'Net Features : wordpress plugins

How to Use Wordpress Plugins

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:30:00 GMT

INSTALL, CONFIGURE, & DEPLOY PLUGINS FOR WORDPRESS

There are hundreds of thousands of Wordpress plugins, for nearly every imaginable purpose. That alone can make the first few steps in blogging some confusing ones.

But once you find the functionality you want or need, it becomes even more challenging - you also must know how to use those Wordpress plugins (install, configure, and deploy).

Plugins are simply tools (essentially small PHP scripts) which work with the Wordpress software to extend (or enhance) its core functionality. Let's look at the download, installation and plugin management process in more detail and then address configuration and deployment considerations.

Download & Install Wordpress Plugins

There are two ways to access (download) plugins and install them on your Wordpress blogging system - directly from the Plugins page (as seen in the image below) which is available through the administration dashboard or by using some file transfer protocol (FTP) to upload to the appropriate folders on your Web server.

Install Plugin to Server through FTP

Adding a plugin to Wordpress through FTP is rather straightforward. To get started, first make sure you have FTP access (username, password, FTP address) and some means to transfer the plugin files (FTP software).

Once a connection with the server is established, the unzipped (most plugins are available for download in a compressed file such as ZIP) plugin folder should be uploaded in its entirety to the appropriate folder on the server. If the Wordpress weblog is on the root of the domain, the path to the plugin folder would likely be the following: wp-content/plugins/. Open the plugins folder and plugins already installed will be visible. Then upload the plugin (folder) to the wp-content/plugins/ folder. Most plugins are rather small in size so with a few quick refreshes you will be able to make sure that the file has uploaded in its entirety.

Add New From Plugins Dashboard

If you're adding a plugin from the administrative dashboard of Wordpress, it's a much easier process. Let's say for example that I want to add a plugin named Jetpack (built by Automattic, the makers of Wordpress). Wordpress enables its administrative users to search for plugins (by keyword, author, or tag), see popular and featured plugins, and most importantly - upload plugins directly. That means that you can install plugins you find - either from the Wordpress directory or from an independent Wordpress developer - without using FTP.

If you plan on uploading a file from your own computer, make sure that the file is in a .zip format. Choose the file from your system, and Wordpress will automatically unpack the zipped file and make it available in your plugin library.

If you plan on installing a plugin found through the featured or popular categories, or which you found by conducting a search through the available search interface, simply select "install" directly from the return list and Wordpress will unpack the file and install it in your plugin library.

Activate the Wordpress Plugin

That's not the last step however! Remember that it's necessary to activate the plugin before being able to use it. From the plugins page, locate the plugin you just installed (plugins are in alphabetical order) and select "Activate". Once the plugin is activated, depending on its functionality, there may be a need to configure it to work.

Configure the Wordpress Plugin (and Deploy)

Since many third-party software vendors provide plugins to the Wordpress community, there is often a need to configure each plugin you install on your Wordpress installation to enable it to communicate with those providers (through an API which requires a key for example). For example, in order to use blog/comment spam prevention plugin Akismet (also provided by Automattic) you must enter an API key - which is available (based on a sliding scale dependent on request volume) at Akismet.com. That's just onen example of what is required in configuring a Wordpress plugin. Some configuration processes are rather involved but take the time once the plugin is activated to continue the process if you want the functionality it promises to bring. The plugin you installed and configured may also require some direct integration with your theme.

Final Thoughts on Using Wordpress Plugins

Using Wordpress plugins is a great way to make your blog a better, smarter, faster, cooler destination on the Web. Plugins require near constant maintenance however. Make sure to install only plugins whose providers you trust, from destinations that are reputable, and update them immediately upon the release of a new version - or delete them outright if you're no longer using or need them. You'll find that these two suggestions will prevent quite a few security headaches down the line.

More Wordpress Related Articles from Website Magazine below:

- 25 Best Wordpress Plugins Ever
- Wordpress Security in Focus

The 25 Best WordPress Plugins Ever

Michael Garrity — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 20:40:00 GMT

The year is coming to a close, and if 2012 has taught us anything, it’s that WordPress is still the most widely used free, open source content management system (CMS) out there.

While the extensive adoption of the platform obviously benefits users, as it means there are going to be more developers creating plugins and designing themes that WordPress users can employ to spruce up their blogs or websites (in both appearance and functionality), it also presents a bit of a nagging problem. The issue is that there are so many options to select from, which makes it very difficult to differentiate the good from the bad.

Luckily for you, Website Magazine editors recently compiled a list of the 25 best WordPress plugins for websites of all shapes and sizes, just in time for the new year. However, if there's a plugin we may have missed, or you disagree with a selection, feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Jetpack
If you want to get your hands on one of the best WordPress plugins around, why wouldn’t you want one developed by the creators of the platform? Well, Jetpack is just that, a plugin that is meant to expand the capabilities of your site by harnessing the cloud power of WordPress.com. There are a number of great features you can utilize, including displaying site analytics, creating photo galleries and even spell checking your copy, among many others.

Disqus
Don’t let the punny title fool you, Disqus is one of the best comment systems available. The tool allows users to add comment functionality to their site/pages, giving visitors an opportunity to engage with the content (and the brand). Those interested in building a community of users on their sites should get Disqus ASAP.

Social Toolbar
Social media has become a necessity for most Web professionals, so it’s more likely than not that you’re on at least one (and probably more) social networks. Why not show off your social prowess with Social Toolbar, a plugin that places a toolbar at the bottom of your blog/site to display links to all of your social network profiles. But that’s not all it does; additional features including sharing buttons, a full display of your latest tweets and more.

WP Google Fonts
A big part of having a sleek design for your blog or website means utilizing cool, appropriate fonts that really invoke the spirit of your brand. Unfortunately, most generic font packs are limited in what they offer. That’s why you should download WP Google Fonts, which allows users to easily incorporate a slew of new fonts from the Google Font Directory into your WordPress theme.

WPtouch
Mobile is hot, and any successful Web strategy must include a mobile-optimized site. For WordPress users, the fastest and simplest way to accomplish this is by using the WPtouch plugin, which will serve up mobile visitors a different theme. This comes complete with a new device-optimized and user-friendly version of your content.

Gravity Forms
One of the most important aspects of working on the Web is gathering consumer data to use in the future, and the best way to go about doing that is by using forms. The Gravity Forms plugin is able to create any kind of form you may need in a flash, regardless of its complexity. This can include email signup forms or extensive applications.

