Difficult to say without knowing what your intentions are with your blog. for some of my blogs I'm using 35 plugins and I couldn't live with out any Start with these and your well on your way. Adsense-Deluxe Akismet All in One SEO Pack FeedBurner FeedSmith Google Sitemaps Popularity Contest Robots Meta StatTraq (or an other real time analytics program, this one in combination with Google analytics) Subscribe To Comments What Would Seth Godin Do Wordpress Automatic Upgrade WordPress Database Backup wp-cache
I've tried many out, but in the end my conclusion was to keep it simple. I've made a list with my absolutely necessary ones: Check it out here.
The only ones that I find necessary, is All in One SEO, and Widgets. But plug ins have nothing to do with having a successful blog.
Akismet.....it is the only one that I am using currently. Can't imagine what I would do without it....
I agree, keep the front side of you blog as simple as possible. But back-end plugins most certainly have something to do with the popularity of your blog. The 35 plugin blog is a blog that gets most of the visitors from google. Sort of google plugins All in One SEO Pack Category Base Killer Google Analytics for WordPress Google Sitemaps Robots Meta Other back-end for analyzing and optimizing MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer Popularity Contest JAW Popular Posts Widget StatTraq wp-cache Akismet FeedBurner FeedSmith Plugins for a better user experience, so that they come back. Add Sig Aizatto's Related Posts Articles Comment Relish Dofollow Latest From Each Category DD Post Teaser Related Posts Share This Subscribe To Comments What Would Seth Godin Do Besides several design plugins I also have a contact form, a download monitor and a database back-up and a WP upgrade plugin. And still this with all these plugins the blog loading time still stays perfect, there’s nothing wrong with it. This blog is user friendly with a high stickiness and has a high percentage of repeat visits and visitors that are subscribing. PS. I also have “blogs†that only use 10 – 12 plugins but these aren’t really blogs but more launch pages and sales pages. But 10 – 12 plugins is the minimum amount of plugins that I’m using. I guess that my average is about 20 or so.
I keep my simple. I have the remove nofollow and adsense manager. All mine are indexed quickly and I do not have to worry about the problems that come with too many plugins.
Akismet Wordpress Database Backup Plugin FeedSmith Exec PHP Google XML Sitemap The above ones are MUST... then comes All-In-One-SEO Read this one -> http://www.dollarshower.com/your-5-most-essential-wordpress-plugins/
Agree on Google XML Sitemap @ All-In-One-SEO they are vital. Plus some kind of spam protection like Spam karma.
By the way, I released the 'Contact Commenters' plugin last week. This is will be a good addition to analyze commenters' behavior (top, new, inactive, post specific, date rangewise etc) and contact them via email, if needed. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-commenters/
Akismet All in One SEO Pack Google Sitemaps Wordpress Automatic Upgrade WordPress Database Backup wp-cache ( havent tried it myself but every one seems to like it )
Google Sitemap, All in one SEO, WP-Cache are generally essential for the fitness of your blog and then you need the ones that are specific for your peformance design and goal outcome.
IMHO Caffeinated Content (CC) wordpress plugin is one of the best ones. Its a paid one but well worth the money. PM me if you need reviews and more info. -Richard