1. WordPress.com Stats
Personally, I think it’s critical for bloggers to track activity on their blogs. You can use a web analytics tool, but it takes some time to navigate through all the reports. That’s where a plugin will come in handy. The WordPress.com Statistics plugin is a great help in this regard. Instead of using another app, you can track your blog stats directly from your WordPress dashboard.
2. WP-Surveys
It is a well known fact that people like to participate in surveys. There are options available to you on the internet, but the WP-Polls plugin will allow you to create custom polls on your WordPress dashboard. You do not have to leave your account to sign in to another site to manage it. This is only if you want to make use of surveys.
3. Sociable
This plugin automatically adds links to your favorite social bookmarking sites in your posts, pages and in your RSS feed. You can choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites.
4. Akismet
It is very important to activate your Akismet plugin on your blog. It is a fact that unfortunately blogs receive comments that are spam. This plugin checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and allows you to review the spam it detects in your blog’s “comments” management screen. Your readers don’t like to see spam comments. This can easily result in a drop in your traffic. I cannot stress this enough, make sure you are using a plugin like Akismet. This WordPress plugin will save you time.
5. Math Comment Spam
In the rapidly growing age of technology, it is sadly a fact that comment spam blocking plugins like Akismet will not always be enough to remove all spam comments. By using the Math Comment Spam plugin together with the Akismet plugin, you will be able to decrease comment spam. The Math Comment Spam plugin will ask readers a simple math problem, such as 2 x 3, before they can comment. This is to make sure it’s a human comment.
6. theme tester
Sometimes it happened that bloggers want to change WordPress theme. You don’t want your audience to see the changes until everything is done and done. This is where the Theme Tester plugin will be of great help. Your readers will see your existing design until everything is set up and ready for publication.
7. WP Database Backup
I want you to read the following carefully! If your blog is important to you, do yourself a huge favor and install the WP-Database Backup plugin. It is very important to have this plugin installed and configured to backup your WordPress database. This plugin will save the data to your hard drive or send it to you via email. The next important point I want to emphasize is this: Please note that this plugin only backs up your database files. Make sure to manually backup your WordPress content folder from your hosting account.
8. easytube
This plugin will help you to post a YouTube or Google video to your blog. It easily makes embedding YouTube and Google videos into your post a breeze. Easytube also includes a preview image of your YouTube videos in the RSS feed with a link to the video. If you want to make use of visual media, it is essential to install this plugin.
9. Auto-close comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks
To reduce spam on old posts, you can use this plugin. Older posts are targets for automated comment spam bots. After installing the plugin, set the time period to a date that you want to close comments on your posts. You are all set up and ready to go!
10 Google maps plugin
This plugin speaks for itself. If you want to use Google maps to be part of your blog post, this plugin will help you through the process of creating, embedding and customizing. This WordPress plugin will definitely save you time.
I really hope these 10 WordPress plugins save you time and make blogging a feast. Take advantage of it and enjoy your blog!
Jan