For those of you that are using WordPress as a publishing platform, well done, you have made a wise decision. WordPress is the best blogging software available, and for those of you that aren’t running it, I would definitely recommend making the switch.

WordPress itself is a great internet marketing tool, but in my opinion it needs some add-ons in order to give you the best chance to be successful. By installing these ‘must have’ WordPress plugins you can increase your blog’s visibility and efficiency. Each is great for your blog’s development.

Here they are, the 7 ‘must have’ WordPress plugins:

1. Related Posts - The related posts plugin is one of the most important plugins in the universe! You can really increase the stickiness (ability to keep your reader on your site) of your site by using it, and it has tons of SEO benefits, which means that you will do better in Google, Yahoo, and MSN because of it. The plugin displays related posts at the bottom of each post you create. To see it in action, scroll down to the end of this post.
2. Add Meta Tags - This plugin allows you to add meta tags to all of your posts and pages. Those of you that know about meta tags know that they can be a very useful tool. If nothing else, they show Google that all of your pages are unique, keeping them out of the supplemental index.
3. Dagon Design Sitemap Generator - A good, HTML sitemap can really help with your search engine rankings, especially with Yahoo and MSN. A sitemap consists of a list of each page within your site, and a link to each. Once you download and activate this plugin, you create a sitemap page for your site, paste in a small piece of code and voila! You have an HTML sitemap that you never have to update, it updates itself as you add pages, posts, and categories. To see this plugin in action, visit my sitemap page.
4. Digg Button - The Digg Button plugin allows users to “Digg” your articles right from your site, as they read them. Digg is a site where users vote on what articles are good, and which ones aren’t. If you get enough diggs, you get more and more visibility, which leads to more and more diggs, which leads to more visibility. A great article can get you thousands of extra visitors, and having a Digg button on each of your great articles will really increase the amount of diggs you get. If you would like to see this plugin in action, you can see this article, “To Darren Rowse And John Chow - Beware Of The Google Hunt.” You’ll see a Digg button near the top of the article.
5. Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam - This fabulous plugin is a ‘must have’ for those of you that have been attacked by the spambots. The plugin displays a simple word that people have to type in order to comment. It is always a simple word, so it isn’t hard for those who comment, and makes it impossible for spam computers to leave annoying comments.
6. Sociable - Sociable is a plugin very much like the Digg Button, except it displays buttons that users can use to submit the article to various social bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, Netscape, Furl, Del.Icio.Us, and others. Since many users will be familiar with those services, you should have an easy way for them to submit their favorite articles. You can see this plugin in action at the beginning and end of every post on this site, it’s the small row of buttons.
7. WP-ContactForm - If you have a contact form on your contact page, it makes it quite a bit easier for your readers to contact you. This small act makes your site seem a lot more professional to your readers than just displaying your email address. You can see this one in action of my contact page.

These definitely aren’t all of the plugins I’m using, but these are by far the most important. They have all made a big difference for me, and will for you. I would download and install each of them pronto.