WordPress SEO
Look, even with all of this social media hullabaloo, SEO is still one of the most important practices that a site owner can conduct to increase his or her audience and generate more revenue. WordPress SEO from Yoast is one of the better plugins for search engine optimization, featuring XML sitemaps, customizable title and meta description options, RSS optimization and social media optimization – and that’s just for starters!

W3 Total Cache
Want to make your WordPress site run up to 10 times faster? Check out W3 Total Cache, a powerful plugin that caches every single element of your site, so readers can read your post in no time. Use this plugin to reduce download times and provide transparent CDN integration.

NextGEN Gallery
Everyone loves images, and the more you can (appropriately) add to your site or blog, the more likely you are to drive traffic and interest users. So why not add this fully integrated image gallery plugin? It is absolutely chock-full of features, which offer a lot of flexibility in creating gallery content, such as the ability to add watermarks to images, create slideshows, use different display themes and organize pictures into albums, among many others.

Digg Digg
As aforementioned, social media plays a big role in Web success these days, and accruing Likes or +1s (or other social seals of approval) on your content is a great way to get it (and your brand) noticed. Use the Digg Digg plugin to integrate the most popular social buttons into your WordPress site, which can be configured to display in various locations.

All in One SEO Pack
The All in One SEO Pack is the most comprehensive search engine optimization plugin available for WordPress users and remains one of the platforms most downloaded plugins ever for a good reason. It’s especially useful for new users or those who aren’t terribly familiar with coding. In includes Google Analytics support, as well as other features like custom post types, canonical URLs, automatically generated meta tags and much more.

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator for WordPress
Create a fully customizable sitemap for your WordPress website with this plugin from Dagon Design, which gives users multilevel categories, pages and permalinks support. You’ll be able to choose which links you want to display, the order their shown in, comment counts and post dates to make your site more searchable for, uh, search engines.

WP e-Commerce
This is one of the most popular and easy-to-use e-commerce platforms available for WordPress sites. WP e-Commerce offers a 100 percent customizable experience with easily modified templates, in addition to community support, integration with multiple payment gateways (including PayPal, Authorize.net and Google Checkout), various marketing and SEO features, checkout capabilities with SSL security and the ability to manage orders and shipping from within the plugin. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To say this plugin is “feature rich” is a massive understatement.

Sociable
Make your content more social with Sociable, which will automatically add links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages and RSS feeds.

Google Analytics for WordPress
Google Analytics is the widely adopted, fully featured analytics platform from one of the Web’s leading companies, so it makes sense that it would eventually be turned into a plugin for WordPress users. With this plugin, you can easily track your WordPress site or blog and use a lot of fancy custom variables to track the metadata on your pages, such as author, single or multiple categories, post type, publication year, tags and more.

FeedBurner FeedSmith
Have a bunch of different RSS subscribers that you don’t know how to manage? Never fear! Just use FeedBurner FeedSmith to detect all of the possible methods through which users can access your original WordPress RSS feeds, and then redirect them back to your FeedBurner FeedSmith feed to track every single subscriber.

Akismet
If building a community is an important part of your Web strategy, you no doubt allow your visitors to comment on and discuss your content. Unfortunately, as your traffic increases, so will the amount of comment and trackback spam you receive. Luckily, this popular plugin from Automattic checks comments and trackbacks against the Akismet Web service, and if they’re found to be spam, they’ll automatically be moved into your WordPress installation’s spam folder. You’ll never have to get your hands dirty.

Google XML Sitemaps
Google just does it all, doesn’t it? With this plugin, you can generate an XML sitemap that will help search engines – and not just Google, but Bing, Yahoo and others – better index your WordPress website, which means crawlers can see all of your site and retrieve data from it much more quickly and efficiently.

WP-DBManager
You’re probably well aware of the delicate nature of working with digital content, likely because some mishap or other in the past has led you to lose a substantial amount of work before you were able to back it up. Don’t let that happen with your website or blog; instead, download the WP-DPManager plugin that allows you to optimize, repair, backup and restore your database. You can also delete backed up content, drop/empty tables and run selected queries. WP-DPManager even supports automated backups, optimization and repairs.

Contact Form 7
This simple, yet flexible contact form plugin allows users to manage multiple contact forms. Also, they can customize their forms and mail content by using some simple markup. Contact Form 7 also supports various security enhancements, including Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA and Akismet spam filtering.

Editorial Calendar
Managing a blog can be a hassle, but never again with the Editorial Calendar plugin that lets users see all of their scheduled posts and when they’ll be posted and offers drag-and-drop functionality to change post dates, draft management, quick edits of post titles, content and times and the ability to manage posts from multiple authors.

All in One Favicon
Website owners and bloggers can easily add a favicon (the small icons next to the URL in the address bar, the page name in a browser tab and/or the page’s name in a bookmark list) to their websites and WordPress admin pages. The All in One Favicon plugin offers complete upload functionality and supports all three favicon types, ico, .png and .gif, which can even be animated.

WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the best e-commerce platforms for WordPress users, allowing users to turn their websites into fully functional, highly customizable online stores that deliver enterprise-level quality and feature. This includes a PayPal standard gateway, Mijireh checkout, free and flat rate shipping functionality, Google Analytics and international and local shipping and local pickup, among many others.

ShareThis
This social media plugin enables WordPress users to seamlessly allow visitors to share the site or blog’s content on up to 120 different social channels, including email, Facebok, Twitter, Google+ and more. With ShareThis, users can do more to engage their audiences and increase traffic. Plus, the plugin features customization functionality that means it can be seamlessly integrated into a user’s site.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
YARPP may be just "another related posts plugin," but its also the best. It provides a site or blog’s visitors with a list of posts and/or pages that are related to the entry they’re currently reading. Site owners can use this plugin to introduce their readers to other interesting, relevant content on their site.

Top 3 Favicon Plugins for Wordpress

Michael Garrity — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:30:00 GMT

As I sit here typing this, I have three different browsers open with at least 10 different tabs up in each one (and that’s being conservative). Luckily, I have no problem opening up the right tab each and every time thanks to the Web’s unsung hero – the favicon.

For those who aren’t familiar with the term, favicons are small 16x16 pixel icons associated with a particular website (or page) that show up primarily next to the URL in the address bar, next to the page name in a browser tab and/or next to the page’s name in a bookmark list. For instance, if you look up at this tab or next to this page’s URL in your address bar (depending on what browser you’re using), you’ll see a tiny version of our classic “WM” icon that indicates that you are, in fact, on a WebsiteMagazine.com page.

If you’re the proud owner of a WordPress website, it’s probably a good idea for you to have your own favicon(s) that can help users identify your site and ensure that they’re in the right place, while also building your brand and making it easier for visitors to come back in the process.

