One of the reasons I started with WordPress a few years ago was the plugin community. There are so many folks out there making amazing and unbelievably useful plugins that I wanted to highlight a few I’ve used or still use that don’t get tons of press.
Comment Redirect: I’m a firm believer in the “Thank You.” Comment redirect one way I found to recognize new commenters and say thank you. After leaving their first comment, my commenters are redirected to my “Thanks for the Comment” page. Really simple plugin but it pays off.
DoFollow: This one might not be popular with everyone, but I’m a believer in the openness of the web. That’s why I have DoFollow enabled on my comments and my entire site is CC3.0-BY-NC-SA. This removes the ‘nofollow‘ tag from WordPress comments. I think this creates value for everyone: you provide value to your commenters with a dofollow link and they, hopefully, provide a bit of value by leaving a decent comment. Not always true, but give it a try.
Easy Picasa: I’m not really into Flickr. No special reason, just love the big G and Picasa works well for me. One of my more popular posts is a little comparison of Flickr and Picasa. Anyway, this lightweight plugin makes it so easy to insert your photos directly from the New Post screen.
What Would Seth Godin Do?: Great plugin that came from this one little line in one of Seth’s posts “One opportunity that’s underused is the idea of using cookies to treat returning visitors differently than newbies. It’s more work at first, but it can offer two experiences to two different sorts of people.”
Wordbook: Being very social is hard. Wordbook links your blog to Facebook, automatically updating your status when you post.
WordPress Backup: Does backups, on your schedule, and emails them to you or dumps them in a folder on your server. With 7GB of Gmail space, emailing is the most automatic option. Does not backup your database.
WordPress Database Backup: But this one does get the database. Also emails or leaves it in a folder on your server.
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{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
Well at least three of these I had never heard of and 6 of the rest I decided not to use for one reason or another, so the somewhat presumtious claim “Plugins You’re Not Using” is mostly true in this case. Thanks for sharing. Have you tried “Broken link checker”?
Thanks Andy,
I thought the title would get everyone’s attention. I had a broken link checker installed and kept getting a bunch of false positives, so I uninstalled. Maybe I should give it another shot.
A few false positives are worh putting up with if you get to spot the occasional problem such as your link in the above post to the to the Thanks for the coment page
http://erichdoss.com/2009/10/06/thanks-for-the-comment/
which gave me a 404
It worked when I left the first coment though, and I’m quite liking the idea. It got me to subscribe to the RSS, which I might not have got around to otherwise. I can see the benefit there.
Andy,
Thanks for the heads up, I’ll have to look into it. The page should be http://www.erichdoss.com/thanks-for-the-comment, without the permalink dates inserted.
Thanks for taking the time to bring this to my attention.
Swung by via the Problogger forums
I love the first plugin, even if I haven’t implemented it yet. It’s a great way of interacting with reader, plus I find that people who comment & don’t see “Your comment is in moderation” think that there comment was lost (which it isn’t, just in the mod queue). The only thing I’d like is for it to be used for every commenter
You should know where I stand on dofollow comments, I don’t like it, but it does it’s job
Quick question, what’s the difference between the two backup plugins?
Rhys, I bet you could mod the plugin a bit to get everyone to see it. I’m not an expert, but I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to make that happen.
The first backup backs up your content, uploads, and profile, but not the database. The second one gets the database. I’m a bit paranoid about backups, sort of a belt and suspenders kind of guy.
Great! I did’nt knew WordPress Backup.
I’ve bookmarked your site
Dan
The Seth Godin idea is fun. Maybe there will be a boutique industry of quotes and pseudo-advice from all forms of famous people.
I like the Comment Redirect idea!
I like your style on the “do-follow”
I think it spreads better internet energy
thanks!
While I’ve known about all of these plugins I myself only use the back up plugins.
For me it seems like the internet is so saturated with the Seth Godin plugin. I really don’t want to be treated any differently than any other reader. I want to read and if I decide I’ll stick around…Seth has never helped me make that decision.
Dofollow can be really good but for at least one of my blogs it was awful. Not so much because of spam comments but the majority of comments were very short…it seems to promote a quick response and you get a lot of ” Wow! great photo” or ” Great idea” kind of comments when I would like better interaction.
Plus as much of a plugin hoarder as I am I need to look at ways to cut back on them instead of finding more .
I never though do follow link is such brilliant idea, and noble too, but of course, for those web which is served do follow link, we can not put any spam comments, do you agree with me?
Found via the Problogger forums. Good list.
I like the Comment Redirect and the Seth Godin plugins. I have implemented the Seth Godin plugin and will look into the Comment Redirect.
Lately, I have installed and activated lots of plugins. There are so many, that it can seem overwhelming at times.
Hi Eric
let the people who leave a comment on your blog to be alerted if some one respond.
Interesting article
On my blog i use WP-PluginsUsed that let my reader know about the plugin installed on LuViWeblog.
U can view it in action here
I’ll try Comment Redirect and mybe Wordbook (but care full) for facebook i use sociable that let me and my reader to notify my post on facebook and other social network
An alternative to DoFollow is nofollow free that put a ribbon at the top of the blog (i use it)
For the backup of the db i use WordPress Database Backup, what is the difference from WordPress Backup?
