My apologies for non-Wordpress, non-self-hosted bloggers. This post, sadly, is not for you. If, however, you are looking for reasons to become a self-hosted WordPress blogger, the following plugins may do the trick.
What is a Plugin?
Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. In the directory you can find, download, rate, and comment on all the best plugins the WordPress community has to offer.
12,280 plugins, 134,621,514 downloads, and counting
But in a word, what are plugins? MAGIC.**
They allow you to easily install and customize everything from comment systems to photo galleries to sidebar widgets and more.
Of the 12,280 plugins, I have probably tried 10,000. Some are great out of the box, some need some attention and some are duds. A great way (short of Google) of finding plugins that fit your needs is the WordPress Plugins Directory, which you can search by category, keyword, plugin author and more. You can also read FAQs, reviews and see screenshots.
People often ask me about my favorite plugins, and the answer is — it depends on your needs. But the following plugins are among the best, especially when it comes to interacting with your readers and spreading your content.
My Favorite WordPress Plugins
Stopping Spam
Akismet in Action
- Akismet
- Akismet comes automatically installed with WordPress, and I think it’s one of the best spam-stopping tools available. Once you register for your Akismet Key (easy to do), you’ll notice that it gives suspected spam and spammers a timeout — putting the comments in a special holding cell for your review. Once in a VERY great while, it picks up non-spam comments, but it’s a great way of keeping your comments clean.
Creating Content
Editorial Calendar
- TinyMCE Advanced
- TinyMCE is the standard RTE (rich text editor) that comes with WordPress. In non-techy terms, it’s the big box where you write your posts. TinyMCE Advanced lets you add all sorts of icons and shortcuts to your WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor, including Table icons, an HTML button (helps you get to your code when you’re in fullscreen mode), Font SIze and more.
- Editorial Calendar
- I swear, this calendar makes me more efficient, more consistent and a better blogger. I use this plugin to take blog post ideas from my scratchpad to an actionable item. Essentially, the plugin just gives you a different display for naming and scheduling posts. But I also find that it’s a good way to remind myself of deadlines OR plan for things like holidays, guest posts and more.
Social Media
- Twitter Blackbird Pie
- This is still a bit unwieldy, but I think it will be developed into a great tool. This tool allows you to embed tweets — so instead of doing a screengrab, which is an image only, the plugin actually pulls in links, avatars and timestamps. Very cool.
- SexyBookmarks
- SexyBookmarks are the icons that appear at the bottom of my posts, encouraging you to share the content on your social networks. This plugin is very easy to customize, so you can pick and choose which icons appear, what they look like and more.
- Twitter Tools
- Twitter Tools adds a menu to my posts’ edit screens so I can tell it whether or not to send a link to Twitter. You can add on to the plugin to shorten the links (using bit.ly) or add a hashtag.
- Wordbooker
- Same idea as Twitter Tools, but Wordbooker allows me to automatically publish a link on m Facebook page whenever I publish a post on my blog. Both Twitter Tools and Wordbooker work with scheduling posts, which is cool.
Comments and Community
- CommentMailer
- Gosh, I love this plugin. When I reply to a comment on my site, the comment is emailed to the original poster. I used to get so frustrated, knowing that most people don’t return to blog posts to see if their comments have been answered. No more!
- Hikari Enhanced Comments
- Simple, but effective…Hikari lets me customize nested, or threaded comments, so that replies appear on an indent and below the original comment.
Photos and Media
- Flickr Photo Album
- I’ve talked about this one before, but because I prefer hosting my photos on Flickr, the Photo Album adds an easy-to-use icon on my post edit screen so I can insert pictures. The plugin also allows me to resize and search by tag.
Analytics
StatPress
- Google Analyticator
- Google Analytics Dashboard
- Combined, these two tools are a great way to tap into Google Analytics. They’re a bit funky for me — the stats don’t always seem to make sense, and they can be a bit behind, but they allow me to see how each post is doing in terms of pageviews, comments and more.
- Statpress Reloaded
- While GA *can* help me track keywords, referral links, etc., I think Statpress does a better job. It’s especially fun to figure out what people are searching for when they find my blog (something I share in my Five for Friday posts!)
Other
WPtouch
- WP DB Backup
- Again, talked about it before — LOVE this tool for backing up my blog. I set it to automatically back up once a week, and I always force a backup whenever I’m doing any code work.
- WPtouch
- Makes my blog formatted for mobile browsing. Genius.
There are so many more great tools — some for displaying videos…for displaying comments…for rotating ads and more. But this is a pretty good list to get you started.
(UPDATE! My Favorite WordPress Plugins Part II is now here!)
Did I miss any of YOUR favorites?
**Yes, I know that there can be too much of a good thing. When you have tons of plugins — even if they’re not activated — they can slow down the speed at which your pages load or interact with each other in a way that will make you want to scream. But still. Plugins are magic.
About Katy
These are such a huge help! I already used about half of these and was so excited to add the rest. I really needed a back up plugin that allowed me to force a backup.
