I’ve spent several hours looking through the various plugins for WordPress. In case you don’t know, these are little snippets you can add to your blog that will add some really cool features.

Here are the ones I selected.

1. Akismet – this comes pre-installed on WordPress, however you must register for an API key to unlock it. This plugin will grab most of the spam that comes to your blog and zap it without you having to do anything with it.

2. Hello Dolly – this one is also pre-installed and is just a fun tribute to the Louis Armstrong song, Hello Dolly. You won’t see any sign of this, as selected lines from the song show up in the Admin panel. Right now, the line is “You’re still goin’ strong”

3. Add graphical signature – this is great if you have a single signature to end all your posts with – it will automatically append that sig to your posts. I haven’t activated this plugin because I don’t have a signature set up yet.

4. Google Analyticator – this plugin automatically appends your Google Analytics code to each blog page. This way, you don’t have to go futzing with the blog code to add the Analytics code. Don’t have Google Analytics? Go get it! It will give you awesome information on the traffic your website/ blog gets.

5. Link to Me Textbox – This shows up on the interior/ single post pages of the blog. It gives you the link code if you want to link back to a particular blog post from your blog or website.

6. Snap Shots – this is a fun little plug in. It applies a little icon beside a website URL or another link within your post. When you place your mouse over the icon, a larger screen will pop up and you can see the page that is being referenced.

7. Sociable – this are the little icons that follow each post where you can Digg, or StumbleUpon or otherwise notify the “social” sites of a particular post. This helps drive traffic to your site that you might not otherwise receive.

8. Remind Subscribe – this is very cool and also follows each post. It’s a subtle reminder for the reader to join your RSS feed so they will receive all your blog posts.

9. Twitter Tools – The Twitter “Tweets” appear in the side bar and once a day post a ‘digest’ blog posts of the Tweets I have made during the day. The thought behind Twitter is that you make very short entries about what you are doing at various times during the day. My Twitter is hooked up to my blog and facebook account.

10. Finally, an email plugin that will allow people to forward your post as an email – either to themselves or friends. The only thing here is I haven’t been able to make this one work.

One more specific plugin I would like, but haven’t found, is a calendar icon with the current date for each post.

I’ve set up a blog for my husband as well, and found a nice First letter dropcap for his posts. This makes the first letter of his posts quite large and the remaining text wraps around it.

So there you have it – just a tiny portion of the pages and pages of plugins you can add.

Don’t have a blog yet? I can set one up for you! Contact me here: www.peggymurrah.com

Powered by ScribeFire.