20 Wordpress Plugins to Get You Started Effectively – OneXtraPixel

AND

21 Great Plugins That I Personally Recommend – Just Creative Design

Each of these sites make good cases, describe the plugins well and even have pretty screen shots. So in order to add value and create a great post, I thought I would actually review both and see about giving you a best practices list. The descriptions are quoted from their respective web sites. Here we go in alphabetical particular order:

#1 - Akismet

Akismet is a popular spam-fighting service that is different from other spam filter. It checks the content of the comment anonymously with an online server, to determine whether it is spam or not and it pretty good at separating spam and reliable comments.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#2 – All in One SEO

Out-of-the-box Search Engine Optimization for your Wordpress blog.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#3 – Better Comments Manager

Better Comments manager allows you to view your comments post wise, it also allows you to reply to your comments from within the admin panel without you having to visit the site to respond to comments..

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#4 – cForms II

cforms is a feature rich plugin for Wordpress, offering convenient deployment of multiple Ajax driven contact forms throughout your blog or even on the same page. It’s versatile and can be customized to your preferred design and feel.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#5 – CommentLuv

cforms is a feature rich plugin for Wordpress, offering convenient deployment of multiple Ajax driven contact forms throughout your blog or even on the same page. It’s versatile and can be customized to your preferred design and feel.

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#6 – Feedburner Feedsmith

This plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber.

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#7 – Google AJAX Search

Adds a Google AJAX Search box on your site. Options include searching your site through Google Blog Search and/or straight up Google, a second search option is available that is perfect for flickr.

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#8 – Google Analytics

Enable Google Analytics on your blog. Has options to also track external links, mailto links and links to downloads on your own site.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#9 – Google XML Site Map

This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#10 – Home Page Excepts

This plugin shows excerpts on the home page rather than full posts. You can customise how many you want to display as full posts.

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#11 – My FTP

A WordPress FTP like plugin that can be used to manage folders and files via the WordPress admin pane

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#12 – NextGEN Gallery

This is a great plugin that allows you to have a customizable photo gallery with cool effects.

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#13 – Robots Meta

This plugin allows you to add all the appropriate robots meta tags to your pages and feeds, disable unused archives and nofollow unnecessary links.

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#14 – RSS Feed Signature

Add a customized signature or tag-line to your RSS feed(s).

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#15 – Search Unleashed

Search Unleashed will extend the standard search with a full text search across everything (posts, pages, comments, authors, meta-data), with the output from plugins included in the search. Search phrases are highlighted, as are incoming searches from Google, Yahoo, and most other search engines.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel

#16 – Statpress Reloaded

This plugin shows you real time statistics about your blog. It collects information about visitors, spiders, search keywords, feeds, browsers, and their OS etc.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel

#17 – Simple Tags

Simple Tags is the perfect tool to manage perfectly your Wordpress tags.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#18 – Statpress Reloaded

This plugin shows you real time statistics about your blog. It collects information about visitors, spiders, search keywords, feeds, browsers, and their OS etc.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel

#19 – Subscribe to Comments

Subscribe to Comments is a robust plugin that enables commenter to sign up for e-mail notification of subsequent entries. The plugin includes a full-featured subscription manager that your commenter can use to unsubscribe to certain posts, block all notifications, or even change their notification e-mail address.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#20 – Tweet This

This plugin adds a “Tweet This Post” link to every post and page. Shortens URLs in advance through Th8.us, eating up only 19 of 140 characters. It also includes other social media tools like: Plurk, Yahoo Buzz, Delicious, Digg, Ping.fm, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel

#21 – Twitter Updater

Updates Twitter when you create a new blog or publish one. You can also use TwitFeed.com for this as well if you don’t want the plugin.

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#22 – Wordpress Database Backup

WP-DB-Backup allows you easily to backup your core WordPress database tables. You may also backup other tables in the same database.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#23 – WP-Optimize

WP-Optimize is a database cleanup and optimization tool for Wordpress. It doesn’t require PhpMyAdmin to optimize your database tables. It allows you to remove post revisions, comments in the spam queue, un-approved comments within few clicks or rename any username.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel

#24 – WP Cumulus

WP-Cumulus allows you to display your site’s tags, categories or both using a Flash movie that rotates them in 3D. It works just like a regular tags cloud, but is more visually exciting. Clicking the tags can be a little hard (depending on your speed setting) but does take you to the appropriate page.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel

#25 – WP Email

WP Email allows people to recommend/send your WordPress blog’s post/page to a friend.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#26 – WP Polls

WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and css styles and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you wanted. It now also supports multiple selection of answers.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#27 – WP-Print

Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page.

