In Blogging , General Stuff , How to | Tags: plug-ins, wordpress | | June 17, 2009
WordPress is the most widely used publising platforms available. While it is fully functional straight out-of-the-box, there are a number of essential plug-ins that will greatly improve your blogging experience.
WordPress plug-ins are very easy to install and with a large community of developers working with and using WordPress you will find a plug-in to perform almost any function you can imagine.
Below are five of the most essential ones:
1: Akismet (Automattic Kismet) by Matt Mullenweg.
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service * to see if they look like spam or not.
It is free for personal use but you will need a WordPress.com API key *
2: WP-reCAPTCHA by Jorge Peña.
Integrates reCAPTCHA * anti-spam solutions with wordpress.Â
WP-reCAPTCHA includes audio alternative for the visually impaired.
You may not need to use this if you have Akismet (above) installed.
3: Wordpress.com Stats by Andy Skelton.
Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.
4: WP-Polls by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan
Adds an AJAX * poll system to your WordPress blog. You can easily include a poll into your WordPress’s blog post/page. WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and CSS styles and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you wanted. It now supports multiple selection of answers.
5: Contact Form 7 by Takayuki Miyoshi
Just another contact form plug-in. Simple but flexible. You can use multiple contact forms and place these on any page or blog post. It can be customised with simple HTML markup. Uses a cool jQuery plugin to submit.
Contact Form 7 also works with Akimet and WP-reCAPTCHA (1 and 2 above) for spam control.
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7 ResponsesLeave a comment
Ahhhhhh! I could debate that list. I hate captchas.
I would include a few though –
“Subscribe To Comments” – I like to be reminded which sites I have commented on!
“WP Ajax Edit Comments” – Gives people a chance to edit those typos.
“WP Super Cache” – Essential for speeding up busy sites.
“WP-SpamFree” – Traps a lot of the crap before it even gets to Akismet.
Thanks Grandad.
I agree that Captcha can be bothersome. I had it on this blog then removed it to see if Akismet on it’s own was OK, and so far it is. It may be useful for really busy sites. We’ll see, when the traffic here becomes unmanageable!! Although I will try out your WP-SpamFree plugin first.
Some of your other suggestions will go into the next round-up, the ‘not-so-essential but nice’ list.
I would have put my lot in the essentials! I have about twelve others that are ‘nice to have’.
I think yours would come somewhere in-between – ‘Useful but not essential’ whereas ‘nice to have’ would be all the other cool and pretty stuff.
I thought long and hard about this – the most essential ones before handing the WP over to your client are pretty basic ones really. In fact, I see that Akismet is now part of the basic download on the latest version of WP!
Great list of plugins. I use most of them with every project I do. I also love WassUp for those who can’t wait for google analytics to tell them their up to date statistics on visitors!
Thanks Susan, the ‘useful but not essential’, ‘really nice’ and ‘really, really nice’ lists coming soon!
[...] we listed what we think are the 5 most essential plug-ins for WordPress, and 5 Useful but not essential ones. Today’s round up is a list of the ones we think are [...]