5 Plugins for a New Blog

Posted on January 12, 2008
Filed Under Blogging for Newbs, Plug Ins

I am continuing my previous article on setting up a new blog and in this article we will discuss a few must have plugins that you should install right out of the gate.

If you haven't yet discovered the world of plugins when it comes to Wordpress, then you are in for a treat. Plugins allow an incredible amount of versatility and I would urge you that anytime you are trying to figure out a way to do something with your blog, do a Google search for your issue and add "wordpress plugin" to the search string. Chances are someone has already developed a solution.

Wordpress comes packaged with a great plug in and that is Akismet. It is a SPAM catcher and won't allow a bunch of junk comments to pollute your blog, but their are a few others you should really consider. Wordpress should package them with the zip file in my opinion but for some reason they don't. They are:

All-in-One SEO Pack - A must have plugin for any blogger. SEO pack allows you to add keywords and a description to your post so that it fares better with search engines. The description is useful so that you can describe your posts rather than the search engines just using the first couple of sentences from your post. If you want to read a detailed article on it's use then read this article here from one of my other blogs.
Feedburner Feedsmith - Forwards all Wordpress feed entry clicks to your feedburner feed. This plug in makes maintaining your feed a snap. RSS subscribers are a sign that people like your style and want more...don't make it hard for them to subscribe.
WP Database Back-up - I recommend that everyone back-up their blog’s at least once a month. With this plug-in it couldn’t be easier to do this. Think of the work lost if you crash and lose all of your posts?? That would bring a tear to the eye of some Bloggers.
Subscribe Remind - Inserts text and a link at the bottom of every post reminding readers to subscribe to your RSS feed. Again...subscribers are the foundation of your blog. Make it as easy as possible.
Related Posts - This allows you to posts links at the end of your articles to archived posts that may be relevant. It decides what is relevant by tagging your posts or choosing to just pull from a relevant archive category. If a reader did read all the way to the end, then with this plugin activated they might read another article, rather than clicking out of your blog.

These are the basic plugins that I would install on day one. You will find dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of plugins available for Wordpress and just as many opinions on which ones you should be using. Be aware that plugins can cause problems if you are not careful installing and/or the author of the plugin isn't competent in programming.

Use the backup plugin above frequently and stick to the common and popular plugins at first until you get a better idea of what you are doing. You will run across a zillion "My Top xx Plugins" posts around the blogosphere, just tread lightly and be cautious.

These are my must haves.....what are yours?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!