Google XML Sitemaps: Search engine optimization works best when your website or blog is easily indexed by search engine bots. Using Google XML Sitemaps ensures that your blog is properly indexed, increasing its web visibility.

Statpress: For all your statistics needs! Statpress collects information about visitors, spiders, search keywords, feeds, browser and more.

Advertising Manager: Recognises a wide variety of ad networks, including Google Adsense. The plug-in manages and rotates ads on your blog. It can also be used to modify the positioning of advertisements within your blog.

Askimet: Provided by WordPress, this handy plug-in is skilled at catching out spam comments without scaring visitors off with annoying captchas.

Bookmark Me: Bookmarking has become one of the key marketing techniques used by successful bloggers and business owners. Bookmark Me makes it easy for visitors to bookmark your blog for future reference.

Subscribe Me: The Subscribe Me plug-in adds buttons that let your visitors share your content on social media sites such as Bloglines or Google Reader.

SRG Clean Archives: Not only does this plug-in make your archives toolbar look neater and more visually appealing, it arranges it so that it is more search engine friendly.

Simple Feed Copyright: With plagiarism a constant issue on the internet, it is useful to have a simple copyright message at the end of articles and posts. This can help to deter would-be plagiarizers.

No Self Pings: On a professional blog, it may be appropriate to block ping-backs from within your own site.

WordPress Related Posts: This plug-in will automatically insert links to related posts at the end of your article via WordPress tags.

SEO Smart Links: The name speaks for itself.

SEO Slugs: “Slugs” are the part of a web page address that give all or part of the page title. SEO Slugs automatically works out the best slug, by removing small, cluttering words such as “a” “the” “and,” etc.

WP-PageNavi: Gives your blog a more sophisticated paging navigation (ie, numbered pages instead of the standard “older” buttons).

Thank Me Later: Sends an automated email to those who comment on your blog, encouraging them to engage further with the blog. Various features of this plug-in can be manipulated to create a more people-friendly outcome.

WP-DBManager: All your database needs, including back-up, optimization, repair, restoration, and more.

BackType Tweetcount: A plug-in that combines the power of social networking with your blog.

WPTouch: Connect with your mobile audience using WPTouch. It automatically converts your theme into a phone-friendly theme for visitors accessing your blog from their mobile phone.

HeadSpace2 SEO: HeadSpace2 is an all-in-one meta-data manager that allows you to fine-tune the SEO potential of your site.

WP Super Cache: A convenient tool for owners of high-traffic blogs, this plug-in generates static HTML files from your WordPress blog. This reduces the demand on your server, making it faster to download.

There is a growing number of social networking sites available that are geared specifically toward businesses. A good example is LinkedIn.com, a business networking site that has become very popular for its ease of use and general usefulness to business owners. Users create a profile which can then be viewed by others users; individuals can create ‘groups’ of networked professionals and recommend other contacts to each other. LinkedIn also allows users to post information about events, jobs and business opportunities.

Facebook has also become a common marketing tool amongst tech-savvy business owners looking to broaden their exposure. Again, a profile can be created that allows for communication with large groups of networked individuals. Those with a Facebook profile can join other Facebook networks, post links to their page, upload photos and more.

Twitter offers a fairly unique approach to social networking. It works around micro-messages, known as “tweets,” which can be up to 140 characters long. These are then shared with “followers.” Twitter is often used effectively by businesses to update potential or existing clients on the latest events, such as sales, that the business wants to promote or just to remind followers of their presence with reminders of the kinds of services offered.

These are just a few of the social networking sites available to business owners looking to increase their professional and client networks. It is worth exploring a variety of options, to further increase market exposure.

A regularly updated blog (sometimes available in conjunction with social networking sites) can be an excellent tool when used alongside social networking. On one hand, businesses can direct networked individuals to the blog to learn more about the business. On the other hand, links contained within the blog can lead back to the social networks that have already been created, and so expand those social networks.

Backlinks are links located on other websites which point back to your own. Building up such links serves a dual purpose. First of all, the links themselves will supply a certain amount of traffic to your blog. Secondly, the more backlinks you have featured on other quality websites, the more highly regarded your site will be by the search engines. Your rank will improve, and with it your traffic.

Good websites will naturally be highlighted and promoted by other websites, who will provide links for their readers. For the most part, though, the onus is on the blogger to generate initial interest. The first step is to write interesting, well-written content. Then you need to tell people about your blog. The way to do that is by creating an online presence through forum posts and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Building good relationships with people who share your interests is crucial. As you connect with these people and join in discussions, leave links to your website or blog in forum signatures or via automatic updates to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.