More Cool plugins for Wordpress

[esearing]

I recently upgraded to wp2 in order to take advantage of the sidebar widgets. That was just the beginning of what turned out to be a major overhaul.

Here are the top 8 plugins I added that make blog management much more simple or add value.

Sidebar Widget: Lets you manage the sidebar appearance easily. Add as many text fields and sidebar plugins as you want. You can even put code in the text boxes.

AdsenseDeluxe - This was aready mentioned in another thread but what is really cool is you can use it for any affiliate program or code insert. You can even put in your own ads.

ClickCounter - Counts click for external links. Then you can mouse over them and see howmany people have clicked the link. Also stores the data in a table so you can query the info too.

Paypal Donate - (sidebar widget) - Easy to use and attractive form to encourage donations.

Subscribe2 - (sidebar widget) - Encourages subscriptions. The only flaw is that it requires you to create a new page entry rather than just using as text link.
But once you create your subscibe page you can create a link to it from anywhere in your site.

Amazon - This plugin adds a text link in your editor to let you easily incorporate amazon links to your posts. WARNING: make sure you replace all instances of the authors Amazon IDs with your own, even in the PHP. Suggests books, cds, or other products within your posts.

PostRatings - Gives readers a chance to rate each post.

Related Posts - works automagically to find similar posts to the current post. Works OK but sometimes pulls in unrelated posts.

I plan to install UTW (Ultimate Tag Widget) for adding tags to posts. Tags can help people find you on Technorati or other blog search sites. Also improves SEO supposedly.

One word of caution, using too many plugins makes your layout difficult to manage. You may have to know a little php/html to keep the appearance clean.

[fairdoes]

Great info, but I have a relatively mundane question!

For a newbie to WordPress, which WordPress template do you recommend as being particularly SEO-friendly?

I'm thinking of the layout of links to posts, pages, previous, next, etc.

Thanks.

[torka]

There's nothing particularly SEO unfriendly about any of the templates I've come across so far.

You will likely want to install a plug in such as "SEO Title Tag" to ensure you can give each page a unique and keyword-appropriate HTML title tag. You may also want a plugin to make it easier to associate a META description with your posts and pages.

The templates themselves, though, are generally not search-unfriendly to start with. Pick one based on how you like the look. You honestly don't need to worry much about the SEO ramifications of your choice, IMO.

--Torka

[fairdoes]

Thanks Torka, I'll enjoy playing with WordPress when I have the time, but I'm trying to concentrate on WORK at the moment!

The plugins sound great. I suppose my only concerns are that the latest blogger lists every post and label (making users lazy?) and I also wonder about three columns or two.

I am taking a look at most of the famously 'hot' blogs from this site - the ones that threaten to melt their servers or wreck the bearings through SO much traffic ...

[torka]

What I like about WP is that it's not just for blogs. It can be used as a "straight" content management system with the addition of just a few plugins. The site in my signature, for instance, runs on WP software.

So if you set up a business site using WP as the CMS, you can, theoretically, play with WP and be concentrating on work at the same time!

--Torka

[fairdoes]

play with WP and be concentrating on work at the same time!

Good idea

[Karri]

SemioLogic has a fantastic WP as CMS template system. I always plug this one because I've used it myself and you can do so much with it just by adding a custom.css file and tinkering around with it. Plus Denis has a free support forum and is very good at providing quick answers to your questions.

Karri

[divx712]

I don't like wordpress because every time I register with wordpress bloggind tool I can't use my own password because it sends some stupid unrememberable password. Really annoying.

[SimonHeseltine]

I've really got to spend some time and migrate one of my blogs from blogger to wordpress, there just seems to be so much more available for it over there, and when last I looked, it has an easy migration from Blogger option that I'll take full advantage of

[torka]

divx712, are you talking about the hosted WordPress.com, or the software you download from WordPress.org and install on your own web server?

I'm not familiar with how WordPress.com works, as I host all my own sites, but with the installed software, once you log in the first time you can set your password to be whatever you want it to be.

--Torka