The 15 Best WordPress Plugins to Use in 2010
Awesome Content: Set Up For Online Success
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One of the reasons that I’m so madly in love with WordPress is the thousands of plugins available. It doesn’t matter what you want to accomplish on your blog, there’s probably a plugin that will allow you to do it.
This list is the 15 most incredible WordPress plugins. Only the best plugins have made it while anything less than amazing has been kicked to the street.
Each of these plugins are used at Site Sketch 101 and I personally recommend each of them to you. The following plugins are posted in the order that I recommend them.
- WP Super Cache – This plugin is great for two reasons. First, it makes your pages load way faster. Second, since it stores static versions of your site, it requires much less CPU processing than using WordPress all by itself. This WordPress plugin is number one on the list for a reason.
- HeadSpace 2: WordPress SEO Made Simple- Move over All in one SEO. There’s a new guy in town. HeadSpace provides you with the features you need to drive your site to the top. People spend way to much time working on SEO and too little time writing great content. This plugin let’s you put your focus back where it belongs. It takes care of all the SEO work that your blog will need.
- Akismet – Akismet is the comment spam fighter that comes built into WordPress and it does a mighty fine job. Activate this plugin and you won’t need to moderate or captcha your comment submissions. Akismet does 99% of the work for you.
- WPtouch iPhone Theme – This plugin allows you to instantly and effortlessly transform your website into a mobile paradise. Whenever a mobile user accesses your blog a pleasant looking lighter version designed specially for mobile devices is presented. This is a must have for 2010.
- Backtype Tweetcount – If you’re using the TweetMeMe tweet counter badge on your blog then kill it right now. Nobody wants to authorize another program to access their Twitter account just to share a link to your site.
- Nofollow Case by Case – This site’s comment links are dofollow. I’ve stripped out all of the nofollow tags from the comment section of Site Sketch 101. You leave a comment here and Google page rank will chase you all the way back to your site. This plugin is what makes that happen. So leave a comment here and then install this awesome WordPress Plugin at your blog.
- WP-DBManager – This little gem is amazing for backing up your website. It actually has quite a few functions that it can perform but perhaps it’s most impressive feature is it’s ability to email the entire WordPress databse to me every day.
- Thank Me Later – This plugin is great. It sends an email to all first-time visitors. You can write up the email to remind them about your RSS feed or just to invite them to connect with you personally. I do both.
- WP-PageNavi – Those ‘Older Posts’ and ‘Newer Posts’ links are boring. With WP-PaveNavi you can get page buttons so users can go directly to whichever page they want. Plus they look a lot better than plain little links.
- Permalinks Moved Permanently – Last year I moved all of my permalinks to post the page so that they wouldn’t be so long. This would have meant that all of the links to my posts would generate 404 errors. This plugin just forwards all the links and PR to the new addresses.
- SEO Slugs – Using your entire post title as the slug for the article can make web addresses long and it can waste the opportunity to focus on using your keywords. This plugin strips out all the unnecessary words from the permalink for you so that you don’t have to.
- SEO Smart Links – Do you inter-link your articles? You should. Linking within an article to other articles is a great way to build Page Rank throughout your site and it’s a great way to get readers to find your other articles on similar subjects. This plugin will interlink keywords to your other articles for you.
- Subscribe to Comments – This plugin took a little bit of work to get it to work right but it’s great because it allows people to subscribe via email to any other comments that show up on a given post. This helps get readers to keep coming back.
- Top Commentators Widget – At the bottom of the sidebar here, you can see the top 10 commentators for this month. This is a great way to provide a dofollow link back to the people who help make your site great.
- WordPress Related Posts – If a reader enjoys one of your articles then one of the best things that you can do is to put some more articles in front of them to keep them digging through your site.
Group Discussion
Plugins are amazing little creations. In a matter of just seconds you can bring new realms of possibilities to your website.
Which plugins do you use on your site and how many plugins do you use at your site? Do you use any of these plugins? Do you have any other WordPress plugins that you would highly recommend to the group here?
Don Gilbert said:
I love WP Super Cache. Thank you so much Donncha for creating such an awesome plugin.
One of my personal favorites that I am sad but not surprised didn’t make the cut is the Ozh Admin Drop Down Menu. It doesn’t really offer anything from a end user standpoint – but it saves me SO much time when I navigate my admin area.
Great list here. I will be implementing some of these on my next major WP site revision.
My Latest Blog Post: Top 10 Tips to Dominate Your Niche for SEO
Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » Explain to us what Ozh Admin Drop Down Menu does for you? I’m not familiar with it at all and I’m sure that we would all love to hear more about it.
Don Gilbert said:
Well, I think what I meant to say was site-visitor, not end-user. Because it offers a good service for those who use it in their admin panel, but it is transparent to the site-visitor.
It allows for easy access to ANY admin page from ANY other admin page with a single click. No longer do you have to click the arrow to be able to review your options, and the select what you want, you just hover and click.
Now, I know that if you collapse the admin panel so it is just icons on the left, it does something similar. But the benefit of the Ozh admin bar is that it puts the bar at the top of the admin content area, making WordPress feel more like a traditional desktop publishing application. Also, not only does it show icons, it also puts the text there for users to read as well as recognize the icon.
It is literally the first plugin I install in a fresh WordPress.
My Latest Blog Post: Top 10 Tips to Dominate Your Niche for SEO
Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » That sounds pretty cool. I’m surprised that I’ve not heard more about this one. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Bilal said:
“It is literally the first plugin I install in a fresh WordPress.”
Same as you..It’s a great time saver..
My Latest Blog Post: Site güncellemeleri ve tasar?m de?i?ikli?i
Wissam Abulhuda said:
Just added the plugin … A must have =)
Thanks for the recommendation.
Pradeep said:
thanks for the list, and ozh reco. excellent stuff.
My Latest Blog Post: Kumbh Mela
Lauren said:
WOW! I love that plugin! Thank so much for recommending it.
Drew said:
Just installed the ozh admin plugin….WOW. Thank you for this recommendation as it is amazing!
Kilian Güntner said:
Agree,
SEO Slug works great. Thanks for a splendid list.
Rafael from Iloveplanes.com said:
I love Ozh Admin plugin. I have a 13inch MacBook and this plugin makes working on my sites a breeze. I’m all for maximizing my work space.
My Latest Blog Post: MU-2 Max Performance Short Field Take Off Video
Nicholas Cardot said:
Rafael from Iloveplanes.com » I’ve actually recently discovered an even better admin plugin called Fluency Admin. I’ll be announcing that in an upcoming post.
Ryan said:
Thanks man, these plugins are awesome. I’m using some on my computer repair business wordpress site.
Jeff said:
Thanks for the suggestion for the Ozh Admin plugin…not entirely sure why this isn’t the default “view” when you log in….it make so much more sense.
Now I just have to find a plugin that offers the option of “saving” a post, and exiting back to the post list, rather than clicking on “Update” or “Publish”, and still being on the post’s page…..
My Latest Blog Post: The Cute Cat
David Meikle said:
This is a really good selection of plugins for wordpress site. I have always been using Super Cache. Its good. For the others plugins listed, Im going to try them out pretty soon.
Thanks you.
Deeeezyfbaby®
My Latest Blog Post: Album: Tanya Stephens – Infallible
kirkoconnor said:
that’s a very succinct list Nicholas.
I have used about half previously but some of the others that I haven’t used such as SEO Slugs and Thank Me Later are pure gems.
Thanks so much for sharing the list.
Nicholas Cardot said:
kirkoconnor » The ‘Thank Me Later’ plugin really is a gem. In fact, you’ll receive an email from me in a few hours using that plugin. I use it to invite people to reply and connect with me personally and I’m able to build genuine, personal relationships as a result. It’s pretty cool. Just be sure that you make the email sound as personal as possible. Don’t just uses it to pitch sales.
Aminul Islam Sajib said:
Thanks nick for awesome post. I’m already using some of those plugins. This post inspired me to switch from tweetmeme to backtype tweetcount. I’d like to use WP Super Cache, but I find it difficult to manage. This post also inspired me to add SEO smart links.
Great one, dude.
My Latest Blog Post: Twitter Tool: Who Was My First Follower?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Aminul Islam Sajib » Making that switch is a good choice. TweetMeMe forces your users to authenticate their twitter account on your website. People don’t like giving that access out to just anyone just to share out an article. In the end, it results in fewer shares. I know that I won’t use it. Switching to BackType will allow people to click over with a status and a link directly in their account without going through a third party.
Aminul Islam Sajib said:
What do you think of Buy Me A Beer plugin? I use it and find interesting.
My Latest Blog Post: Twitter Tool: Who Was My First Follower?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Aminul Islam Sajib » I’m not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I’m uncomfortable just asking people for money, but on the other hand, if you are producing great material then there is nothing wrong with being rewarded with a grateful reader giving you a dollar or two. I don’t really have an official answer but weigh out those factors and decide on what you believe is right for you, your site, and your readers.
Tony said:
Subscribe to comments plugin? I never thought that people would actually want to keep updated on comments to a blog post. Nice to have, like a novelty; but not essential. Thanks for sharing this list!
My Latest Blog Post: Technorati Verification
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tony » No. It’s not an essential but I’ve been surprised how many people subscribe to comment updates here. It’s especially useful for people who want to jump back in and get involved in the conversation and respond to whatever the author had to say in response to a comment.
Brian Carnell said:
I disagree..subscribe to comments *is* essential if you want me to keep coming back and commenting. I don’t have time to revisit your site to follow the conversations I want to participate in.
Without a “subscribe to comments” plugin, I’m making one comment and never visiting your site again. With it, I’m following ongoing conversation(s) and much more likely to visit again.
My Latest Blog Post: Holy Bible: Stock Car Racing Edition
Nicholas Cardot said:
Brian Carnell » I think that it would be essential if it wasn’t so incredibly difficult to configure it with some blog themes. It was very difficult to get it to work the way that it does on this site.
Derek Jensen said:
I would say that the plugin is essential to have as an option but make sure by default the checkbox is unchecked.
Yes, you want the people that made a comment to continue the discussion if replied back to or leave another comment, but sometimes it can be annoying if you have already established a reader who comments all the time on your site but they get all of these emails regarding the post they just commented on.
In short, make it an option for people because that will give them the opportunity to reconnect.
Martha said:
With respect to subscribe to comments (really this is more a Disqus forced subscription complaing), I find as an end user that it can be incredibly frustrating when you get loaded down with irrelevant comments following your own comment on a post. However, from a blog hoster’s point of view, it makes sense to offer the option. Even when I try to opt out of Disqus when commenting on someone’s blog, I seem to always get stuck with the follow ups and often find myself incredibly frustrated. So, opt-in subscribe = good, forced subscribe = very, very bad.
Cheers,
Martha
Nicholas Cardot said:
Martha » I completely agree. I’m 100% in favor of the opt-in option. I’m with you on that.
Pradeep said:
Martha, fully agree with you on this one
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Drake said:
I thik the “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” is a GREAT PLUG-IN and should even be included as an option in WP’z core! Let’s say instructions on fixing a problem are incomplete . . . due to software changing over time . . . Even if the blogs author isn’t maintaining his or her blog the commenter community can help each other find the solution . . . I can post a comment like “HELP THIS TUTORIAL DON’T WORK ANY MORE BECAUSE IT WAS MADE FOR WORDPRESS 1.0!?!?!” and I can get a response asap via email as soon as someone comes along with the solution similar the way forums work. . . this is a GREAT feature . . . and like I said . . . It has wordpress core writen all over it.
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Gordie said:
HI Nick,
Thanks for bring the Thank Me Later and iPhone Theme to my attention. I’ll try to install them later today.
Thank you very, much.
My Latest Blog Post: How To Stop People From Driving You Crazy.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Gordie » Believe me, you don’t want to be without those two plugins. The features that they bring to your online experience are well worth having.
Stefan said:
I would also recommend No Self Pings, Smart Youtube and Contact Form 7.
Besides those it’s a great list.
My Latest Blog Post: The Don’t Quit Poem
Nicholas Cardot said:
Stefan » I’m familiar with your first and last recommendation, but what does Smart Youtube do?
Stefan said:
When you want to embed a YouTube video you simply write httpvh:// and later on you can change size, etc. in your settings.
My Latest Blog Post: The Don’t Quit Poem
Nicholas Cardot said:
Stefan » With WordPress 2.9, the core programming now offers that functionality. Except that you don’t even have to add the vh in the middle. Simply drop a link to a video and WordPress will display it as a video. It’s pretty amazing stuff.
designfollow said:
thank you for the great plugins.
My Latest Blog Post: 40 Inspiring Single Page Websites
Nicholas Cardot said:
designfollow » You’re welcome. I hope that you found something that you can use.
David Hobson said:
Thanks for the list, i have most but im missing a few of them.
My Latest Blog Post: How to Make Money Online With 404 Error Pages
Nicholas Cardot said:
David Hobson » Well jump in and grab those last few that you don’t have and let’s take it to the next level.
Enrico said:
Thanks for the list! Very useful plugins.
Correct link for Headspace2 is http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/headspace2/
Nicholas Cardot said:
Enrico » Thanks for giving me the correct link. A long time ago I used to use the All in one SEO plugin but now I’ve switched to the much better HeadSpace 2. I guess I had the old link in there. Thanks for helping me find it and get it corrected.
gjperera said:
Why is headspace better than all in one? I’ve been using all in one for some time now and I’m happy with the results. Is it worth it to change to headspace?
designi1 said:
Great tips… thanks! Let me save this for future use!
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Martino Palladini said:
Thank you for the useful list of Plug-ins. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up to date with all the newest additions to WordPress.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Martino Palladini » It really is hard. And sometimes the newest additions aren’t even as good as some of the oldy but goody plugins. They certainly are coming out with great ones, but WP-Super Cache has been at the top of my list for a while now and HeadSpace 2 is just phenomenal.
Rachel said:
Thats a great top 15 for wordpress… I’ll have to go to my wordpress blog now and update my plugins.
Thanks
X
Nicholas Cardot said:
Rachel » You’ll be glad that you did. As I mentioned in the article, I use every one of these plugins here at Site Sketch 101. Any one of these plugins that you decide to add to your website, I guarantee that you’ll be glad that you did.
