I’m going to start off by saying that this post is not about whether “premium” anything WordPress is good or bad. I’ll discuss that in an upcoming post. I just wanted to take a minute to highlight three premium WordPress plug-ins that I own and use and will happily endorse because they have allowed me to do things that would have otherwise been more difficult or time/cost prohibitive to do. All three premium plug-ins are rock-solid (as per my usage) and have come with solid support (something you can’t overestimate in my book).
So without further delay, the Top 3 Premium WordPress Plug-ins:
*Note, since these all serve a different purpose they are in no particular order.
1. WishList Member: You guys have seen reviews on WishList here on vsellis.com for a while now. And while I said my “Top 3″ were in no particular oder this one is hands down my favorite because it can actually help you/your business earn money. WishlList Member is an incredible plug-in that allows you to create membership driven sites. Stu, Tracy and they guys have phenomenal support for their plugin and are consistently putting out great content for their community. (Sidebar: they recently released a video on the top 10 membership models to use, check it out).
I had an opportunity to travel to Las Vegas last spring for the first WishList Live conference and got a ton of good info and met some great people I still keep in touch with. I think they are doing on-line training soon and the training video above will lead you more info. Don’t know what the cost of the training will be but I’ll be it’s less than I paid for the class + hotel + airfare to Vegas! More than great functionality use this plug-in to build a business around.
Update: No Sooner that I posted this WishList Products announced the new online live training course. Get more info here: WishList Training
If you were already thinking about building a membership driven site this is a no brainer and definitely check out the video on memberhip models for great ideas. If you are looking for ways to make your site profitable a membership site may well be worth consideration so WishList Member and see what you think.
2. Gravity Forms: Forms are one of the intricacies of building and managing a website that can be time consuming, tedious and in some situations rather complicated. They guys at Gravity Forms have knocked out a killer plugin that works like a champ and makes the form building/management process a breeze. My only regret was that I didn’t buy this one sooner. If you are a developer or own more than one website buy the full license, it will save you time and a lot of frustration.
Gravity Forms is feature rich and they provide plenty of ideas on how to use the plug-in, best of all it’s very easy to learn. Hands down the best form builder for WordPress I’ve found or used.
3. Pretty Link Pro: Pretty Link Pro is a URL shortener for use on services like Twitter. While there are a ton of URL shortening services, most of which are free I really like Pretty Link Pro for a few reasons. First, your links are tied to YOUR domain and stay with you for as long as you keep your website (and Pretty Link Pro running). So if another URL shortening service dies off your link history lives on and continues working. Second, the bar that users get at the top after clicking a short URL (as on services like su.pr and hootsuite and many others) is branded for YOUR website. Finally you also get killer metrics and flexibility within your WordPress install. The more we text, tweet and use other short message systems the more important it is to keep your links alive and manage them accordingly. Pretty Link Pro makes it easy and fun.
There you have it. Three plug-ins that you have to pay for that are well worth the cost Again, I’ve purchased all three and I’d do it again! Some of these also might make a nice gift for the web-geek in your life!
