I must admit, I love the use of plugins because they just make life and blogging a lot easier and I am using quite a lot of them (maybe too many).
The only down side is to find the one doing exactly what you want or figuring out a way to make them do so anyways. The latter is not really my strenght resulting in having played around with quite an extensive list of plugins.
Yesterday, when doing some decluttering of my computer I came across the huge collection of plugins that I have tried and tested, and decided to post on the ones that I use here, giving some linklove and credit to their designers.
Add Sig by Dagon Design
I am using this plugin at the moment to add my signature to the bottom of all of my posts but there are of course other things you can do with this plugin without having to change things in the core code. It supports up to three different signature templates at the moment and eventhough it just might not be all that useful, I like the personal touch it adds to my posts.
Akismet by Matt Mullenweg
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments†and make sure you do this once in a while since not all posts Akismet filters out is spam. It isn´t 100% bullitproof, especially not since spammers are becoming more sophisticated these days, but it sure helps!
All in One SEO Pack by Uberdose
This one automatically optimizes titles for search engines, generates Meta tags and avoids duplicate content found on wordpress blogs. If you are running wordpress 2.3 you don´t even have to look at the options, but you can of course override and title and set any meta description and keywords you want.
Anti-Sociable by Andy Beard
Automatically add links on your posts to popular social bookmarking sites so make it easier to be bookmarked in case a post was really enjoyed. I am actually using the hacked version called Antisocial as to not lose too much linkjuice on each post.
Commentluv by Andy Bailey
Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commentator’s blog in their comment. Just activate and it’s ready. Currently parses with wordpress, blogspot, typepad and blogs that have a feed link in the head section of their page. I like this plugin a lot; it has already leaded me to many interesting blogs I would not have found otherwise.
Contextual Related Posts by Mark Ghosh
Show last 5 contextually related posts on single blog posts, making it easier for visitors to find related material if they liked the one they just read, but it will also bring forward older posts.
Dagon Design Sitemap Generator by Dagon Design
This plugin generates a fully customizable sitemap for your WordPress powered site. This is not just another XML sitemap plugin, but rather a true sitemap generator that is highly customizable from its own options page in the WordPress admin panel.
To see this plugin in action, visit my sitemap page.
Dofollow by Denis de Bernardy
Disables the rel=nofollow attribute in comments. Now, I have been running this plugin on my blog for a while and almost changed to another plugin that will disable the nofollow attribute only after a commentator has already made some more post. But I have not decided about it just yet,…
Enhanced WP-ContactForm by Joost Valk
WP Contact Form is a drop in form for users to contact you. In the message it sends to you it gives the page the user visited before the contact page, as well as the original outside referrer. It can be implemented on a page or a post. It currently works with WordPress 2.0+ and you can see it in action here.
Google XML Sitemaps by Arne Brachhold
This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog that is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.
MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
Save your wordpress blog from getting tagged as ping spammer by installing this plugin. Now the cool thing about this one is that you can actually date posts that you have written and only ping once they are published online. Plus, you can edit your post without the danger of continuously pinging every time you change something in an already existing post. Make sure you register the plugin in order for it to work and start avoiding spamming pingers and getting blocked from their services.
Subscribe To Comments By Mark Jaquith
This plugin allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry, making it easier to keep track of certain comments and dialogues.
Top Commentators Widget by Lorna Timbah
Adds a sidebar widget to show the top commentators in your WP site, another way to show I appreciate active commentators. Adapted from Show Top Commentators plugin.
Top Posts By Category by M&M
I am using this plugin to easily show the posts that were most commented all together on one page, but you can also set it to show the most visited posts in your blog. You can see it in action here.
WordPress Database Backup by Austin Matzko
After having had a problem with another blog, losing all content because of my own stupidity, I have this plugin installed to make sure I get a database backup emailed to me weekly so I won´t have to worry about that anymore.
WWW Redirect by Justin Shattuck
Redirects variations of identical domain requests to a consistent uri to ensure www.memyselfandiblog.com and memyselfandiblog.com are not regarded as two different domains by the search engines.
YATCP by Joachim Praetorius
This plugin allows for the ability to comment on a comment, making it easier to respond to different comments and start dialogue.
So, there you have it… 17 plugins I use, seems like quite a lot to me so I was wondering, how many is “normal”? Any plugin I really should not be living without that I don´t know of?
thanks for the linkluv! I have some more time on my hands recently so I’ll get the new version up and compatible with the new release of wordpress.
Andy Bailey’s last blog post..OMG I just formatted my server!
You´re welcome Andy, I really enjoy your plugin, it has already brought me to a lot of great blog, so, thanks to you
Thanks for that useful post Mirjam! I’ll have a look a few of those I’m not using.
Carl – Thatblogsite.com’s last blog post..Free Google Downloads?
Looks like I have some additional research ahead of me. these look pretty useful. Now to figure out if they are useful to me. You do have a jnack for making think about what I am doing. Keep it up.
Jim – Just a Guy’s last blog post..A step in the right direction
I´ll make it easy for you…. these are plugins for wordpress … or are you going to change platform?
you´re welcome
I am probably too many of them …
Ahhh.. Good to see that I`m in good company.
Almost every plugin here is on my list, in addition to some more plugins I use, such as:
Admin Drop Down Menu, that makes working with wordpress admin panel alot easier, the menus just drop down without having to click too much.
WP Super Cache, making it easy to avoid crashes during Dggs and heavy Stumble waves.
Got Banners, randomly rotating banners for me….
If you need URLs for these drop me line.
Cheers,
Alex.
