Best WordPress Plugins

One of the things that separates WordPress from other blogging software out there is the fact that it is open source, and the benefits that go along with being open source. If you aren’t very good at coding, or good with PHP in particular, then the WordPress community has come to the rescue with WordPress plugins, which will allow just about anyone to easily add additional functionality to their blog. With the free WordPress plugins that various authors write and contribute from around the globe, WordPress has gained a lot of flexibility, causing it to be more attractive to potential bloggers.

As this site is dedicated to WordPress, I thought it would be a good idea to have a featured post dedicated to the best WordPress plugins available. This post is a constant work in progress, and will continue to be updated as I feature more plugins on this website. After each plugin, you should find a quick description, as well as a link to the full review. I have also broken the plugins down into categories for easy reference.

Here is how the list looks currently:

- Admin Tools -

• Author Exposed - Adds a full featured display of the authors profile. Great for multi-author blogs. [Full Review]
• Fluency Admin - Improves the look of your WordPress Dashboard (WordPress 2.5+ Only) [Full Review]
• Gamer’s Pack - Makes your blog viewable using the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and PSP gaming systems. [Full Review]
• GoCodes - Easily create redirects from your WordPress Dashboard that point anywhere. Great for hiding affiliate links. [Full Review]
• Google Sitemap - Creates a fully-compliant sitemap for search engines. [Full Review]
• In Series - Allows you to easily group a series of posts into a series. [Full Review]
• No Self Ping - Prevents your blog from sending Pingbacks internally to your other posts. [Full Review]
• WP-o-Matic - Allows users to collect feeds and auto-generate posts on your blog. [Full Review]
• WP Sticky - Allows users to feature a post at the top of their homepage for a day or permanently. [Full Review]
• WP-Super Cache - Creates a cache of your posts to avoid server load. Great for surviving a Digg. [Full Review]

- Advertising -

• Got Banners - Plugin allows you to randomize your advertising banners. Ideal for 125×125 banners. [Full Review]
• Shylock AdSense - Allows you to easily insert Google AdSense code into your WordPress blog. [Full Review]

- Comments -

• MyAvatars - Automatically inserts the commentators MyBlogLog avatar next to their comment using the e-mail address provided. If unavailable, it will attempt to pull the bloggers Gravatar. [Full Review]
• Show Top Commentators - Allows you to display your top commentators automatically in a place of your choosing. Great for encouraging comments. [Full Review]
• Smilies Themer - Plugin that offers a variety of smilies styles to place in the comments section of your blog. [Full Review]
• Subscribe to Comments - Allows readers to receive e-mail notifications when a follow up comment is left. [Full Review]

- Domaining -

• Domain Name Portfolio - This plugin automatically creates a page in WordPress that domainers can use to display their domain portfolio. Everything is controlled from the dashboard. [Full Review]

- Feeds -

• Add Related Posts To Your Feed - Will automatically add related posts to your blog’s feed. [Full Review]
• FeedCount - Allows you to display a numerical version of your Feedburner feed count without using the Feedburner chicklet.  [Full Review]
• Feed Footer - Allows you to use HTML to add a custom footer to your blog’s feed. Plugin also supports randomizing up to 10 different footers. [Full Review]

- Forums -

• RS Discuss - Plugin that allows you to easily integrate a forum into your existing WordPress blog. [Full Review]

- Maintenance -

• WordPress Automatic Upgrade - Allows you to easily upgrade your WordPress installation to the latest version. [Full Review]

- Miscellaneous -

• BlogRush Click Maximizer - Assists you in creating a customized BlogRush feed to display the post of your choice. [Full Review]
• Get Firefox Banner - Shows a banner to IE6 and IE7 web browser users recommending they switch to Firefox. Great for blogs whose theme is optimized for Firefox. [Full Review]
• Popularity Contest - Monitors your website traffic and gives you reports on your popular posts. Plugin is fully customizable allowing you to set the values used to calculate your posts popularity. [Full Review]
• WP-Submission - Creates a submission page then places all submissions into a post draft. Ideal for group writing projects. [Full Review]

- Related Posts -

• Related Posts - Uses keywords in your post URL’s to display a designated number of related posts. [Full Review]

- SEO -

• All-in-One SEO Pack - The Ultimate SEO WordPress plugin. Allows you to set your homepage meta information and automatically generate custom meta information for your individual posts. [Full Review]
• Permalink Redirect - Creates a 301 Redirect to avoid duplicate content penalties with search engines. Also includes a Feedburner redirect. [Full Review]

- Tags -

• Recommended Tags - Looks at your post’s content and recommends tags. Includes additional features. [Full Review]

- WordPress 2.3 -

• Technorati Links - Restores the Technorati incoming links feature that was removed from WordPress 2.3. [Full Review]