1. Askimet

Askimet is the plugin for combating comment spam on WordPress blog. It scans your comments and check with their server to determine if that comment is legitimate or spam. If it is spam, it will send to the spam folder and never publish it on the frontend. This is one of the plugin that is going to save you ton of time.

The Askimet plugin comes with the default installation of WordPress. All you have to do is to go to the Plugins section to activate it. You will also need to register an account with WordPress.com to obtain the API key.

Related reading: 5 Ways To Reduce Comment Spam On WordPress Blogs

2. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a tracking software that monitors your site’s traffic, visitors behavior and the performance of your site. It is free to use the service, but you need to setup an account at Google Analytics site and insert the tracking code into your site.

Personally, I would prefer to hard code the Google analytics tracking code into the WordPress theme file to reduce server overhead. However for those who are not proficient in coding, the best way to insert the tracking code is via a Google Analytics plugin. The best one that I have used before is Google Analytics for WordPress. It is simple to use, yet highly configurable for advanced users.

3. XML Sitemap

Your XML sitemap is the tool that help Google to index your site faster. Unless you don’t want to be friends with the big G, the XML sitemap is an absolute must. In WordPress, you can use the Google Sitemap Generator plugin to auto-generate a new XML sitemap whenever you update your blog. In addition, the sitemap generator plugin notifies Google, Yahoo and Bing when a new sitemap is created.

4. Backup Database Manager

Whatever you do on your computer, be it online or offline, you must always remember to backup. Similarly, in WordPress, it is a must for you to regularly backup your database.

Two backup plugins that I strongly recommend are WP-DB-backup and WP-DB manager. WP-DB-Backup is simple to use. You can backup your database and download to your computer or schedule it to run a backup on a regular basis. On the other hand, WP-DB manager comes with more database optimization option, but it can be an overkill for those who have no use for these functions.

Related reading: 8 Useful Tricks To Clean Up & Streamline Your WordPress Database

5. Login Lockdown

Login Lockdown is a security plugin that prevents people from hacking into your account via the brute force password discovery method.

Note: Installing Login Lockdown doesn’t mean your WP site is completely secured. You shouldn’t neglect other form of security measure too.

Related reading: 11 Ways To Secure Your WordPress Blog

6. Contact Form

While WordPress is a great CMS for blogging, it doesn’t come with a built-in contact form that you can use out of the box. Personally, I would prefer Contact Form 7 or MM Forms Community (a derivative plugin from Contact Form 7). Contact Form 7 is much easier to use, but MM Forms Community comes with the option to save the contact form result to database.

Another contact form plugin that you can consider is cforms II. It is a versatile form generator that can be used for many purposes, including contact form, tell a friend form, feedback form etc.

Note: If you are looking for the best form generator plugin and have some money to spare, then Gravity Forms is the absolute best.

7. Platinum SEO Pack

As its name implies, Platinum SEO Pack help you to take care of your SEO matters so that you just have to focus on the writing. This plugin will help you to rewrite your title in the most suitable way for Google to index. You can also insert/edit your own title and keywords.

Note: Once again, if you value quality and have some money to spare each month, I strongly encourage the use of Scribe SEO plugin which will bring your writing and SEO to a whole new level.

8. W3 Total Cache

I have discussed in length about the importance of W3 total cache to aid in the performance of your site. If you want to have a stable site that loads very fast, you must install W3 Total Cache plugin. One thing though, the configuration can be rather technical. Consider yourself warned.

9. WpTouch

As mobile device getting more and more popular, implementing a mobile theme (a WordPress theme that is optimized for the mobile devices) is a must. The best way to implement it without having to touch a single code is via the WP Touch plugin.

Did I miss out anything?

PS: Don’t forget to check out our WordPress section for tons of WordPress tips/tricks

Image credit: smemon87

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All blog owners will know that images play an important part in a blog post. In Make Tech Easier, we love to use plenty of screenshots to make the tutorial clearer and easier to understand. However, there is one problem with this. The more images you have, the slower the site loads and utilizes more bandwidth. In addition, as we have outsourced our images hosting to Amazon S3, the higher bandwidth also translates to higher cost.

A good solution to this is to load your images on demand, or what is most commonly known as lazy loading.

Lazy loader is a jQuery plugin that delays the loading of images in (long) web pages. Images outside of viewport (visible part of web page) wont be loaded until user scrolls to them. For sites that use plenty of images, lazy load can make the page loads faster and also help to reduce server load (and cost).

To avoid going into the technical detail, let us look at the (simplest) ways that you can integrate this into your WordPress blog.

1. jQuery Image Lazy Loader

Without a doubt, plugin is the way to simplify stuff in WordPress. jQuery Image Lazy Loader is one such plugin that integrate the lazy load feature into your site.

There are no configuration required. All you need to do is to install the plugin and activate it.

Once activated, the lazy load script will work on all pages of the site.

2. Lazy Loader

Lazy Loader is another plugin that integrates the lazy load feature into your site. The difference is, it is configurable. The Lazy Loader plugin is not available in the WordPress repository, so you have to go to the developer’s website and download it (which also means you won’t be able to install it directly from your WordPress dashboard).

Once you have downloaded, installed and activated it, you can go to “Settings -> Lazy Loader” section to configure the plugin.

Options available include inserting the lazy load script on all pages, home page, posts, pages, category etc. You can also set the threshold limit (the number of images to load below the viewport) to avoid a lag in the image loading.

Other options include the loading effects and using your own placeholder image.

