If you're bewildered by the thousands of plugins for WordPress, you're not alone.  The official WordPress site for the self-hosted variety, WordPress.org, lists over 12,000 in their directory alone. So what's a site owner to do?

Well, here's my top 10 for 2010, based on actual usage. REMEMBER: Always back up your site before adding new plugins, and if adding multiple plugins, view your site in a separate browser window and reload with each plugin addition. That way you can catch any conflicts immediately and know which plugin is responsible (you can deactivate the plugin and visit the plugin website for documentation on bugs, or delete the plugin entirely.)

ALL IN ONE SEO: Yes, WordPress is structured for SEO (search engine optimization) in the most basic ways. But why limit your site to the basics. The All in One SEO Pack allows you to create search engine friendly titles, meta descriptions and keyword tags that will amplify your posts for the engines.

NEXT GEN GALLERY: If you have a ton of images to manage in your site, whether it's pictures of rooms in your accommodations or photo albums that go in a particular section of your site, Next Gen is a great way to manage them. Drag & drop sorting, description and tag editing, multiple galleries, automatic pagination and easy to place shortcodes for showing them on your pages or posts. Flash addons are available (remember, they won't work on iPhones or iPads).

ULTIMATE GOOGLE ANALYTICS: Sure, you can go with the vanilla stats that wordpress.org provides in the plugin that mimics the environment of their public wordpress.com site. But why limit yourself to that when you can use Google Analytics. It's like strapping on a real rocket instead of lighting a tiny firecracker.

GOOGLE XML SITEMAPS: Now that meta information has dropped in effectiveness (too many people metajacking and abusing the system) sitemaps have become an indispensable tool for engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and others to find ALL of the information on your site.

ANTI-CAPTCHA: This is a transparent captcha solution that does not require users to enter in any special characters when commenting and protects against automated attacks by spambots - you know, all those bogus comments that need clearing out of the admin area. When a comment is posted without a valid Anti-Captcha token (automatically issued when you visit the site), the comment is instantly marked as spam. It requires javascript and cookies enabled for it to succeed.

SHARETHIS or SEXY BOOKMARKS: Make it easy for site visitors to share your blog or site with a plugin that appends social networking icons to the bottom of every page. Share This is the basic version, Sexy Bookmarks shows the icons popping up from below a line with a handwritten note recommending sharing (see this post). Choose from over 80 sites to share with, or select 'Most Popular' for the handful of the busiest sites. A sidebar widget version is also available.

TYNT: Somewhat similar to Highlighter, the best thing about this plugin is that if someone posts a part/excerpt of your post or page elsewhere on the Web, a small link is added to it (you control what the link says, for example, "Read the full post"). It's a great way to build backlinks to your site and control copyright using the Creative Commons licensing add-on.

WPTOUCH iPHONE THEME: Not an easy one to set up but worth the effort. When a mobile user visits your site a lighter version designed for the mobile market (almost all platforms and devices) is presented. You now have a fully mobile-friendly web site. Note: some plugins do not work with this mobile app: NextGen Gallery noted above, WP Super Cache are the notables.

WP-DBMANAGER: This nifty plugin allows you to manually create a backup of your site's database (not to be confused with exporting posts from the Settings area) or set an auto-backup and determine a regular schedule for mailing the .zip file to the address of your choosing. I set mine to send every two weeks as I only post occasionally on this site, and to optimize my database every 3 days. When it comes through to my email I delete the previous one so I only have the latest backup taking up space on my drive.

Have fun playing, and if you need help, contact Bad Dog Design at web@baddogdesign.com.

There's a couple of companies I follow on a regular basis because they regularly innovate, either in WordPress theming, or in developing unique plugins that enhance the user experience for visitors to WordPress-based sites.

Unique Blog Designs started out as a wordpress theming company, and that's where Bigpacific.com went for the design of our first WordPress foray online. They built us a beautiful, custom design that reflected all the beauty of the Sunshine Coast and allowed for extra promotional spaces for advertisers wanting a greater prominence on the site.

