10 Useful New WordPress Plugins for October 16, 2008

Each day, new and useful plugins that are designed to streamline the time between the publish of a post, the interaction between visitors and readers, and the next action on your blog are released for WordPress.  In this post, I’ll be covering a selection of a few of the most recently released (or updated) plugins that add value to your blog.

Note: It is assumed that you are using the latest release of WordPress, or at least a version compatible with a majority of plugins (2.3, up to 2.6.2)

1. PollDaddy – With Automattic’s recent acquisition of PollDaddy, it is easier to add polls to your site.  Simply upload this plugin, then you will be able to tap into the rich set of features available with the tool.
2. Custom More Link – From Michael Weingaertner, this plugin will help those of you who want to address the “more” tag, by inserting your own custom link, without editing the actual code of your template or core WordPress functions.  You will be able to: remove hte #more-number anchor tag from the link, remove or modify the CSS class, add a nofollow attribute, customize hte markup adding additional tags, etc.
3. Page Lists Plus – This plugin, from Tim Holt, requires WordPress 2.5 or higher, but provides an essential navigation feature without editing the code of your theme.  Typically, page links are generated directly from the list of pages found within the WordPress backend area.  However, with this plugin, additional features, such as the ability to add alternative link text and attributes, the re=”nofollow” tag, plus the ability to add or remove pages/relink your pages on your WordPress blog.
4. PageGlimpse Bubble – Found at PageGlimpse.com, is is a tool that will display a bubble showing a thumbnail of the webpage for a link in your blog, using the service (possibly similar to SnapShots, except less obtrusive).  The installation is simple, but you’ll need a developer key in order to use the service under its BETA terms.
5. Slideshow Pro Director Connector – This plugin allows you to add pictures and albums from your Slideshow Pro Director to your WordPress blog by using the backend panel or using shortcodes for faster deployment.  There are advanced features for including galleries within your WordPress blog, including photostrips, matix mode, adding images to posts, and more.
6. Rhyming Widget – If you run a lyrics or blog focused on poetry, this plugin will come in use, as it allows visitors to search for rhyming words within a sidebar widget.
7. DG Random Image – If you use pages for the gallery, you will be ale to randomize the image displayed on a main page, from one of the child pages.
8. ClearSpam – Typically, there would be hundreds of “spammy” comments on your blog, adding up to a lot of frustration and loss of time.  This plugin adds a spam counter on the dashboard, allowing you to instantly and easily purge spammy comments from the database, while preventing you from deleting non-spam comments.
9. Advanced RSS – If you want to create or modify your RSS widget, this plugin will make it easy to do so.  Some of the features include an admin panel for creating, editing, and deleting XSL templates, as well as some tests to ensure the changes will work.  Options: RSS feed URL. Title, Link, Cache Time, # Items Displayed, and Template.
10. Protected Post Personalizer – Use protected posts on your blog?  If so, this plugin will make it easy to customize the prefixes, custom previews, and password form, as well as some other, smaller limitations that exist due to the lack of control of password-protected posts.

Have you used any new WordPress plugins that have made blogging easier, or you have simply enjoyed?  Please tell me about them in the comments.