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

#28 – WP Security Scan

This plugin effectively scans your Wordpress installation for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#29 – WP Super Cache

This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.

Recommended by: OneXtraPixel, Just Creative Design

#30 – WP Widget Cache

Updates Twitter when you create a new blog or publish one. You can also use TwitFeed.com for this as well if you don’t want the plugin.

Recommended by: Just Creative Design

So there You Go….30 of the best Plugins for Wordpress as of this moment.

What are you waiting for? Give them a test and leave a comment.

I bring you the top 10 Killer SEO Tricks to Wordpress (so far…) – from the Moonlight Blog:

1. Optimize WordPress Permalinks

The most search-engine friendly permalink MUST includes the post title (%postname%) in the link,having keywords in your URL is an absolute must, In your WP admin panel, click on the “Options” tab, then the “Permalinks” sub-tab, and choose the option just below the “Default” permalink option. My suggest permalink structure is /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/ or /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html .

2. Optimize WordPress Post Titles

The post title is the most important part of the blog post for many reasons. From your reader’s perspective, a descriptive and compelling title helps them decide if your post is worth reading or not. From an SEO perspective, think about the keywords or phrases people might type into a search box to find your post, and use those words or phrases in your post title.

3. Optimize WordPress Page Titles

According to most SEO experts, the page title tag is one of the most important tags on your page. In most WP themes, you’ll find the page title tag in the Header Template, and the default version ususally looks very poor SEO. I suggest you to use a WordPress plugin so call “All in One SEO Pack” to fix that problem.

4. Optimize WordPress robots.txt

The robots.txt file is used to instruct search engine robots about what pages on your website should be crawled and consequently indexed. Most websites have files and folders that are not relevant for search engines (like images or admin files) therefore creating a robots.txt file can actually improve your website indexation. Here is an SEO optimized WordPress robots.txt file.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-
Disallow: /feed/
Disallow: /comments/feed
Disallow: /trackback/

5. Use Google Sitemaps Plugin

Google Sitemaps is an easy way for you to submit all your URLs to the Google index and get detailed reports about the visibility of your pages on Google. WordPress user Arne Brachold has made the sitemap creation and submission process fairly simple with his Google Sitemap plugin. This plugin will create a sitemap for you and submit it to Google.

6. Use Wordpress Anti-SPAM Plugin

Akismet is the best automated spam killer that actually gets better as it learns from the whole community marking new spam comments as spam.

7. Use Related Posts

Amaury BALMER’s Simple Tags plugin is a perfect tool to manage perfeclty your WP 2.3 tags, which can show related posts on your post and rss feed. Not only does it enhance your blog’s usability, but it also helps create a dense link structure throughout your site, which makes it easier for the search engine spiders to find and index older blog posts.

8. Use Ping services

Use the Update service function, to inform tracking services that you have updated your weblog. By default, Wordpress pings rpc.pingomatic.com, which is good (if you don’t want to change this, you don’t have to).

9. Make your content searchable

Make sure your navigation bar is present on all pages of your blog. Your previous posts or atleast the popular ones should be linked to all pages so they get spidered easily.

10. Update your blog frequently

Update your blog frequently using all the rules mentioned above and your blog will surely get top rankings in a short time.

Do you have any tips you care to share? Have these worked for you?

These are some great tips and if you did a simple web search you would find alot more. What has worked for you? Have any of these? Leave a comment and let’s hear from you.

As I was writing this yesterday I was reviewing my blog feed and saw Chris Brogan’s post “Please Write this Robert” which talked about Robert Scoble’s post about Web 2010. What I didn’t realize until I read Scoble’s post was that he was commenting on the All Things D Conference held last week by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. It was there that they were trying to capitalize on marking their conference as the start of the Web 3.0 era. Scoble called them out on this and addressed this by remarking that this type of innovation comes in at different times and that using a 2.0 or 3.0 really hurt the innovation process. Kara Swisher didn’t take too kindly to this in her response and so a blog fight has ensued.

What was sad is that they missed an opportunity to see Jay Berkowitz give his Web 2010 presentation which was not planned but coincidentally timed to these blog posts by Robert and Kara. The bigger point is that we are stepping into the next era of the web and 2010 is next year so this title is appropriate and forward thinking without getting too futurist on everyone.

In his talk last night, Jay pointed out 10 areas that are going to comprise our world and trends next year. Here are the highlights:

Area #1.) Micro-communications – Short communications for a short attention span. We will take our news in small bits using tools like Twitter, Qik, 12Seconds. Interesting case of @missionpie – they use Twitter and posts the pies they have this today and business is up 20% a day.

