The best part of using WordPress to run your site is the sheer availability of plugins that will allow you to do almost anything. Borrowing heavily from the Apple model where Apps elevated the iPod into so much more than a portable personal music player, Plugins have transformed WordPress into much more than a simple blogging platform. Most of the widely available plugins are free - the upside for their creators is that their plugins provide keyword backlinks back to the creator's site, which significantly enhances their profile with the Google and Bing Search Engines. Although there are nearly 24,000 plugins currently available on WordPress.org the following Plugins are ones that I use on each new site that I create. For me, finding a great new Plugin can be like finding buried treasure. Here are five plugins that I use on every one of my sites.
1) WordPress SEO by Yoast - Getting some love from the search engines will bring new users to your site. Understanding all the nuances and technicalities of Search Engine Optimization is more than most bloggers have a willingness to learn. Enter the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast. Perhaps the best feature of this plugin is a red/yellow/green indicator on individual posts to show the degree of SEO friendliness. Another great feature of the plugin is how it automatically maintains an up to date sitemap and submits the information to Google and Bing on a regular basis.
2) Quick Cache - Having a fast site is not only important from your reader's perspective but is also a factor in the site's relative ranking on any of the major search engines. This plugin helps to speed up your site by snapping a photo at various intervals. When somebody tries to upload your site, they will be shown images of your content (as opposed to the actual content itself). This little trick saves time because the site does not need to re-render images or obtain third party feeds (such as a twitter feed) every time a page is viewed. There are several cache plugins available, but none (that I have tried) are as simple to use as Quick Cache. It does have all the bells and whistles of a more complicated cache program, however for the majority of bloggers, hitting a simple "on/off" button is about as much time they want to spend worrying about caching.
3) P3 Plugin Performance Profiler - Have you ever noticed that a brand new site will load very quickly, then over time, seems to load slower and slower? This is because some of the plugins being used are creating drag on the site. I discovered P3 by accident after my site slowed to a crawl. This plugin gives you the incremental load time for each plugin used by your site. If you want a quick site, P3 is a must.
4) Socialize - Social Media has had a profound impact on marketing in the digital age. The Socialize plugin places social media icons alongside your articles to allow your readers to easily tweet, like, pin, Google+, Stumble, Digg, etc your page. The feature I like most about Socialize is that it floats in the margin of your blog and is ever present to the reader. It provides the option of 12 different social media platforms that are completely customizable on every post that you publish.
5) Tiny MCE Advanced - The word processing functionality within WordPress for bloggers writing articles is sub-standard. The Tiny MCE plugin provides much more control over the look and feel of the various posts. With this plugin, tables can be created and formatted, media can be inserted, text can be highlighted, and media can be embedded.
1) WordPress SEO by Yoast - Getting some love from the search engines will bring new users to your site. Understanding all the nuances and technicalities of Search Engine Optimization is more than most bloggers have a willingness to learn. Enter the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast. Perhaps the best feature of this plugin is a red/yellow/green indicator on individual posts to show the degree of SEO friendliness. Another great feature of the plugin is how it automatically maintains an up to date sitemap and submits the information to Google and Bing on a regular basis.
2) Quick Cache - Having a fast site is not only important from your reader's perspective but is also a factor in the site's relative ranking on any of the major search engines. This plugin helps to speed up your site by snapping a photo at various intervals. When somebody tries to upload your site, they will be shown images of your content (as opposed to the actual content itself). This little trick saves time because the site does not need to re-render images or obtain third party feeds (such as a twitter feed) every time a page is viewed. There are several cache plugins available, but none (that I have tried) are as simple to use as Quick Cache. It does have all the bells and whistles of a more complicated cache program, however for the majority of bloggers, hitting a simple "on/off" button is about as much time they want to spend worrying about caching.
3) P3 Plugin Performance Profiler - Have you ever noticed that a brand new site will load very quickly, then over time, seems to load slower and slower? This is because some of the plugins being used are creating drag on the site. I discovered P3 by accident after my site slowed to a crawl. This plugin gives you the incremental load time for each plugin used by your site. If you want a quick site, P3 is a must.
4) Socialize - Social Media has had a profound impact on marketing in the digital age. The Socialize plugin places social media icons alongside your articles to allow your readers to easily tweet, like, pin, Google+, Stumble, Digg, etc your page. The feature I like most about Socialize is that it floats in the margin of your blog and is ever present to the reader. It provides the option of 12 different social media platforms that are completely customizable on every post that you publish.
5) Tiny MCE Advanced - The word processing functionality within WordPress for bloggers writing articles is sub-standard. The Tiny MCE plugin provides much more control over the look and feel of the various posts. With this plugin, tables can be created and formatted, media can be inserted, text can be highlighted, and media can be embedded.
About the Author:
Ryan is passionate about helping new and experienced entrepreneurs earn money online. On his blog, you will find ethical tips and strategies on article writing, niche sites, and app development so that you can take control of your own financial destiny.
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