Favorite WordPress Plug-Ins
I’ve been fiddling away with a little blog re-design for the past few days. Have you noticed?
I was in the mood for a little change. One thing led to another, and now we have some new sidebar titles, an updated About Me and Project Gallery Pages, and blog buttons.
Throughout the process, I realized that I’ve just passed the 1 year anniversary of switching over to WordPress.
It’s been quite the journey and learning curve.
For those of you who don’t blog, this might be completely and utterly boring for you. But, if you are a WordPress user, I’m hoping this might be helpful in some way.
I have, in fact, learned everything I know about WordPress through the gracious sharing of fellow bloggers, graphic designers, and forums. At the outset, let me make it clear that I am no computer tech wizard nor am I a graphic designer.
However, I have spent hours and hours pouring over tutorials and seeking fellow blogger advice on the subject. So today, I thought it was time I also share a few WordPress Plug-Ins that have worked well for me. There is an overwhelming selection of them out there, and sometimes it’s so hard to find which ones are best for the look or function you want. Here’s 7 of my favorites:
1. CataBlog ~ Taryn gives a fantastic tutorial on how to use this plug-in to make a Project Gallery page. I have it bookmarked and refer back to it whenever I need to update my gallery!
2. CommentLuv ~ This plug-in automatically links up a commenter’s last blog post when she comments on yours. It encourages great community.
3. Meteor Slides ~ The box that is under the header with recent post pictures scrolling is possible due to this. During the installation process, I discovered the joy of #7. They work together well.
The creator of this plug-in also made some very helpful video tutorials in how to install and use it.
4. nrelate ~ The first thing I noticed when I switched over to WordPress was that my “You May Also Like” boxes with links to other posts were suddenly gone. I missed that. This plug-in put them on the map again!
5. Really Simple Share Buttons~ I had a terrible time choosing the the “Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter” buttons that are located above and below each post. I didn’t really want the floating kind or the ones with wild colors. These were just plain and simple. I like that.
6. WP Social Blogroll ~ I really like to have a list of my favorite blogs that update automatically when a new post is written. This allows that to happen over on the blog’s sidebar.
7. OpenHook Customization Manager ~ Honestly, this is a little too “techie” for me to explain well, but I learned about it while installing Meteor Slides plug-in. Basically, it defines all the areas of your blog, and you can “hook” a code to an area to place a new object (ie Meteor Slides). It’s really quite fascinating!
I hope this is of some help to you WordPress users. Again, I’m not a tech person and I won’t be able to help with any of the details of installation or troubleshooting. I have learned first hand, though, the wonderful help of online forums. I used to be so embarrassed to post questions. However, I’ve realized that chances are, someone else is struggling with exactly what you are! Its quite amazing how quickly your questions are answered.
If you are a WordPress user, do you have any favorite plug-ins to recommend?
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Oooo I’m impressed with your tenacity and success at working on your blog. I love the success…I don’t enjoy the process though. However I did set up my blog from scratch…only to end up needing to pay for a little assistance. I’m grateful I did though. Someone who knows code is super helpful.
Plug-ins. I know that it is best to have as few as possible. But, the one I love is Akismet as it does such a terrific job of grabbing spam.
I’ve been thinking of using nRelate too. Also, I need to add some ads to my site. That I’m not sure about. Time to Google…. 🙂
Your blog is beautiful! And this post was great – I pinned it before I was even done reading it so I can find it again! I’m gonna be checking out a couple of those plug ins. I really like CommentLuv and the blogroll plugins too. And nrelate. Not sure if that is the exact plugin I used but I use something that does that!
I love this post. I am blogging on wordpress, but did blog for years elsewhere. It is certainly a learning experience. I am working at cozying up my page a bit, it seems a bit stark….although with two busy kiddos, there doesn’t seem to be much time for blogging, good thing they are adorable and only little once 🙂 Will add this to my list of things to check out. Thanks for sharing!