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Top 10 WordPress Plugins – August 2009

Ant Harper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:34:50 +0000

Another month, another line-up of fantastic plugins all tested by Enterprise Mastermind so you don’t have to! Some plugins are the same as previous months, and this is because they can’t be bettered and so must remain. I would recommend that you try these plugins for yourselves but do emphasise that you read all documentation and that I take no responsibility for any problems caused by the installation or use of these plugins. For more great plugins please see my last Top WordPress Plugin post Top 10 WordPress Plugins – July 2009.

If you think there is a plugin worth a mention here or you have developed a plugin and would like it reviewed please comment or contact admin@enterprisemastermind.com. This monthly post does get a lot of traffic so if you are a plugin developer it might be in your best interest to get your latest work reviewed here! I don’t charge a penny…

1. Dynamic Content Gallery

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This plugin creates a dynamic gallery of images for your latest and featured posts. By linking your gallery images with individual posts, using custom fields, the plugin dynamically creates the gallery from your latest and featured posts. If there are none assigned then you can set default links. An Admin Settings page enables you to select which categories and posts are linked to the gallery images.

2. The Excerpt Reloaded

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A great little plugin that displays an excerpt of a post on your home page which can be customised to vary the length and content to suit.

3. WP-SpamFree Anti-Spam

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I have always been a fan of Akismet and in the past it has graced my Top 10 for quite a few months. I have noticed of late that just too much spam is getting through Akismet, no matter how much I tell Akismet it’s spam, it doesnt seem to learn like it should. So I decided to try out another plugin and I am glad I did. This fully featured anti-spam plugin not only stops comment spam, trackback spam and pingback spam but it also includes its own spam-free contact form. Update: 3 months of use and this plugin is working perfectly. A must-have plugin.

4. Ad-Minister

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Ad-minister is a plugin that adds a easy to use WordPress management system for adverts and other static content. It supports ad-rotation (with content having different page-view percentages), schedueling (including multiple time periods) and is fully widget compatible.

5. Plugin Manager

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Plugin Manager lets you to view, download and install plugins from wordpress.org from an AJAX’ed interface, instead of manually downloading, extracting and uploading each plugin. Doesn’t do anything you couldnt’ do yourself manually but it is a great timesaver.

6. LJ Custom Menu Links

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LJ Custom Menu Links is a plugin that allows you to put extra links in the menus of most WordPress Themes. The really great thing about this is that it doesn’t require any code changes to your theme because the extra links are added within WordPress core functionality. Ideal if you were going to hack your WordPress theme to add custom links or if you just want certain navigation items or links to appear when a user is logged in. This plugin does all this and more.

7. Easy Adsenser

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Easy AdSenser manages all aspects of Google AdSense for a blog: insert ads into posts and sidebar, and add a Google Search box.

8. Post Google Map

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Fantastic plugin (although I haven’t personally found a use for it yet!) that allows you to enter addresses into a custom field on a blog post and have it display in a Google map in your sidebar. In addition to this, the addresses are listed below the map with a description/or exerpt from the post it is from.

9. Random Pages Widget

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Allows you to place a useful widget in your sidebar that shows random posts from your blog. Useful if you have a lot of old content that is still relevant but won’t now show on your homepage.

10. Vipers Video Quicktags

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Use lots of embedded video on your blog from the likes of Vimeo or Youtube? Well, this useful plugin makes your life easier by simplifying the process adding buttons to the write page which when clicked allow you to enter the URL of the video you want added. You can also specify size and colours etc. An added bonus to this plugin is that it allows your site posts to remain XHTML valid, which they certainly wouldn’t be if you used the supplied embed code.

Check back next month to see which plugins I’m recommending!

Top 10 WordPress Plugins – July 2009

Ant Harper — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:46:32 +0000

Another sparkling line-up of fantastic plugins all tested by Enterprise Mastermind so you don’t have to! Some plugins are the same as previous months, and this is because they can’t be bettered and so must remain. I would recommend that you try these plugins for yourselves but do emphasise that you read all documentation and that I take no responsibility for any problems caused by the installation or use of these plugins. For more great plugins please see my last Top WordPress Plugin post Top 20 WordPress Plugins – June 2009.

