20 WordPress Plugins I would die without!
Ones I swear by:
- Askimet – (does a pretty darn good job of catching the spam)
- All in One SEO Pack – (although I have Thesis now and don’t need it)
- CommentLuv – I just love being able to allow the kind people who comment on my blog to have a link back to their last blog post (plus I’ve found some cool blogs I may not have found via this plug-in on other people’s sites)
- Contact Form 7 – making a contact form doesn’t get easier than this (it could but I’m not one to gripe)
- Contextual Related Posts – does a pretty dandy job at suggesting other related blog posts to your readers
- Do Follow – (by default WordPress sets your site as NoFollow). I’m more than happy to encourage people to leave comments on my site by sharing link juice with them so this overrides the default WordPress settings
- WordPress.com Stats – this tips me off to what people are searching for on my site so I can write posts that I know are relevant (yes, after the fact but sometimes we don’t know what people want until we see what they search)
- Feed Stats for WordPress – gives me my Feedburner info so I don’t have to sign into another site (not necessary, just handy)
- Google XML SiteMaps – the title tells it all
- One Click Plugin Updater – again, tells it all – one click and you can update all your plugins!
- Section Widget – without this one, I may have lost my mind – this allows you to put sidebar widgets on specific pages, posts, etc. Helps me keep my home page “cleaner”.
- ShareThis – Makes it easy for people to share my posts across various social networks
- TweetMeme Retweet Button – makes it easy to tweet my posts (and I can add this ReTweet button into my Aweber newsletters)
- Supr by StumbleUpon – while I don’t use this one as much as I can I do still really love it. Makes it easy for people to Stumble your blog post
- Ultimate Plugsins Smart Update Pinger – this is a handy tool that will not ping services when you make updates to blogs
- WordPress 2 Ping.fm – (If I had to pick a favorite it would be this) – I have all my social network accounts set up at Ping.fm – every time one of my blog posts is published it automatically gets sent to all accounts set up with Ping.fm (can it get easier than this to spread your message?)
- WP Super Cache – helps my site load faster
- Zemanta – I use this with ScribeFire (for FireFox) and it often tips me off to tags I may have otherwise not thought of
- Thesis Open Hook – a must have if you use the Thesis Theme
- Post Videos and Photo Galleries (while I don’t use this on this site I do use it on my Vacation Rental By Owner website and LOVE it!)
New Plugins I am trying out based on other’s recommendations (mainly ones that Extreme John mentioned on his recent 25 WordPress Plugins You Might Dig)
- Instant Weekly Round Up – makes it super easy to do a weekly-round up of your blog posts (or monthly if that’s your style)
- Subscribe to comments – allows your readers to subscribe to comments on a particular post
- Thank Me Later – kind of fun, I’ll see how it affects the comments left by others
- WP Greet Box plugin – while this is being a little funky with my photos I like the concept that it suggests people Tweet, Digg, Stumble or subscribe to your RSS feed depending how they came upon your post
- TwitterLink Comments – allows people to leave their Twitter handle with their comment (feed the addiction!)
- Insights (similiar to Zemanta but I’m trying it out on my Vacation Rental website to see which I like more)
- Custom Smilies 2.8 Beta – why don’t you use a smilie when you comment on this blog and tell me what plug-ins are your favorite?
Okay, I’m a junky for these – any you have that you swear by?
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Those are 20 valuable plugins. I think I use more htan half of these plug ins myself on my blog. Nice list of WP plug ins Michelle.
ZXT´s last blog ..Go get them Tiger!
Yeah! Glad to hear you liked this list. What are some of your other favorites?
Twitter: pnstlion
December 3, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Great looking list. I would seriously lose 30 minutes a day if I didn’t have Akismet and Google site maps!
Gabe | freebloghelp.com´s last blog ..10 FREE killer WordPress themes in 2009
Gabe – I always love to see your smiling Gravatar on my comment screen. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment.