Leora Wenger said:
Question for you: I am planning to switch from to the Nofollow Case by Case plugin (currently, all my comments on my blog are DoFollow). In which cases would you switch a comment link to Nofollow? Can you give an example? Thanks.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Leora Wenger » Honestly I wouldn’t. In my case the only time I contemplated it was when someone left a good comment and linked to an adult website in the address field but I simply removed link altogether. I’m not going to provide a dofollow or a nofollow link to a site like that. I’ve never NoFollowed any links here. If you’re using a plugin that keeps everything dofollow then I would just stick with what you have. Does that make sense?
Leora Wenger said:
Yes, that answers my question well regarding dofollow and nofollow links!
And thank you for suggesting Backtype Tweetcount – I have not been happy with Tweetmeme for a while, so an alternative is more than welcome.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Leora Wenger » Good. I’m glad that I could help clear that up.
TweetMeMe was the first tweet counter plugin that I ever encountered also but I’m so glad that I discovered BackType. I actually contacted the BackType company and gave them suggestions and they listened and implemented most of them. I was pretty impressed with that.
Karl Foxley said:
Some great plugins. I find Subscribe to comments one of those real simple plugins but it is so necessary to have that option no a blog.
Top commentators is a great way to reward your visitors who go on to engage with your site a bit further.
Regards,
Karl
My Latest Blog Post: 15 Free Tools To Add To Your Online Business Toolbox
Nicholas Cardot said:
Karl Foxley » I agree. Instead of having a ‘link exchange’ or a ‘blog roll’ I have a top commentator widget. Those who are the top commentators get links on all of my pages. My home page is PR4, several internal pages are PR3 and PR2. Plus since I don’t have a lot of items in my sidebar, it provides I higher chance of being clicked on.
Keith said:
Nick,
I am a plugin junkie, so I have used most of these before, but I always find a gem when someone post a list like this, Gonna checkout Headspace on one of my test sites, I have been using Platinum SEO for awhile now. Just want to comment on a couple of the plug-ins:
WP Touch – I tried this plugin and unfortunately it doesn’t play well with Blackberries (which I use). Only seems to work on iPhones (when I used it) and Blackberries are now the number one selling smartphone, so wouldn’t seem right to leave them out. I recently started using Wapple and it seems to work across multiple platforms for mobile.
Backtype Tweet, I use Tweetmeme on mine because it doesn’t take you away from my page, I didn’t realize you had to sign into a 3rd party to use it, so will investigate this one
Thank You Later – Man I just ranted about getting emails after I comment on someones site, I guess if it is only one I didn’t notice it from you, or you started using this after my first comment. Either way, I disagree with sending emails through emails left behind in your comments, seems like email spam to me.
Great list Nick RT’d
My Latest Blog Post: Pop Ups On Your Blog
Nicholas Cardot said:
Keith » Could you consider doing me a favor and providing feedback about Site Sketch 101 on your blackberry? I have an Android and it works fine for me, but you’re right. I certainly don’t want to forget about the ever popular Blackberry.
As far as the TweetMeMe is concerned, I’ve stepped back from sharing articles quite a bit because I don’t feel like authorizing another site to access my account.
That’s a good counter argument for the Thank Me Later plugin. I respect it and it’s why I so adamant about making the email as personal as possible. In my emails I actually invite people to respond, to feel free to email me or to feel free to IM me if they have questions or want to chat. I get a predominantly positive response from it.
Keith said:
Was unable to bring your site up on my Blackberry, but I don’t have the best signal here where I live either. Keeps saying network timed out.
Changed my tweet plugin so go share some of my articles
I will check your site again later and report back, seems like I had problems with that plugin on my blackberry.
I don’t think that one email is so bad after commenting, but there is one site in particular that sends me one every time, I stopped reading their blog because of it.
My Latest Blog Post: Pop Ups On Your Blog
Nicholas Cardot said:
Keith » Thanks for taking the time to check that for me. I’m not sure what I can do to make that work. I know that it works well on Androids and iPhones so at least I have that going for me.
I’m glad that you switched out your Tweet plugin. As far as sharing your stuff…done.
You definitely don’t want to send one every time. That is way over doing it. Even one can be too much if it’s not friendly and personal. You don’t want to appear as pushy or trying to make a sale. Simply thank them and let them know that you are a real person.
Don Gilbert said:
To get the page to display properly on a BB using WP-Touch, you need to add it’s UA string to the settings panel.
What is the UA string for BB?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » I don’t know what a UA string is let alone what the UA string is for a BlackBerry. Whoah. That’s all over my head. It sounds like it would be worth figuring out though.
Don Gilbert said:
UA stands for User Agent. It is what what every web browser, whether mobile or otherwise, sends to a website when accessing it.
Example UA’s:
__________________________________
Browser | User Agent
________________|_________________
Firefox | mozilla
Safari | webkit
iPhone | iPhone
iPod Touch | iPod
Yahoo Bot | yslurp (?)
BlackBerry | (?)
etc…
WP-SuperCache uses it in tandem with WP-Touch so that the cached, non-mobile friendly pages are not sent to mobile devices like the iPhone or iPod Touch. The UA triggers a setting to bypass the cache.
WP-Touch just needs to have the UA for BlackBerry added to the settings (somewhere) so that when a BlackBerry accesses the site, it triggers WP-Touch, and the mobile friendly version is displayed.
My Latest Blog Post: Top 10 Tips to Dominate Your Niche for SEO
Don Gilbert said:
So much for trying to make a table. lol
My Latest Blog Post: Top 10 Tips to Dominate Your Niche for SEO
Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » Ha ha. It’s fine. We know what it means.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » Ahh. I see. We should contact the creators of the plugin. They would probably add it right in there. They update the plugin almost every week.
Tee Riddle said:
Hi Nicohlas,
Great list of plugins! Currently, I am using wp-cache, but thinking about switching to WP Super Cache. Do you know if WP Super Cache supports gzip compression?
I am using TweetMeMe and may seriously consider switching to the one you listed. Thanks!
Does SEO Slugs remove unnecessary words from permalinks in all posts (past and future), or just from posts you write after the plugin is installed?
Thanks so much for sharing these plugins!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Tee Riddle » It does support GZip compression which is terrific. Does the plugin that you’re using support that as well or are you looking for a new feature here?
I used to use TweetMeMe but I do highly recommend that you go ahead and make that switch.
It only removes words from posts that you create. Nothing from the past will be changed. No page rank will be lost.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
I’ve used almost all the plugins that you listed above, except the wp-cache because the Buysellads plugin doesn’t work together with wp-cache, so I don’t use it yet.
Anyway, all these plugins are good one.
Regards,
Lee
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lee Ka Hoong » Wp Super Cache is an amazing plugin and it will drastically increase the speed that your website loads. I love it. I wouldn’t recommend anyone use WordPress, which is a very heavy CMS, without having this plugin installed.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
Yea I definitely agree with you that wp-cache is a must need plugin for wordpress users. I tried to install that b4 but it couldn’t be able to work with the buysellads plugin, when I activated wp-cache, buysellads banner disappeared.
Anyway, I’ve contacted the developer of buysellads plugin and highlighted him the problem I faced. I’ll try to active wp-cache plugin again and see what happens.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lee Ka Hoong » Hopefully they add that functionality for it soon. It seems outrageous not to offer it when so many people are using WP Super Cache. It’s worth it for them to switch.
Wez Pyke said:
I love Thank Me Later, it’s a great plugin that gets users back to your blog.
Good list Nicholas!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Wez Pyke » Yeah. I love that plugin. I hope that you reply to the email that you’ll be getting from here.
Kok Siong Chen said:
I used all the plugins you mentioned above except for the Headspace2 as i do not really know how to configure it. I will learn to use it. Thanks for your sharing!
My Latest Blog Post: Angelman Syndrome – Angel-like Genetic Disorder
Nicholas Cardot said:
Kok Siong Chen » Here’s a few articles that have been written here at Site Sketch 101 that can really help you get a handle on using HeadSpace 2.
SEO Tips & Tricks for Your WordPress Blog
Supercharged SEO: A Guide to Headspace 2
WordPress SEO Made Simple With Headspace
Lynda Dmoch said:
Hi Nicholas. Don’t remember how I came about your site, but I find it very useful and informative. I just wish I was more computer savvy to really reap the benefits of all you offer. I am a self-taught, learn-as-you-go entrepreneur struggling to understand it all. I struggle with some of the “back of the house” technical stuff. With that being said, do you have any recommendations who I should use to help me tweak my site so I can maximize my internet presence? I am in the process of looking for a new host server as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for sharing your expertise with me. :^)
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lynda Dmoch » For hosting I use and recommend BlueHost. I think that they offer terrific service and out of this world support. In the past, they’ve even logged into my WordPress control panel to figure out and solve an issue for me. It was amazing.
The technical part of blogging can be difficult but always keep in mind that it’s not the most important part of it. The most important part is that you always focus on writing outstanding material and you work to connect with your readers.
Sridhar Katakam said:
I recommend Host Gator. It will come down to $6.36/month with a 20% off coupon that can be found everywhere.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sridhar Katakam » Host Gator is a good company. I’ve not personally used them but many of my friends have and I’ve heard very few bad things about them. I hear lots of people praising them.
Lynda Dmoch said:
Thanks, Sridhar, for your hosting suggestion. Hostgator is one of the hosts I am looking into and thinking about. Thanks for taking the time to suggest them and the coupons!
Lynda Dmoch said:
Thanks, Nicholas, for the helpful info and encouragement. I’ll keep watching your posts to keep on learning!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lynda Dmoch » Awesome. If you do keep following the posts on this site then you certainly will keep learning.
Teasastips said:
I’m always looking for ways to enhance my WP experience. Just coming from Blogger, I feel like a kid in a candy store. Thanks for the tips. By the way, found you on Twitter.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Teasastips » I know what that feels like. I used to be a blogger user myself and I’m glad that I switched. There is a lot to learn when you first make the jump though.
Sridhar Katakam said:
BackUpWordPress allows you to backup database as well as files and comes with a rich set of options.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backupwordpress/
I prefer it to WP-DBManager.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sridhar Katakam » Thanks for that recommendation. I’m going to look into it and see what kind of functionality it offers. Thanks.
Daniel Howard said:
Hey Nicholas
We use All In One SEO – Plugin…
But the headspace 2 looks better for SEO purposes so I have just installed that…
And the Nofollow Case by Case looks great for SEO as well
Thanks again for these…
Danny
My Latest Blog Post: Action Blueprint – Building The Foundation
Nicholas Cardot said:
Daniel Howard » You’re welcome. HeadPace is much better although it will take a little bit for you to get used to setting it up. Once you get it configured to your liking then you will certainly be set up for success.
Teen Blogger said:
Nice post.
I always like these kind of posts. I think every blog owner uses lots of plugins to keep his blog in good shape. Some plugins listed here are a life saver. Like Akismet, that’s a must for every blog owner. Top commentators is also good to get more comments.
I personally use most of these myself.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Teen Blogger » Thanks for the affirmation on these. These really are life savers. I agree with you on that. It’s amazing that we can just expand our sites to do all of these neat things for us.
Daniel Howard said:
Hey Nicholas
Thank you for a great detailed article. we are always looking for better WordPress plugins to use, and you have just saved us hours of looking for these plugins.
We are going to download a couple now thanks again.
Danny
Nicholas Cardot said:
Daniel Howard » I’m glad to hear that. Which ones are you looking at downloading? I would love to hear how you like them after you’ve tried them out.
Tee Riddle said:
I think I would have to add some coding into the wp-cache plugin files in order to enable gzip compression. To be honest, I’m not even sure my web host supports gzip compression. I need to contact them and find out.
One other question – Are you using a plugin for the Twitter username and “Follow me on Twitter” links in your comments? If so would you mind sharing it? That’s a really cool feature of your comments! (so is the latest blog post feature)
Thanks!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Tee Riddle » Who do you host with? I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t support it. It’s a fairly common feature in most web hosting environments but calling them would be the easiest way to figure it out.
The twitter feature in the comments section is powered by a plugin called Twitip ID. It’s amazing. And I’ve placed it into my template using the manual template tag that they offer so that I can make it look the way that you see it here.
The latest blog post feature is actually the CommentLuv plugin slightly modified to look a little bit nicer than I usually see it on other sites.
Simon Carr said:
Nice list of WordPress Plugins. Most of them have been around for a while, but the WordPress for iPhone plugin is a really neat concept. I’m going to make it a point to use all of these plugins at least once in 2010
Nicholas Cardot said:
Simon Carr » Some of them have been around for a while. I certainly have no disagreements. These really are powerful ones though. And yes, I love the iPhone plugin. I use it to check my site on my Android every day. If nobody else uses it around here, I do.
green apple sorbet said:
Thanks for this fantastic list, really useful! I’m new to blogging and some of these plugins will be invaluable for improving my site.
Nicholas Cardot said:
green apple sorbet » As a new blogger, you’ll need to grab a hold of everything you can. You’ll be learning a lot right now. Stick with it and learn everything you can.
mark said:
B.R.I.L.L.I.A.N.T – as a new to wordpress user this has been invaluable, cheers Nicholas you’re a belter!
My Latest Blog Post: People Don’t Resist Change
Nicholas Cardot said:
mark » I’m glad to hear that you like it so much but I have to ask. What’s a belter?
Tammy said:
WoW ! Nicholas thank U again! I’ve learned so much from you already… your blog is like a gold mine! Thank U!
My Latest Blog Post: Let Nature Be Your Guide
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tammy » That’s great to hear. I’m glad that you’re finding value here and I feel confident that if you stick around that you’ll keep pulling golden nuggets out.
Andrew said:
Good list Nicholas. I’m just wondering why you’d still be using Nofollow Case by Case when Headspace will handle the nofollow for your, either in defaults or on a post/page by post/page basis.
Seems a waste of server resources to have 2 plugins running all the time when only one of them is actually required.
My Latest Blog Post: How To Digg Your Way to The Front Page
Nicholas Cardot said:
Andrew » I didn’t realize that HeadSpace offered that option. Or if I had seen it I had forgotten about it. How do I get that to work in comments and how do I get it configured?
