Many bloggers are making the switch from Blogger to a self hosted WordPress blog. The Wordpress blogging platform is a gold mind to the serious Blogger.
There are countless “plugins” freely available for WordPress users that add additional functionality to your blog. I have spent hours browsing through the available WordPress plugins and have compiled a list of what I consider to be the must have Wordpress plugins.
Akismet Plugin - Akismet checks comments left on your blog against the Akismet web server to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it.
Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form - This plugin allows you to add a contact form to a Wordpress page making it easier for your visitors to contact you.
Wordpress Database Backup Plugin – Tired of having to manually backup your WordPress database then this plugin is a must have. Wordpress Database Backup can email you a daily backup of your MySQL database.
Show Top Commentators - Encourage more feedback from your readership, by listing the top ten commenters on your blog.
Related Post Plugin– This plugin returns a list of your related blog entries based on active/passive keyword matches.
Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter - This plugin puts a copyrighted message on all of your RSS feeds.
Subscribe to Comments- What better way to get return visitors to your blog then to offer them a way to subscribe to comments. Subscribe to Comments allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to a blog entry.
WP-Ban – A plugin that blocks users by IP, IP range, host name or referrer url from visiting your blog.
I hope you enjoy this assortment of Wordpress Plugins. What plugins do you use and which ones do you find essential?
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17 responses so far ↓
Rory
// Aug 6, 2007 at 12:34 am
Rose, the Related Entries address you’ve given here is the old one. Your visitors can now find the plug-in at this address.
Damien
// Aug 6, 2007 at 1:41 am
Ultimate Tag Warrior is amazing too!
Teena in Toronto
// Aug 6, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I haven’t made the switch to WordPress. I set up a blog over there but couldn’t figure some stuff out so deleted it. But they seem to have a ton of cooler features than Blogger.
Rose DesRochers
// Aug 6, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Thank you Rory for the update.
Damien I have noticed on blogs that quite a few comment that they like that plugin.
Teena, I found wordpress.com a little hard to navigate when I first created a blog there too.
Shankar Ganesh
// Aug 7, 2007 at 8:32 am
Nice list there. I use most of the plugins listed here.
pelf
// Aug 10, 2007 at 1:44 am
I’ve been trying to get the Top Commentators plugin to work on my blog but it just refused to.
Are you aware of a “Plugins Used” plugin that lists all your active plugins in a page without having you updating it every time you manually edit it? But yeah, this list is basically what I have on my blog as well
Rose DesRochers
// Aug 10, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Pelf I have head of the Plugins Used Plugin. If you need help with the top commenter, join bloggertalk.net and I’ll see if I can help.
Matt Arnold
// Aug 24, 2007 at 3:36 am
Hi!
This is my first comment on this blog. I actually found this via a blog post on http://www.promoinnovations.com/
It’s great! This blog contains exactly the sort of info I’ve been looking for. I’m hoping to start my own blog soon, and this is a great post on some of the “essentials” I will be looking into when I start up. Thankyou!
Matt Arnold
// Aug 30, 2007 at 3:48 am
This is a great list, but what other plugins do you recommend?
I can think of an automatic Google sitemaps XML file generator, and the great “tag” function you have where you can easily submit to digg etc. Are there many more? I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to wordpress plugins.. lol
Amy
// Aug 30, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Akismet is definitely a must have! No doubt about it.
Rose DesRochers
// Aug 31, 2007 at 1:39 am
Matt if you plan to have ads on your blog you might want to check out Adsense-Deluxe.
Thanks Noddegamra!
Amy it sure is.
Matt Arnold
// Sep 2, 2007 at 12:02 pm
That looks like a good mod. I’m hoping to add some ads (maybe just starting with one block to begin with - don’t want to go too over-the-top).
Does the mod automatically prevent Google Ads being displayed more than 3 times on a page, or will I need to keep modifying my front page items so only the top 3 show ads?
Anavah
// Sep 10, 2007 at 8:03 am
Ok, I must be doing something wrong because I have tried to download a couple of these and when I do all that happens is file folders open up with nothing to run.
How do I use these things? Please help me out!
Shawn DesRochers
// Sep 10, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Hello Anavah
To use the Wordpress Plugins you need to upload them to your server.
Put them in the following directory
wp-content/plugins/
Once you have uploaded them, login to your Wordpress Admin panel and click the Plugin link on the navbar.
Scroll down and select activate on the plugin you wish to use!
Hope this helps, and take care.
Shawn DesRochers
Anavah
// Sep 10, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Thanks shawn for the advice. I will try it out again. I’m sure I’ll figure out!:grin:
Bill
// Mar 8, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Rose thanks for sending me here. Just what I need.TY
Rose DesRochers
// Mar 8, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Bill, how is that when you use Blogger?
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