Blog Plug-ins

10 Recommended Blog Plug-Ins for the Busy Entrepreneur

Setting up a self-hosted blog is not rocket science although I’ll admit I pulled out my share of hairs on my own blog set-up. Once it is up and running, you can start adding content, but in order to compete with the big dogs you need to be able to make your blog function for business. Your blog should serve many purposes and ultimately create a huge marketplace awareness of you, your product, your business, and anything else you have to offer. In order to have a blog that can do all this, you will need to install plug-ins to work for you. Plug-ins can help you to manage your blog, save you time, build your list, and do other amazing stuff for your business. So which plug-ins do you need?

There are thousands of plug-ins to choose from, but you’ll notice some of the best blogs out there use these top plug-ins:

1.) Askimet- This one eliminates most of the comment spam issues. This one is a definite must-have unless you want to spend all day sorting through your comments.
2.) Disqus Comment System- a plug-in for your blog comments that promotes community and sharing. Disqus is already used by millions so your commenter will most likely already be recognized by the system and they can choose how to display their identity. They can also easily share their comments socially to increase the viral reach of your post.
3.) Ultimate Google Analytics- This is also a must have tool to enable Google Analytics keep track of everything from number of visitors to keywords to most-viewed content and more.
4.) Tweet This- Adds the nice little button above your blog post to allow your readers to re-post what they have read.
5.) Facebook Share- Does the same thing as the Tweet This plug-in except for Facebook so your readers can re-post on these two major social networks.
6.) Onlywire for Wordpress- Allows sharing on millions of other social sites with the click of a button. One other step may be needed for some sites and it does like Firefox better than Internet Explorer, but is a very useful tool for mass exposure of your blog by you and your readers.
7.) Google XML Sitemaps- Some of these behind the scenes plug-ins don’t have to make much sense to you if you’re not the techie type, but just know that this plug-in allows the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Bing, etc. to index your site.
8.) Subscribe to Comments- this allows your readers who have commented to be notified when new comments are posted. This encourages discussion and interactivity among readers.
9.) Thank Me Later- This plugin will e-mail users who comment on your blog to say thank you for commenting, stay in touch and encourage them to come back again. A handy little tool that saves you a ton of time and makes you look like you are really on the ball.
10.) WP Greet Box- This plugin lets you show a different greeting message to your new visitors depending on their referrer url. So, if a Digg user clicks through from Digg, they will see a message reminding them to digg your post if they like it. Or if someone clicks through from Twitter, they will see a message suggesting them to tweet the post and follow you on Twitter. You can also set a default greeting message for new visitors (not matching any referrer URLs) suggesting them to subscribe to your RSS feed.

Now this doesn’t even begin to cover all the plug-ins out there and if you have a favorite, please do share. But this list will get any new blogger well on their way to a snazzy blog that works behind the scenes to make you look great while also getting the word out about what you have to offer.

Tags: blog plug-ins