Huge shout out to Nolie who, again, has given you guys a fantastic guest post. I use some of these plugins myself on one blog or the other (or both!).
~ Alyna

So obviously this post is geared towards those of you using WordPress since Blogger doesn’t have plugins. Yet another reason to go with WordPress Thousands of handy little plugins that do the work for you. I am going to share with you the ones that I use and work well for me. Some of them are actually considered mandatory by many bloggers out there.

• Akismet - This plugin actually comes already uploaded when you install WordPress and it is there for a good reason. It will actually monitor comments and filter out spam for you into another folder. Then you can go in and mark those that aren’t spam and the rest you can delete with the click of one button. Huge time saver and if you don’t moderate your comments it will keep them from appearing anyways until you deem them not spam.

• CommentLuv – CommentLuv is great for your commenters. It allows them to include the title of their last blog post with a link to it whenever they leave a comment. It’s a great little way for them to get a little bit of traffic to their site while not advertising in their comments. I have been known to be posting a comment somewhere that has this enabled and see an interesting title by another commenter and go on over to visit them. Fantastic for finding new sites to read.

• Comment Reply Notification – I love this plugin. I am always running across the great debate of should you e-mail your reply to those who have left a comment or should you reply on your blog. Now be honest. How many of you actually remember where you have left comments AND go back to check for a reply. I know I usually don’t. So if you e-mail the commenter instead it then looks to other readers like you don’t reply to their comments. With this plugin you set it up so that the commenter will only get an e-mail when the author has replied to their comment. Then whenever you reply to a comment they will get an e-mail showing them their comment, your reply and a link so that they can come back and carry on the discussion if they want to.

• FeedBurner Feedsmith - This one I can’t link to on the plugin site as I can’t find it. You will see it to download when you are setting up your feed at FeedBurner. The plugin will find all feeds for your site and direct them to your FeedBurner feed. This way everyone is subscribing to the same feed, you get  more accurate stats and it will be easier to move your feed subscribers should you ever move your site.

• LinkWithin – Can be used on Blogger as well. It is a great way to breathe new life into old posts. It will display posts related to the one that you reader is reading. I am sure you have seen this in use on many other blogs. Another popular alternative is  Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

• Maintenance Mode – I love this plugin. Anytime I am making any major changes or upgrades to my site I can click a button to put it in maintenance mode. I am also able to specify a time the site will return to normal. The reader will see a splash page stating when the site will be back to normal. This allows me to make changes to my site without worrying about a reader seeing it mid mess.

• Subscription Options – Allows you to create one widget where you can insert all the ways your reader can subscribe. It then puts up little icons on your site for you and you don’t need to worry about making cute little buttons. You can see this in action on my site.

• Twitterlink Comments – Adds an extra field in your comment form so that the commenter can leave the twitter ID. The default set up with this plugin I did not like but with a little coding you can have it set up to look just like all the other entry fields.

• WordPress Database Backup – Do I really need to say more? Super simple to use. You can also set it up to automatically back-up your database and e-mail it to you daily. This is how I have mine set up. Then I use a filter in my g-mail to mark it as read, label it and archive it. I never have to see it but I get peace of mind knowing I always have a back-up.

• WordPress Optimize – Cleans up and optimizes your database. The other thing I love about this plugin is WordPress saves every post each time you edit it. There are times I have had 15 copies of a post. With one click this will clean up all saved archives and only keep the most recent.

• WPtouch iPhone Theme – I saved the best for last. Please I beg you install this plugin or something similar. When I am out and about I will read blogs from my phone. With this plugin it detects if someone is visiting my site from a mobile device and will automatically show them a mobile version of my site. It’s beautiful. Quick to load and the reader is able to quickly see what matters most…. your content.

I do have quite a few more plugins than this. However these are the ones I highly recommend and find very useful for every blog. I hope I have been able to help you and introduce you to a few new handy ones. If you need any help getting any of these working don’t be shy. Send me a message and I will be happy to help.

Want more Nolie? Hit that pretty little button you see below! Nolie blogs about all sorts of things and she keeps it real so you are sure to find a post you can relate to over at Nolie’s Place! Oh, and when she says “don’t be shy”, she means it! Nolie is super nice and always is ready to lend a hand to a fellow blogger. Now, thank her by leaving her a comment here and then go check out her blog!
~ Alyna