Best WordPress Plugins

One of the things that separates WordPress from other blogging software out there is the fact that it is open source, and the benefits that go along with being open source. If you aren’t very good at coding, or good with PHP in particular, then the WordPress community has come to the rescue with WordPress plugins, which will allow just about anyone to easily add additional functionality to their blog. With the free WordPress plugins that various authors write and contribute from around the globe, WordPress has gained a lot of flexibility, causing it to be more attractive to potential bloggers.

As this site is dedicated to WordPress, I thought it would be a good idea to have a featured post dedicated to the best WordPress plugins available. This post is a constant work in progress, and will continue to be updated as I feature more plugins on this website. After each plugin, you should find a quick description, as well as a link to the full review. I have also broken the plugins down into categories for easy reference.

Premium WordPress Plugins

- Advertising -

• OIO Publisher - Complete plugin that removes all hassle for bloggers who manage advertising. Automates banners, text links, paid reviews, and collects the money for you. [Full Review]

- Affiliates -

• Auction Thumbs - Plugin that allows you to easily integrate eBay Partner Network ads into your WordPress Blog. [Full Review]
• PHP Bay Pro - Premium plugin that integrates eBay auction ads into your WordPress blog. [Full Review]
• WP Affiliate Pro - Allows you to manage your affiliate links from within your WordPress dashboard. Also allows you to mask links and a number of other features. [Full Review]
• WP Ninja Affiliate - Similar to WP Affiliate Pro plugin, but provides some additional features including  multiple keywords and caching. [Full Review]

- SEO -

• WP SEO Sniper - Extreme SEO plugin designed to give people conscious of SEO full control over their blogs from the WordPress dashboard. Significant upgrade to the All-in-One SEO Pack plugin. [Full Review]

- Websites -

• WP Review Site - Simply activate theme and plugin to create a full-featured review website.  No additional work needed, allowing you to make a number of these sites quickly!  [Full Review]

Free WordPress Plugins

- Admin Tools -

• Gamer’s Pack - Makes your blog viewable using the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and PSP gaming systems. [Full Review]
• GoCodes - Easily create redirects from your WordPress Dashboard that point anywhere. Great for hiding affiliate links. [Full Review]
• Google Sitemap - Creates a fully-compliant sitemap for search engines. [Full Review]
• Greet Box - Identifies where traffic is being referred from and displays the appropriate welcome message to them, encouraging to subscribe to your feed, Digg or Stumble your posts, etc. [Full Review]
• In Series - Allows you to easily group a series of posts into a series. [Full Review]
• MobilePress - Optimizes your WordPress blog for mobile phones including the popular iPhone. [Full Review]
• No Self Ping - Prevents your blog from sending pingbacks internally to your other posts. [Full Review]
• WP-o-Matic - Allows users to collect feeds and auto-generate posts on your blog. [Full Review]
• WordPress Backup - Plugin that backups up your WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, images, and other non-database stuff.  Works with WP-DB Manager.  [Full Review]
• WP-DB Manager - Plugin that gives you full control over your WordPress database backups.  Works with the WordPress Backup plugin. [Full Review]
• WP Sticky - Allows users to feature a post at the top of their homepage for a day or permanently. [Full Review]
• WP-Super Cache - Creates a cache of your posts to avoid server load. Great for surviving a Digg. [Full Review]

- Advertising -

• Chitika Premium Ads - Plugin that allows you to easily integrate Chitika premium ads into your WordPress blog.  [Full Review]
• Got Banners - Plugin allows you to randomize your advertising banners. Ideal for 125×125 banners. [Full Review]
• Max Banner Ads - Plugin that lets you control your advertising from the WordPress dashboard.  Also allows you to rotate multiple advertisements in a single spot.  [Full Review]
• Show125 - Plugin that specializes in managing your 125×125 block advertisements. [Full Review]
• Shylock AdSense - Allows you to easily insert Google AdSense code into your WordPress blog. [Full Review]

- Authors -

• Author Exposed - Adds a full featured display of the authors profile. Great for multi-author blogs. [Full Review]
• Role Manager Plugin - Allows you to control the various WordPress user roles can and cannot do.  [Full Review]

