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I don’t know if images help or detract from the content. I think I like them and have been adding them to most posts lately. I have also been bugging a lot of bloggers about how to streamline the process of adding pictures to a blog post. I know there is a Flickr gallery plugin for Wordpress that will make the process I am about to describe quicker. It apparently adds a tab to your posting box that is linked to your Flickr account. But it has issues in my installation and only gives fatal errors

First, at least get familiar with the licensing terms a photo can have. Some require attribution to the photographer. Some cannot be used  for commercial purposes. Others are public domain. Those are the best. You can do just about anything with a photo that’s in the public domain.

There is no downloading or uploading involved in this process. Here is what you need:

  • The Google Toolbar, so you can do the next step.
  • Yotophoto searches multiple sites for free pictures. Go to Yotophoto, right click in the search box and choose "Generate Custom Search" from the menu. This will add a button to the Google toolbar that will allow you to search Yotophoto from the toolbar. I have four custom searches: Yotophoto, Delicious, Bloglines, and Google Reader.
  • Sign up for Picnik. This is a great tool for photo editing. I have Photoshop, but Picnik loads faster and when all I am doing is looking to resize or crop a picture, I might as well go with a quicker tool. Install the browser plugin.
  • Get a Flickr or Photobucket account. I have Flickr. i can’t vouch for how this will work with Photobucket. I just know that Picknik connects to Photobucket also.

Now, when you need a picture, use the Google toolbar to search for it and click the Yotophoto button. When you find the picture you want, right click and choose "Edit in Picknik". Once Picnik loads the picture, resize it or crop it as needed. Then choose "Save and Share" from the Picnik menu. From there you can move your picture to whatever online photo account you use. I then go to my Flickr account and right click on the picture to get the url for my blog post. The above plugin would take this last

copy and paste step out , if you have better luck than I did.

I have the Fck Editor plugin. It allows me to float the picture how I want in the post without having to write css. It’s good to have some sort of a margin or padding around your picture. The test on this them used to bump up a little to closely to the images.  It just didn’t look right and interfered with reading the post.

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