Wordpress Plugins I Use
If you have a blog (and if you don`t, then you should . . . stay tuned for detailed tutorials on how to set one up), you know that you can end up spending a lot of time doing little repetitive tasks. Plugins can be used to eliminate all those little steps, as well as improve the usability of your blog. Lately I`ve been getting quite a few questions about which Wordpress plugins I use, so here they are.
Akismet - If you have a WP blog, you need to get this plugin activated. It comes automatically with the Wordpress installation, but you need a free API key from wordpress.com to activate it. Trust me, this sucker is worth it`s weight in gold . . . . if a plugin has a weight, that is!
Subscribe to Comments – If you go to leave a comment on my blog, you`ll notice there is a little box below the comment box which you can check to have updates to the comment section sent to you via email.
Wordpress Database Backup – You can set this to backup a copy of your blog automatically and send it to your email, store it on your server or your computer. The options range from hourly to monthly.
Broken Link Checker – It`s inevitable that after 2 years I`d have some links that don`t go anywhere anymore. This plugin makes it easy to check those and fix them.
WP Cache – A plugin that caches or stores the blog info. The idea is that if something happens and you get a sudden increase in traffic, you won`t crash your server. What can I say? I`m an optimist!
Peter`s Custom Anti-Spam – A while back, I got rid of comment moderation here on At Home Mom. To help prevent spambots from leaving comments, I use this plugin. It provides a word (you choose which words) for the commenter to type in and it`s EASY to read, unlike those wonky Blogger captchas that I never, ever get right.
WP Note – This is a brand new plugin for me. It does things like this:
Feedburner Plugin – There are several different ways for people to subscribe to a blog, so this plugin makes sure that no matter how you sign up for my RSS feed, it`s routed through Feedburner so I can keep an accurate count of how many readers I have.
Google XML Sitemap Generator – Google likes sitemaps and this is a simple way to create one for your blog. Very easy to use and it makes it that much easier for search spiders to check out your whole blog.
Subscribe Remind – You see the little note at the end of this post telling you to sign up for my RSS feed? I don`t add that, it happens automatically with this plugin. You can edit the plugin to say whatever you want and link to whatever you like, too.
too bad there aren’t any really great ones for blogger:)
The Travel Expert(a) – Living and Traveling Central America
Excellent list, I am just setting up 2 blogs, so this is perfect. I LOVE the look of WP Note!! A lot of people recommend Comment Luv – do you like it?
Christie, I do like Comment Luv, but haven`t yet installed it on this blog. I will probably do that in the next week or so. It really encourages people to comment and also offers and easy way to check their latest blog posts.
Let me know when your blogs are up, I`d love to take a look.
Marina, stay tuned, I`m going to be covering some ways to “hack” Blogger soon so you can get similar effects.