Sarah's Faves

New to blogging or just don’t have time to stay up-to-date on the best WordPress plugins? No problem. That’s what I’m here to help with. These are my personal top five favorite WordPress plugins. Use them to make your blog a bit “better, faster, stronger…” Please excuse my Kanye moment.

Featured Articles LITE

What does it do? It’s a slideshow plugin allows you to create sliders in your blog pages. I use it. Just look up above.

Why do you need it? You don’t “need” this plug in, but it makes your blog appear more news focused and offers more life to older blog posts. You can set it up to feature the most viewed posts at a given time or highlight the newest posts. You can also feature pages or specific posts you want to have priority.

Get it: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/featured-articles-lite/

Twitter Blackbird Pie

What does it do? Makes embedding a tweet in your post as easy as pie and makes all links in tweets “clickable.” All you need is the tweet link and you’re set.

Why do you need it? If you’ve ever shared a screenshot of a tweet as part of your story, then you need this. No more taking a screenshot and uploading an image. Simply copy the tweet’s origin link and paste into your blog post. [see below]

Get it: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-blackbird-pie/

Digg Digg

What does it do? Adds a floating bar with share buttons to your blog (like Mashable). It automatically ppears on the left hand side of your posts when someone visits a specific post, but you can customize it. The bar includes Twitter, Buffer, Facebook Share, Facebook Like, Digg, LinkedIn, Google +1, Reddit, dZone, TweetMeme, Topsy, Yahoo Buzz, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Sphinn, Designbump, WebBlend, BlogEngage and Serpd, Pinterest. Whew!

Why do you need it? It makes your blog look more “socially credible” and is an aesthetically pleasing reminder for people to share with their social networks.

Get it: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/digg-digg/

JetPack

What does it do? It’s is an official WordPress.com plug-in that gives your self-hosted WordPress blog a lot of extra features. Includes visitor stats, social media sharing options, and After The Deadline, a grammar and spell checker.

Why do you need it? Just do it. You can thank me later (see below).

Get it: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jetpack/

Thank Me Later

What does it do? Automatically sends a thank you email to first time commenters.

Why do you need it? It’s nice to thank people for taking the time to interact with you. Yes, even those who don’t agree with you. Craft a personal message of thanks for your readers.

Get it: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/thank-me-later/

photo credit: Vicki’s Pics via photopin cc