During the first week of this blog I shared with you which plugins i installed. They were Platinum SEO, No Follow Free and WP 125, which is an ad management plugin for the 125 x 125 banner ads that you see on the right hand side bar. I am a firm believer that you should install either Platinum SEO or All in One SEO as your first plugin. I think a lot of pro bloggers would agree with me on that. They jury iis out on what the most improtant plugins are after that. It seems like everyone has theirpreferences and opinions. I just added three new plugins, so I guess you can say I am actually writing a Top 6 Most Important Plugin post. I think I will wait until I install the next four and then write another “Top 1o” list that I am so fond of. Today I installed:
- MicroKid’s Related Posts – This allows you to choose what other posts you want to display after a recent post. This is a great plugin that will help make your blog more “sticky” and keep readers engaged and on your blog longer. You will notice a major increase on the average time spent on your blog after installing this plugin.
- WP-Spam Free- I was getting some spam slipping through the cracks with the default anti-spam platform so I decided to beef up the security a little more.
- Sociable- This is the best social bookmarking plugin out there in my opinion. It is so simple to use and it looks great. As you can see from my blog, I like clean lines and hate clutter. This plugin puts a small simple line of social bookmarking logos for the reader to click on to bookmark your post. There are over 90 sites to choose from.
I think I will soon add CommentLuv, but I want to make sure my blog runs smoothly and is not bogged down from these plugins before I add another one.
Please leave me a comment and let me know which plugins I absolutely need to add next. I am also curious to see what the average number of plugins you are using…
I heard how MicroKid’s pligin is getting some serious love by tons of bloggers. The spam-free plugin will be a must have too. As for the commentluv, I think the earlier you start having one, the better the chances of having increased number of comments.
May I add to this list Simpletags and WP-Syntax. The first is an advanced tagging system including suggested tags and makes it easier to edit and manage your post tags. And the second is a must have for the programing bloggers who need to have syntax in there posts. For the moment I have 25 active plugins and that is because I recently recovered from a serious system crash and I didn’t have the time to update all my coding.
@ Liane- I will take your advice and I will install CommentLuv later on today.
@Vlad- I have heard good things about Simpletags, I am going to look into that today as well.
There is a section in the IE options under the Programs tab for manage addons, it will see what is currently there and if you need extra addons to view site content.