Plugins are like a bloggers toolbox, many to find but definitely a lot of junk amongst them as well. So which are actually handy to use and would you want to have on your blog? With the recent design change of Slevi I came the plugins I used a second look and also added some new, so let’s have a look at the absolutely recommended and also the plugins which just add that little extra touch.

1. Akismet - Although there are other anti-spam plugins out there which you could use as well I’m not having too much problems with akismet anymore on my current host. I probably can’t call it a lifesaver, but it’s definitely a timesaver! Thanks to Akismet I’m protected from hundreds of spam comments each week.
2. Sitemap generator - Something I’ve gone without for a long time, but mainly since I wasn’t really taking any time in actually giving my blog any success, from now on I’m going to treat my blog like any other site I’d design and make it friendly towards Googlebot by handing it over a sitemap to use.
3. Lucia’s linky love - Although it’s not like your blog wouldn’t run without it, it definitely is part of a great movement in the blogosphere to bring dofollow back on comments. Something I’ll be completely supporting from now on as well, it’s time to reward the commenters I’d say!
   
4. Subscribe to comments - A feature which for many readers is a great way to get more involved in the discussion on an entry by being kept up to date on the latest responses, a must which more blogs should be adding if I would say so.
5. Popularity contest - An easy way to immediately show your readers the most popular topics on your blog, especially over time as views and responses build up it’s going to become a good overview of which entries are loved most.
6. Top commenters - I love every single commenter I have so giving them back a site-wide link is the least I can do, unfortunately doing this for everybody might turn out problematic but this plugin helps out by linking to the top commenters.
7. Optimal title - Improving the way your title is displayed for improved SEO, now what more could a person want.
8. MyBlogLog Avatars - Many people these days make use of mybloglog, thanks to this plugin that usage will be linked to the comments in the form of displaying their avatars. Although it’s not a necessity, it is just that little extra personal touch.
9. Lightbox - You’ve probably all seen it around the web at least once, a picture when you click on it grays out the background and the picture enlarges. The lightbox plugin does exactly this thing for you, although not a must for every blog it definitely comes in handy for me.
10. Full text feed - Since I’ll be using excerpts from now on so the main page will be able to hold more entries at once this one is definitely nice to bring the feeds back to length again.
11. Advanced search lite - Just for testing purposes I thought let’s give search a go again, but definitely not the standard wordpress search since the results are seriously awful. Who ever uses searching on character strings within words these days still after all, this plugin should fix that for you by searching like it has at least some intelligence to back the results up.
12. Search meter - Wondering what people are actually searching for? It might give an impression of what they’re looking for on your blog but actually isn’t there yet so let’s give this a try along.
13. Shylock adsense plugin - Although not the most popular adsense plugin it definitely is the most versatile plugin if you ask me, unlike most other plugins with this one you don’t have to place in the ads manually and you can differentiate where and how many ads there are being shown in new and old posts.
14. Secure and accessible PHP contact form - The name of the plugin is something which could have been a little bit shorter, but a nice little contact form plugin with easy customizable style. Wondering where to find it on Slevi, check out out about me :-).
15. SRG clean archives - Last but definitely not least this plugin offers a great way for your archives to be shown, have been using SRG for quite some time now and it’s been a great plugin all the way.

And with this we have reached the end of the list, I decided not to use too many plugins for Slevi to prevent it from getting too cluttered. Even if there’s quite a bunch of others out there like sociable, relevant posts, etcetera which you might be wanting to give a look at and see if it fits your needs you must keep in mind the more plugins you install the higher the loading time might become and the more cluttered your page might end up being.

Of course a big thanks goes out to the original authors of these plugins and along with that the authors of plugins in general. Without the work you guys and gals would be doing the average blogger would be having to waste a lot more time on coding and scripting, so keep up the good work!

If you know of any great plugins which you think are worth a mention, don’t hesitate to let us all know through a comment.