Enterprise Mastermind

I’m not managing much in the way of blogging lately due to a sudden explosion of interest in my Website Design and Development business which is not leaving me with a lot of time spare. Nevertheless, I think I should make the effort to at least keep this, one of my most popular monthly posts, alive and kicking. So here’s my Top 10 WordPress Plugin roundup for February. 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 Top 10 WordPress Plugins – January 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. WP Easy Paypal Payment Accept

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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.

2. 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.

3. WP Thickbox Integration

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Want a simple but elegant way of displaying larger images without having to open a new window? This nifty little plugin utilises jquery to open gallery images in a ‘Lightbox’ style once you have added them via the ‘Add an image’ button. Simply tick the extra ‘Open in the same window’ field and away you go!

4. Contact Form 7

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Not the most fully featured contact form plugin out there, but I find this the easiest to implement. Supports Ajax-powered submitting, multiple languages and has its own Captcha to filter out non-human sp@mbots.

5. Google Translator

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A blog knows no boundaries or borders and no doubt if you have a large readership, a sizeable proportion of that readership will not speak English (or whatever you speak) as a first language. You can set the base language and supports multiple languages. Remember, this translator may help but as with all machine translators it’s not perfect and is no substitute for a correctly translated page.

6. Flipping Book WordPress Gallery

See demo
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Ever wanted one of those galleries where your users turn the pages like in a book? This great plugin lets you do exactly that. Please note that there is a paid for version of this plugin if you wish to remove the authors branding.

7. Google XML Sitemaps

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

8. Theme Changer & Showcase Plugin

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If you are a theme designer or just want to give your visitors a choice of themes to choose from when visiting your site, this plugin is for you. Not only can you list the themes in a simple dropdown menu but you can also add a preview thumbnail to make choosing easier. Excellent in its simplicity.

9. AX Sidebar

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Gives you an extra couple of fields within your post admin. Input a title and some content (this can be HTML or plain text) and the content added will then show in the sidebar whenever that particular post is opened. A great idea.

10. Pageear Page Peel Plugin

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Not a massive fan of page peels, I think they are OK if they aren’t too obtrusive, which they all too often are. Nevertheless they are a tried and tested means of marketing and they are proven to work so I thought I would trial one for WordPress. I found this one to be best, you can see it in action up in the top left hand corner of the screen (if you haven’t already clicked it!). Simple to set up with clear and comprehensive features. A great plugin.

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