If you have been following me here on this blog and on Twitter, then you know that I am a big fan of WordPress and Thesis.
As of this post – October 7, 2009 – here is my recommended list of WordPress plugins that every website powered by WordPress should have.
This plugin has the ability to track all outgoing link clicks. This is invaluable because it lets you know what links on your blog your visitors are clicking on. Get it here.
This is – in my opinion – the best WordPress spam-fighting plugin available to date. Don’t bother using the default spam plugin Akismet. I recommend deactivating it or removing it all together. WP-Spam Free is very easy to install. Get it here.
This plugin scans your blog for security vulnerabilities and suggests corrective actions. Get it here.
It makes absolutely no sense to develop a blog site and then have something go wrong and you lose everything. This plugin will perform scheduled backups of your WordPress database. You set the backup frequency. Get it here.
If you do not use the Thesis theme for your WordPress blog, then you will want to install this plugin. DO NOT use this plugin if you use Thesis. Thesis has a very powerful SEO mechanism built in. Get it here.
Every blog should have a sitemap. Unknown to many, sitemaps are one of the quickest ways to get your web pages picked up and indexed in Google. This plugin makes it easy. Get it here.
This plugin allows your visitors to subscribe to a post’s comments. An email will be sent to anyone subscribing to a post. They can unsubscribe easily anytime. Get it here.
This is a great contact form plugin with many form templates and features. Get it here.
This plugin lets you monitor RSS feeds. If you use Thesis, this plugin is not needed. Get it here.
This plugin can automatically tweet new and scheduled blog posts. Customizable. Get it here.
A very flexible WordPress advertising plugin. This is an all-in-one solution to advertising within WordPress. No matter what ad network you’re using, chances are this plugin supports it. Get it here.
This powerful and very useful plugin lets you import posts, categories, pages, etc from another blog into your blog. I personally use it to import posts from my other blogs into another. It can also export blog data as well. I use it also as a companion to WP_Backup to backup my posts. Get it here.
Automatically hyperlink text URLs and email addresses that appear in plain text in post content and comments. get it here.
FCKeditor is an open source WYSIWYG text editor ,brings to the web much of the power of desktop editors like MS Word.it\’s lightweight and is compatible with most internet browsers which include: IE 5.5+ (Windows), Firefox 1.0+, Mozilla 1.3+ and Netscape 7+. Get it here.
A very nice tag management tool. Get it here.
A companion to the Thesis Theme. This plugin makes modifying the look and layout of your Thesis theme very easy. Open Hook comes with Thesis the Thesis theme. Get it here.
Adds a maintenance-page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance time. User with rights for theme-options get full access to the blog including the front end. Activate the plugin and your blog is in maintenance-mode, works and see the frontend, only registered users with enough rights. You can use a date with a countdown for information the visitors or set a value and unit for infomation. Also you can add urls for exlusion while in the maintenance mode. Get it here.
WP-Cumulus allows you to display your site’s tags, categories or both using a Flash movie that rotates them in 3D. Get it here.