However, it’s safe to say that favicons probably aren’t top of mind for busy individuals trying to get a website off the ground. To simplify favicon creation for your WordPress site, check out these three great plugins that can do the job for you:

Shockingly Simple Favicon
This plugin changes the favicon of a WordPress blog without requiring users to edit their theme files. It will also put a WP icon in the administration interface, making it easy to find the tab in a browser. And fortunately for those of us who aren’t code-savvy, the changes are all fixed, so you won’t have to go back and alter them if/when you change your blog’s theme.

All in One Favicon
Users can either use favicons that they’ve already uploaded or upload a new favicon into their WordPress installation with a built-in upload mechanism to add a favicon to their site and admin pages. All in One Favicon supports three different favicon types: .ico, .png and .gif, which includes animated images. It also supports Apple Touch icons.

Favicon Generator
With support for .jpg/.jpeg, .gif and .png images, Favicon Generator allows users to upload an image. Then it will automatically convert that image into a unique favicon-formatted file. This file will then be placed in the user’s WordPress root dictionary, and the plugin will add a link tag to the HTML output.

WordPress Wednesday: Top 10 E-Commerce Plugins

Michael Garrity — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:30:00 GMT

So you want to run your own e-commerce website, but you also want access to the convenience and simplicity of the WordPress platform? Never fear, because there’s a plugin for that.

Well, actually, there are a lot of plugins for that, but here are 10 of the best WordPress e-commerce plugins to help you get started making your fortune selling junk online in no time at all.

WP E-Commerce

Probably because of its easy-to-search-for name, WP E-Commerce is among the most popular e-commerce shopping cart plugins for WordPress. Although, I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that it’s simple to install and works with any WordPress theme. Users can customize the shopping experience for their customers with product widgets, free shipping options and quantity discounts. The plugin even offers search engine-friendly URLs and a feature that allows for product-specific sales.

Ecwid

This free, robust shopping cart plugin (a portmanteau of “e-commerce” and “widget”) is easy to install and maintain and is totally customizable, so users can adjust the appearance to match the look and feel of their sites. Ecwid also comes with seamless upgrades, meaning you don’t have to wait around or update it every time new features are added; they’ll just show up one day.

Cart66 Lite

Despite its “lite” modifier, Cart66 is still a very powerful e-commerce plugin. It comes with multiple shipping and currency options for transacting international business, custom product fields and inventory tracking. However, the coolest thing about Cart66 is its Amazon S3 integration, which allows users to sell digital products in addition to traditional physical products.

WooCommerce

This plugin from WordPress theme publisher WooThemes includes local and international delivery options, extensions for creating personalized products, Google Product Feed, inventory management, thorough shipping and tax options, marketing tools and reporting features. Moreover, it focuses on a clean, beautiful design to compound its robust functionality with startling elegance.

WP Auctions

Arguably the best auction plugin for WordPress, WP Auctions comes with three different bidding engines, as well as features for registered only users and reserved prices. Users can use their WordPress blog or website to host auctions (as many as they’d like) and sell anything without any fees. It’s incredibly easy for users to edit, end or delete their auctions. You can even use PayPal to accept payments. And speaking of PayPal…

PayPal Payment Terminal WordPress

In less than five minutes, users can start accepting PayPal payments on their WordPress-based e-commerce site with this plugin. Then, they can view all of their transactions and sort their transaction list as needed. It will even send the purchaser and merchant automatic notifications during the purchasing process. This particular premium WordPress plugin costs $12.

WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart

However, if you don’t want to pay for PayPal functionality, then maybe you should consider this plugin. It allows users to put an “Add to Cart” button and display the shopping cart on any of their blog posts or site pages. This will show customers what items they currently have in their carts (and remove it, if they want). Users will get access to the PayPal sandbox to do testing, as well.

eShop

This free full service shopping cart option provides a simple administration area that makes it super easy to add products, review products and check site statistics. It’s also highly customizable, so you can definitely make it reflect the tone of your brand. Mostly, this solution is ideal if you want customers to create a profile to make purchases on your site.

YAK for WordPress

Merchants can use this open source shopping cart plugin to create products from pages or blog posts, so that the post ID becomes the product code. YAK handles different kinds of products through categorization, and includes a basic XML feed. It also offers a variety of customizable purchasing options, including checks or deposits, credit cards, Google Checkout, PayPal and PayPal Payments Pro and Authorize.net, as well as a configurable shipping address feature.

Shopp

Shopp is an excellent, albeit somewhat pricey (starting at $55), premium e-commerce shopping cart plugin for WordPress. Easy to install and begin using, Shopp provides a clean user interface with strong customer support, including a user forum on its official site. After buying the initial single license for the software, users can build upon the Shopp platform by purchasing additional plugins like payment gateways, shipping modules and priority customer support.

Take Your WordPress Site Mobile

Michael Garrity — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 20:15:00 GMT

Much of the appeal of the WordPress platform is that it makes it easy to create an affordable, functional, and often feature-rich website without requiring extensive knowledge of the “nuts and bolts” of website development.

So when it suddenly became important to have a mobile-optimized website to stay competitive, many business owners or bloggers who aren’t necessarily experts in the field probably felt a pang of dread. However were they supposed to create another version of their sites that could work on an array of mobile devices?

Over time, a natural demand for easy-to-use mobile Web design solutions led to the creation of platforms like DudaMobile, which helps webmasters quickly and efficiently build a customized version of their websites that is optimized for most mobile devices. When DudaMobile noticed that a significant percentage of its customers were working with WordPress-powered websites, it seemed like a natural decision to streamline the optimization process by creating the DudaMobile WordPress plugin.

Released just last month, the new DudaMobile plugin saves WordPress users a significant amount of time and effort. It also makes it easy to optimize WordPress blogs with unique mobile-friendly templates, in addition to a number of useful add-ons and features for business websites that help them leverage the power of the mobile Web sooner, rather than later.

The plugin is easy to install and activate, and after that, it’s just one click to get started. DudaMobile will automatically render an “initial version” of a user’s mobile site and provides previews of what it will look like on the four major mobile operating systems (Android, iOS, Blackberry, and Windows Phones). These previews can always be accessed during the optimization process to allow users to examine their changes as they make them.

Once the initial version is rendered, users can customize their mobile site in just four steps. The first is to choose a theme. When the site is first created, it uses the original template employed by the site, but for the mobile version, users are able to select a brand new website or blog theme.