Andrew said:
Like everything HeadSpace you have the default settings in each of the taxonomy areas, plus you can add the module so it also shows up on the new post edit page with all your other HeadSpace options.
Just remember you can set defaults then use the post/page options to override those defaults allowing you to have greater flexibility.
So you might have the default set to follow links in comments but override just for a certain post. Just one of many examples.
My Latest Blog Post: How To Digg Your Way to The Front Page
Nicholas Cardot said:
Andrew » Okay. As I explored the settings, I didn’t see any default settings or any way to adjust the nofollow/dofollow status of comment, sidebar links, etc. Is that feature in there?
Melvin Ram said:
You forgot the big daddy of all the backup plugins: http://wordpressbackup.org
Good list though.
The iPhone theme plugin will also become really important as more and more “superphones” start becoming the norm.
~ mel
PS: Okay, I’m a little biased lol
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Melvin Ram » I’m going to look into that big daddy right now and see what it offers. Does it offer other backup options that don’t rely on Amazon Storage?
Melvin Ram said:
It only works with Amazon S3 for now, which really only costs pennies per month to backup most WP-based blogs & websites.
My Latest Blog Post: Dr. King On How To Build A Reputation
Nicholas Cardot said:
Melvin Ram » Interesting. That sounds like it’s definitely worth looking into then. Thanks for the recommendation.
Ron Leyba said:
Just installed wp super cache now. Feels like, big google is loving those blogs that loads faster. This one will help, a lot.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ron Leyba » I have heard that it really does impact our performance on Google. Great going getting that installed.
Andrew said:
With the release of Caffeine load times are now a major factor. Matt Cutts discussed load times publicly late last year.
So while plugins are great, don’t overload your blog and slow it down either.
A great way to make sure your blog is not bloated with plugins is to use HeadSpace and take advantage of the per post plugin option. If you normally run a lot of plugins but many don’t really need to be loaded all the time, using this method can really help to speed things up as well.
I made a video last showing how simple it is to do and I’d suggest anyone who uses more than 10 -15 plugins consider this option.
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Nathan said:
Great list – though I’d add two of my favourites to the pile – Insights is great for finding and linking to your old posts, wikipedia, Flickr images and just about anything else.
And Shashin is a great Picasa plug in.
My Latest Blog Post: Leaving home.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Nathan » I’m going to look into both of those. Are you a photographer or a graphics enthusiast?
Nathan said:
Primarily I’m a blogging enthusiast. I do like photography and store most of the images for my blog on Picasa.
My Latest Blog Post: Leaving home.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Nathan » Okay. I was just curious based on the recommendations that you shared with the rest of us here. Thanks for letting me know.
Jim Hardin said:
Great list of plugins. I do use most of them and I also use the one you created Sketch Bookmarks. I like it.
I didn’t realize the iPhone plugin that makes your blog accessable for cell phone etc. Sounds like a good thing to do as everyone out there is on the blackberry/iPhone or whatever.
Thanks for the list
Jim
Nicholas Cardot said:
Jim Hardin » It really is a great thing to do. That’s for sure. Mobile browsers are becoming more and more advanced and there is a definite trend towards more people using them. We need to be sure that we’re designing sites that cater to these users.
P.S. Thanks for using Sketch Bookmarks plugin. I’m glad that you like it.
Tamar Weinberg said:
Hey Nicholas, great post but I’m surprised that everyone’s still fixated on WP Super Cache (even from the comments!). I used to spread the cheer about that plugin 3 years ago, but times have changed. If you want REAL stability, you’d want to check out W3 Total Cache. It’s MUCH better than WP Super Cache! In fact, your website will likely load faster too.
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Melvin Ram said:
I have to 2nd this. SuperCache didn’t immediately work for me but when I tried it a second time, it worked easily and the load time was reduced by 0.5 seconds which is significant considering that SuperCache had already cut down load time by a lot.
My Latest Blog Post: Dr. King On How To Build A Reputation
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tamar Weinberg » I just did some testing on that plugin and it sent errors to any bot that checked the site out. Google webmaster tools was not able to connect to it. Speed testing sites sent back errors. I don’t know what the problem was but I can’t imagine that it would be good for my search engine rankings.
Anthony V. Gibby said:
thanks for these plugin, guess i have to back into my blog and deactivate/uninstall some plugins so i can get these up and running.
Thanks,
Anthony V. Gibby
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Definitely. These are some great ones to check out.
Anthony V. Gibby said:
Ok! As I am still learning html, blogging, etc, etc. I just looked up on wiki what NoFollow means, and now that I understand, Nofollow Case by Case plugin is very valuable. So, one I would like to thank you for allowing us to have a Dofollow on your site, and two im going to install this plugin ASAP.
http://avgibby.posterous.com
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Anthony V. Gibby » For another great resource on that topic be sure to click on the words “Our Comments are DoFollow” in the sidebar of Site Sketch 101. It will show you how I feel about it.
Ronna Detrick said:
Could this possibly be more succinct, more helpful, more fabulous?!? Thank you!!!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ronna Detrick » You’re welcome. And thank you for the very enthusiastic response. That’s an inspiring way to respond. Thanks.
Josh said:
Great insight! Thanks for providing these. I just went to a self-hosted WordPress site back in October, so I’m still learning. I love the backtweet recommendation. One question with that: What do I need to do to get the backtweet image on the right-hand side of the post (top) instead of the left? Sorry for such a noob of a question…
Nicholas Cardot said:
Josh » That depends. Are you manually placing it in the template or are you using the option in the settings page?
Josh said:
Not manual….just going into the settings.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Josh » In that case, I’m not sure how to do it. I know how to manually put the template tag in there and make it sit wherever you like it but I’m not sure that the default settings offer that option. Sorry.
Monty said:
I installed WP Super Cache and noticed an instant drop in my adsense earnings. I had read somewhere where this happened to someone else. Not sure if it’s related but I monitored it after a month, and then uninstalled it. My earnings per click started to rise again. I’m even reluctant to try W3 Total Cache.
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Melvin Ram said:
Any ideas on why this would be? Seems like it should go the other way around.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Melvin Ram » My only guess is that WP-Super Cache might cache a particular ad and Google might reject it when clicked on as a static link instead of as a generated piece of information.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Monty » That’s strange. I wonder what’s causing that. Thanks for sharing that insight with us.
Monty said:
Yeah, no problem. I do see the value in these “caching” plugins…but I have to tell you, they sound great in theory (and may actually deliver in practice for most folks) but for me, they’ve been nothing but a pain in the rear…. my blogs have been so slow and I try to fix it with a caching plugin, when really it requires more money out of pocket for a dedicated server or whatever…. I’ll never use a caching plugin again because of my adsense experience. Since disabling it, I’m up about 40% in income… but that’s just me…
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element321 said:
Nicholas,
This is a great list of plugin. I use almost all of them. As for the ones I do not, I will be trying them out.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
element321 » You won’t regret giving these plugins a try at your site. They’re great and they’ll definitely help you out.
Connie Ragen Green said:
Great list here, Nicholas. I was going to ask you about the all-in-one-seo plugin, but I see that Daniel already mentioned it. Is it true that the Thesis theme is best for SEO?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Connie Ragen Green » No. It’s not true. It’s true that Thesis has some absolutely terrific options for SEO and that it does work wonders. But I’ve found that that HeadSpace 2 works wonders as well.
Mark McGowan said:
Fantastic article – I already use some of these plugins but will be getting stuck into the ones that I don’t, thank you.
Mark
My Latest Blog Post: Bishop Eton & St.Peter’s, Liverpool
Nicholas Cardot said:
Mark McGowan » I definitely recommend taking the time to check out those other ones. I think that you’ll really like it.
ckorody said:
Thorough job Nick – up to your high standards.
The iPhone plug in works nicely but I guess I have to check out Wapple…
Thank Me Later is just sweet.
I already implemented Headspace 2 based on your earlier posts and that is working nicely.
Since I tend to edit a lot, I am getting good mileage out from MBPing.
Zemanta does a great job generating Tags. Of course there is some question about how useful they are =)
best,
ck
Nicholas Cardot said:
ckorody » What is MBPing? I just did a google search for it and nothing came up. Where can I get more information about it?
Gee said:
Probably MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
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Kwin said:
Wonderful post! Thank you very much for these suggestions. I love the iphone plug-in and SEO slug. Both are new to me and I can’t believe I’ve not been using them. You now have another loyal reader!
People like you make the internet a better place. Thanks Nick!
Kwin
Nicholas Cardot said:
Kwin » That’s great to hear. Your positive reaction is incredibly motivating. I certainly appreciate it. Those two plugins that you mentioned really are terrific.
Extreme John said:
Nice list of plugins Nick, there are a few in there I haven’t tried yet like the BackType plugin.
I was surprised to see that you don’t have Comment Luv on your list of plugins, any specific reason you don’t see that as a recommended plugin for 2010?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Extreme John » I love comment luv if it were modified a bit which you can see I did on the site here. I think that the concept of it is absolutely terrific but I think that it’s default styling is absolutely hideous. It forces a little box around it and stuff like that. It should have the option to make the opt-in invisible like it is here. I don’t want to make the comment section more complicated but by hacking the code myself I’ve been able to integrate it without compromising some other online values that I believe in. By hacking it I don’t have to sacrifice the important element of brilliant design. I also don’t have to sacrifice the concept of keeping the comment section as easy as possible. Every button is another opportunity for someone to feel like it’s too much hassle to leave a comment. I love the plugin. But they need to make the changes that I’ve made.
Frump said:
Just migrated to WordPress from Expression Engine, and the items on this list, as well as several other articles on your site, have been of great help to us.
Wish I could comment on them all, but then I’d feel like I was spammin’ ya. Many thanks for your extremely helpful content.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Frump » I’m really excited that you’re getting value from the content here and I’ll certainly be doing whatever I can to help you on your journey.
Paul Crowe said:
Great List, i am about to start a new blog on wordpress and there are so many lists.
This is the first one ive seen were i could see myself use them all..
Paul.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Paul Crowe » That’s great to hear. I didn’t just throw 15 plugins on the list. These are 15 plugins that I personally use. They really are great.
Olusegun said:
Hmmm,
I will definitely use the “Thank you later” plugin.
Meanwhile Nick, what do you think can make dragging widgets to sidebars cease to function?
Cheers
Nicholas Cardot said:
Olusegun » I really don’t know. I’m at a loss as to what that might be.
Jean said:
Don’t know if anyone has mentioned this in all of the 100+ comments, pardon me for not checking but I’m thinking that the yoast breadcrumbs plugin should be included in the list. Now that were seeing search engines listing pages by order of depth of site i.e home > about > team etc.
Site structure for the search engines boosting SEO for blogs maybe?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Jean » That’s a good idea. I used to have breadcrumbs here but I got rid of them because I didn’t really have a place for them where they could look nice. And no, it hadn’t been mentioned yet.
Danny Brown said:
I tried the WP Touch plug-in, but found it wasn’t adaptable enough to users without iPhones.
Now I use Wapple and it really is the best mobile plug-in I’ve seen for WP. You can customize the look and feel to reflect your site, as well as define what pages show in the Nav menu:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/
I also like the What Would Seth Godin Do plug-in – nice little reminder for the end of posts to leave a comment or subscribe:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/what-would-seth-godin-do/
Cheers!
My Latest Blog Post: The Future is Now
Nicholas Cardot said:
Danny Brown » Thanks for those two recommendations. I’m definitely going to look into those two plugins. I wasn’t really aware of wapple but if it’s better than WP Touch then I definitely need to get information on it.
GM Baker said:
Again Nicholas you blow me away. I’m installing headspace seo smart links asap!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
GM Baker » If you do, be sure to check out the HeadSpace Guides that have been posted here at the site.
Nathan Colquhoun said:
I came to this site and looked at the title and I thought to myself; “I love lists.” This was perfect, thanks!
What do is the difference between 12 and 15
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Nathan Colquhoun » Number 15 will automatically generate links to similar posts at the end of your post. SEO smart links allows you to make certain phrases link to posts in your blog. For example, I make want to make the phrase “Best WordPress Plugins” link to this post. Then Google will possible rank me higher on that particular phrase. You can also exchange links with friends like this.
Fire said:
Thanks a lot Nocholas. Really lot of info and it will be useful for my new site.
Thanks
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Fire » That’s great. I’m glad that it’s so helpful. Good luck on the new site. Stick around here and you’ll learn exactly what you need to know to make it successful.
Michele Miller said:
Thanks so much for this fantastic list, Nicholas. I’m a novice WP blogger and will tap into most of these!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Michele Miller » You won’t go wrong tapping into these plugins. They’ll help you really get your WordPress blog rolling. These are some of the best WP plugins you’ll find online.
ckwrites said:
Hah – actually its just a plain old Google plug in which I over abbreviated -
MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer
http://www.maxblogpress.com/plugins/mpo/
Ensures that you don’t repeatedly ping services and directories and get banned – or so they say…
The other new one I just added that some folks will like – probably depending on how long they have been using WP is Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu
Takes all of the Admin categories from the column and adds them across the top as a drop down menu – very sweet – if your muscle memory isn’t already trained to scroll the column I think its a winner.
BTW Wapple is much better then the iPhone only version – looks really good – delivered up our site exactly as designed right out of the box- Bert, my designer was blown away. If you’re not happy they offer a lot of tweak options and the support team is very willing to help.
In informal testing I have determined that W3 Total Cache is much faster then Super Cache so have gone that route.
Also on Headspace2 – a lot of it is redundant to what comes in Thesis. I’ve assumed its a one or the other sort of thing and have filled in the blanks accordingly using HeadSpace.
If you are getting a second set of tags on your posts, chances are they are coming from Headspace – it took Bert quite awhile to chase that down – FWIW I only want the tags for the bots, I choose not to display them
Thnx for encouraging me to check all this stuff out – beats writing LOL
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Pat said:
Excellent Article. I’m always looking for expert knowedge on what actually works – so I can use it myself and recommend it to my clients. I have added this article to the shortlist.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Pat » Thanks for that. These are some great plugins. You won’t regret adding them to your list.
