WordPress Plugins I Currently Use

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As of today, these are all the active WordPress plugins I have here at OSN. Going to give a brief explanation as to what they do / why I use them.

Akismet: By default this is included with the basic WordPress installation. It’s fantastic for blocking SPAM comments and trackbacks.

Broken Link Checker: This plugin checks EVERY SINGLE LINK in EVERY SINGLE POST and sees if it’s a valid link or if it’s “broken” (gives an error message like a 404 for example). It runs in the background so you really can just ignore it for the most part. It’s really good if you’ve been blogging for a few years because that super awesome blog you posted about in 2003 probably doesn’t exist today.

CommentLuv: A great feature for those who comment on your blog, it permits them to automatically link to their last blog post at the bottom of your comment AND it’s super easy to style within your CSS.

Comment Reply Notification: If you’ve ever left a comment at OSN you know I’ll 99% of the time respond to it. When that happens you automatically get an email saying that not only was your comment was responded to but the content of that response as well! You can set it (as I have) so this works only for admins OR works for everyone who comments. Very neat.

Compact Archives: You can see this plugin in action on my archives page. What it does is make a small and attractive year/month display for your past posts!

Contact Form 7: You can see this in action on my contact page. It’s super easy to use, super easy to implement, and I don’t receive ANY spam from it like I used to from other forms (plugins and hand-coded).

Custom Post Limits: A really neat plugin that allows you to change the NUMBER of posts displayed on the index, archives, category, and so on pages.

Facebook Like Thumbnail: This plugin grabs the FIRST image in your post for the Facebook thumbnail (when someone shares your post on FB).

Google XML Sitemaps: This plugin creates a sitemap that allows for better indexing and searches from Google and other search engines.

Greg’s High Performance SEO: A really good SEO plugin, has a good amount of options to really customize how it functions for YOU.

Outbrain: Simply put, this is an alternative to LinkWithin.

RSS Footer: I’ve mentioned this plugin before in past posts but it’s really neat! If you subscribe to my rss feed you’ll see at the bottom of each post, a little blurb and my photo. Just a great way to remind people of who you are, include links back to your site or other links.

Twitterlink Comments: Adds an additional input on the comment form for your visitor to enter their twitter handle to be displayed in their comment!

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin: A plugin that does what it says! It displays (via a customizable template) links to posts that have similar content to your current post!

Share with me the plugins YOU currently use on your blog platform! Any you couldn’t do without? Any plugins that were an epic fail? Share!

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I use Intense Debate for my comments and I love it. That’s the one I can think of off the top of my head. :)

The problem I have with Intense Debate (and other like-minded plugins) is the lack of CONTROL it offers. I’m all about control when it comes to my design and code LOL!

Crystal

Thanks Sarah. I installed it but I don’t see anything on my blog?! Maybe I’m thinking it’s something it’s not… Is this plug-in what shows under “You might like:” or does it do something different?

Reply to Crystal

No that’s what it does, did you configure it on its settings page? Did you put the code snippet where you want it displayed?

<div id="outbrain"></div>

Crystal

Thank you… I’m going to bug my husband instead of you! This is what I get for trying to install something on my own when he normally does all our web work lol :-) I appreciate your quick replies and assistance!

Reply to Crystal

LOL not a problem!

Crystal

Thanks for this great list! I can’t find outbrain when I search within my wordpress blog, how annoying! I’m not sure how to install from your direct link, I’ll ask my husband ;-)

As for my plug-ins, I like photodropper when I don’t have an original photo for a post and SEO slugs to automatically create a more SEO friendly slug :-)

Reply to Crystal

With Outbrain, you download the zip file and in your WordPress dashboard it has an option when installing a plugin to “upload zip file” and it installs via that method.

Oh I haven’t heard about photodropper, that sounds interesting!

Sheena

I just wiped out a bunch of plugins and I was scared when I saw this post… I thought I’d be tempted to add more! I just need the Compact Archives and Facebook Thumbnail (the FB default’s soo annoying). Thanks, lady!

Reply to Sheena

Thank you! Oh yes, since FB changed how they dealt with links, you really need to find a way to DEFINE what your thumbnail will be. Either you deal with the default FB or you end up getting some sort of random image that doesn’t even pertain to your blog or post (like a random button from your sidebar appears).

Paige @ Baby Dust Diaries

I also use Intense Debate.

I couldn’t live without FDfootnotes! Fav plugin of all time!

I use flexoarchives

I have google analytics and google analytics popular post. I like the popular post because you can set it by how many days – like what’s most popular right now as opposed to over time.

I have WPGreetbox, Tweet Old Post, and Pin it on Pinterest which lets you pre-fill an image and description for when people pin and a “pin this” button on selected posts.

I have to try out that RSS footer. Do you use Feedburner for your RSS?

Reply to Paige @ Baby Dust Diaries

I no longer use Feedburner because the service itself isn’t accurate. I actually use Mint (http://haveamint.com) to monitor feed subscriptions and such!

Joanna

Love this post!! Now I’m looking through my plug ins :) I had comment luv for a long time but started getting a ton of spammy comments disguised as real ones. Did that happen to you?

Reply to Joanna

OH yes. CommentLuv spam. I think I tweeted about my irritation awhile back! I so far don’t know of a way to prevent it although generally they tend to be first time commenters so I have it set in my WP dashboard that all first time comments need me to approve them and if they just… look odd I’ll view their entire comment and generally it has the cluv spam.

Andree

Hiya!

I recently read about this one, which sounds cool if you’re one of those “planner’ posters:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/editorial-calendar/

Reply to Andree

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