So I have been using WordPress for, how long? Like three (3) years? It’s about time that I put together another WordPress plugin list. But this isn’t any list, here I present plugins that help save Web Developers timewith commonly asked-for website fuctionality.

Many times I have a client ask me for a specific implementation (most commonly carousels or slideshows) and instead of developing a functionality from scratch, I just grab one of these plugins and customize it a bit. I use these the most often:

NextGen Gallery

Very customizable picture gallery.

Contact Form 7

Simply the easiest AJAX powered contact form. Fully customizable.

LightBox 2

If you don’t know what a Lightbox is, then I feel sorry for you. Make your clients pictures pop, literally off the screen.

TubePress

As time goes on, more and more of your clients will also have YouTube accounts.  Why not use the click of a button to import, list, and play their YouTube videos right on their website? Tubepress is easy to use, and for additional features you can upgrade to TubePress Pro for a one time donation.

My Page Order

Learning WordPress for the tech-impaired is like a sensory overload.  Keeping track of page order by way of those little numbers in the edit-page area can be managed much easier with My Page Order. It uses a drag and drop interface to order pages.

I started doing a design a little while ago for a friend named Robbie Cooper, and I decided in my design to incorporate some depth and 3-D illustrations to help give the site more pop.  While going through some tutorials in the various blogs that I read, I noticed that this is a design trend which, I believe, will become popular this year, if it has not already.  Here are some examples:

CSS-Tricks.com

Robbie Cooper (by me)

GayaDesign.com (@gayadesign)

Sarah Longnecker

Cognigen Corp

Do you know of other examples that I missed?  Leave a comment below or tweet me @esamek.