Knowledge said:
Great article, excellent resources. Once again, I have some updating to do. Still wrapping my head around the WPtouch plugin, but ultimately it’s looking to be a nice replacement to mobile press. Thanks for sharing your list.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Knowledge » You’re welcome. You’ll love the WPtouch plugin. It’s absolutely terrific.
Sridhar Katakam said:
@Shamim: You might want to try pagebar plugin.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sridhar Katakam » Thanks for the recommendation.
Shamim said:
Thanks Sridar, I am going to check out the Plugin that you have given. Advanced Thanks…….:D
Cato Research said:
Thanks for these great suggestions. We’re just starting our blog in 2010 and we’ll be putting many of these plugins to use.
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Blake @ Props Blog Reviews said:
BackType seems really awesome. I did notice that it seems to count differently than Tweetmeme. I love how customizable it is.
Headspace seems nice, but it isn’t as straightforward as All in One. I tried it before and didn’t like it, but I’ll give it a try again.
For subscribe to comment, I don’t like how I see every single comment for the post. Did you figure out a way to only get followup comments for specific comment or is it still followup comments for the whole post?
Kickass list though.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews » You’re right that HeadSpace is quite different from All-in-one-SEO. It took me a while to get the hang of everything but thankfully, it’s working absolutely great for me.
I haven’t figured out a way to choose only followup comments for a specific comment. It is still for the entire post. That is a good idea to look into figuring that out though.
J.T. O'Donnell said:
It’s my first time to your site. My Branding Manager shot this post over to me and said, “Hey, do you think any of these plugins would help us?”
He’s sent me posts like this before, sometimes there’s one or two plugins of interest.
I almost FELL OVER reading your list. 13 out of the 15 I had not heard of and are things we need.
Thank you for providing one of the most valuable posts I’ve read in a while!
JT
Nicholas Cardot said:
J.T. O’Donnell » I’m thrilled that your brand manager referred you over here and I’m even happier that you’re satisfied with the material that you found. I’m very excited that this is useful for you.
Shawn K. said:
Awesome suggestions, already using a few of those.
I also use:
CommentLuv – that “My Latest Blog Post” for commenters
Digg Digg – Add Digg/Share/RT counters and buttons
SyntaxHighlighter Evolved – awesome for sharing source codes
Sociable – adds a ton of tiny share buttons to bottom of posts
RPX – allows users to connect to your WordPress using Facebook and various APIs
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Shawn K. » I also use the CommentLuv plugin and I used to use Sociable but I have since written my own plugin because I am now so opposed to having tons of bookmark links on the page.
Steve Atwal said:
Great list. Found a couple of new ones here. I also use CommentLuv
This commenting part looks great. I like the large avatar icons, etc. Is that just part of the theme?
Cheers
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Steve Atwal » I too use commentluv as you can see in your comment here. The large icons are modifications that I’ve made to the theme. I like to see who people are and this is my way to do it.
ckwrites said:
Hi Nick -
seems to be little question that Headspace2 is incompatible with Thesis…
We found a post to that effect on Chris’ site:
“”Thesis is compatible with the SEO Title Tag plugin and the All-in-One SEO plugin, but not the Headspace2 meta manager. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but I’ve had hundreds of issues with the other two plugins”
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Nicholas Cardot said:
ckwrites » If you use Thesis then you probably don’t need Headspace anyways because it utilizes some advanced SEO techniques itself.
Will Fowler said:
Great list Nick you taught me and Don some new things we were inspired by your list to compile one thats more SEO plugin focused at Masters of Seo.
My Latest Blog Post: Top 15 WordPress SEO Plugins for 2010
Nicholas Cardot said:
Will Fowler » Very cool. I’m glad that it was an inspiration for you.
CC said:
A big warm thanks for this great list. Headspace 2 seems to be broken for 2.9.1, do you confirm that it works?
Nicholas Cardot said:
CC » I’m using HeadSpace on WordPress 2.9.1 and it seems to work just fine. Most conflicts with SEO plugins come as a result of the theme not using the default WordPress title and header tags.
Robin G said:
Thanks for the great post and all the juicy tidbits generated by it.
I’ve been contemplating adding super cache, and will now add it this afternoon.
I have hated tweetmeme for quite some time, and have a twitter button in “sexy bookmarks”… one of my fave plug-ins. I do think people occasionally miss it there though so I will try out backtype, as well.
I will look into headspace and wapple after I change themes. Thanks again
Nicholas Cardot said:
Robin G » I experimented with Wapple and I’m much less happy with it than the one that I recommended in the list. With Wapple you actually have to register your website with them which I’m not a fan of. I also noticed that it doesn’t offer any more substantially valuable additions to WPtouch. I use WPtouch and I love it.
Top Ten Top Ten Lists said:
Excellent list, thanks very much. I’ve added this post to my site, http://toptentoptenlists.com – not only to let everyone else benefit from this, but also to remind me to check out some of these to use on the site later
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Top Ten Top Ten Lists » Uh oh. Are you allowed to do that? It’s a list of 15 and not a list of 10. LOL
Top Ten Top Ten Lists said:
Hmmm, good point, maybe I could chop off the last 5?
I’ll keep an eye out for any more lists you make, I’ve very impressed with the quality and we need ore blogging/wordpress related ones.
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Worship Ministry said:
Thanks for the great list. I just installed the WPTouch plugin – thanks for that suggestion.
While this is more of a specialty plug-in, I use (and love) WP-Table Reloaded for various table needs. It’s great if you’re presenting chart data, events, and other various lists.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Worship Ministry » I have a table plugin installed as well. I don’t remember the name of it right now, but as you say it is perfect for presenting charts and data.
Tim said:
Thanks a lot for this post. I have used almost all of the recommended plugins. I just wanted to say that I couldn’t get the related posts plug-in working with wordpress 9.2 (or whatever the most recent version is.) With that said, I am using “Yet Another Related Posts Plugin” and it works great. I think it has a better algorithm and you can customize it a great deal.
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Tim said:
Sorry, I forgot to ask one question. The Thank me later plug-in is not working for me. I leave test comments and I receive no email. I have the latest release of wordpress. Do you know what could be any reason for this off the bat? Thanks in advance for your response.
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Jason Lam said:
Thanks for this list. Now using SEO Slugs.
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Gonzo the Great said:
Hi Nick,
great collection of plugins you’ve got here. Specially love the WP SuperCache, going to install it immediatly.
And ‘thank me later-plugin’ is a great way to stay in touch with your visitors who leave a comment.
Thanks for sharing, cheers & ciao ..
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Chris said:
Nicholas–great list.
There are at least three that I will be adding to my site.
I do have a question though.
Why do you think the SEO plugin Headspace is better or more effective than All in One?
I’d also love a tip or two on how to configure it for my site.
Thanks,
Chris
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
This is awesome. 196 comments already?!
Let m just suggest WP-stats.
Latief@AnotherBlogger said:
Oh Nick, thanks. I just build my new blog with WordPress last month, the blog is about three weeks
I need the best plugin for my new blog, your list is amazing, some of them are used some of them really new to me and I’ll give them a try.
Thanks
Latief
Shane said:
Nice article. Thank you.
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Ron Leyba said:
SEO Smart links is one of the best. It works not only on the page body post but also on the commenters post (if I am right). In this way, there will be constant flow of link juices as well constant related article to read upon the by the commenters.
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Ana Goncalves said:
The WP-PageNavi Plugin does sound good.
I would love to hear more about it.
Great set of plugins, as always.
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Nimit Kashyap said:
The list are superb and i agree with them, I like the post. Thanks for sharing you blog.
Phil said:
WP-Super cache is the best! It really helps page load speed, thanks for the tip!
Tony M said:
Great list of plugins, thank you. I have been using Thank Me Later and others but am now checking out some of the ones you listed like Backtype Tweetcount and Page Navi.
I found this blog because of your Social Bookmarking plugin, so add that to the list also.
My Latest Blog Post: WordPress Plugins Are Easy To Install
Patrick McCain said:
Thanks for the nice list. We’ll be trying out a couple of them for sure.
Clarence Middleton said:
Great Post. I never heard of the nofollow plugin before. There are a lot of best wordpress plugins, and you blog is the first to have a plugin that isn’t mentioned everywhere else. Thanks,
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Clarence Middleton said:
Hey, what was that plugin your using that pulled my lasted post into you blog??? That’s cool LOL!!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Clarence Middleton » It’s called the “CommentLuv” plugin and I love it also.
Steve Ingram said:
Hi Nicholas,
I’m a newbie to WordPress, thankfully i bookmarked your blog a while ago, in readiness for my blogging.
I’ve just been installing the WP super cache- very impressive. Thanks for the list.
I’m also using all in one SEO, so I’m considering your choice of Headspace.
One question – do you know of any plugins which can provide a review page?
Hopefully I’ll be reviewing some gadgets using pages rather than posts. I’ve been trialing ‘My review box’, not really what i’m afer – I welcome any suggestions.
Oliver said:
This is perfect! Downloading a bunch now including CommentLuv!
Cheers!
My Latest Blog Post: (Official) Announcement Launch of Ordees Website
Neil said:
Great Set of Plugins!
Anwar said:
Thanks for all the plugin recommendations. I’m new to wordpress and blogging so its cool to be able to see what some of the good ones are since there are so many plugins!
Richard Belcher said:
Thanks for the great list of plugins . I too am finding as a new webmaster that SEO is taking up way to much of my time devoted to my blog , so it was cool to find great plugins like these.
off to install
K. Praslowicz said:
Thanks for the list as well. I got several of these going already on my site, but not all. I’ve been meaning to do some dofollow links for a while–Nofollow Case by Case should help for that.
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rabsin_d said:
Hi Nick, Thanks for this entry. I’m actually new to wordpress so this will definitely help me with all the things I need… I am currently using All in One SEO, but because of this, I’ll be changing it to HeadSpace 2: WordPress SEO Made Simple
thanks ALOT!
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Khephra said:
Cheers for the round-up! Among those listed I installed the WPtouch iPhone Theme plugin. It looked well-worthy of giving a try.
Some I might add to your list include: DisQus, Wassup, Tweetable, and FollowMe, but using preferences are diverse and unique, so YMMV.
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Matt Goulart said:
Great list!
Are you going to create more like this?
Daniel Grillo said:
Wonderfull! Thanks
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resimleri said:
Plugins are so useful. thank you
Marshall | Genverters.com said:
The two in the list I like best are:
Super Cache ( I’m ready for slash dot!)
Thank me later (always say thank you to those who leave comments
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Japan Cinema said:
Extremely helpful. Glad I came across this list.
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Solitary_Scar said:
Great list, thanks for the tips Nicholas. I find it much informative and resourceful.
Marita said:
Thank you som much for this great post!
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The Urban Cowboy said:
Great post, found a couple gems here.
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vijay said:
I loved the list. These plugins are amazing. I am moving from blogger to wordpress, right now I really need them most. Thank you for your wonderful post.
Gary said:
Thanks for sharing your research — good stuff here!
Dmitriy Zasyatkin said:
I can see why this is ranked so high in Google when searching for “best wordpess plugins”. Thanks for sharing (and for the dofollow).
Andy said:
Thanks! All plugins were great, I tried out 12 and am still using 9 of them! Very good collection, super-cache really helped me out.
Computer Tips said:
wonderful list of recommended plugins. Thanks a lot. I really liked the 1st one.
Jason said:
Great list. Don’t know where you guys find these files I do a lot of searching, but never seem to find anything good. Thanks for the list.
Jason
LifesLittleQuotes.com
Dominik Klenk said:
I’m just building my own website and your great list of plugins has been eye opening.
Do you have any recommendations on image plugins?
Chris Hands said:
Thanks for the list, i’ve been wanting to switch from joomla to wordpress primarily and have been looking for plugins and tweaks to get back some of the power of joomla.
Jared said:
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve added quite a few of these plug-ins and have found them to add a lot to my site!
My Latest Blog Post: If you register your site for free at
Nicholas Cardot said:
Jared » I’m glad to hear that. Thanks for the feedback. It’s always good to know that something was helpful to someone.
Ed said:
Great Stuff!! My favorite blog site is Site 101!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Ed » Thanks. I really appreciate that.
Ah Hong said:
Nick, love the share about WP Super Cache. It will be the best plugin on WP ever in terms of speed performance improvement plugin.
Techy Thailand Volunteer said:
Looking forward to trying out HeadSpace 2 so cheers Nicholas.
What about thread burners? I see someone has mentioned Disqus already but what are your thoughts on IntenseDebate?
I’m thinking about us that are not long started out you see and need all the help we can get.
Looking forward to going through more of your tips!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Techy Thailand Volunteer » I’ll be honest. My favorite comment system in the world is the default WordPress comment system. I love that your users don’t have to log in and it’s incredibly easy to style with your template. Some of those more advanced systems that require logins can scare people away. I want it simplified and easy to comment.
PamMktgnut said:
Thx 4 the great list. Glad I found your site. I use about half of them. However, very happy to find the SEO Slug, Thank Me Later and DB Manager.
Thx!
Nicholas Cardot said:
PamMktgnut » That’s great to hear. I love that Thank Me Later plugin. It’s really helped me to connect with a lot of people through this blog.
Komra Moriko said:
We’ve just released a nice elegant custom fields plugin for WordPress called Verve Meta Boxes. Yes! it handles image and file uploads as well as text, textarea, select, checkbox, radio and date type custom fields. Check it out here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/verve-meta-boxes/
The plugin stores all custom field data in wp_postmeta, so your data can be displayed in templates using standard WordPress tags lik get_post_custom, etc.
Would love to get feedback on this for future releases.
trimi said:
Im already using 13 of them, thanks anyway
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WP Lover said:
What a great list! Thank you so much.
DON said:
Excellent list of Plugins. We try out many different ones but some like wp-supercache are staples to WP site performance.
The main problem with many plugins is how they work your server. If this was not an issue with a large number of them, people would probably use a host of them.
They are great for user interaction and page views, which is in turn great for traffic and seo.
A needed article could be one that compares plugins pros and cons.
Thanks for the article
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Kevin said:
Excellent post. I just added the WP-DBManager, and Wp Super Cache based on your recommendations. Would also recommend “Single Post Template”. A great way to change things up for each post.
