I love WordPress. I've been developing alot of WordPress websites lately, using the versatile app to manage both blog and more traditional content sites. I'm not alone; many people are discovering that WordPress is more than just a blogging platform. Case in point: PHPit published a two part article about using WP as a CMS just last month.

For 2003 and 2004, I was doing the Mambo. Now here's a content management system that packs a punch! Thing is, I often found it overblown for my projects' needs, I didn't like the hyper table generating code and I found the extensibility too complex. When the Mambo/Joomla split happened late last year, Mambo users were forced to make a decision as to which fork to follow. It was at that point that I decided to jump ship for the peaceful waters of WordPress.

Last week, I converted a client's site from Mambo to WordPress, and the experience was very satisfying. Have a look at the new site. That sure isn't a blog now, is it?!

Obviously, there are many more WordPress sites in my professional horizon. Yesterday, I set up another new WP site and whilst doing so, came up with a list of what I consider the essential WordPress plugins:

• WYSI-WordPress: This plugin adds a WYSIWYG editor to the advanced editing screen of Wordpress, allowing you to edit posts as you would in any word processor application. It also includes Martin Chlupác's excellent Iimage Manager v 1.4.1. 
• Notes: Keep notes on the WordPress backend.
• Counterize: A simple counter-plugin that saves IP, timestamp, visited URI, referring URI and browser information in a database table, and can display total hits, unique hits and other statistics in WordPress webpages. Admin-interface available with detailed information. 
• Unfancy Quote: This plugin removes the fancy quotes inserted by WordPress. It's very useful to anyone who regularly inserts code in their posts. 
• The Excerpt Reloaded: This is a useful modification of WordPress' template function the_excerpt().
• WP-Contact Form: WP Contact Form is a drop in form for users to contact you. It can be implemented on a page or a post.
• Static Front Page: This plugin sticks the static page with a slug of 'home' to your blog's front page. This plugin will be useful to anyone who wants to use WordPress to run a conventional website.

Do you have a favourite?

UPDATE: Here are a few more to add to the list.

• Customizable Post Listings
• Head Meta Description
• Get-a-Post
• Prin's Amazon Wishlist
  Not necessarily an essential plugin, but the only one I've found so far that works with amazon.ca. I'd like to add a couple of features: random selection, and Amazon category selection (book, cd, dvd, etc.)
• Akismet