Welcome To FMS SEO

Owning a self-hosted Wordpress blog can be one of the most thrilling experiences for the new website owner. Whether you are using your Wordpress powered website as a traditional content management system, e-commerce store, affiliate site, portfolio site, or anything else you can come up with, there are a multitude of plugins that can give your site a whole new dimension.

Some plugins can help you earn money from your blog, others will add a touch of personal branding, whatever you would like your blog to do there is usually a plugin that can do it for you.

What’s great about Wordpress is that they have made it even easier to install a plugin. I covered how to do this in my CommentLuv post (so read that now if you want to see how you can save time installing future plugins).

Now, for the plugins I possibly couldn’t live without.

Wordpress Affiliate Clickbank Plugin

This is one of the newest plugins on the block and it is going to knock the other Clickbank plugins out of the water. If you head-on-over to the site you will be able to watch a video to see why this is my Clickbank plugin of choice.

The Wordpress Clickbank Affiliate Plugin currently costs $47 and the price is set to go up with each update. Is it worth the cost! Watch the video and see what you think!

Here’s the link: Wordpress Clickbank Affiliate Plugin

Smush.it

Do not run a blog without this plugin! Smush.it is a WP plugin that will automatically run your images through Yahoo’s Smush.it behind the scenes allowing your web-pages to have optimal loading times (great for image heavy posts).

Smush.it uses optimisation techniques specific to image format to remove unnecessary bytes from image files. It is a “lossless” tool, which means it optimises the images without changing their look or visual quality.

Here’s the link: WP-Smush.it

For more information on Yahoo’s Smush.it or to use it directly then click here.

BlogEngage

Do you see that vote button at the top of this page right next to the Topsy button? That is the BlogEngage Wordpress Vote Button Plugin.

I recently wrote a post about the BlogEngage community, ‘How BlogEngage Can Make You A Better Blogger‘ and I recommend you read that before you grab the plugin.

I must warn you, this plugin is more like a lifestyle choice as you are going to find yourself entering into a warm and welcoming community of fellow bloggers!

Here’s the link: BlogEngage Wordpress Plugin

Clicky Web Analytics

Clicky Web Analytics WP Plugin allows you track your visitor stats right there on your blog dashboard. I wrote a post that covers why I love the Clicky Analytics package so be sure to read that by clicking here.

Clicky does have a free version so you’ll still get some great info about who is visiting your site and where on your blog. At the time of writing they will give you 30 days free access to a pro account so give it a whirl!

Here’s the link: Clicky Wordpress Plugin

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

It’s a sad fact that many people will only read the blog post they have landed on before leaving again to surf the net.

The Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) goes some-way to address this problem by adding a section below your posts with posts that are of a similar topic.

Scroll to the bottom of this article and you’ll this plugin in action. This can be a great way to keep visitors on your blog for longer.

Here’s the link: Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Frame Buster

The frame buster Wordpress plugin is one of my favourite plugins out there. When a visitor comes to your page inside a frame (Google Images, Digg bar, and many Twitter apps use frames) Frame Buster will pop your website right on out of it!

I don’t know about you but I want my visitors to see my site the way it was intended.

You can read more about the plugin in this post I wrote where you’ll also be able to watch a video showing the plugin in action.

Here’s the link: Frame Buster Wordpress Plugin

Find Me On

How would you like some great looking easy to use social media buttons just like we have in our sidebar for sharing your social media profiles.

Find Me On has a few flavours so you can have bigger buttons than those we are using.

Find me On features the most popular social media sites so you should find the ones that you need.

Having this as a Widget is a great addition to sharing your social media profiles.

Here’s the link: Find Me On

Photo Dropper

Ever needed a nice image for your blog post only to find you need to top up your I-Stock account with funds.

Photo Dropper comes to the rescue by allowing you to search for images on Flickr.com by keyword.

The plugin searches for Creative Commons licensed photos / images that are licensed for shared use, and lets you drop them into your posts, right from your dashboard with just 1 click.

I think it’s awesome!

Here’s the link: Photo Dropper Wordpress Plugin

AWeber Integration

Are you using AWeber to manage your newsletter and email list.

Integrating your AWeber Web Form into your Wordpress blog has never been easier with the AWeber Integration plugin.

The plugin allows you to insert an opt-in form into your sidebar just by dragging the widget to your desired location.

You can see the plugin in action by looking at the top of our sidebar. Are you receiving our newsletter yet?

Here’s the link: AWeber Integration Wordpress Plugin

Wordpress About The Author Box

Isn’t it nice to read a blog post and have a short author photo and bio somewhere for you to see!

The Wordpress About The Author Box plugin allows you to do just that for your blog. Scroll to the end of this post and you will see a photo of me and my bio pulled-in from my Wordpress User ‘About Me’ section.

This plugin also works with multi-author blogs.

Here’s the link: Wordpress About The Author Box [link removed as site no longer exists]

Right, that’s my round-up!

If you had to share your favourite plugin what would it be and why?

To your success,

Karl Foxley

You May Also Enjoy Reading:

1. Stop Frames From Holding Your Wordpress Blog Hostage
2. Wordpress Plugins For Search Engine Optimisation
3. Add Autoresponder Web Forms To Your Wordpress Blog
4. How To Easily Integrate An AWeber Opt-In Form With Your Wordpress Blog
5. BlogEngage Can Make You A Better Blogger (And Bring You Lots Of Visitors)!

Karl Foxley is an SEO Consultant, Internet Marketer, Business Coach and Co-Founder of FMS SEO. Karl seeks to make SEO and Internet Marketing jargon free for the every day user. Connect with Karl on Twitter or Facebook.