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Oct
21
48 WordPress Plugins I Can’t Live Without
By
Down below I have the forty eight or so plugins that I use on this blog. I have a little blurb about what they do. Because wordpress is so customizable and most of the themes are different, there may be reasons to include one that are missing here and reasons I have some others don’t. But for the most part these are essential. I am almost positive there are new one’s out there that I should have but these have been serving me well. Feel free to suggest others.
Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.”
All in One SEO Pack
Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog. As a fan of SEO, I think it’s like putting together a three dimensional puzzle, I like this plugin and it is one of the mainstays of SEO for wordpress. Of special interest is the “Dynamically Generate Keywords for Posts Page:” option. The plugin even has it’s own forum if you’d like to learn more.
(http://semperfiwebdesign.com/forum/)
CommentLuv
Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog by parsing the feed at their given URL when they leave a comment. Rewards your readers and encourage more comments.
Comment Relish
Increases your readership and RSS subscription rate by simply sending a short ‘Thank You’ message to users when they first comment on your site.
Contact Form with Captcha
Simple Contact Form with Captcha Enabled
Custom Field Redirect
This plugin will do a 301 redirect on any page where you set the “redirect” key in a custom field. The value you set will be the URL to where the plugin will redirect you. In the dashboard when you create a post you have the ability to enter a custom field. If you create a “redirect” key is will go to the location designated.
Dewplayer
Insert Dewplayer (Flash Mp3 Player) in posts & comments. There are a lot mp3 players. This happens to be the one I’m currently using.
Disable Revisions
Disable revision functions in WordPress and delete all entries of revisions in database. It is extremely important to back up your database before install this plugin. I always hate when there ends up being 8 revisions of the same post. This should be a custom option built into wordpress to begin with.
Exclude Pages from Navigation
Provides a checkbox on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation. IMPORTANT NOTE: This will remove the pages from any “consumer” side page listings, which may not be limited to your page navigation listings.
Facebook Sharecount
The Facebook Sharecount plugin shows the number of shares on Facebook your posts get and allows users to share it themselves.
FeedBurner FeedSmith
Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
FeedBurner Widget
Adds a sidebar widget to easy customize and display your FeedBurner subscribers stats RSS button.
Get Recent Comments
Display the most recent comments or trackbacks with your own formatting in the sidebar.
Make sure you configure this plugin after activation.
Google Friend Connect Integration
Easily integrate Google Friend Connect with WordPress. To get started, please enter your Google Friend Connect Site Id number in the GFC Integration admin page and choose whether to turn on the social bar or not. You can add Google Friend Connect gadgets to your sidebars by visiting the widgets page. For help and support see the official Google Friend Connect integration for WordPress page.
Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.
Homepage Excerpts
Homepage Excerpts are great when your theme doesn’t provide this functionality.
LinkWithin
Displays recommended stories and associated thumbnails from your blog. This is at the bottom of all my single posts. It provides nice pictures you see below.
MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
Saves your wordpress blog from getting tagged as ping spammer by installing this plugin. The reasoning behind this is your blog will ping technorati and many other ping services. If you edit your blog, let’s say a typo or misspelling or indentation etc, every time you hit publish you are pinging the services. You may be banned and didn’t even know it. When this goes, so does your SEO. Visit plugin site
One Click Plugin Updater
Upgrade plugins with a single click, install new plugins or themes from an URL or by uploading a file, see which plugins have update notifications enabled, control how often WordPress checks for updates, and more.
ONW Simple Contact Form
This Plugin creates a simple contact form.
Popularity Contest
This will enable ranking of your posts by popularity; using the behavior of your visitors to determine each post’s popularity. You set a value (or use the default value) for every post view, comment, etc. and the popularity of your posts is calculated based on those values. Once you have activated the plugin, you can configure the Popularity Values and View Reports. You can also use the included Widgets and Template Tags to display post popularity and lists of popular posts on your blog.
Random Pages widget
This is a widget that displays a list of random pages/posts on your widgetized sidebar.
Recent Posts
Returns a list of the most recent posts.
Robots Meta
This plugin allows you to add all the appropriate robots meta tags to your pages and feeds, disable unused archives and nofollow unnecessary links.
RSS Shortcode
Makes it easy to display an RSS feed on a page
SEO Smart Links
SEO Smart Links provides automatic SEO benefits for your site in addition to custom keyword lists, nofollow and much more.
