.08 at 2:22 pm
Just an FYI, and maybe you are already aware, I couldn’t get this plugin to work with WP 2.5. When I searched for a picture, what happened instead was that my post saved, and no pictures were ever returned at all. Love the plugin, by the way. I used it a lot, especially for my classroom blog.
Logineo 04.10.08 at 12:33 pm
Hi,
Very nice plugin, very useful. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work anymore with WP 2.5, for the moment I have the same problem as Dana Huff (comment #62)…
admin 04.10.08 at 5:36 pm
@Dana, @Logineo: please download and install the latest version (1.0.5) – it’s been upgraded to be compatible with WP 2.5
Steve 04.21.08 at 3:19 pm
You said…
“If you run a commercial blog, please be sure to go to Options > Photo Dropper and check the box that says “Show only photos that can be used commercially” which will exclude photos marked non-commercial.”
Can you please tell me where the “Options” box is so I can change it so it will only show photos that can be used commercially? I’m new at this and don’t see that ‘Options’ box anywhere?
Thanks for this plugin. I am looking forward to using it.
Thank you very much!
admin 04.21.08 at 4:01 pm
@Steve: which version of Wordpress are you using?
Fotoalbum 04.23.08 at 2:25 am
Ihr eigenes Online Fotoalbum. Es ist einfach und umsonst!
bill yao 04.28.08 at 9:27 pm
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work anymore with WP 2.5.
silvius 04.30.08 at 4:09 am
not working for WP 2.2.1
> WordPress database error
admin 05.01.08 at 9:19 pm
The newest version works with 2.5 – please upgrade your Photo Dropper installation to 1.0.5 (from the download page)
Dhamodaran 05.16.08 at 12:39 am
I am a newbie to this blogging … and i use blogspot… could u help me out in bringing this brilliant feature to blogspot or does that slideshow option in blogspot is enough to do the thing..
thanks
admin 05.16.08 at 9:36 am
@Dhamodaran: we’ve had some people with the same request so we might look into it.
MGM 06.05.08 at 8:57 am
Hey, hi. Loved the plugin when I saw it working on a friend’s blog. Installed it on mine, but cant’t get it to work. After I search, it throws the following error:
curl_exec() has been disabled for security reasonsAny ideas? THX!
MGM 06.09.08 at 11:11 am
Problem solved. A little conversation with my hosting’s tech support did the trick
Sue Wise 06.12.08 at 8:36 am
How would this work with Blogs not on Creative Commons? We have a members-only blog set up for educators within our region. It was developed and is hosted in-house. Thanks for any input.
bjorn 06.16.08 at 2:38 pm
Have you considered a port to ExpressionEngine – or do you know if one exists? I love Photodropper and I miss it when in EE
Olob 06.18.08 at 1:51 pm
Has anyone tried Photo Dropper with Wordpress MU? It seems to install properly, but when I perform a search the cursor just spins and no data/images/errors are returned – the cursor just spins.
Any help would be appreciated.
Marios Alexandrou 06.21.08 at 7:44 am
When I search by keyword, the current post is saved rather than having any photos returned. I’m using WP 2.5.1 and Photo Dropper 1.0.5. Same problem as comment 62 except I have the latest version installed. Thanks!
Rean Kriel 06.24.08 at 3:03 pm
A very cool plug-in indeed. Thanks very much.
Regards,
http://www.weddingdaypictures.co.za
Mark 06.27.08 at 9:59 am
Awesome plugin thanks.
jeff carter 07.14.08 at 7:16 am
Just used this plugin with wordpress 2.5.1.
worked like a charm.
Thanks.
Stumbled your site.
Tim Phillips 07.17.08 at 10:44 pm
Hi, I am running Wordpress 2.6 and I am getting the error:
“Unexpected error occured while performing an AJAX request”
I didn’t get a chance to try this plugin on 2.5 so not sure if it was working before.
Anyone seen this problem b4?
Evander 07.25.08 at 8:05 pm
Hi Guys! I just love this plugin but I have a question: When I choose some image I must download this to my blog? Or just click and let hotlink to Flickr? Thank you!
Oli in the Lake Distict 08.07.08 at 5:06 pm
This is great. Is there any chance it could be used with blogger?
Ron 08.08.08 at 4:43 am
Wonderfull plugin! One request: In future releases, could you make an option, to download the picture to the blog, instead of hotlinking it?
