Over the course of time WordPress has changed a lot so are the plugins associated with it. If you compare WordPress’s earlier versions and the latest one, you will notice it’s completely different. Lots of plugins that used to work with WordPress 1.1 are no longer worked with WordPress 2+. Some of those are even no longer needed, as WordPress already have those within.

Not every plugins you find in WordPress is worth adding; some of them are even irritating and might cause you a lot of trouble. In my opinion these five plugins are must have kind, because of usability, flexibilities not to mention the usefulness.

WordPress 2.0 Plugin: WP-DBManager

This is at the top of my list, every time I set up a blog the first plugin I will install is always this one. This plugin allows you to optimize database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database and run selected queries. Remember everything you do in your blog stored in database, and in case something goes wrong with this you are doom. Yes by default WordPress 2+ have a built in plugin for database backup, but for flexibilities and maintenance I prefer this one. This gives you total control over your blogs database. No need to go for PHP admin page to do queries. If you are concern about preservation of your blog, you better have it activated.

FD Feedburner Plugin

This plugin redirects the main feed and optionally the comments feed to Feedburner.com. It does this without the need to modify templates, setup new hidden feeds, modify h-t-access files, or asking users to migrate to a new feed. All existing feeds simply become Feedburner feeds seamlessly and transparently for all users. Works with both IIS and Apache server. 80% of blogger have Feedburner account, for better flexibilities and user friendliness it is wise to direct your readers to your Feedburner feed rather then original WP produced feed.

Akismet

There are lots of bad people out there, who take advantage and spam on blogs through comment. There are many ways to fight comment spam, but in WordPress Akismet is the best so far. Automattic Kismet (Akismet for short) is a collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging, so you never have to worry about spam again. When a new comment, trackback, or pingback comes to your blog it is submitted to the Akismet web service which runs hundreds of tests on the comment and returns a thumbs up or thumbs down. With Akismet, you’re always protected up-to-the-second from the latest dirty tricks of spammers. There’s no maintenance, no upgrading, no hassle. This plugin is by default attached with WordPress 2+, but you need to activate it. For activating Akismet you will need to acquire Akismet API key, which you can get by opening a free account with WordPress.com.

Sidebar Widgets

Without this plugin, you will miss half of the fun of WordPress trust me. This plugin allows you to play around with your sidebar without have to worry about coding. Simply fascinating, I couldn’t find better word then that.

CG-InBetween

Whether you wants flexibility of adding advertisements between your posts or just want to add extra Html stuffs between posts CG-inBetween is your answer. You can’t imagine how much this plugin will ease your way, especially when you are monetizing your blog. This plugin has its own options page, from where you can control every aspects of it. With CG-inBetween activated, drop ads after fist post or second posts…just a matter of few clicks.