Area #2.) Virtualization – Businesses and segments going virutal. Virtual Assistants, Virtual Employees and Virtual Meetings. Tools – Guru, GoToMeeting, MyBusinessAssistant

Area #3.) Free Stuff! - Amazing free produrts with a revenue model attached. Wordpress, Podcasts, SEO Quake Toolbar, Google Analytics, Compete, Spyfu

Area #4.) Social Search – Crowsourcing opinions and interacting with community. Tools like Twitter Search are instantaneous and is faster than Google. Angie’s List, BazaarVoice and Threadless.

Area #5.) Customer Service ansd the New Marketing Department – Monitor your branding social media and develop a dialogue with your customers and prospects. Tools like Radian6 and CoTweet are extremely effective.

Area #6.) Disintermdediation Part 2 – Take advantage of “news hole” and engage directly. Tools like HelpAReporterOut are taking out the middleman.

Area #7.)  Super Widgetization – Develop applications to go direct to desktop. Facebook apps, iPhone apps, WeFollow, Twitter Apps, Widgets (widgetbox, clearspring)

Area #8.) Video! - Videos build viral traffic and conversion – Youtube, HowToVideos, Name and Tag videos with key words. Use Tubemogul, Great Thumbnails

Area #9) Personal Brand (PeoplePool, Google Profiles) – Create a unique brand and own it

a.) Be Your own Brand Manager (develop your brand marketing plan, how are you going to promote, set specific measurable goals)

b.) Determine your USP (what makes you distinctive, how can you enhance your unique skills)

c.) Follow Your Passion (where do you like to hangout, what do you

d.) Listen

e.) Embrace Your Inner Author (Create Unique Content)

f.) Build Your New (Set a goal to make a few quality connections, give to get ask about them, Ask about them)

g.) Volunteer to Shine (Develop new skills, enhance skill through freelance opportunities)

h.) Innovate to Lead

i.) Be Entrepreneurial – Entrepreneur is a verb

j.) Speak Up! – Go to Toastmasters, Presentation Zen

Area #10.) The Semantic Web – Evolving extension of the web and not just just an interconnectivity but an understanding of data. For more on this area I would review the Wikipedia explanation and Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the Web) seminal article on Semantic Web in Scientific America.

For more great nuggests of trends and marketing goodness, check out presentations by Jay at his site at http://Presentations.TenGoldenRules.com

What Anil announced was that Six Apart is introducing plug-ins that word press and other blogging platform users can use TypePad AntiSpam, Six Apart Media, TypePad Connect, Blogs.com.

They are open source and FREE.

The other unconventional part of this announcement is that Six Apart decided to use a very grassroots Word Press event to make this sensational announcement instead of calling the New York Times, Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal. I took the opportunity to catch up with Anil Dash and interviewed him for this blog.

Here is the interview:

Watch the reactions from attendees of WordCamp 

• Joel Mark Witt  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OnCj62r1EQ 
• Jimmy Gardner eastcoastblogging.com  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs0GgxdtOzI
• Keith Casey blueparabola.com    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbcoF6Y_oKU

 Network Solutions was one of the sponsors of Word Camp Mid-Atlantic

Other coverage of the announcement and Word Camp Mid-Atlantic:
Leena Rao, Tech Crunch
Doug Coleman on ReadWriteWeb.com
Jimmy Gardner EastCoastBlogging.com
Joe Corbett Isteconnects.com
Mike Paetzold wptutorial.com
Ted Mann on TurkeyMonkey.com

Since it seems like every social media type in the Western world is currently over in Austin for South by Southwest Interactive, I thought it would be a good time to catch up on a few things. Especially things that don’t involve Twitter, as all the attendees, in their attempts to try and find the best parties, will probably be doing their level best to turn the Twitter server farm into a smoking hole:

* Content Sanity Check: For my part, I haven’t been discussing many small business-specific items of late (my recent entries on networking notwithstanding, though those apply to everyone). I’m going to try to get back into that groove, though I’m looking for ideas, so if you’ve got a question or topic you’d like to see regarding how small business folks can use social media to improve their bottom line, please give it here.

In the meantime, my fellow bloggers have had the small business beat pretty well covered — don’t miss Sian Simon’s series on local search marketing, as well as Steve Fisher’s ongoing 2009 Marketing Plan series, and Jill Foster’s posts over at Women Grow Business.

