Ever wondered which WordPress plugins are essential for internet marketing success? Which Plugins will help you to generate more leads, make more money online and really create a kick-butt blog? Out of the thousands and thousands of plugins for WordPress blogs, there are few standouts that you should get your hands on to maximize your efficiency and money making potential.

You don’t have to have the fanciest blog on the web, but there are some essential wordpress plugins you’ll want to make sure you have for Internet Marketing Success. Some of these may be familiar and some may be new to you, but here are my Top 10 Faves.

Essential WordPress Plugins

1. All in One SEO Pack: This plugin helps with the search engine optimization of your site by allowing you to edit the title, description and keywords for your website, in addition to your individual blog posts.

Also, you don’t just want to install this plugin, you need to make it work at peak performance, so here are a few recommendations for settings that you can use with the All in One SEO Pack plugin to efficiently maximize the SEO benefits for your own blog.

Here is a snapshot of my All in One SEO settings area: You’ll see something similar once you install the plugin.

Home Title: This is the meta title on your homepage. This will be the title that everyone will see in their browser. Your title should essentially be the brand name (The Gold Medal Marketer) and a tagline. Make sure it is under 60 characters and user-friendly, something someone would actually type into a search.

Home Description: Also called a meta description, it is right under the title and should be less than 160 characters so you see the full description. Used solely by the search engines, most users will not even see this when they browse your site. Take your time and really think about how your craft your description to make sure you have the right keywords added.

Home Keywords: This is where you’ll add targeted keywords. Separate them by commas and do research on your keywords before using them.

Individual Post Settings: In your post panel you will see a tab that says All in One SEO Pack and it looks like this: Follow the same guidelines for title, home description and keywords to maximize the benefits.

2. RSS Footer: This awesome plugin allows you to engage readers who are actually not reading your posts from your website but in a feed like Google reader. So usually when people get finished reading your content they move on to whatever it is they want to do with their lives. Unless you tell them specifically what to do next, more often than not they’ll do nothing. Well the whole purpose of having a blog is to get your reader to take some type of action or interact and this is why this plugin is so awesome. You can create a short note at the bottom of the RSS feed that asks your reader to leave a comment, become a Facebook Fan or Twitter follower, or you can just say thank you for being such a loyal reader and connect them to a free report. Love this one =)

3. TubePress: I was looking for a cool way to showcase my videos and tutorials on my blog when I came across this kick-butt plugin. I am still working on setting it up but this plugin is killer and it will allow you to create a video gallery on your blog, pulling videos from your Youtube or Vimeo account. You can put your video gallery in a post, page or on the sidebar of your blog. But in the meantime, here is a sample of what it will look like. Pretty sweet huh!

4. Aweber Web Form Plugin: This plugin is new from Aweber. This plugin allows you to take web forms you’ve already created in your Aweber account and just drag and drop them onto your blog without having to actually log-in to your Aweber account and copy and paste the html code. Making life super simple.

5. MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate: This kick-butt tool from MBP Affiliate is a must have for any Internet marketer or blogger who has the INTENT to make money with their blog. There is a common thread among 6 figure earners on the Internet and  I found that one of their money making secrets is to sprinkle their blog with what I like to call “Silent Pitch Links” or links that take the reader to a tool, product or service that you want them to see. It could be a link to an affiliate product you promote, or your own e-book, you can even connect them to a free report you generated.

Ninja Affiliate is a WordPress Plugin that will automatically convert keywords and phrases into affiliate links. Not only can it convert keywords into affiliate links it comes with a pretty sweet Affiliate Marketing system that helps you manage and track your affiliate marketing campaigns. The point to remember is that we are in the business of making money, not working a non-profit blog, and the goal is to provide overwhelming value in every post you write WITHOUT having to pitch or scream “buy my product, buy my product.”  The power in this tool is that it automatically monetizes every single post you’ll ever write for you while you can concentrate on providing value to your readers. Now you DO NOT want to spam your blog with links (be tasteful and tactful) but if you want to STOP leaving money on the table, here it is!

So if you are serious about increasing you passive income and making money on the internet you would be coo-coo not to add this tool to your marketing tool-box. So pick-up the Ninja Affiliate plugin today. Another cool note, is that even if you add it today, it will go back through all of the posts you’ve ever written and convert your keywords to your affiliate link. (I am working on a complete review and tutorial right now that will show you how to use this tool to maximize your income so look out for that shortly!)

6. Broken Link Checker: This plugin is pretty nice and another must have. What it does is crawls your entire blog and reports any broken links or images. A broken link could be a link that’s dead and doesn’t work (you may have typed the URL incorrectly) or it could be a link to a page that no longer exists. Once you install and activate this plugin it sweeps up all the junk links -kinda of like a maid for your blog.

7. Akismet: This tool is like Kryptonite for spam. It will keep your blog from being inundated with spammy comments. Already installed when you setup WordPress, you will need to get a API to enable this tool. Simply follow the directions provided once you activate the plugin and you’ll be good to go.

8. WordPress Database Backup: After hearing horror stories from people who did not take the time to back-up their content I found this plugin that will automatically send me an email that has a backup file of my WordPress blog every single day. Technology is great but hey, stuff happens, so take the time to backup now so you won’t be crying later!

9. Thank Me Later: This plugin is a great way to engage readers who have left comments on your blog and  to encourage or remind them to come back to your site. Thank Me Later (TML) will automatically send an e-mail to those who leave a comment on your blog. Use this plugin to say ‘Thanks’ to your visitors, and prompt them to further engage with your blog. This is a great way to draw people back to your blog and get repeat readers.

10. Google XML Sitemap: This is just great for those of you that don’t want to get your hands dirty with some additional coding. It basically allows you to create an xml sitemap which you can add to your blog. This is great because it helps with SEO allowing the search engines to index your site a lot easier. It is definitely a big time saver and is a worthy tool to incorporate on your site.

I know I said I was giving you 10 but here are 2 more that I just couldn’t leave these off the list!

11. Audio Player: This plugin allows you to include a podcast and other types of audio media to your blog. It has a sleek look and you can easily configure and customize it to match the theme of your site. Pretty cool if you want to upload interviews.

12. WPtouch Plugin: Always staying ahead of the trends,  you are going to want this plugin if you want the new generation of smart phone users to gain access to your site. This plugin takes all of your site’s content and makes it nice and pretty for any smart phone user that comes across your site. WpTouch allows integration with all major players: Apple, Android and Blackberry to name a few..Mobile Marketing here we come!

I am looking forward to your comments on these plugins. If you have a favorite wordpress plugin you’ve discovered as an internet marketer share it with us. I’m sure the readers of this blog would love to hear what makes making money online easier for you!!

To your blogging success!