Here is the top list of plugins for WordPress that I believe were a must have of 2008. In no particular order:
- Redirection
Redirection is an easy way to create 301 redirections and keep track of 404 errors, it makes it extremely easy to create 301 redirections to posts/pages and outside links, it will automatically add a redirection to a post/page when it's permalink changes, so that you do not loose visitors to a 404 error page. Keeping track of all of the 404 errors your blog spits out is also extremely useful, because it means you can fix broken links and stop visitors from landing on the wrong page.
- Exec-PHP
This plugin allows execution of PHP code in your posts, pages and text widgets. It executes PHP code in the excerpt and the content portion of your posts and pages and restricts execution of PHP code in posts and pages to certain users by using roles and capabilities.
- Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 is a simple, lightweight and flexible contact form. It allows you to create a large amount of contact forms and easily embed them into any post/page. It is very easy to configure and does not have an options page stuffed full with Ajax. I chose this plugin in place of cforms II because it is lightweight. The cforms II plugin has too much junk, for such a small thing. If cforms II wasn't so slow, it would surely take this plugins place.
- WP-DB-Backup
WordPress database backup creates backups of your core WordPress tables as well as other tables of your choice in the same database. You can schedule it to backup your database hourly, twice daily, once daily or weekly. I have it scheduled once daily so that if anything goes kaput I don't have to start from square one. However, it does lack some useful features such as download links, listing, restore, deleting and specific schedule time). I have updated it myself to include some of these features and may release it later on.
- Subscribe To Comments
Subscribe to Comments allows commenters on your blog to check a box before commenting and get e-mail notification of further comments. It is one of the most popular WordPress plugins out there for the simple reason that it helps foster a community around your blog by encouraging commenters to come back and stay engaged in the dialog.
- Lifestream
Lifestream displays your social feeds and photos much like you would see it on many of the social networking sites. It is a good way to let your readers know what and where you are on the web. It can be setup for an unlimited number of feeds, and stores the entire feed history. Best of all it's efficient; it's built on scalable database structures so it won't bog down your website.
- Ajax Edit Comments
Ajax Edit Comments allows users and admins to edit comments on a post. Users can edit their own comments for a limited time, while admins can edit all comments on the fly. It attaches a few links to the bottom of comments to allow admins to edit, de-link, delete and mark as spam without ever having to access the WordPress dashboard.
- Twitter Tools
For all you Twitter freaks out there! Twitter Tools is a plugin that creates a complete integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account. It enables you to archive your tweets, tweet from your WordPress dashboard, create digest blog posts from your tweets and tweet about recent posts automatically.
- ©Feed
This plugin extends your default feed and allows you to add information such as copyright, a digital fingerprint and the IP of the feed reader to eliminate content theft. The feed can be also be supplemented with comments and topic-relevant contributions.
- WP-PostViews
WP-PostViews counts the number of hits each post receives and allows you to display the most popular posts. This plugin is veru helpful for gathering valuable statistics for certain types of posts, so that you know what to write more or less of in the future.
Bull3t's Blog is a next generation web log written by me, Philip Hughes (also known as Bull3t), a first-year college student living in England, aged 17. I write this blog for the sake of doing so, posting about anything I see fit. 
So what now?
You've reached the end of this post. Seeing as you made it this far means you might be interested in the following related articles and resources.27 Comments
February 14th, 2009
#1
That Redirection plugin sounds pretty nice, must go install it. As for the other plugins, some of them I have never seen before.
I still believe a few of the other top 2008 plugins remain the top into 2009, and that would be the All In One SEO Pack, Google XML Sitemaps and CommentLuv.
February 16th, 2009
#2
@Daniel White:
Yeah Redirection is pretty helpful though I don't use it as much as I used to.
Originally I did have all 3 on the list. However I had edited the All In One SEO Pack to suit my own needs and so it was a completely different plugin. CommentLuv I had to uninstall last year as it wasn't working properly and was spamming my blog with error messages (not really sure why, but I haven't tried it since). Lastly, Google XML Sitemaps works perfectly but I just forgot about it, haha.
