The first version of chrisnesi.com was built on Google's free platform, Blogger. In August 2015 I made the move to self-hosted WordPress for my blog and podcast, House of #EdTech. I made the jump for one reason and that reason was plugins. This move wasn't even about all the plugins available to WordPress publishers so much as it was one plugin in particular. The plugin is Pretty Link. As a podcaster I wanted the ability like many other podcasters to be able to say, "You can view the shownotes for this episode by going to chrisnesi.com/[insert episode number]" and not "Find the shownotes on chrisnesi.com."
Thank God for plugins, when used wisely. I've heard horror stories of websites gone bad from overdoing the plugins on a WordPress installation. Plugins bring added functionality to a WordPress site and there are many things the podcasters use plugins for. Below is my list of the essential plugins for podcasters in 2017.
PODCAST ENGAGEMENT
WORDPRESS MAINTENANCE/DESIGN
- Pretty Link
- UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore
- Simple Content Templates
- Shortcodes Ultimate
- Shortcode Variables
- Open external links in a new window