Guest post by Zach Kolleger. Subscribe to Zach’s feed.
To a lot of people starting a new blog can seem like a gigantic task. From finding a good available domain name, setting up hosting, theme customization and installing the right plugins {if you are using WordPress}. Well to make your life simpler I have compiled a list of my Top 16 WordPress plugins.
I think these 16 are great for making your blog more functional, and user friendly in a faster time {No guarantees, individual results may vary}. So, without further ado, I give you the Top 16 WP plugins – obviously they’re all free.
Top 16 WordPress Plugins
- Plug Installer ~ This is the first plugin you need to get, as it helps you install all the rest.
- WP e-Commerce ~ Perfect if you are selling anything from your blog, like those Alexa traffic rank tee shirts with your site name.
- WP Post Rating System ~ Your readers can rate your post on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being the best.
- Gregarious Bookmarking ~ The ultimate social bookmarking plugin, integrated with Share This.
- WP Movie Review and Ratings ~ If write about movies then you need this plugin. Integrated with the Internet Movie Database.
- Author Highlights ~ Highlights the comments/replies to comments made by the author, just so you know who’s who.
- Edit Comments ~ Users can edit their own comments, an alternative to a bad word filter.
- Dash Notes ~ So you can remember that post you wanted to write. It’s Canadian!
- Digital Fingerprint Beta2 ~ Protects your content from being stolen. Someone let John Chow know about this. {Also Canadian!}
- WP Ads ~ An add for showing Banner and Contextual ads.
- WP Table ~ Since the WP visual editor has no table function, this plugin adds one.
- Ad Man ~ Add ads before/in-the-middle-of/after your posts.
- Contact Form 7 ~ A simple contact form plugin, that supports multi-forms, etc.
- Transpose Email ~ With this spammers won’t be able to grab your mail-to: links.
- Since Last Visit ~ A handy plugin that display the number of Comments and Posts since your last visit.
- Easy PayPal ~ Accept “If you liked this post, buy me some beer/coffee/milk” payments.
Have fun and start pluggin’! Digg the article here.
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Zach Kolleger on August 18th, 2007
1
Hey, thanks for putting up my post.
Jesse on August 19th, 2007
2
Ali, I just stumbled upon your blog from a comment you left on TC. I really like your layout and design!
Zach, do you use Wordpress yourself? It seems like I have heard nothing but horror stories about Wordpress. I have always thought about starting a blog, so I your post is very helpful assuming Wordpress is the way to go.
Jesse
Michael on August 19th, 2007
3
Contact form 7 is the only one listed here that I would consider using.
Zach Kolleger on August 20th, 2007
4
Jesse, yes i am using wordpress currently, on wordpress.com, as I am in the process of installing it on my server. I have used the self-hosted version in the past, so thats how I know about the plug-ins.
and michael..
the contact form will be the second plug-in I’m going to install..as I agree with you; it probably is the most useful.
Sam Goh on August 21st, 2007
5
Curious to know if there’s a ‘transliteration’ feature/plugin available, whereby I can type my motivational poems in English and get them ‘translated’ automatically into another language (eg. Hindi) as seen in my blog http://motivationinmotion.blogspot.com ?
Sam Goh Tue. 21st Aug. 2007.
Flick on August 29th, 2007
6
Thanks for the post!
I came across this via a pingback on the Dash-notes page, and was very pleasantly surprised to find a list VERY different to some the ones praised by other blogs. Thanks! I agree that Wp-Table is definitely one of the unsung heroes!
Gary on December 5th, 2007
7
Hi. Very handy list. Just one question, however. Which plugin do you use for Recommended Reading?
Hyder on December 5th, 2007
8
Gary it is the Related Posts plugin available here
Gary on December 13th, 2007
9
Thanks for the info, Hyder.
Gary
Paul on January 22nd, 2008
10
You forgot to include Arkayne Widget in your list. You know that BlogRush / EntreCard replacement you’ve been looking for?
For the curious: http://www.arkayne.com
Michelle Wong on February 10th, 2008
11
Thanks for the great information. I just suscribed to your blog feed.Michelle