Alex at Net-Entrepreneur.com’s last blog post..Safely Tweaking Your WordPress Blog
The more I learn about Word Press the more it seems like a good option for me. You may just sell me yet.
Jim – Just a Guy’s last blog post..A step in the right direction
Hey Alex!
the dropdown menu could come in handy, I have been using something similiar on another blog, actually showing the menu (only for admin) while being on the blog, not having to go into the cp panel, you mean that one or it is a different one?
got banners might be good for the future
and I believe I already have a Cache plugin somewhere… have you tried different ones?
Jim… what can I say… wordpress ROCKS! It is a breezer to set up, much more user (and visitor) friendly
;) yeah yeah… I´ll shut up hahaha
I know what plugin you mean, and Drop Down Menu is not that.
e.g.: When you access your admin panel, you have to click on Manage to gain access to all the sub-options (post, page, etc.). With the Drop Down plugin, you just hover the mouse over it and the options drop down.
No click, no wait. very efficient.
Alex at Net-Entrepreneur.com’s last blog post..Safely Tweaking Your WordPress Blog
Mirjam:
Great list of plugins .. I like that big thumb up!
The Internet Entrepreneur Diary’s last blog post..Work Hard & Play Hard – My confession of guiltiness
Great list of plugins… some of which I have not noticed before. I have a list of WP plugins that I use on MoneyMakingBlogs here:
http://moneymakingblogs.com/blog/2008/wp-plugins-used-on-money-making-blogs/
Hock’s last blog post..Interview With Fabien of SmallFishBigMoney.com
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Hey, I love your site. Great stuff.
Great.
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Hi Mirjam,
Great list. I use many of those myself.
The Admin Drop Down Menu plugin is fantastic! You can see if you have comments in Askimet without even clicking anything. But I’m not sure what’s going to happen with WordPress 2.5, because the Admin menu has been totally revamped. The plugin many not work, or it may not be necessary anymore.
Just a note, the link you have above is to the original, not to Andy Beard’s Antisocial hack (which I use too).
And I’m loving YACTP, which I only started using a couple of months ago.
Anyway, great list.
Stephen Cronin’s last blog post..Creating A JavaScript Array Dynamically Via PHP
ouch! thank you for pointing that out, I have changed it now
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This is an awesome list of plugins. I am already using some, but I have looked for others for ages. Thank you for the tips. Now you’ll excuse me, I have some installing to do
Ramona Iftode’s last blog post..Get something more from that crappy Entrecard traffic
happy installing, glad you find this post helpful!
I’m kinda running through my new blog: finding plugins, testing plugins and binning/keeping plugins as I go on. I love the idea of their being sitemap plugins – may have to sit and have a play with the background code for it to make sure that I can get the rest of the site in it (as the blog is only part of the website) – hope my PHP is up to scratch, cheers for the list.
Michael’s last blog post..SezWho Plugin for WordPress
You´re welcome Michael, good luck with your site!
Those are some good plugins.
Here are a few that I luv:
Statpress: it shows me where my visitors come from, including the search term they typed into Google.
Nofollow Case by Case: I make links ‘do follow’ on a case by case bases.
My Video: Lets me put a number of different types of videos in post.
Craig’s last blog post..Buy book Ireland
I’m trying to run a new wordpress blog. I’m going to try some of your suggested plug-ins. They all look useful. THanks!
Ivy’s last blog post..Conference call on the iPhone
Contextual Related Posts by Mark Ghosh
Anti-Sociable by Andy Beard
And the Ping optimizer
These 3 are not tried yet by me, the other all plugins are used and am happy with all of them.
Chetan’s last blog post..Safe Yahoo! Search with SearchScan
I especially like the ping optimizer
I have to say thanks again. I see how the mix of the plugins can make for a more “usable” blog experience for visitors.
Raphael’s last blog post..Hope Springs Eternal
Mirjam, thank you for the heads up about the backup plugin. I didn’t know that one existed and I have been doing it manually until now.
EC
EC Trilastin Sr’s last blog post..FREE Gift and Shipping at Clinique Online
I love the use of plugins, they make life so much easier!
especially the ping automizer works like a charm
well, this one will certainly help you than, not having to think about it anymore
Hi Mirjam,
It’s not funny that I got a 404 when I tried to access your site map. But after refresh, it came back.
thanks for the notice
To be honest… I hadn’t heard of a few of these. But I do currently use 6 plugin’s you have listed above – All in One SEO pack, CommentLuv, DoFollow, Akismet, and Coogle XML Sitemap.
That’s not too bad, almost 50%
But I do have to agree with one of your commenters above. Statpress is a great plugin.
Amazing list of plugins and I am sure anyone can implement your ideas easily and the blog looks so wonderful with all this plugins. Sitemap is pretty significant for blogs which containt many posts that is more than 30 posts.
Thanks.
Jessica’s last blog post..Top 50 Things To Do To Stop Global Warming
thanks!
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I know this is an older post but I found it by searching for info on one of the plugins you mentioned. Does using dofollow or commentluv force you to spend time monitoring for spam? I’m on the fence about using these. Does the extra traffic I’m guessing you get make up for it? Thanks!
Property Management Guy’s last blog post..Accounting Software for Property Management
Hi there Mr Property Management Guy
well, I use spamfolders and I must say I got a lot easier just deleting comments. As for the time spent on deleting, it really isn´t that much, it is more a sense of your blog being abused by people who found your blog through all the d-lists popping up.
My main reason for adding do-follow and commentluv has never been increasing traffic, but giving something back to commentators on this blog for their active and positive participation.
cheers