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Premium WordPress Plugins – What are Your Favourites?

Posted By Darren Rowse 27th of August 2010 Reader Questions 0 Comments

Yesterday I asked readers to suggest their favourite free WordPress plugins. The response was great and I’ll pull together a compilation of the most mentioned ones in the coming weeks.

However I’d also love to get your suggestions on the most useful Premium WordPress Plugins.

Over the last few years we’ve seen more and more premium (or paid) WordPress plugins released. At first many bloggers were skeptical about paying for plugins but of late I’ve noticed a bit of a shift and more and more bloggers are willing to pay for quality premium plugins.

If you’re a blogger who has forked out a few dollars for a premium WordPress plugin – I’d love to get your feedback on which ones you’ve found most useful.

So which are your favourite Premium WordPress Plugins – and Why?

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. I <3 shopp ecommerce plugin… http://shopplugin.net/

  2. I will start with

    MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate – This plugin lets you create pretty URLs for your affiliate links. It also convert keywords in your site with links you want. So ProBlogger book will be converted to my amazon affiliate link.

    OIO Publisher – If there is one plugin that can do the job of managing advertisement without giving away middle-man cut is OIO. It is a one stop shop for all ad management.

    Gravity Forms – for advanced forms in WordPress such as letting users submit posts, upload attachments etc. Gravity forms is great.

    Imapct Page Template Plugin – This is a new plugin, but I really like it. It lets you create custom page templates (as many as you want).

    Backup Buddy by iThemes – is one of the must have plugins. It not only backs up your database, but it back up other site files as well.

    PadPressed – a great plugin to make your blog act like a native app in iPad.

    wptap – is a plugin that makes your WordPress blog friendly with iPhone.

    aMember – for all membership site needs. It does the job very well.

    That will end my list :)

  3. I like the BackupBuddy from PluginBuddy. It automates a backup process very well, much like how those of use from a traditional IT background are used to. It also lets you store the backups offsite at S3 or at remote servers which is clever.

  4. Personally I love Headway. To me it is the best premium supported theme on the market. It’s visual editor makes it rock solid.

  5. Hey Darren,

    My Favorites are –

    Popup Domination – It helps me to build my list in a fast way.

    Ninja Affiliate Plugin – One of the awesome and effective plugin to clock affiliate links

    Thanks.

    PS. Typo in the post “Eearlier” – Earlier.

    ~Dev

  6. I love the Events Calendar Pro plugin. All other event plugins haven’t been upgraded nor worked as well as this.

    http://codecanyon.net/item/events-calendar-pro-wordpress-premium-plugin/109301

  7. Hi Darren,

    My favourite is Apture because it can transform an ordinary post into a multimedia one. With Apture you can easily add a related YouTube video, a link to Amazon for a book you mentioned, or add a reference to help explain the topic.

    I like the idea of the Yet Another Related Post though sometimes it a bit off with some of your posts which it chooses. But it’s an excellent way for your readers (especially new ones) to see your older posts.

  8. phpbay – Great for ebay affiliates. I put it on all review posts.

  9. I’m hesitant to buy premium plugins… and haven’t yet.

    But I have my eye on Backup Buddy by iThemes and Gravity Forms. Both look incredible.

  10. I’m working on a list of these for my subscribers. The ones I have to install on my sites are:

    Scribe – Easy SEO. It trains you to write for the web.

    Web Traffic Genius Pro – For RSS Syndication. I can rank on the first page of Google overnight with this one alone.

    Related Websites (by BTE) – So worth the annual fee for the traffic it brings.

    MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate – to cloak and handle affiliate links

    MaxblogPress Subscriber Magnet – builds my lists automatically and so helps me connect with people better.

    Google Video Sitemap – gets videos on google FAST

    WP eStore – Adds more than a simple paypal button, cloaks downloads, easy to make things look nice.

    WP Membership – This is a slick way to make a membership site, priced very reasonably.

    WP Affiliate – I’m torn between running my own affiliate program and putting it out on an affiliate network. I’ve decided on my own because I want people promoting my products who have experienced them and have found value. If they are going to be telling their friends anyway, why shouldn’t they get paid for it?

  11. The best paid plugin I have is not really a plugin jeje, but the Thesis Theme (has like a SEO plugin integrated) is working great for me.

  12. I actually don’t use any premium plugins that aren’t included in my theme (it is a paid theme).
    I would guess the silo plugin included with my theme could be a premium plugin. It allows for SEO linked pages.
    It’s had to find a premium plugin that does not have some open source option that can do nearly the same.
    I’m still open to something good though.

