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Guide to Wordpress Plugins - My Top Picks

12.12.2007 by Kenneth in Plugin

Wordpress has put together a very powerful content management/blogging platform that has caught on like fire.  But there has been areas that the creators have not truly captured the full mood of the public.  This is were plugins come in.  Wordpress plugins are usually small programs that cover more in-depth pieces that the main Wordpress program has not covered. 

So, I wanted to put together a list of my top plugins that I use everyday, that have helped to make my blogging easier or helped with SEO.  All of these picks are certified and ready for the latest iteration of wordpress 2.3.1 or better.

1.  Adsense Deluxe - I use the plugin in each and every post for displaying my AdSense blocks.  The plugin allows you to put your AdSense scripts in the plugin for easy access.  Then within your theme you just need to enter one line of code and the AdSense script is automatically entered into the area needed. 

2.  Akismet- Yeah, this one comes with wordpress but for a while I could not figure out how to get it to work.  I sat down one day and figured it out and ever since I have loved that is filters out so much spam.  If your not using this you need to.

3.  Google Sitemap Generator - This little plugin generates a yahoo, Google, ask.com, and msn compliant sitemap every-time I add new post to any of my blogs.  Its hands off and all I had to do was install it configure it the first time and that was it.  It has been working like a champ ever since.  It even pings all of the search engines telling them that their are new pages.  If your into SEO for your blog and if not you should be, you will need this plugin.

4.  Social Bookmark Creator - Social bookmarking is becoming a must have for any blog or website.  This plugin will create links to all of the hottest social bookmark sites in existence.

5.  Related Links Plugin - This plugin creates a easy way to point post to related post on your blog.  Once you enter the information it create a neat relate articles blog within the entry.

6.  All in One SEO - Once again if your not doing anything for SEO you need to.  This little plugin allows you to enter keywords and descriptions for every blog entry.  It will also perform SEO tactics on your homepage.

7.  Top Commentors - Encourage more discussion from your readers, by displaying their names (linked to their website if desired) and number of comments they have made recently to your sidebar.

8.  Subscribe to comments - Subscribe to Comments 2.1 is a plugin that allows commenters on your blog to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments. It is one of the most popular WordPress plugins out there for the simple reason that it helps foster a community around your blog by encouraging commenters to come back and stay engaged in the dialog.

9.  Popularity Contest - Popularity Contest keeps a count of your post, category and archive views, comments, trackbacks, etc. and uses them to determine which of your posts are most popular. There are numerical values assigned to each type of view and feedback; these are used to create a ‘popularity score’ for each post.

I had a few other plugin that I would have recommended prior to the latest iteration of wordpress.  These plugins helped with tags and breadcrumbs.  But no need it in there now..

Popularity: 19% [?]

If this post helped you or even gave you an idea please scratch my back with a tip. In return I will return a link in my Top Spots. I sure would appreciate it.

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