In my previous posts in this Blog Expert Series, I discussed the ‘Mandatory WordPress Plugins Your Blog Should Have‘ and the ‘WordPress Plugins Definitely Worth Adding To Your Blog’.
In this post, I shall share with you the plugins I have installed that I feel are ‘Nice To Have’
Contact Form 7
You can just use the contact page template that comes with your theme but if you want to add certain fields for your customers to enter data in, the Contact Form 7 plugin is simple and easy to use.
Max Banner Ads
Allows you to easily rotate banners. But I would recommend you don’t add too many banners. Your site is about sharing knowledge not just about making money.
Post Teaser
Post Teaser generates a preview or “teaser” of a post for the main, archive and category pages, with a link underneath to go to the full post page. It includes features to generate a word count, image count, and an estimated reading time.
Rotating Text
A plugin that rotates text using animation to fade the text in and out. I use it to display my testimonials in the sidebar.
This is a premium plugin: Rotating Text
Subscribe To Comments
Allows commenters to see all comment replies.
TubePress
Displays YouTube and Vimeo galleries in your posts, pages, and/or sidebar.
I have my videos displayed here:
https://www.webuildyourblog.com/blog-posts/blogging-videos/
Tweet old post
Randomly Tweets your old posts – good for bringing some old posts back to life.
Twitterlink Comments
A plugin to show a link to follow the comment author on twitter.
Where did they go from here
Show “Readers who viewed this page, also viewed” links on your page. Helps reduce your Google Bounce Rate.
WordPress.com Popular Posts
Shows the most popular posts.
Which plugins would you add / remove under this category of ‘Nice To Have’?
Please share your views in the comments below.
Previous posts in this series:
I have been using the Tweet old post for sometime and it does a great job of posting old tweets to your twitter account. Probably hasn’t resulted in too much traffic, but it has the potential.
Steve
I agree it has the potential. Traffic will depend upon how enticing the tweet is, I suppose.
Andrew
seo smart links, quotes collection, rss footer, no self pings, sexy bookmarks and wp-pagenavi.. these are other plugins that I use
Joe,
Are the plugins you mention in your ‘nice to have’ list? Or mandatory?
Andrew
Tweet old post works for me..you always have to give love to the past post..just keep the traffic alive..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Agreed!
Andrew
nice list of plugins.. i don’t think i use others than this.. but I have one question. what’s the plugin that you use to tell how many words it has, the reading time, etc? this is pretty nice
Jake
That is the Post Teaser plugin.
Andrew
Good tips Andrew. However, it will be better if you can provide link to those plugins. I’m sure others are feeling the same too.
For me, i love pretty links plugin for link cloaking and smart sharing plugin for social sharing button.
Helmi,
I understand about the linking but I thought people could easily search.
Thanks for sahring the others you use.
Andrew
Post Teaser is my favorite! I love visiting other blogs and being able to scan the page and see what’s there that’s interesting rather than having to scroll aaaaall the way down the page.
I keep checking to see if Blogger has a widget or option like that. I’m still stuck with Blogger. I like it, but it just doesn’t have some of the features I really like.
Delena
Delena
I am the same…I like the scan…first with the title.
Must admit, if the title doesn’t grab me…I don;t read any more.
Andrew
Hello Andrew,
Nice list! I recommend the subscribe comments plugin if you have a multi-author blog, because people can get alerts when someone posts a comment on their guest posts.
Where did they go from here, is also a great plugin, like you said, to decrease that nasty bounce rate and maybe gain some new subcribers if they find a lot of related posts on your blog that they like.
Alex,
2 great ones you have pointed out!
Andrew
I need a good contact form and I’m looking at tweet old posts and where do they go from here, thanks!
Dennis
I hope they help!
Andrew
Here are two nice to have plugins on my list:
1. SEO smart links – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-automatic-links/
automatically create links if certain keywords appear on posts.
2. Pagemash – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pagemash/
an easy way to manage WP pages using AJax. however, its not frequently update so some people might have problems with it.
Dan,
Thanks for sharing. It’s always nice to see what others recommend.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I haven’t tried most of them. But the twitter old post is the plugin I have heard often for a long time, though I haven’t tried it yet, since I don’t really use Twitter much.
Those are nice, though some aren’t free..
Kimi,
Unfortunately some are not free but I do feel you have to invest in your business…to gain from your business.
Andrew
I only use a few plugins for my blog (wp-pagenavi, SEO smart links and rss footer). I like to keep it simple..in my opinion, less is always more.
Regards,
Anna
Anna,
I understand your position. I’m just a bit of a plugin lover!
Andrew
Hi Andrew
These are 10 great plugins plus the ones that have been shared in the comments.
Neil
Thanks, Neil.
Do you use them all?
Andrew
wordpress plugins are good..but to optimize blog for speed use of plugins should be minimized
TechJ
Exactly…have you read my ‘improve your blog speed’ guide?
https://www.webuildyourblog.com/4692/speeding-up-your-blog-ultimate-guide/
Andrew
I have only used contact from 7 for one of my blog. After reading your post i will try it.
I use WordPress popular posts for quite a while and I am very happy with what he has to offer. You have build a very nice list of plugins here and defenetely most of them are very helpful.
Bit Doze
Great – I’m glad you liked the list.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I agree these are nice WordPress plugins. I didn’t know about the plugin “Where did they go from here”.
Thanks for sharing!
Felicia
You are welcome – I’m pleased you found “Where did they go from here”.
Andrew
Thanks for the list. It’s always helpful to go beyond the “must have” WordPress lists that seem to be everywhere.
Bryan,
That’s exactly why I listed the plugins I use in 3 different lists.
Andrew
The “Twitterlink Comments” plugin is definitely an awesome plugin. I don’t use it on my blogs (at least not yet), but I definitely appreciate a blog that gives me the option to enter my twitter username, so that people who see my comments can follow me on twitter, too. Now that I think of it, this is probably something I should look into for my own blogs as well! If I appreciate it, others are sure to also 😉
Good luck, Petra. I hope the TwitterLinks plugin makes a big difference.
Andrew