February 19th, 2009
#3
Thats alsmost the same plugins I use. Still need the All In One SEO Pack. You can't miss it!
February 19th, 2009
#4
I have lost my Wordpress twice now because I was not sure how to update it. I am gonna be getting the back up plugin to help me whenever I upgrade again. Thanks for sharing this.
February 23rd, 2009
#5
@miketoo215:
I schedule it to backup my blog every day so that if something goes wrong I don't lose too much (mostly just comments). Every now and then I download everything from my FTP server as well, I pretty much have everything mirrored on my home computer just in case I need to go back at any time.
March 1st, 2009
#6
I'd add Sociable and Headspace2 to that list. Sociable puts little social bookmark icons under each post. Headspace2 enables fine grained control over your page meta tags.
March 1st, 2009
#7
@doug:
Sociable and Headspace are two very good plugins as well, though I stopped using Sociable because it wasn't being used, I do use my own, customised version of Headspace.
March 2nd, 2009
#8
Been using almost all of them. Just saw the Exec-PHP plugin that you pointed out. I've been meaning to get a PHP-executing plugin for WordPress for ages. It's a great help for code on pages.
March 2nd, 2009
#9
@cealagar:
Yeah Exec-PHP works like a charm. It's not so good for dynamic content on posts – as that's a bad idea (due to SEO, indexing and the likes) – but for pages it's perfect.
March 3rd, 2009
#10
How about the plugin Super Cache? I think its very important if you have a bigger blog and more visitors.
March 4th, 2009
#11
Add all-in-one-seo pack, headspace2, and commentluv/keywordluv/top commentators to the list and everyone will be happy.
For blog monetizing use Adman – works good for my blogs.
March 10th, 2009
#12
nice post, these are really great plugins. I like the twitter one, i'm not sold on the new programs that are coming out for it, but i like the plugin, it really saves me a step. thanks for the tips.
March 23rd, 2009
#13
Redirection shouldn't be a plugin – it should be a legit feature. And pretty basic one at that. I mean it's extremely important to keep track of 404 errors.
March 23rd, 2009
#14
Widget Cache plugin is useful on busy sites. I'm going to start using the Subscribe to Comments plugin right now.
March 28th, 2009
#15
Good list but I would decently add the, All-in-one-seo pack and Sociable, saves a lot of time.
April 17th, 2009
#16
Contact form 7 is a great plugin mostly because of the fact that it's so small and lightweight. It's a plugin that you can install even if you already have too many plugins.
April 28th, 2009
#17
At the moment I am loving the new face book and twitter updater plug ins.
They cut down on time and bring in a lot more traffic to my website.
May 26th, 2009
#18
why do you need the counter for readers of each post? doesnt googles analytical tools do that and more? although i can see some value in displaying the most read on your site for popularity purposes, which is good.
June 10th, 2009
#19
Killer list! I grabbed few missing plugins for my own blogs, and even subscribed to to your RSS feed.. will be checking back for more.
June 13th, 2009
#20
Thanks the WP-DB-Backup will come in handy!
June 17th, 2009
#21
I would add pagenavi and wp-noexternallinks, these plugins are very popular too
June 18th, 2009
#22
Redirection shouldn't be a plugin; it should be a legit feature and so should the all-in-one-seo pack as it saves a lot of time.
July 5th, 2009
#23
I'm using the contact form on my site. I didn't know about the redirection plugin. I'm only doing it manually by coding a redirection script to each and every outgoing link I make. This is a great information and will save me time just using that plugin.
July 18th, 2009
#24
The redirection plugin sounds interesting to me; I'm always looking for ways to redirect my readers without using PHP code inside pages (it's too messy etc.).
August 9th, 2009
#25
You missed some other important plugins that many have mentioned in comments. All In One SEO Pack and Sociable need to be added, they are brilliant.
August 14th, 2009
#26
Nice list. I'm going to have to check the lifestream and redirection plugins out.
January 23rd, 2010
#27
I'm using the contact form on my site. I didn't know about the redirection plugin. I'm only doing it manually by coding a redirection script to each and every outgoing link I make. This is a great information and will save me time just using that plugin.
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