Why I Love These 15 Wordpress Plugins

by Ari Herzog on December 20, 2008 · 27 comments

If you’ve never heard of the term, plugin, think of it as a tool that adds functionality to your blog. For instance, the ability to add your Twitter handle in the comment section below is enabled by one plugin; my web forms are from a second plugin; and the cloud of topics to the right is from a third.

In the Wordpress community, anyone can write code to design a plugin. This is elaborated by the concept of the Open Source project. I’m not tech-savvy to code one myself, so I rely on word-of-mouth to choose the best of nearly 4,000 plugins in the one or two official directories to help me (and you) increase value.

For my fifth article about Wordpress since migrating from Blogger at the beginning of October, here is my current list of installed plugins in alphabetical order:

Akismet protects my blog from spam. Pre-installed with Wordpress, new users need to follow directions on the Plugins page to sign up for a Wordpress.com account, and copy the API code into the plugin management page.
Better Comments Manager is an administrative tool, viewable only by me, that allows me to manipulate comments much easier than the default comment manager. With this plugin, I can edit, reply, view all comments from a single post, and other bulk actions with a single click.
cforms runs the various forms on my blog, such as on my services page if you want to hire me for consulting or speaking. The cformsII plugin is customizable, runs on Ajax, and offers spam protection.
CommentLuv is the reason why if you write a comment and include your blog in the appropriate box, your most-recent blog post will appear under your text after you hit the “submit” button. I recognize that everyone doesn’t have a blog; but for those that do, developer Andy Bailey and I want you to share your content with everyone else. This plugin enables that love.
DoFollow is a piece of genius from Semiologic that removes the “nofollow” attribute that Wordpress adds to comment links by default. In other words, if you do not have this (or similar plugins) installed, then every time a comment includes a link, search engines won’t follow it. The reason for this has been hashed over the years, but the end result is I want search engines to follow your links.
Extra Comments Fields is the catalyst for the Twitter box below. If you enter your id, e.g. ariherzog or @ariherzog, then a link to http://twitter.com/ariherzog appears that anyone can click. It’s not as simple as installing the plugin, though. You must follow these four steps to add your Twitter ID by Sean Walberg, as the steps include some manual coding, too. That said, the plugin causes a slight bug whereby I can’t view my comment spam without deactivating the plugin. I’m open to resolutions.
Feed Pauser, from the folks at Techie Buzz (who also developed the Better Comments Manager), is a clever plugin that allows me to publish a post but pause its feed publication up to 20 minutes. If you are like me and usually make some typos, or don’t like how the final content is displayed, pausing feed publication is useful. (And on that note, if you’re not currently subscribed to my blog feed by RSS or email, here’s your chance.)
Google XML Sitemaps is something else that runs behind the scenes. The plugin creates a sitemaps.org-compatible layout of my blog for search engine robots to “see” the landscape.
My Page Order allows me to change the order of my pages at the top of this screen. Posts are the stuff I churn out every day; pages are the more static content, such as about me, contact, and services. Without the plugin, the order would be determined by Wordpress. With the plugin, I choose the order.
Page Links To is used to redirect posts or pages to other posts or pages. I use this for a few pages, though you’d never see it as everything happens on the server level.
RSS Footer is a plugin that enables me to add custom text to the bottom of every blog post you might read at Social Media Today, My Venture Pad, or other sites that syndicate my content. I sporadically change the text, but it currently thanks people for reading my article, provides RSS and email subscription links, and a new link I just added to follow me on Twitter.
Search Excerpt is something I recently installed but haven’t played with too much. I had wanted it to show a user a highlighted word or phrase if typed into the search box, but I might need to add something to my CSS file. Thoughts? Do you use this or something like it?
ShareThis is something that you have probably seen before, right? Maybe you use it on your own blog? If you scroll below this post and click the green ShareThis button, you can add this post to your favorite social bookmarking site, blog about it, email it to a friend, etc. AddThis and Sociable offer similar functions, but I prefer this one for various reasons. Try it out; go press the button!
Simple Tags controls two functions on my blog, though it could do much more. I use this plugin to populate the tag cloud off to the right that shows what I call topics I write about; the bigger the font, the more frequent I write about it. All of those tags can be clicked. Also, I occasionally add a Related Posts feature near the footer.
Subscribe to Comments is one of my favorite plugins, and one that I wish every Wordpress blogger activates immediately. This is the beef of why I hate Typepad. This plugin creates the opt-in box below the “submit” button, where, if you check it, you will receive email messages for new comments. I check the box all the time on other blogs. I will shortly add a RSS comment box too.

There you have it, folks. I’ve tried many other Wordpress plugins over the past 60 days, but I like these the best. Do you think I should add any to my list?

What are some of your favorite plugins?

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