Essential list are just like fingers; every body’s got at least 10.
I’ve been using Wordpress since March 2006 and in that time I have found a loads of plugins that enhance the whole Wordpress experience.
The way I see it is that there are 3 types of plugins:
Plugins that enhance the Readers Experience.
Plugins that enhance the Writers Experience.
Plugins that are useless.
Well in the past month I have disocvered a 4th catageory: Plugins that promote and disrtibute your content.
Plugins that Promote and Disrtibute your Content
Like I said before I have discoverd this 4th catageory which can help an author distribute their content via RSS and Promote their content via Tags.
Feedburner Wordpress Widget
This allows you put Feedburner subscription links into your WordPress sidebar and arrange it with the rest of your widgets.
Bunny’s Technorati Tags
Adds a textbox to the post edit form that you can add Technorati tags to.
MightyTechno
This will convert tags from your configuration page into links to search your site. *I hacked mine to do a Technorati Tag search instead of a local search.
InlineFeed
This lets you display RSS feeds in your Wordpress posts and pages. It’s very easy to use and you can see it in action here.
Ultimate Tag Warrior this tag takes a bit of configuring but in the edn you get the Ultimate Tagging system for your site. It even has a Tag Search page to let visitors see all of your tags and then find all content by a tag or tags.
Plugins that enhance the Readers Experience
I like plugins that help the use find my other content like recent posts and related posts. But I’m not really into the whole comments thing. I’ll leave that up to digg, reddit and slashdot.
Adhesive allows you make post so that they stay at the top of the blog category or home page. Very handy for announcements.
myGallery this is not just another Photo Gallery. This is the Photo Gallery to use. It’s light weight, easy to install and easy to use.
WSR Contact Form this is a very handy way to have readers contact you without having to post your email address.
Sidebar Widgets rocks. See my post on how to add Widgets to your site.
WP-dTree I’m using this on another site it is to rocks. It requires WP-Scriptaculous
Plugins that enhance the Writers Experience
Not only do I like plugins that enhance the reader experience but I really like plugins that make blogging easier.
*OUT* Admin Drop Down Menu this little gem add a sub-menu to the admin pages.
*IN* Admin Drop Menus this little gem adds drop-down lists to the admin pages. ROCKS!!
WP-PostRatings this quick little tool that allows reader to rate your content.
iG:Syntax Hiliter if you need to add any sort of code-snippet to your post then this is the only plugin you’ll ever need.
WP-Amazon allows you to add Amazon content to your posts. Very handy for people with affiliate accounts.
WordPress Database Backup this is a required plugin. You should be backing up your database every few days.
Plugins that are useless
I’m sure that if I list anything here I’ll catch a hail-storm from angry readers. So instead of naming names I’ll just give a brief over-view of what I do not like in a plugin.
Anything that is beta .1 or .01 or below. It’s not ready yet.
Plugins that add annoying visual effects. Like snowfall.
“What I’m into” or play list plugins. I’m social enough to have a blog but not enough to share to much.
WAP is that still around?
Mobologging. But the Blackberry down and drive!!
Well that’s all for now.