Enterprise Mastermind

Back once again with the Enterprise Master… er …mind. Neglect. Thats all I can call it and I have to hold my hands up and admit that I have neglected this blog completely in the last few months. So in a small gesture of recompense my Top 10 WordPress Plugin roundup for June is a Top 20. 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 now ancient post Top 10 WordPress Plugins – February 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 (…excuse me?) 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 Ban

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Ban users by IP, IP Range, host name or referer URL from visiting your WordPress Blog. When a banned user attempts a visit they will be greeted by a custom ban message. Statistics are also recorded on how many times they attempt to visit.

2. WP Security Scan

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You can never take the subject of your sites security too lightly. Use this plugin to scan your WordPress installation for security vulnerabilities and get a list of suggested corrective actions to take.

3. WP Greet Box

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A plugin to show a greeting message to your new visitors that is dependant upon their referrer URL. For instance, when a user clicks through a link from a particular referrer (example Digg, Twitter) they will be shown a message suggesting that they Digg or Tweet your post. You can also set a default greeting message for new visitors suggesting that they subscribe to your RSS Feed. Brilliant.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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!

7. 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 but for captcha to work it now requires installation of the plugin ‘Really Simple Captcha’ (see below).

8. Really Simple Captcha

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Designed to work with other plugins and not as a standalone form Captcha. By the author’s own admission its does not provide much security but does work seamlessly with the plugins that support it. It avoids any conflicts by using temporary files instead of using PHP for sessions.

9. MobilePress

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With so many of us using mobile platforms (phones/PDAs) to browse the web now it is essential that your web pages are rendered correctly. MobilePress is a WordPress plugin that will render your WordPress blog on mobile handsets, with the ability to use customized themes. The plugin also allows specific themes for specific devices / mobile browsers, such as iPhone, Opera Mini, Windows CE Mobile and other generic handset browsers. Excellent!

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. Quotes Collection

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I was recommended this by a friend whilst trying to source something that would display a set of testimonial quotes on a client’s website in the sidebar. This does the job magnificently.

13. 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.

14. PageMash

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If like me you use WP as a CMS to build regular websites then you will no doubt use a lot of pages instead of posts. The WordPress interface basically sucks when it comes to having to re-order your pages and this plugin rectifies that suckiness. The Ajax interface allows you to drag-and-drop the pages into the order you like, modify the page structure by dragging a page to become a child or parent and toggle the page to be hidden from output. Just what we were looking for!

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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 lists almost every month. 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. Give it a try.

18. 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.

19. WP-Cumulus

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OK, I’ve succumbed to form over function (very unlike me!). Never been a big fan of Tag Clouds let alone spinny, swirly, pretty ones – but if you like that sort of thing then this is probably your cup of tea. The Author even admits that clicking the tags is a little hard (!?)… I despair.

20. Twitter Widget Pro

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A widget that properly handles twitter feeds, including @username, #hashtag, and link parsing. It supports displaying profiles images, and even lets you control whether to display the time and date of a tweet or how long ago it happened (about 5 hours ago, etc). Requires PHP5.

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