Even with Askimet I am getting killed with spam so I’m beginning to be very, very inclined to install a captcha box too….have you ever tried one before and what are your thoughts…do you think it discourages people from commenting?
Twitter: steppinoutblog
December 3, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Nice list Michelle. It’s good to have captcha box but I personally don’t recommend it. It sure does prevent spammers, but sometimes real people just like me really pis* of it. My 2 cents.
steppinout´s last blog ..3 Firefox Plugins That Will Change Your Blogging Experience
Yeah, that’s why I’m so on the fence about it though Karl Foxley is using it on his site and his is kind of unobtrusive. I’m going to hold off on putting one in for now but if the spam increases substantially now that I’ve changed over to DoFollow I might do it. (BTW, liked your post today, which I commented on – for some reason I am getting an install error on the Windows Live thing so I’m not sure I’ll be able to use that one)
Twitter: karlfolxey
December 4, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Some great plugins listed, quite a few I use but the Section Widget has caught my eye and could be just what I’m looking for!
Thanks for sharing your round-up.
Karl
Karl Foxley@SEO Company´s last blog ..10 Wordpress Plugins You Should Be Using!
Karl – as you play with the section widget plug-in let me know what you like about it (I like everything about it!) Well, except I would like to be able to pull some of the standard widgets into it – like the search box for example as I’d like to not have the search box on my Contact Page.
Some really good plugins listed here, but for the love of god, please lose the auto popup asking me to sign up for your newsletter. i see that before I see the content so how the heck do i know if i want to subscribe or not? A bit pushy. I’m just sayin
Gerald Weber´s last blog ..Happy Holidays from The Gman (Gerald Weber)
Gerald – thanks so much for the feedback – I am going to change how long it takes before it pops up. I really do like the pop up feature as it really captures attention and I get a much higher sign-up than I did when I just had a sidebar one (which I changed just last week to only have the sidebar to be a way for people to only get my weekly blog recap).
As for plug-ins which ones are your favorite?
Twitter: cjbowker
December 5, 2009 at 9:41 am
I’m starting to worry about using too many plugins. I just set up my site and I have 18 now. I use some security plugins such as login lockdown and bad behavior. I also use DB backup. My preference is socialable plugin rather than the share this. I put the tweetmeme retweet button right into the code to minimize plugins. How many is too many?
CJ Bowker´s last blog ..Is Advertising Catching Up To Sales?
CJ:
I had not heard of Bad Behavior will have to check that one out.
I’m not a huge code person (meaning I don’t know a huge amount of it) so I don’t know how to put the TweetMeme button into the code as you mention but I’m going to hop over to your blog and check it out!
I agree though – what is too many?
Twitter: cjbowker
December 5, 2009 at 9:56 am
http://www.technogati.com/how-to-add-tweetmeme-and-facebook-button-in-thesis-wordpress-theme.html
That’s the website were I got the coding info for the TweetMeme button and FB share button. The FB share isn’t showing a number for me though. I’m actually thinking of trying it with the Open Hook plugin instead. Each website gives you the buttons (i.e. search for fb share and there’s a link to the code on facebook’s website.) Thanks for the comment and quick reply
CJ Bowker´s last blog ..Is Advertising Catching Up To Sales?
Wow, thank you for both the link and the speedy reply as well…looks as though we are both working now!
I’ll totally check out that link and see if I can get it to work with Open Hook. I really love that plug-in, makes things waaaaaayyyyyy easier!
I probably use about half of these, and Askimet is my favorite of all. A few of these mess with my blog, so I choose not to go there. As for the others… I’ve thought about most of them, but decided I didn’t want to get too overloaded with plugins. Very nice list, I must say.
Mitch´s last blog ..What’s Up With Broken Link Checker?
Mitch – so great to meet you! Do you have other plug-ins that you like a lot?
Twitter: websiteweekend
December 6, 2009 at 12:37 am
For some reason, I had the wrong feed for your blog. The feed I subscribed to ends in October!
