I was a late bloomer when it came to WordPress but I have to admit that I’m happy I finally switched over.
When you first install WordPress, your blog has a very basic and plain theme. It’s up to you to find a theme you like or have one customized. You can spice up your blog with different plugins which can add various features and functionalities to your blog.
There are literally thousands of plugins online today that you can get but it’s best to download the ones that will add the greatest value to your blog. It can be quite time consuming to locate the ones you want and which ones are relevant. It’s rather easy to do though. To install a plugin you just log into your WP dashboard, click on “Plugins” in the left sidebar, and then click “Add New”. From here, you can do a search for each of the plugins listed below. When you find it, click on “Install” on the right side of the screen, and then follow the prompts to install and activate your plugin… And ta da! It’s done!
If you are building a business for yourself and would like to learn more about these plugins, I have put together a list of my personal top 7 favorites to help you optimize your blog in the best possible way!
1. MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer ~ This is a plugin that will actually help your blog from being marked as spam. Did you know your WordPress blog pings unnecessarily every time you edit a post? Think how many times you click on “Save and Continue Editing” or the “Save” button. Your blog will ping unnecessarily that many times you click on those buttons. Save your blog from getting tagged as ping spammer by installing this plugin. It seems that all the WordPress versions, even the latest has this problem.
2. ShareThis ~ This is the plugin that is at the bottom of every post that let’s your visitors share a post/page with others. It also supports e-mail and posting to social bookmarking sites as well.
3. Tweetmeme ~ This is the Twitter icon you see on this post. It helps visitors ‘Re-tweet’ (share your post on Twitter) your content and it also tracks it nicely, so you have great social proof on your blog!
4. What Would Seth Godin Do ~ This is a plugin that actually cookies visitors and tracks who’s new and who’s returning. You can then craft welcome messages accordingly… See the welcome message at the beginning of this post for an example.
5. Video Sidebar ~ This is a plug in that displays videos such as Vimeo, YouTube, MySpace Videos etc. It now includes Random Video Sidebar Widget to randomly display 1 out of 5 preset video.
6. WP Super Cache ~ This is a plugins that helps speed up the load time of your blog. The more plugins you install, the slower your blog load time will get…
7. Wickett Twitter ~ This is the plugin you will see on the sidebar of your blog that display your Tweets.
Hope you found this post informational and I always enjoy your feedback.
P.S. Do you have any favorite plugins that weren’t mentioned here? PLEASE DO share them by commenting below! Look forward to hearing from you.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, i enjoyed reading your post! I’m definitely going to bookmark it Thank you for your info.And this is my blog http://skyje.com . It pretty much covers social blogging news.Thanks.
Thanks Skyje…. I appreciate the comment and I have already run over to your blog and found some info I have also been searching for. I’m SO glad you dropped in to comment. I’ve been looking for plugins for setting up social bookmarking icons. You’ve got a great post about it so thank you my friend. I will bookmark your site and visit often. Your information is very helpful.
Hi,
Thanks for featuring my plugin in your Top 7 Favorite WordPress Plugins list!
Regards,
Denzel
You are SO welcome Denzel…. These by far are my top favorites. Will be adding more in the future.