The second step is the most involved and deals with the majority of the editing and customization. Users are able to totally customize the site’s header and logo, navigation menu, background and text, and footer, as well as add a home icon or remove content. (The options are slightly different for blogs, allowing for customization of the header and logo, home page, blog posts, comments, and the footer.) Perhaps the most important aspect, however, is the ability to add widgets, which greatly increase the functionality of the mobile sites.

This additional content is split into three categories for Business, Design, and Social features, including the ability to insert images or a photo gallery, a mobile map, a restaurant menu, PayPal functionality, a click-to-call option, and much more. However, it is important to note that many of these features are only available with a premium mobile site (more on that in a second).

After the site is customized, the third step is to take it live. Here, users can choose between the free basic plan and the premium plan, which costs nine dollars a month. The premium plan provides a wider range of features than the basic option, including Google AdSense integration that lets users to monetize their mobile sites. Premium sites also get a unique “m.” mobile URL, while the basic users receive a standard DudaMobile mobile URL.

When the mobile site is live, all that is left to do is redirect the URL so that the mobile optimized site is loaded in mobile browsers. This is literally as simple as clicking “YES” to confirm the mobile site URL at the end of the process.

As you can see, with the new DudaMobile plugin, it’s cheap and easy to take your WordPress website or blog mobile. In just a few quick steps, you can begin leveraging the power of the mobile Web, and you can always go back and edit, customize, or add features to your mobile site as needed, which is especially helpful since DudaMobile will be adding new capabilities to the plugin every three weeks.

WordPress Wednesday: Facebook for WordPress Plugin

Michael Garrity — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:00:00 GMT

Facebook is undoubtedly the driving force behind the rise of the social Web, and the social network is increasingly becoming a vital component of ‘Net success for online retailers, content publishers and pretty much anyone else working on the Web.

For many, this means finding ways to integrate Facebook functionality directly into their website(s). A recent Pingdom survey of the world’s top 10,000 websites reveals that nearly a quarter of them (24.3 percent) feature some type of official Facebook integration on their homepage, and when one considers “regular” links to Facebook, the number shoots up to 49.3 percent. This integration can be anything from widgets to social plugins.

Now, WordPress website owners can harness the power of Facebook by adding the officially sanctioned Facebook for WordPress plugin to their site, with no coding knowledge required. In addition to offering a range of Facebook functionality, the plugin also supports internationalization and mobile sites, and is WordPress.com VIP approved.

Whenever one publishes a new page or post on their WordPress site, they will have a number of options for distributing it directly to Facebook. This includes the ability to mention specific friends or pages on the social network, as well as add a message that will be posted with the content. Then, once it is published, the content will appear on the friends and pages’ Timelines, and the mentions will also show up in the post on the WordPress site.

Author’s can alter the plugin’s settings so that the post shows up on their Timeline as an Open Graph action, the Timeline of any friend or page mentioned as part of the post and any Facebook page the author chooses that automatically publishes the WordPress site’s content once it is live.

Facebook for WordPress also offers users a variety of social plugins that they can easily enable on posts and pages. This includes Like, Send and Subscribe buttons, comments with SEO support (meaning they can be indexed by search engines) and a Recommendations Bar that lets users start getting recommendations, “Like” content and add what they’re currently reading to Timeline.

Finally, the plugin features a number of WordPress Widgets with drag-and-drop functionality that allows users to include social features like recommendations, recent activity and Like, Send and Subscribe buttons in their sites’ sidebars.

Click here for instructions from Facebook Developers on how to install Facebook for WordPress to your site.

WordPress Wednesday: 10 Plugins You Can’t Live Without

Linc Wonham — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT

WordPress is an incredibly powerful online publishing tool. Much of its efficacy comes from a user-friendly interface and great design flexibility that allows users to configure and customize their sites in almost any way they desire.

In addition to all of the ways that a WordPress site can be personalized, however, it is really the numerous plugins that can be added for extra functionality that may be the driving force behind this publishing platform.

When it comes to content marketing, there are more than a few plugins that you simply cannot live without. Here are 10 selections that should always deserve consideration:

Gravity Forms
This plugin is a highly intuitive, easy-to-use way to create custom forms for your website. From simple contact forms to complex product customization and ordering, Gravity Forms have you covered. Just select your fields, configure your options and embed the form in your site and you’re ready to go.

Google XML Sitemaps
This innocuous little plugin is incredibly valuable. Once it is installed, it generates a complete XML sitemap for your blog, allowing search engines to more easily and thoroughly index your site. This allows all search engines to have a more complete view of your site and more easily retrieve its content. The plugin also notifies the search engines when new content is added, ensuring that your content appears in search results more quickly and accurately.

Revision Control
Thus plugin adds some extra functionality to the revision protocols already in place within WordPress. For each page and post, you can control exactly how many revisions are saved, via enabling, disabling and limiting controls. It also allows you to delete specific saved revisions. Simple, but powerful.

Scribe SEO
This incredibly well-designed and easily integrated plugin allows you to more easily create high-quality content for your site that adheres to the highest standard of SEO. Based on the content that you provide, this plugin suggests the best keywords and tweaks to enhance its SEO efficacy, helping you develop link relationships with other influential sites and social media sources.

Social Metrics
This free plugin allows you to monitor social media traffic on your site. Once it is installed, the plugin allows you to see how many times your content has been shared across various social media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter, Google + and LinkedIn. You are able to see how your content is shared, and share your content more effectively right from the Social Metrics dashboard.

W3 Total Cache
Used and trusted by many heavily trafficked sites, this plugin increases your website’s performance. It more completely caches your site, ensuring that your theme loads faster, the server performs more effectively, and your Google Page Speed is vastly improved.

Backup Buddy
This great plugin allows you to completely back up your Wordpress site, including all customizations, themes and plugins, as well as your content. Once safely stored in a location of your choosing, restoring your site to the most recent save is a breeze. It also allows for incredibly easy migration of your site. Setting regular, automated backups means you don’t even have to remember saving your site at regular intervals to keep your backup up to date.

WP-Optimize
A simple and effective database-optimization tool. This plugin allows you to easily remove spam comments, post revisions and other bits of unnecessary data. It also comes in a variety of languages, which is a plus.

Yoast Breadcrumbs
This clever plugin allows you to add SEO breadcrumbs to your themes. Breadcrumbs allow your readers to navigate more easily between pages, categories and posts on your site. In addition to easier navigation, breadcrumbs also make the structure of your site more transparent for readers.

Yoast SEO
This powerful plugin may be the most complete SEO package available for WordPress users. Functions include XML sitemaps, content analysis, meta descriptions and a whole host of other, fully customizable options. If you need more, there are also several add-on modules available.

