Free WordPress plug-ins make blogging better
Judging from the 150 million sites that make up the blogosphere, anyone can call himself a content publisher. But to stand out from the crowd, a blog needs more than just a stream of original content. A well-designed site needs a functional presentation that offers both author and readers the tools they need to create, find and share information.
A content management system (CMS) is a common way to organize data and tools, and WordPress is one of the most popular CMSs. One reason for WordPress's ubiquity is the availability of over 4,000 plug-ins, offering Webmasters seemingly endless ways to expand and customize their blogs. I've tried many WordPress plug-ins to fill different needs and have discovered 10 that I consider essential. This article describes those plug-ins plus a few more that you may find useful
Some disclaimers: I am not a PHP or SQL wizard, and my sites don't generate high volumes of traffic or revenue; only one entry has been popular enough to crash a server. However, my sites are eclectic in purpose, from static content to daily blogs, covering topics from pop culture to neurological disorders.
Along the way, I've found the following plug-ins to be consistently useful, whatever the environment.
(Note: I tested each with WordPress 2.8, which had just been released -- the software is constantly being incrementally updated, but you shouldn't have any trouble, no matter what version you use.)
Dagon Design Form Mailer
When visiting a site, I expect to find five basic features: "About" and "Contact Us" pages, a search box, an RSS feed and a site map. The omission of a search box is forgivable -- nowadays every Web browser has such functionality built in -- and RSS feeds (which WordPress generates automatically) aren't applicable to all kinds of content. This leaves three basic features, two of which -- "Contact Us" and the site map -- must be created with plug-ins.
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