I will be sharing with you all the best plugins there are for Wordpress currently. FYI all of them including wordpress are free :D.

Akismet

Well known anti-spammer tool that is basically cross-compatible with almost 99.9% plugins out there for wordpress from comments to submissions of articles etc.

Pros : Works dam well , Updates like almost every week becoming stronger

Cons : Sometimes is over-aggressive from time to time and may flag one of your viewer’s comments if they post a long or strange URL link

DropCap First Charachter

This is a very neat plugin I found while surfing the web , Basically it takes the first letter in your article and makes it bigger by 5-folds ala magazine style.

Pros : Works automatically , No configuration needed just install and activate

Cons : Configuration may need some manual editing of the css style sheets to get to perfection

iF AJAX Comments For WordPress

This is one of my truly favorite plugins I found while diggin around the net for useful plugins that add more style to one’s wordpress. It basically adds comments using Ajax without having the need to refresh the website , It also lets you customize what kind of animation you would like your viewers to see while they are waiting to submit a comment.

Pros : Very cool , Will attract more users for sure , Very customizable

Cons : Haven’t thought of any yet , the author of this plugin is very fast to reply to your concerns.

Register Plus

Next up is a awesome MUST HAVE FOR ANYONE using wordpress is called Register Plus , this nifty plugin lets you customize your register form to the fullest extent ! It also features custom fields as well as included Re-Captcha for anti-spam. I almost forgot to mention you can also include a Disclaimer or Privacy Policy in which you can make the users required to agree upon prior to completing registration. I personally love this thing to death because it lets you customize your wordpress further into a viable CMS option.

Pros : VERY useful , Adds versatility that will make your wordpress standout from the crowd

Cons : May be difficult if you want to customize it further than the options on the admin page

Role Manager

Role manager is a plugin that will make or break your site if your site depends on multiple users registering and submitting articles and other similar errands through your Wordpress Backend. To sum it all up , this plugin will set permissions up so that a User will only be able to see the plugins you want them to or Don’t want them to see , as well as allowing them to edit or manage their own articles. You definitely have to give it a try to see what I’m talking about.

Pros : Extremely customizable and secure , Geared towards multiple user oriented sites.

Cons : May be a bit overwhelming at first to look at the hundreds of possible options you can setup for each user (role)

Sociable Zyblog Edition

Here is another plugin that lets your users become more interactive with your site while help promote it at the same time. Has the fancy buttons such as digg , delicious , technorati etc.

Pros : Many buttons , You can customize it so you can add new ones but most likely you won’t have to as there are like 80+ buttons.

Cons : Making a new button is tedious work. I’m too lazy for that

Thumbnail For Excerpts

This is a crafty plugin because it let’s your wordpress become more like a magazine type of website as it automatically creates a plugin of any picture that is in your post and aligns it accordingly in your Excerpts page. This picture should help you understand what I’m talking about. I personally use this too.

Pros : Great plugin as there are not many alternatives other than doing it yourself

Cons : A tad on the difficult side to customize via css if your a beginner or intermediate.

Wordpress Multibox PlugIn

Lately everywhere I go all I see is the generic Lightbox effects on pictures and at this point its pretty boring and played out for those of us who have been web developing for quite some time. Thankfully a breathe of fresh air is here to relieve you of your boredom. It’s called the Multibox and it is quite dynamic and easy on the eyes in comparison to the regular Lightbox. This is really worth the look TRUST ME.

Pros : Very efficient coding , uses MooTools Framework , All pictures have tags attached automatically so they will have the effect !

Cons : May not play nice with other plugins

WP Geo

If you ever wanted to write an article and at the same time include a little mini-map of google-maps into wordpress , then hey this is exactly the plugin for you. This nifty plugin allows you to integrate google-maps into wordpress once you have attained your api key from Google , So that when you write an article , under the advanced tabs you can add an address that will be searched by google maps , You can also customize how far you want the address to be zoomed upon as well as if you want your users to be able to scroll in or out or if the map is locked.

Pros : Easy to use , Integrates with no manual work other than obtaining an API key.

Cons : obtaining an API key hah !

