10 WordPress Plugins You Should Be Using!
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
29 Comments
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Great post. Found a couple of the plugins interesting.
Jay recently posted..Learn the Advantages of Web 20 Marketing For Your Business
This is pretty much everything you could ever need for a blog, some very useful plugins.
.-= Directory Submission´s amazing last blog ..One Way Backlinks =-.
It’s very refreshing to see most of the WordPress plugins in your list aren’t featured on others sites. I wrote a similar article recently based on such a premise (our lists are nearly entirely different too).
Photo Dropper is one I’ve never heard of and will prove extremely useful since I tend to go to royalty free stock photo sites, then spend the time adjusting the size of my image, adding links to conform etc etc.
Thanks for the great list! Given it’s a few months old now and the plugin market is very fast paced, have you any plans to do a follow up post including any new plugins you’ve adopted?
.-= Rob´s amazing last blog ..Visual Voicemail: An open letter to Vodafone UK =-.
Hey Rob, thanks for the great comments you have left on the site, and you can be sure that I will be checking out your plugins list.
As for a follow-up post, I’m sure I can work one in in the near future.
Karl
The alternative to “Smush.it” is our old friend – Photoshop, which makes the same things.. but is (maybe) a little bit complicated for someone.
Speaking about “Photo Dropper”… That’s a discovery for me
Thanks! I’m too addicted to having images in my posts 
I guess I spend too much time tweaking them in Photoshop… I’ll give this plug-in a try, will see what it is 
) Thanks again!
.-= iWoodpecker´s amazing last blog ..Essential Aim of Online Web Site Promotion: What is More Important than External Links? =-.
You can Smush your whole site with one click using the Smush.it plugin, not all themes are created with image compression in mind.
I’m sure you’ll like the Photo Dropper plugin.
Karl
Karl…
I was checking all the above plugin links and i found that WordPress About The Author Box link showing parse error… check it out please.
.-= deepika´s amazing last blog ..My Favourtie Posts@Which I Have Read =-.
Thanks Deepika, I’ll look into it.
Hi Karl,
Actually I use some, but none on the list. I think I should install another one from your list.
Thanks for your sharing.
best regards,
Harry
That’s great to hear Harry.
Hi Karl,
This post is awesome. With this title all will repeat the same set of plugins. But you have mentioned different plugins. First thanks for that. I am using BlogEngage in my blog. I try to install author box and yet another related post plugin in my blog. In my blog in commenting section i dont have reply option. I want to use differnt comment plugin box in my blog.. can you suggest any plugin for that?
.-= Deepika ´s amazing last blog ..Tips To Become A Unique Blogger =-.
I’ll try and find the ones I like and share them with you asap.
hi Karl,
i cleared that commenting section problem in my blog. And now its working good.
.-= Deepika´s amazing last blog ..My Favourtie Posts@Which I Have Read =-.
Hey, I’ve found two plugins that are important. Thanks for sharing this. I have been finding solutions about my related post and author info.
Related Posts (YARPP) and the About The Author Box are awesome plugins that I wouldn’t have a blog without (unless they were hardcoded into the theme of course).
Nice to see you here Walter.
Karl
Thanks for these, some very cool stuff in that list.
Glad you found it useful Jane.
That Aweber plugin definitely looks like it would be handy … but I have to admit, I’ve been a bad blogger, and haven’t really been making an effort to build my list.
Hey Todd,
I would recommend you get started straight away but I must warn you, blogs are notorious for having low opt-in rates!
Karl
Thanks for the great tips! I will look into these plugins. Thanks A Bunch!
You’re welcome,
Karl
10 WordPress Plugins You Should Be Using! – http://www.fmsseo.com/550…
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I’d leave the ClickBank plug-in from your post simply because not every blogger is using ClickBank to make money
I wanted to but just couldn’t make any single cent out of it lol I’m so bad at affiliate marketing.
Valid point Michael but then I could say the same for AWeber or even the social icons, not every blogger is on Twitter or Facebook.
I’m a big fan of Clickbank just for the simple reason it is a great entry point to affiliate marketing.
Thanks for dropping in and taking the time to comment.
Karl
10 WordPress Plugins You Should Be Using! – http://b2l.me/aumba (via @karlfoxley)
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From all the plugins mentioned here I think I’m most interested in the About The Author Box. When marketing your website and building relationships it\’s beneficial to add a little BIO information. People like to get to know one another and this opens the doors of communication.
Thank for posting about the blogengage plugin Karl it’s greatly appreciated!
I love that plugin! You have to manually change the code to have it display at the end of the post rather than the top. I am hoping that in a future update of the plugin, that the option to choose the location of the bio box will become available in the WP admin area.
It was a nice surprise to visit http://blogengage.com/blogger/ and see my website right there, thanks for that Brian!
Regards,
Karl
I just installed the BE plug-in on my blog – will definitely be looking into a couple others from your list, so thank you!
Anne @ b6s.net
Hi Anne,
I’m glad you found the post useful.
Regards,
Karl