The great thing about WordPress as a blogging platform is that is makes it a little more easy. Mainly by providing features that simplify the process. Some that even cut entire steps out of what used to be a time-consuming effort. My own WordPress is full of plugins, some that I use often and some only rarely. These are the five I use the most, and have seen the greatest improvement to my productivity as a consequence.
5 WordPress Plugins for Increased Blogging Productivity
1. Events Manager
This is probably the most thorough events manager I have found for WordPress, and I love it. There are a ton of widgets and features available, as well as a user submitted event capability that allows you to confirm all events submitted prior to blog admission. There is booking management, multi-day event registration, customizable details for each day, RSS feeds and SEO compatibility. Plus a ton more. If you want a simple way to organize events, this is the plugin for you.
2. Blogging Checklist
(Note: Even though WordPress will warn you the plugin hasn’t been updated for a while, it’s tested on the latest WordPress set-up and is proved to be working) I used to send out an email to all people writing for me with a list of things to be sure of before submitting a draft for publication. Some were great at following it until it became second nature. But many more would disregard it entirely, leading me to have to practically rewrite the post in order to get it publishable as per the blog’s guidelines. I ended up getting this plugin, and it has helped a lot. You are able to create a standardized checklist that is fully customizable and embedded into your WordPress. So writers just check off each item as they write, or when they read over it before submitting. I now have no problems, and it has saved me a lot of time. One small con is that it is very old and has not been updated. However, I have had no problems with it running on newer WP versions.
3. Guest Blogging Plugin
Guest blogging is a great way to increase your blogging productivity because guest contributors can provide you with free content when you are away or too busy to blog. However the most frustrating part of the whole process is finding reliable guest posters. I like to have a guest post up once a week, and to try to find blogs for my own guest posts twice a month. This plugin is aimed at making the whole process much easier and faster!
There is an article gallery full of posts people want to see up on different sites. You just make an offer to the writer, telling them when and where it will be published. If they agree, you put it up with their byline and wallah! You have free, high quality content with next to no fuss. The plugin streamlines the process even further by letting you search for posts from your WP dashboard, make offers, publish and even alert the writer without signing into your MBG account. Here’s the video overview that shows the whole process within 2 minutes of time.
4. Broken Link Checker
The longer a blog is up, the more common broken links are going to be. That is just a general part of running a site, and it is very frustrating. Especially as you won’t always know what links are broken and which ones are fine. Going through one by one might be a usability test that has been necessary in the past, but it isn’t a relished one. Thankfully, there is this plugin. It checks for broken links on your behalf at regular intervals, then alerts you when it finds any that have to be fixed. You can configure it to your exact specifications, as well.
5. WP Project Management Ultimate
WP Project Management is the multi-purpose plugin that adds project management features to your WordPress backend. Use it to organize your post ideas, freelance tasks, writers, etc. Creating a project, you can specify the time frame when the task should be completed as well as statuses and any reference numbers you have (for example, account number):
The plugin adds a new “Projects” section to the left-hand menu. There you can see your current projects and their status:
Do you have any plugins for WordPress that you feel have boosted your productivity? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to tell us why you can’t live without it!