WP Wall

Yes another Ajax plugin ! By now you know now , Crack is to drugdealers as Ajax is to me :). Anyways this is just another one of those chat boxes that you can put on the sidebar of your site , it runs on ajax , highly customizable via css and also includes a widget if you wish to use it in the sidebar or not.

Pros : Great support , very functional and also uses askimet to block spam !

Cons : None that I can think of

WP Ajax Edit Comments

Ajax edit comments is the absolute #1 plugin to add on your laundry list of things to get while your developing your site. This badboy plugin attaches itself onto every comment in a neatly fashion when you are logged in as the admin and allows you to edit , delete , moderate ,etc ON THE SPOT. Give it a try promise you’ll like it.

Pros : It’s great end of story

Cons : Might be a pain to move it around in your template.

WP-PostRatings

The author of this plugin LC aka Lester Chan is a genius at creating a majority of meainstreamed use of Ajax plugins for wordpress. Lucky for everyone out there it’s all for FREE. This plugin is the ultimate rating system that will enable to make your viewers rate your article ex: Star system , Digg system (Up and down) etc. It includes widget system as well as logs of votes on all your articles which will let you moderate votes or manipulate them to your heart’s content. Go there NOW !

Pros
: Great community for support , LC’s always updating this plugin.

Cons : Adding custom stars and such may be a bit difficult for first timers

WP-Polls

Yet another great Ajaxified plugin from Lester Chan. This time with this creative plugin you are able to post polls in the sidebar via a widget. You are given options on styles , randomness appearance of polls , more than 2 polls per page , the list goes on and on.

Pros : Extremely customizable , many many options , Ajax based , IT’S FREE

Cons : Styling Css will be a trial and error process

Simple Tags

Simple Tags is a basic yet powerful plugin for wordpress , It lets you use your own custom tags and remembers them so that you can double click and drag and drop words that associate to your articles. It integrates itself into the core wordpress system , more specifically the tags portion of it. Once you build a database that is the bare minimum I suggest trying the cloud widget that is included to show your readers the more popular articles that you associated with. You have to try it.

Pros : It’s powerful if you know how to use it. , Includes Cloud widget that is more customiable than the stock one in wordpress.

Cons : Learning Curve may take between 15 min - 1 hour

All in One SEO Pack

This plugin is built to OPTIMIZE your search engine hits by doing various crafty things such as placing the title of your article into the Title bar of your browser next to your website name as well as into the search engine results. The reason behind this is that your website’s content is more related to the searcher’s keywords.

Pros : Powerful yet simple

Cons : Have not found any as of this moment.

The next is a 2 for 1 as both plugins are working together n’sync ( no pun intended ) , so download both if you want to try it

Smilies Themer / Smilies Themer Toolbar

This plugin just lets you add a smiley bar to the comments section of your blog/site. What makes this cake sweeter is the fact you can A) customize which smilies you want B) you can download or make your own smiles set.

Pros : Fast , user-friendly , easy to install , go install it now !

Cons : Why are you still reading this ? GO GET IT !

WP-Ban

Just like the name says , you get to ban all the trouble makers and spammers out there by kicking their IP outta your site. Nice right ?

I’m not even writing a pro or con for this , it’s self explanatory at this point

FeedBurner FeedSmith

This plugin is very very useful for those of use who have signed up for Feedburner but do not want our rss feed’s getting tangled up with one another , this plugin auto-detects any feeds you currently have and redirects all traffic for RSS to your Feedburner. NICE right ??

Pros : I haven’t personally used it ,but my friend loves it without any problems

Cons : None that I am aware of

AdSense Manager

Adsense manager is in my view the premier manager of Google ads for your Wordpress blog/site. It is simple to operate in , just throw your google numbers in , and your ready to rock n’ roll by throwing your ads in a widget. It’s as simple as it gets. Try it you’ll love it.

Pros : Fast , easy to learn, Customizable

Cons : Can get frustrating trying to get perfect placement of your ads (Tip** Go to css related websites to center your ads)

Well I hoped you all enjoyed that & found it useful, I’ll post more when I get the time to , In the mean time do check out the forums up at Vadex and post your comments , concerns , suggestions etc. I’ll definatly reply to them. Thanks!

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