* Publishing Housekeeping: On the publishing side, looks like this here Solutions Are Power blog has finally taken the plunge and upgraded to WordPress 2.7. I’m getting used to the new interface as we speak. Native photo uploading has also been restored, so you should be seeing more pix in entries. Your blog consumption experience should remain unaffected, though I guess now would also be the time to fix my neglected (actually, nonexistent) blog author profile page.

* “About” Quick Tips: Apropos nothing, it really helps orient your visitors if your blog has an “about this blog,”  “about [this business],” or “about me” entry permalinked from somewhere prominent on your blog, like the nav bar, side bar, or header. That way people, especially people who come to an entry directly from a search result, can see what else you’re about.

* Popularity: Eyeballing the numbers, it looks like my item on 5 Stories of Twittering Gone Bad has been pretty popular over the past 30 days. To that list, I would add: If you’re a reporter, Twittering in court may be okay; however, if you’re a juror, well, that’s a completely different story.

Maybe I should keep updating it as a living entry. Then again, it’d probably do better as a wiki — say, the “Twitter Mistakes wiki.” I’m guessing that’s the only possible way it would scale.

Anyway, if you’ve got other comments or suggestions, for me or for the blog team as a whole, please feel free to leave a comment.

Steve: What do you love about WordPress and why do you prefer that platform?
Gregory: I love to get under the hood and get my hands dirty with code. I want a lot of control over what happens with my websites and you don’t have that luxury with most of the hosted blogging platforms. And then from a client’s standpoint, I’ve found they like to know that they don’t have to pay me to make minor tweaks to the text on their website. I do the design, installation, and maintenance of the site, but they can log in and change text when and if they need to. That gives them the control they need without requiring very much technical knowledge.

Steve: How long have you been a Network Solutions customer?
Gregory: I actually registered a couple of domains several years ago with Network Solutions, but at the time, NS wasn’t in the hosting business. I’ve used several hosts over the years. Some were acceptable; others were downright terrible. When I began to research new hosting possibilities about a couple of years ago, Network Solutions had added hosting to its list of services. Remembering how solid their service was when I registered domains several years back, I decided to give them a try. I’m glad I did, and now I can’t see myself using anyone else. Literally in the last 24 hours, I have transferred a domain to NS and referred a very good friend to NS.

Steve: What is your favorite Network Solutions offering and why?
Gregory: My favorite Network Solutions offering actually isn’t a product; it’s the customer service they offer. Too many times I’ve called a company’s customer service department and had to explain to them how to do their job so I could do mine. I can honestly say that has never happened with Network Solutions. The customer service reps are always knowledgeable and courteous. Now, having said that, with very few exceptions, the only time I have to talk to a customer service rep is when I’m adding a new website. The few times I’ve had to call for technical support, the issues have been my fault and they were working to clean up my mess. I simply haven’t had to call for support for something Network Solutions has messed up.

Steve: When you work with a small business to design a web site, what is your approach and philosophy?
Gregory: My approach to designing a site for a client is to ask enough questions and get to know enough about their needs that they basically design the site. That way, I work with the code and build the design they described. When I deliver the product and they say, “That’s exactly what I was looking for,” that’s a rewarding conclusion to a project. Also, I have to keep in mind the website is the client’s online place of business. I can provide them with theories on how to design a website to provide their clients with an optimal experience, but they make the final call. I don’t get to dictate to them which design principles to adhere to and which ones to toss out. If there are too many differing opinions (there never have been), I would most likely offer to refer them to someone else. In the end, they’re the boss.

Steve: With all the things that Network Solutions offers small businesses, is there anything in particular that you recommend to clients that they must use?
Gregory: Well, I’m a big believer in Network Solutions. They can meet whatever web-related needs a client has, so my recommendation to clients is to determine their needs and then go to Network Solutions. There really isn’t a need to go anywhere else.

Steve: I sometimes like to close an interview with a “Do This List”. So for you, what are the top five things that a small business must have on their web site before launch?
Gregory: First, no matter how small your business, your website needs to have a solid design. Simply having a website isn’t good enough. It has to be designed well. It needs to match or exceed the professionalism of your brick-and-mortar location.
Secondly, your website must use proper grammar and spelling. This is a non-negotiable for me. If you’re the only business offering your product, and I need your product, but you use poor grammar and have misspelled words on your website, I will not buy your product because I can’t trust it.
Thirdly, give your customers a way to contact you. Make sure your contact forms are functioning properly.
Fourthly, if you collect personal data, make sure you have a privacy policy posted somewhere on your site. Internet users are rightly concerned with how their personal information will be used.
Finally, make sure all the links work and images load.