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Chris said:
Very Helpful
Thanks
Chris
Nicholas Cardot said:
Chris » You’re welcome.
Mike said:
“SEO Slug” is really cool.
Appreciated.
Jay said:
I installed the WP DB manager. After a warning to move its .HTACCESS file, I did just that. Now I still have an annoying warning message visible across my admin panel. It’s a good plugin, but I will have to delete it if I can’t get rid of that warning?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Jay » That’s really strange. I’ve never heard of that happening before. I’ve been using it quite happily for a long time. I’m sorry to hear about that warning.
Patrick Hitches said:
Nicholas,
This was by far the greatest article on plugins I’ve read in a long time. I’ve implemented most of the recommendations you laid out. Thank you for the solid info!!
Patrick
mentesviajantes said:
nice post! will use in my blog!
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Jon Reil said:
Excellent list of plugins. I’ve installed many and look forward to seeing how they all come together. Thank you!
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Jay Wengrow said:
I love the list. Someone answer my question: Why would you want to make your comments dofollow?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Dofollow encourages people to comment because it allows them to build backlinks to their websites with their comments.
Tom said:
I also liked the Seriously Simple Favicon – it allows you to add a nice favicon in a very simple way to enhance your site and make it look more professional
Josh said:
I’m in the process of moving over from Blogger to WordPress and this post was super valuable. Thanks for the suggestions.
The only thing I would change is that I’m not a big fan of the WordPress Related Post plugin. There’s another one called “Link Within” that adds a small thumbnail that has done wonders on my bounce rate.
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thelamest(dot)com said:
nice list…I’ve just installed the iphone theme on your advice. Thanks!
Jeffrey said:
Thank you so much for the list of great plugins! I am now just going through them and installing just about half of the ones you suggested.
Thanks again.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Jeffrey » You’re welcome. I’m glad that you’re liking them. What plugins should I have added to the list?
Anne said:
Nick: Question about the Headway 2 SEO plug-in – is that something that requires me, as the blogger, to know how to work it, manage it, etc. or does it just do what it does automatically?
Basically, I want plug-ins etc. that make my work-load less, not more. And I’m not very techy either.
Just wondering.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Anne » Headspace 2 is the most powerful SEO plugin available for the WordPress platform. It will take about 10 or 15 minutes to set it up, but once it is set up you will never have to make a change to it again. It takes that long only because you need to create a title and description for your homepage and select what options will work for your blog. After that initial setup, you’ll see the magic begin. There are guides for using it here at Site Sketch 101.
Heather said:
Thank you for this list. I’m just starting my wordpress blog today and this is a very useful list. I shall try them out.
Joerg said:
Great Plugin-List, thanx for the help.
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Dan Suffolk said:
I am surprised that you didn’t have the all-one-seo pack in your list though?
I will try out the thank me later plug in though – I have a feeling I will like that one though.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Dan Suffolk » After using both, I’ve decided that Headspace 2 SEO is much more powerful than the All-in-one SEO Plugin.
Dan Suffolk said:
I will look into that plugin – I do find that the all-in-one makes most blogs run a little bit sluggish and I never thought of looking for another one but I dont need to know – Thanks for your suggestion.
Max said:
Great collection.
York website designers said:
Hi,
I’m just in the middle of working on a wordpress blog for my site and will definitely use some of the suggested plugins.
cheers
brent schumacher said:
Thanks, this was great! Very helpful.
Ulrik Hvide said:
Thanks for the list. Personally I use W3 Cache since I think it’s better than WP cache, but the rest of the plugins are new to me.
Thanks
Janoe said:
Nice share, but what are the different between All in One SEO Pack with HeadSpace 2: WordPress SEO Made Simple. I will bookmark you. Thanks for the information.
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Grace Lightner said:
Awesome list I ran out and downloaded a handful of these, now to figure how to use them! I will definitely be stalking your blog now. Thanks for sharing the knowledge!
zerobeat said:
its great and best article
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tech money said:
Yes, i think so.
Iqbal said:
Thank you for the list Bro,
Already knew wordpress for a long time, but used to joomla n now because of you, give me confident to move to wordpress.
Thanks a lot,
Nicholas Cardot said:
Iqbal » You’re welcome. I was on Joomla before coming to WordPress as well. It seems like it’s quite the migration over to this platform. Welcome aboard.
William Herring said:
Really good stuff. Thanks for the post.
William Herring said:
I enjoyed this post. I’m looking forward to leveraging Do Follow links even more to increase the Page Rank of the blogs I’m running. Thanks for the information.
Thai Mai said:
Dude, these lists are awesome. I found a few of these but nice to discover other gems. Thanks for putting the list together.
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howifixedit said:
thanks for the incredible wordpress plugins. will try a few out.
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Ilshin said:
man, awesome list! I esp love the DB manager
I did have a question though, what plugin are you using to show your “NICHOLAS CARDOT” author information w/ picture at the bottom of the post right above the Related Post section? That looks awesome and I would the blog I’m looking to create has multiple writers, so that plugin would be great! Thanks in advance!
Spyros said:
Excellent resource, you reminded me to install super cache ( i was testing the theme and hadn’t installed it) and i am also thinking of using the iphone plugin as well.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Spyros » It’s difficult to fully explain just how important a good caching program is for your blog. WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache are both excellent choices to power your site.
Lachlan said:
This list has been invaluable. It is hard to keep up with new developments yourself. Thanks very much!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Lachlan » You’re welcome. I’m glad that you find it so helpful!
Lee Tufton said:
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m in the middle of setting up some niche blogs and these plug-ins should be helpful. I’m gonna add them 3 or 4 of them to my “required list of plugins”…
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lee Tufton » You’re welcome. I’m glad that these are helpful for you. I’ll be publishing another list like this soon with some more awesome plugins to take you even further with your blog.
Billee Brady said:
Hey thanks for your advice on the wordpress plugins! I can see a couple I can use for my blog!
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Dan Clark said:
Great collection of plugins, as a new blogger information like this is worth it’s weight in gold. I’ve already added a few of these to our site and we are already reaping the benefits. Thanks
Nicholas Cardot said:
Dan Clark » That’s great to hear. As a new blogger this is the perfect site that you can be hanging out at. Let me know when you have questions and I’ll do what I can to help you figure stuff out.
Chris said:
I love this post. Gave me alot of helpful tools for my site like the iphone plugin. Worked wonders for me.
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Littleaton said:
Great plugins! i went and installed almost all of them just to try them out.
Thanks
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LittleXpert said:
Awesome post!
I installed most of them, and am exited to see how well they work.
THanks
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Danny said:
Thanks for the post, some of them plugins are really useful.
If I was too recommend one, I would say it has to be Gravity Forms!
Nicholas said:
I did a poll of CIO execs and they said what they would like to see most are more plugins for social networking. That would seem logical enough given all the buzz around social networking. However, I was surprised to see little demand for other types of plugins, including premium ones. What I mean by premium is fully supported with regular maintenance and enhancement releases.
Andrew said:
Thanks for the awesome article! I’ve implemented a lot of these plugins on my site since reading it.
The Good Badger said:
Awesome list. Thanks for putting this together. Also, love the design of the site.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
The Good Badger » You’re welcome. Plus I really appreciate that praise of the design. I love tweaking it and putting it all together and your feedback is very encouraging.
The Good Badger said:
Did you do the design yourself?
My Latest Blog Post: Faux News
Nicholas Cardot said:
The Good Badger » Yes and no. I started with the Papercut Theme from WooThemes, but if you look at the layout, the homepage and other features, you will see that I’ve been busy customizing it. I’ve built the share buttons into it. I’ve redesigned the title area and I’ve built videos into the template on some posts. I’ve defined custom fields that modify the template on a per post basis. I’ve done a lot to it and I’m pretty proud of it.
Mike said:
Great list there mate. Just been searching round for some additional plugins to help enhance my site.
Too many to search through on wordpress, so great to come across your blogs.
Cheers,
Mike
Nicholas Cardot said:
Mike » Absolutely. Keep in mind that if you have something specific that you are trying to do on your site that you can ask here and I’ll be glad to help you figure out the most effective plugin to make your dream a reality.
Delaney said:
Great article! I found quite a few of these plugins to be helpful!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Delaney » Great! I’m really glad to hear that!
Andres Garcia said:
Nicholas,
Thank You soooo much for these 15 tools it has been so extremely helpful. I’m new to wordpress but I think this is a little thing called love! Keep it up, you’re a superstar!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Andres Garcia » Thanks for reaching out and expressing that awesome sentiment in this comment. I really appreciate that.
Joe @ Carpet Cleaning Websites said:
Glad to see I’m not the only “WP Plugin Junkee” out there. Great list, I’m going to try a couple of these on my blog.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Joe @ Carpet Cleaning Websites » Thanks! I’m actually getting ready to roll out another list of essential plugins. I don’t know if most people are like this or not, but I’m constantly exploring which plugins are best and which ones can be replaced. I want to keep learning new ways to get things done more effectively and I want to keep sharing them with the readers here as I do.
Skye King said:
Great content on the plugins, I luv my SEO Smart Links!
Headspace 2-SEO is new to me, I just downloaded it and will try it out today.
Great look to your site Nicolas!
-Skye
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Robert said:
I use AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Addin (it is for making menus for WP sites). Its helped/saved me time, so I wanted to suggest it.
You can take a look at it at:
http://www.likno.com/addins/wordpress-menu.html
Bob
Nicholas Cardot said:
Robert » Thanks. That plugin actually looks really cool. I’m going to have to look into using it.
Corve DaCosta said:
Great tips.
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Jina said:
Thank you for this list. I am going to install some of these plugins. Thank me later and headspace sound especially good.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Jina » Those two are especially good. I’m confident that you’ll be glad that you’ve installed them at your site.
Mattheous @ Menu Musings said:
How did you get the Digg and Twitter plugin buttons above your text? I can’t seem to make that work for mine…
Jay Willingham - CampusByte said:
Wow, can’t believe I don’t have some of these. Wish I had found this list earlier. This is going to make my life so much easier.
To to hear the Permalink plugin worked well for you, been wanting to change my permalinks for a while.
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Cedric Aubry said:
Wow That a Great List of plugins.
I’ve just read another post on this blog about the HeadSpace2 SEO.
This plugin look awesome.
Did someone try this plugin with WP 2.9.2?
They say this plugin is only compatible up to 2.8.1….
Will go read more of your post, just read 2 so far and both are dynamite
Best Regards,
Cedric Aubry
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Cedric Aubry » I currently use that plugin on Site Sketch 101 and we are using WordPress 2.9.2 on this site.
Joe T said:
Love the WP Super Cache idea. I need this badly.
Thank you for the recommendation.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Joe T » You’re welcome. I think that you’ll really like it.
John said:
Hey Nicholas – great list of plugins – will definitely add wp-cache to my sites – currently use platinum seo – will try out your suggestion above instead – see how they compare. Also interested in the No Follow plugin, will try it out.
thanks again
John said:
just a follow up to say wp-cache is already working really well on my American Car Insurance site … so much quicker, thanks.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Great! I’m glad to hear that.
Kellie said:
Great list, and I agree with your opening comment that the plugins available are why you love wordpress, me too.
You have inspired me to get my backups sorted and will try your recommendation.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Kellie » Thanks. I really am madly in love with WordPress and the plugins are one of the major reasons. It’s an amazing blogging platform.
Rafael from Iloveplanes.com said:
Oh yeah, WP-Page Navi can conflict with some themes that already have that functionality built in. I just wanted to mention that because I had that problem with it awhile back.
Rafael
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Sophie said:
Totally brilliant. Thanks for saving me so much time and effort! As a new blogger, your list of plug-ins has already saved me hours of pouring over my computer screen trying to unscramble fact vs fiction re which plug-ins to use.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sophie » I’m glad to hear that. I’m getting ready to launch another list of plugins within the next week or two so be sure to stop back by and check it out. Which ones on this list do you think will be the most helpful for you?
Shim Marom said:
Great post, got a few good tips from this. Thanks muchly.
Angie said:
Love this list so much, I am going through it and adding every plugin I don’t have already.
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Alexander said:
What a Great list
Thank you very much Nicholas
bookmarklove said:
Just what I was looking for! I hope they’re all compatible with the recent stable WP version 2.9.2. I’m going to put a couple to use. I also like that it’s short and sweet, many lists have become outdated and/or too long to handle.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
bookmarklove » I use almost all of these plugins here at Site Sketch 101 and I’m currently running the most recent stable version of WordPress 2.9.2 so I can vouch for their compatibility. I hope this helps.
article-man said:
10x man, what a useful plugin list..
installed 5 of them
Cheers..
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Kids Headphones said:
Great post – I have already downloaded a few of your recommendations. Keep up the good work!
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Miles said:
Thanks a lot for these awesome suggestions!
Meditation said:
Thank you so much for all of your effort. You make it so much easier for web users like me
In gratitude… Nigel.
Chris said:
Good article, thanks for the tips.
Speedy Signs said:
Thanks for such a well thought out list. I am just about to set up my first blog, I guess I better start working my way down the list!
Lauren | Pegasus Photography said:
This is a fantastic list! I recently switched from Blogspot to WP on my Bludomain flash site and through some great advice made my WP blog the index of my website.
I have a few questions:
- How many plugins do you tend to have on your blog? Are we talking a dozen or so or a massive amount? I’m searching all over for the best of the best to really make my photography blog shine, but I’m wondering at what point it is too much.
- My blog theme (Tofurious) does not have sidebars to allow for maximum image space (1000px). Do you think I am shooting myself in the foot by not being able to use sidebars or can I maximize my blog without sidebars? If I’m going to change, now is the time since I am so new in this new theme.
Thanks! I will continue to check out your site, and I downloaded all those plugins on the list except the most frequent commentators one (can that work without a sidebar?).
Colin said:
Some of the plugins I myself never used. Some of them sound great… Have not tried HeadSpace 2 yet…
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Ned Harkey said:
Awesome information! I added a few and removed a few plug-ins thanks to the recommendations here.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ned Harkey » I’m glad to hear that. I hope they work out well for you. I kind of think that they will.
