Must Have WordPress Plugins (Akismet, Contact Form 7, Disqus)

Why you need must have WordPress plugins? OK, you’ve installed WordPress. Now what? Is that what you’re asking yourself? Well, don’t worry too much. Everybody who installed the WordPress engine for the first time was a bit surprised that to add all those really cool and amazing functionality bells and whistles, you actually need to install something else. What exactly? Well, the good news is that I can give you a list of the must have WordPress plugins that you need to install. Plus, you get videos and basic instructions on installing and setting up those things.

Must Have WordPress Plugins – Akismet

This plugin is an essential one because in case you decide to run the risk and not activate it, the odds are that you’ll spend (or rather waste) more time on removing your spam than actually creating your content. So, that is why WordPress guys actually pre-installed it. The only thing that you need to do is just activate it. Well, that’s not rocket science but here are step-by-step instructions just in case:

• Go to the Plugins menu;
• Select the Installed Plugins option;
• Click on the Activate link right under the plugin name;
• Go to the Akismet configuration section;
• Now just insert your Akismet API key.

If you don’t have your Akismet API key handy, you can get it here. On that page, you need to click on the third option (Personal). Now you just need to fill out the form with the required information such as your first name, last name and email address. Once you’re done with that, just drag the slider in the What is Akismet worth to you section to the very left so that you can get your API key for free in case you don’t wish to pull out your credit card right now. That done, you can just click on the Continue button. Now , go to your email inbox and check it for your Akismet API key You should have it there by now (if you actually followed the instructions above in real-time). Please copy your API key from the email message that you’ve received and get back to the Akismet section in your WordPress admin panel. The only thing left for you to do is to insert the copied key to the proper text field. With that done, click on the Update options button. If you can see: “Your key has been verified. Happy blogging!”, you’re all set. And you’ve managed to install one of the must have WordPress plugins.

And here comes my video on how to mess with Akismet. Is it me or it’s really sorta … boring?

Moving on …

Must Have WordPress Plugins – Contact Form 7

This one is a totally necessary plugin because you always want your visitors to be able to get back to you for all sorts of reasons. Hopefully to buy something from you. And that is why this plugin also belongs to the must have WordPress plugins group. 🙂 Unfortunately, WordPress installation does not come with this plugin pre-installed, but it’s pretty easy to install it. Though it’s a no-brainer in terms of installing it, you can actually add a whole bunch of new options such as CAPTCHA, radio buttons, text fields, etc. I really like this widget, but in order to add some new options and spice it up, you’re supposed to have basic HTML skills. If you’re not sure about something, by all means, ask your questions in the comment area. Rest assured that you’re gonna get a workable answer. I swear.

First of all, we need to install it. Here comes the step-by-step how-to for you:

1. Go to your WordPress admin panel;
2. Roll over the Plugins option and select Add New;
3. Now, type in Contact Form 7 in the search text field and click Search Plugins. At this point, you should see the plugin you’re searching for on the first place in the list;
4. Click on Install Now;
5. If everything is Ok, you should see a message similar to this one “Successfully installed the plugin Contact Form 7 3.0.2.1.”;
6. Click Activate Plugin;
7. Now you should see a new option (Contact) in your admin sidebar. See the pic below;



8. Click on that Contact option;
9. At this point, you can just copy the following code from the first section:

   and just paste it in some page or post content. It has the following text fields by default: Your Name, Your Email, Subject, Your Message;

10. Having pasted the code, just save your page or post;
11. You’re all set.

In case you’d rather get to know how to tweak it in a more advanced way, keep on reading.

I’m gonna show you how to add a new text field.

1. Expand the Generate Tag drop down menu;
2. Select Text field;
3. Now you need to specify the name of your new text field in the Name text box For example, ‘last-name’ (without quotes);
4. You may also want to specify values for the following parameters but keep in mind that they are optional:
   • Required field? – this option is above the name of your text field. It just makes the current text field obligatory;
   • the id attribute value of the input element (it can be used for JavaScript or CSS);
   • the class attribute value of the input element (for designing the contact form with CSS);
   • the size parameter specifies how big your text field is;
   • the max length value defines how long your text can be (the one a user types in);
   • Akismet options: This field requires author’s name (it makes specifying the author’s name obligatory) and This field requires author’s URL (this option makes the url field, if you have such, obligatory);
   • Watermark – use the value as watermark text for the text field you’re adding now.
5. Now go to the left-hand side panel and make a copy of the first piece of the code you have there

   Your Name (required)
   
        
   

6. And just paste it below in the same text box;
7. Now you need to edit that code a little bit. Just replace with the code that you have on the right-hand side in the brown background text box. (See the image below);

   

8. Once copied and pasted, just click the Save button in the upper-right corner;
9. And finally you just need to refresh your browser (you can just use F5);
10. You should see your new text field now.

You can learn more about this plugin on the official site.

And another video about cool WordPress plugins But this time around it’s about the Contact form 7 plugin. Hm, it might look a bit boring as well. That guy in the video is a total downer (it’s me in the video). See for yourself.

Must Have WordPress Plugins – Disqus Comment System

It’s one of totally must have WordPress plugins, because it really makes your life as a blog owner much easier. Once you’ve installed the plug-in, you’ll be able to efficiently manage comments on your site. So, what is actually Disqus? It’s a networked community platform and it’s a real no-brainer to use it on any WordPress blog because of the Disqus Comment System plugin. You can install it as follows:

1. Go to your WordPress admin panel;
2. Roll over the Plugins option and select Add New;
3. Now just type in the name of the plugin you’re searching for. In our case, it’s Disqus Comment System;
4. Click Install Now under the plugin name to have it installed;
5. Once it‘s installed, click on Activate Plugin so that it gets activated for further use;
6. Next, in order to tweak your settings, click on Settings right after the plugin name;
7. With that done, hit the Manage option in the upper right-hand corner;

At this point, you’re supposed to login to your login account. If you don’t have one, be sure to create it.

8. Having logged in, you’ll see the user interface that allows you to fine-tune the plugin even more and moderate the comments on your site.

The plugin has a whole bunch of useful features. I’m gong to mention just some of them:

• approving, deleting and marking comments as spam. You can also perform bulk actions if you need to manage a lot of comments at the same time;
• whitelist and blacklist options for comments. More info about it;
• editing comments. You’re able to modify comments if they are offensive or the like;
• you can also specify who can comment: anyone, Registered only, Registered only with verified email;
• restricted words. You can define which words should be blocked in case a commentator inputs them. Plus, you can also block certain HTML tags;
• you can also automatically close comment threads after a certain period of time.

And before I wrap up, check out this short video overview of this plugin’s options.