I use to have a WordPress plugin list here a long time ago and some how, it has been lost so I thought it would be fun to share a few that I feel are worthy of installation. I might even make this a weekly feature because we all know there are thousands of plugins out there, many worth at least a look-see. All but three are free but those three paid ones are, in my opinion, worth paying the money for if it’s something that suits your blogging style.
1. First up, if you do any giveaways at all, I highly recommend the Comment Contest Plugin. This plugin allows you to enter the amount of prizes, amount of entries per person, amount of winners, and then it will randomly pick those winners and if you want it to, will automatically email them to notify them that they have won and what prize. SO AWESOME! Thank you to Daisy, my WPMAMA for finding it for me!
2. Next up we have the the hRecipe Plugin for food bloggers. This is a great plugin to insert your recipe’s ingredients and instructions. The format is clean and will work very well for an awesome feature that ZipList will have available. I use it because of the clean code and because it just looks organized. You know, now that I’m thinking it about it, I bet it would be great for craft or how-to sites too! I wonder if the code can be played around a bit to display supplies instead of ingredients. It’s just a thought.
3. LinkWithin Plugin is a great alternative to ‘related posts’, especially if you have a food or photography blog but is appropriate for any kind except a deal/coupon blog. With a deal/coupon blog, it will most likely show old posts where the deal has expired. Every since installed, I noticed a big increase in click-thrus to other posts. It’s a great, nonintrusive way to display other posts in your blog. Note that it can take a few hours to crawl your site and find relatable posts.
4. Post Templates Plugin (Paid Plugin) is great if you do the same kind of posts. I use it for my standard giveaway posts but I think it would be very popular for coupon/deal blogs who are constantly creating the same type of post. Also great if you do a weekly meme. Tara turned me on to this one and so far, it’s been great for me!
5. Print Friendly Button is actually a bit of code and is available to wordpress and blogger users. Very functional, clean looking and can print via PDF with or without photos. I’ve seen it on a lot of blogs and use it on my own food blog.
5. WP-Polls and WP-Ban are both from a great programmer. WP-Polls works VERY well and I haven’t had any problems with cheating or scamming the system so to speak. WP-Ban works well for when you’ve just enough of a spammer or maybe just someone who won’t leave you alone;)
6. Gravity Forms Plugin (Paid Plugin) is just plain awesome. The forms you can create with this rocks but what makes it cool is how easy it is to use. I’ve tried several forms and this takes the cake!!! Worth every cent. This is another that Daisy recommended.
7. WPtouch is a Mobile Plugin and will turn your blog into a user friendly place for iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, and Blackberry Storm users.
8. WP Auctions Plugin (Paid Plugin) is pretty darn cool. I don’t know if you know this but ebay has increased their fees to like 9%! It’s crazy to sell things over there now because of them so the next best thing? Host them on your own blog!
9. Get Clicky Plugin for clicky users. If you have no clue what that is, you’re missing out. It’s a very thorough, easy to understand stat keeper. It keeps track of impressions, links, downloads, and sooooo much more. The Spy feature is pretty addicting.
10. Admin Drop Down Menu Plugin makes accessing the different parts of my dashboard much easier. Instead of having the menus to the left where you have to constantly scroll down to find them, it’s placed at the top with drop down menus making it much easier to access.
If you have a great plugin to share, please do so in the comments. I’d love to hear them!
Holly says
I love this post! I’ve been looking all over for a good plug in for giveaways and now I have one.
.-= Holly´s last blog ..Your Home, Invest In Something Good =-.
Cat says
wow, there’s a lot of cool plugins on there that I’ve been searching for but didn’t know existed. Thanks!
One of my favorite plugins is Comment Email Responder where you can reply to comments with the option of emailing your reply to that person so they see it.
.-= Cat´s last blog ..Radio Flyer Scoot2Skate & Smooth Rider Review =-.
Zhykos says
Hello I’m the Contest Plugin’s creator!