Since then, UBD as they are widely referred to today have broadened their themes to serve the affiliate, email and online marketers niches. These are not niches where I generally spend a lot of time, but I did review and test the themes for customers who do wish to work them, and they are loaded with features and plugins that automate and leverage a lot of the elbow grease that goes into running a great blog or marketing site.

Now UBD has launched a new product, a very handy plugin for WordPress sites called 'Highlighter'. If you've ever used an old-fashioned highlighter (don't laugh, some younger people haven't!) you'll be familiar with the concept, now employed in a unique digital format that makes for a novel way to share content online with colleagues and friends.

With the highlighter plugin, the barriers are removed for user engagement.Visitors to your site can highlight a word, phrase, sentence - even an image - and instantly share it online, with a comment via Facebook, Twitter or Email. The Highlight Box packs all the related comments and sharing in one handy spot - and the webmaster can moderate highlights the same as comments.

You can also collect email addresses with the Highlighter tool integrated with Aweber, MailChimp or GetResponse.

This is a FREE tool that will increase visitor engagement, build your email network and create conversation points in novel ways.

Use Highlighter on this post and share it with friends!

Just like you or I can make biscuits that fail to rise, or attempt to use quinoa flour instead of regular to universal disgust, so too can we catastrophically screw up the design and functionality of a specialized web site.

I'm talking today specifically about designing web sites for the Real Estate market, which mostly means for realtors, who follow a broad stereotype of being driven, detail-oriented, competitive, and exacting in their expectations. A good realtor is always looking to stay ahead of the pack, to utilize technology first (even if it means leaping off a cliff to demonstrate that the cliff is there), and to be effective and efficient in everything they do. Duplicative efforts, redundancy, or misuse of technology or people resources is a thorn in the side to any realtor worth their salt.

This is where the template vs. designed proponents start duking it out. Designers - of which I am one - argue that they can make something for the realtor that is customized, tweaked for search engine optimization, and otherwise tooled up to give the most powerful and branded solution to a realtor. Typically these sites cost from $1000 - $10000 depending on what the market will bear - which in itself should cause some consternation to those in bigger centres paying whacking big design fees when their semi-rural counterpart is getting the same deal for a fraction of the cost (though rural designers are often grossly underpaid for their work, which explains the lack of longevity in rural web design companies. Eventually we have to go out and get another 'real' job to sustain our pricing for design).

On the other side of the ring is the templated, out-of-a-box solution. In the old days, these templates were both expensive and buggy, thereby negating any value inherent in using them. However, times have changed, and a quick search on Google for 'wordpress real estate mls templates' brings up a plethora of links for templates, WITH installation and service and an hour of search engine optimization (SEO) thrown in for good measure. The price? Usually under $300, complete for a one time setup, with maybe an extra $90/year for hosting. Or, you can hire an expert, who is used to working with the theme and theme supplier, to do everything for you... basically to take the body and fill it out for that extra competitive edge.

These themes integrate MLS listings and search functions and are attractive and professional in appearance.

Pros & Cons Design:

• PROS
• customized
• more unique appearance
• some standalone functionality possible
• customized support, usually fast, for new features
• CONS
• expensive
• usually a long launch time, 1-3 months typically depending on designer's workload and client readiness with content
• harder to maintain without expert help
• realtor can mess up the design and functionality of the site

Pros & Cons Templates:

• PROS
• inexpensive
• standardized, professional appearance, appropriate to industry
• custom plugins and functionality developed for volume purchase rather than single purchase design functionality; buyer benefits from features developed at request of other users of the template
• highly optimized for SEO
• very functional from the end users perspective, which doesn't always happen in custom designed sites, where the realtor can have far too much say or impact on the design and functionality without understanding how it affects the end user
• easily maintainable
• CONS
• a sense of 'sameness' about the look, or lack of originality
• occasionally creates a dependence on a specific company for the service
• new feature requests must wait for next version release

My recommendation is to go with the templates, unless your business has a very strong and uniquely identifiable brand and innovative ways of interacting with your customers and visitors, in which case the custom route can bring great returns.