SEO Super Comments
Use your blog comments to get more traffic.
SexyBookmarks
SexyBookmarks adds a (X)HTML compliant list of social bookmarking icons to each of your posts.
SimplePie Core
Does little else but load the core SimplePie API library for any extension that wants to utilize it. It is needed for the Single RSS Colleague plugin found below.
Simple Tags
Simple Tags : Extended Tagging for WordPress 2.3, 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 ! Autocompletion, Suggested Tags, Tag Cloud Widgets, Related Posts, Mass edit tags !
Single RSS Colleague
A plugin to feature a colleague or tribe member for syndication. You will find it under by social badges on the right hand side bar labeled “Visit My Colleagues”. I will be making this available to everyone sometime next week.
Subscribe To Comments
Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.
Translate
Adds a sidebar widget to display languages into which you can translate your blog.
TweetMeme Retweet Button
Adds a button which easily lets you retweet your blog posts.
Ultimate Google Analytics
Enable Google Analytics on your blog. Has options to also track external links, mailto links and links to downloads on your own site.
What Would Seth Godin Do
Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors and another to return visitors.
wp-cache
Very fast cache module. It’s composed of several modules, this plugin can configure and manage the whole system. Once enabled, go to “Options” and select “WP-Cache”. One note of caution. TURN this off anytime you are changing anything. Then when you are done, turn it back on.
WP-Cumulus
Flash based Tag Cloud for WordPress
WP-DBManager
Manages your WordPress database. Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database.
WP-PageNavi
Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog.
WP-Print
Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.
WP-Sticky
Adds a sticky post feature to your WordPress’s blog. Modified from Adhesive by Owen Winkler.
WP-UserOnline
Enable you to display how many users are online on your WordPress blog with detailed statistics of where they are and who there are(Members/Guests/Search Bots).
WP Security Scan
Perform security scan of WordPress installation.
Jodie Thompson
Thank You Chris! I didn’t even know most of these plug-ins.
We appreciate it =)
Therese Miu´s last blog ..Why Giving is Important? It is in Giving that we truly Learn to L I V E
Chris,
Great post about plugins. This is an incredible list! Some of these I’m familiar with, but some are totally new to me. I can’t wait to take this list and dissect it like a surgeon. I’ll be putting these into play REAL SOON!
Thanks again for the awesome list.
Ken Pickard
The Network Dad
Ken Pickard´s last blog ..Welcome To My Blog Launch Party!
Chris,
Thanks so much my friend for bringing this information to light. I am sure that there will be a multitude of folks out there who will benefit greatly from your work on their behalf.
Keep on leading the way my friend,
John
Thanks Chris,
I will definitely check out this list of Plug-Ins, I am having problems setting up my Blog, but I am getting there, I managed to upload about 10 plug-ins so far, You have some great content , I look forward to your future posts.
I will keep in touch.
All the Best
Thanks for sharing, Chris. I always like to see what others are using. Can save a ton of time from browsing the plug-ins directory!
Jason Kerchner´s last blog ..Choosing to be Helpless
Thanks Chris. This is valuable information. I must say when I was first introduced to WordPress, I was a bit intimidated with all of the plug ins. I am not a technical person, and I really had no idea what I should or should not have. A list like this with explanations is helpful and quite the time saver especially if you are just getting started.
Kellie Stewart´s last blog ..The Power of the Blood
Hey Chris,
Got the Link With plugin going today and LOVE IT!
It was that extra visual piece that I wanted at the
end of each of my posts!
You rock! This is going to be fun!
Kary
Kary Rogney´s last blog ..Create A WordPress Membership Site
Thanks! Will gladly retweet!
Chris…
Wow…I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and understanding. I had no idea some of these existed. I will go through the list more carefully and implement what I need. I so do appreciate it.
Bruce Backman´s last blog ..I Don’t Want Your HealthCare…
Chris:
As ALWAYS your have outdone yourself and everyone with what you know, teach, & share with all of us!
Thank-you.
Dr. Linda.
Holly smokes, chris! This plugin list is awesome, I must get to work adding them. What a gift this is to people just starting out with blogs.
