PhotoShelter’s New WordPress Plugin + 22 Other Great Add-Ons For Photo Blogs

Last week the official PhotoShelter WordPress plugin was born – a free, public download that allows PhotoShelter users to streamline their blogging workflow by embedding photos and slideshows directly into the body of a blog post without leaving WordPress. Here’s a rundown of the main features of the plugin, plus a short review of how I use the plugin to save lots of time and improve my SEO. Also way down at the bottom, I include 22 other fantastic plugins for photography blogs.

Features of the official PhotoShelter WordPress Plugin:

• Embeds any publicly visible PhotoShelter image or slideshow directly into a blog post without leaving WordPress. So, no need to separately log into PhotoShelter to copy and paste image links into WordPress – a HUGE time saver.
• Creates “blog-ready” versions of your photos from the high resolution files in your PhotoShelter archive. The plugin dynamically generates a resized, sharpened and (if you choose) watermarked version of your photo that will fit the content area of your blog perfectly. In other words, you’ll never have to create, upload or manage separate “blog copies” of your photos ever again. Since the photos are created on-the-fly at PhotoShelter, they don’t take up any space on your hard drive or blog server.
• Embeds images that automatically click-through to the version of the photo that lives on your PhotoShelter website. This feature allows blog visitors to buy prints, products or digital downloads with a click and creates backlinks (that search engines like Google need to find your photos) at the same time.
• Embeds your photos as HTML (using the <img> tag) or Flash objects for higher security (your choice).
• Allows you to search for images by gallery or by IPTC keyword, a feature that really comes in handy when you want to write a blog post about a group of related images from different shoots. Example:  The 10 Best Hamburger Photos I’ve Ever Taken.
• Automatically copies the IPTC description into the ALT text of the image embedded in your blog by reading the metadata of your high resolution photo.. This is great for SEO. (Since search engines like Google can’t actually “see” your photos, they look to the ALT text of your images to tell them what they are.)

What’s the Bottom Line?

I’ve been playing around with the plugin for about a week and I have this to say – although it’s still in the public testing stage, the new plugin is the best way for photographers who use PhotoShelter to add images to their WordPress blogs. It’s painless to install, simple to use, it’s good for SEO, and it can save you a lot of time.

If you’re interested in specifics on how the plugin has improved my own blog workflow the following overview should help.

My Old Workflow

Before using the PhotoShelter plugin for WordPress, my workflow looked like this:

1)    Open my high resolution file in PhotoShop.
2)    Resize the image to fit the content area of my blog (exactly 600 pixels wide)
3)    Sharpen the image with unsharp mask to bring back the details
4)    Open the file containing my watermark
5)    Copy, paste and position the watermark on the sharpened image
6)    Save a copy of the new “blog version” to my hard drive
7)    Create a new blog post in WordPress
8)    Use WordPress to upload the image to my web server
9)    Fill in the ALT text by hand
10)    Insert the image into the blog post

My New Workflow

Here is what my workflow looks like after installing the PhotoShelter plugin for WordPress:

1)    Create a new blog post in WordPress
2)    Click on the PhotoShelter icon in the post toolbar (to open the plugin)
3)    Find my photo by gallery or by keyword search
4)    Type in desired width of the image (in pixels)
5)    Select HTML or Flash
6)    Click “Insert Image”

In the new workflow, the images for my blog are automatically resized, sharpened and watermarked. The plugin automatically adds the descriptive text Google needs to “see” my photos and creates the link to my PhotoShelter website where visitors can buy prints or license my work. In the end, I’ve saved a lot of time, improved my SEO, and brought my photos closer to my clients – all without creating low resolution copies of my photos that clutter up my hard drive and web server.

Download the Plugin

Head over to the download page to get your copy of the Official PhotoShelter WordPress Plugin.

To see the plugin in action watch this short video from Graph Paper Press.

Graph Paper Press makes some of the best WordPress themes for photographers and has created 2 additional WordPress plugins for PhotoShelter users.

Add PhotoShelter photos & galleries to WordPress from Graph Paper Press on Vimeo.

