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By Laura Milligan

Shuffling through the thousands of WordPress add-ons and widgets takes up way more time than most bloggers have. To give you a jump start on improving your blog on everything from understanding how to market to your readers to learning new formatting tricks, we’ve generated this list of the 100 most useful WordPress add-ons available so that you can stop searching and start blogging.

Publishing and Formatting

Make your blog easy to read and manage with these super smart formatting hacks.

1. Post Thumb Revisited: Turn your posts into thumbnails for easy display and organization.
2. Exec-PHP: This plugin adds the php code into your posts and widgets.
3. WP Post Icon: To make designing your blog less complicated, use this add-on to pick certain topic icons and images which will be automatically inserted when you write a post.
4. DJ E-mail Publish: This app sends your new post to all of your other blogs via e-mail.
5. Mowser WordPress Mobile: Accommodate your iPhone and BlackBerry readers by installing this plugin, which redirects them to Mowser.com, a site that displays blogs in a mobile friendly format.
6. WP Widget Changer: Set up different widgets for each page without having to change the anchor widget’s code.
7. Collapsible Elements: Use Collapsible Elements to add a button to create a code for multiple collapsible elements.
8. WP CSS Text Stroke: Make your pages easy to read even when text appears ” on a non-uniform coloured background.” Text will show up as black letters on a white background.
9. Raw HTML: Bloggers wanting more control over formatting can use this plugin to any coding method, including raw HTML when writing posts.
10. Google (XML) Sitemaps Generator: If you want a sitemap that works with Google and your WordPress blog, as well as Yahoo! and MSN Search.
11. Advanced Excerpt: Publish excerpts without ruining HTML markup or messing up your formatting.
12. WP-Table: Create functional tables for your WordPress blog with this app without having to manually write in plain text mode or risk messing up your formatting.

Comments and Reader Communication

From feeds to comments, keep in touch with your readers by taking advantage of these applications.

13. Get Recent Comments: Easily view your most recent comments with this app.
14. Add to Any Subscribe Button: Readers using any feed reader will be able to subscribe to your blog easily with this plugin.
15. DeCat: If you want to leave out a post or category from your RSS feeds, hide it with this app.
16. DMS Guestbook: This customizable guest book lets bloggers set hidden text like IP addresses, design their own language templates, set up mandatory fields in the guest book and more.
17. SimplePie 2.1: Manage your feeds by setting up multiple templates, accessing support for several different feeds, automatic set up of cache folders and more.
18. RSS Image Widget: Display images from your posts in RSS feeds with this widget. The SimplePie plugin is required.
19. Top Commentators Widget: Originally designed as the Show Top Commentators plugin at the Personal Financial Advice site, this app has been adapted for all WordPress blogs. You’ll be able to display your blog’s top commentators, which advertises archived posts, encourages readers to comment and more.
20. Comment Sorter: More effectively manage and organize your comments with this add-on.
21. Contact Form 7: This contact form works with AJAX and features spam security from Akismet. Bloggers can also set up multiple contact forms with this app.
22. Vote It Up: Let users vote for or against your posts with this simple add-on.
23. Ajax Comment Posting: This user-friendly Ajax comment app lets readers post comments without having to refresh the page. It also double checks reader’s comments to make sure they filled out the form correctly.
24. Easy Gravatars: Give your readers the opportunity to leave a more personal impression when they comment on your blog. This app allows gravatars to be displayed when readers comment on your posts.
25. Quick SMS: Readers can now get in touch with you via your cell phone when you install this app. Messages are sent directly to your registered mobile device via supported networks all over the world, including the UK, India, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, the U.S. and more.

Understanding Statistics

Get to know your readers and revamp your marketing techniques when you use these apps that collect information about visitor demographics.

26. Official StatCounter Plugin: Features that come with this plugin include an invisible counter option, a configurable counter, search engine wars, keyword analysis and statistical information found on popular entry and exit pages.
27. Feed Master: Feed Master is another app that lets you understand your reader demographics.
28. StatPress: Designed just for WordPress, this app displays information about your readers, so you know which kinds of Web surfers you’re attracting.
29. FeedStats: Find out exactly who your readers are by researching their stats with this button.
30. Googmonify: This marketing tool allows bloggers to add Google AdSense units into your posts as well as give you “accurate” information about your readers’ statistics.
31. WassUp: This real-time plugin features a current visitors online display system and a visitor details view that lets you analyze reader data and stats.
32. Counterize II: This statistics counting add-on has no external libraries, “and can display total hits, unique hits and other statistics in WordPress webpages.”
33. GeneralStats: This plugin “counts the number of users, categories, posts, comments, pages, links, tags, link-categories, words in posts, words in comments and words in pages,” giving bloggers an inclusive look at their reader demographics and an analysis of the blog itself.

