This post is a collection of the 7 non-essential WordPress plugins that really help to make all our blogs better.
Every blog needs a little something to make it different from the next one.
That’s why in this post I’ve chosen to focus on the non-essential plugins that we all love to have on our WordPress blogs.
They help us be different, and can create interest points that help us make our blogs sticky and get people to hang around.
1. Digg This
The Digg This button is a common feature of a lot of blogs now. One click adding to Digg makes promoting your content almost too easy for the visitor. Digg This also features a counter of how many diggs that particular post has had.
2. TweetMeme
The TweetMeme button is essentially Digg This button for Twitter. brought to us by the fine folks at TweetMeme. It lets users retweet to twitter with just one click, and shows people how many times a post has been retweeted across the network.
3. Smart Youtube
Smart Youtube is a great little plugin that lets you add Youtube videos quickly and easily. You can specify the whole look and feel of your video’s player along with colour, positioning, border, etc. Great for embedding videos into your posts so your readers don’t have to leave your site. Works in your RSS feed too!
4. WP Cumulus
This is a favourite of mine and I have to admit, I try to sneak it into lists like these whenever I can. It’s a great drop in replacement for the standard Tag Cloud widget that comes with WordPress.
5. WordPress Related Posts
Some would argue that this and the following plugin should be in the essentials list. WordPress Related Posts plugin drops a few links (at your configuration) to the bottom of each post. This is a fantastic way to get people clicking around through your archives and has boosted my traffic to older related posts significantly.
6. WordPress Popular Posts
Popular posts is a great plugin that lets you display, along with information like views or comments, the most popular posts on your blog. You’ll find it featured at the top of the sidebar of many blogs around the internet.
7. WP-Polls
Of all the polling plugins I’ve used this is the most consistent and the most updated. There isn’t too many around that can match the features that WP-Polls gives you for creating and deploying reader polls.
Conclusion
So there we have it, the 7 plugins we could do without that really, well, we can’t do without! Installing all of them at once might not suit your blog, but judging them individually, each one of these plugins do add important features to your blog. Why not consider adding of these plugins to your blog today?
Leave a comment below if you’ve found any more “non-essential” plugins that you just can’t live without!