Templates mentioned in this article (disclosure: I am an affiliate for some)

• AgentPress from StudioPress.com - requires what's called the Genesis Framework, which aside from sounding pretty biblical and lofty, actually means it's a framework vetted by the creator of WordPress.com & .org's code that takes WordPress to the next level.  <a href="https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=10214&c=ib&aff=49541" target="ejejcsingle">Pick up the template here.</a>;
• Real Estate Themes - more generic wordpress themes, but also one for the ipad/iphone;
• WPRealEstate - PLUGIN for wordpress for integrating MLS, which means you can use ANY wordpress template and then just use the plugin for the listings side of things

WPREMIX - TAKING WORDPRESS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

This template system appears to have everything needed to fully customize a WordPress blog. It is especially attractive for designers - once you get past the rather steep $275 for an unlimited license use (you can't resell it as a system, but you can use it for any number of clients) it's clear there is a lot of mileage in the product down the road.

The features include:

• WYSIWYG page editor
• Over 50 templates, each of which can be further customized
• Flexibility - instead of having to use a plug-in like WidgetLogic to manage what sidebar content shows up on what posts or pages (and havingto know conditional tags as well to make that happen), it's all built into the system
• Smart drop menu - now this is something I've wanted with WordPress templates for a while, in an easy-to-manage system
• Dynamic codes - insert javascript or php modules using the code guide
• Add on modules - support for modules like shopping carts, image galleries, etc.

You can also get the license for $75/single use, which means you can use it on one web site. What I really appreciate about the WPRemix business model is that if you go for the one-site license and decide to upgrade, you just pay the difference, and they make this policy very clear on the Purchase page.

And if you purchase WPRemix right now, you get an additional Magazine template valued at $39, and a FREE BBPress Forum add on that is fully compatible with the WPRemix system.

Click here to visit WordPress Remix website!

Thanks to John Chow for introducing me to this interesting and exciting product.

The pros are that it's a simple process from start to finish. But if you want to add a domain name you either have to buy it elsewhere at a service that allows domain forwarding and gripping (1) and make sure it loads your mysite.wordpress.com web site, or you have to pay wordpress.com $15/year to do that for you. If you want to add any plugins that commercialize your blog, you're also out of luck. In an interesting inversion, the .com site for wordpress is for the community of free wordpress users, and the .org site is for those who want to run wordpress in a self-hosted environment to take advantage of the many options not available to the .com users, namely - plugins to commercialize your blog, and huge template selection from within wordpress.org and all of the separate providers, like www.colorlabs.com and uniqueblogdesigns.com, my current favorites.

Also, if you're someone with a bit of programming skills and you like to tinker with CSS, you can try it on wordpress.com but you must buy a premium upgrade for the changes to 'stick'. Running a self-hosted blog basically means you can roll up your sleeves and get in there with the design wrenches, if you care to. The two third-party wordpress template providers I mentioned above give you dead-easy management of your blog without having to touch code... and if you want to take it further you can.

I find for most entry level blogs, the selection of templates at WordPress.com is adequate. Most designs come in several colors, and you can substitute your own header graphics, so long as you make them the size WordPress recommends in the editing area. And you can always commercialize them the cheap-and-dirty way by just including the banner ad code in the top of a post, and hosting the actual ad on space you have elsewhere online. Often businesses that have affiliate networks provide code for copying and pasting into a post or an ad management module and their graphics are hosted on their own site to both control the brand and make it easier for the end user to send them traffic - because hey, that's what it's all about, right?

WHY I PREFER SELF-HOSTED

I'm such a sucker for design and control. When blogs started getting popular, I toyed with the idea of getting into the business of designing themes. After all, I've been in web design for a dozen years, so it can't be too hard...

I remember getting slammed in the early newsgroups because I bought one of the first versions of Dreamweaver back when it was Macromedia - version 1. The so-called 'elite' coders were disgusted that I didn't hand-code all of my pages. I almost quit building my very successful tourism site, www.bigpacific.com, because I was so intimidated by all these jolt-drinking uber-coders who just had to do the math with the tables. And then I had an epiphany: if there's something plug-in that I can use, or a faster way to do this, or an application that enables my design-oriented mind instead of forcing me into being a 'programmer', why wouldn't I use it? It was free to leverage the incredible talent of people writing java and javascript, cgi/perl, asp (If you don't know those, good for you!). It was affordable to buy small plugins to my sites and instantly enable them into being 'smart'/thinking/interactive sites instead of typical brochureware.