Aimee Evans said:
Do you have any advice for placing banners on word press? I would say I am not an idiot or computer illiterate, but I need some guidance and some help. Your plug-in advice is super helpful.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Aimee Evans » If you want to put them in the content then use “Why Do Work?” plugin. It’s a good one. If you want to put them in your template then you need to manually code them in there.
William Triest said:
What is your rational behind wanting do follow links on your blog? Wouldn’t that encourage people to spam your comments section in hopes of increasing their page rank?
Nicholas Cardot said:
William Triest » Some people will do that, but if you are the type of blogger who knows how to rally people into real conversation then it shouldn’t be an issue. Besides, I use akismet and so I don’t really have to worry about it.
indiatechnews said:
Nice plugins, already using most of them will add the rest! Thanks
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Nicholas Cardot said:
indiatechnews » You’ll be glad that you did. There are some good ones in this list!
Aaron Wong said:
I’m new to wordpress and thinking of switching my blog over. Just testing out wordpress right now to see if I like it. I know that’s probably a brainless question for most people. Thanks!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Aaron Wong » I’ve used several other management systems and I’ve come to believe whole heartedly that WordPress is absolutely the best they make. I love it!
Shubh -RBT said:
Great list. Really awesome plugins. Thanks for this nice post.
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m00chy said:
I love your page layout. Did you do it yourself? Anyway, I like this post. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Except Headspace 2 (I don’t care what anyone says) is acting WEIRD in 2.9.2. I’ve installed it on several blogs and it won’t display right in the admin — I’ve contacted support but there is no answer. Maybe it works on sites that have upgraded but the fresh WP and fresh Headspace, no beans. Also- so far I like microkids related posts only because you can choose the links instead of them being chosen. You mentioned Subscribe to Comments may take some tweeking to work. Is there a place where I could find that information? Thanks for the great post. First time I’m vising. I subscribed.
Nicholas Cardot said:
m00chy » Almost every incident that I’ve seen of HeadSpace acting weird in WordPress 2.9.2 is a result of the theme. There are a lot of themes now that try to over ride the default WordPress SEO and as such they conflict with HeadSpace.
John said:
Hey great post, I made sure I had at least 5 of them, I already had WP Super Cache, and what a great plugin it is.
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zerobeat said:
thanks.. i need this informations
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myb777 Web Design said:
Great post, thank you.
Nicholas Cardot said:
myb777 Web Design » You’re welcome. I hope these plugins are a huge help for you.
Abe said:
Nicholas, thanks for this comprehensive article. On my second try at blogging I can use this help. I implemented some of your suggestions in my blog.
My Latest Blog Post: Buying Stocks Straight to the Poorhouse
Nicholas Cardot said:
Abe » You’re welcome. I hope this try is a huge success for you!
anana said:
I have followed your instructions and installed all the plugins for m blog.
Thanks for the great post
Nicholas Cardot said:
anana » You’re welcome. These are definitely some great ones to install. Good luck!
Mattheous @ Menu Musings said:
I’m working on redesigning my site, and this should help immensely! I’m doing it on a one task, one day (like ProBloggers’ 31DTBBB, which I’m also doing after the redesign) so that I don’t get overwhelmed.
Today is plugins.
My Latest Blog Post: News: Menu Musings Redesign
Nicholas Cardot said:
Mattheous @ Menu Musings » Awesome! Then this post should be perfect for getting you going with this!
Jamie Sulc said:
Thanks for the great article. I’ve been searching for some new plugins to enhance my site. If you have any feedback I’d love to hear it. Thanks again.
My Latest Blog Post: Beef Up Your Training – Part III
Talha Shahid said:
I’m really glad I came across all these. I just started a site on WordPress and looking forward to use all these great plugins.
One ques I have: Is there a plugin that creates an email subscription form similar to the one you have on your site where a user puts in their name and email and signs up for a newsletter.
Or do you have to create those on your own generally?
I use one right now using the website Emailmeform.com but it doesnt look too good. I want to make it look more customized like yours.
Again, thanks for the great info.
Sotiris said:
Thanks for the interesting article. I use some of them already but I will try all those that you recommend!
My Latest Blog Post: The 10 Best Ideas of Leonardo Da Vinci
element321 said:
I use a lot of the plugins you listed. However, I do try and customize my blog so I can limit the use of plugins.
I just installed WP-SuperCache and I can see a big difference.
My Latest Blog Post: Daily Delicious Links April 8th 2010
Angela said:
I’ve been away from blogging for a bit trying to get mine self-hosted. Now I finally got it to work. And the biggest reason was so I could get plug-ins. There are so many great ones!!! I’ve seen your blog before and thoroughly enjoy your articles so I knew I could trust your list. I’ll be adding all except 1 to my blog. Can’t wait! Thanks for the great list!!!
My Latest Blog Post: Hello world!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Angela » Awesome. As I’ve mentioned, I personally use almost every plugin in this list. They are good ones.
author wanglili said:
I already used headspace plugin, can I use headspace 2 plugin at the same time?
author wanglili said:
How can you guys put
My Latest Blog Post:
Nicholas Cardot said:
author wanglili » The latest blog post is added using a program on here called CommentLuv. You have to have a RSS embedded into the header section of the website that you place in the website field and this program will find it and list your latest post for you automatically. Most WordPress themes come with this already done in it.
author wanglili said:
I did have CommentLuv Plugin in my site. but why mine doesnt work?
Sorry to ask you this stupid question.
I am originally a literture author. I dont want to use it as a reason to ask stupid question. But I do need help. many thanks.
Nicholas Cardot said:
author wanglili » The following piece of code needs to be fund in your header section of your website.
< link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/SiteSketch101" />Remove the space in front of the word link. I had to put it there so that it wouldn’t get filtered out of the comments.
author wanglili said:
Many thanks.
I have this following:
link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml”
href=”http://recordsoftoday.com/blog/feed/rss”/>
Now, I put the following suggested by you in my header
I will check if it works or not.
author wanglili said:
I still could not show
My Latest Blog Post:
by the way, I have not install feeds2.feedburner.com as I dont know how to do it.
author wanglili said:
Hi, Nicholas, you did a great dialogue job here. it is awesome.
I still cant have My Latest Blog Post:
Can you continue to give a hand to solve this problem for me?
I install WP super cache some weeks ago, but up to today, it doesnt work. I was told as following:
WP Super Cache Manager
Error: WP_CACHE is not enabled in your wp-config.php file and I couldn’t modify it.
Edit /hsphere/local/home/c271132/recordsoftoday.com/blog/wp-config.php and add the following line:
define(‘WP_CACHE’, true);
Otherwise, WP-Cache will not be executed by WordPress core.
I tried several times to solve this problem, but I cant solve it by myself. so would you please give a hand?
many thanks.
Nicholas Cardot said:
author wanglili » It’s the same thing. If you look at the version number, it actually says 2 or 3 now. It’s just newer versions of the exact same thing.
author wanglili said:
thanks. by the way, can I use all in one seo pack plugin at the same time together with headspace?
Nicholas Cardot said:
author wanglili » You should definitely not use them together. They will conflict with one another. If you have one you don’t need the other.
Rachel Winn said:
Thanks for helping me make Foodworthy a better blog!
My Latest Blog Post: How to Peel an Egg
Shikhin said:
Hi,
Thanks for the help. I am a newbie and have just made a site at http://abcofphotography.com
You helped me alot
My Latest Blog Post: Hello world!
Sunil said:
Thanks for suggesting this huge list of plugins.
My Latest Blog Post: Share Current market Trading Make Revenue For Clever Traders
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sunil » You’re welcome. Make good use of them!
Giuseppe said:
This is truly wicked stuff for someone new to wordpress, saved me a buch of time searching for decent plugins! Many Thnaks
My Latest Blog Post: The Power of Positive Thinking Part 2
Nicholas Cardot said:
Giuseppe » You’re welcome. I’m glad that it’s helpful to you!
Danette said:
Thank you for this great list. I just started my WordPress blog today, so this is all new to me. It was great to find your list and be able to download and activate so many plugins so quickly. Thank you!!
Matthew Blackford said:
This is the best top list of WordPress plugins I have seen. Thank you for compiling such a great resource.
Matthew
rap said:
hi.
I was surprised to see that you don’t have Comment Luv on your list of plugins, any specific reason you don’t see that as a recommended plugin for 2010?
Nicholas Cardot said:
rap » That’s listed on my other list of plugins, but honestly it’s not a mandatory part of a comment system. You don’t have to incentivize the comment system to draw in real conversations. Just provide awesome content and develop your presence as the person that people can approach and chat with.
Barbara said:
Thank you for the great list! I’ ve already installed the “Thank me later” plugin.
Barbara
My Latest Blog Post: Webseite für Fachärzte
Fashion Without Guilt said:
Hello,
I just want to say thank you for this list. I am switching from a blogger account to WordPress and these are truely somethings that I am going to install immediately.
With being a new comer to wordpress is there anymore plugins or resources because I make my wordpress live? The formatting of WordPress intimidates me. That is why I have stuck with blogger so long
Ansd one last question do you know of any plugins that you can install to creat a slideshow with captions, and feature scrolling stores at the top of your page? And any good theme editors for reasonable prices?
Thank you so much. Keep up the GREAT WORK and subscribed to your newsletter.
My Latest Blog Post: Frugal Tip Monday-My 401k/Retirement Dilemma
glg said:
kewl.. thanks for sharing dude
Chuck Lindblom said:
This is a great list and I am defiantly going to install a large number of these plug-ins. One to add to the list though would be called ‘Theme My Login’. I think it adds a nice touch tot he site.
My Latest Blog Post: And The Attack Continues
Martin said:
Of the 393 comments thus far, I get the feeling people are merely promoting their own site. Reminds me of online classes where the instructor says you HAVE to participate in a discussion board twice a week.
.
Maybe this is simply the way the blog world works and that’s ok.
Just my $.02. And to make sure this entire comment doesn’t contradict itself, I’ve removed my own website link
Quan said:
cool info— i’m gonna use some of this stuff. thanks!
SinfulThrillls said:
Just installed WPMU with an eye to creating a multi blog site and this is just the kind of info I needed to make my life easier! Much appreciated, thank you
Edward said:
Thanks for putting this together. One of the most useful WordPress lists I’ve read!
J said:
Thanks alot, will definitely use some of these!
My Latest Blog Post: Välkommen till Koppargruvan!
R. Strong said:
Great information. I will utilize this info as I update my site. I need the hold my hand, step by step guidance! I look forward to learning more. Thanks!
Jeff said:
Thanks for the post, very helpful. I haven’t heard of a lot of them, and just installed WP Pagenavi – it’s made my site look a lot better and simpler to navigate I think (let me know what you think – I included my URL).
My only complaint about WordPress is that sometimes it’s pretty easy to get carried away with installing TOO many plugins! So I limited myself to just this one for now….!
My Latest Blog Post: Keanu’s Japan Foray
EihdraG said:
I just migrated to WP a few days ago. this post helped me a lot in setting up the first few plugins I want for my site..Thanks for the list!
My Latest Blog Post: Migration in Process
media wallpaper said:
nice plugins i want to search it out gallery plugin for my site i try many of plugins but there is not effective my requirement my image display on same page with the next previous buttons is any good plugins are available please reffer to me thanks.
My Latest Blog Post: How to Train your Dragon is on Top
Nikolai said:
Haven’t heard of SEO Slugs – thanks! Headspace looks great, too. Good choice
Ajaero Tony said:
Thanks for the list, it helped me a lot.
David Osajie said:
My website refuses to load each time I activate the Blacktype Tweetcount plugin, but comes back to life immediately I deactivate it.
Don’t know if there’s something I’m not doing right.
Brandon said:
Very informative article – I’ve found WP iPhone theme to be a great plug-in, more and more users utilizing mobile devices for websurfing.
CJ Aberg said:
Hello, have just released a plugin that you might find interesting, please feel free to download it from our (yet to be designed) website: http://www.livegrounds.com/
LiveGrounds is a plugin for WordPress blogs, where the blogger and the blog’s visitors can interact live via a graphical user interface. For the blogger, LiveGrounds is an easily moderated community based on the blog. For the visitor, LiveGrounds allows for instant communication with other people, without having to log in or download any program.
Let me/us know if you have any questions or comments!
/CJ
My Latest Blog Post: How to launch LiveGrounds
Rudi said:
Thanks for that useful information. I’ m just migrating from Typo3 to WP and are looking around to get the new site on an adequate level of quality and functionality
Jeff Hester said:
Great article! Most of these I had heard of and some I already use, but I really liked your suggest of Thank Me Later. I’m going to check it out and give it a try.
Barbara said:
Excellent run-down of plug-ins. I was searching for some of the best & now will check these out. I’m already using a couple of them. Now I’m going to take a spin through your site to check it all out. Nice theme, btw.
My Latest Blog Post: New Examiner Article
Jen said:
Good List!, Downloaded Headspace..working on that seo!
Piper said:
I’m in the middle of a re-design right now. Thanks for all the great plug in suggestions!
My Latest Blog Post: Audrey Hepburn Style
Nicholas Cardot said:
Piper » You are welcome.
Gee said:
Great info.
I have no follow disabled on my blog but the plugin you recommend looks great.
There are lots of social button plugins but I like Social Bookmarking RELOADED
My Latest Blog Post: Affiliate Marketing Books Can Help You On Your Way
Casey Stubbs said:
This is great stuff I am going to be testing some of these plugins for my site thanks so much.
Casey
Pat said:
Great list, Nicholas!
Did not know that my SEO knowledge is outdated. I’ll definitely use these plugins on my new blog.
Thanks again!
My Latest Blog Post: Marware Uncovers SportGrip Pro for iPad
Chris Chambers said:
Excellent list of plugins, really looking forward to using these, thank you
Chris
http://www.wakefieldweddingphotographer.co.uk
Kaushal said:
Great post Nicholas. Would definitely use this on the new blog I planning to setup. I like the nofollow case by case plugin and Top commentors. This should boost the comments on my blog.
My Latest Blog Post: The art of commenting on blog posts – Funny
traci murphy said:
Thanks so much – great post, I’m off to start adding in these amazing plugins.
himem said:
nice article. i’ll try “WordPress Related Posts” , the rest i already have.