About the author: Matt Goulart is the founder of and lead consultant at Webstar Content, and can be reached at Matt@webstartcontent.com.

3 Pinterest Plugins for WordPress

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:15:00 GMT

Try and control your excitement, readers: It’s another edition of WordPress Wednesday at Website Magazine! Today we’re bringing you several interesting plugins that can be used right now to integrate Pinterest into a WordPress installation.

The popularity of the social pinboard site is exploding, reaching 10 million monthly unique visitors faster than any standalone site ever. Marketers across the Web are looking for practical ways to drive more traffic to their pins and, in turn, back to their Web properties.

Until the Pinterest API arrives (no specific date has been set), WM has selected three of the best plugins available to help make this a reality. If you’re using a Pinterest-related plugin that we have not covered here, just let us know by sharing your comments below.

Pinterst “Pin It” Button:

This plugin adds a “Pin It” button to posts and pages that will allow readers to easily pin your content at Pinterest. WordPress sites can indicate what types of pages the button should appear on and where (above or below content, for example). Several styling options are available and implementation is as simple as pasting a shortcode. The plugin has approximately 13,700 downloads at the time of this writing.

Pinterest RSS Widget:

A plugin that allows WordPress blogs to place a widget within their sidebars that fetches recent contents of a Pinterest user's RSS feed, displaying corresponding thumbnail images. Some customization is available; bloggers can choose whether to show a description below the image, set the height and width of the thumbails, and elect to show different sizes of a “Follow Me on Pinterest” button. The plugin has approximately 3,400 downloads at the time of this writing.

Pretty Pinterest Pins:

This plugin definitely lives up to its tagline – Show off your pins in style. The plugin, which has just 1,800 downloads at the time of this writing, gives WordPress blogs a fully customizable way to display thumbnails and links from Pinterest. The widget lets WP bloggers pull the latest pins from any Pinterest user, choose the number of pins to display, and select whether to show or hide image captions. The plugin also includes a “Follow me on Pinterest” button.

WordPress Wednesday: Top 3 Analytics Plugins

Michael Garrity — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Behind every good business website is an even better analytics program. For WordPress users, however, that means going out and finding a plugin that will match their analytic needs.

WordPress offers very little in the way of site analytics from the core for a site's administrators, and so trying to figure out exactly how well your site is doing, the kind of measurements that are crucial to conducting a business online, can be really rough and incomplete using WordPress' built-in analytics. The need for such a tool has inspired the existence of a number of different plugins specifically designed to study the efficiency of your WordPress site.

Below are three of the most popular WordPress analytics plugins:

Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a classic, time-tested plugin that is both manageable for beginners and useful for experienced users. It is critical in affiliate marketing to have analytics on your website, as there is so much invaluable information to be gained to help you study and understand the effectivness of your campaigns. What is great about this plugin is that it adds Google Analytics JavaScript to every page for you automatically, meaning you won't have to worry about editing your theme. It's easy to set up, updates automatically and lets site owners track outgoing, mailto and download links, which makes it great for tracking clickthrough rates. Its simple configuration screen is enough for most users, but there is a ton of customizing and tweaking that can be done in the advanced settings, as well.

All in One Webmaster
This great plugin is helpful because it can integrate Google Webmaster Tool, Yahoo Site Explorer and Bing Webmaster Central into your website or blog. This gives you really great access to information from the revered GYB Triumverite. You can also include a single-click sitemap to Google, Bing, Ask and Yahoo, add tracking codes from Google, Clicky and 103Bees analytics and add Meta Tags for Google, Yahoo, Bing, Alexa and BlogCatalog. In short, it's a fabulous tool for integrating all three major search engines, and quite a few of the "lesser" engines, and get a really comprehensive look at your sites stats.

WordPress Stats
Super simple plugin here that collects information about page views, popular articles and/or pages and traffic flow. All of the real necessities of site analysis. It will also give you a link to a dashboard so that you can see all of the stats on a single page. This is a very barebones, to-the-point analytics tool, but isn't that really all that most website owners need? If you're not looking for a tool with a ton of features that you can easily install and use to get the most essential of information, WordPress Stats is highly recommended.

For more information about WordPress plugins, check out WordPress Plugins from A to Z.

WordPress Wednesday: Top 4 Video Plugins

Michael Garrity — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Do you have a really great advertisement or video that you just went through all the work of filming, editing and preparing to go online only to realize that you don't have a way to put it up on your WordPress site?

Video plugins are the easiest way to host your own original content on your website. Whether it's a high-dollar, CGI mini-masterpiece or a 20-second product video, you can easily publish it to the Web using one of the many plugins available.

However, WordPress does not have a video player already built-in to its system, so if you want to host it you're going to have to find a plugin that will host your video. There are plenty available and most of them can integrate easily into some of the top video-hosting sites on the Internet, most notably YouTube and Google Videos.

These plugins range in price, size, simplicity and customization, so if you want to add a player that actually matches the neo-noir theme of your Bogart fansite, you should make sure that your plugin has customization options.

Here is a list of four of the most popular:

All in One Video Pack
Here's a deal! For free (up to 10 GB), the All in One Video Pack plugin includes all of the video and rich-media functionality needed to record, upload and import videos to your pages, as well as edit and remix content online, enable video responses and more. You can also manage and track interactive videos through the management console, enable video advertising and are given complete administrative capabilities, meaning you are in charge of deciding who can add and edit videos. The plugin supoorts over 150 video, audio and image file formats and codecs and owners can choose their preferred video player style for each player embedded, as well as its size. And on top of it all, it's totally easy to install and use.

Smart YouTube
YouTube is, far and away, the most widely used video platform on the Internet. With millions upon millions of users, it would almost be silly not to have your videos on YouTube, and this plugin is a great way to get those videos onto your site, as well. It's a simple tool that is designed to be fast and small and provides customization options for colors, borders, full screens and so on. You don't have to stop at just one video, either, because Smart YouTube allows you to publish whole playlists. They can go on your RSS feed, your blog posts or your site's comments section. It's a super great plugin for people who want to utilize the simplicity (and millions of users) of YouTube without having to establish another method of embedding their videos on their sites.

Embedded Video
This is quite possibly the most popular and well-reviewed video plugin on the market. If you can't tell, this tool exists to make it easy to embed videos into a blog post. They can be exported from other places, like YouTube, dailymotion or Google Video, or uploaded from a server. Once embedded, you are able to add a link to the video on the video portal page or make it so that a download like to the file can be automatically generated. Not a lot of bells and whistles with this one, but it is tops as a generic video player.

