I just started using the really cool WordPress plugin called PhotoDropper.

It essentially let’s you harness the power of WordPress, Flickr and the Creative Commons Licensing scheme to use images others have shot and are willing to share (yes, to use on your blog). All you have to do is to adhere to the correct Creative Commons License that is attached to the photo.

You can do the image search from within the Write screen in the WordPress admin area. It will format the pic with links that are needed to comply with the license automatically, plus you get to choose from 3 sizes of the image to insert.

This makes it very easy to find an appropriate image for the theme of your post if you don’t already have one in your image library.

The site Skelliewag.org has a great explanation of what these 6 different Creative Commons Licenses are for. I’ll just let them it explain that part for you.

Another explanation of using photos from Flickr can be found on Internet Marketing with Josh Spaulding. He goes into a good deal of detail about this topic.

After many long months of avoiding upgrading my WordPress blog I finally decided to take the plunge and upgrade from WordPress 2.0.5 to WordPress 2.5.1

I was really worried that my site would break or that many of my plugins would not work anymore. well, guess what? I’m still here and so is my blog.

I decided to download and install the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin and see if an automated solution would work easier than me trying to update all the files manually.

Wow, this plugin works great. I have a self hosted wordpress blog and the only thing that did not work correctly was the re-activation phase of the plugins. I had to go in and spend 15 minutes activating the plugins I wanted to use.

Here is what they say it will actually do…

WordPress Automatic Upgrade upgrades your WordPress installation by doing the following steps.

1. Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
2. Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
3. Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
4. Puts the site in maintenance mode.
5. De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.
6. Upgrades wordpress files.
7. Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
8. Re-activates the plugins.

It did all this with no hitches except for number 8, where I had to do my manual bit.

I’m going to use this plugin on all my WordPress blogs! Thanks keithdsouza and ronalfy.