The list of plugins currently available for WordPress is nearly endless. Anything you want to do with your WordPress blog has probably already been thought of by someone else and turned into a plugin and/or widget.
Here are my current ten favorite plugins for WordPress (bear in mind I have more than 40 of them installed.)
- Admin menu – this plugin adds a menu along the top of the blog for the authors when they are logged in and is a convenient shortcut that lets you avoid having to look for or memorize the commonly used links that get you into the backend.
- Democracy – a plugin that gives you AJAX polls on your blog. Make sure you install the widget as well so they can be displayed anywhere in your sidebar(s).
- Popularity Contest – full of tweakable measures that allow you to figure out which of your posts and pages are receiving the most attention.
- Lighter Menus – provides drop down menus on the backend so you spend less time clicking around during the creative process.
- TinyMCE Comments – a plugin that adds useful features to the comment editing menu for your visitors who want to participate.
- WP Super Cache – if you’ve ever been Dugg or Slashdotted this plugin will save your bacon. WP Super Cache ensures that your pages aren’t reloading any more than they need to and speeds up your blog by decreasing server load. Particularly useful if you are on a chintzy hosting plan with low bandwidth.
- WordPress Database Backup – If your blog has been active for a few years, and you care about the historical record of whatever it is you write about, this is a critical plugin. It allows you to easily backup your database to a local computer.
- Google Analytics – useful if you’ve signed up for Google Analytics and want an easy way to add your WordPress blog to your tracked sites.
- cforms II – ever wanted an easy way to add forms to your WordPress blog? If so, cforms II is the easiest way I have found.
- Adsense Manager – assuming you have monetized your blog with any popular advertising scheme, Adsense Manager is a great plugin that allows you to easily plugin ad boxes where you want them. AdSense Manager supports a number of popular revenue generators including, of course, Google AdSense.
If 10 new plugins are not enough to make your WordPress blog work better for you then try this list of 100 WordPress plugins as recommended by Bootstrapper. If you are still not satisfied then you can find the other 2,000+ plugins for WordPress located right here. The most popular plugins (as rated by WordPress users) are located here. These should represent a good measure of the plugins that will be most useful across the board to new bloggers or bloggers who are just learning about the vast depth of WordPress plugins available.
Don’t forget to support these plugin developers if you can. Plugins that are financially supported are much more likely to have a long development life and will therefore benefit you more in the long term.