1. Referrer Detector

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Last month I showcased WP Greet Box, a great plugin that greeted each visitor to your site with a custom message according to the referrer. One thing that particular plugin lacked in my opinion was a way of tracking how many clicks you got from each referrer, always useful to know if you want to keep tabs on what marketing methods are working and which aren’t… You have probably guessed by now that this plugin not only greets you with the custom message but also tracks how many have been referred and by who. Super stuff.

2. WP Easy Paypal Payment Accept

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A stayer from last month…here is a great WordPress plugin to accept paypal payments for a services, products or donations in multiple currencies with just one click. Can be used in the sidebar, posts and pages of your WordPress install.

3. WP Simple Paypal Shopping Cart

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Written by the same author as the plugin above (Ruhul Amin), this one allows you to put shopping cart interactivity and ‘Add to Cart’ buttons on any post or page within your WordPress installation. An excellent alternative to the hassle of a fully blown e-commerce website if you don’t have a large product range.

4. Twitter Follow Badge

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Unless you are using Explorer 6 (get another browser!) you should be able to see a nice Twitter follow button on the left hand side of this screen. Now be warned, this isn’t exactly a plugin as such – the website above lets you enter details and then generates a block of code for you to manually add to your WordPress Theme or regular website. The button is a great way of getting followers as it stays on-screen in the same position even after scrolling the window.

5. Plugin Manager

6. LJ Custom Menu Links

7. Easy Adsenser

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Easy AdSenser manages all aspects of Google AdSense for a blog: insert ads into posts and sidebar, and add a Google Search box.

8. WP-SpamFree Anti-Spam

Go to download page
I have always been a fan of Akismet and in the past it has graced my Top 10 for quite a few months. I have noticed of late that just too much spam is getting through Akismet, no matter how much I tell Akismet it’s spam, it doesnt seem to learn like it should. So I decided to try out another plugin and I am glad I did. This fully featured anti-spam plugin not only stops comment spam, trackback spam and pingback spam but it also includes its own spam-free contact form. Over the 2 months or so I have been using this plugin it has worked impeccably. A must-have for any WordPress user.

9. WP PhotoNav

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Simple little plugin that once installed and activated allows you to use a snippet of shortcode in your post to display an interactive panoramic photo (see below).

10. Pauls Latest Posts

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Pauls Latest Posts displays a list of your latest posts and comments in the sidebar with excerpts. Excerpts length can be modified or left out completely. Useful for sites that display one post on the main page, and want to link to previous posts.

Check back next month to see which plugins I’m recommending!

Top 10 WordPress Plugins – October 2008

Ant Harper — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:54:49 +0000

Here’s my monthly roundup of the best new (or old!) plugins available for WordPress. There will be some plugins the same as last month’s list, purely because they can’t be beaten and must remain as essential WordPress add-ons. I would recommend that you try these plugins for yourselves but do emphasise that you read all documentation and that I take no responsibility for any problems caused by the installation or use of these plugins. For more great plugins please see Top 10 WordPress Plugins – September 2008.

If you think there is a plugin worth a mention here or you have developed a plugin and would like it reviewed please comment or contact admin@enterprisemastermind.com.

1. All in One SEO Pack Plugin

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I found this plugin and found it so good I just had to write a review. Read all about this plugin here. This plugin will optimise your WordPress blog so that your posts and pages are indexed more efficiently by the search engines. It is fully featured and lets you single out individual pages for optimisation. Great stuff. Read more here.

2. WordPress Database Backup

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This one is a survivor from the last list because of its importance. As a Web Developer I have learned the hard way in the past of the importance of regular backups, not only of your website data itself but also the database. The plugin itself is easy to use with simple backup options including the ability to schedule an email that includes your database backup as an attachment. Genius.

