Blogger to WordPress: Ten Must-Have Plugins for the Newbie

How many plugins does it take to run a WordPress blog? Well, more than you’d think, really. And I’ve compiled a list of  ? must-have starter plugins for the Blogger to WordPress newbie. In no particular order:

1. Feedburner Feedsmith – transfers your WordPress feed to your Feedburner feed. Recommended by the Feedburner people themselves.

2. Subscribe2 – allows your readers to sign-up for new posts via email.

3. Google XML Sitemaps Generator - helps your blog get indexed by the search engines. Stop asking questions, and just install it, okay?

4. Smart 404 for WordPress – Y’all know what a 404 page is, right? Your error page? *nods head* Even though you’ve transferred your old posts to your new site, the search engines might still have your old posts listed. And when those no-longer-existing links get clicked on, your readers will land on your error page. And usually, they immediately click off your blog. To keep the traffic incoming, install this plugin and automatically help your readers find the page they were looking for. Simply genius!

5. WPtouch – creates a mobile version of your blog. Love it!

6. WordPress Gravatars – allows you to choose from Gravatars, MyBlogLog, and/or OpenAvatar avatars for your readers. You can also upload a custom avatar to assign to those who don’t yet have one. I use the symbol of the sun for my readers.

7. Gravatar Sign-up Encouragement – this one goes hand-in-hand with the above. Some of your Blogger readers might not know how to get their own avatar. Provide them with a link to the gravatar site in your comment section.

8. WordPress Database Backup – allows you to backup your blog on demand … or schedule it, if you want to.

9. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin - creates a list of similar posts at the bottom of each of your posts. Or you can use the Link Within Plugin. But don’t use both. Can you say, annoying?

10. Sexy Bookmarks by Shareaholic – provides a list of pop-up share icons at the bottom (or top) of your posts and/or pages. Seriously, the list of possible icons is so long, I can’t even tell you. So, choose a few and let your readers promote your posts for you.

Oops, I ran out of numbers. Well, install these first. And then come back soon for more plugin recommendations. Might as well subscribe to my feed too, so that you’ll be the first to know …