Thanks so much, I’ll spread the word…
Sue
Awesome Chris, I haven’t been aroung the computer much lately due to my
mother-in-law was killed in a house fire in Lubbock, Tx. It was awful and my
wife isn’t doing good. Her mom had been sick and she already had alot of
things wrong w/her COPD being one of them so she was on oxygen, so that
was like a bomb once the fire got to that bottle of compressed oxygen. They
said that the fire started in her mom’s bedroom ( space heater )! I will talk
with you soon my friend. Thanks
Larry McMillan´s last blog ..First Post
I am so sorry Larry. Sometimes things need to be put in perspective. I’m sorry it had to be in such a tragic way. My wife and I’s prayers are with you and your family.
God bless.
I have been looking for a list like that! Thank you, VERY useful:)
Hans Zech´s last blog ..Gimme A BREAK… Are You Struggling????
Thanks for the valuable list of plugins!
This is a HOT list… thank you for putting
this together. There are definitely a few
on here that I don’t have that I will be
installing…
You ROCK Chris:)
Eric Goldstein´s last blog ..Google Docs: Create Your Own Surveys
Hi Chris,
Great … who would have thought there was so much you could do with these plug ins, simply amazing. Thanks for putting it all out there in a nice list.
I appreciate the help you gave me while going through the Blog Mastery class and I was trying to get some of these installed myself.
Cathy Mahady´s last blog ..Free Inspirational Classic – Think and Grow Rich
Chris,
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! this was such a help! thank you for sharing your blog expertise with us!
Eleni
Eleni Liapakis´s last blog ..What is Your Number One Value?
Great post pulling together so many useful plugins. Made it easy to see them all in one place and a lot of them are very helpful. Appreciated.
Travis Melvin´s last blog ..Livin Large like a Kennedy on Plum Island
Chris:
Thanks, I downloaded a few of the plug-ins you suggested.
Here are three others that I use and like:
Broken Link Checker
Checks your posts for broken links and missing images and notifies you on the dashboard if any are found.
Get_Theme
The plugin can download the ZIP formatting theme pack from http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ or other wp themes’ sites quickly, and then UNZIP it into your themes folder.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm for display on your blog and RSS feeds. A templating feature allows customization of the display.
Loving the LinkWithin Plugin! It makes the related posts really stand out.
Hadiyah Offord´s last blog ..Education Paradigm: What Do People Want Now?
Chris – This list is outstanding. Downside is with all this input, I’m like a kid in a candy store. I need to find a disciplined way to integrate things so I don;t get a belly ache!
Thanks for all this. By the way, how can I get LinkWithin?
Regards,
Chip
One quick question on comment luv – have you noticed it not picking up sometimes? For example, it missed my last post. It has been happening to commentators on my site as well. Any idea what is up? Chip
Chip Wilson´s last blog ..Are You Willing To Chart Your Own Course?
Hey Chris,
You are the WordPress Master!
Thanks so much for coming up with this amazing list!
I have to ask… What are you Top5 MUST have plugins?
I heard that havin too many plugins can slow a blog down. Is that true?
thanks again!
You have a choice so, make it a better than terrific day!
Terry
Terry Petrovick´s last blog ..Pay Per Click (PPC) Success Secrets to Create More Profits
Thanks Chris. I agree with Terry, You are the wordpress Master. I know if I have a question about blogs I should come here and look. Your helpful hints are awesome!
I will spread the word about your blog.
Beverly
Hi Chris,
Thanks for sharing all these pluggins! I have started adding a few that you suggested that I never knew about. You definitely seem to be very technically savvy!
Thanks for the valuable information,
Laura
Great list of Plugins, thank you. Always instructive to see what other WordPress people are using on their site.
One awesome plugin you are missing here is called “Insights” by Vladimir Prelovac. It speeds up posting massively and gives you easy access to Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia and more. An absolute must for everyone that uses WP!
Health and Happiness!
WOW! Thank you for putting this on one list! Even so, it’s too much to learn and do in one sitting!! And I thought it took a long time to learn to be a good mother! Or a Genealogist! Or a Social Worker! Man, that was all easy compared to this!
Linda G Cox´s last blog ..Create a wonderful life: let go of your pain
Hi Chris,
Great list of plugins! I know some but certainly not all on your list. Your blog is great. Wish I could get mine to behave! Maybe some of these plugins will help? Thank you for listing them like this: makes it much easier to decide which can be useful.