22 Other Great WordPress Plugins (and Themes) for Photography Blogs

Here are a few other useful WordPress plugins (and themes) for photographers. Unlike most other surprisingly useless very informative “Top # WordPress Plugins in the Universe” posts, I recommend these because I’ve actually used them on my own blog.

If you use and love a plugin not covered here, please add your recommendations with a comment on this blog post.

Plugins for Managing Photos and Videos
These plugins make using WordPress with images and other media faster and easier.

WordPress Flickr Manager
This one works a lot like the PhotoShelter plugin. It’s the best plugin I’ve found for inserting Flickr photos into the body of a blog post.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-flickr-manager/

kPicasa Gallery
This neat plugin lets you insert Picasa web galleries in a blog post. It displays your Picasa photos as thumbnails in the body of a blog post and enlarges the images in a lightbox when a thumbnail is clicked.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/kpicasa-gallery/

Viper’s Video Quicktags
This plugin lets you use a shortcut to embed videos from Vimeo and YouTube into your blog posts without copying the entire embed code.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/vipers-video-quicktags/

Plugins for SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plugins help your blog content get found by search engines. They can increase the ranking of your blog by allowing you to put your target keywords in the places search engines look for relevant content. And, since they help you rank higher, they also drive more traffic to your blog. Here are a few of my favorites:

All in One SEO Pack
This one gives you complete control of the most important on-page SEO factors. You can write custom page titles, page descriptions and keywords for your blog, even if they’re different from the one you show to visitors.

Example: A visitor sees the title “Inauguration Photos.” The search engine sees “Inauguration photos of Barack Obama at the White House.”

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Google XML SiteMaps
This plugin generates an XML sitemap to help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com index your blog. Sitemaps make it easier for search engines to index the complete structure of your blog. Every website you have should have it’s own sitemap.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

Robots Meta
This plug-in gives you control over what parts of your blog search engines pay attention to. Namely, it makes sure that your actual articles rank higher than other content like pages or comments.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/robots-meta/

Keyword Statistics
While it doesn’t choose the best keywords 100% of the time, this plugin increases the SEO of your posts by automatically suggesting keywords as you type. I look at keywords it generates as suggestions before writing my own.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/keyword-statistics/

Plugins for Analyzing Your Blog Traffic
Analytics plugins give you a window into who is visiting your site and what they are reading. These tools are essential for tracking the success of your keywords and for the determining your most popular content. (For more information about Analytics, check out PhotoShelter’s free guide, Google Analytics for Photographers.)

Google Analyticator
This plugin requires a free Google Analytics account. It automatically adds Google Analytics tracking to your WordPress blog without the need to manually edit the code of your theme. Among other things, Google Analyticator tells you what your popular content is, what people are searching for to find you, and where your visitors are coming from.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analyticator/

WordPress.com Stats
Like Google Analyticator, this plugin records data about your visitors and your most popular content and displays it on your WordPress dashboard in a concise graphical interface.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

Social Media Plugins
Social media plug-ins come in two varieties: 1) those that help you share your blog posts with your social media followers (on Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and 2) those that let your visitors share your content with their networks. Social media plug-ins can be as effective or more effective than SEO when it comes to spreading the word about your newest blog content. (For more information about using social media, check out PhotoShelter’s free guide, Social Media for Photographers.)

AddThis
This is the WordPress version of the popular social sharing tool AddThis.  It allows your blog visitors to share your content with 295 of the most popular social networks by clicking on a small bookmarking tool bar on every blog post.
 
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/addthis/

Twitter Tools
This plugin integrates WordPress with your Twitter account to allow automatic status updates to your Twitter account every time you publish a new blog post. A word of warning – I was using this plugin until I found that no one was clicking on my tweets because they sounded like they came from an automated plugin. When I resumed tailoring my tweets to my followers, readership rebounded. This plugin is probably most useful for photographers who update their blogs multiple times a day.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/

TweetMeme Button
I love this one. It adds a little green button to your blog articles that allows readers to post a link to your article directly to their Twitter accounts. It also counts how many times the article has been tweeted about, which can bring even more attention to the article from other blog visitors.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tweetmeme/

