10 WordPress plugins to make life simpler!
We love our custom stuff, don’t we? We like to see things that are tailor made to our purposes and Wordpress is one such fine example of a suit that fits everybody. The level of customization that Wordpress offers is what sets it apart in this world of Content Management Systems. Today, we shall take a look at my list of 10 Wordpress plugins that reduce our collective headaches and let us concentrate on what we bloggers love doing best, write!
Please note
- The plugins listed below cut down on administration time and are in no particular order, all are dead useful, get ‘em all!
- The bold link is the plugin page
- The “down arrow button” indicates direct download link. Click it, and the plugins all yours.
- And, oh yes, I don’t think its necessary but you need to upload all the plugins in the /wp-content/plugins/ folder, tee hee!
Upgrading WordPress manually can sometimes be mildly nerve-wracking, but with this nifty plugin, the whole upgrade takes less than 2 minutes. It puts the site in maintenance mode, downloads the files, de-activates all the plugins and does your job cleanly. It also offers you an option to backup the database and your content to hard disk, in thegoddamned case something does go wrong.
How many times have you wanted to contact the admin after reading something? WP-Contact form helps you do just that. This easy-to-setup plugin is a smart contact form with anti-spam features and with great accessibility. You can edit its CSS too, to jazz it up a bit.
3) WP-Stats 
Numbers don’t lie alright, but I hate too many numbers. Data can be overwhelming at times and that is where this plugin helps. It gives you real time data of page views per post, search engine terms, links people clicked and your referrers. Exactly what you’d like to see.
You will need a Wordpress API key for this, which can be obtained by registering at WordPress.com
extJS or Extended Java Script is the new Web 2.0 interface hottie and I simply love it. What it does is, replace the boring and rather irritating Admin panel navigation with a supremely functional drop down list which will surely cut down on your navigation times within the Admin panel.
5) FeedBurner FeedSmith Plugin
What this plugin does is really simple. It detects all ways of accessing your RSS feed and redirects them to your Feedburner feed, so that you can keep a track of your RSS data with consummate ease.
This plugin allows you to easily edit the title, description and meta tags for any page or post in the blog, optimizing it for the search engines.
Lots of AdSense plugins out there, but I’m really used to this particular one. It allows you to place ads within posts, which would have otherwise taken a load of template editing.
This plugin generates a XML sitemap automatically, with options on how much priority to give to a particular kind of page. Like a post, homepage, static page etc. It generates a new sitemap everytime a new post is made and notifies the 3 biggies of the search engine world; Google, Yahoo and MSN. Definitely boosted my rankings, this one.
9) WP-YouTube
Posting a YouTube video in WordPress without any mods is a right pain in the neck. But with this plugin, you get to post videos using a simple syntax which makes use of YouTube video ID. Et Voila!!
10) Akismet Spam
This one’s a no brainer, really. If you have a WordPress blog that is listed on the search engines, then you do get a LOT of spam. The Akismet Spam plugin takes care of just that and hardly any spam escapes the long hands of Akismet. Created by Matt Mullenweg, the brain behind Wordpress, all hail him!
If you know of similar plugins which make an Admin’s life easier, do post it in the comments, ok?
Also, do tell me, if you found this useful.
Tags: blogging, plugins, WordPress