What are the best plugins for a new blog

Hey Mike


Here are some recommended plugins that i use on most of my blogs

Akismet: Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.”


Fast and Secure Contact Form: Fast and Secure Contact Form for WordPress. The contact form lets your visitors send you a quick E-mail message. Blocks all common spammer tactics. Spam is no longer a problem. Includes a CAPTCHA and Akismet support. Does not require JavaScript.


Google XML Sitemaps: This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.


HeadSpace2: Meta-data manager on steroids, allowing complete control over all SEO needs such as keywords/tags, titles, description, stylesheets, and many many other goodies.


Redirection: Manage all your 301 redirects and monitor 404 errors


Reveal IDs for WP Admin: Reveals hidden IDs in Admin interface that have been removed with WordPress 2.5 (formerly known as Entry IDs in Manage Posts/Pages View for WP 2.5).


Robots Meta: This plugin allows you to add all the appropriate robots meta tags to your pages and feeds, disable unused archives and nofollow unnecessary links.


SEO Slugs: Removes common words like ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘in’ from post slugs to improve SEO.


ShareThis: Let your visitors share a post/page with others. Supports e-mail and posting to social bookmarking sites.


Smart YouTube: Insert YouTube videos in posts, comments and RSS feeds with ease and full customization.


WordPress.com Stats: Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.


Subscribe to Comments- this allows your readers who have commented to be notified when new comments are posted. This encourages discussion and interactivity among readers.


Thank Me Later- This plugin will e-mail users who comment on your blog to say thank you for commenting, stay in touch and encourage them to come back again. A handy little tool that saves you a ton of time and makes you look like you are really on the ball.


Onlywire for WordPress- Allows sharing on millions of other social sites with the click of a button. One other step may be needed for some sites and it does like Firefox better than Internet Explorer, but is a very useful tool for mass exposure of your blog by you and your readers.


Tweet This- Adds the nice little button above your blog post to allow your readers to re-post what they have read.

Facebook Share- Does the same thing as the Tweet This plug-in except for Facebook so your readers can re-post on these two major social networks.


Disqus Comment System- a plug-in for your blog comments that promotes community and sharing. Disqus is already used by millions so your commenter will most likely already be recognized by the system and they can choose how to display their identity. They can also easily share their comments socially to increase the viral reach of your post.

Pretty Link- Shrink, track and share any URL on the Internet from your WordPress website. Unlike other link shrinking services like tinyurl, budurl, and bit.ly, this plugin allows you to create shortlinks coming from your own domain! Pretty Link tracks each hit on your URL and provides a full, detailed report of where the hit came from, the browser, os and host. Pretty Link is a killer plugin for people who want to mask their affiliate links, track clicks from emails, increase the reach of their website by spreading these links via Twitter, forums or comments on other blogs.


Now this doesn't even begin to cover all the plug-ins out there, But this list will get any new blogger well on their way to a snazzy blog that works behind the scenes to make you look great while also getting the word out about what you have to offer.


Hope this helps
Craig

To that rather comprehensive list, I'd add 'Pretty Link' - even if you aren't doing any affiliate marketing, it's nice to know what links people are clicking on. For example, I have a free giveaway download, and I can track exactly how many people are clicking on it.

Nice plugin list craig! Informative post. thanks!

These are great plugins. Thanks for the share!

I didn't realise that Wordpress had a plugin for Only Wire, what a combination, thanks very much for that and for the list of others to add too.

Pretty comprehensive Craig. Even if you had to do a lot of trial and error to find this list of plugins you've just done a good service to everyone by sharing.

Another good plugin is scribe. It is good to analyze on page SEO.

The rest good plugins are already mentioned above.

Great sharing Craig, a lot of new ones I have not heard about before.

does anyone have a good facebook fanpage/ like plugin?

I am looking for one like this or similar that shows some pics like this one: Social Caffeine by Lori R Taylor

Thanks for the list. I have been using Askimet, Google sitemaps, Smart youtube, all in one seo, and google analytics for wp.

Plugins: Here is a list of plugins that I use.

cbnet Ping Optimizer: This one is important because it prevents you from
over pinging something
Ping Optimizer cb.blog

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator:
http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/...-forwordpress/

Digg Digg: This one is great for people that want to socially bookmark your
articles to places like Digg or Twitter http://www.mkyong.com/blog/diggdigg-
wordpress-plugin

wordpress-plugin
exit window redirect: This is basically exactly like the exit splash, you can
send people anywhere from here. Free Premium Wordpress Auto Install Themes Designer Plugin Development

Google XML Sitemaps: This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap
which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to
better index your blog.
Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator for WordPress

SEO Smart Links: SEO Smart Links provides automatic SEO benefits for
your site in addition to custom keyword lists, nofollow and much more.
SEO Smart Links | Prelovac.com

SEO Super Comments: Use your blog comments to get more traffic.
http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wor...-supercomments

UBD Block Ad Plugin: Let the blog owner add 125x125 block ads to their
sidebar.
http://www.uniqueblogdesigns.com/blo...lock-ad-plugin

WordPress.com Stats: Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks.
Requires a WordPress.com API key.
WordPress › WordPress.com Stats WordPress Plugins

WP Greet Box: Show a different message to your visitor depending on
which site they are coming from. For example, you can ask Digg visitors to
Digg your post, Google visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed, and more!
Best of all, this plugin is compatible with various WordPress cache plugins.
http://omninoggin.com/projects/wordp...dpress-plugin/

Thanks for that info. Hope to learn to use them soon. I am so new to blogging I really don't know how to use plugins. I am in the new learning mode right now since my prior website left me.

Great comments and suggestions. I am setting up a fully functional website not a blog using Word Press so do you have any essential recommendations which of the plugins are a must have or do the lists above still all apply?

I appreciate your experience here guys.

Why do we have to start similar threads again and again and again... when we have special threads set up by the admin for this:
WarriorForum - Internet Marketing Forums - Threads Tagged with allinone
(look for the WP thread!)

Found the perfect facebook plugin

Here is the direct link to the plugin I found and it works perfect. Already put it on my site.

Plugin: Like Box - Facebook Developers

My site I installed it on: GooRoo Media Marketing | GooRoo Media Marketing

Also here is my list:

first get "plugin central" and you can install all the plugins below with one click.

then add these to the plugin central list to install.

shockingly simple favicon
SexyBookmarks
commentluv
akismet
easy tube
exclude pages from navigation
google analytics for wordpress
google xml sitemaps
platinum seo pack
private url
TinyMCE advanced
wp easy uploader
wp super cache
pretty-link
google sitemap generator
wordpress.com stats
DISQUS Comment System
Easy Privacy Policy
Fast and Secure Contact Form
PollDaddy Polls & Ratings

Wrote up a blog post about this a few months back might find it helpful
Top Wordpress Plugins You Need For Your Blog | Sean Supplee

thanks for this informative posts..

Hey,

on my blog i use a tool called Wibya (just do a Google search). It provides an interactive and user-friendly web toolbar that allows you to integrate a host of web applications directly onto your website or blog.

The Wibya allows you to add features and tools for your website’s visitors to use without leaving the page.

This will promote your website’s content, while increasing time spent on your website and the interest your website generates.

Cheers

Dennis

I think I need to go over my plugins...