WordPress Video Plugin
Contrary to what its name would have you believe, this is not the only WordPress video plugin, but it is one of the best. It acts as a filter for your site that allows for easy video embedding from supporting sites like YouTube, Google Video and Brightcove. Like Embedded Video, it's very easy-to-use and simple, not relying on frills but rather solid performance to satisfy the user. Definitely worth checking out, especially if all you need is a manageable and straightforward way to put up videos on your site.

Using one of these handy plugins should turn any WordPress website owner into Chad Hurley in no time.

For more information about WordPress plugins, check out WordPress Plugins from A to Z.

WordPress Wednesday: Top 3 Social Media Plugins

Michael Garrity — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:00:00 GMT

It's hard to deny the power that social media plays in the general makeup of the Internet. As part of running your site, you are going to want to connect to the Web-based world around you.

One problem with WordPress, however, is that it doesn't immediately provide users with a way to include bookmarks to the biggest social networking sites on your blog. If you're trying to promote a business or market yourself on the Web, you need to be a part of social media and you need to start as soon as possible.

So, if you're going to use a WordPress platform to create your site, your best bet would be to download one (or more) social media-specific plugins to help get your social engagement off the ground. Here are three to consider:

Sociable
This plugin is all about using social bookmarking to generate traffic. Sociable will automatically add links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on all of your posts and pages, as well as into your RSS feed. It allows you to choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites, such as Twitter, StumbleUpon and Digg. What's really helpful is that Sociable allows for easy bookmarking in any browser, so it is very user-friendly. It also gives you an email tab and is easily integrated with Google Analytics. This is a very popular plugin tool with many WordPress users.

I Love Social Bookmarking
The designers of this plugin really went for it with that title, didn't they? What really sets this particular tool apart is that it lets users vote on your blog posts using a drop down menu that allows them to select which social media site they will vote from, keeping less icons on your blog and eliminating clutter. The goal is simplicity, for the site owner and their readers. According to the site, they want I Love Social Bookmarking "to run with minimal system resources, and to look good whilst she’s at it." They accomplish this by making it very easy to customize.

Share This
This is another vote-based social media plugin, only Share This lets you choose which particular sites you want to target and then has readers vote for you using the plugin. Essentially, it's job is to provide an unobtrusive way for visitors to post your content to social bookmarking sites or send an email link to a friend. Again, it's highly customizable, allowing you to change its colors to match your website. Also, it provides you with tracking reports, which is a feature many social plugins lack.

For more information about WordPress plugins, check out WordPress Plugins from A to Z.

WordPress Wednesday: Top 3 SEO Plugins

Michael Garrity — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:15:00 GMT

Welcome to WordPress Wednesday at WebsiteMagazine.com.

Since WordPress is an open-source platform for creating a blog-based website, it doesn't come with very many specific features. Rather, the site builders are expected to customize on their own, which is a way to keep the platform easy-to-use and doesn't let it get bogged down with specialized features that many owners may not use.

That is why today we are going to focus on the plugins that will best help you create the most efficient site possible for your specific needs.

Anyone in the Web world can tell you that SEO is a necessity, and many of those same people will also tell you that it can be cumbersome and difficult -- especially when just starting out. There are whole books on the subject, and a significant portion of the work we do here at WM is devoted to helping people navigate the turbulent waters of search engine optimization.

Luckily for those who may be unfamiliar with the best SEO practices, WordPress offers a wide array of plugins that will help you increase your visibility on the Web. These plugins add to your site by providing you with many different methods and options for using Meta Tags, optimizing your URLS, using no-follow options and many other great practices to help get your website to the top of the search rankings.

Here are three of the top WordPress SEO plugins:

All in One SEO Pack
The name says it all. This is one of the most popular SEO plugins available for WordPress. It's pretty simple, not a lot bells and whistles to be found on this plugin, but it is key to helping drive search engine traffic to your site. What really makes All in One SEO great is that it's easy to use and install, which makes it perfect for beginners or those who are new to SEO, but it is also able to be customized and fine-tuned for more advanced users. It also helps you to avoid duplicate content, a problem often associated with WordPress blogs, automatically optimizes your titles for search engines and generates Meta tags for you, allowing the website owner to have superior control over titles and meta descriptions. This plugin gives you a lot of hands-on control over how your blog's pages are indexed in search engines. It's probably the most highly-praised and trusted SEO plugin available.

SEO Smart Links
There are a lot of cool features that come with SEO Smart Links, which provides automatic SEO benefits to your site with the inclusion of custom keyword lists, nofollow and more. This plugin can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts or comments with corresponding pages, posts, categories and tags on your blog. You can also use it to set nofollow attributes, open links in a new window and set up your own keywords and set of matching URLs. SEO Smart Links is a great tool for interlinking your blog posts or adding affiliate links to other sites, and it's nothing to go in to control and edit the plugin's options from the administration settings panel.

Sitemap Generator
Sitemap Generator is an excellent plugin that, believe it or not, generates a sitemap for your WordPress site. It's strength is that it is highly customizable by offering its own options page in the administration panel. Among the features it offers are multi-level category and page support, category and page exclusion, multiple-page generation with navigation, permalink support, the ability to choose what to display and what order to list items in and showing comment counts and(/or) post dates, along with many other great options. This is plugin has been very well-received by many WordPress users thanks to its rich features and capacity for customization. This particular plugin is made by Dagon Design, but its very "descriptive" name makes it really hard to find, because it seems like every developer has designed X's Sitemap Generator, so if you don't find it by clicking the link in this post, make sure that you track it down by its designer so you don't end up with a lesser version from someone else.

For more information on WordPress plugins, check out WordPress Plugins from A to Z.

WordPress Membership Plugins for Affiliates

Michael Garrity — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:25:00 GMT

The wildly popular blogging platform and CMS WordPress is the host to dozens of affiliate marketing sites and blogs, but for some marketers, there is a desire to take their business to the next level by making it membership or subscription based, which means finding the WordPress membership plugin that is right for them.

While there isn't a huge market for WordPress membership plugins, there are a few that really standout as far as their capabilities and features go. Below is a list of ten of the top WordPress membership plugins available, and they range in price from totally free to about $200.

Magic Members
Don't let the (I assume) unintended innuendo of the plugin's name drive you away, because Magic Members is chock full of cool features that many plugins lack, and it is perfect for any type of generic membership site. Some key features include download manager, integration with Authorize.net and WorldPay and member-only RSS feeds. This plugin also supports CCBill, one of the top high-risk payment processors in the whole world. And for affiliate marketers, this Magic Members also offers another plugin called Magic Affiliate, which is fully-integrated into both Magic Members and WP E-Commerce plugins. There are many out there who argue that this is the best membership plugin on the market, and it only costs around $97.