Yet Another Related Posts Plug-in
As you can tell from the name, this is one of many WordPress plugins that introduces your blog visitors to other relevant content on your site by adding links to related posts at the bottom of the current entry. This plugin has more options than the others in its class and it’s very good at encouraging my blog visitors to read older articles.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yet-another-related-posts-plugin/

Subscribe to Comments
When one of your readers comments on a post, this plugin invites them to continue the conversation by notifying them any time a new comment is added. This is an important one for encouraging discussion and repeat visits to your blog.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/

Site Maintenance Plugins
Site maintenance plugins make sure that your blog continues to run smoothly as the amount of content increases over time. They also ensure that your work is properly backed up in case you need to move your blog to another host or restore your data in the event of a server crash.

WordPress Database Backup
This is possibly the single most important tool in this section. It creates an on-demand backup of your most valuable data – your posts and comments. Every photographer with a blog should install this plugin.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

WP Super Cache
This plugin creates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog which dramatically decreases the time it takes for visitors to load your blog. The downside is that it slows down how quickly small edits to your posts appear on the site.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/

Akismet
Akismet is a must-have plugin for combating spam comments. My Akismet installation has blocked almost 10,000 spam comments to date. The plugin requires an API key from Akismet.com, but registration is free for personal use. Thanks to photographer Dave Hodgkinson for reminding me about this one.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/

Contact  Forms
By default, many blogging platforms lack something all photographers need – a professional and easy way for clients to contact them or “subscribe” without leaving their browsers. Here is my favorite:

Contact Form 7
This plug-in is perfect for photographers; it’s simple to set up and it allows you to create multiple forms so you can handle different types of inquiries. If you need separate questionnaires for your wedding, portrait and commercial clients, this one is for you.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7/

Wufoo
Wufoo isn’t a plugin, it’s a company that creates highly customizable forms that can be embedded in almost any website or blog. If you need a form with the most options, you’ll want to give Wufoo a try.

http://wufoo.com/

WordPress Themes for Photographers
There are literally thousands of themes for WordPress but few that are made specifically for photographers (believe me, I’ve searched high and low) Here are a few of the best options I’ve found:

Graph Paper Press
Graph Paper Press makes elegant WordPress themes for visual creatives. I use and love Graph Paper Press themes because they make my photos look great and thanks to a partnership with PhotoShelter, I was able to seamlessly integrate my blog with my PhotoShelter website with the press of button.

http://www.graphpaperpress.com/

ProPhoto
ProPhoto Blogs only make one WordPress theme for photographers but it’s a good one. The theme contains six different layouts with lots of customization built in.

http://www.prophotoblogs.com/

PurePhotoPress
This is a really interesting theme for photographers who want to a tradtional “portfolio” website using WordPress. I haven’t personally used it, but it looks great on both big screens and mobile devices like the iPad.

http://themeforest.net/item/photopurepress-wordpress-for-photographers/102716

Atlantica
This theme is a traditional blog layout with a mini-portfolio built into the header. I could see this layout working well for a wedding, portrait or fashion studio.

http://themeforest.net/item/atlantica-html-premium-portfolio-template/44324

The Photography Blog Handbook
PhotoShelter publishes an ongoing series of educational guides for photographers. For more blogging resources and tools specifically for photographers, check out the latest guide, The Photography Blog Handbook.

Recommend Another Plugin

If you use and love a plugin not listed here, please add your recommendation(s) in a comment on this post.

–
Chris Owyoung is a New York based music photographer and a member of PhotoShelter’s marketing team. His website www.onelouderphoto.com is powered by PhotoShelter, WordPress and a theme by Graph Paper Press.

About the author

Chris Owyoung
Chris is part of PhotoShelter's marketing team. He's is also a professional music photographer and has been a PhotoShelter member since 2008. Chris loves shooting wide open, Nikon cameras, Think Tank Photo bags, green tea and long walks in the park.