- Comments -

• CubePoints - CubePoints allows you to choose a certain amount of points for each comment posted by a certain commentator. You can offer premium content, allow readers to purchase merchandise or maybe even an advertisement for your blog with a certain amount of points. [Full Review]
• Keyword Luv - Adds an extra field to your comments where people can enter their website so they don’t add their website’s name in the name field for SEO anchor text purposes. [Full Review]
• Liz Comment Count - Displays a comment count in a similar fashion to the Feedburner feed count widget. [Full Review]
• MyAvatars - Automatically inserts the commentators MyBlogLog avatar next to their comment using the e-mail address provided. If unavailable, it will attempt to pull the bloggers Gravatar. [Full Review]
• Show Top Commentators - Allows you to display your top commentators automatically in a place of your choosing. Great for encouraging comments. [Full Review]
• Smilies Themer - Plugin that offers a variety of smilies styles to place in the comments section of your blog. [Full Review]
• Subscribe to Comments - Allows readers to receive e-mail notifications when a follow up comment is left. [Full Review]

- Domaining -

• Domain Name Portfolio - This plugin automatically creates a page in WordPress that domainers can use to display their domain portfolio. Everything is controlled from the dashboard. [Full Review]

- Downloads -

• Download Manager - Plugin that allows you to manage your downloads from the WordPress dashboard.  [Full Review]

- Feeds -

• Add Related Posts To Your Feed - Will automatically add related posts to your blog’s feed. [Full Review]
• FeedCount - Allows you to display a numerical version of your Feedburner feed count without using the Feedburner chicklet. [Full Review]
• Feed Footer - Allows you to use HTML to add a custom footer to your blog’s feed. Plugin also supports randomizing up to 10 different footers. [Full Review]
• RSS Footer - Basic plugin that allows you to easily add copyright notice, etc. [Full Review]

- Forums -

• RS Discuss - Plugin that allows you to easily integrate a forum into your existing WordPress blog. [Full Review]

- Maintenance -

• WordPress Automatic Upgrade - Allows you to easily upgrade your WordPress installation to the latest version. **No longer needed in WordPress 2.7+**[Full Review]

- Miscellaneous -

• Best Posts Summary - Automatically generates a daily, weekly, or monthly review post.  Includes both post titles and brief descriptions. [Full Review]
• BreadCrumb Navigation XT - Allows you to provide your readers with additional blog navigation. [Full Review]
• Get Firefox Banner - Shows a banner to IE6 and IE7 web browser users recommending they switch to Firefox. Great for blogs whose WordPress theme is optimized for Firefox. [Full Review]
• Popularity Contest - Monitors your website traffic and gives you reports on your popular posts. Plugin is fully customizable allowing you to set the values used to calculate your posts popularity. [Full Review]
• WP-eCommerce - Plugin that allows you to create an online shop on your WordPress blog [Full Review]
• WP-Email - Allows you to add an “Email This!” button to your WordPress blog. [Full Review]
• WP-Submission - Creates a submission page then places all submissions into a post draft. Ideal for group writing projects. [Full Review]

- Related Posts -

• Related Posts - Uses keywords in your post URL’s to display a designated number of related posts. [Full Review]
• Related Posts by Category - Uses category to locate and display related posts. [Full Review]
• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) - Currently the ultimate/best related posts plugin available for WordPress users.  Includes related posts for your feed! [Full Review]

- SEO -

• All-in-One SEO Pack - The Ultimate SEO WordPress plugin. Allows you to set your homepage meta information and automatically generate custom meta information for your individual posts. [Full Review]
• Permalink Redirect - Creates a 301 Redirect to avoid duplicate content penalties with search engines. Also includes a Feedburner redirect. [Full Review]

- Tags -

• Better Tags Manager - Allows you to better manage your tags, as well as convert your categories to tags. [Full Review]
• Recommended Tags - Looks at your post’s content and recommends tags. Includes additional features. [Full Review]

- Video -

• All-in-One Video Pack - All-in-One Video Pack includes every functionality you might need for video and rich-media, including the ability to upload/ record/import videos directly to your post, edit and remix content with an online video editor, enable video responses, manage and track your video content, create playlists, etc. [Full Review]