That's why I love UniqueBlogDesigns.com. I've got two completely different experiences with these folks - one was for a totally custom blog creation, which you can see at http://www.bigpacific.com/wordpress/. It's beautiful, functional, and incorporated a lot of cool things unique to my site - custom header development, incorporation of my Slideshowpro content, and a separate, slimmed down version of the template for inside pages.

The Citrus Theme from Unique Blog Designs

Click here to check out the great templates at Unique Blog Designs

The second time around, I chose to buy the Citrus Theme, pre-made, from UBD. It's gorgeous, affordable, and comes in six colors and I can use it on as many sites as I like. Of course, I was spoiled by UBD's design crew the first time around and now I'm likely signing up for the premium forum membership so I can get in and tweak backgrounds and link colors etc. for this site, which uses the beautiful lime-green version of citrus, very suitable to tech content.

Lush Arthemia Template from ColorLabsProject

The other theme I'm going to be working with next is Arthemia, from ColorLabsProject. I like this one because of the variety of colors, the strong use of icons/thumbnails, the simplicity and clean lines of the template. I plan to use this template for a blog about politics and volunteerism globally coinciding with Barack Obama's election as US President. I think it's a great 'newsy', community style look.

You can either hire techs from either company to install the theme for you, or you can follow the readme instructions and video tutorials, or call on the after-sales support and they'll help walk you through it. Of course, if you want to get really comfortable working with your blog, you should really sign up for the BecomeaBlogger.com course!

Like many other new bloggers, I have built and then abandoned a few blogs. Lack of interest, lack of consistency, no clear purpose, no follow through. I finally have one successful blog that operates as a main front page to my regional tourism portal, which you can see at www.bigpacific.com.

I have watched as a number of bloggers rose in stature as mine faded into obscurity. My favorite is johnchow.com, a Vancouver blogger who was featured in our daily newspaper about 8 months ago, making $15,000 a month at the time of the article. He now makes $40k a month and has 45,000 subscribers to his blog/newsletter, and posts twice a day. His blog is about making money online. He shares his money, and his expertise, with a weekly luncheon where any blogger is welcome to attend - the Dot Com Pho.

John’s blog is fairly eclectic. In addition to the moneymaking stories, he posts on philanthropy, food, travel, gadgets, and reviews of software. It’s shown me that it’s the consistency and frequency that’s important and not so much the ‘perfect’ and perfectly targeted content.

One of his posts was about a great online blogging course, utilizing audio and video, from Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick called “Become a Blogger”. The first level of the Become a Blogger site is FREE. It includes a Roadmap Report - the prerequisite to starting the video courses. Remember, the 20 page report (pdf, or mp3 audio file) is FREE. It covers ‘The 5 Major Milestones You Must Reach to Become a Successful Blogger’. This section should not be skipped - it’s invaluable information that will ensure you’re not wasting your time on your blog and positioning yourself for success.

The next step in the course is a 10-part beginner blog video series. Now, as someone who has blogged, set up externally hosted blogs, and dealt with hosting, domain names, and technical stuff for over 10 years, I thought this was a bit of a time waster before I started. Boy, was I wrong. I can procrastinate with the best of them, and have needed to upgrade to WordPress 2.6.3 for quite a while, and it’s a critical part of the entire course. So that’s the step I’m at.

I’m inviting you to join me in learning how to blog, from a beginner’s perspective, and share your experience in the Grok the Net community.

If you’re already way ahead on the technical/setup side of things, I invite you to head up to the next level of the course - BecomeaBlogger Premium. This is where the rubber hits the road and you learn the ‘X Factor’ strategies that will separate your blog from the millions of others out there.

So that’s Day One. See you tomorrow!