I was going to name this post something along the lines of “My top ten WordPress plugins” but I realized that I might not stay true to a number so I’m just going to list my favourite plugins. They are the ones that make my website tick and help me run things smoothly around here. I’m going to try and incorporate dupes for the most popular ones for other blogging platforms n_n.

Twitter Tools

Twitter Tools has to be my favourite Twitter-related plugin ever. I remember that I used it a long time ago, but with the lack of customization for the links it posted on my Twitter timeline, I switched back to Twitterfeed. Now it is better than ever! Some of the features are:

• Customization for posting link in your timeline (e.g.: “New at -blogname-” instead of “New post”)
• bit.ly integration including API
• Twitter timeline widget for your sidebar
• Tweeting from your own website
• Publishing of a compilation of your tweets

The best dupe for another platform: Twitterfeed, it posts a tweet whenever your website is updated. Also you ca turn it on and off whenever you want.

WP-Cufón

What this little awesome plugin does, is allow for you to implement custom types on your website. That’s how I can have my custom fonts and titles everywhere without having to make images for them. @font-face and the Google Font API are nice ways to do the same but they are not stable enough for me yet.

The only bad part about them all: they don’t work in IE ¬¬. Who keeps using IE anyways?

Dupes for other blogging platforms: @font-face and the Google font API.

Fast and secure contact form

I remember that before I used this little plugin, I would get a lot of spam mail. I still do, but it no longer comes from my contact form. This handy little contact form is super easy to install as well as secure because it includes a captcha field to stop spambots from flooding your email.

Dupes for other blogging platforms: Not really sure, but I guess turning on captcha on your comments would do the trick.

WP-Spam Free

This little guy is awesome! It gives you all sorts of info about who comments on your blog, from their ISP to their IP. It’s good for when you want to ban someone for leaving hateful comments. I totally recommend it if only to know where your readers come from.

Dupes for other blogging platforms: I really don’t know but it’s always good to moderate all your comments, IMO.

WP-Polls

For all those little polls that come to my mind every once in a while. I like it because it’s easy to set up a poll, track it, and the take it down. It gives you info on who votes (if they have ever commented, it will tell you who voted on what) and will give you info on where they are.

Dupes for other bloggin platforms: I’m pretty sure that blogger has it’s own poll widget.

Sexy Bookmarks

Generates beautiful social media icons at the end of your posts, they even have cool effects and everything. You can configure how you want to share your stuff (which services to use like bit.ly, twitter username, etc). They are super sleek and look good in all websites.

Dupes for other blogging platforms: Share this works on pretty much every website.

All-in-One Adsense and YPN

This is the genius plugin that managed my Google Ads, I just implemented them today and really wanted them somewhere non intrusive. I’m planning on selling advertising with the WP125 plugin (which manages ads that are 125 px x 125 px), but that might come later on.

Dupes for other blogging platforms: I’ve never used YPN, but Adsense is easy to install in every website.

WordPress Thread Comment

This plugin makes threaded comments a reality. However, and this is a big however, IT IS A PAIN to customize. Seriously, it foes what it wants and the CSS is a nightmare. I configured it once and when it did what I wanted I left it at that. I’m not even sure that it would look good with more than 2 threaded comments but it is in my colours, in my own comments function so I can’t complain. I’ve thought about removing it, but I haven’t because it was so hard to customize….

Dupes for other blogging platforms: None that I know of, but there must be some script out there that does the same thing.

There you ave it, my best 8 WordPress plugins. they are the main ones, I have a bunch installed but I don’t really use them. If you use WordPress, what are your favourite plugins? If you use another platform, which functions do you like the most about it?

Kisses,

Julie.

Posted on: July 30, 2010 10:00 am
Filed under: geekery By Julie

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