WordPress plugins are my focus for today folks! But first, I have a confession. I’ve become obsessed with WordPress plugins. Why you might ask? Well, they are super fun, super efficient and on some subconscious level I totally geek out on this stuff. Mer sometimes tells me that I probably should have pursued a career in technology because I’m so intrigued by how this stuff works.
I’ve realized pretty quickly that one of the enormous perks of having a self hosted site is having the power to install as many WordPress plugins as I want. Not long after setting everything up here at thistinybluehouse.com I got to work researching and trying to find some plugins that would help streamline my blogging process. Up next week is a post about my blogging workflow, so, stay tuned for that. In the meantime, I want to take some time and have a look at some of the plugins I’m using here on TTBH in addition to some other super awesome ones I’ve played around with over the last month or so.
If you’re in the market for a new theme why not have a look at my post: 20 gorgeous and free WordPress themes.
If you’re here looking to get the low down about WordPress plugins then keep on reading!
Plugins come in all shapes and sizes. There are plugins out there to assist you with everything from social media to organization and improved SEO. Here are some of my absolute favorites. As always, if you have any questions feel free to get in touch.
20 must have WordPress Plugins
Comment Reply Email Notification
This was the first plugin I installed. This awesome WordPress plugin sends an email to a comment author when their comment has a reply. One of the disadvantages of being self-hosted is that commenters don’t get a notification like they do on wordpress.com. This great plugin takes care of that problem and lets your commenters know when their comments has a reply from you or another reader.
Google Analytics for WordPress
Google Analytics is a must for anyone who is looking to grow their blog and readership. This plugin is great because it gives you the power to check your stats from your WordPress Dashboard.
MiloTree Pop Up
If you’re in the market to grow your Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest following then this is the WordPress plugin for you. This super cool plugin forces a pop up that invites readers to follow you on various social media. What’s super cool about MiloTree is that a different pop up is shown every time a visitor stops in which helps grow all your social media accounts at once!
Social Pug
This WordPress plugin is another great social media tool. It allows you to add social share buttons to your website to increase the interaction on your website. Place the buttons before and after the post content or have them follow your readers in the form of a floating sidebar.
WordPress Editorial Calendar
By far my favorite plugin because it makes staying on top of my workflow a breeze. This plugin allows you to see your upcoming posts visually on a calendar. You can also create, modify and delete drafts or drag and drop them around throughout the month. This one is absolutely a must have!
WP Google Fonts
Gives you the power to change your themes fonts with zero coding.
Yoast SEO
Makes SEO optimization a breeze. It’s super user friendly and really walks you through optimizing your posts so they are better indexed by search engines.
Google XML Sitemaps
Creates an XML site map of your site which helps search engines index you better and optimize your sites visibility.
Limit Login Attempts
Very useful WordPress Plugin to keep your site safe. After a defined number of unsuccessful login attempts this plugin temporarily blocks the IP address to keep your site safe.
Frizzly
Awesome social sharing plugin that gives you the ability to place a “share” button for Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest over your images and content. Great great way to encourage the social sharing of your content.
SumoMe
Free tools that automate the growth of your site. Includes an email list builder and social media sharing tools.
Comment Redirect
Interesting plugin that can be used to build your readership. After a reader comments for the first time this plugin redirects to a page where you can introduce yourself and hopefully earn a new subscription.
W3- Total Cache
Awesome plugin that helps increase the performance of your site by increasing loading speed.
Thirsty Affiliate
Incredible plugin that helps you manage your affiliate linking by making it extremely user friendly.
Related Posts
Generates related posts with thumbnails below your content. Such an important way to draw attention to your archived content.
Broken Link Checker
Very useful plugin that checks your site for broken links.
Revive Old Posts
Twitter plugin that tweets your archived and older content on a predefined schedule of your choosing. Very efficient and makes promoting your old blog posts a breeze.
Visitor Greeting
Cool plugin that allows you to customize welcome pop-ups to greet your readers!
Shareaholic
Another social media sharing plugin with super cool features and customization’s.
Even more This Tiny Blue House posts you might enjoy
- The ultimate beginners guide for starting a blog
- 10 lessons blogging taught me over the last year
- The ugly truth behind using Pinterest to grow your blog traffic
- 20 gorgeous and FREE wordpress themes for your blog
- How to make money blogging without blogging about blogging
I want to hear from you!
What are your MUST HAVE wordpress plugins?
It would behoove me to take a week to read all of your “how to wordpress” blogs before I post my next one. You and I are polar opposites on this one. You enjoy the technical aspect of blogging. I’d rather have a root canal! Seriously, Jenny, I’m going to spend some quality time with your posts in the next few weeks to see if I can’t get my blog more fashionable and more functional. Thank you for taking the legwork out of this for me! Dana
Totally agree… perhaps we can hire her! Jenny???
hahah I totally geek out on this stuff!
My pleasure Dana! If you’ve got any questions don’t hesitate to shoot me an email!
Thank you!
Thank you for all this valuable info. I am going to get started today! Only hesitation I have is that I personally hate popups and have tried to avoid putting them on my blog because I am sure so many other people are like me. Am I wrong? I am missing out on lots?
I totally get what you’re saying and I’m not a huge fan myself. Having said that, they do work in terms of growing your following. The 2 that I’m using are aimed at growing my pinterest following and email list. As far as I can tell on my end they do pop up but do not prevent you from reading my site. I’m not a huge fan of the ones that pop up dead center of the page and force you to either opt in or opt our before proceeding.
You are amazing. I have my work cut out for me this weekend. I can’t get anything to work. (I think I have blockers on my work laptop). Plugin’s not working, but so excited… Thank you for sharing!
Shoot me an email if you’ve got any questions!
This is a great resource. thank you for sharing!
My pleasure! Enjoy! Happy mother’s day lady!
This is so helpful! Thank you!
My pleasure! Enjoy!
Thanks for liking my post. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
Thank you for reading Harriet!
Just what I’m looking for! Helpful info on the technical side of blogging! Thank you! Great post and site!?
Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to follow along for more posts about blogging!
I am still working full time, but write at night and on weekends. When I started applying for online jobs, they said I needed a blog. Gee I started one about 4 years ago and made a couple of posts…so now I am trying to blog every day and a dear friend of mine edits them. She will enjoy the great tips in this post.
Have a great day.
Thanks for reading Darlene! Hope you found this post helpful. I’ve also written other posts about making money with blogging. If you’ve got a minute have a look!
Dar’s right. I am taking notes from this post as we speak. I too kind of geek out on all the cool internet/blog/tech stuff.
Thanks Sherron! If you want to read more of this tech blog stuff head over to my blogging category. I’ve written quite a few posts recently about this sort of thing.
Thank you so much for reading!
Helpful to know about these plug-ins.
Thanks for sharing, I’ll have to take some time to check them all out!
This is very very helpful. Thank you!!
☆ Atheera ☆
Hi Jenny,
I always love reading posts that recommend certain plugins for our blogs. I already use some of them and I have to agree, Thirsty Affiliates is an amazing plugin.
When I started affiliate marketing on my blog, I was looking at Pretty Links and Thirsty Affiliates. After researching both plugins, I finally decided to go with Thirsty Affiliates and haven’t looked back.
If you’re an affiliate marketer, you need to make sure that you’re cloaking your links. This plugin makes it so easy, I couldn’t imagine not using it.
I’ll have to check out some of the other plugins on this page.
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. I’ve pinned it so others can get an idea of which plugins they should check out.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan