Tell Me Your WordPress 2.7 Must Haves, Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

31 Jan

Dear WordPress Nation,

I need your help. I pour through the WP Themes and WP Plugins listings looking for the best of breed, but there is something missing … opinion based on informed experience. In other words, you.

So, based solely on your own experience, add a comment to this thread which includes the following:

  1. Name of your #1 must-have plugin.
  2. Link to said plugin.
  3. In a nod to Twitter (sort of) tell me why you cannot live without the aforementioned plugin in 140 WORDS (not characters, hence the “sort of”) or less.

This contest will run through February 15th at midnight. By February 22nd, I will select one winner who will receive a $50 Amazon Gift Card. Easy-peezy, no?

A few parameters for you …

  1. I know and use many of the most common and popular plugins for SEO, Twitter and the like. So, I am really looking for something out-of-the-ordinary. If it makes me go “Hmmm, I never thought I’d want that on my blog, but now I MUST have it!” … you have a good chance of winning.
  2. You cannot be the author of the plugin. No SPAM or shills please.
  3. Themes will be considered as well, but they better be pretty special to win.
  4. All Plugins or Themes must currently work with WordPress 2.7.
  5. You can only list one plugin/theme in one comment. Multiple entries in any form will be disqualified.
  6. Be sure to provide your email in the comment so I can contact you if you win. I promise not to SPAM you.

So there you have it. Knock my socks off, if not my pants (though no one really wants to see the latter but my wife). ;^D

Peace,

Doug

24 Responses to “Tell Me Your WordPress 2.7 Must Haves, Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card!”

  1. John Hawkins 01. Feb, 2009 at 2:23 pm #

    1) No Comments On Pages
    2) http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/no-comments-on-pages/
    3) Your “about” and “contact” page is no place for people to be leaving comments. This plugin removes the ability for people to comment on static pages without you having to manually edit the theme. Of course, people can still leave comments on your blog posts.

  2. Julie 03. Feb, 2009 at 11:31 am #

    1. Comment Luv
    2. http://www.commentluv.com/
    3. Give back to your blog readers/commentors by showing their last blog post within their comment. See it in action:http://spedr.com/5pe2h

  3. Doug Daulton 03. Feb, 2009 at 7:39 pm #

    Thanks John and Jules!

  4. Jason Peck 04. Feb, 2009 at 2:37 am #

    Platinum SEO – beats the pants off the old All in One SEO Pack!

  5. Owen 04. Feb, 2009 at 2:48 am #

    I’m going with the AdMints Theme at: http://freshpressthemes.com/blog/wordpress-theme-optimized-for-advertisements/

    Reason: It’s a cute theme which is easily customisable and well written. I’m using it on my personal blog ( http://www.cutajar.net/owen ) and quite like the colours and readability. I’m less fussed about the SEO and easy advertising features but particularly like the styling, especially around the menus and search box. The multiple page templates are useful too.

  6. Doug Daulton 04. Feb, 2009 at 4:26 am #

    Owen and Jason,

    Thanks for your submissions. Jason, could you please provide a link to the plugin?

    Doug

  7. Dawn 04. Feb, 2009 at 5:22 am #

    Post within “pages”. (short and simple, eh)

  8. Doug Daulton 05. Feb, 2009 at 9:39 am #

    Dawn – Please provide a link! Doug

  9. Geoff Manning 12. Feb, 2009 at 5:00 am #

    1. Redirection
    2. http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/
    3. It automatically creates 301 redirects for you if you change the post/page slug, the category or the page parentage of your wp pages/posts. You can manually enter 301 redirects for your own purposes. Must have!

  10. Robert F. Ludwick 12. Feb, 2009 at 5:07 am #

    Lightbox 2

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/lightbox-2/

    Being able to use a nice in-page popup JS window to view all of the photos in one post if really nice. It just autodetects all of the photos and includes them in its virtual slideshow. I’ve seen NextGEN Gallery but it also formats the photos in the post itself. Lightbox only gives you the gallery which means you can format the post as you please.