My Latest Blog Post: T5353 – Clone of HTC Touch Diamond2 – video review
Dave Doyle said:
I’ve had trouble getting the subscribe to comments plugin to display correctly in my theme. I love the functionality of it, but it looks terrible and I can’t seem to get it right. If you have any tips on how you got it to display nicely, that would be appreciated. Good post!
My Latest Blog Post: Mets 5 – Giants 4 May 8, 2010
mwk said:
hey this was a usegul post thanx a lot dude and your leadership blog is amazing…
desar said:
thanks friend, with this list i don’t need to think about what should i use.. you save my time a lot
Buduguru said:
Thank u for this useful plugins list.
There are few of them i havn’t known before
u.r.s. jOsé said:
dear nichOlas
only rare persons really impress me …
you do !
thanks for these treasures !
u.r.s. josé / switzerland
My Latest Blog Post: kunstwelle #02 talking hearts I . flow.MOTION *sOMuna*
Nicholas Cardot said:
u.r.s. jOsé » Thanks. I really appreciate that level excitement and I’m glad that these plugins got you pumped up.
Jason Fonceca said:
You rock Nick. That is a truly top-notch list, with super-relevant , up to date plug-ins for a good majority of blogs. Rock on!
My Latest Blog Post: Papercut | Tracy Baker | Jason Fonceca 2010
Richard Pelletier, Freelance Copywriter said:
Hi there,
Great list. Got a question for you. I’m trying to add a sign up form on a blog for a friend. So visitors would sign up and after they provide their email, they’d get an ebook. Is this a plugin issue? Any ideas? Thank you!
My Latest Blog Post: Primo Levi
Rhonda said:
Brilliant list. I am pretty much a page hopper when looking for cool reads. But I think I just spent about 15 minutes on you page. Love the comments by everyone and the forum style. I am totally writing a an article on your site as one of my top sites to visit for 2010. One suggestion for a plugin I can’t live without. 404 notifier plugin. It keeps you posted on any broken urls. This is just a gem especially if you jack up your permalinks like I did. It gives a heads up so you can swoop in and fix the 404 errors on your page. Also, the Redirect plugin will redirect those broken links.
Deans Permalink Migration is one that I just used to fix as well.
Thanks again for such a cool list!
Rhonda G.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Rhonda » I’m glad to hear that. In fact, you’re comment really gets me pumped up. I’ll definitely look into that 404 notifier as that sounds like something that could be extremely useful to have. Thanks for the idea.
Russ said:
Thanks for the great plugin reference, Nicholas. I was looking for some up to date plugins that I might consider for my site and found a couple of gems in your list.
Appreciate it.
My Latest Blog Post: 1 Out Of 1 Optometrists Agree
steph said:
Is there a plugin which allows you to see the tweets of a celebrity. I have a fansite website so it would be good if there was some kind of plugin which allows us to show the certain celebrities tweets
Chris Beaman said:
I use the Thesis theme for almost all things SEO related. However the SEO plugin to link keywords to other articles on your blog sounds great, so thanks.
My Latest Blog Post: cgbeaman: Google webmaster video on site speed and performance: http://j.mp/bCFihg
Gary said:
Thanks for this great list of WordPress Plugins. I use most of them however wasn’t aware of ‘Thank Me Later’ (which I’ll be installing).
My Latest Blog Post: Remove a Page Break in Word 2007
Nicholas Cardot said:
Gary » You’re welcome, Gary. I’m glad that you found them useful. What plugins do you use that I don’t have listed here?
Brad said:
Great article. I’m new to the blogging world, having just added a blog to my website. Thanks for all the recommendations for plugins. They sound very useful, and I’m sure I’ll be putting them to good use.
ankush said:
It was too gr8 man…..
ankush said:
hhaa haaa
sids mattress cover said:
Thanks for the list. On your recommendation I switched from all in one seo to headspace. glad I did, also really am glad about the iPhone plugin. makes my life easier!
My Latest Blog Post: SIDS information
Paul said:
Great list, definitely look into WP Super Cache. Thanks!
Tara said:
Thank you!!! This is so helpful. This is my first run at blogging. Its been a slow start, but I will get there. Thanks again!!
Snakke said:
Thanks a lot for this great post. Especially for mentioning Nofollow Case by Case! I just installed it on my blog
http://blog.themoon.mn
Also I find WPtouch iPhone Theme And WP-DBManager very usefull : )
Nicholas Cardot said:
Snakke » You’re welcome. I’m glad that you like them!
Horror Stories said:
Thanks for the list. I knew most of them, but I didn’t realize iPhone users were being shafted on my site! Just downloaded the plugin
Nicholas Cardot said:
Horror Stories » Yeah. Don’t cheat those iPhone and other mobile users. They need love too.
Matt WIlliams said:
Thanks a lot for some excellent articles. They have helped a wordpress n00b.
George Sauer said:
Great Content. I am very pleased that I found you. You content has been a tremendous help to me.
Thanks you!
George
My Latest Blog Post: Breeding With your Mare
abnelphoto.com said:
Thanks for the post. Very useful for my blog.
Hollow said:
Thanks for this list! Quite useful and some new plugs I hadn’t seen before.
My Latest Blog Post: Sans Titre
slifer2006 said:
Nice share, pal.
I’m just a beginner blogger and this sure help
My Latest Blog Post: Membuat Sistem Captcha
Marc Obaldo said:
Most of these plugins were what I was looking for!
I recently just installed WordPress after a [very] long time not using it — and I had forgotten quite a number of the plugins that I used to use.
From here I got wp-super-cache, wp-dbmanager and wp-pagenavi. For the related posts plugin, I prefer to use wordpress-popular-posts in conjuction with wp-postrating.
Thanks!
My Latest Blog Post: Test from phone
Aaron said:
Excellent post! There are a few here that I’m heading off to download. I must admit, I’ve been using TweetMeMe so I think I might start testing out Backtype Tweetcount. Thanks again for this list. It’s going to come in VERY handy! BTW.. I love the look of your blog. I assume it is a totally custom theme?
My Latest Blog Post: PlatinumPopup 1.0.4.2 Released
Nicholas Cardot said:
Aaron » You’re welcome. Backtype is definitely better than TweetMeMe in my opinion. The switch will be great.
Tony Thomas said:
Fabulous list! Thank you. This will come in very handy.
My Latest Blog Post: Virtual Assistance of Portland
Liveazee said:
I have been visiting a lot of blog posts for WordPress Plugins & they all seem to have the same ones listed. Now this could be either due to their strength or popularity; but I do not find too many security-related plugins. Any suggestions?
What I specifically looking for are plugins that cover security of the WordPress installation & sustain themselves through updates.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Liveazee » Hmmm. I really don’t know of any great security plugins. If you find some, be sure to stop back by here and let me know. I’d definitely be interested in learning which ones you find.
zonia said:
great info!
Wanted to suggest:
AllWebMenus WordPress Menu Addin/Plugin
http://www.likno.com/addins/wordpress-menu.html
Nicholas Cardot said:
zonia » Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll definitely look into that one.
Jess said:
Wow this is awesome and so helpful. I just starting out with my own blog.
I really see the importance of seo and how much these plugins can help.
Thank you so much, I am going to try all these out.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Great, Jess! I guarantee that you’ll like them. I use them and I like them!
Ryan said:
Thank you for the tips. I will put them to good use and hopefully see some positive results.
My Latest Blog Post: Who I am…
Alaturka said:
Thank you for this great article. You helped me a lot!
My Latest Blog Post: Re: Slow-chat
WPExplorer said:
These are some really awesome plugins. The Hyper Cache is going to be a key plugin now with the Big-G making all these new standards regarding ranking and site speed.
My Latest Blog Post: Indyg WordPress Theme
Pradeep said:
how does Quick Cache compare with super cache? any thoughts?
My Latest Blog Post: Sony World Photography Awards 2011 Opens for Entries
Jon Cardona said:
All of these plugins are spot on to what I was looking for. You kick ass.
Jason said:
Thanks for the list of Plugins. I’m installing most of these right now. Thanks again!
Jason
My Latest Blog Post: Family Camping – 6 Activities for the Whole Family
Conception web said:
Really nice article! Hope we gonna have a new version soon!
For example the facebook like button could be added!
My Latest Blog Post: Premier récipiendaire de la bourse Lubie Vision
Darryl said:
Nicholas,
Believe it or not your blog, so to speak, put me over the edge as far as adding a blog to my climbing site. I did that just a few hours ago, and next need to get the theme together and then… add a batch of these plugins. Thanks for doing the homework for me!
Tanya said:
Thanks for creating this plugins list, I’m new to WP and finding it very helpful!
megrawab said:
Wow.. Thanks for these plug-ins… I used them all at my new wordpress blog. Hope these will not affect the loading time of my blog!
Just wonder… how other commenter’s here were able to have their “My Latest Blog Post:”
Amar said:
This is indeed a nice list. Isn’t a Feedburner / Feedflare plugin essential these days?
My Latest Blog Post: SharePoint 2010 Quick Start
mental said:
Whoa, you are lying – ” I’ve stripped out all of the nofollow tags from the comment section of Site Sketch 101.” The links here are external nofollow. The plugins however does the job required.
Wesley A. Bridle said:
Great Post! While I like to think I am WordPress Suave, I am always pleased to be proven a newbee.
thanks
Nikos said:
I’ve read many “Best wordpress plugin” lists but this one is by far my favorite. I’ve never heard of Thank Me Later and I am installing it as soon as I finish this…
Thank you Nicholas
My Latest Blog Post: To Invest or Not To Invest in Your Real Estate Education
Scott Marcaccio said:
Awesome info, just installed a few of those onto my blog and tweaked them, made it look awesome. Thanks a ton for the value you’ve put out for us!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Scott Marcaccio » Awesome! I’m glad to hear it.
Brendan said:
Exactly what I was looking for, some great plugins. I agree HeadSpace is great for SEO and I have been using that one for a while now!
Ru Hill said:
I’ve used almost all these plugins on my site http://www.surfsimply.com. Thanks for the great advise, a well written concise post.
webdesigner said:
nice post, would like to see a bigger list
My Latest Blog Post: Hello world!
Guillermo said:
Great plugin list. I plan on using the permalink plugin to update my site’s structure!
My Latest Blog Post: Los Alimentos como Lucha Contra el Cancer
Hans Juergen Goebel said:
A great website I have installed all the tools you have recommended. Great job you have done:)
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dBlah said:
great compilation! but you’ve missed out on statistical plugins.. hehe
My Latest Blog Post: All The Lovers
Samsonite said:
Hi,
Just installed a new blog and was looking for a list of plugins. Got most of them already but picked up a few new ones. much obliged, thanks
Nicholas Cardot said:
Samsonite » You’re welcome. I’m glad that you like them.
Ryan said:
Thanks lol
Shawn Christenson said:
GREAT list Nocholas! Thanks – some of them I haven’t heard of.
I want to point out that there is also WP Quick Cache which works like Super Cache but is easier to use.
Steven said:
Thank you for this list of plugins! I was getting tired of trying to throw out keywords/test plugins on our site. Most of what you have listed here is exactly the stuff I was looking for.
And man – Thanks for the Admin plugin, I tried both of them and found I liked the Fluency one better myself. So helpful I had to post a comment.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Steven » Good! I’m really glad to hear that. I’m happy that you’re finding them useful.
Beauty Femme said:
Is wp super cache really matters that much?
Beauty Femme said:
Got it in my blog now
Tobie Nortje said:
Great List thank you. Just started my blog and I have almost all om them in already! Very exiting times! WordPress 3.0 also installed. I am trying to add WP3 menus to my theme now!
regards
Tobie
My Latest Blog Post: The big geyser savings debate
Nicholas Cardot said:
Awesome. I still have to upgrade to WordPress 3.0 and start learning all the changes.
Daniel Ovieda said:
Awesome info! I just created another website and this list helped me out a lot. Thanks.
My Latest Blog Post: Hakuna matata
Nicholas Cardot said:
Great! I’m glad to hear that. Choosing the right plugins can really make a difference.
isaiah said:
awesome tips, like you said im going to leave a comment so maybe pagerank follows me back home
msrosyidi said:
This plugin :HeadSpace 2 = always makes my wp error…. I don’t know how to solve that.
Nicholas Cardot said:
I’ve been hearing people say that they’ve been having trouble with it since they upgraded to WordPress 3.0. You can stop using it or wait for the team over at HeadSpace to release a fix which I think should be soon.
RSF said:
Awesome plugins. I am just just learning wordpress and I am very glad that I found this page. I bookmarked for future use.
Ian said:
Great list. I knew about a few of these. It’s great that you provided a reason to why they are great and not just hey these are great plugins. Will be trying a few of them in the future.
Nicholas Cardot said:
I’m all about providing a logical explanation for why I do things the way that I do them. I get tired of people who create lists of links with no explanations. I’m glad you liked these!
Jazz Salinger said:
Hi Nicholas,
Thanks for the awesome list. I’m actually only using one out of your whole list.
I think your plugins will massively improve my site. The ‘Thank You Later’ plugin looks great.
Thanks again,
Jazz
My Latest Blog Post: Learn and Earn – It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint
Nicholas Cardot said:
That “Thank You Later” plugin really is great. I get a lot of people responding to it and I’m able to massively expand the people that I’m able to connect with. When you get your email be sure to respond. Let’s connect.
rohit86 said:
thanksss great collections of plugin…..
Nicholas Cardot said:
I’m glad that you enjoyed this list. Are there any plugins that you’ve used that you would recommend to us?
Mitch said:
Great post. These are all Must have Plugins.
Nathan said:
I was amazed at how many of these plugins I hadn’t heard of! I just installed WP SuperCache and got greatly reduced load times. Do you still recommend that I use gzip compression as well?
One plugin that I like is YARPP – Yet Another Related Post – which will display related posts at the bottom of your current post.
Thanks for the great list!
My Latest Blog Post: Country Rooster Paper Towel Holder
Nicholas Cardot said:
I do use the Gzip compression. It will compress the content before it send it from the server to your computer making it load much faster.
