If you use Wordpress as your blogging platform but do not utilize plugins, you are missing out on a whole level of functionality that you never existed. You can update your readers when you post or have real time stats presented to you all due to the extended functionality.
Understand that plugins only work on independent installations of the platform, not on Automattic hosted blogs, as the company sees these as potential security risks.
As independent developers create Wordpress plugins, potential users really need to take a “hit or miss” approach when looking for what extensions they want to use. Some plugins don’t seem to work or work poorly. A number of times I’ve installed an item only to see no added functionality, leaving me a bit frustrated. In order to help you cut through some of the junk, here are some of the most useful Wordpress plugins I utilize.
Yet Another Related Post Plugin
This plugin returns related blog entries based on the content of your titles, post bodies, tags, and categories, and the feedback I received from readers on the implementation this plugin is phenomenal. It makes life so much easier to related information embedded in your post instead of having someone look through categories or tags for others information they may find informative.
Want to provide your readers with a better PDA or iPhone viewing experience? Well, here you go. While the developer still is in “beta” mode for the iPhone implementation, I have experienced no technical difficulties thus far.
I love this plugin as it shows real time views stats about your blog. Aside from the general “number of visitors”, you can see the most popular pages, posts and categories. It collects data on spiders, search words, feeds viewed, operating systems and browsers.
For the longest time I would have Wordpress update Twitter every time a post was made, and I would do so with Twitter Tools… That was until I found out about a service that notifies all your social networks… That service is Ping.fm. The PingPressFM plugin simply send a message off to the Ping.fm service informing them of your update, Ping.fm does the rest. This is a must for any blogger who is serious about propagating information to social networks.
I’m sure there are a number of other top-notch plugins out there; I simply haven’t found them yet. One I really want to find is a quality Sitemap widget. I will update you if I find some that are especially impressive, and I hope the information listed above is of some benefit.