So today we’re going to be diving into blog plugins, but before we do, I’d invite you to read the Blog Engine and Blog Themes post if you havn’t already done so, just to make sure we are all on the same page.

What’s a plugin?

Before we jump into reviewing the different plugins that I use in my blogs, I think its a good idea to take a step back and understand what a plugin really is:

Lets say your blog is a small, old car.  When we were setting up the blog’s theme, we were actually doing things like giving the car a new paintjob, putting some new leather on the seats, and hanging a pair of fuzzy dice on the rear-view mirror (oh yea!).

Now that we have a pretty hot ride, we start to focus on making the car run, and begin installing upgrades like new tires, new suspensions and a lower frame.  These upgrades, while not changing the basic functionality of the car, make it run smoother, and to our taste.  This is the nature of a blog plugin.

So a plugin is a small piece of code that adds to or changes the functionality of your blog.  They come in all shapes and sizes (from simple to very complex), most of which are created and can be used for free on your blog.  With time, you will learn to master the art of including plugins on your blog seamlessly.  This will allow you to add new functionality to your blog, while not distracting your visitors.

Our First Plugin Review: WP-Cumulus

WP-Cumulus on Folaji.com

For our first blog review, we’ll be looking at one of my favorite plugins: WP-Cumulus.  This plugin takes your blog’s tags, categories, or both, and creates a 3D floating cloud of clickable links, which is then displayed in your blog’s sidebar.

Not only is the 3D rendered “cloud” visually appealing, it also engages your visitors, allowing them to skim through all of your blog’s content with the quick movement of a mouse.  The plugin is very easy to install and configure, and allows you to set the tag cloud’s colours and size to any RGB value.

For those of you that are concerned about the information being lost to search engine bots, WP-Cumulus will display a normal list of tags to any visitor that does not have Flash 9 or higher installed and javascript enabled.  Although some users might like this functionality, I see it more as a double edged sword.  Yes, the search engine bots will be able to crawl your site using tags, but this also means that anybody who doesn’t have Flash 9 and javascript enabled won’t see WP-Cumulus, but isntead will see the normal list of tags (which is not as professional looking as the 3D tag cloud itself).

So I say take the time to download and install this plugin.  Even if you don’t end up using it, its fun to setup and test (and who knows, you might just keep it on your site after giving it a test drive).

The WP-Cumulus plugin is available for WordPress self hosted blogs free of charge, and can be downloaded from the Wordpress.org Plugin Directory.

Review Recap

Pros:

• Beautiful and professional looking
• Very easy to install and configure
• Customizable height, width and colours
• Displays normal tag cloud to visitors without flash (useful for search engine bots)

Cons:

• Requires Flash 9 (or better) and javascript enabled
• May not be available to all blog visitors and browsers (ie: doesn’t seem to work in Internet Explorer 6)

Download WP-Cumulus here!