Plugins and Themes to Introduce or Maintain Your Blog

I couldn’t find any posts that rounded up plugins to bring your blog into maintenance mode or to welcome readers to your site before it has officially been launched. Well, I’ve collected some of the best plugins and themes (there may certainly be others available), but these will help you if you are a WordPress user and need to take your blog offline for a temporary period of time.

!Wartungsmodus

This plugin adds a maintenance page to your blog that does one thing – lets your visitors know that your blog is down for maintenance. You can control who has access to your site during this time, and you can also specify URLs that have access to the site. A countdown can also be implemented.

LaunchPad

This is a theme that includes the ability to integrate with FeedBurner, includes a professional design, and is easy to setup. It’s ideal for people who may be launching or re-launching a site but don’t necessarily want to design their own custom landing page.

Coming Soon! WordPress Theme

Want to introduce your new site with a simple look? This theme makes it easy, and is a utilitarian theme, but with a clear purpose.

Custom Coming Soon Page

Ideal for major site upgrades, where you need to give administrators access, this theme/plugin can be used for various purposes. You can customize the content and appearance of the front-end, with a countdown timer, subscription form, and social profiles integration.

Ignite

A premium landing page template, this includes the ability to start building hype around your site before you launch.  It isn’t for sale individually, but through their multiple themes package.

Conclusion

What do you think about using these plugins? I think it’s better to use these than let your visitors see errors, but at the same time, it might be a little too much to use one of these when you are only performing simple updates.