Here is the list of the most important plugins for WordPress. Keep in mind, however, that there are many, many plugins available for a wide variety of tasks, so feel free to check them out at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/.
Make sure any plugin you use has at least three stars; if it doesn’t but you really want it, make sure you do the research.
Also, check to see what version of WP you have. When you follow any of the links below to download a plugin, double check to make sure it’s compatible with your version of WordPress.
With plugins, the process is pretty simple in general:
- Download the file;
- Extract the files from it if its zipped to your Plugins folder on your computer;
- Upload the files to your wp-content/plugins folder;
- Activate it in the WordPress manager under “Plugins.”
Here are the top 20 WordPress plugins you can’t live without: Read more
Web Analytics helps you track whats going on with your blog and helps you refine your sites goals and campaigns
Here are 7 excellent web analytics resources for your blog. I’ve specifically included several programs in here that have cool, useful resources like plugins and widgets for your blog.
Feedburner- Manages RSS Feeds and offers free blog analytics, tracks subscriptions, keywords and etc.
Mint - Excellent, self-hosted site analytics software. The fee is a one-time, $30 flat fee for a license, per site. Super cheap, and you get access to a ton of tools and plugins (called “Pepper”) that extend Mint’s basic feature set via their “Peppermill.”
Google Analytics – Ok so Google Analytics is still an ok free option, but keep in mind that it has some problems, namely underreporting. However, its still a good option for getting a general idea of what’s going on with your blog.
Feedjit - I had to include them in here, as they offer some excellent free widgets for your blog, all in real-time, including a live traffic feed, live traffic map, live recommended reading and live page popularity.
IndexTools – Recently acquired by Yahoo, and soon to be Yahoo Index Tools, they offer excellent options for web analytics, but the prices aren’t listed on the site, so you’ll have to do a little digging.
MyBlogLog – Great social networking site for those with blogs. It has the additional benefit of tracking your blog stats, cool widgets to show who’s visited your site and much, much more. Best of all, its free:)
HitTail.com: Excellent site analytics; their basic package offers man options and allows you to track up to 125 pages per month and up to 100k visitors. All for $9.95, which is a great deal.
