I love Ozh Admin Drop-Down Menu
Sexy Bookmarks
WP Cumulus
Buffer Buttons

List your favorites here!

WPSubscribers – A premium Wordpress plugin that helps you capture email subscribers. A swiss army knife-like plugin that allows you to place opt in forms in a number of different areas across your blog. Highly recommended.

Digg Digg – The ultimate social sharing plugin. The plugin allows you to add a wide variety of social sharing button from network like Google +, Facebook, Twitter, and StumbleUpon to name a few. You can customize the button placement and even add floating buttons.

Gravity Forms – The leader of the contact forms. This plugin allow you to create and manage web forms with ease. Add them to posts or contact pages. All forms are customizable. 

WP Testimonials – This plugin lets you add testimonials to your blog in the form of a widget or on an entire page. This can help build credibility if use correctly.

Hope this helps!

These are great folks… please keep them coming!

I listed all of my favorite plugins about halfway through this post.http://kikolani.com/how-to-start-a-wordpress-blog.htmlI would list them all here, but I’m on my mobile today.

I just use Google Analytics. I tried a few others, but they would always seem to slow down my site a bit.

@blairevanball

What a great list, got me started in a whole new direction tonight, love the Ad Square Widget (thanks Blair)! I really like SEO by Joost, has been helpful for a newbie like me.

Am struggling to figure out how to merge Builder child theme (design tool) with my present Affiliate Internet Marketing theme – http://www.bargainfish.net

Maybe a little off topic, but any suggestions are appreciated.

I use Jetpack (love their site stats and the twitter feed is handy), SEO by Yoast, I just updated with a plugin that should eliminate spam it says (spam is a big big problem.) I have to approve every response and most of them are spammers so, they get blocked but it gets tedious.Zemanta, share and follow, contactform7, google analytics, spamfree wordpress (just set it up today)

LOVE this list…I am kind of a plugin fanatic so this is right up my alley…definitely going to check some of these out…I too like Jetpack…I think is a nice bundle of different things.  I like:

Auto tweetBackWPup – (gotta backup)BlogGlue Related Posts Network PluginDisqus Comment System (LOVE Disqus)PlayPressWP Greet BoxThank Me Laternrelate Related ContentBlog Glue Toolbox…LOVE the seo assistance it gives

Great suggestions here.  There’s some listed in this article which may be of interest, too.

I always keep a list on my about page and just point people there.

http://www.howwhowhen.com/about/

Oh yes, @dakotalocal, I also use Cincopa for photos.  Check out this gallery of social media cartoons on my website (look underneath the cartoon about Steve Jobs… boy, do I need to update this!):

http://projectsocial.net/blog-2/funny-fridays/

@dakotalocal Thanks! I think the premium version will do what I want/need. The only piece I don’t like it that it’s a separately hosted service with an annual fee.

I use a lot of the plugins that have already been mentioned, but my all-time favorite is WordPress Editorial Calendar: http://stresslimitdesign.com/editorial-calendar-plugin

It displays your posts in a monthly calendar format and you can drag-and-drop them if you need to reschedule a post on a different date. Love it!

Here is a wordpress list that I wrote for Social Media Examiner:

11 Essential Wordpress Plugins To Keep Your Blog In Motion

I would add these security plugins to this list as one of my blogs has a blog design that many hackers like to attack.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/websitedefender-wordpress-security/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/secure-wordpress/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/better-wp-security/

What plugin would you recommend for forms?Thanks!Debbie

@debbiejames, Depending on the need, I have 3 that I choose from:

Contact Form 7 – very easy to use, I use it for a basic contact/request for quote form.

Custom Contact Forms – a little more complex, allows for easier customization than Contact Form 7

Gravity Forms – close to the granddaddy of them all. It’s a paid plugin, but gives extreme flexibility, multiple pages, Paypal, integration with Mailchimp, etc. And, you can customize extensively through CSS

My Top Three Plugins:

• WP Super Cache – Very fast caching plugin for WordPress
• Digg Digg – Simple Clean  social buttons.
• Widget Logic – Control widgets with WP’s conditional tags. Awesome plugin for users who want more control with Widgets. 

@projsocial thanks Karen.

yeah thatd be interesting to know. 

i think i may have found the right set with what i have as it includes every platform i want to be found on with small enough icons to not take up too much real estate.

but like you, im changing them all the time

what would be your top three? there are too many for me to get started. @whitsonn @dextereugenio @designbykiltz @projsocial @leifmartinez @debbiejames @georgiamccabe @kristi-hines @dakotalocal @naomitrower @blairevanball

@deairby If you want to start with just a couple it will depend on what you want to accomplish with your blog. I have added plugins as they became needed or I became aware of the need because I wanted to change something about my blog. You might ask someone to critique your blog, and with these recommendations you may be able to search and find different plugins that will solve some of the issues that arise.

@georgiamccabe knows her stuff so I would defer to what she says with one exception. All my WordPress geek buddies are now suggesting the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast and it has made taggin my posts so much simpler.

@deairby, I think I’d have to agree with @whitsonn. My top three would depend on what I want to accomplish. SEO is crucial, my choice there is: WordPress SEO by Yoast. Security is also crucial, and there are many, I like Secure WordPress. And as @kristi-hines mentioned a social sharing plugin. I use several so my clients don’t end up looking like cookie cutters so it’s hard to give you my favorite. There are a few that give you the “share” aspect & the “follow” in one plugin.

Great stuff. I’m looking forward to checking out a number of these. 

Another really nice one that I like is the Twitter Blackbird Pie WordPress Plugin.

I wrote a pretty detailed post on this a while back that outlines how and why this plugin is great.  I know Twitter recently introduced a native way to embed a Tweet, but I’ve found the plugin to be a little better as it also includes the styling of the original Tweeter.  

 Twitter Blackbird Pie WordPress Plugin

I have several, but my essential plugins are:WP Super Cache WP TouchBroken Links CheckerEditorial Calendar

@deairby Like others, it’s hard to pick 3…here are some of mine:

Backupbuddy
Measure my Seo
Related Posts
All in One SEO

@deairby, That’s the beauty of an open source product is that there are many ways of doing the same thing, and everyone has their “standards” & “favorites”. If not, every blog we’d read would look & play exactly the same way. It is mind boggling, especially if you go to WP.org & simply search, the beauty of a thread like this is that it kind of simplifies the entire list of possibilities

@erinhallmark i have not yet used it but i think its description matches your requirements. Just try it. Let me know if it is what you wanted. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/audio-player/

In all sincerity, most of the plugins I am using presently are quite cool. For a blogger beginner I found them very helpful. But the one I love most is SexyBookmarking and follow by CommentLuv. These duo are very handy in sharing my contents on the web and getting backlinks. 

Is anyone using http://www.leenk.me?