Connecting with the Outside Online Community

From photo sites to Facebook, use these add-ons to connect with the outside online community via your WordPress blog.

34. Fu4ny’s Blogroll Widget: Organize your blogroll in XHTML with this widget.
35. Your WordPress Is In My FaceBook: Start blogging through Facebook with this app.
36. WordPress Fotolog Widget: Fotolog users can use this unique widget to display thumbnails of recently added Fotolog photos.
37. Amazon Showcase: Whether you’re selling items on Amazon.com or just want to highlight a particular product, use this widget to display items clearly.
38. MyTwitter: Twitter users can show readers their recent “tweets” on their WordPress blogs with this app.
39. Link Harvest: This smart tool “will go through all of your posts and pages and compile a list of all external links. Then it will create a live updating linkroll for you, based on your actual linking activity.”
40. Blogroll Autolinker: Turn names from your blogroll into links that appear when you write about or refer to the selected author.
41. Sociable: This very simple tool adds links to your posts which connect readers to sites like Facebook, Digg and StumbleUpon.
42. Slashdigglicious: Make it easy for your readers to submit their favorite posts to social bookmarking sites when you install this app.
43. FlickrFaves: Recruit new readers by publishing your favorite Flickr photos on your WordPress blog.
44. jPic WordPress Widget: Use this widget to link to photos you find on the Web.
45. Facebook Comments: Sync up your Facebook comments with your WordPress blog using this plugin.
46. Wordbook: Update your Facebook friends with your most recent WordPress posts. Bloggers can also add posts via Facebook Mini-Feed.

Marketing Add-ons

Use these tools to spread the word about your blog in general or about each of your posts.

47. Digg This: Many bloggers already have this button at the end or beginning of each of their posts. The code for adding it to your blog can be found here.
48. Reddit for WordPress Plugin: Don’t limit your readers to just Digg-ing you; add this Reddit button to improve your ranking on other sites too.
49. Gregarious: Gregarious lets bloggers easily add buttons for different social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit. Bloggers can choose to customize the buttons’ designs and play around with the Share This plugin.
50. Del.icio.us Bookmark This!: Encourage your readers to vote for your posts on Del.icio.us by adding this app.
51. Live Space Sync: WordPress bloggers and Live Spaces users can connect their accounts to update posts on both sites.
52. Bookmarkify: This app is able to connect readers to over 50 social bookmarking sites where they can add your posts and improve your ranking.
53. Email+ from Grouptivity: Get the word out about your blog by adding an “Email this” button after each post.
54. LiveJournal Crossposter: This app automatically updates users’ LiveJournal profiles with their newest WordPress blog posts.
55. Last.FM Events: If you’ve got a gig coming up on Last.FM, advertise to your readers with this widget.
56. WP Tags to Technorati: If you’re tired of coming up with new tags for every bookmarking site and blog directory, use this add-on to automatically create Technorati tags from your posts.

Moneymaking Apps

Monetize your blog by making the most of programs like AdSense and Kontera. These widgets and add-ons will make it easier to manage your funds.

57. AdSense Manager: Add a flexible AdSense widget to your WordPress blog with this plugin. You can easily manage ads and show all your readers that you’re open to displaying their logos and messages…for a price.
58. Kontera Ad Wrap: Manage which pages and parts of your blog display your Kontera ContentLink ads with this app.
59. All in One Adsense and YPN: This open source plugin “is able to automatically insert Google AdSense ads or Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) ads into your posts on the fly.”
60. AdSense Revenue Sharing 1.1: If your blog is run by or written by several different people, use this app to divide up revenue from AdSense profits.
61. Are PayPal: Use PayPal to monetize your blog with this app.
62. Who Sees Ads?: Control which readers can see your ads by using this add-on.
63. AdServe: As WordPress’ official advertising server, AdServe lets users set up banner campaigns and easily track statistics.

Adding Style and Customizable Plugins

Personalize your blog with these simple plugins and widgets that give your pages a fun but sleek look.

