Here are the blog plugin’s I recommend.
All are free, no cost. Some have paid upgrades. I have not used the paid upgrades but they are probably worth it in most cases. You can easily get by with the free versions however.
- Akismet Anti-Spam – A standard in the industry to catch and block spam comments.
- Theme: Get this Socrates theme. Most important. Stable. Great support. And options you won’t believe to make your blog look GREAT with little effort. I’ve tried tons of free and paid themes. This is the only one you need to be a pro blogger with newbie knowledge. GET IT.
- Classic Editor – Enables the WordPress classic editor and the old-style Edit Post screen with TinyMCE, Meta Boxes, etc. Supports the older plugins that extend this screen.
- Disable Gutenberg – Disables Gutenberg Block Editor and restores the Classic Editor and original Edit Post screen. Gutenberg is the “new” WordPress lineup and is not very easy to use (yet.) Get this plugin to disable it and get back to the “Classic Editor” where TinyMCE works.
- TinyMCE Advanced – Enables advanced features and plugins in TinyMCE, the visual editor in WordPress. A “gotta-have” it gives you lots of extra editing features for your WordPress install. Like background highlighting!
- Wordfence Security – Anti-virus, Firewall and Malware Scan. Good plugin. This is one you might want to upgrade. Not needed right away though.
- Yoast SEO – All-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more. A great plugin if you want to optimize for keywords and readability. Takes a bit of getting used to but once you do, it’s pretty easy.
That’s it!
Now there are tons of other plugins for different purposes. Be careful though because some plugins you get might not be compatible with others. You won’t know till you try it. Just be aware. You can always back out of a plugin.
Themes: Don’t go crazy on themes either. Same issue… some are so complicated that not much will work with them. Good to go basic. I use the “Socrates” theme on this blog and it gives me plenty of options (like not having a sidebar and having widget areas) to customize it enough.
Hosting: If you need website hosting, I recommend BlueHost. Been using them for over 20 years. Solid. Once you get set up there, there is a link to set up a blog which only takes a few minutes. If you can’t find it, contact support. They are there 24/7 to help us.
If you have any recommendations, let me know!
Fred The Submarine Guy Raley
Fred@SubmarineGuy.com
http://www.TheSubmarineGuy.com