WordPress (WP) has been a wonderful blogging platform for me, one that I am immensely grateful to have as the backbone of this blog and my other blog, The Auto Writer. What really makes WP rock are the many plug-ins available for users; these “extensions” take WordPresswhat essentially is a plain vanilla blogging platform and transforms it into whatever you want it to be.

My Favorite WordPress Plug-Ins

Recently, I took inventory of my plug-ins updating a few while eliminating one that I no longer use. Are you curious what my favorites are? If so, read on and I’ll list each plug-in with its latest version and link you directly to where you can download your copy, if interested.

13 Lucky WordPress Add Ons

  • Akismet will nip most of your spam in the bud. Version 2.0.2 is the latest one that I am aware of.
  • You can “personalize” your comments to people who leave a comment on your blog with Comment Relish. The latest version of this plug-in is 1.0. I apologize for the porn looking ad on that site.
  • Comment Spam Trap kills trackback and regular comment spam. I am not sure if it is necessary with Akismet present, but I still use it…just in case. Version 1.0 is what you want.
  • If you want a sitemap generator for your site, then the Dagon Sitemap plug-in, version 3.0.7 is what you want.
  • For bloggers wanting to share the link love, then Semilogic’s DoFollow plug-in is a must. Version 2.0 is the latest for you.
  • Semilogic also offers a Google Analytics plug-in to make statistical following a breeze. You’ll need to sign up for Analytics separately, but the plug-in (version 2.4) will make tracking each of your blog posts a snap.

Kramer is a plugin that will add inbound links to a post on your weblog as Pingbacks. What this means is that when a post in blog A links to a post in blog B, blog B will find the inbound link and add it as a pingback, without the need for the author of the post on blog A to send a ping to blog B. The way it finds the new links is by searching Technorati (http://www.technorati.com) for all new inbound to a particular post and also by analyzing and verifying incoming referrers.

  • Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t but that doesn’t stop me from using MyAvatars 0.2b, a gravatar that shows the photos of MyBlogLog visitors to your site.
  • For page ordering, ShiftThis does the trick. Separately, they produce a newsletter plug-in — I bought the license but I haven’t used it yet.
  • You can run evil p a i d l i n k s from your site with the Text Link Ads plug-in. Naturally, you’ll have to get your site approved by TLA first.
  • A must have for me is an automatic WP database backup plug-in. The WordPress Database Backup, v. 2.1.2, is useful but it can be a bit buggy and unworkable with various versions of WP.
  • Duplicate content is no fun and can cause you some mischief with the search engines. I use SEOLog’s WordPress Duplicate Content Cure, v 1.0, to help me keep “duping” at bay.
  • If you suspect that your blog is running too slow, then installing the WordPress Cache plug-in (v. 2.1.1) may help to speed things up.

Do You Have a Favorite? Hit the Comment Button and Do Tell!

Of course, I may have left out a few of your favorites, so why not share with the blogosphere some of your favorite plug-ins? I purposefully left out the Reddit and Digg plug-ins, as I just installed them within the past week. Please share your favorite plug-ins or dispense advice on how to get the most out of the ones already mentioned.

A Special Note: Anytime there is a major update to WP, you will need to check your plug-ins to make sure that they work. A change from WP 2.1.2 to WP 2.2 can mean that a plug-in no longer works. Should that happen check with the plug-in’s creator to see if an update is available.