5 Wordpress Plugins You Can’t Live Without
What should a wordpress plugin do for you? Any plugin you think about installing should serve one of three functions for you, otherwise it will simply clutter up your blog and risk making it look like a 2nd grader is in charge. And I don’t mean a normal 2nd grader. I mean that kid in the back that eats crayons and writes with the fat pencils. So before you install that fancy new gadget, ask yourself if it will do one of the following for you-
- Will it help you gain/retain traffic?
- Will it help you analyze traffic?
- Will it ease your admin duties?
Here are the 5 plugins I use, where to get them, and why I use them. Best part? They’re free.
- Akismet - Automatically blocks spam comments, making my admin duties easier and faster.
- Google Analytics - Gives an in-depth view of where my traffic comes from, what readers like, why they return, etc.
- Top Commentators - Livens up my site by encouraging readers to comment every day. Nothing will kill your readership faster than a blog with no comments. works great with contests. Did I mention my contest?
- Feedburner - Simple to set up, this is your single best friend in getting readers to come back to your blog.
- Social Bookmarkers- Gives my readers the option to submit each post to various outlets such as digg, stumble, etc is an excellent way of getting a little extra traffic here and there even if I don’t hit a homerun.
Now I want your input. What is your favorite plugin not listed above, and what does it do for you? p.s. - Don’t forget, one week to go on my contest!
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March 7th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I have some of the ones you mentioned, I still need google analytics and top commentators. I have sitemeter for now, but i love the idea of seing who the top commentators are (it’s nice to see your name up there
)
I’ll try to set it up today
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March 7th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
All done! Have installed it already!
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March 8th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Did you install google analytics?
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March 8th, 2008 at 8:47 am
No, the top commentators widget
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March 8th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Very good list. there is one called all-in-one seo. good for seo purposes.
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March 8th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I use them all.
Great list Nate!
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March 9th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Totally agreed. 4 out of them I got on my blog. Will add the social bookmarking thing today itself.
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March 9th, 2008 at 3:34 am
How about adding a “reply to this comment feature”. I wanted to add this too, but my skin has a special submit comment box that doesn’t work with it.
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Nate reply on March 10, 2008:
Installed it today. Hopefully you get the message!
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Jimi D reply on March 10, 2008:
Its working well, we can see. Good Stuff.
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Nate reply on March 10, 2008:
Did you get an email when I responded to your comment?
Jimi D reply on March 11, 2008:
Yes, I got an email.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:56 am
I will look into that today, Mayank!
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March 9th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
How do you do the feedburner thing where you see how many people have subscribed? I want to know that at my blog.
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March 9th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
[…] at natespost.com. Most recent article: 5 Wordpress Plugins You Can’t Live Without .Nate’s blog is funny, he has a great sense of humor, plus the most interesting thing about […]
March 9th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
You’re awesome, Anca! I’m thinking of something I can do for you. Meanwhile, anyone thinking of going to Vegas anytime soon should check out http://megavegalicious.com !
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March 9th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Chandler, login to your feedburner account and click on the publicize tab. Somewhere on that page, click on “chiclets”
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March 10th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Thanks Nate! Just wanted to show some love for the people that matter. Chandler, good question ! I didn’t know that either. I’ve just started using feedburner, but for now don’t want to display the number of subscribers
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March 10th, 2008 at 3:45 am
thanks nate. I was actually looking for Askimet this weekend but the name passed me. I came across it awhile ago but overlooked it because I assumed it was a wordpress & similar CMS only application. I built my blog system from the ground up so sometimes nice little plugins like these don’t comply.
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Nate reply on March 13, 2008:
and sorry, I mispelled it originally….it’s Akismet.
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March 10th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Jimi D, I looked at it for you and while they mainly advertise it as a wordpress plugin, they also have versions for several different platforms here - http://akismet.com/development/ If yours isn’t there, they seem to be pretty good at answering questions.
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March 10th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Yeah thanks, I’ve been wanting to get rid of that ugly recaptcha for some time now. I’ll let you know how it works out.
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March 12th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I cant get the social bookmarking plug in to work for some reason. I need to change my site to look more like yours with the two columns on both sides. Looks more clean. I may start looking for a theme like that.
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Jimi D reply on March 12, 2008:
Chandler, perhaps this will help:
Step 1: Download the plugin and unzip it in some local directory.
Step 2: Upload ‘obsocialbookmarker.php’ from local direcctory to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory at server.
Step 3: Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
Step 4: Go to “Options”>”obsocialbookmarker” and you will have choice to do following two things
a. Tick the position where you want to show the Bookmarks.
b. Tick the Bookmarks which you want to show.
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Nate reply on March 12, 2008:
Thanks so much for picking up the slack for me today, Jimi. Let us know if it worked, Chandler. If not, what tool are you using to upload to your server?
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Jimi D reply on March 13, 2008:
Sure nate, I see you’ve added a new category for your posts. When you establish a couple more, you should make a navigation for them.
March 13th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Yeah, I will eventually. I took Anca’s advice.
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Anca reply on March 13, 2008:
That’s sweet of you! Now that Jimi said it, I’ve just noticed you do have a couple of categories…cool!
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Nate reply on March 13, 2008:
See, I do listen!
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Anca reply on March 13, 2008:
Yes you do! And all of you are welcome to give me some advice too!I’m a good listener as well!
March 17th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
You forgot All in One SEO Pack. I think it should be listed here, too. It’s very useful for me.
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March 17th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Strange you mentioned that. I was planning on putting that in tonight!
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