I have spent the last few days installing plugins and working with Google Adsense. These are the plugins that I now have installed on My Newbie Blog.

WordPress Database Backup - I am listing this one first because I think it is one of the most important plugins you will install. It will automatically backup your blog every day and send you the backup in an email. You should do this!

WordPress Automatic Upgrade - Another important plugin. This one automatically upgrades your WordPress whenever there is a new release!

Akismet - This one comes with WordPress but you need to activate it and get an API key. Akismet is a spam blocker. For more information on how to install this one read my article titled Installing the Akismet Plugin. This is a good one to start with. It will help you get the idea of how to install a plugin.

All in One SEO Pack - This plugin is important for gettting your blog optimized for search engines.

Brian’s Threaded Comments - This gives you threaded comments and a wandering comment form.

Dagon Design Sitemap Generator - This plugin does all the work for your Sitmap page. It is an HTML sitemap, which means that people can see it. IT is different than the XML sitemap that you will create for Google. If you have questions about installing plugins you can read the article I wrote about installing this plugin titled More Progress on the 50 Things to DO to Start a Blog from Scratch.

FeedBurner/FeedSmith - This plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. For more information onsetting up FeedBurner read my article titled Making Progress on the Starting a Blog from Scratch List.

Google XML Sitemap - This one is for the search engines. People on your site will never see it. The instructions will help you upload it to the search engines when you have it installed.

NoWWW - This is really a matter of preference. Do you want your site to be http://www.whatever or just http://whatever? If you install this plugin you will get rid of the www. You get this plugin at the WordPress Plugin Directory.

Sociable - Automatically add links to your posts to popular socail bookmarking sites. This plugin makes all links Nofollowed.

Related Posts - This one is good for SEO. It is a little tricky to install. Make sure you have a backup before you do it.

WP-Contact Form - This plugin is a drop in form for users to contact you. I go in to a lot of detail about installing this plugin in an article I wrote called 50 Things to Do to Start a Blog from Scratch - Part 3. If you read this article it will help you through the process of installing all kinds of plugins.

You should check out some of the plugins that are available for your blog at the WordPress Plugin directory. Experiment and have some fun! Another How to Create a Blog questioned answered.