MemberWing
If it's features your looking for, you may want to put MemberWing at the top of your wish list. This plugin offers very powerful file protection and full integration with TraceFusion, which allows you to find out who steals, illegally shares and distributes your premium material on the Internet. You also get forum support, a ticketing system, download protection, drip-feeding and a whole host of other features. It can even be integrated into iDevAffiliate, which is the number one affiliate management software available. MemberWing also supports way more payment processors than any of the other plugins, including PayPal, 2Checkout, ClickBank, PayDotCom, e-junkie, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, and TrialPay. Needless to say, this is a pretty cool product.

YourMembers
YourMembers is one of the original membership plugins for WordPress, so over the years it has been able to add new features as they pop up and it has remained consistently suitable for essential membership needs. Among the many changes that this product has made over the last year are support for a number of different payment gateways, such as Authorize.net and CCBill, the addition of a members-only RSS that allows users to choose between secure RSS tokens and basic HTTP authentication for RSS feeds and full mail integration with gateways such as MailChimp and Aweber. It also includes Pay Per View, the ability to offer fixed value, percentage or hidden package coupons with registration and the chance to create custom reigstraton/login pages. Plus, every version of this plugin comes with free support and upgrades, so as they continue to get even better, your site can keep up. The basic package starts at $95.

Digital Access Pass
If this plugin has one thing working against it, it's a boring name. That being said, Digital Access Pass is rich in features and has a built-in affiliate program that supports both Pay-Per-Lead and Pay-Per Sale, which is huge for affiliate marketers. It supports a bunch of common payment processors like 1ShoppingCart, ClickBank, PayPal and many more. It also does away with the need for third party shopping carts, because the plugin itself can act as the cart. Each purchase of Digital Access Pass also contains personal installation by their team. The biggest downside is that this product is so lush and powerful that it takes a while to get used to. It's really only recommended for very savvy WordPress users, or at least those who are willing to put in the time to learn how to use it.

s2Member
One of the best things about s2Member is its clean and aesthetically pleasing interface. It contains most of the really important features that a user would expect from their membership plugin and is compatible with BuddyPress. Some features include the ability to delay post/page content and restrict access to different member levels per post or page. It comes with support for free subscribers and four primary membership levels, as well as an unlimited number of Custom Capability Packages, which allow users to create an unlimited number of membership packages with different capabilites and prices. Also, it's pretty cheap. A single license of the bare-bones version is actually free and the pro version is just $69. While it may not be the best membership plugin on the market, it is certainly among the most affordable and can hold its own in satisfying most owners' needs.

Wishlist Member
This is one of the hottest membership plugins on the market, and for good reason. Some of the many features available with Wishlist Member include sequential content delivery, multi-level acess, secure RSS feeds and control viewed content. They also have frequent updates so the product stays fresh by adding new features or product integration all the time. It supports all of the major payment gateways, as well as Cydec, which isn't as popular as some others. Its API makes integration super easy with both other plugins and third party services. This is one of the most complete and accessible membership plugins on the market, and should more than adequately fill any role that most sites or blogs will need.

wp-Member
Like YourMembers, wp-Member is pretty old school, initially launching with few features but updating over the years to keep up with competition, which makes it still a good plugin for most owners' membership needs. In fact, wp-Member is one of the few plugins that supports Google Checkout, which neither Magic Members nor Wishlist Member can claim. One of the coolest features, however, is the ability to easily customize your member registration page, which is a great way to help your site stand out and is something that many other plugins either don't offer or have yet to make as customizable and convenient as wp-Member.

CMS Members
This plugin is fairly new and also pretty standard, but it does present some unique features that should garner some attention from website owners and affiliate marketers. For instance, it is the only WordPress membership plugin that can be easily integrated with self-hosted or online affiliate marketing systems. Obviously, marketers should be interested in that, because they're going to want to be reaching out into these markets when starting to attempt to reel in members. It also comes with a pretty neat built-in HTML email newsletter feature, which allows you to mass email your members.

eMember
For those website or blog owners on a budget, eMember may just be for you. It's price range is very low compared to most of its competition and so, although it doesn't present any especially enticing features that you can't find in other plugins, it does provide users with a simple, cheap alternative that is capable of pulling off the basic functions of other membership plugins. So, if you don't require much, eMember may be a great fit.

As with most WordPress plugins, picking the right one for membership is mostly about knowing what your site or blog needs and which plugin can best get that done for you for the lowest price. Those who have a lot of traffic and plan on engaging a lot of members may want to consider a plugin like Digital Access Pass or MemberWing, but for most marketers, they probably don't need something that powerful, at least not yet.

WordPress Plugins with jQuery – Five To Know

Administrator — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT

jQuery is one of the wonders of the modern design world, enabling for the creation of hyper-impressive animations and interactions. Couple it with the power of WordPress and you’ve got a whopper of a duo to achieve some amazing effects. In today’s Design and Development Digest, let’s look at five WordPress plugins that add some jQuery interactivity to your site that you should know.

WP Sponsor Flip Wall is a plugin using jQuery and CSS for creating boxes that flip when clicked by the user. The plugin provides administrators a way to upload and crop images, and add custom text for the reverse side of the image. (See image below)

Announcement Bar is a very new plugin (just a few hundred downloads at the moment) that adds a jQuery file to WordPress that will position a fixed bar at the top of the browser screen (which can be used to show announcements) on each page load.

WD3K Ajax Sliding Contact Form positions a sliding contact form in the left border of a Wordpress blog. The plugin contains client side validation and ajax powered mailing so no page refresh is required. Site administrators can configure form labels, error messages and form status messages.

ThumbSniper is a Wordpress plugin that shows preview screenshots of hyperlinks as tooltips. The plugin can be configured to display a preview of all links or just external or specially marketed links.

Polaroid Gallery is a CSS3 and jQuery image gallery plugin which uses the WordPress media library. The plugin is used to overlay images that look like Polaroid pictures on the page or post. Using the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin, administrators can regenerate thumbnails for any images that have already been uploaded so the Polaroid overlay works. (See image below)

WP SPONSOR FLIP WALL:

POLAROID GALLERY:

WordPress Plugins From A to Z

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:30:00 GMT

WordPress is just a regular old CMS/blogging platform without plugins - feature-based add-ons for extending functionality. Plugins are undoubtedly the only way to really customize the experience for users and improve the visibility of a blog's Web presence. Today let's look at some of the best plugins - from A to Z. While we could not manage to find too many plugins for X, Y, Z (and a few other letters), we hope you get the general idea. If you have your creativity cap on and can think of some categories for the letters we missed, or if we happened to miss one of your favorite WP plugins, just comment below and we'll update this post (and reference you and your site with a link).