A plugin that seem to missing in your blog is subscribe to comment
Ciao
Luigi » LuVi Weblog
La mente è come un paracadute, funziona solo se si apre
I’m using Disqus commenting platform on my blog. Do you think it will override whatever settings it has to make it DoFollow, too? Do you attract lots of spam comments when you installed making the blog DoFollow?
I might also try Comment Redirect for first time commenters. Great idea.
Jan,
I don’t know if the Disqus/DoFollow will cause a problem. I have noticed a few more spam comments, but not too many I guess. To me, it’s worth it right now. I don’t mind filtering out some spam here and there and Akismet does a great job of picking up the really spammy ones.
Great post Eric! I like the”Dofollow” blog plug-in, it really encourages comments to my blog. I use the “Thank me Later” plug-in, but I might try the comment redirect as well.
Rob,
Thank me Later looks awesome. I might have to add that to the list, though I feel that I’ve got too many plugins already. I like CommentRedirect because it pulls folks deeper into the site, hopefully giving them a chance to interact with my site more. I have thought about doing more with the Thanks for the Comment page, since it’s a great opportunity to engage readers.
The wordpress backup plugin has saved my life many times, Ive got it set to email the backup – which is very handy. Thanks for such a great list, there are some I didn’t know about.
Thanks for the note deakaz. I’ve not had to actually use the backups yet, but I’m sure that it’s worth it’s weight in gold when the time comes.
tq for the list plugin
Nice list post, I will start using the comment redirect. That seems useful and practical.
See ya at pb.com
Thanks for the useful tools! Their is another blog out there, Yoast I think it is that has lost of neat plug-ins. Happy Blogging!
thanks for sharing the list with us,i have bookmarked
really interesting post thank you’s so good ..
No problem Eric, yup the plugin is probably one of the best – I love it how I can just schedule a backup and forget it. Keep in touch buddy!
Some of the plugins i’ve never heard,,, I commonly used all in one seo, just that
Thanks for the information, its very useful for newbie like me 
The only ones of those that I use are Dofollow and Backup. The others are too in-your-face and desperate looking for my place. It’s almost like you’re screaming “Hey! Don’t leave me! Please! I’m so lonely!”
The do-follow plugin is the best , everyone should use it, but many people don’t know about it. Wordbook is also a good plugin , to get some visitors. Wordpress BACKUP is a must-have for every blog , everybody should make backups because you never know when your website can be hacked.
Great list, I have to admit to being a bit of a plugin Junkie, just installed WP Backup. WP Super cache is another must have, anything to speed up your load times.
Hey there,
this list was the one I was looking for!
As we are quite new in Wordpress for our Latex Shop, this list is very helpful for a Wordpress Newbie!
Thanx!
well the do-follow tag is always helpful.
And good idea for using gmail as your data backup.
Thanks,
Sam
http://www.pkstudent.com
the comment redirect is a great idea! I’ll have to implement that on my personal blog as soon as I get a chance. Great list!
Thanks for sharing this list Iwill definitely be looking in to start using some of them.
My site ranking is down.. maybe i need do follow website
IPTECWORLD
Comment Redirect seems like it would be an excellent addition. The backup plugin is should be mandatory. Thanks for sharing.
that easy picasa looks a lot easier to use than the other flickr plugins I have used in the past. It may also help automate things a little bit nicer for me.
The comment redirect plugin works pretty well too..
Thanks.
Hey Eric,
Thanks for these wonderful plug-ins. Sorry to say but I use three of them namely, comment redirect, wordbook and dofollow.
I haven’t heard of the rest but I am sure that I will give it a try.
Very interesting article about this amazing plugins. The do-follow plugin is a must-have for every blogger , because that’s the only way you can reward your readers.. Also the backup plugin is critical because without backup , you can lose your blog anytime. A backup is required for every WEBSITE , not only blogs.
I found this very useful! thanks for sharing this list i’m looking to expand my networking for my small business and i think some of these will be a nice addition to my repetoire!
I am working a new blog with Wordpress and the plugins you mentioned interest me. I would like to maximise their function and get the tons of press. Wordbook did a good job in linking my blog to facebook and my updates in my South Beach blog are automatically there. A user friendly plugin and accommodating social network.
Wordbook is soo cool. Now I wouldn’t have to make double updates. I wish there’s one for twitter.
I hope we can set the comment redirect based on our own native language. Thank you for the info, dude.
LoL, I’d never thought there’s a plugin named with “What Would Seth Godin Do?” I might want to try this one. Thanks!
thanks for the information about plugin its really useful
i am using wordpress thanks for the plugin available in wordpress sure will check it out
i am also using wordpress. and thanks for the information
Thanks for the tips about plugin i have blog in wordpress would like to try it
These plugin list are always been a great boon for wordpress bloggers like me, Thanks for your effort and sharing
Really great informative post, thank you
It’s the price to pay for using GPL product, but it’s true, some pluggin was not realy usefull, but developer spend time to create it for free. Just try and if doesnt good for you uninstall it.