  11. Doug Daulton 17. Feb, 2009 at 4:50 pm #

    Folks,

    Because I was down sick all last week, I am extending the contest through this Friday, February 22nd. Will pick the winner by Sunday, February 24th!

    Thanks,

    Doug

  12. Anthony Richardson 18. Feb, 2009 at 6:30 am #

    1. Tweet This
    2. http://richardxthripp.thripp.com/
    3. Not only does this app allow users to spread some love about awesome blog posts to their twitter network, it also converts a lot of new readers into twitter followers, which then become future readers, and the cycle begins.

    Must. Have.

  13. Jenn 18. Feb, 2009 at 6:56 am #

    My #1 must-have WordPress plugin is Theme Test Drive. It’s just what it sounds like: the administrator (and optionally, registered users above a level # that you specify) can test out a new theme live, while everyone else still sees the prior theme.

    I love this plugin because it sometimes takes me several days to finalize all of the details of a theme. With this plugin I can work at my leisure, seeing my progress as I go, while everyone else still sees whatever theme I had up prior, so they don’t run into any weird quirks, bugs or styling issues, or see the new theme before I’m ready for them to see it. ;)

  14. Doug Daulton 18. Feb, 2009 at 6:57 am #

    Thanks for your submission Anthony!

  15. Tom Justin 18. Feb, 2009 at 7:19 am #

    After much research, we’re just getting started with a membership plug-in that is amazingly full featured. It’s called Wishlist (a strange name) created by Stu McLaren and Tracey Childers .

    It’s not a monthly purchase but a one time. Unlimited numbers of sites for less than $300 and a single license $97. http://budurl.com/WL09 – Yes, that is my affiliate link. Feel free to bypass me (but why? : ( and go right to http://www.wpwishlist.com/products/)

  16. eve 18. Feb, 2009 at 7:23 am #

    1. Theme Test Drive
    2. http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wordpress-plugins/theme-test-drive
    3. You can test/work on theme as admin, hidden from guests not go live till complete. You can also install new theme from admin w/ zip URL only

    LOVE IT!
    Eve

  17. Doug Daulton 18. Feb, 2009 at 8:57 am #

    Thanks Tom!

  18. Walter Morciglio 19. Feb, 2009 at 8:13 am #

    1. Audio Plugin Player
    2. http://www.1pixelout.net/code/audio-player-wordpress-plugin/
    3. Its great to share songs in your blog with friends and blogger’s. For me it was really cool because i did a blog project writing a song a day and it was very easy to setup daily with the new songs.

  19. Doug Daulton 19. Feb, 2009 at 5:42 pm #

    Thanks Walter! Good to see you at #bnblv tonight.

  20. Doug Daulton 20. Feb, 2009 at 7:19 am #

    Thanks to Eve and Jenn for “Theme Test Drive” submission.

  21. Doug Daulton 23. Feb, 2009 at 4:11 am #

    Congrats to Geoff Manning who pointed me at Redirection! That plugin is going to prove IMMENSELY useful as I migrate my original blog to 4 or 5 subject-specific blogs. So, Geoff wins the $50 Amazon gift card!

    Thanks to everyone who submitted entries. THis had a great result, so look for me to do something similar in the future.

    Doug

  22. John Hawkins 23. Feb, 2009 at 4:28 am #

    Congrats Geoff!

    I couldn’t agree more with the choice for a winner (other than being selfish and wanting to win, of course). I checked out Redirection and can definitely see how it would be useful to anybody migrating to WordPress.

  23. Geoff Manning 24. Feb, 2009 at 3:23 am #

    Thanks Doug!

    And thanks John for tweeting the contest (I am @cprpoker)!

    Glad you liked the plugin!

  24. Matt Sweeny 04. May, 2009 at 7:29 am #

    Too bad the redirection plugin does not work with WP 2.7!

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