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25 Comments

Dave Hodgkinson 7-21-2010

My top 10: http://www.davehodgkinson.com/blog/2010/05/wordpress-plugins-for-photographers/ In addition to your list, I have: nggallery – an additional gallery over the “media” feature of WP akismet – does a grand job of stopping comment spam broken link checker – checks your outbound links outbound link checker – where people go from your site (and force open in a new window/tab) rpx authentication – use facebook, twitter, google to log in for comments.

Richard 7-21-2010

A couple of great widgets for Photoshelter/Wordpress users can be found here http://www.niophoto.com/topic/reviews/software/ An customizable RSS gallery widget which reads your feed from photoshelter and publishes the most recent images to your blog and a dual search widget which takes both the search forms (one for your blog and one for your photoshelter images)and combines them into one neat package.

Darren Pierson 7-21-2010

the 1st link in this article to the plugin goes to a Flickr plugin…..

Chris Owyoung 7-21-2010

Hey Dave, Thanks for the comment. You’ve got some good ones on your list, I’m going to add akismet to the post on your suggestion – it’s definitely a must-have that I use on my own blog but overlooked when writing this. Thanks! Chris

Chris Owyoung 7-21-2010

@Richard, Thanks for adding the link to the NiO photography widgets, I’ve been meaning to check them out. BTW, I love this photo of yours – http://bit.ly/cdY4pb Best, Chris

Chris Owyoung 7-21-2010

@Darren, Thank you, good catch. The link has been fixed.

freelance97 7-21-2010

Seems like a great plugin, i’ve installed it and activated in wordpress but when prompted to authorize the plugin to allow access to my Photoshelter account the page wont ‘log in’. Anyone know how to solve the problem? Cheers Neil

Chris Owyoung 7-21-2010

Hey Neil, As long as you’re using the same email address and password as your PhotoShelter account, you should not be having any problems. Give the PhotoShelter Client Services team a shout. They’re awesome and they’ll make sure you get sorted out – support@photoshelter.com or 212.206.0808

Sean 7-21-2010

This sounds like a great tool and I’m looking forward to using it. But I do have a question, I am currently using a gpp wordpress theme and the gpp plug-in to integrate with photoshelter. Am I going to have any issues with my older content implementing the new plug-in?

Chris Owyoung 7-21-2010

@Sean There were previously three PhotoShelter plugins made by GPP: #1 GPP PhotoShelter Plugin #2 PhotoShelter Gallery Widget #3 PhotoShelter Search The new PhotoShelter Official Plugin for WordPress specifically replaces GPP Plugin #1. If you have the older version installed, you’ll need to uninstall it. GPP plugins #2 and #3 will continue to work just fine! If you run into problems just give Client Services a holler.

Carl Chapman 7-21-2010

I was using the TweetMeme Button, but found a better option in the Digg Digg plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/digg-digg/. It includes the Tweetmeme, Facebook like and share buttons, Digg and many others, with the option of a floating setup.

Patrick Fallon 7-21-2010

Definately an improvement over my previous way of embeddeding photos, but how about a check box in the plug in to enable posting caption information below the image in html [not just in the alt]. Or better yet, also being able to select multiple images and embed them all into a post, without having to do a flash gallery My blog: Page with PS plugin: http://www.patrickfallonphoto.com/2010/01/01/on-assignment-san-pedro-polar-bear-swim/ With my current setup, so I can have multiple images, iPad friendly: http://www.patrickfallonphoto.com/2010/07/05/intern-diary-2010-day-thirty-seven-–-boxing/ P.

Lincoln Barbour 7-22-2010

Works like a charm. Sweet plugin. It’s just what I need to tie in my blog and website to my PhotoShelter account. I’m so excited by it, I just might by you a doughnut. Check out my blog tomorrow to see what I’m talking about.

seb 7-22-2010

Very cool plugin, but I can see 2 things that would make it awesome: – use the ‘title’ of the tag and put what’s in ALT for example. That way, users have a nice tooltip when they hover. – offer the possibility to add the tags of wordpress. Very cool otherwise!

Chris Owyoung 7-22-2010

@Carl Chapman That Digg Digg plugin is a great one, thanks for adding it!

