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My Favorite WordPress Plugins: Part 1

July 18, 2011 By FV Sophia 24 Comments

Recently I did a post on what a newbie should know before going plugin crazy. Now that I’ve shaken you up, scared you and made you all skittish, I’m going to entice you to throw caution to the wind and tell you about a few of my favorite free WordPress plugins. Keep in mind, plugins sometimes don’t get along and they can conflict with each other or even disagree with your template. Use caution and DO NOT create voodoo dolls in my likeness if it all goes to hell in a hand basket.

My very favorite and most useful plugin I’ve found to date is Pick Giveaway Winner. This plugin quickly and easily selects winners for your giveaway post and gives you a few useful options.

  • Select your giveaway post from the drop down menu
  • Select how many winners
  • Decide if you’d like to allow multiple entries
  • Click and let the magic happen
Your results will pop up with the winners name as they entered it into the comments along with the email address they used. Easy-peasy, no need for numbered comments or long, treacherous trips to Random.Org. You do it all from your WordPress Dashboard.
Download it at the WordPress Plugin Directory, or visit the developers website.

 

 

The next plugin I’d like to feature today is Advanced Spoiler.

This is a very cool plugin that hides text or images in your blog post. It even hides the spoiler when your post is viewed in a feed reader. Go ahead, try it out.

Show Spoiler »

Download from the WordPress Directory, or visit the developers website. (Note: This is one of those plugins that has not been updated in a while. I am cautious of plugins that are not well maintained but this is a very useful plugin and as of this post date, I have not had any issues with it.)
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The last plugin I’d like to tell you about today is Subscribe To Comments Reloaded.
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This plugin allows blog readers to subscribe to the comments on each post, and you can even subscribe without commenting. I think this is one of the most popular features on the blog as we have several subscribers with each post.
Download from the WordPress Directory, or visit the developers website.
Ok, that’s all for today. Go forth and enhance that blog! In the next week or two I will be telling you about a couple of my favorite premium plugins.
Filed Under: Feature, General Updates Tagged With: , ,
About FV Sophia

Sophia founded Fiction Vixen in 2009. She loves urban fantasy, paranormal, historical and contemporary romance. She is a wife, mom, coffee drinker, iPhone addict, Kindle lover, and a bunch of other stuff too. Most importantly, she's a firm believer in Happy Ever After. Find Sophia on Twitter || GoodReads || Facebook

Comments

  1. Mandi says:
    July 18, 2011 at 6:15 am

    I love both of these!!!

    Reply
  2. A Buckeye Girl Reads says:
    July 18, 2011 at 6:17 am

    I wish blogger or rather google blogs had that feature!

    Reply
  3. tori says:
    July 18, 2011 at 8:06 am

    Your a WP guru now. Someday I’ll switch-then I will be sobbing to you in emails begging for help every 10 minutes. :P

    Reply
  4. Karen says:
    July 18, 2011 at 8:19 am

    I keep waffling about moving to WP. I keep hoping that if I just wait out all this Google madness it will be great. Fingers crossed – if not I will be back and using all your tips.

    Reply
  5. MinnChica says:
    July 18, 2011 at 8:27 am

    OMG When Book Pushers got the Pick Giveaway Winner plug-in, I wanted to kiss Lou. It’s AMAZING! Loves it!

    Reply
  6. Amy says:
    July 18, 2011 at 9:26 am

    Hmm…I use Blogger but the giveaway picker would be great! I wish Blogger would make some widgets like these!

    Reply
  7. Leontine says:
    July 18, 2011 at 11:29 am

    I’m enthusiastically playing with WP – I’m over comming my fears one at a time ;) and oh, the pugins and gadgets are spinning me out of control but loving the hunt for what I’m going to use :D Thanks for pointing these out!!

    Reply
  8. The Book Vixen says:
    July 18, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    Oh how I wish Blogger would come up with a giveaway winner picker widget. That would be wonderful! (Are you listening Blogger?!!) I am too scared to use WP so my novice butt will be staying with Blogger.

    Love the new background! You’re always making subtle changes :)

    What is this Southern Arcana read along I see in your sidebar?!! I haven’t read a Moira Rogers book yet and that’s need fixin! This might be the perfect event to help me with that :)

    Reply
  9. Chris says:
    July 18, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    Oh, sorry, I got distracted by Pick Giveaway Winner. Thanks for that one! I think it’ll be a timesaver.

    Reply
  10. twimom227 says:
    July 18, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    OMG… I’m with Tori… someday I’ll put on my big girl panties and switch to WP… and then I’ll be crying for help! I do LOVE the notification plug in. I want!

    Reply
  11. Theresa says:
    July 18, 2011 at 7:05 pm

    Thanks for this, Sophia! I moved over to WP months ago but there are SO many plugins to choose from. I’m always thinking I’m missing out on some great ones and you just proved me right. LOL Can’t wait to see the rest of the ‘list’ :)

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Stumbling Over Chaos :: Linkity from tropical Minnesota says:
    July 25, 2011 at 5:37 pm

    [...] Fiction Vixen shared some of her favorite WordPress plugins – you will not be surprised to discover that I love the Pick Giveaway Winner plugin. [...]

    Reply
  2. My Favorite WordPress Plugins: Part II Social Networking - Fiction Vixen Book Reviews says:
    August 10, 2011 at 12:02 pm

    [...] – like button',unescape(String(response).replace(/+/g, " "))]); }); In my last “My Favorite WordPress Plugins” post I told you about three plugins I think are essential to running my blog more [...]

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