Now Reading
Where Do You Find Those Great WordPress Plugins?

Where Do You Find Those Great WordPress Plugins?

WordPress Plugins DatabaseAt a conference recently, I was asked where I find “those great WordPress Plugins” to write about on the Blog Herald’s WordPress Wednesday and in the various articles on . The answers might surprise you.

Traditional Places to Find WordPress Plugins

I check the traditional places to find WordPress Plugins, most of which you are familiar with:

Don’t forget the traditional gathering place for all WordPress News: Blog Herald’s WordPress Wednesday (feed).

I also check a few unusual sources you might not think about.

Did you know that many Plugins are announced on the WordPress Support Forum? That there are two main aggregators for WordPress-specific news and information?

Here are some of the unusual places I find consistent and well presented information on WordPress Plugins.

I’ve tried monitoring a lot of site submission and social networking sites, like Technorati, and the noise-to-sound ratio is really high. You can give them a try, but over the past two years, these sites are the ones that bring me the best finds.

I Write About the WordPress Plugins You Write About

I find WordPress Plugins because you write about them. I love knowing what you have to say about a Plugin, how it works for you, how you get it to work for you, and why you depend upon it for your blogging purposes. When you write about it, I want to know about it, and I want to write about it, too.

WordPress Plugins are usually discussed on your blogs in three ways.

See Also
quillbot paraphrase tool

  1. Quickie Posts: A “quickie post” is more of an aside rather than a post. It is a quickly written recommendation of a WordPress Plugin using only a few words or a tiny paragraph. An example would be:

    I just tried the XYZ WordPress Plugin. It’s great. Check it out!

    These are not helpful nor informative, so I rarely give a hat tip or credit to the source, but I’ll check out the Plugin anyway if the Plugin name sounds intriguing. If the Plugin author’s page is more informative and helpful than the recommendation, I may add it to my list to write about.

  2. Lists and Examples: Many write WordPress tips and techniques and include citations and examples using a variety of WordPress Plugins. I’m always finding Plugin goodies tucked in between well-known Plugins that intrigue me as the blogger plows through their explanation, often only including a word or two of explanation and endorsement of the Plugin.

    Yet, the mere mention of a new Plugin makes me jump in to learn more. If they explain the use and value of the Plugin on their blog, I may give them credit for pointing me towards it. If not, while I explore the value of these articles for recommendation as a WordPress tip or technique, I give all my attention to the Plugin separately.

  3. Full Post Analysis: I love it when someone writes up a full post analysis of a WordPress Plugin, listing pros and cons and explaining how and why they use it. These are the blogs I love giving credit for recommending a WordPress Plugin. They are the cheerleaders for WordPress and WordPress Plugin authors, and often my best source for WordPress tips, techniques, and Plugins.

If there is a WordPress Plugin your blog is dependent upon and you can’t blog without it, blog about it, if it serves your readers. This alerts your readers and watchers to a potentially valuable Plugin, but it also gives honor and recognition – and traffic – to the Plugin author.

To those who write about WordPress Plugins or support and author them, please, use full and complete descriptive sentences about the Plugin so we know what it does and how we may benefit from using it. The words help your post be found, no matter how we are searching.

There are thousands of WordPress Plugins now. So many good ones get lost in the noise, so sing loudly and clearly about the Plugins you adore and help direct me and others to your personal favorites.

View Comments (2)
  • Thanks for sharing your sources of WP Plugins. Now I know and can keep a check on them and subscribe to these blogs. Love your teaching articles on WP. Have learnt a lot from them and have fallen in love with WP never to turn back from it all cause your teaching articles made it so easy to move over to WP from a static website I had before. Keep going with the great sharing.

Scroll To Top