  13. Darren,

    Subscribers Magnet
    Ninja Affiliate Plugin
    Wishlist Member

    ~~Juan~~

  14. My favorite premium plugins:

    1. Backup Buddy
    2. Gravity Forms
    3. Popup Domination

  15. I wish I could mention what is right now my favorite statistics plugin for WordPress – it combines all of the stats for PostRank, Google Analytics, Clicky, social sites, etc. all in one, but is still in beta testing and the publisher doesn’t want it publicized yet. But by far it will be my favorite premium plugin, as I usually stick with the free stuff.

  16. MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate

    Has to be this one. I don’t use it on my personal blog, but on others it has proved tremendously helpful. Cheers

  17. Oh man, easy one – WordPress eStore for selling digital products from your blog. It’s so easy to set up, secure, and offers a variety of payment options (although I only use PayPal).

    Plus it has related plugins to create membership sites, customised PDFs (people won’t pirate your eBook if it has their name and address on the front page!), offer an affiliate program, etc.

    Great value and awesome support.

    http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-estore-plugin-complete-solution-to-sell-digital-products-from-your-wordpress-blog-securely-1059

  18. I use the following:

    1. Gravity Forms (to manage my contact forms)
    2. WP eStore (to sell my digital products)
    3. WP Affiliate Platform (to recruit and manage my affiliates)

  19. Thesis Theme and Scribe for SEO are the largest expenses for my little blog and I love the feature-rich, good support (far better on Thesis than on Scribe – I have opened a case with Scribe where if your keyword has a dash (-), it goes unrecognized, such as self-discipline. They have yet to fix it since April…..) but I still give both thumbs up.
    Site Stats is my favorite free WP Plugin though!

  20. My favorite would have to be the WP eStore plugin. This plugin has been the best, it was effortless to setup and use. I sell eBooks using this plugin and it has been a dream. I started using this plugin a few months ago. Another plus for this plugin is that the developers behind it offer amazing customer service.

  21. MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate and PopUp Domination are probably my two favorite premium plugins.

    The reason is that the Ninja Affiliate plugin helps cloak and track my affiliate links in an easy and powerful way, the PopUp Domination plugin creates beautiful popup windows that helps build my list.

  22. Three Words: :-)
    GravityForms
    Wishlist Member
    Shopplugin

  23. Great Darren,

    Maxblogpress Ninja Affiliate and Popup Domination rocks ! Those are my choice!

  24. I think the popup domination plugin is really great as it helps you build a really targeted list!

    It also creates attractive popover boxes and not ugly ones like most websites!

  25. I really enjoy three premium plugins – MaxBlogPress ninja affiliate, SEO pressor and pop up domination.

    Regards,
    Sushant
    http://www.smartbloggerz.com .

  26. Hands down, BackupBuddy from iThemes!

  27. I have pop up dominator, which sadly I can’t customise to show every few days, instead it shows on every single page and is driving me insane, so I disabled it. Now back to using Aweber.

    Love Scribe, worth it’s weight in gold. Glad that I have it.

    What I have found with all plugins and not just premiums ones, there is an assumed level of knowledge when you use them. This can make it difficult for the non techie person to customise. The plugin that comes with how to use videos are the ones going to be considered by me, and I don’t like video very much.

  28. There are a lot out there, it depends on what we would like to use it. I love Ninja Affiliate and MaxPress Banner Ads

  29. Backup Buddy by iThemes has already been mentioned, but it is that awesome. It helps me sleep at night.

    I also like Contact Form 7 and Gallery Slideshow due to their simplicity and ease of use. Thanks,

    Joe

  30. Gold Cart shopping upgrade from Instinct. It is so easy to use even a newbie like me can make stuff look fab

  31. I haven’t found a unique way to use it yet, but I like Gravity Forms for making forms.

    Hey, a great idea would be to ask (on some of these plug-ins) about unique ways people are using them!

    Scribe is a great plugin, and when the new features -now only available in webbased – kick in it will be more awesome.

    Also, I have been hearing good stuff about Popup Domination.

    Mike

  32. Would have to be Backup Buddy by iThemes. I recommend it to all my clients and they love it too.

  33. Again what I would post, is listed!! thanks again! it’s great to see all the plugins people use! thanks for a great post! ;)
    Tess

  34. I like MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate and, although not plugins, I love and use canvas and thesis wordpress themes.

    You can’t go wrong with those two themes.

  35. Another vote for Backup Buddy by iThemes! It is so easy to use, even for a non-techie. And a small price to pay for the insurance of having your backups in more than one place.

  36. MailChimp is my favorite so far and the best part is you don’t even have to start paying for it right away…you can use it for a while if you’re small enough, which I am. Gotta love that and it’s so easy and looks so professional.

  37. I’m using VivaZoom for all my pictures. Cheap, one-time purchase that makes pictures ZOOM in instead of going to a new page. Works great!

