So you're BLOGGING.... are you doing it for a release, a place to vent your frustration at the world or are you BLOGGING to be of service to others? Do you want to make money from your BLOG or are you happy in the knowledge that people are getting value from what you are sharing?
For me it is a mix of both! Not that I have much frustration at the world... sometimes I like to just let my thoughts come out, and it is always good to reflect on what you have thought... well most of the time!
If you are using your BLOG as part of your personal branding campaign (as discussed in previous posts) then there are some Word Press Plugins that I believe you shouldn't be without. There are literally 1000's of plugins that you can get for your word press blog platform (self hosted) most of them are free, there are some that you pay a one time fee for and there are others that you pay a monthly membership fee for... It depends on what you are trying to achieve...
So here in this post I am going to share with you some of the plugins for wordpress that I use personally... so anything you see here I have tested and have had good results with.
As this particular BLOG is set up for branding and sharing information (most are set up to at least share info) you are going to see a few similar plugins... all have their functions. You can attain all plugins by clicking on the images.
Like anything on the internet, there are certain things you have to do to get traffic (unless you are Paris Hilton or someone famous!) making your BLOG SEO (search engine optimization) friendly will help you this there are a number of plugins that you are able to get to do this... the one I use is 'All in One SEO'
Semper Fi Wb Design are regularly updating this plugin and has proven the be the best and most user friendly that I have used. It allows you to ad titles and descriptions in an SEO friendly format and has a number of other options included.
Along the lines of SEO you will also continuously be creating anchor text links on your pages and in your posts, this helps your visibility in the search engines and can be time consuming... if there are links that you continually use (or you are bringing content from other sources) then you want to be able to quickly and effortlessly create links in the text... again there are plenty of plugins available for your word press blog of the two that I have I use one more than the other, so this is the one that I would recommend
KB Linker an extremely user friendly and easy to update plugin that allows you to input multiple links at once.
Next on my list of plugins is Link Within... this is a plugin that I have only recently added, and it is a beauty... you see it shows other 
relevant posts in your blog so that you can retain peoples engagement in your site. Its free and it is simple to use... no really simple!
Sexy Bookmarks No doubt you understand that in order for your message to get out there for people to hear, you must make it easy for your readers to share it with others, and 
again there are HEAPS of plugins for this... I use a few however as this is my top ten I am sharing this one, if you want to know about more leave a comment and I will get it to you... Sexy Bookmarks is great as encompasses pretty much ALL of the social media networks. It is easy to set up and they are regularly updating the plugin, that is good as you know it is being well utilized. This helps you help others to get your message out!.
Twitter tools... this plugin pretty much brings twitter to your blog... it will make a digest of all your tweets in a week, month, or even daily if you ask it to, it allows you to post to twitter directly from your word press BLOG and it also sends a tweet to twitter on your behalf everytime you update your BLOG (if you ask it to 
) Really simple to use, simply input your details for your twitter account and you're away!
reCAPTCHA... you will have no doubt seen and more than likely used this... this is what keeps the spammers at bae... it effectively stops robots from leaving
comments on your BLOG. Why would they do that you ask? Black Hat SEO Tactics... it basically is giving them back links. It is mildly customizable you can choose between black and red.
Easy Uploader This is one of my favorite plugins... and the reason is because it is simple and it saves ALOT of time... This plugin allows you to upload new themes and new plugins into your word press blog without the need to use an FTP client... and what is more it allows you to upload them in the zip format and will recognize them without you having to do anything! So if you have a favorite theme or plugins that you use frequently and are looking at starting another BLOG for another venture then you can upload them quickly.
When you have added content to your BLOG or updated posts, added new ones what have you... you are going to want to add 'tags' to your post, these can act
basically like more key words if you like (for lack of a better explanation) So this is another great time saver, the 'auto tagger' will scour through the post you have just made and pick out relevant tags for your post, there is an option to ad more and also or to take some out that you may not necessarily want there. Saves time and gives you tags you might not have though of yourself.
Comment Luv, this is a great little plugin if you are commenting a lot on other peoples BLOGS (Great for SEO) when you make a comment on someone else's blog post it leaves a trail back to your last post, so it has the title etc... there so people can see it and follow it back, works really well if the post you are commenting on is related to your latest post.
And rounding up my ten picks is the great little plugin, Comment Prompt, that reminds or prompts people to make a comment on your post (left last for a reason *nudge nudge*)
You see most people don't think to leave a comment, they usually have a thought about your post, however in most cases people don't even realize that they can leave a comment, so what this does is it sits in at the end of the post and says 'hey you have read the post, what do you think' and prompts or reminds them to leave one. This is important if you want to build your rankings on the search engines in what ever niche you are trying to rank in.
So there they are, my ten picks for Word Press Plugins... There are so many, and this doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.... to the point that while writing this post I have decided to do my top five money making plugins... so stay tuned for that.
I am sure you will have found this information useful so be sure to share it round If you haven't already then join my monthly news letter so you can get the low down on what is happening around the traps.
Enjoy, make it a great day!
To Your Success
About the Author
Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.
