Many people are scared of adding plugins to their blogs because of the consequences should the new addition corrupt their data and they lose all of their hard work.
I must admit that I am reluctant to test new plugins on one of my active blogs, this blog however was created specifically for my first guide on setting up an online business and thus makes an ideal test bed for suggested plugins.
Currently I have the following plug ins installed
2
2.5.5
Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from comment and trackback spam. It keeps your site protected from spam even while you sleep. To get started: 1) Click the "Activate" link to the left of this description, 2) Sign up for an Akismet API key, and 3) Go to your Akismet configuration page, and save your API key.
By Automattic.
3
1.6.13.8
Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog. Options configuration panel | Upgrade to Pro Version | Donate | Support | Amazon Wishlist
By Michael Torbert.
4
.1
Enables the use of REL and just about anything else in author bios. WARNING - Could be used for evil! Make sure you trust your authors!
By John Pozadzides.
5
2.0.4.1
Audio Player is a highly configurable but simple mp3 player for all your audio needs. You can customise the player's colour scheme to match your blog theme, have it automatically show track information from the encoded ID3 tags and more. Go to your Settings page to start configuring it.
By Martin Laine.
7
2.3.3
Saves your wordpress blog from getting tagged as ping spammer. (Note: this plugin is a fork of the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer plugin, with registration/activiation functionality removed.)
By chipbennett.
8
3.0.1.7.6
Adds CommentLuv links to comments, protects you from spam, encourages twitter followers, adds keywords to names and increases traffic and community!
By Andy Bailey.
9
1.1
Redirect commenters who just made their first comment to a page of your choice. On this page, you could ask them to subscribe, like you on Facebook and lots more!
By Joost de Valk.
11
4.0
Removes the evil nofollow attribute that WordPress adds in comments.
12
2.3.1
Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.
By FeedBurner.
13
3.1
The Follow Me plugin is designed to allow users the ability to add links to their social media profiles in their blog. To get started activate and visit the Settings Page.
By Brian Chappell @ Ignite Social Media.
14
1.2.15
Embed videos (FLV, H.264, and MP4) into posts or pages. Uses modified version of flowplayer (with removed FP logo and copyright notice).
By Foliovision.
15
3.2.6
This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.
By Arne Brachhold.
16
1.0.13
Get translations with a single click between 58 languages (more than 98% of internet users) on your website!
By Edvard Ananyan.
17
5.4
Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end. Navigate to Settings → Maintenance Mode to get started.
By Michael Wöhrer.
18
111203
Dramatically improves the performance & speed of your site! Also compatible with WordPress® Multisite/Networking.
19
1.1
Creates a ranged most popular posts for your WordPress blog based on the number of comments. You can choose the following posts interval to include as popular posts: all time, year(s), month(s), and week(s). Use widget control panel to manage the settings.
By Agus Suhanto.
20
4.0.6.4
Shareaholic adds a (X)HTML compliant list of social bookmarking icons to each of your posts. See configuration panel for more settings.
By Shareaholic.
21
2.1
Automatically send a 'thank you' e-mail to those who comment on your blog. This plugin engages the visitor by reminding them to check back for responses or new blog posts. The plugin is highly configurable with multiple messages, variable delay and restrictions.
By Brendon Boshell.
22
1.4.2
Adds a sidebar widget to show the top commentators in your WP site. Adapted from Show Top Commentators plugin.
24
2.7.1
Makes use of Gravatars and MyBlogLog Avatars, places Gravatars, OpenAvatar, Wavatar, Identicon, monsterID or MyBlogLog Avatars in the comments section. Uses the comment authors email to display their Gravatar. It also gives the user an Author Profile picture, based on his or hers Gravatar. Developer blog at this site.
By Rune Gulbrandsøy.
25
1.2.4
Lets you use Google Analytics to track your WordPress site statistics
26
2.0.2
Shows all installed plugins with a signle shortcode. [pluginlist] to show all, [pluginlist show="active"] to show only activated plugins and [pluginlist show="inactive"] to show all inactive plugins.
By H.-Peter Pfeufer.
27
1.0
Creates preset policy pages on your blog. Configure Options Here.
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