My Favorite Wordpress Plugins

Part I – Engaging Your Visitors

I’ve blogged before about the “10 best” plugins for Wordpress. And I still stand behind the ones I chose in that post. Of course, we no longer need the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade (since that’s now built in to the newest versions of WP), and I have to admit, that I’d probably remove Event Calendar, and replace it with WP ListCal, but that’s only because I use this one much more often than a calendar these days-it puts events in a list rather than in a tabled calendar.

While my list in the other post was basically a “you really should have these plugins” type thing…this post is more of a “you may not need these right now, but I LOVE what they do” list.

As I create more and more custom Wordpress themes, I am challenged to find plugins that perform exceptional feats!

Image Display

My absolute favorite, for anyone who needs to offer a web portfolio of images (photographers, designers, artists, performers) is GRAND Flash Album Gallery. This plugin makes keeping your images organized and updated a breeze! Images are uploaded directly via your WP Dashboard using a flash uploader. You set the color scheme, as well as the image sizes and resolutions. Thumbnails are automatically generated for you. Visitors can easily scroll through each category and view the images above a thumbnail “scroller”. Should you feel you want a litte extra “umph” from yours, you can even purchase custom made skins for the display.

Twitter Integration

Show your Tweets! If you use Twitter (and let’s face it if you’re using Wordpress and/or blogging, you probably do), its really handy if you can keep your blog readers updated with your tweets, right? In my opinion, the best twitter integration plugin is Wordpress Twitter Widget Pro. If you are handy with CSS (or have a web designer who is), you can make this widget look any way you want! I’m currently using it on my main blog page – at the top, as well as on single post pages (at the end of a post). I’ve made mine relatively plain, but you can use your stylesheet magic and your imagination to make it stand out and get attention!

Google Calendar

Do you have a Google Calendar that’s publicly viewable? Would you like to share it on your blog or Wordpress website? The WPNG Calendar Plugin is exactly what you’re looking for. The plugin allows you to enter your Google GDATA API key, and automatically integrate your Google Calendar into your site. Full instructions for installation and setup can be found on the Google site.

Visitor Sharing

While the Sociable is my favorite plugin for adding links to social bookmarking sites, I cannot discount the value of also including a “Tell A Friend” page on your website. Having a quick and easy form for your visitors to fill out that can send an email to their friends is still a very good way to share your site. Who better to refer you than someone who’s already visiting? IPassion’s Tell A Friend plugin is quick and easy to use for this purpose.

Photo Gallery

Sharing photos on your blog makes it more personal, and thus more inviting to your readers. If you have a need to do more than share a photo here and there, then you’ll want to have the ability to organize your photos into a gallery for your visitors. In my opinion, absolutely nothing beats NexGen Gallery for this purpose. Upload, organize, and arrange your photos all from your Wordpress Dashboard.