On hosted WordPress (that’s WordPress.org, not WordPress.com) you can install plugins that add functionality to your site.
This can be to the visible part of the site or the back-office – the content management system (CMS).
Here are a few I have installed and found useful:
All in One SEO Pack
By Michael Torbet. Add search engine optimisation (SEO) to your site overall and to every page and post. You can write a search engine optimised headline, first par and add keywords, including misspellings and alternatives. I’d say this is a must for every site. Use it, once it has shown it works, make a donation.
Latest Posts Widget
By Mrinal Kanti Roy. Enables the post widget in the sidebar of this website, with the featured image, and, if you like, an extract.
Fast Secure Contact Form
By Mike Challis, Ken Carlson. Puts a contact form into a page, so you don’t have to put your email address on the page. The form emails you. Used on our contact page. You may also need to add:
WP-Mail-SMTP
By Callum Macdonald. Adds SMTP (email sending) functionality if your host has disabled that function direct from WordPress because too many sites have been spending automated spam emails.
Pretty Comments
By Andrea Belvedere. Add basic formatting button to your comment box (bold, links etc) enabling people to add detailed, formatted comments
Share Buttons by AddToAny
By AddToAny. Adds the share buttons (Facebook, Twitter, email etc) to your posts and pages – you choose which buttons to show and how big. Showing at the bottom of this post.
Simple Slideshow Manager
By Acurax. Adds the slideshow used to show our magazine covers at the top of the sidebar. Can also slideshow videos, apparently.
WP Edit
By Josh Lobe. Allows you add extra button to you WordPress CMS, such anchors and subscript or superscript. Helps with formatting text.
I have blogged about these paid-for plugins before but here’s a reminder:
Anti-spam by CleanTalk
By Cleantalk. Paid for plug-in that really does stop spam comments. You can probably get away just using Akismet for a while but if your site gets popular then it will attract more spam until you need a decent way of stopping it. This does it.
Associated Posts Pro
By Dennis Hoppe. Enables you to add certain posts to other pages, either by author or by category.