Plugins, Plugins Everywhere so Which Ones Should You Choose? [part one]

Plugins for WordPress…Part One

Quite possibly one of my favourite subjects and I’ve been known to while away many an hour (full blown day) just testing out new plugins for the awesome WordPress platform.

I’d like to share some of my ‘Must Haves‘ here, there are of course many, many more lists out there from other folks who also have a plugin addiction, but here’s my take on the wonderful world of the WordPress plugin.

I am going to have to break this up into more than one post or I fear that you will be coaxed in to a frenzy of plugin downloading that even the most well-adjusted plugin addict would find hard to cope with…

But before I unleash the list, I just wanna say a

REALLY BIG

thank you to the developers who bring us the awesomeness of the plugin, as we all rave about WordPress and what a mind-blowingly great platform it is (cos it is) but I feel that the developers behind the plugins often get over-looked and without these guys, WordPress wouldn’t even be a fraction as good as it is. So, to all of you WP Plugin developers THANK YOU – you rock our world!

So In No Particular Order…..

Mingle by Blair Williams

I really love this plugin by Blair Williams as it enables you to have a social aspect to your blog or site without the headache of using BuddyPress. I have this plugin enabled over on the Web Mums site and if you pop over, you’ll see that you have the community members in the right hand column.

I am using this in conjunction with the Wishlist plugin (see below) so I have a private members site with the ability for members to interact socially.

The plugin enables you to have your own profile page and to comment on others. There is also a main activity stream where you can join in the one long conversation by adding your own comments to the throng – think FaceBook and Twitter  and you’ll get the idea.

The WordPress community really needed something like this so thank you Blair for such a fine addition to the directory. You can also see the Mingle plugin in action on Blairs site WPMingle.com. If you join the community there, you’ll get a feel for what the plugin can do before you decide to install it yourself.

Mingle is currently FREE but don’t forget donations to the developers.

WishList Members Plugin

I have already written a review of the WishList Plugin but I had to mention it within my ‘list’ as this is such an incredible piece of software.

There are other platforms that you can build a membership site with but WordPress is my tool of choice, unfortunately up until now it’s been near on impossible to build a solid membership site without being a coder yourself.

This plugin has changed all of that because it’s not only simple it’s incredibly powerful. There are more and more folks arriving on the Internet each day and social sites are proving very popular. If you can combine it with a method of teaching or some other niche you happen to be in, then this can be a great way to earn an online income.

This WishList plugin enables you to use various shopping carts, including PayPal, you can drip-feed content if you want it delivered weekly or monthy – or even daily – you choose. You can have different levels of membership, different price structures and so on. The possibilities with this plugin are pretty much only limited by your imagination and I highly recommend it.

The plugin isn’t free but is a drop in the ocean compared to the value you are receiving. It’s currently (on writing this) being sold for $97 for a single site license.

HeadSpace 2

In a word ‘AMAZING’ this is no ordinary plugin, it’s an absolute box of tricks so kudos to developer John Godley over at Urban Giraffe. When I first tested this plugin I was looking for an plugin to aid my SEO efforts. I have always used the All in One SEO plugin which is another great plugin, but this does the same and so, so very much more.

Depending on your needs, this plugin may be way more than what you want, but I strongly urge you to check out some of it’s functionality and it kicks ass!

In addition to multitude of SEO tasks it covers, it also does some really cool stuff like allowing you to use a different theme on specified posts/pages. It also allows you to enable/disable plugins for various pages/posts. It allows you to display a message to visitors who are arriving at your site for the first time (covered in other plugins but included as part of this).

There really is just so much in this plugin that it’s already one of my ‘can’t live withouts’ it’s just incredible. Rather than me tell you (badly) what this plugin can do – go and check it out yourself, that link will take to you to a full in-depth explanation of what this plugin does. It takes a little bit of getting used to as it’s quite involved but guys – it’s so worth it, so read the documentation and start to take advantage of the incredible HeadSpace 2 plugin.

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So that’s part one for you. I’d really encourage you to go and check these plugins out as they will really enhance your WordPress experience. I have lots more to add but I didn’t want the post to go on too long but there are about 20 plugins I want to take a look at with you and perhaps we’ll dig a little deeper and I’ll show you behind the scenes how to set some of them up so that you can get the most from them.

Make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed to get the updates and please leave a comment below and let me know what your favourite plugin is, maybe we can add it to the list.

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