It has been officially one month since I upgraded to WordPress CMS and what I can tell you is that it is the best CMS script I have ever used. It is very simple, clean, and easy to use. I do not know why I did not use it in the first place. Well maybe it is because I am that type of person that says "everyone is using it." Well I am now part of that everyone.
What I will be doing on this one month of WordPress use is I will be writing a small post and descriptions of all the plugins I use. Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress. Plugins offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs. Plugins are one of the most valuable elements of WordPress as a platform. That is the best part about wordpress, plugins. These plugins are easily installed and work right away. They easily blend in with the WordPress CMS layout and the options are very simple.
Well here is my list of PlugIns that I use:
- Ad Rotator 1.0
Helps me rotate ads among readers on pagelaods, so my pages do not get cluttered with too many ads. - Adsense Manager 1.8
Helps me adjust and create Adsense code without copy and paste - Ajax Comments 2.07
Updates comments on the spot with out page reload - Akismet 2.0
Comment Spam Filter, MUST HAVE! - aLinks 1.0rc1
Autolink base on repeated keywords that are typed. - All in One SEO Pack
Helps me create meta tags per post I create. This is good for SEO. - Evermore 2.2
Strips part of the post so the post is viewable on the main page and allows the reader to read more if interested in the post. This I find helpful because some blogs I find have their whole post on the main page with maybe 10 more post. I find this very annoying if I do not want to read the first post after reading the first 5 sentences. - Google SiteMaps 2.7.1
This generator will create a Google compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. This is another great tool for SEO. - Link to Me TextBox 1.0
Creates a text link box for users to easily copy your link. Great since I just started to learn about trackback. - Popularity Contest 1.2.1
This will enable ranking of your posts by popularity; using the behavior of your visitors to determine each post’s popularity. - Recent Comments 1.18
Retrieves a list of the most recent comments. - Related Posts 2.04
Returns a list of the related entries based on active/passive keyword matches. This is great plugin since it will help readers stay on my page more frequent. - Search Meter 2.1
Keeps track of what your visitors are searching for. I use this to determine what readers want to read about more as well as what products are more popular. Knowing what the readers want helps me create post that maybe others would like to read about. - Share This 1.4
Great bookmarking tool. - Subscribe to Comments 2.1
Allows readers to recieve notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. - Viper's Video Quick Tags
Allows me to embed videos within my post without YouTubes Copy Paste code, I just need the URL! - What Woud Seth Godin Do
Displays a custom welcome message to new visitors, asking them to either join my newsletter or subscribe to my RSS feed. - WP-DBManager 2.10
Manages your WordPress database. Helps me Optimize and BackUp. - WP-PostRatings 1.10
Adds in an Ajax rating system to each post.
All these plugins help me optimize my website in many ways. The goal of a blog is to be perfectly optimized aswell as content needs to be monetized.
Having all these plugins does not make my site unique, I use them because I need them to either help me gather specific data about the reader, make it more Google Friendly, create an environment of interaction, etc. Just because the plugins does a great unique job does that mean I want to use it. I went through several ad rotators until I found a good simple one I liked.
Some of the plugins were unique and was the only specific plugin that does that specific task. So there is my list for my WordPress CMS as it is officially 1 month since I first installed WordPress!
Are there other plugins out there that do a much better job than the ones I posted? Do you have a plugin that is not listed but it has helped your blog become successful? Talk about it below!
