If you’re planning to start a new blog, you would probably choose to use the most popular system out there, Wordpress. Unfortunatelly, Wordpress only comes with a couple of features preinstalled, only the basic ones. To get all the goodies you need to install some extra plugins. But, with the vast number of plugins available for Wordpress, a beginner might get a little confused, so that’s why I’m going to put up a list of my top 10 plugins I use on every blog. Hope it might come in handy for everyone.
Number 10 – Sitemaps generators
DD Sitemap Generator is a plugin that allows you to create an advanced online sitemap for your blog. It has many options, including displaying mode, sorting types, etc, and can be used in conjunction with the Google XMl Sitemaps plugin in order to create also a XML sitemap that can be submitted automatically to search engines.
Number 9 – Contact Form
Every decent blog needs a way for the readers to contact the webmaster, thus a Contact page is needed. The easiest way to put together such a page is by using the WP-ContactForm plugin, that allows you to set up a form in no time. Has some cool options and supports CSS for better blending with your site.
Number 8 - Sociable
The importance of social bookmark sites in blogs marketing and developing has been increasing lately. Nowadays, it’s vital that your site is seen and bookmarked, and the easiest way to ensure that is by using the Sociable plugin. This one creates a list of icons of the social sites you choose (over 60 of them) at the end of your posts, allowing the readers to bookmark or submit your story with just a simple click.
Number 7 – Related Posts
Related Posts plugin might allow you to keep your readers more time on the site, by providing a list of related entries based on active/passive keyword matches for the opened post. I usually place just bellow the main post, so that when someone finishes reading it, the list would catch his eye and maybe make him click on another related story.
Number 6 – Latest Comments
The Recent Comments plugin allows you to display a list of some of your latest comments. The purpose of using it is to improve and encourage user interactivity, cause it’s a known fact that the first comment on a post is the most difficult. So if seeing the other visitors comments, a reader might be tempted to say something too. And voila, you got interactivity.
Number 5 – Database Backup
Backup is crucial. It is more then necessary to backup your blog’s data from time to time (I do it once a couple of days, but if you have a lot of content every day, you might consider doing it daily). The WP-Database Backup plugin allows you to easily backup the main database, and also the plugins tables if you want to. Can be scheduled to run from time to time and send the output on the mail.
Number 4 – Jerome’s Keywords
Jerome’s Keywords allows keywords to be associated with each post, which can be used as meta keywords and for creating a local tag system. You can show tags on every post, create a Tag Cloud navigation menu or a tags list. Tagged posts are also automatically submitted to Technorati, giving your site more exposure.
Number 3 – Global Translator
When you are starting a blog, you might consider the fact that not all of your readers would know your native language. Of course, most of them know English, but why not use theGlobal Translator plugin in order to allow every reader to translate your blog in its native language. Only a couple of important languages are supported and the translation algorithm is pretty good. Not to mention that this plugin will allow search engines to find many more entries of your blog (each page in all the provided languages), thus increasing your chance to get traffic from this important source.
Number 2 – Dean’s FCK Editor
Although users can’t see the effects of this plugin, as it is a back end one, the FCK Editor plugin is a must for every blog. It replaces the standard posting menu with a more complex one, that allows you far more options, so that your post would look exactly as you want it to.
Number 1 – Akismet spam protection
One of the biggest problem of Web 2.0 is spam. Spam invades us every day, and if you want to put together a blog you must protect yourself from it. The Akismet plugin, that comes preinstalled with Wordpress (that’s how important it is), makes exactly this thing: protects you from comments spam, filtering the bad ones from the good ones. It is crucial from the point you let free comments appear on your blog, without moderating them. For better protection, can be used in conjunction with other filters, like the Math Comment Spam Protection or others, but for the beginning, the Akismet protection would be enough.
That’s it. Hope you find the list useful. Of course there are many other good plugins, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to stuff your site from the beginning. Just keep it plain and simple. If you disagree with my list, or have some better plugins I might not know yet, I would really appreciate your comments.