Chris Owyoung 7-22-2010

@ Patrick Fallon, Those a great suggestions Patrick I too would love the option to pull the IPTC caption into the WordPress image caption as well as the ability to insert multiple photos at a time. I’ll send an email suggesting those features, but it NEVER hurts to send your own email anytime you have a suggestion for PhotoShelter. Member feedback is an incredibly important part in the development of the product. – https://www.photoshelter.com/contact Thanks also for including the link to your site, I love your use of SmoothGallery instead of flash. I’ve been considering using it for my own site but I’m trying to figure out a way to avoid hard coding every image and caption. Suggestions?

Chris Owyoung 7-22-2010

@ Lincoln Barbour I love doughnuts, especially if they’re beautifully photographed. I also like really strong coffee, especially if it’s served in a mug that’s softly focused behind a beautifully photographed doughnut. Be sure to make your way though some of the OTHER plugins in the list – they’re really useful, I swear. Chris

Chris Owyoung 7-22-2010

@ Seb, Those are good suggestions as well. Can you send them along to the team? https://www.photoshelter.com/contact

driftingson.com 7-27-2010

Just to be clear- this plugin is only for self-hosted wordpress sites, right? I’m still hoping for a valid option for wordpress.org hosted blogs. Impoverished photographers unite!

Chris Owyoung 7-27-2010

@driftingson.com Yes, this plugin is only for self-hosted sites. Blogs hosted by WordPress do not support plugins as far as I know. I’m not trying to be crass or make any assumptions about your finances, but I looked into it and I thought I would share…. Apparently, Dreamhost, which has a 1-click WordPress installation feature, just lowered it’s hosting prices to 1.95/month, which I think is insane. http://wordpress.org/hosting/ At the point where self-hosting costs less than $50/year – the prices of the monthly hosting and a domain name, I think it deserves a serious look by any photographer who is serious about blogging. In my opinion, plugins add so much functionality and save too much time to be ignored.

driftingson.com 7-27-2010

Thank you, Chris- that is a screaming deal. I was self hosted for years, but I recently sold my business and got in a mood to downscale my life severely, hence the switch to worpress.org. It’s temporary while I reorganize, and that Dreamhost deal is definitely an insane deal, so I just may jump on that. Thank you for your time…

Chris Owyoung 7-28-2010

@drifingson, So glad you found that useful. It makes total sense to get things in order first before committing to any kind of longer-term expense, even if it’s not a large sum of money. So many people I know made big decisions that had impacts on their financial bottom line this year; the ones that are happiest now are the ones like you who also made smart adjustments to their expenses. BTW, love your photos of the crater.

Justin 10-26-2010

Hi, I LOVE this plugin, it’s convincing me to migrate from Flickr to host my blog images to Photoshelter. Mainly for its SEO compatibility. However, I’m not understanding how it automatically includes the IPTC into the alt tags. I’m manually entering keywords and captions via the archive browser. Is this not right?

Chris Owyoung 10-26-2010

Hey Justin, I used Flickr for my blog images for 6 months before discovering PhotoShelter and it’s made a huge difference in time saved and effort spent on my blog. The automatic watermarking in PhotoShelter alone saved me tons of time (not having to make separate low-res watermarked flickr versions of my images) To your question about IPTC into the alt tags… The PS plugin reads the IPTC Description/Caption embedded in your images and writes it as the ALT text of your image so that search engines have an idea of what your photo is. You can write your captions via the archive browser, but IDEALLY, you should be doing this to your master copies on your computer BEFORE uploading them to your PS Archive – it’s a much better workflow to use Lightroom, Bridge, Photo Mechanic, Aperture, etc. to write IPTC data than to use the Archive browser after upload since this creates versions of your files online that have better metadata than your originals, which isn’t good practice. If you have other questions about PhotoShelter, just send a note to support@photoshelter.com or call 212.206.0808 – the client services team is GREAT!

Justin Gill 10-26-2010

Hi Chris, yes, it seems the plugin detects the IPTC written in LR as opposed to the archive browser. HOWEVER, it writes the IPTC Caption field as a title tag, not the alt tag. As we know, SEO puts more weight in the alt tag than the title tag. Is there something I’m still not doing, or is this the way the plugin functions?

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