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Best Wordpress Plugins for Audio
Podcasting and the use of audio may not have the draw that it once did but it remains prevalent and is in fact used heavily in certain industries. Providing the best quality audio is only half the battle; you will also need a seamless, pleasing way to present it to users. Let these plugins support that objective.
Recommended Plugins: Audio Player, MediaElement.js - HTML5 Video & Audio Player, Audio Player Widget, Audio Link Player

Best Wordpress Plugins for Backups
When it comes to backups, it's always better to be safe than sorry. The sad truth is that the vast majority of bloggers simply don't back up, which as they quickly learn, can cause more headaches than necessary. Take a few minutes each week to backup your WordPress site or use one of these plugins to automate the task.
Recommended Plugins: EZPZ One Click Backup, WordPress EZ Backup, XCloner - Backup and Restore

Best Wordpress Plugins for Comments
One of the clearest signs of a successful blog is the number and veracity of comments from visitors. It's not easy to elicit comments but they do provide other users a sense of the value in the community. If you are considering ramping up your comment acquisition efforts, consider these WP plugins for comments.
Recommended Plugins: IntenseDebate Comments, Disqus Comment System, Facebook Comments for WordPress, Comment Rating

Best WordPress Plugins for Donations
WP is used in nearly every industry. Thanks to it's open nature, it is even quite common in the non-profit realm. Since these entities exist primarily on donations, if you are interested in requesting and processing funds from visitors, let these plugins support that objective.
Recommended Plugins: PayPal Donations, Donation Can, Donate Plus, Mingle Donations Button

Best WordPress Plugins for Email Subscriptions
Blogs and email go together like peas and carrots. Since it is unreasonable to expect that every one of your visitors will subscribe to an RSS feed or even visit your site everyday, there is no greater compliment to a weblog that a well devised email marketing strategy. Let these plugins help get you started.
Recommended Plugins: MailChimp List Subscribe Form, Constant Contact for WordPress, AWeber Web Form Plugin, WP Email Capture, Subscribe2

Best Wordpress Plugins for Forms
Every website needs a contact form and blogs are no different. Having forms for general and specific requests that can be quickly and easily created are the sign of a well-developed website. If you don't have a contact form (or two or three), stop what you're doing and get started with these WP plugins.
Recommended Plugins: Contact Form 7, Fast Secure Contact Form, Custom Contact Forms, Formiddable Forms

Best Wordpress Plugins for Images/Galleries
Photo galleries are excellent ways to increase time on site and build loyalty. When blog owners use images as assets (and more broadly, galleries as showcases of these image assets) it's easier to increase exposure for brands and increase brand interaction. Let the following plugins support that mission.
Recommended Plugins: NextGen Gallery, Page Flip Image Gallery, WP Photo Album Plus, Flickr Photo Album, SEO Friendly Images

Best Wordpress Plugins for Links
The Web is not a "web" at all without links. Maintaining the many links that bloggers create on a daily, weekly or monthly basis however can become cumbersome - even for the most organized. Automating the maintenance proves useful in relation to customer experience and overall SEO efforts.
Recommended Plugins: SEO Smart Link, Broken Link Checker, WP Render Blogroll Links

Best WordPress Plugins for Managing Ads
Bloggers can't make money without selling something - and that includes advertising space. Managing advertising creative and placements is often best left to technology. Let the following plugins support your quest to towards blog profit with these WP plugins for managing ads.
Recommended Plugins: Simple Ads Manager, WP125, AdRotate, Ozh’ Who Sees Ads

Best Wordpress Plugins for Optimization
Everybody wants a well-optimized Web property and why not - the benefit of natural traffic is well documented.
Recommended Plugins: Platinum SEO Pack, Greg’s High Performance SEO, WordPress SEO by Yoast, SEO Ultimate

Best WordPress Plugins for Polls
If there's one tactic that works to get peoples attention and drive traffic to a Web property/weblog, it is the use of polls/surveys. While best suited to those with a large, active community, when well promoted polls and surveys are an interactive way to get site visitors involved.
Recommended Plugins: SodaHead Polls, PollDaddy Polls and Ratings, WP Polls

Best WordPress Plugins for Ratings
Search engines are placing greater focus on the presence and quality of ratings and reviews. While the introduction of schema.org and the increased demand for structured data present blog operators with a measurable opportunity, you still need comments, ratings and reviews to work with. Let these WP plugins help you begin the process.
Recommended Plugins: Comment Rating, GD Star Rating, Star Rating for Reviews

Best WordPress Plugins for Social Media
Social media is here to stay (what form it will take in the future is another matter). Whether Facebook, Twitter, or one of the myriad smaller niche social media destinations, offering users the ability to help you spread/distribute message is standard. Not doing anything in the social realm puts you in the minority so use the plugins to help users start socializing.
Recommended Plugins: Sexy Bookmarks, Simple Facebook Connect, WP Tweet Button

Best Wordpress Plugins for Translation
The opportunities to gain new customers (and increase sales) is only possible through internationalization. While few sites delve deeper into translation than through automated means, something is better than nothing (despite those that
Recommended Plugins: Global Translator, Google Ajax Translation, Transposh, qTranslate

Best Wordpress Plugins for Users (Membership Community)
Successful Web enterprises have one thing in common - loyal, active communities. Start a blog with membership/community features available in the first iteration and you will be positioned well to keep growing your site, and brand. Consider the following WP plugins for your own membership-based Web property.
Recommended Plugins: s2Member, Mingle, WP-Members

Best Wordpress Plugins for Video
Video is not the next big thing - it is the channel that marketers and consumers are most excited about right now. Video can be challenging to implement and even more cumbersome to manage so use the following plugins to get started the right way.
Recommended Plugins: VideoPress, All-in-One Video Pack, WordPress Video Plugin, Stream Video Player, MediaElement.js, Embedded Video

Best Wordpress Plugins for WordPress Health
Thanks to the sheer number of WP deployments, it has become a very visible target for spammers. The health of your Wordpress installation is vitally important, so important in fact that Google has even begun sending warnings to those WP sites that may have security vulnerabilities. Stay healthy with these two essential plugins.
Recommended Plugins: WP Security Scan, Akismet