64. Countdown Timer: This feature is especially attractive for bloggers tracking weight loss progress or budgeting goals. You can add several different dates to which you’re counting down.
65. bSuite: This set of apps gives bloggers more control over designing their pages “and leverage[s] WP as an application platform.”
66. Image Caption: Titled images will be displayed as a caption when you install this application. Image Caption also supports MyCSS, custom CSS, and automatically formats captions so that they are displayed in the appropriate width and height on your blog.
67. Add Your Own Headers: Design your own headers by background, text, image, and other options. Bloggers can also add tags to the headers with this plugin.
68. Feed Styler: Create a different design for your feeds with this app.
69. File Icons: This add-on displays icons by CSS before links that appear on your blog.
70. WP Vivitiger Image Resizer: Cut and crop images so that they fit into your blog more cohesively.
71. WP Vault: Use this tool to “upload and store any type of files” you want. The Vault also lets bloggers browse files with Ajax, resize images to make them load faster, organize files with tags and more.
72. p2p Converter: Convert posts to pages with this simple add-on.
73. Extension Manager: Manage your blog’s themes and add-ons with this valuable tool. Admins can also easily search their account for different plugins.

Organization

Make the most of WordPress features like categories and archives by supplementing them with the following tools.

74. Extended Live Archive: Organize your past posts with this in-the-works plugin.
75. AddThis Sidebar Widget: Clean up your pages by adding this widget, which “adds the feed subscription and/or social bookmarking buttons from AddThis to your sidebar.”
76. Advanced Category Excluder: Implement CMS-like functionality into your WordPress blog and regain full control over your page organization and category listings.
77. Flexi Pages Widget: This “highly configurable WordPress sidebar widget” lists pages and sub-pages, allowing for easy navigation and organization.
78. Admin Links Widget: Add links to certain administrative functions on your sidebar.
79. No Widget Category Cloud: Organize your categories in a cloud-like format without installing a widget.
80. Cleaner Dashboard: Tidy up your dashboard with this tool, which removes WordPress Nws and gives your sidebar four columns.
81. Smarter Archives: Use a template tag to organize your archives page. Bloggers will see a row for each year and then a link to each month in the above year.
82. Flexo Archives Widget: This expandable archive display lets bloggers display the number of posts written each month and saves room on the page.

Multimedia

Have fun sharing videos, songs and other multimedia favorites with your readers by implementing these add-ons.

83. WordPress Video Plugin: This add-on makes it easy to add videos from sites like YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo! Video, SlideShare, Metacafe and more.
84. IM Online: This add-on shows readers when you’re online so that they can reach you via instant messaging on AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, Skype and more.
85. 1 Bit Audio Player: 1 Bit Audio Player is touted as a “very simple and lightweight Adobe Flash MP3 player with automatic JavaScript insertion.” Readers can listen to previews of music files that you link to in posts.
86. Inline mp3 Player: Connect links to mp3 files to media players that let your readers listen to music easily.
87. XHTML Video Embed: Add Flash content to your blog with this plugin.
88. EasyTube: This add-on “allows Wordpress users to easily embed YouTube and Google Videos using one simple tag.”
89. Viper’s Video Quicktags: This popular add-on makes adding videos from YouTube, Google Video, IFILM, Metacafe, MySpace and Vimeo extremely easy. Users just have to paste the video’s URL into a prompt box.

Security and Spam

Protect your blog from copyright infringement and spammers by installing these WordPress add-ons.

90. ©Feed: Add this plugin to your blog to protect yourself from copyright infringement. You can also search online for writers ripping off your content.
91. Feed Footer: This app lets you add copyright to your feed, HTML to your footer and display ads under blog posts in your RSS feed.
92. Tinfoil Hat: More effectively control how much of your information is sent over the Internet by WordPress.
93. Math Comment Spam Protection: Require your readers to answer a simple math problem in order to ward off comment spammers.
94. Simple Trackback Validation: This security add-on “performs a simple but very effective test on all incoming trackbacks in order to stop trackback spam.”
95. WP-Spam Free: This popular add-on is advertised as “one of the most effective anti-spam plugins for WordPress.” It protects bloggers against automated spam bots without prompting readers to solve math problems or enter in keywords.
96. Chap Secure Login: This privacy application encrypts your admin password when you work over an insecure network.

Miscellaneous

From automatic updates to creative navigation systems, here are more WordPress plugins that will make managing your blog simple and improve reader usability.

97. Plugin Updater: This plugin adds an “update now” button so that you can instantly update all of your WordPress add-ons easily.
98. Redirection: Keep track of 404 errors and maintain “full logs for all redirected URLs.”
99. WordPress Automatic Upgrade: Automatically upgrade your WordPress installation by adding on this tool, which also backs up your database and files.
100. Random Posts Widget: The Random Posts Widget “displays a list of random posts on your widgetized sidebar,” giving your readers a fun way to “channel surf” your blog.