Top 10 – WordPress.org plugins

I was recently asked what my top 10 wordpress.org plugins are, so naturally I put my “geekhat” on and I have listed my top 10 wordpress.org plugins. These vary from making life easy with your self hosted blog to just very cool plugins. Let me know what you think? Do you have any to add to this list?

10. Admin Commenters Comments Count

I think this plugin is a very useful and essential tool when it comes to administering your blog comments. I can see how many comments a particular user has made and also it shows you a list of comments from a user when you click on the “bubbled” number.

9. WP-Ban

Now as an admin there are times when you need to step up the spam filtering and actually take some action against spammers, or users that just want to comment nasty and inappropriate things. I installed this plugin which helps me to prevent these certain users from making those kind of comments. Easy to use and setup. Really important not to ban your own IP address. If you are unsure of what an IP address is or how to find someone else’s then please shout.

8. List e-mails

This plugin hasn’t been updated for a little while, but I found it really useful. It allows me to export my subscribers email addresses so that I could import them into my newsletter tool (which I use a different website for). It was great and quick to use, no messing about and made the process really simple.

7. Register Plus Redux

This basically helped me prevent spammers from registering onto my blog, it adds extra questions to the registration process. This was brilliant. It also means I can keep a tally of the unverified users that have “registered” on my blog – as these will be the ones that are spammers. It shows all unverified users in a list, so it is easy to manage, delete or just view when they registered and how long it has been since they had their verification email.

6. Pinterest Pin It Button For Images

This plugin literally does what it says on the tin: adds that all important PIN IT button to your images in all of your posts, pages – where ever you tell it to really. It is a great tool and if you are a bit more tech savvy you can amend the image and change it to be more appropriate for your blog template. If you want some support on customising the button then just give me a shout.

5. Alpine PhotoTile for Instagram

I have a specific theme on my blog which makes some widgets inactive, so I was immensely happy to find this plugin which I could format into my blog template accordingly. This does take some setting up, you need to follow some instructions on how to get some secret codes from Instagram – but once you have done this it shows a live feed of your latest Instagram photos. I love it. You can see my feed on my homepage.

4. Google Analytics

I think this plugin is vital when it comes to looking at your statistics, my favourite thing is looking at the real time statistics of your blog and seeing who is currently online and what they are browsing. This does take a little time to set up; you need to have a Google account to log in and you have to link up your blog in Google Analytics to get a ID code. This ID code is then copied into the settings of the plugin, which makes the two sites talk together. If you get stuck give me a shout!

3. CommentLuv

This is a neat little tool that allows users to add a link to their comments on your blog posts, to a recent blog post they have written on their blog. It’s like a blog share and social networking type of tool. I love it because it allows me to quickly jump to that users blog post and return the comments – or simply read and read.

2. Recipe Card

This is a super cool plugin which adds a complete section into your admin for creating fantastic looking recipe pages – this is what I use on my blog for my recipes and they look fab, don’t you think? You can set up the design of the recipe cards in the settings window and then when you write a blog post you have the recipe card icon on the toolbar, simply click it and “bamm” the recipe card is inserted into your blog post. So easy and a fantastic tool.

1. Easy Watermark

This plugin makes my life so much easier, it automatically applies a watermark onto all images as they are uploaded, via mobile app or using the website. It is so easy to use. You can set it up so it water marks your images with your logo, or text and you can position the watermark where ever you need it. This plugin alone saves me hours and hours of image editing that I would have to do if I wanted to do this manually. (See photo below, bottom left hand corner for my watermark).