5 great blogging plugins

We have recently begun the process of redesigning this site. I can’t wait to show you the new site and all the pretty new features later next month. Pinching myself now- EEK!

Up to this point A Subtle Revelry has been built and made from a pre-bought theme I purchased for 29.99 (seriously!). Although the blog is a run of the mill theme, I’ve done quite a bit of customizing to the site to make it work for me, and a huge part of that has been with plugins.

Plugins are easy to purchase, already coded, and wonder workers that can take your site from so-so to fabulous with little (or no) investment and almost no skill. I thought I would share my 5 favorite plugins today. They all work for a WordPress self-hosted site, if you have any suggestions to share for Blogger or the other sites, I’d love to hear in the comments. I’ve used and loved each of these WordPress plugins here on A Subtle Revelry:

1) Pin it plugin

If you are looking to build the pinability of your photos and cannot invest in a custom plugin, this pin it button will put a small “pin it” button on each image on your site. When using the plugin I found it did prompt more readers to pin photos throughout my posts, although the style is not very design friendly. You can also buy a prettier “pin it” plugin right here.

2) E-commerce store + affiliate program

This is the plugin I use to run the ecourse and the affiliate program. It is a simple plugin that allows your blog to instantly turn into a store! You can use it to sell anything from books, to confetti, to your grandma’s old china. Since installing the plugin I have had to stop myself nearly 50 times from starting up little “side store” business:)

3) WWSGD

This is a plugin I have used intermittently over the past couple years. It creates a small box above your posts that says (and links to) whatever you would like. The great thing about the plugin is that you can set it to show for certain uploads, which allows it to catch new readers and not bother my daily faithful. We used it for a time to build our RSS feed, and have used it when there is a big giveaway going on, a new magazine issue released, or anything exciting that comes up that I want to share with new readers.

4) Page Links To

This is a simple plugin that allows you to redirect your top menu page links. It is great for linking to an outside site, say a portfolio, Etsy shop, or a favorite place to buy cakes. It is also useful for redirection inside of your site if you are wanting to create better navigation for your readers.

5) Nextgen Gallery

If you have ever wanted to showcase your work in an easy to visualize way- galleries are the way to go! We’ve become accustomed to looking at photos and wanting snapshots instead of full articles. Updating my galleries is one of the biggest focuses of our upcoming redesign. Up until this point, we’ve used the Nextgen gallery to design and host our DIY, Party, and Design galleries.

*Bounus plugin WordPress editorial calendar will make your scheduling, posting, and tracking so easy. I’m obsessed with calendars!

Photography from the beautiful shop lacasadecoto.