Conclusion

Lazy loading is a good way to reduce your site bandwidth, improve the page’s loading time and overall performance. If you just want a plug and play solution, jQuery Image Lazy Loader is the one to go for. If you want to have more control, then the Lazy Loader plugin is a better choice.

Lastly, for those who are proficient enough, you may want to check out the lazy load project for deep integration into your site.

Image credit: takamorry

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1. Front-end Editor

The Front-end Editor plugin allows you to make changes without having to go to the WordPress built-in editor. It’s a great tool if you have already created and published your blog and just want to make quick edits. It’s great for making edits that do not require any significant changes. However, it’s not really a standalone-type of editor. It’s more to use alongside another one. It doesn’t have any additional features to add to the WordPress built-in editor, but it is nice to have something that doesn’t require you to go to the WordPress administrative area.

2. TinyMCE Advanced

The TinyMCE Advanced plugin adds 16 buttons to the WordPress built-in editor. One of the great things about it is that it’s easy to drag-and-drag the buttons in and out of the window. Therefore, you are able to choose what buttons to have accessible to you when creating or editing a post. You are also able to add your current theme’s CSS stylesheet, so you are able to visualize how the post will look like when you are done.

3.  Dean’s FCKEditor For WordPress

Dean’s FCKEditor For WordPress plugin enhances your WordPress built-in editor by providing desktop-word-processing-type of editor. Out of all the editors, this one has the most functionality. Other than the basic word processing features: formatting, styles, find/replace, printing, etc, it comes with a built-in file and upload manager. In addition, it integrates well with the WordPress default media manager and also allows you to insert flash movie and smiley icons into your post.

The plugin also provides you three templates that help in creating your blog posts. It’s definitely worth looking at, if you don’t want to download a desktop blog editor.

4.  WP Super Edit

Just like the above-mentioned plugins, the WP Super Edit plugin allows you to add plenty of additional functionality to your default text editor. Like TinyMCE Advacned, it allows you to add extra buttons (and hence more functionality) to your toolbar. What is more important is that it provides a way for you to arrange your toolbar according to the user role. Now, you can restrict your subscriber or contributor to only a limited set of toolbar while the author or users with higher level of permission to access to the full range of functionality.

In addition, there are also a whole lot of useful HTML tags (like DIV, STYLE, TABLE etc) that you can use in your post. This is particularly useful for coders/developers.

WP Super Edit allows bloggers to control the editor better than the other two. Additionally, it has more features than the other two. However, it can be tedious adding buttons and arranging them in a way that makes sense. It would be easier if they start with all the buttons, and allow users to remove the ones they do not need.

5. Custom TinyMCE

The Custom TinyMCE plugin provides the same type of functionality as the WP Super Edit and TinyMCE Advanced plugins.  However, it lacks the flexibility that the latter provides bloggers. You are able to go into the administrative panel and check the check boxes of the buttons you would like to appear in the your editor. It’s much easier to navigate in that aspect.

However, if you choose the majority or all of the buttons, instead of going to two or more lines, they are just kept in one line. This causes a visual problem because you will have to search for the functionality you are seeking. Furthermore, it also disappears behind the sidebar. It’s a good plugin if you want to add a couple of more buttons to your editor. If you want to add more than that, then this plugin is not for you.

What other WordPress plugins do you use to enhance your text-editor?

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1. Co-Authors Plus

Co-Authors Plus allows a blogging team to assign a blog post (or even a page) to more than one author. It has a search-as-you-type input box that makes it easier to find the authors. This is a great tool because you do not have to know how to write their full name. After installing the plugin, you use template tags to allow the listing of the multiple authors. These are the allowed template tags:

• coauthors()
• coauthors_posts_links()
• coauthors_firstnames()
• coauthors_lastnames()
• coauthors_nicknames()
• coauthors_links()
• coauthors_IDs()

These posts will appear on the authors’ posts and feeds. It’s great because it provides blogging teams with many authors to have an easier way to find the desired authors. However, it’s a little difficult for people who do not know how to code.

To find out more information or download the Co-Authors Plus plugin, please visit: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/co-authors-plus/

2. WT Co-Authors

WT Co-Authors allows multiple authors in a different way than the previous plugin. It uses WordPress custom fields to show more than one authors. The custom name field to use is “coauthor.” The value will be the user’s name. There is no maximum in the amount of authors used. You have to ensure that the WordPress theme that you are using has “the_author()” function. If it doesn’t, you will have to manually add

if(function_exists(wt_the_coauthors_link)):
wt_the_coauthors_link();
endif;

It’s an easier way to show collaboration; however, it does not fully use the WordPress role functionality, so Administrators and/or Editors can assign Authors to one blog post.

To find out more information or download the WT Co-Authors plugin, please visit: http://anime2.kokidokom.net/all-team-blogs-attention-the-ultimate-mega-super-awesome-co-authors-plugin-is-here/

3. SP Authors

SP Authors provides a simple way of allowing multiple authors to be assigned to a blog post (or a page). After installing the plugin, you will se a new area that provides a way to manually enter the author’s name. It also has a drop-down menu of all the authors, if you are not sure how to spell their names. Another great feature is if you place the short code [sp-authors], you are able to show a list of the particular’s authors links of other blog posts that he/she has written.

SP Authors is the simplest plugin to use to collaborate among multiple authors in a single blog post. However, the drop-down menu might be overwhelming if you have many authors.

To find out more information or download the SP Authors plugin, please visit: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sp-authors/

If you have a blogging team, one of these plugins will really give you the flexibility of allowing multiple authors to colloborate on a single blog posts. This is especially useful in a complex post that allows you to assign different sections to various authors.

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