Weird.
Hopefully good to go now.
Dave Doolin | Website In A Weekend´s last blog ..How Learning to Blog is Like Exploring Caves
Cool list!
I’ve literally just installed the TweetMeMe button (about 2 minutes ago), and now the problem I have is that, after 82 posts, a lot of my posts now have ‘0 RTs’, so it makes my blog look empty :/
Simon | Teenius´s last blog ..A Brief Guide To Twitter Lists
Simon – I’m not sure how TweetMeme picks up how many times it’s been RT’d as when I first installed it on my blog some of them all of the sudden did show numbers but there are other times when I know it’s been tweeted many more times than what is shown. And that I know because I use http://www.backtweets.com to notify me, via email, when my posts/URL has been tweeted.
Maybe TweetMeme can “pick up” when certain posts have been tweeted, even without their button by some similar type of technology? However, as a side note, check to make sure the button is configured properly? I’ll hope over to your blog and find one to RT and then you can make sure it’s working OK.
Nice list of plugins. Already using most of them on my blog Smashing Share“. Thanks for sharing them. And yeah here is the smile
Waheed Akhtar´s last blog ..100 Kickass Photo Manipulation Art Examples
Waheed – you rock!!! Thanks for the smiley in the post. I am totally going to go read your photo manipulation post even though I don’t play in that puddle!
The dofollow plugin is a must and I have been using it as long as I have been blogging. There is no reason to have nofollow links when you moderate your comments.
Great list all together. Thanks
Bloggeri´s last blog ..Writer’s Mindset – Think and Write Better
Thanks so much for stopping by – I don’t recall where exactly it was that I learned that by default WordPress is set up as “no follow”. I’m all about helping others in whatever way I can and allowing “do follow” is one of the ways I can do it! So great to meet you now as a result of all this new work I’ve been doing on my blog and some really great people I’ve met in the research process.
Twitter: vancesova
December 7, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Hi Michelle,
I like your post on the WP plug ins and I’m using about 6 out of the 20 you list.
The first three are an absolute must then #6 and #9 are very important to me. I think you haven’t mentioned keyword luv even though you use it.
I guess you’d survive without that one. I have it installed too and it’s another way to give more to good commentators.
The plug in you mention that I’m most interested in is the Section Widget. That sounds like a very useful tool.
I’m extremely careful with plug ins especially since a couple of days ago I was unable to post new posts due to the Vote It! plug in.
My hosting company had to figure that one out. The plug in attracted 29,000 rows of spam to the server.
I know two people that had to disable the captcha plug in which started to prevent all comments from being submitted.
All the plug ins you list must be fine since they work for you.
I enjoyed reading about them and will consider trying them.
Vance
Vance@Blogging Seo Strategy´s last blog ..SEO Strategy, Online Friendship, Bloggers Help Fellow Blogger
Vance:
You are right, I forgot to include KeyWord Luv – I do use it (one of my newer installations).
That’s crazy about the plug-in you had that attracted 29,000 rows of spam. Did it shut down your entire site?
I’m def. super happy with Twittify now – that plugin would have saved me a ton of time when I wrote my TweetsGiving post as I listed a ton of my favorite Twitter people and had to manually had the URL for each of their names. With that plugin, totally not necessary!
Twitter: gfserradinho
December 7, 2009 at 11:21 pm
A nice list of plugins. I have some installed already and happy with the results.
I wrote a tutorial of how to get the TwitterLink plugin working right and displaying the input field by the comment form. Maybe go have a look.
I have tried to keep the number of plugins low and thats always difficult as there are so many cool plugins now days.
George Serradinho´s last blog ..Reward your Commentators using Top Commentator WordPress Plugin
George – thanks, I’ll def check out your post. Another one I was having problems with was the threaded comments plugin.
Thanks for the share. Already using most of them.
Thomas – are there other plugins you use and like? If so, which ones?
