Once upon a time I made the big switch from Blogger to WordPress.  Actually, it was about five months ago, but if feels like a lifetime.  I drug my feet for a long time with this switch even after hearing reason after reason why I should do it.  Well, I finally did and I never looked back.

One of the biggest reasons to switch was the ability to use WordPress plugins.  They are sort of like apps for your iPhone except they allow your site to do all sorts of things.  Things that I haven’t ever seen Blogger able to do.  Not that I’m knocking blogger, because I used it for YEARS and loved it.  And the best part about Blogger?  It’s free.  It gives you a great platform for no investment and that’s awesome.

But to the point… if you are just starting in WordPress and see all of thousands of plug-ins you can install, you might not know where to start.  Here are what I consider the most essential WordPress plugins to install to get you going.

5 WordPress Plugins for The Newbie

1.  WordPress Greet Box – This plugin creates a little message to the reader calling them to action, depending on where they came from to land on your site.  For instance, if they follow a link to your blog from Facebook, it would say, Hey! If you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends!  Or whatever you want it to say.  It is totally customizable.  And awesome.

2.  nrelate – Add related content to the bottom of your posts.  This plug-in is great because it is very user-friendly and can be customized how you want it to look.  There are several different styles to choose from.

3.  Jetpack – This plug-in gives you lots of widget options like: email subscriptions, contact forms, latest tweets, post sliders, image galleries, a search box, etc.  A very useful tool!

4.  Blogger Importer – Easily move years of posts and images from your Blogger site over to WordPress quickly.  This is one of the most important plug-ins you can install at the beginning.

5.  Yoast SEO – Whether you are an SEO expert or total beginner, this plug-in makes it incredibly easy to optimize your site for SEO purposes.  This is a very valuable tool to anyone looking to monetize their blog.

There are so many more amazing plug-ins out there, so once you’ve got these all installed, go out and find other ways to make your blog AWESOME!