Thank you so much for this post! It’s cool you like it ;)
However I think I have work to do to improve my English and the plugin :)
I’m working on a V2 in which the source code will be rebuild (easier to maintain) and Twitter contest may be also included.
I’m also sorry because my website is totally in French and I’ll try to translate correctly some pages into English.
If you have some advice to translate the plugin, please tell me. Thank you!
.-= Zhykos´s last blog ..CONCOURS : Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 — Xbox 360, jeux et DLC Ã gagner ! =-.
A Cowboy's Wife says
Howdy Zhykos! I love the plugin so far. what I’d like to see is that if you choose NOT to have it automatically email the winners, that it would also provide me with the email of the ones it did choose. I had to go back to my comments and hunt for those names to email them. Next time I will try the automatic email.
another suggestion would be to have the option to enter this info while creating the post and then when the contest is over, it automatically does everything. You know what I mean? Just a thought!
Love it though and thanks for your hard work.
Zhykos says
Hello.
I see exactly what you mean ;)
For the first option I think the best way is to add an option like that : 1) Email the winner(s) / 2) Email everybody (with a different message) / 3) No email
For your second suggestion, I don’t know how to do for now but it’s a very good idea! I’ll add a field in which the admin have to add the dead line and then (s)he manage the contest. However the step where we choose how participate can be realized (all the comments are ok) …
I don’t have the time to develop this week but next week I think I’ll can do something!
.-= Zhykos´s last blog ..RÉCEPTION : Quadrilogie Die Hard (Blu-Ray) =-.
Kasandria says
Thanks Lori! I haven’t heard of some these and will def. use the Print Friendly one!
Kas
.-= Kasandria´s last blog ..THE TAKEOVER-We take over Mom’s Blog! =-.
JMom says
Thanks for this list. I need to do some blog updates and some of these plugins will certainly come in handy, especially the contest one! That would save me lots of time.
.-= JMom´s last blog ..When Life (or the internet) Sends Signals, It’s Best to Listen =-.
Summer Foovay says
Thanks so much for sharing these! I’m on my way to check out several of them that sound really useful. I am setting up a new recipe blog for my hubby the cook so I can’t wait to see the recipe plug-in and I can see so many uses for the giveaway plug in.
.-= Summer Foovay´s last blog ..Windy windy day =-.
Angie says
Thanks for sharing! I’m BM-ing this in case I ever switch over!
.-= Angie´s last blog ..CleanWear – Sponsored Post =-.
ConnieFoggles says
I’m going to give the contest plugin a try. I’m doing giveaways all month and I can use all the help I can get. And the Template one sounds great too. I’m using Clicky and love it! Bookmarking and tweeting.
.-= ConnieFoggles´s last blog ..Winners Dove Men and Peter Cottontail DVD =-.
Charla says
Thanks for posting this. I want to get the LinkWithin Plugin but our son is going to have to install it for me. My blog is over 2 1/2 yrs old and not set up like the newer ones. I’m thankful for a son who knows much more about the computer than me! :)
.-= Charla´s last blog ..Home Owners Insurance =-.
Pediatric OT says
It’s awesome to see you talking about GetClicky. Sean (the developer) works so hard to make his product the FINEST analytics program on the market today.
I also appreciated the other entires – many I had not heard of before.
Jenn Fowler says
Great list Lori! There are some that I definitely want to try.
I was wondering, do you have an opinion on the plugin to “Like” a post on facebook? I haven’t tried it yet but have noticed several folks who have it on their blogs.
What about the “tweet this” plugin? I use it on Frugal Upstate and it seems to work well as a way to let my readers share my posts on twitter.
.-= Jenn Fowler´s last blog ..I’m Back! =-.
Dave Doolin says
Thank you for featuring hRecipe Plugin for WordPress.
I work on the project a few days every month, and progress is coming along nicely.
Please contact me directly with your notion of having supplies as part of the hRecipe formatting. I’m interested in hearing more about it.
david says
it will randomly pick those winners and if you want it to, will automatically email them to notify them that they have won and what prize. SO AWESOME! Thank you to Daisy, my WPMAMA for finding it for me!