Recommended WordPress Plugins
When building simple content management sites for clients based on the WordPress platform, I recommend the following plugins:
Encouraging visitor participation through comments
DISQUS Comment System
http://disqus.com/ – it’s the comment system they use on the
Mashable.com site – very good for integrating with facebook and
twitter – users can log in to comment via their facebook or twitter
profiles, and more. I’ve recently added it to a client site:
http://vikaspota.com
Subscribe to Comments
http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/ – It allows a commenter to subscribe to further comments on that post, so they’re informed by email rather than having to constantly check back on the site if their comment has been replied to.
Social Bookmarking
Sexy Bookmarks
http://sexybookmarks.net/ – cool way to encourage visitors to inform their social network contacts and friends about the post they’re viewing.
WP-FollowMe
http://wpburn.com/wordpress-plugins/wp-followme-plugin – a permanent
showing twitter “follow-me” badge that shows on the right hand side of
the screen – useful to encourage new visitors to follow you on Twitter
Exploring the Site
Spinning Tag Cloud
http://www.roytanck.com/2008/03/15/wp-cumulus-released – Flash based
Tag Cloud for WordPress – very very cool moving tag cloud as seen on
the right sidebar at http://daily.livingjain.com
Similarity for Related Posts
http://www.davidjmiller.org/2008/similarity/ – under the current blog post, this lists a number of related blog posts to encourage visitors to stay on your site and continue reading content.
Yet Another Related Post Plugin
http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/ – under the current blog post, this also lists a number of related blog posts to encourage visitors to stay on your site and continue reading content. It also allows you to decide which categories or tags to have no related posts showing, as well as limiting how far back you want to show posts for. A related article about implementing this plugin for the Thesis Theme can be found at: Killer Related Posts for the WordPress Thesis Theme.
Contacting
ContactForm7
http://contactform7.com/ – very handy contact form, where you can create multiple instances on one site, or even on one page. e.g. have a general contact form, then one for capturing interview requests and then another for capturing event speaking enquiries.
Monitoring Traffic & Site Performance
Google Analytics for WordPress
http://yoast.com/wordpress/analytics
Analytics 360
http://www.mailchimp.com/wordpress_analytics_plugin – allows you to pull Google Analytics and MailChimp data directly into your dashboard, so you can access robust analytics tools without leaving WordPress.