This is so helpful. Being new to blogging I need all the help I can get. My biggest issue is I can’t figure out how to change the size of my font?!?
Erin,
I am SO sorry for missing this comment…maybe someone needs to make a plugin that alerts me to comments with questions?
Typically, your font size is controlled by the files used to build your blog — in this case, your stylesheet, built on CSS. If you’re trying to change the font across the board on your blog, you need to (or find someone to do it for you) change those settings.
If you want to make font bigger on a per-post basis, check out the TinyMCE plugin, which adds a “font size” option the icons on your RTE (the place where you type).
Another super-helpful post – thank you!
I love the Comment Reply plug-in that I have … it took me like 4 hours to set up in my theme, but it was worth it. I love it when blogs I comment on have the plug-in – it’s a great thing to have from a user’s perspective (or at least mine).
I need to get on the back-up wagon, so I will check that one out next. I want to make some changes over the holidays, and with my level of tech savvy …. well, let’s just say I need a back-up.
I’m having trouble installing the comment plugin-I’ve done everything they say (including to add the in the template….) but it’s not working. Any advice?
Hey Raya —
What part is causing trouble? Have you been able to install it and you just need help customizing the text that goes out (that can be tricky)?
Or is the actual install itself not working? Give me as many details as possible so I can help.
Well, I think I installed it completely (it pretty much did it automatically from what I could tell when I clicked “download”)….and I activated it…And I filled in the appropriate fields with what I would like the email that commenters receive to say, but when I go to reply to comments, nothing is different. There is no list of emails to reply to, or anything.
There are several you list that I will eagerly check out. I use different ones for nested comments and replies to comments – replyMail and WordPress Thread Comment. I LOVE when bloggers email any response to me; no time or memory to check back. I like WordPress Admin Bar since I started on WP.com and this mimics that look for me. And I think my commenters appreciate CommentLuv.
I just downloaded the WP back-up plug-in you like. What do you do with the back-up 1) save to computer, 2) save to server, or 3) e.mail???
Also, what type of file do you save it as? [Is that correct lingo?]
Thank you – huge help!
so helpful.
now
I need you to come over and hold my hand while I install….
OK..you have to keep me informed about all of these awesome plugins! I have installed 3 that you recommended….thxs!
Katy,
Random question on an old(er) post
Why do you choose to host your photos on Flickr rather than on WordPress itself? Is it for backup purposes? Exposure on Flickr? I have most of my images stored in my WordPress folders and didn’t know if there was a reason I shouldn’t…
Hi Stephanie!
I feel more comfortable hosting through Flickr because it’s safer. If my blog were to be hacked or the files corrupted, and I had no backup, I’d be screwed (as it is, I back up my files, but still…)
Also, after a while, you’ll hit your storage limit on WordPress AND hosting on Flickr makes it much easier to share photos.
Thank you so much for this post! I am in the process of transferring my blog into a self-host server and I felt overwhelmed by the amount of plugins. This was super helpful identifying the areas of needs.
Laura @ Joyful Shimmy recently posted..Making it through the Holiday Stress {Guest Post}
Ok, girls, time for some awakening. Firstly, let me kill off some myths Kathy (supercute type of a girl a vegetarian, health buff computer afficionad like me would love to meet in real life, not just hear about on the net… ; ) ), and other girls seem to misunderstand:
1. Self-hosting is, and is ONLY, when you have your own server set up in your room and you are controllling it. Paying someone else to host your domain/website is NOT self-hosting, period.
2. You “own” your content when “self-hosting” on someone else’s server. Well, hate to be the one to break it out to you but NO, you DON’T own a single letter of it. In fact teh only difference is that you are paying for it and you have the full administrative access in return.
Let us say I am your host provider. For as long as your page sits on my servers, your ahem… content, is mine. Even your backups. I mean, where do you think they are stored?
On my servers, of course. >: )==)
So, if you want to self-host your own bloggies and photos, for real, you have to get yourself a dedicated (your own) computer, broadband connection, set up the server on the computer (MUCH easier than it sounds) and upload your content.
Oh, and don’t forget to leave it on 24/7. Else the world will not be able to find you and read it and look at your photos. Yes, photos. You can store whole load of photos on an average notebook nowadays, which is why these small things are perfect for your home servers, by the way. Netbooks come with solid state discs now with 120 and even 250 GB of space fo $500-$600. A steal for a server. But, I’d opt for a regular 15 in notebook for the same money because they come with more storage space and with more power.
And even if you manage to suffocate the hard drive with your photos and videos, there are always external drives with 2 TB of space to be had for peanuts nowadays.
In fact, I’d be vitaly interested to keep my own blog under my own roof if I had one, just as Kathy begged and pleaded in the other post, Self-Hosting: Why, How and Resources Galore. (http://katywidrick.com/2011/04/18/self-hosting-why-how-and-resources-galore/)
Security nowadays is not an issue with all the free and commercial tools available.
((*))
^)^