One of the reasons that I am such a big fan of WordPress is that you can customize it endlessly with plugins. Although there are thousands of them out there, and more released daily, there are certain ones you absolutely must have.

All the plugins come with extensive instructions on how to install and use them, but the rules are pretty simple:

  • Download the plugin to your computer
  • Unzip it
  • Upload it to the plugin folder of your Wordpress (found under wp-content)
  • Go to your admin panel, Plugins
  • Activate the plugin
  • Go to Options
  • Find the tab for your plugin, if available
  • Customize it there.

Aksimet: Checks your comments for spam.

Google Sitemaps: Generates a google sitemap for your blog, helping the search engine index your site better

Get Recent Comments: Displays the most recent comments made on your blog

WP- ContactForm: Allows your readers to contact you via a form. Essential to avoid spam!

Related Posts: Shows other posts on your blog that are relevant to the post being read.

Popularity Contest: Assigns each of your post a popularity ranking, which allows new vistors to see instantly what is worth reading

Subscribe to comments: This allows your readers who leave comments to automatically receive a notification when you reply to the comments. Otherwsie, some might forget to check back!

Ultimate Tag Warrior: Allows you to add tags to your post, thus making it easier for Technoratti to index it properly

Gravatars: Allows a picture or photograph to be displayed next to a reader’s comments. Reader needs to be subscribed to the Gravatar service

Optimal Title: Adapts the title of your post to improve their ranking with search engines.

Sociable: Allows your posts to be submitted to Social Network sites like Digg

You Should Also Check Out This Post:

More Active Posts: