24 Inpressive Blog Plugins You Should Consider

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24 Impressive Blog Plugins
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You Should Consider
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Denise Wakeman, The Blog Squad
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24 Impressive Blog Plugins You Should Consider
One of the great things about blogging is how easy it is to
set up a blog on any of the multitude of blogging
platforms. While there are many options for building your
blog, one of the most popular platforms is WordPress.org.

However, what you get when you set up a WordPress
blog can be pretty basic depending on the theme you
choose. To make your new blog sing and work for you,
it’s a good idea to install some key plugins.

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

Plugins extend and expand the functionality of your WordPress blog. There are hundreds, if not
thousands, of plugins you can add to your site to optimize it, customize it, add some bling, make
it easy for your readers to navigate and so much more.

Which Plugins Should You Use?

When it comes to plugins, how do you choose which to add to your blog?

To come up with this list, I asked my Facebook fans for suggestions.

Popular plugins fall into a couple of categories: those that enhance your readers’ experience,
and those behind the scenes that help you with blog management and optimization.

How to Install Plugins

For the sake of brevity, I picked a finite number to feature. I encourage you to post your
favorites in the comments and collectively we can create a great resource of tried and tested
plugins.

To install any of these plugins, log in to your WordPress admin dashboard, click on Plugins and
then search by name (see figure below).

2 © Copyright 2010. Denise Wakeman, The Blog Squad, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
http://DeniseWakeman.com


The Impressive Plugins

What follows are 24 WordPress plugins you should consider.

#1: Audio player:

A simple mp3 player for all your audio needs. You can customize the player’s color scheme to
match your blog theme, have it automatically show track information from the encoded ID3 tags
and more.

#2: Viper’s Video Quicktags

Super-easy way to add videos from YouTube and other video sharing platforms to your posts.


#3: Photo Dropper

Lets you easily find and add creative commons licensed photos to your posts from Flickr.
You can watch a quick tutorial here about how Photo Dropper works.

#4: Sexy bookmarks

Nice visual graphics that encourage your reader to share your posts. You can select from
dozens of social sites, though I recommend keeping it to 5-7 popular sites so you don’t
overwhelm your readers.

Make it easy for your readers to share your content.

#5: FBLikebutton

Allows you to configure and display the Facebook Like button before and/or after each post
and/or page. If you want to increase your visibility on Facebook, this is a required plugin.

#6: Tweetmeme Retweet button

It’s ubiquitous now. The TweetMeme Retweet button is the de facto standard in retweeting –
used by some of the biggest websites in the world. It increases your reach across the web.

#7: Disqus comment system

A service and tool for web comments and discussions. Disqus makes commenting easier and
more interactive, while connecting websites and commenters across a thriving discussion
community.

#8: CommentLuv

In addition to Disqus, CommentLuv is a very popular commenting plugin. When installed, it
visits the site of the comment author while they type their comment and retrieves a selection of
their last blog posts, tweets or Digg submissions that they can choose from to include at the
bottom of their comment when they click Submit. This has been proven to increase click-
throughs and is a great tool for increasing community engagement.



Comment Luv rewards commenters with a link back to their blog.

#9: Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Gives you a list of posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other
relevant content on your site. This encourages readers to go deeper into your content.

Based on post titles, content, tags, and categories, YARRP creates a list of related posts.

#10 & 11: Contact Form 7 and cformsII

You want your readers to contact you about one thing or another: for support, to post questions,
to request info about your services, etc. I found that the basic WordPress contact form was not
flexible enough. Contact Form 7 and cformsII both have features that allow you to create and
manage multiple forms on your site. Both are simple to customize and you can direct the
responses to be sent to any email address for management. You can see an example of a cformsII
form here.

#12: Twitter Tools

A complete integration between your WordPress blog and Twitter. Bring your tweets into your
blog and pass your blog posts to Twitter. Show your tweets in your sidebar and post tweets from
your WordPress admin.

Twitter Tools automates the connection between your blog and your twitter account.

#13: WordPress Editorial Calendar

The Editorial Calendar makes it possible to see all your posts and drag and drop them to manage
your blog. It’s a great tool for planning and organizing your posts. (Check out a video here with a
quick tutorial.)

#14: All in one SEO

This one is on just about everyone’s list. Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog.

#15: SEO Scribe (monthly fee)


This tool was mentioned several times by folks on my Facebook page. It is the brainchild of
Brian Clark (Copyblogger). As stated on the website, “Scribe is a search engine optimization
software service that analyzes the content of web pages, blog posts, online press releases, or any
other web content … then reports back and tells you how to tweak your content to get better
search engine rankings and more traffic, all while maintaining quality reader-focused copy.”

#16 & 17: Widget Context and Widget Logic

Both of these plugins give you flexibility and control to choose on what pages your sidebar
widgets show up. This is helpful if you create sales and landing pages on your domain and do not
want sidebar content distracting the visitor.

Widget Context gives you the option to choose what pages you want a widget to be visible.

#18: WP Touch

Automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme when
viewed from iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Opera Mini, Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm mobile
devices.

#19: WP Mobile

Shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site on a mobile
device. Mobile browsers are automatically detected; the list of mobile browsers can be
customized on the settings page.


#20: WordPress Database Backup

On-demand backup of your WordPress database. You’ve got to back up your blog on a regular
basis or you risk losing everything. Do it monthly at a minimum, more frequently if you post a
lot. Enough said.

#21: Google Analytics

It should go without saying that you need to know what’s happening on your blog: how many
visitors, page views, referral sources, exit pages.

#22, 23 & 24: Subscription

I also strongly recommend adding an email subscription widget to your blog. The top three in my
opinion are Feedblitz (fee), Feedburner (free) and AWeber (fee).

Each of these subscriptions offers a variety of features from basic (Feedburner) to a complete
customized newsletter-style delivery system for your blog content (Feedblitz). Technically these
are not plugins. WordPress defines widget as “independent sections of content that can be placed
into any widgetized area provided by your theme (commonly called sidebars).” Each of these
email delivery options requires you to have an account and then you configure subscription form
HTML to paste in the sidebar of your blog (it’s not hard, really).

A word of caution. When you’re building your blog, try not to go too crazy with the plugins
and widgets. Think about what you want your blog to do for your business and install the
plugins that support your goals. That being said, you may also want to test various plugins to
find the ones that suit you best. They’re easy to install, activate and deactivate if you decide
they’re not right for you.

Now it’s your turn. Do you use any of these plugins? If so, how are they working? Did I miss
any of your favorites? Leave Please join the discussion by commenting on the Wall at
http://BlogSquadTips.com.

Denise Wakeman is an online marketing advisor and co-founder of The Blog
Squad. With nearly two decades of business and online marketing experience,
she helps authors, speakers, service professionals, and small business owners
optimize and leverage great business blogs as well as strategically use social
media tools to gain visibility, build credibility and make more money selling
their books, products and services. You can learn more about Denise at
http://www.DeniseWakeman.com.

And now I would like to invite you to claim your free instant access to my 5-part video course
on how to get the best out of your blog. Visit www.MasterBusinessBlogging.com to claim it
now. Blog on!

24 Inpressive Blog Plugins You Should Consider

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24 Inpressive Blog Plugins You Should Consider