Best WordPress Plugins

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One of the best things about WordPress is the number of plugins available that let you customize it to the way you blog. Just like with WordPress themes, though, wading through all the available WordPress plugins can get overwhelming very quickly.

So, I wanted to take some time out to list my favorite plugins. These may not be the best plugins for your particular blog, but they’re some of the most useful ones out there.

WordPress Plugins that I Use

SpamKarma 2
Hands down my favorite plugin. If you told me I could only have one plugin to use, this would win every time. Absolutely the greatest blog spam eater I’ve ever used. Just set it…and forget it!

WordPress Database Backup
This is easily my #2 favorite plugin. Because all you need to restore your entire WordPress blog is a copy of your database and a copy of your theme, having a backup of your database emailed to you nightly gives you great insurance against disasters.

DoFollow
I’m a really big fan of this one. See “Don’t Look Now, but You’re Being Followed” for the full story.

MyAvatars
This plugin allows you to use MyBlogLog avatars in your comments section like I do here. I really like that because it puts a face with the name.

Popularity Contest
Just one of many great WordPress plugins from Alex King, Popularity Contest keeps a list of your most popular posts.

Subscribe to Comments
I’m a huge fan of this one. It’s great for following a running conversation in the comments, as often happens, and keeps your readers coming back to participate in the conversation. I find myself getting frustrated now when I comment on other blogs and can’t subscribe to comments.

Related Entries
Shows a list of your posts that are similar to the one the reader is reading. Good for helping people find other great content on your site that they might like to read.

Ultimate Tag Warrior
This one is great for situations where tags are more appropriate than categories. The next version of WordPress is supposed to include native support for tags, rendering this plugin obsolete…at least in theory.

the_excerpt Reloaded
You may not need this one, but I’m a big fan of it in certain cases. For one, it allows you to specify how long you want the excerpt to be. For another, the default the_excerpt function in WordPress doesn’t include HTML tags in the excerpt. But stripping out the HTML tags can cause some really weird excerpts if, for instance, you’re linking out a lot (which you should be). I use it most places on this site now to display my excerpts.

WordPress Plugins that I Haven’t Used Yet

FeedBurner Plugin
Makes it easy to run your feeds through FeedBurner. Why would you want to do that? Look for that post soon.

Brian’s Threaded Comments
I see this one used a lot but haven’t actually used it myself yet. Like the Subscribe to Comments plugin, it encourages a richer dialogue in your comments section.

WP-Amazon
Makes it easy to add Amazon product links to your posts (which is a great way to earn some fun money).

More Plugin Resources

Lorelle has a large post on plugins that help you monetize your blog.

Stark has his own list of Top 15 WordPress Plugins over at Fuzzy Future.

Did I miss any great plugins? What are your favorites?

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