5 Must Have Plugins for WordPress Bloggers

So as many of you guys have noticed, my site has gotten completely redone in the last few days. I’m finally getting around to learning all the inner workings of WordPress. It’s truly an amazing blogging engine, but the best part by far is the plugins! So I’ve created a list of 10 must have plugins for WordPress bloggers!

1. Disqus

Comments like it or not are a massive part of the blogging experience. They bring more keywords to your post, they allow users to engage and feel a part of the topic, they allow people to alert you of errors in your post, and finally: they’re a pain to manage.

Disqus combines many commenting features into one powerhouse plugin that allows you to host a comment form with file uploads, universal logins, Akismet spam protection, a very robust moderation panel, and many more features! Best of all, it’s available for free!

Go to disq.us to create an account and download the plugin.

2. Social Media Widget

Social networks are the core of blogging success. But the biggest problem is, there’s simply too many! It may be hard and time-consuming to create a list of all your social networks to display on your site, but this plugin makes it easy! It features 47 built-in social networks and 6 custom networks of your choice. It displays it all in a slick little widget! Did we mention it has 4 icon themes and 3 icon sizes? Definitely a must have when it comes to displaying social media links!

Checkout the Social Media Widget here!

3. WordPress Post Tabs

This one might not seem like a completely necessary plugin, but for people like me; it is! I like to be very organized when it comes to displaying content, especially when I have a lot of content to be displayed! If your needs are like mine, you’ll greatly enjoy using WordPress Post Tabs! It allows you to add a lot of data into one post and split it all back up into tabs.

In my book, it’s a must have. Check out WordPress Post Tabs here!

4. WP Greet Box

Here’s an epic plugin for you guys, WP Greet Box! Ever see those sites that welcome you with a message such as “Welcome Googler”? Well, now you can host your own on your WordPress blog! The best part, is not only does it have a bunch of default sites built-in, you can even add your own!

Great for people who would like to display a special message, display a discount, or anything else to a specific audience coming to your site from another site!

Check out the WP Greet Box plugin here!

5. W3 Total Cache

Okay, maybe not quite as exciting as the other plugins; but this is easily the most important and necessary plugin for WordPress. It will dramatically reduce loading times for your website by not only caching your files, but also by minifying all your javascript and CSS files! In my book the user experience is really the most important part of blogging. If there’s not a good user experience, you can bet that user won’t return (at least not intentionally!). Users won’t really recognize if your site is loading fast, but they sure will notice if it’s running slow!

Check out W3 Total Cache here!

Well that concludes this list! If you have any other plugins you’d recommend please share them in the comments section below! (powered by Disq.us )