Blog Tipz

WordPress is abound with new plugin releases. There are some great ones, while there are others that are better worth skipping. This roundup consists of ten great, new plugins released recently.

1. WordPress Leads

This plugin is a contact form that also integrates a leads system into the back-end of your site. It is ideal for people who want to offer more direct advertising on their site, integrating Google AdWords and larger advertising deals. Contact fields can be integrated into your blog’s sidebar.

2. Syntax Highlighter MT

It would be nice if WordPress built in a syntax highlighter, but it doesn’t and there aren’t really plans to do so. This plugin is actually easy to use, with options from an area in the admin to change or disable the code styling JavaScript files to reduce page sizes and loading times.

3. Related Tag Filter

Taking all tags within your blog and compiling a visually-related list, you can quickly sort through all your posts with single-click filtering. You get a list of the ten most popular tags on your site to date, and you can configure some of the settings.

4. Previous and Next Keyboard Navigation

This plugin may perform a simple function, but is definitely worth installing if you want to add expanded functionality to your site. Like many RSS readers, it will allow your visitors to scroll through your posts using the J (next post) and K (previous post) keys. Custom search terms and replacements will be available in the future.

5. WooShare

Similar to other sharing plugins, this one has been built to be customizable, but it is rather new, so it should be given time to add more services. It appears as though Twitter and Facebook have already been included. Post meta information is shared with each link.

6. Font Controller

Font sizes are difficult to implement on blogs, as smaller text gives your site a more cluttered appearance, but large text can be more difficult to read, especially when there is a lot of it. This plugin gives your users control over how large they want to make the font on your blog, using jQuery.

7. Private Messages for WordPress

While quite simple, this plugin makes it possible to communicate between WordPress users (ideal for larger blogs) with private messages. Users can send private messages to one another, managed in an inbox and outbox.

8. Drag to Share

This plugin makes it easy for your visitors to share content, ranging from images to links found within your page. It is similar to the one released by Meebo.com.

9. No IE6

While some would dispute the true usefulness of this plugin, it is important for users to upgrade their browsers, and this one truly offers a “choice” for your visitors to upgrade to. It’ll suggest better browsers for them to choose from.

10. Easy Chart Builder for WordPress

If you commonly make simple charts for insertion on your blog, this plugin takes out some of the work. Graphs will scale to meet the size of the end-user’s display, mobile displays are supported, and various shortcodes have been integrated.

*Obviously, as most of these plugins are new, they are compatible with the most recent release of WordPress, 2.8.x or higher.

Please leave your thoughts on any of those listed above and what you think about them (if you’ve tried them).