Keywordluv is great! Have had an incredible increase in both traffic and comments after I installed it, and it`s not just spam like someone told me it would be. It`s so cool!
I had no idea installing these plugins would do so much with my traffic and income. Kinda incredible.
Forbrukslan – I agree – keyword luv is awesome! I just wish it was easier to find (aka in the PlugIn directory in WordPress).
In my experience I have not noticed an increase in spam. I still love my Askimet and I can and will hit the delete button for the few who have tried to be sneaky.
Are there other plug-ins that you really like? If so, what are they?
Forbrukslan – I have def gotten more comments & traffic since I’ve installed KeywordLuv. I personally haven’t seen an increase in spam. I have had two people try to be sneaky but I know how to hit the delete button.
How has the plugin increased your income? Is your blog monetized?
I use thesis too and although I havent started customizing it, out of the box, thesis works great. This was very useful. Thanks for sharing these plugins.
Justin
Justin – you will love the customization options available in Thesis. Once you start playing in there you will be caught up in all that you can do and will end up experimenting like crazy!
10 of them already match my plugins which is good,I’ll give the rest of them a try which is even better:-)
Mark – what are your other favorite plugins?
Oooh more plugins
Thanks for the heads up especially on the loving Section widget. I’m pretty sure that if not for my widget-o-philia I’d have written 12 times as many posts already.
Michael @ Monetize Your Life´s last blog ..What’s more important what’s Right or getting caught
Michael – oh yes, LinkedWithin – I have to try that plugin again. I had tried it before on my old Forrest Theme and could not get it to work. I had kind of forgot about it until you mentioned it. Will have to see if it plays nicer with Thesis!
Like you…I would def get more posts written if I wasn’t always off in Widget Land! Though widgets and plugin playtime always results in blog posts soooooo guess I’ll keep with it for now! LOL
Oh another great plugin is linkwithin it gives really nice looking related post thumbnails and show up as a referral in worpress stats which helps give an idea how effective it is.
Michael @ Monetize Your Life´s last blog ..What’s more important what’s Right or getting caught
Twitter: AliceCWilson
January 10, 2010 at 11:16 am
Michelle, Thanks for the 20 WordPress plug-ins. Missed it the first time you posted in December. I already use Akismet. CommentLuv and Zemanta look interesting. I’ll check them out.
Talk to you later.
-Alice
Alice – you will def see an increase of comments on your own blog if you comment on other blogs that have CommentLuv installed. I know I have found a lot of great blogs through exactly that and my number of comments are now starting to increase as a result as well. I tend to comment more on blogs that have that installed for that same reason and know there are others out there that do the same.
Excellent plugins and a few I didn’t know about and will have to explore them now! Many thanks
Amanda – thanks for the comment! There are so many plugins out there and I love experimenting with them and then sharing what I find!
Twitter: billyk2373
January 18, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Great list – I’m going to start using some of these.
One essential plugin you don’t mention is MyPageOrder http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/my-page-order/
allows you to order your pages thru a drag’n'drop interface. couldn’t do without it!
Cheers
Bill
Bill Kernoczy´s last blog ..Learn Presentation Skills From Radio Announcers – part 2
Hi Bill — thank you so much for taking time to comment on my post. I will totally check into My Page Order. Thanks for sharing one of your favorites with me. I am a WordPress junkie and I love to learn/apply tips to save myself time, which is one of the main goals of plugins.
Good list and I use some of them. One I miss though that seem to go under the radar for many is Stealth Login. Great security plugin.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stealth-login/
Lars Tong Strömberg´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at
Lars – will totally check out the Stealth login…..the other one I’ve seen a lot about lately is the lockdown one.
2 awesome new ones: PBox & XWidgets
XWidgets looks like it is similar to Section Widget.
PBox lets you make custom widgets for whatever content you want
Nick – oooohhhhhh thanks for fueling my addiction to cool plug-ins. Will def have to check those out!