Nathan said:
I tried using Gzip compression, but it’s not compatible with All in One SEO plugin (breaks post titles), so I removed it. I want to try HeadSpace 2, but I just upgraded to WordPress 3.0.
I noticed you said earlier that HeadSpace2 had problems with 3.0…have you migrated to 3.0 yet? Or do you know if HeadSpace2 fixed those problems?
Or maybe I should stop worrying about plugins and start writing more posts
Thanks for your help!
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Roth @ Franchise Philippines said:
Awesome! I am researching new plug-ins to use for my sites, and you convinced me to try Smart Links! Thumbs up!
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Dave said:
For stats I like statpress even more than the google analyticator. It is much easier for me to follow and to see traffic trends.
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Rhonda Giarraffa said:
Hey Nicholas… I see your plug ins post keeps gaining new views. This is awesome! I have been following the comments. I found another cool plug in I wanted to share.
This is for those that are new to running Google Adsense ads on their sites. There is a plug in called Easy Privacy. It takes care of the privacy policy Google demands. It is quick and simple and saves tons of time. I give this free plug in a high recommendation. Also the Broken Link Checker plug in kicks major butt.
Stay well. Oh, BTW I mentioned your site in one of my posts. I will send you the link.
Rhonda G.
Ashish Mundhra said:
Do follow … really !!!!
jo said:
Thanks for the great post and a good-looking blog too! I’m going to sign up and look forward to reading more.
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judith said:
I love the idea of the of the thank me later plugin.
My Latest Blog Post: What do Bailiffs do
Calin said:
Excellent list. I already use some of them, but for sure I’ll give it a try to the rest of them.
My Latest Blog Post: iPhone 4 review
Juergen said:
Great plugin list you are suggesting here.
Just yesterday I was glad to have the WP-DBmanager installed because something happened to my DB and my site was reversed to default setting and all customization was gone which took me weeks to setup. Restored the backup and all was good. Guy’s, make backups, your site can be gone at a blink of an eye.
Clinton Rushing said:
Great list, use many of these myself.
Dina Spanos said:
Thank you so much for all the great info!!!
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Steve said:
This list is great! I would add the broken link checker, and Google XML site-maps to the list. They are both lifesavers for my blog.
Mohamed said:
Great guide.
Really appreciate that someone would take time out of his day to write up something like this.
Thanks!
Nicholas Cardot said:
I’m glad you liked this!
James said:
Thanks for the list. There are some plugins that I havn’t tried but are exactly what I’m looking for.
I’ll download them as soon as I get home.
James
James said:
Hey I just noticed the plugin for the I phone is really nice. I’m entering this comment right now through my iPhone. The only reason I noticed it is because I didn’t have to navigate horizontally like I do at other sites.
It makes reading much smoother and easier to interact with the site. Thanks again for the plugin suggestions.
James
Amy Smith said:
Very good selection of plugins. I will be installing most of these.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Awesome. I’m glad that you liked them.
Ira Lichtenstein said:
I just built my first personal blog yesterday. I have added a bunch of plugins but I am still looking for a few more. I want to be able to take pictures and videos and easily add them to my blog with an Iphone 4. I have the wordpress app but it seems to run really slow even when I am on wifi. Any thoughts on the best way to display pictures from a vacation?
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Kim Bauer said:
Newbie here. Have been subscribed to your site for a while and always find great content.
What is the name of the widget you use at the top left side of your posts and the one called Stay up to Date?
I am having problems with getting my email subscription that came with the Church theme for wordpress to work properly and want to replace it with something like what you use.
Thanks so much.
Kim
Nicholas Cardot said:
The one in the top left is called Digg Digg (which I’ve modified to make it look as cool as it looks) and the other is designed in Photoshop and hand coded into place.
Rashmi said:
Wow.. great list. Its 1 am right and I am excited that I am going to install some of these plugins right now. Thanks for putting the info together.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
You’re welcome. I’m glad that you’re enjoying these plugins!
Lorne Fade said:
Great list Nicholas, thanks for taking the time to compile this, bookmarked and will recommend for anyone looking to upgrade their blogs.
christovineeth said:
thanks for the wonderful share and really pagenavi plugins who have suggested are great for my site.
thanks
Richard Lord said:
Thanks for the useful list, I’m going to be installing Thank Me Later and probably some of the others too.
Marijan Sivric said:
Great list! I have never used most of these plugins! Now is the time for me to start using them!
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Darius said:
great plugins. i use almost all of them.
issty said:
Thanks a lot Nocholas. Really lot of info and it will be useful for my new site.
Thanks
Micke Hasselqvist said:
Some of those I already use, like iPhone optimizer. But others, like the cross-linking one and thank-me-later are awesome, thanks for the tips!
My Latest Blog Post: YouTube launches HTML5-player for embedding
Arash said:
“SEO Smart Links” sounds very nice – tempted…
Geoff said:
I have just installed the plugin to help prevent visitors copying my content, and it does work on version 3.0
http://wp-copyrightpro.com/
My Latest Blog Post: Freedom From Debt
Lemerou said:
Funny i just lanched a new photoblog and was wondering wich plugin to istall.
). Also liked Iphone Theme.
I knew about a lot of them but gotta admit i discovered SEO smart links and like the idea. We’ll see if it proves useful (well of course it will be more effective on my other websites, not the photoblog
Not so convinced about Thank me Later, im afraid it looks too spammy.
So thanks again for this great list.
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Geoff said:
I thought about installing the SEO Smart Links plugin myself, but, it looks like it won’t work on the latest version of WP, 3.0.
It says-
“Compatible up to: 2.9.2″
Bryon Gunter said:
Great selection of WordPress plugins you have here I especially like SEO Smart Links it is easy to use and is an important part of building page rank for your site.
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Geoff said:
Mine’s quite a new blog, so not many posts as yet. But, how do I get the comments box to appear. I have checked the “Allow Comments” box, installed Akismet, but no comment box is showing up.
My Latest Blog Post: Freedom From Debt
Michael Sørensen-Bech said:
Nice. Got some new and exiting plugins that i didn’t have already. Thanks
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John Olson Marketing Success Guy said:
Thanks for the list. I really like the NoFollow Case by Case plugin you suggested. I’ve just installed it on my site.
Thanks for the tips.
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julicavero said:
thx for sharing this article..it’s very use to me..
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underfloor heating 1 said:
Just about to launch a blog on our business site and came across this post. Great summary and choice of plugins that I hadn’t yet considered.
Jay said:
Hey thanks for all of these. I did a search in google for best wp plugins and here you are. Thanks
Geoff said:
They don’t hang around at WP. I see there’s already an update on version 3.0.
Hiphopcanvass said:
Great post I have switched from AIO seo to headspace2 and added Wp Cache thanks for the tips.
My Site: http://hiphopcanvass.com
Dee said:
You can also try new 2010 plugin for monetize old posts http://bit.ly/beZkUV
YouNeed2Wear said:
Some amazing plugins; some I’d heard of, some were new.
The SEO slug is excellent and the WPtouch iPhone Theme is a must-have for 2010 in my opinion.
YouNeed2Wear said:
for reference my site is http://youneed2wear.com – any feedback (or constructive critisism!) would be much appreciated
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Life With Dogs said:
This is a brilliant resource for WP newbies like me. Thanks!
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Randy Beckett said:
Thanks for the tips on the plugins. Keep up the great advice and good luck with your site. Keep us in mind as you develop your brand.
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blue2x said:
Nice list you have there , i will be using 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 and 13. I have a question on 6. though , since I have a problem understanding no follow or do follow , if the links are do follow , it will generate a lot of traffic but will give you a lot of spam too right?
Thomas J. Armitage said:
Great post! Learned so much in so little time! Thanks!
Brian Hawthorn said:
I’ve just finished redoing my website using WordPress. I’ve been looking for the best plugins to use and Google brought me here. The information I’ve found here at sitesketch101 is absolutely awesome. Great job and thank you.
Ash said:
Awesome list. I will be using at least 2 of those plugins and already using 3 out of the list
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Tree-PIM Quang said:
Awesome list man. Do Follow links? Crazy I should try that.
HeadCase SEO better then ALLinOne ? Gotta check it out. Haven’t used wordpress in a while.
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Kitchen Food Processor said:
There is another great plugin for wordpress. The name is All in One SEO Pack and is doing a very good job for optimization. Thank you for the other plugins.
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Dusibello said:
Wow, just when you thought you had seen all the cool plugins, a post like this comes along… Many thanks…
If not already noted, ‘BNS Login’ is a ‘can’t live without’ plugin…
Dusibello said:
If you want to create a FAQs page on your WP blog, this is a hottie: FAQ-Tastic
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Phill said:
Can you help me to understand why you think adding do follow to your blog will help it?
Google, as i’m sure you are aware, has 1000′s of factors in its ranking algo. One of the most important one in my opinion is “Trust of linked to sites”, where if a site links to bad or untrusted neighbor hoods it can be penalized.
Now, why on earth would you want to remove nofollow from your links?? You are opening the gates to spammers and loosing your own link equity int he process.
Not only that, people really shouldn’t obsess with the term “Page Rank”, it is NOT a reliable metric of SEO measurement. Honest.
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Funny Ride Photos said:
Thanks so much I am having trouble installing the ones that ask for a download what do I do from there?
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Chris said:
This is a great list. There were some plugins that I hadn’t heard of before, and I’ll be trying them out.
Thanks for the list!
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Kennedy said:
great list of plugins..haha i had just finish installing all in one seo
and i stumbled upon your article..guess i will check headspace out..
i have one problem though whats the difference between a no follow and a do follow..
thanks
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Evelyn Roberts Brooks said:
Thanks so much for the great list. I’ve had some plugins that caused nothing but trouble and it’s great to have them come with a recommendation instead. Like going to a restaurant and knowing what to order and what to avoid.
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Living on Dividends said:
Good post! I’m also a big fan of w3 Total Cache and just became a HUGE fan of BackWPup b/c I can schedule multiple different automatic backups and database optimization jobs.
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Lauren said:
Thanks for the great information! I will definitely add these to my list!
Mario Rey said:
Excelente artículo
Olivia said:
You know Nicholas, I actually wrote about this very subject earlier on my blog. This article has really given me lots of food for thought and I feel you have made many interesting points. In fact, I really wish I had found it before I posted my own article. – drivingtutors.
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Phil said:
Just installed the WPtouch iPhone Theme, can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it before, great plugin!
tenocation said:
Thanks friend,These plugins are all very good and awesome.I am using some of them on my blogs.
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The Tampa Pirate said:
Awesome list bro!!
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Andy @ Sales++ Online Marketing Advice said:
Good to see a fresh list of WordPress plugins!
It would be nice to see a list for different types of sites, for example, what plugins you’d recommend for personal blogs, magazines, etc.
Miss Katz said:
Very useful! Thank you so much!
yoni said:
“Extremely helpful. Glad I came across this list.”
I agree with every word
Kris said:
Great info! Appreciate the heads up about these plugins. I will spread the word.
boby said:
thanks dude!
Todd Bobal said:
Hi & Thanks…
With so many plugins out there one could get lost!
I found a few that I am not using.
Todd
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J O said:
This is a heck of a list, thanks a lot for providing it. We found that about 10% of our users were on a mobile platform so the iphone plugin is going to be useful. Thanks again.
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Matthew Gore said:
Great list of plugins. I’m always looking for another way to tinker with my blog… I think the comment subscription plugin is an awesome idea… should be a big help.
Thanks!
- Matthew
Steven Crist said:
Thanks for the list of great plugins. I started with wordpress a few months ago and was overwhelmed with all the plugins to chose from. It is nice to have a list of the best to narrow it down.
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Chris said:
Thanks for the post! I’m going to use it on my new music blog Hot New Song which has the newest songs, artists, and mixtapes. I hope you will listen to music here
Survival Blog said:
Great list of wordpress plugins thanks for sharing.
Danilo Telles said:
Very nice post, helped me a lot, thanks!
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Blog Tyrant said:
Amazing list as most of them aren’t old repetitions like you find on a lot of these WP Plugin lists.
The automatic email one seems to be a bit dodgey though with the site being blocked for malware. Have you tried it yourself?
Cheers.
Tyrant
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Mike D said:
Amazing post! I’m using a lot of these social media tips on http//www.SocialMedia4noobs.com
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Drake said:
WOW . . . what is this “My Latest Blog Post” plug-in??? that is pretty awesome!
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ambuj said:
Its a great list of plug-ins.Thanks for sharing.
chad Nordland said:
Awesome Suggestions! Your ideas have made my Blog even better.
Craig Aitken said:
Nice blog post, I already use a couple of these. Your spot on about wordpress, it can do almost anything if you bend it the right way.
Steven Dale said:
Great set of tips. Already had some of these installed but added several more after reading your post. Excellent advice and thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience.
Steve
Peter Greg said:
Thanks for the great list and i like your site. I was very curious about the social media buttons as well as the all the other features on your site. I am using a free theme at the moment but would like to use some of these ideas, including as much social media connectability as I can. Any tips?
Debbie said:
Thanks Nicholas – a great list.
It will be interesting to see which plugins are still supported with WordPress3. I’ve used several of the plugins you’ve suggested on past sites. I can’t say I’m sold on the Nofollow Case by Case concept. I get where you are coming from, but monitoring spammers isn’t why I share articles.
Earlvin said:
Hey Nicholas
Great list of resources.
I just finished installing headspace and the Nofollow Case by Case looks great for SEO as well
Thanks again for these…
Earlvin
Nicholas Cardot said:
You’re welcome. I’m glad that your enjoying them and I’ll hope that you’ll continue to find them useful and that you’ll dive in and enjoy the rest of Site Sketch 101.
Jay said:
Thanks for the Great List,I will start using them and provide my feedback. Out of curiousity, your autoreponder plugin is great looking, can you share with us name
of plugin.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Sure. It’s called Popup Domination.
Jay said:
Thanks Nicholas, going to put some of these plugins into action!
Greeny said:
I`m very happy finding your post
Thanks for sharing all this information. Here are useful informations for me.
I came here trying to find an Voting Plug-ins for Word Press blog.
Now I`m wonder if is necessary this one?!
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