  38. All, thank you for the kind words about Scribe, as the technical architect I take your points directly.

    Farnoosh – I am sorry about the support delay. Please check our support center at https://my.scribeseo.com. I believe we have your point responded to but you may not have gotten the email. Support is crucial and your crtisism is well taken.

    Sarah – thank you for the kind words! To your point the new link building and keyword features will be in WordPress next week on Sept 1. We were delayed during our testing to make sure the keyword and link building is perfect for mass release.

    Darren, thank you again for including us.

  39. PopupDomination for sure.

    It increases an email list like no other!

  40. I am not exactly a fan of using paid plugins when there are so many awesome ones available for free. But I still found some useful ones for little knick-knacks here and there.

    1. SEOPressor – Ranks your post for SEO score while you are editing/posting. If you have chosen your keyword right, and you get a high score in SEOPressor, you can be sure of ranking high in Google with minimal backlinks because this plugin more or less ensures that you have forgotten nothing in terms on on-page SEO. Highly useful for on page SEO optimization.

    2. Web Traffic Genius Pro – I haven’t bought this yet, but I am impressed with its rss syndication features. Its on my wish list.

  41. WP Sales Engine
    Wishlist Member

    and

    Scribe SEO

    But I think loads of free plugins can also help…

  42. My best premium plugins are
    1. Ninja Affiliate by maxblogpress
    2. Gravity Forms
    3. OIO Publisher.

  43. Wow, great conversation going on. I love it! I just explored more than 30 of my own favorites. Of those 30, I’d have to say these five are my absolute favorites.

    Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) – Back in the old Blogger days, I used to manually add related posts to the end of each. :) When I moved to WordPress a few years back, imagine my delight with plugins like YARPP. YARPP is my favorite of all the ones I’ve tried. The algorithm is ridiculously good.

    Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu – I’m a visual kinda guy and I love the customization options for my dashboard. It makes managing my site easier with the horizontal drop down.

    Akismet – With the large amount of spam, I can’t imagine manually managing all the spambots. Akismet is my favorite spam fighter of all those I’ve tried.

    Top 10 – I really like this widget. It displays your posts with the most hits and you can specify all-time, daily, etc. You can also specify the total counts, qty, etc.

    Sharethis – This provides 7 different button options, including counters, for Facebook, Twitter, Email and Share.

    Contact Form 7 – It’s simple, yet clean and effective.

    I covered a little more than 30 of my favorites here, http://www.fivefreeapps.com/30-essential-wordpress-plugins-to-enhance-your-blog, if anyone is interested.

    Darren, thanks for opening this up to let us share our favorites.

  44. my blog is not working well to own some wp plugins at some cost. but i got a list if i need to. and gravity forms i think would be very useful for me to ponder on.
    thanks guys for the information!

  45. I have a wordpress blog and iam not using special premium plugins. The blog is not working well for me. I would like to add some plugins after getting some belief on my Blog.

    Thanx.

  46. Hi Daren,
    I will vote for –
    Executable PHP widget: Like the Text widget, but it will take PHP code as well. Heavily derived from the Text widget code in WordPress.

  47. We have developed a WordPress plugin for translation of blogs. This is a first-of-its-kind plugin designed to drive more traffic to the blog while increasing ad revenues.

    The GTS Translation WordPress plugin is a free solution for human translation of blogs. Unlike all of the other plugins on the market which rely on machine translation only (such as Google and Microsoft), our solution takes the translation to the next level by letting native language experts review the translation before it is published. The plugin gives you control over the translator network, allowing you to establish your own crowdsourcing network. Or, you can use the GTS community.

    Our solution was specifically designed to increase readership and enhance ad revenues by driving more traffic to your blog. All of the translated content is cached on the original WordPress database, which means that search engines will index the translated content. The translated content is SEO optimized; RSS feeds are translated and various plugins (like Tweetmeme) are localized.

    As we are getting ready to launch the official release, we are looking for a few bloggers to help us test the plugin.
    Please send us an email to info at gts-translation.com if you would like additional information about our solution.

  48. hoho. Too many. I cannot say all of that premium plugin.

  49. Although a lot of free templates look outstanding, but they don’t have any of under the hood abilities of premium themes. The majority of paid designs will supply settings panel in your WordPress back office that is exclusive to that theme. Those control panels can make tasks like logo upload, favicon upload and other design features effortless.

  50. I vote for Wishlist,( wishlistproducts.com ) a powerful plugin for creating membership sites. I’ve installed it on several client sites. At a one-time cost of about $100 per site, it’s simply the best performer and best buy of any membership software I’ve tested.It comes with great tutorials to walk you through the set-up. When you need help, the support is first rate. And updates keep it in sync with wordpress. It just doesn’t get any better than Wishlist!

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