WordPress is MY blog software of choice. We just hit 2.9.2 so I wanted to post about some of the great plug-ins that work for me. They may not be all the best ever but they are the ones that have lasted through all my upgrades and since I am showing them to you from this blog you will know something I did not when I started using them… They work together!
The Shifter Theme is one of the first WordPress Themes I bought and it has turned out to be the best of the bunch. I spent some money and some time looking for perfect but I ended up with the most options. It’s not so much a theme as it is a template system. I can add another sidebar on the fly or re-size all the sections you see on this page or add or subtract whole areas to create a blog or a portal or a front page or something in between all of those. It’s all OPTIONS that makes me keep using it over and over again. I just wish it added more actual theme styles that looked up to date but the good thing is you can turn off what little style it has. Better none, than yuck. I am thinking about asking a real graphics artist to come in here and see if she can overlay some style onto this baby.
Everybody who comments here has mentioned AJAX Edit Comments when I took it out a while ago because it went to a pay for plan. But I listen when people say they like something so I bought the $15.00 yearly subscription version for you guys. Enjoy!
NextGEN Gallery
If you use any graphics or photos on your blog then use NextGEN Gallery! It keeps them all organized and manageable over time.
Simple Tags
Simple Tags is another must have plug-in I could not live without. It’s only function is to help organize, remember, and edit your meta tags. It also lets me to show the tags of a post when you browse through the blog page. Unfortunately you get two tag lines when you click the post proper or look at the comments but small issues can be forgiven when it is such a great help.
Subscribe To Comments
Subscribe To Comments is another thing my users asked for and I highly suggest having on your blog. I install it in any blog now that has comments turned on.
Subscribe2
Subscribe2 is yet another user subscription service that should just be part of the regular WordPress build but is not. So I just load this plug-in on any install I do.
WP-Filemanager
WP-Filemanger is for those times when WordPress plug-ins do not install properly or installs get mucked up and you need to delete them. This utility is there so you do not have to login to the webserver’s file manager or login to the server using FTP or anything else. WP-Filemanger is one of those toys that could turn around and destroy your WordPress install if you accidentally delete something important but if you are very careful and know where the files are that you want to delete or rename this can do it easily through the WordPress Admin Panel.
WP-DB-Backup
Clean Options
Optimize DB
I am not a database expert so all three of these help me keep my database backed up and cleaned out and optimized but I have to warn you that a couple of these could possibly kill your WordPress install if used wrong so even though I swear by them be very careful how you use them.
Those are my suggestions for what has worked for me. What are yours?
Tags: Wordpress
Moriah Jovan wrote,
The WP-DB-Backup not only wiped out my blog, but it killed all the blogs that shared that server at my webhost. Anyway, they (and I) spent a weekend cleaning up that mess. Fortunately, it didn’t actually wipe any data out, but it was a scary 48 hours, lemme tell ya. My host told me in no uncertain terms to use the CPanel backup always.
I love NextGen gallery.
I use WP e-Commerce plugin for my shopping cart.
I use Clean Archives Reloaded because I’ve never liked how WP archives things (I can never find what I want on others’ blogs). This is what mine looks like.
I use Twitter Tools to auto-tweet my new posts.
I use Download Manager.
There are a couple of others, but only for little fixes I wanted to make.
Link | March 8th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Wow I am so switching to that Clean Archives Reloaded thingy.
That rocks! Thank you.
Link | March 8th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Moriah Jovan wrote,
Very welcome. Thank YOU for all your hard work on ebooks/devices. You are kind of my barometer for where things are going and what things I might want to implement, why, and how.
Link | March 8th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Chris wrote,
Hmm. Clean Archives Reloaded looks intriguing. I use SRG Clean Archives, but it sure doesn’t look as cool.
I’m fond of CommentLuv and ConfigureSMTP. WP Super Cache has been amazing since I added it – I went from getting 700+ spam comments a day to <20. It WAS a PITA to set up properly.
Link | March 8th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Comment Luv just plain stopped working for me when it started checking into some strange service or something I thought was stupid for what little it does.
I turned WP Super Cache off and now have to try to uninstall it which is even worse than installing it from the looks of the instructions. Because it annoyed me with how often I post or make changes and it would muck up the works when I was trying to see those changes.
I get a speed boost just making sure I keep the database optimized and cleaned up.
Link | March 8th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Chris wrote,
I was getting spam gunned and it was taking the blog down before Super Cache, so I’m a big fan now. Haven’t had trouble with it yet. But I’ll keep an eye on it.
Link | March 8th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Askimet stops most my spam and I setup that I have to give the OK for each first post by a new user which is pretty much kept the spam to a dead stand still.
Link | March 8th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Chris wrote,
Yup, that’s what I have going spam wise, plus Worst Offenders, which did nice batch deletes. None of the spam was getting past Akismet, but because of the spam gunning (hundreds of spam comments hitting Akismet within a minute or so), Akismet would go resource mad and the site would fall down flopping.
Link | March 8th, 2010 at 5:04 pm