CS 08.08.08 at 2:02 pm
is it just me or does this not work on wp 2.6? i installed, activated and did an automatic update. i edit a post, see nothing. write new post, see nothing. is this pre 2.6?
zed 08.21.08 at 6:23 am
Anyone try this pluigin with WP 2.6.1?
admin 08.27.08 at 10:49 am
@86,87 starting with 1.0.7 You will see the PD icon on top right of your post by the text “Add Media”.
We moved the interface to there (as an overlay). If you prefer the old way, you can go to the plugin options and enable legacy mode. I’ll post about this soon to clarify.
Mike 09.17.08 at 12:34 am
The plug in kicks butt its not working in wordpress 2.6.1.
When I click search for image it saves my post rather than bring up search results.
Just a heads up
Sandra 09.22.08 at 3:40 am
Hi.
It’s also not working on my client’s site.
WP2.6.1
Photo Dropper plugin 1.0.7
It was working fine when we were using WP 2.3.3
When I press submit to search for a photo, it does nothing. It doesn’t save my post, or search for a photo. It’s like the “search” button is dead = no action to take.
Are you expecting an update for 2.6.1?
Sandra
admin 09.23.08 at 12:08 am
@89,90 We just updated to 1.0.8 so hopefully your problem is solved. If not, can you please email us a list of your other plugins?
Jeffrey 10.24.08 at 2:25 pm
Just attempted to upgrade from 1.0.5 to 1.0.8, it’s reporting a “fatal error”: Fatal error: Cannot redeclare media_upload_flickr_form() (previously declared in /var/www/blog.jeffreymcmanus/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-flickr-manager/MediaPanel.php:6) in /var/www/blog.jeffreymcmanus/wp-content/plugins/photo-dropper/flickr-post-plugin.php on line 332
How to fix?
Thanks!
Jeffrey
hanzee 10.29.08 at 2:44 am
I just uploaded the Plugin and got this error, any idea?
Warning: Unknown(): open(/tmp/sess_6ae3f991f6d8b61dcf6872645dfb1508, O_RDWR) failed: Permission denied (13) in Unknown on line 0
Warning: Unknown(): Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct (/tmp) in Unknown on line 0
hanzee 10.30.08 at 2:42 am
I forgot, i run WordPress version 2.6.3.
sh 11.12.08 at 4:44 am
Hi, Thanks for the wonderful plugin. Just one question is it compatiable with wordpress 2.6.2 and 2.6.3.
Thanks in advance.
Nassorn 11.19.08 at 9:26 am
The plugin is easy to use but I found that the feature browse for keyword is not retrieve all tagged images. It would be perfect with the option to browse for specific owners photos or specific images URL.
Thank you
Les 02.03.09 at 7:24 pm
Just downloaded the latest version to test on a WPMU site. All works fine except changing the settings. If I change images per page to any number over 5 and hit Save Settings it doesn’t ‘take’ and I only ever get 5 images returned on a search on any blog. (In fact I’ve just checked and none of the options on the settings get saved).
Any ideas?
Les 02.04.09 at 1:14 am
Okay I’ve figured it out. Using Plugin Commander the Site Admin needs to change the settings BEFORE activating the plugin on all blogs. After that, provided the User Control is enabled individual bloggers can change the settings.
Sorry to trouble you!
Kirsten Mason 02.07.09 at 2:54 am
Very nice! Thanks very much.
Mike 02.14.09 at 8:23 am
Please note that photos found on Flickr must link back to the Flickr page on which they are found.
Alec 04.28.09 at 10:22 pm
Photodropper is a great innovation.
Does the grab and host locally function work yet?
If not, some of you might want to try our SEO Images Wordpress plugin which allow you to easily upload and caption your photos for Google in a single go.
I use SEO Images for post like this one about what about I love about Vienna: Snow in Vienna.
Still searching for the appropriately licensed images for our clients’ sites is painful. We will definitely be giving Photodropper a whirl as well.
Dave T 05.31.09 at 12:39 pm
That you for this great plugin. As a beginner it works great. I do have one question. Do you have or know of anyone else who has such a plugin to use with Squidoo? It would make the world so much easier if I could add pics to my Lens and have them come out as great as your do with WP
Thank you again’