I heart Wordpress despite my little mishap the other day. I kept getting an error when trying to create a post on my store blog, which is a serious problem for blogging.
After my typical panic reaction, I re-installed Wordpress, but that didn’t fix the problem and even went to a backup since I was tinkering with the files earlier that day. Was I the one the f’d it up. So why I was freaking out, my other half says.
“Why don’t you just Google it?”
Of course I said, “I was just about to do that.”
So what does Google bring up…
Well the answer to my problem of course. A little tweak to the database and poof problem was solved and I was able to resume my posting activity.
Wordpress has an amazing support system, it’s easy to find solutions when you run into problems, it’s FREE, and it has a gazillion free templates you can borrow and some really cool plugins that are just as FREE (but except donations).
Thank you Wordpress Team for making a great open source product that is easy for even the novice designer or blogger. Thank you to all of the developers who spend their own time creating the really awesome plugins for Wordpress.
Here are the plugins that I use and love.
Akismet
Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.
All in one SEO Pack
Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog
Category Cloud Widget
Adds a sidebar widget to display the categories as a tag cloud.
Category Posts Widget
Adds a widget that can display a specified number of posts from a single category. Can also set how many widgets to show.
Comment Email Responder
Emails commenter when an admin replies to the comment, if commenter is not subscribed to email updates via Subscribe-to-Comments.
Commentluv
Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog in their comment
CyStat
A really cool Statistik-Plugin
Easy Contact
Easy Contact is a simple, semantic contact form that utilizes the Sandbox design patterns.
EntreDroppers
Outputs Entrecard Droppers. Uses Wordpress functionality to retrieve and to cache
Exclude pages from Navigation
Provides a checkbox on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation.
Feedburner FeedSmith
Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
flickrRSS
Allows you to integrate the photos from a flickr rss feed into your site.
Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog.
Photo Dropper
Lets you add Creative commons licensed Photos to Your Posts from Flickr.
Thank Me Later
Sends a customizable “thank you” message after (a few hours, few days, weeks) a comment has been posted.
Twitter Tools
A complete integration between your WordPress blog and Twitter. Bring your tweets into your blog and pass your blog posts to Twitter.
Wordpres Automatic Upgrade
Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade.
Worpress Related Posts
Generate a related posts list via tags of WordPress.
Do you have a great plugin you would like to share?
photo credit: adria.richardsI
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Only Askimet and a one-step plugin uploader so far. I’m planning to move my blog to Wordpress and this post was so helpful to me. I’ll be using your list when I finish everything.
Laurins last blog post..Our First Major Award
I love Wordpress as well and am in the process of transfering my blog over from blogger!
I will have to check out some of those widgets!
Lories last blog post..Halloween Wreath
You named one I have been looking for!! Thanks! Here’s some of mine: Clean Archives Reloaded, Google Analyticator, Google XML Sitemaps, TagMahal – Automatic tag suggester, One Click Plugin Updater
You can go crazy adding plugins! I love Wordpress!
Yes wordpress is most powerfull blog, easy and free
Thanks for the tips! I am just learning about blogs and your article was very helpful.
Oh wow. Some of this looks intimidating to me. I just started a blog and I don’t know what most of this stuff is. Thankfully I have at least figured out how to make posts. Just reading this wordpress plugin list I think I may be clueless indefinitely.
Ralphs last blog post..Committies of Correspondence
WordPress, it’s easy to create and edit categories, easy to write themelines for all categories at once, and even easy to tell when I’m writing too many words for the page — because WordPress also thinks like a designer.
I use YARPP (Yet Another Related Posts Plugin) for wordpress. I find it to much more customizable in the results it returns than any other related posts plugin.
Club Penguin Cheatss last blog post..More Club Penguin Unlock Codes
I use all of these especially CommentLuv and the SEO Pack. Tell me if the Thank Me Later plugin allows for customization;eg,to insert a message including a free gift offer?
p.s.
I don’t see a way to keep up with this reply…that’s the plugin you’re missing!
Calebs last blog post..Supertips For 2008 and 2009
It happened to me as well when you just encounter errors in wordpress which is really unusual but the next time you do the same thing, no problems occur.
Hey, very interesting post.
My written English is not so good so I write in German:
“Lieber den Spatz in der Hand, als die Taube auf dem Dach.”
Yours sincerely
Schlauchboot
Thankyou for the info, it is much appreciated!
Wordpress is such a great product, especially for new bloggers like myself.
great post of plugins, i need to add a few of those to my blog
Great list their thanx
wp auto upgrade is the one i would recommend
Great i am going to add these plugins ASAP
I have to disagree with the All in one SEO pack. It has caused too many bloggers to get sloppy and or lazy It actually hurts as many unsuspecting bloggers as it helps. I recommend using headspace 2 and taking the extra two minutes it takes to do a good job of your SEO. With wordpress 2.7 and HS2 you get a custom page title and description on the write page and a manage metadata tab in your menu that will quickly and easily allow you to edit all your meta data, or add it automatically.
Another option that totally eliminates the need to put in meta data tags for every post is available in all of my free themes. it turns your tags into meta tags automatically, but once again this bit of automation means you have to pick good tags.
Gotta love all those wordpress plugins, nice list!
I suggest to people writing quality articles, they get natural backlinks. The best SEO…
Gotta love all those wordpress plugins
Thanks for the tips! it was really usefull!!
Thanks for this list. This would be definitely useful for newbie wordpress users like me.
Filipina Blogger´s last blog post..I want to go to a concert!
quality articles
Can I use them on my blog buddy? :p
Hossam´s last blog post..BuxRev February Payment Proof
I really liked your blog! LOL!
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future. And as a designer, I think you have a pretty nice layout
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
SEO, also know as Search Engine Optimization took me some years to master. You have very nice information on SEO. Well done.
This is a nice jewelry. Thanks for the info!
Finally something new for me to learn and I am already subscribed. You can contact me if you need to.
I like it aswell
It really is quite easy… just find some good video tutorials. If you can tell me who your hosting provider I could get you exact instructions.