Plugins are very important on a WordPress blog. Plugins make life so much easier for us bloggers but at the same time I guess you could say it can make life a lot more hectic.

The problem with plugins is simply that, there are so many of them. There are literally thousands of plugins out there and more and more are being made everyday. So one might begin to ask the question….

“Which plugins should I use and which plugins should I ignore completely?“

It all really comes down to what type of blog you have. For example, if you are blogging about being a millionaire and making money online by the boat loads, then you might consider using plugins that are going to help you acheive your goals. However, if you are blogging about fashion then you may want some plugins that are going to make your blog look fancy or something along those lines.

After All that being considered though, there are a few plugins that I feel that everyone could benefit from.

Now I know ten isn’t nearly enough as there are so many plugins out there but I’ll try to do the best to give you my best recommendations. The following are no particular order.

1. AdSense Deluxe - If you are looking for an easy way to put some ads up on your blog, then the AdSense Deluxe plugin could benefit you greatly. The purpose of this plugin is to allow you to easyily implement AdSense into your posts. This plugin could be very helpful to those who are not as tech savy, or do not want to go through the trouble of editing code. Another neat feature of this plugin is that you can basically use it for advertising with any company outside of AdSense. All you got to do is post the code in the box just like you would if it was AdSense. This is a very neat plugin for those who are getting started with monetizing their website early. I highly recommend the AdSense Delux Plugin.
2. All In One SEO - This plugin is aided to help those that are not very knowledgeable in SEO optimization on their blog. The plugin can be set to automatically take care of the SEO on your blog posts. If your not familiar with SEO, then this plugin is definitely a must. The plugin will insert tags, descriptions, and keywords in your posts so you do not have to.
3. Askimet - Once a blog begins to get attention and become popular it will receive a lot of spam. This plugin is great for limiting that spam so you don’t get millions of people trying to get free links from your blog. Askimet is activated when you first get WordPress so everyone should have it. Once you activate it, be sure to enter your WordPress API code.
4. Comment Luv - Comments are what makes a blog, a blog. Without comments you have no interaction with your readers. Without comments you will never be able to fully communicate with your readers. Comment Luv is a wonderful plugin that aids in getting your readers to comment on your blog. It adds a little caption at the end of a readers comment that displays their last blog post as well as a link to it. When people see that your blog has this plugin, they will surely be more likely to comment.
5. OIO Publisher - OIO Publisher is a very unique plugin. It’s designed to fully automate all of your private ad sales on your blog. This means that you no longer have to send emails and set up deals. This plugin simply does all that for you. If your serious about making money on your blog then this plugin is definitely a wise choice. The only downside to it is that, it costs $37 dollars to fully use this plugin. I’m sure though that anyone who has paid for this plugin will easily make that money back no problem. If you do decide to buy this plugin, it also offers an affiliate program and a great community. I also have heard rumors that the creator, Simon, is up to a top secret project. Keep a look out for more information on that.
6. Cforms - Having a contact form is a very easy way for you to let your readers contact you for any questions they might have. Cforms allows you to easily create forms that can be placed on your pages. If you check out my Contact Page you will see an example of this. Cfroms does all this for you, so you do not have to.
7. Google XML Sitemaps - This plugin creates a XML- site map for your blog. This will allow crawlers to easily scan your recent posts. The idea is to aid the crawler, so that it can more efficiently manage your blog. A Sitemap is a must have for SEO purposes. If you do not have this plugin, get it right now!
8. Top Commentor Widget - People love to comment on blogs and if you give them something for doing it, they will comment even more. The Top Commentor plugin will display a widget on your blog that lists the top commentors on your blog. The widget will show their name and a link back to their blog. This is a another good plugin that encourages readers to comment.
9. Related post plugin - This plugin will display a list of related posts about the current post that is being viewed. It will display a box at the end of your post with a few other entries. This plugin is great for getting people to read your older posts. It works so well because it shows posts that are related to the one that is currently being viewed.
10. WP-Notable - This plugin will display a series of social media bookmarking sites at the end of your blog posts. This plugin is ideal for easily getting your readers to submit your posts and driving extreme amounts of traffic to your website. If this is what you would like to do with your blog then I highly recommend this plugin. Social networks are a very powerful tool for promoting your content. Do not let this slip your mind.

Whew.. that was a lot of typing. That is my list of “Ten WordPress plugin Recommendations” that everyone should consider using, no matter what type of blog you have.

I’m sure there are many plugins that I missed, as there is no way I could list them all. If there are any that you would like to add to the list then please do.

What plugins for WordPress do you reccomend?