Recommended WordPress Plugins For Any Serious Blogger – Get Busy Living

I get a lot of e-mails asking me about the plugins I use here. After trying many WordPress plugins, I have settled on a handful that I rely on.

I’d recommend these to any blogger, especially the beginners out there. If you start with these, it will help get more traffic, more comments, more retweets, and build your community.

Remember, you don’t want to have too many plugins running because it will slow down your site. So be picky about what you use.

Here are a list of my most asked about and favorite plugins.

WPSubscribers

This plugin has really helped me increase subscribers to my e-mail list. The reason is because it makes it easy to add sign up options almost anywhere on your blog.

One easy place is in the comments. After the reader has entered their name and email address for a comment, they can just click a box to get your ebook or sign up to your list. So they leave a comment and sign up to your list at the same time. Makes it easier.

Also if you see the end of my posts, there is an opt-in box was added with WpSubscribers. You can add an opt-in box within your posts, at the footer, as a pop-up, or in the sidebar,

That’s just a tip of the features it has. It’s too many to list. If you want to read more and purchase it, visit the website.

(This is an affiliate product, so I’ll make comission if you buy through this link. However, this is a product I use personally and would recommend.)

Tweet@ Anywhere Plus

This is the tweet box you see at the end of every post. If you want more people to share you post, you have to make it so simple for them. Don’t make them search for the retweet button. Show them how easy it is.

You can set up the wording of the tweet to whatever you want. Your readers can edit it as well before tweeting it.

It wasn’t easy to setup the box at first, but I had it setup up in minutes when I found a video made by my friend Adrienne Smith.

This is my most asked about plugin. Install it on your blog today and get more retweets.

Reply Me

This is probably my personal favorite plugin. If you’ve ever left a comment here, you know how it works. When I reply to your comment, you get an e-mail with your comment and my reply.

The reason I love it is because you know that I replied to your comment. If not, you’ll have no idea if I followed up with a question, or liked a point you made. Doubtful you’ll come looking through an old post to see if I replied to your comment.

I like it when other bloggers use it. I leave a lot of comments on many different blogs and I hardly go back to the post to see if it got a reply. It just takes too much time and I can’t keep track where I did leave a comment.

If you’re looking to build relationships with people, continue the conversation, and let them know you appreciate their comments, this is a great plugin to do that.

Top Commenters

If you’re looking for a way to reward those who comment on your blog, this is a way to give them recognition. In the sidebar, you can see a list of the top commenters for this month. You can set this for all time, the month, or the week. You can show the number of comments or not.

I have it setup to show their gravatar picture, their blog, and how many comments they’ve left. By commenting often, it gets their picture and link featured. You get more comments and they get more exposure and a link back to their blog. It’s a win for both sides.

Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin

This is the plugin you need if you don’t want spam comments. It gets rid of 99% of the spam. After I’ve recommended this to friends, spam comments have cut down drastically.

How it gets rid of spam is when you leave a comment, you have to check a box that proves you are human. If you don’t check it, you can’t leave a comment. So simple but effective!

Sure you’ll get some humans who are paid to spam comment, but it’s so few that it’s not a problem.

For awhile I was using just GASP and not Askimet. Then I suddenly got hit with spam comments. It grew and grew to the point that it got annoying. Since then I’ve turned Askimet back on, it has reduced the amount of spam that gets through tremendously. So GASP + Askimet is a great combo for me.

CommentLuv

Get more comments by rewarding those that leave one with a link to one of their most recent posts.

If you leave a comment here, you can link to your post and that shows up at the end of your comment. Others will see it and if interested by the headline, will click on it (another reason headlines are so important!)

This is a free version, but I believe there is a premium version now. Honestly, I don’t know much about it, but Ana at Traffic Generation Cafe has a write up about it if you’re interested in learning more about the premium version. Adrienne Smith also is using CommentLuv premium and could tell you more about it.

Backup Buddy

In August, I was on cloud nine with my iPhone app, Photo 365, being featured. What most didn’t know was it was also the most stressful time on my blog.

The reason was my blog was getting hacked multiple times a day!! It kept getting redirected to some bogus Russian domain.

I turned to online friend David Wang at ClickWP.com to help me solve the issue. The frustrating part was that it would get fixed, and then hours later it be hacked again. This went on for four days if I remember correctly.

David was awesome in helping me out and staying really patient. He kept trying different things.

Finally on Sunday night, he did something to make my blog more secure from attacks. I prayed it would work because the following day, I was about to have my interview on Smart Passive Income published, and knew I was going to get a flood of traffic! The traffic came and my blog has been safe since then.

One thing he highly recommended, that I didn’t do before, was have constantly make a backup of my blog. I never thought I needed it. What if I lost all my content due to an attack?

He recommended Backup Buddy. It makes a backup of my blog, plugin, widgets, and themes. It’s easy to restore or migrate to a new domain.

It’s a paid plugin but it has given me peace of mind to know everything is safe in case on attack makes me lose everything. It’s worth the investment.

(This is an affiliate product, so I’ll make comission if you buy through my link. However, this is a product I use personally and would recommend.)

W3 Total Cache

Make your blog load faster. Don’t make your readers wait for your blog to load. Highly recommended for blogs of any level.

What’s your favorite plugin?

Would you suggest any new ones for me?

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