So here I present to you 21 Cool Ass WordPress Plugins. Your blog is incomplete without these:

1. All-in-One SEO Pack

The All-in-One SEO Pack is the ultimate SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plugin out there. It automatically optimizes your blog for search engines, and has several options for the more advanced users.

2. Akismet

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not, and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s Comments admin screen. With the ever increasing amount of spam on the web, you’d be dumb not to get this plugin.

3. FeedBurner FeedSmith

The FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin detects all ways to access your feed (e.g. yoursite.com/feed/ or yoursite.com/wp-rss2.php etc) and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will forward for your main posts feed, and optionally, your comments feed as well.

4. Google XML Sitemaps Generator

The Google XML Sitemaps Generator plugin generates an XML sitemap of your WordPress blog. Ask, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN support this format. Having an XML sitemap and submitting it to the search engines that support it can really increase your blog’s search engine visibility, especially when it’s new.

5. WordPress.com Stats

WordPress.com Stats is a traffic statistics plugin that shows only the most popular metrics a blogger wants to track – such as page views, referrers, top posts & pages, search engine terms, and clicks – and provides them in a clear and concise interface.

6. Sociable

Sociable automatically adds links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages, and in your RSS feed. You can choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites.

7. WP Super Cache

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Digg Effect and the Slashdot Effect. They can cause a server meltdown, and if you’re on shared hosting, get your ass kicked out. To Digg-proof your blog, get WP Super Cache. It reduces the load on your server b generating static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress blog.

8. One Click

The One-Click plugin allows you to upload themes and plugins straight to your WordPress blog from the browser. Just upload the zip file, and it’ll automatically unzip the contents and install the plugin for you. Now you never have to use FTP again!

9. Dashboard Widget Manager

Ever felt your dashboard was too cluttered? Then download Dashboard Widget Manager. It allows you to remove unnecessary widgets from your dashboard so it’ll look clean and load faster.

10. Exec-PHP

Exec-PHP lets you execute PHP code in posts, pages, and in the text widgets of your sidebar.

11. Google Analytics for WordPress

The Google Analytics for WordPress plugin lets you insert the Google Analytics code automatically throughout your blog. It discounts your own visits, automatically tracks and segments all outbound links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links, and downloads. It even allows you to track AdSense clicks, add extra search engines, and track image search queries.

12. Lighter Menus

Lighter Menus creates drop down menus instead of the regular admin menus for WordPress, so you can browse items in one click. It’s fast to load, adaptable to color schemes, and comes with some sleek icons.

13. PageMash

Customize the order of your pages, manage their parent structure, and hide them, all using PageMash. It features an Ajax drag-and-drop administrative interface, and is a great tool to re-arrange the order of your pages quickly.

14. Simple Trackback Validation

The Simple Trackback Validation plugin helps to eliminate trackback spam by performing a simple a simple but effective test on all incoming trackbacks.

15. WP-Spam Free

Fed up of all that comment spam? Stop wasting time checking and clearing your Akismet spam queue every day and download WP-SpamFree. It will eliminate 99% – 100% of the comment spam you receive. Yep, I’m not joking. And it does it without captchas! WP-SpamFree uses a combo of JavaScript and cookies to stop the spambots. Since 99% of the spambots out there can’t process JavaScript, they won’t be able to submit comments. It also doesn’t slow down your blog one bit.

From the day I’ve installed WP-SpamFree, I’ve received zero comment spam! I highly recommend you get this one, unless you’re masochistic.

16. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) inserts a list of related posts below each post on your blog, and in your blog’s RSS feed. It’s extremely configurable, and a must-have.

17. Contact Form 7

Even though there are tens of contact form plugins out there, I’ve always liked Contact Form 7. The problem with most contact form plugins is that either they are too simple or way too complex. Contact Form 7, on the other hand, is extensible yet easy-to-use. It supports Ajax-powered submitting, multiple forms, CAPTCHAS, and Akismet spam filtering.

