My Favorite WordPress Plugins – Important Ones

Over the next couple of days I will share my thoughts on my favorite WordPress plugins that are installed on this very blog. To make things easier, I have divided them up into four sections: the important ones, information aggregators, article tools, and syndication tools. Below are the ones that I feel every WordPress blog should have for a more stable and protected blog.

The Important Ones

WP-Cache – This plugin generates static HTML pages to serve up instead of hitting the database on the backend every time a user requests a page. Sending HTML is a lot less resource intensive and will fortify a blog from going under when a massive crowd pounces on the content, also known as the Digg effect. Screenshot »

Akismet – From the same people that created WordPress comes Akismet, the anti-spam plugin. Have you ever recieved a comment that seems like complete gibberish with a ton of scrupulus links? Then you have gotten attacked by comment spam. Akismet uses the wisdom of crowds and sends all of the comments you recieve through it’s barrage of tests to determine if it is real or junk. It’s free for personal use and is a snap to set-up with any WordPress blog. Screenshot »

Bad Behavior – In tandem with Akismet is Bad Behavior which aims to block most malicious spam bots from ever posting on your site to begin with. It says it has blocked 360 spam accesses in the past 7 days but I have no clear idea on what it is doing. All I had to do was install it and forget it so it is worth keeping around. Screenshot »

Tomorrow I will take a look at information aggregation plugins that make it easier to analyze trends with my blog.

9 Responses to “ My Favorite WordPress Plugins – Important Ones ”

  1. Blog Stats offered through WordPress is pretty cool, it shows similar data that the google analytics shows, but you can access it via your wordpess admin panel. I also like the Users Online thing, it will show you on your blog, if you choose, how many users are online, but also in your admin panel, show you the number of users and breaks them down into bots, and actual IPs. So you will see:
    User1
    192.168.0.0 (referred)

    User 2
    (BOT)yahoo

    User 3
    (BOT)google, etc.. Pretty nice.

    Reply

  2. […] we saw my important plugins but today I will take a look at plugins that make it easier to access a wide array of information […]

  3. […] we are at the last post in this series of My Favorite WordPress Plugins. If you missed the important, information, or article tool ones, check them out. And now on with the best tools for keeping your […]

  4. Great list of Plugins !!
    With so many hundreds to choose from and more being developed everyday, its getting hard and harder to know which ones are the essentials.. I have just posted a list at my “PowerTeam Marketing Network Blog” http://powerteamnetwork.com/wa.....your-blog/
    that I found at http://sixrevisions.com , but truthfully I have nearly 50 plugins turned on at my site… I will put a link to this post on your Blog, so my readers can have more options…
    Thanks !

    Reply

    Russell Heimlich responded on April 8th, 2008:

    Glad to be of service and thanks for linking back to me!

  5. […] You might also want to check out some other great Plugin lists I’ve found http://www.russellheimlich.com.....omment-644 […]

  6. Cool site, love the info.

    Reply

  7. Thank you for this helpful information! Best wishes from here in Canada! :)

    Reply

  8. Been reading your blog now for quite a long time and really love it. I don’t know if it’s your style or not , but do you think you could perhaps do a post on the oil spill in the gulf?

    I love your thoughts and opinions, and would love to see your comments on this tragedy.

    Reply

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