I have complied a list of essential WordPress Plugins and services to get your blog up and running. I highly recommend them all as I have personally used them and have had no issues with them. This list shall be updated as I discover and test new tools.
Discussion Tools
- Contact Form 7
Simple but flexible contact form.
- Action Comments
Action comments is a great way to quickly build your email list. It gives your commenters the option to opt-in to your list
- DISQUS Comment System
Highly recommended comment system hosted and powered by DISQUS.
Email Marketing
- Aweber
Send email newsletters and autoresponders with ease.
- Opt-In Form
Customize your own opt-in box for your blog.
Feedback Tools
- SurveyGizmo
The SurveyGizmo WordPress plugin lets you access and monitor your SurveyGizmo.com surveys remotely
- WP-Polls
Run a poll on your blog with WP-Polls
Mobile Tools
- WordPress for BlackBerry
Create, Modify and Publish your blog posts on the go
Membership Site
- WishList Member
Turn your WordPress blog into a membership site.
Optimize Your Blog
- WP Super Cache
Reduce you page loading times by applying this cache plugin.
Share Your Discoveries
- TweetMeme Retweet Button
This plugin adds a button on your page which lets readers to retweet your blog post
- Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button
Help readers share, bookmark, and email your posts and pages using any service.
- TwitterFeed
Automatically feed your latest blog posts to Twitter.
SEO Tools
- All in One SEO Pack
A complete SEO package for your blog (Highly Recommended).
- Google XML Sitemaps
Once installed this plugin alerts search engines of changes to your blog by generating XML sitemaps (Highly Recommended).
Statistics Tools
- Google Analytics for WordPress
If you are keen on your blog stats, conversion rates and more, then this plugin will do just that.
- WordPress.com Stats
Another great stats plugin for on-the-go results. It tracks post/page views, referrers, and clicks
- TwitterStats
TwitterStats is a great way to graph your twitter activities such Tweets by hour, Tweets by month, Tweet timeline, reply statistics and more
Social Networking Tools
- Twitter for WordPress
This plugin allows blog readers to view your recent tweets.
- Flickr Photo Album
Bring Flickr pictures to your blog
Task Management
- Remember The Milk
Remember the Milk is a fantastic tool for task management and to manage your to do list
Protect Your Data
- WordPress Database Backup
On-demand backup of your WordPress database (Highly Recommended)
Utilities
- Exclude Pages from Navigation
Great tool to exclude private pages from you navigation.
- WP Greet Box
A smart plugin that displays a customised welcome message to your visitors based on the site they are coming from.
- Contextual Related Posts
Display contextually related posts within your page.
Video Tools
- Vimeo for WordPress
Add vimeo videos by selecting the video from the drop down lists or adding the URL of the vimeo video’s page in the box