18. Manageable

Manage allows inline editing of the date, title, categories, tags, status, and more of both posts and pages without ever having to leave the “Manage” admin section. No need to load each post or page individually. Simply double-click anywhere in the post or page row and when you’re done, press enter.

19. WordPress Database Backup

You should always backup your WordPress database regularly. However, doing it manually every time can be difficult and time consuming. The WordPress Database Backup plugin lets you easily backup your WordPress database tables. You can even schedule a backup, and it’ll email the file to you every day!

20. OIO Publisher

OIO Publisher is the ultimate ad management plugin. It’s great for those who want to sell ads on their blog by themselves. The great thing about OIO is that it removes all the hassle one gets from self-selling ad space: you only have to approve purchases. OIO Publisher handles everything else. Using OIO, you can sell reviews, links, ads, and even your own products! Heck, it even allows you to create your own affiliate program, so other people can sell your ads and products for you.

21. SRG Clean Archives

The SRG Clean Archives plugin displays your archive listings in a clean and uniform fashion, that’s search engine and user-friendly, on a dedicated page or in your sidebar. If you’re still manually updating your archives page, stop doing it!

Plugins are software scripts. Plugin is usually a number of files compressed into archive that can be downloaded to your hard disk from plugin directories or from the site of the plugin. This is the official plugin directory: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ You don’t need to have programming skills when using most of the plugins but you have to read carefully the instructions given by the plugin author and follow them. If something is wrong with the plugin you should consult the plugin author. When selecting a plugin you should see to compatibility of the plugin with the version of your wordpress blog. Very often it is written in the description of the plugin. It is strongly recommended to make backup of your site in case something go wrong, before installing a plugin.

Here are some cool plugins you should look to add….

• W3 Total Cache – This WordPress plugin is great for two reasons. First, it makes your pages load way faster. Second, since it stores static versions of your site, it requires much less CPU processing than using WordPress all by itself. This WordPress plugin is number one on the list for a reason.

• HeadSpace: WordPress SEO Made Simple- Move over All in one SEO. There’s a new guy in town. HeadSpace provides you with the features you need to drive your site to the top. People spend way to much time working on SEO and too little time writing great content. This plugin let’s you put your focus back where it belongs. It takes care of all the SEO work that your blog will need.

• WP-DBManager – This little gem is amazing for backing up your website. It actually has quite a few functions that it can perform but perhaps it’s most impressive feature is it’s ability to email the entire WordPress databse to me every day.

• Thank Me Later – This plugin is great. It sends an email to all first-time visitors. You can write up the email to remind them about your RSS feed or just to invite them to connect with you personally. I do both.

• SEO Smart Links – Do you inter-link your articles? You should. Linking within an article to other articles is a great way to build Page Rank throughout your site and it’s a great way to get readers to find your other articles on similar subjects. This plugin will interlink keywords to your other articles for you.

Have Fun!!!

This is the name of your blog (www.YourBlogName.com). You can check on availability at GoDaddy.com . You can also purchase your domain name there. That is where I get my domains.

GoDaddy.com is a low cost provider with excellent service ($10/year). When you do purchase, it’s important to know that Google search engines give more favor to sites who have bought their domain for longer than 1 year.

When choosing a name think about how you want to brand your blog. You can choose a name related to your blog’s theme, you could choose to brand with your own name, or you can make up a name that sounds cool. Or you could do some combination of those. Usually “.com” is preferable to other extensions such as “.net” or because it makes it easier for people to remember. Everyone thinks “.com” but if you can only get “.net” with your favorite name that should be fine. Just keep an eye out for when the .com will become available, some individual fail to renew there domains causing them to loss they domains and making domain become available for purchase.

When it comes to picking a domain name I suggest brainstorming on paper first. Get feedback from some people about the names you’ve picked. Then click over to GoDaddy.com to check availability. You may need to modify some of the names you thought of. Godaddy.com will also make suggestions for you too.

The reason I recommend godaddy is simply. GREAT SERVICES AFFORDABLE PRICING!

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