WordPress has been the ultimate platform for blogging in 2010 and it has also evolved into many other areas where people have a need for publishing content. Just to mention a few areas that have previously been covered here on tripwire magazine – WordPress is now used for Question and Answer solutions, for portfolios, as a website CMS, for mobile devices, for membership sites, for making money and much more. With all this popularity there is a really strong community around WordPress creating tons of valuable themes and plugins. Not all of the plugins created are essential for running a blog, Not all of the WordPress plugins created are essential for running a blog. I have compiled a list for you with the plugins most bloggers use right now.
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1. Fast Secure Contact Form
This is an advanced customizable contact form that enables your visitors to send you email, but blocks all automated spammers. The Plug-in helps to prevent spamming to a large extent. The plug-in has a multi-form feature, optional extra fields, and an option to redirect visitors to any URL after the message is sent. It also has a number of other interesting features.
Requirements:
- WordPress 2.6+ but WordPress 3.0+ is highly recommended
- PHP 4.3.9 or above with GD2 library support. PHP5 is highly recommended.
- PHP register_globals and safe_mode should be set to “Off”.
2. NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery is a complete Image Gallery plug-in with advanced options for WordPress. It has a plenty of features like option to add custom template to theme, you can copy or move images between galleries, option to create your own set of albums, water mark function etc.
Requirements:
- WordPress Version: 2.9 or higher Compatible up to: 3.0.1
3. WP-PageNavi
It adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress site. Page navigation is customizable with this plug-in.
Requirements:
- Required WordPress version: 2.8 or higher
- Compatible up to: 3.0.1
- Php 5 is required since version 2.70
4. Maintenance Mode
The Plug-in adds a splash page to the blog that lets visitors know that the blog is under maintenance. Visitors will be shown a message like “Maintenance Mode – SITE is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance”
Requirements:
- WordPress Version: 2.7 or higher Compatible up to: 3.0.1
5. W3 Total Cache
This is the fastest and most complete WordPress performance optimization plug-in available, it can easily optimize the speed and user experience of the site with caching: browser, page, object, database, minify and content delivery network support.
Requirements:
- WordPress Version: 2.8 or higher Compatible up to: 3.0.1
6. SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam
It is an anti-spam Plug-in for wordpress. The Plug-in ensures that the comment form, registration form, login etc are spam protected. The user has to type in the code shown on the image in order to post comments or register, thus prevents spam from automated bots. It is completely WP, WPMU, and BuddyPress compatible. Requirements: WordPress Version: 2.6 or higher Compatible up to: 3.0.1
7. Platinum SEO Pack
The Plug-in offers complete onsite SEO solution for WordPress blog. Platinum SEO Plugin offers all the functionalities of All In ‘One SEO pack’ and optimizes wordpress blog for search engines. Requirements: WordPress Version: 1.5 or higher compatible up to: 3.0.1
8. Sexy Bookmarks
The plug-in adds an attractive social book marking menu to your posts, pages or index. Recently the plug-in has been updated to make it more efficient. Some recently added sites are yahoo mail, Gmail, hotmail and Buzzster.
Requirements:
- Requires WordPress Version: 2.7 or higher Compatible up to: 3.0.1
9. Yet Another Related Posts Plug-in
The Plug-in gives the reader a list of posts and/or pages relevant to the current entry thus introducing him/her to other relevant content on the site.
Requirements:
- WordPress Version: 2.8 or higher compatible up to: 3.0.1
10. Tweet This
The plug-in provides “Tweet this” option so that the readers can share posts with one click and the plug-in automatically tweets new posts via OAuth. It allows user to publish and schedule tweets from a new “Write Tweet” page and it supports 10 URL shorteners like Bit.ly, Su.pr, and TinyURL etc and also includes options for 20 social networks including Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace.
- Requirements: WordPress Version: 2.7 or higher compatible up to: 3.0.1
11. Wordbooker
This plug-in allows cross-post blog posts to your Facebook Wall. You can also “cross pollinate” comments between Facebook and WordPress blog.
- Requirements: WordPress Version: 2.8 or higher compatible up to: 3.0.1
12. Secure WordPress
The Plug-in secures WordPress Installation with small functions. It removes error-information on login-page, the wp-version, except in admin-area, removes Really Simple Discovery, Windows Live Writer, core update information for non-admin, removes plug-in-update information for non-admin and theme-update information for non-admin (only WP 2.8 and higher) It adds index.php plug-in-directory (virtual), hides wp-version in backend-dashboard for non-admins, adds string for use WP Scanner, Blocks bad queries.
- Requirements: WordPress Version: 2.6 or higher compatible up to: 3.1-alpha
13. WP-FB-AutoConnect
The Login-Logout widget with Facebook Connect button offers hassle-free login for readers, the plug-in is clean and extensible and also Supports BuddyPress, Similar “Facebook Connect” plug-ins do exist, but most of them are either too complex and difficult to customize, or fail to provide a user-friendly experience for new visitors.
- Requirements: WordPress Version: 2.5 or higher compatible up to: 3.0.1
14. WordPress Download Monitor
Download Monitor is a plug-in for uploading and managing downloads, tracking download hits, and displaying links.
- Requirements: WordPress Version: 2.5 or higher compatible up to: 3.0.1
15. Exclude Pages
This plug-in adds a checkbox, “include this page in menus” which is checked by default, if you uncheck this option, the page will not appear in any listings of pages.
- Requirements: WordPress Version: 2.2.3 or higher Compatible up to: 3.0.1
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Great list, thanks so much
Amazing! Thank you very much, thanks for sharing!
Nice list. Glad to see you avoided the usual and the obvious.
An Outstanding posting I seen. Thanks….
useful collection you sharing. thanks
I used to really like Sexy Bookmarks, but they are not used very much. Putting Twitter and Facebook share options at the top and focusing on only those methods have increased my online sharing with clients.
My favorites are: FaceBook Share (New) and TweetMeme Retweet Button.
Thanks for your input Rebecca, I agree that facebook and tweetmeme buttons are essential and important for traffic generation
Secure WordPress become valuable after the hacks that’s happened earlier this month
You are certainly right! Do you know any good articles on hardening WP?
good picks for wordpress plug-ins. I’ve been using the W3 cache plug-in on my site after encountering freaky behavior from other, similar plug-ins and am quite happy with it. Another useful and incredibly simple plug in I use is “page links to.” It helped me a lot when I was planning out more of a CMS style blog.
Thanks I did not know page links to ( http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/page-links-to/ )
I never understood the widespread appeal for NextGen Gallery. The plugin is bloated with too many features, has a terrible interface to navigate through, AND the photos themselves turn out to look like crap. I recommend the FancyBox Gallery plugin instead. Gets the job done, looks great, and is easy to use.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll check out FancyBox!
Through just a word I wanna say this is nice posting. thanks
Most people don’t like entering CAPTCHA’s when leaving a comment. I use the GrowMap Anti-Spambot Plugin and my readers only need to check a box. Many bloggers are finding this an excellent alternative to Akismet.
I updated my theme with my fingers crossed yesterday and the WP Maintenance plugin was really handy and I really like that one.
thanks for the list.
Thanks for this compilation! I’ve been going through the hundreds of plugin list on Wordpress and don’t really know where to begin, or which one to trust. Your list is very helpful for a WordPress newbie like me. Thanks!
Very nice list post..this is big thing for us..thanks sharing
I wished that one of my plugins one day will be as famous as these!
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/fadeout-thumbshots/
Great ideas for plugins. I’ll definitely implement these on my site.
Great post. Thank you for sharing these plugins. They will help with our new website.
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