3. Akismet

Bundled with WordPress and for good reason. Without a spam blocker such as this your comment queue would be full of trash in no time at all. Requires a WordPress API key to function. If you haven’t got this plugin activated already, do it now!

4. Subscribe to Comments

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Get more return visits to your blog posts by letting your users subscribe to the comments. Once subscribed the user will be notified via email each time anyone posts a further comment. This in turn encourages participation and a higher number of return visitors.

5. Google XML Sitemaps

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If you don’t know how beneficial Google Sitemaps can be to your blog then read my article on SEO. Once set up this plugin will inform Google of any changes or additions made to your site automatically.

6. Twitter Tools

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Complete integration of Twitter and your blog. Enables you to post Tweets directly from your blog page (once logged in) and also displays Tweets on your blog you have made elsewhere. A real time-saver.

7. Redirection

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Redirection is a WordPress plugin to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This is particularly useful if you are migrating pages from an old website, or are changing the directory of your WordPress installation.

8. Business Directory

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One of the best plugins I have ever used ‘out of the box’. Set up your own business directory simply with the use of only 2 shortcode tags, one for the directory itself and one for the signup form. Its own control panel lets you approve, review or delete any entries made. I’m looking forward to the premium version (to be released shortly).

9. Event Calendar

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A highly configurable Event Calendar for your website. Allows you to place a large standalone calendar on page has sidebar widgets and also has the ability to make a post from an entry on the calendar.

10. RSS Includes Pages

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Still at number 10 because nothing else does this (as far as I’m aware). If like me you use WordPress as a CMS to build websites as well as blogs you will no doubt have found that Pages are not included in the RSS feed. Well, with this plugin your problems are over. Simply install, activate and voila, your pages will appear within the feed.

Check back next month to see which plugins I’m recommending!

Top 10 WordPress Plugins – September 2008

Ant Harper — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:36:38 +0000

I will be posting my top 10 WordPress Plugins monthly to let you know which ones I am currently finding most useful. They are in order of which I feel are most important to my blogs with number 1 being most important. I would recommend that you try these plugins for yourselves but do emphasise that you read all documentation and that I take no responsibility for any problems caused by the installation or use of these plugins.

If you think there is a plugin worth a mention here or you have developed a plugin and would like it reviewed please comment or contact admin@enterprisemastermind.com.

1. WordPress Database Backup

Go to download page
As a Web Developer I have learnt the hard way in the past of the importance of regular backups, not only of your website data itself but also the database. The plugin itself is easy to use with simple backup options including the ability to schedule an email that includes your database backup as an attachment. Genius.

2. Akismet

3. ShareThis

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A great and unobtrusive plugin that lets your readers email or share a page with others via Social Bookmarking. Get your blog noticed.

4. Google XML Sitemaps

5. WP-Ads

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A brilliant tool this – enabling you to serve multiple ads within the same post or from postions within your template. Once a banner or other ad has been set up, you simply place the supplied tag where you wish the ad or ads to serve.

6. CodeBanter’s Optin Box

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Lets you easily place a GetResonse or Aweber Optin form within your blog. You can alter the forms appearance within its own admin settings page.

7. Audio Player

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This plugin lets you add a nifty little audio player within your blog pages or posts. You can specify seperate files for the lead-in and lead-out and the appearance of the player itself can be altered to fit your blog’s colour theme.

8. WordPress.com Stats

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This plugin allows you to track views, post/page views, referrers and clicks. It requires a WordPress API key to enable the plugin.

9. Nextgen Gallery and Nextgen Gallery Widget

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A highly configurable Web 2.0 gallery and slideshow plugin using jQuery to good effect. Also comes with a widget to allow you to have slideshows of your galleries within your sidebar.

10. RSS Includes Pages

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If like me you use WordPress as a CMS to build websites as well as blogs you will no doubt have found that Pages are not included in the RSS feed. Well, with this plugin your problems are over. Simply install, activate and voila, your pages will appear within the feed.