7 of the Best WordPress Plugins

When I spoke to a group of small business owners about starting blogs, many of them wanted to know more about WordPress. I’m always happy to discuss using WordPress as a content management system. When I told them that they could use a free piece of code to continue updating their blog while they travel on business or vacation, their eyes lit up. If you’re already a WordPress user, then you know that this piece of code is called a “plugin.” This group wanted to know the best WordPress Plugins.

Below are seven plugins I use now or have used in the past.

Akismet: This is one of the best WordPress plugins because it helps prevent spam comments from taking up hours of your time. Akismet uses filters to help identify the potentially spammy comments, and you don’t have to spend hours sorting through them. This plugin comes with your WordPress installation.

Picasna: For Picasa photo-sharing users, this plugin will allow you to share your photos in a gallery format.

What Would Seth Godin Do?: Marketing guru Seth Godin advises utilizing cookies to distinguish returning visitors from new visitors. This plugin allows you to ask new visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed, which can increase your subscribers and traffic.

Twitter Tools: Integrate your twittering with your blog. This tool lets you turn your Tweets into blog posts and Tweet easily from your WordPress blog.

WordPress Database Backup: We all know it’s wise to backup data. How many of us really do it? Back up your WordPress database tables with this plugin.

Sociable: You can easily add links to social bookmarking sites on your posts.

DIGG This: This will detect incoming links from Digg.com to your blog post and display a link back to the DIGG post, so people people can easily DIGG your story.

I know a list of seven plugins leaves hundreds of useful plugins unmentioned. What other plugins do you like?

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