WordPress has many cool tools right out of the box but if you want to spice things up a little bit, there are a couple of cool plug-ins that will make your blog stand out from the crowd and help you easily to maintain every aspect of it.
1) The First one is Shadowbox-JS and can be downloaded at http://sivel.net/wordpress/shadowbox-js/sivel.net/. This plug-in allows the use of many different types of media such as images, videos, flash and even html to be brought up while darkening the background; making the media the primary focus on the screen without even loading a new webpage. It is a cool little effect that will give your blog some interactivity and save time without any extra loading.
2) The second plug-in is the Akismet. Although this comes with WordPress by default, it is not active until you register it with a special API #, which you can get from WordPress by creating an account. This plug-in is very useful for getting rid of spam, especially if you have a blog that gets a lot of comments.
3) Next, there is the Contact 7 Form plug-in, which can be found at http://ideasilo.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/contact-form-7/ideasilo.wordpress.com/. This plug-in will give you the chance to generate web based forms without the need of building it within the html. It allows you to place a contact form as a widget on the sidebar or within a page. To use this Contact Form, just apply a string of code that is generated after you set the fields you would like the form to have. This plug-in is easy to use and to implement.
4) Another cool plug-in is Intense Debate, which can be downloaded at http://intensedebate.com/wordpress. Intense Debate enhances the communication between you and the visitors on your blog.
5) The last cool plug-in is TweetThis. The plug-in can be found at http://richardxthripp.thripp.com/tweet-this although this is call TweetThis it contains more than just twitter. This plug-in has Plurk, Yahoo Buzz, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, MySpace, Ping.fm, Reddit, and StumbleUpon. You can have people tweet, digg and add your blog to their favorite social media sites with a click of a button.
In conclusion, the Shadowbox-JS, Akismet, Contact 7 Form, Intense Debate, and TweetThis plug-ins can bring a spark of life into your blog, by making it easier to use and cooler when it comes to sharing information.
One Comment
I’d also recommend All in One SEO pack. Very helpful for SEO.