I was reading around the web today looking for ways to make the blog better and I stumbled on a post over at sitepoint about 10 must have Wordpress Plugins. Surprisingly, I’m already running most of the ones listed, but I thought it was time for me to make another list of my favorite plugins and the reasons I like them. So here goes:

• Comment Timeout 2.0.1 – One of the worst things on a blog is comment spam (you know those “I read your post and it is good” comments that get left by ‘Super Duper Webhosting Wow’). Akismet helps keep down a good bit of that, but the comment timeout plugin gets the rest by doing something Wordpress *should* do automatically. After a set time period (one month, one week, days) the comments close. It gets extended a bit every time someone comments in order to keep the discussion alive. It works rather well and has reduced my time editing spam to almost nil.
• CommentLuv – One of the best ways to help out people who leave comments on your site. It crawls their site and if possible, grabs the latest post (though newer versions of the plugin also have the ability to allow the person to choose one of the last five posts) and links back to it. Giving both you and the poster some deep link luv. Its developed in to a kind of movement and has its own site and program to go along with it. If you want to see it in action, leave a comment here…
• Google Site Maps – The big G loves to crawl your site. Providing them with a map makes it easier, and the google site maps plugin makes it mindless. Add the plugin, set the parameters and its done. No more worries and you have a good site map for the robots to find.
• LinkCurl – LinkCurl takes the tags (or categories) you add to your post and grabs a handful related links and appends them to your post. It takes a little longer to post the post due to it crawling the web, but it helps add links to your site (and the little boost from return traffic is swell). I’ve edited the code a bit to make it work a little better. If you’d like my copy, let me know and I’ll send it to you (or post it here).
• Quoter – Allows commenters to quote other comments. That way, if there’s something Gruntled said that you don’t like you can make sure to comment on his comment. Comment.
• Related Posts – If your readers liked the post they read, maybe they’d like this other one? This plugin recommends other posts for your readers to read. After all, its all about getting them to stay on your site right?
• Subscribe to Comments – Does what it says it does. It allows your readers to subscribe to the comments when they comment. Automatically emailing them if anyone else comments, that way they can follow the discussion.
• Top Friends – Top Friends allows you to list your friends in a block on the side and post a link to their most recent post. This is cool as it gives some updating love to your friends or blogs you like. Also shows the frequency of their updates.
• Wordpress Mobile – In this day and age, there is no reason not to have a mobile enabled site. I pull my site up on my Blackberry all the time (as though someone else is going to update it) and I hate it when other sites aren’t enabled for mobile devices. You’d think that in the age of the iPhone and the Blackberry that everyone would be. Well, now with Wordpress Mobile, its as easy as activate. Check it out, you’ll be glad you did. If you use it, let me know, I’d love to see your site on my phone!
• All in One SEO Pack – This provides Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog. You can control the keywords, description and more from the simple to use admin interface with this plugin. Now you have NO REASON not to be SEO approved!

All of these plugins are in use here on the site and they are in no way all that I have. If you have a favorite plugin, let me know what it is, I’d love to check it out. Also, most of these can be installed directly via the plugin manager in WP these days…

Related External Links

• 10 Quick Win jQuery Plugins | Steve Reynolds Blog
• SEO Tools (136 tools) | Domain&Hosting Review, Make Money Online …
• Trends in Web Design Involving WordPress | I'd Rather Be Writing …

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