WordPress is a unique blogging platform. It also has lots of useful plugins to enhance the function of certain blog. After switching into my own domain (I still have a Blogspot account), I’ve been experimenting with few plugins for my blog. So, here are the top ten.

1. Latest from each category
2. Recent Comments
3. WordPress.com Stats
4. Nextgen Gallery
5. WordPress Admin Bar
6. Gravatar
7. WordPress Related Posts
8. WordPress Thread Comment
9. All in One SEO Pack
10. Gostats

Let me describe briefly their functions and their importance.

Latest from Each Category
I put this plugin on my sidebar, with the title of ‘Recent Entries’. I have 10 categories in my blog and with this plugin, I can track on what I’ve write recently. The latest one will be on the top. So, I’ll make sure that each of the category has an interesting post. Its how I’m put some variety in my blog.
Love this plugin? Download it here.

Recent Comment
This is another interesting plugin to list down who have commented on my post. It is customizable and I’ve placed it on my sidebar too. When I don’t have time to check my email, I’ll just have to refer to this list to check on who’s my latest commenter.
Love this plugin? Download it here.

WordPress.com Stats
This plugin is created by Automatic, the wordpress creator. It helps me to check the statistics of my blog visitor. It is very helpful for me to know where my visitor came from, what they type in search engine before found my blog, which post and page they read and which links they click from my list of bloggers.
Love this plugin? Download it here.

Nextgen Gallery
This is the plugin which helps me to manage my images and photos that you can see throughout my blog. When you click on the thumbnail, it will open the full sized image without opening a new window or disturbing the blog content. It is called the lightbox script. It has gallery and album features.
Love this plugin? Download it here.

WordPress Admin Bar
When I logged into my account at WordPress.com, I noticed that they have some sort of admin panel on top of the admin bar. So after surfing here and there, I managed to found this plugin which works the same like the admin bar. It helps me reduce my click. Cannot describe it well here.
Check out this link for more information

Gravatar
Gravatar is a shortform of Globally Recognized Avatar. When you commented on my post, there will be a thumbnail avatar. It represents your identity based on your email account. No matter which wordpress based blog you’ve commented, it will have the same avatar. Upload your own avatar at Gravatar.com now and I can see your avatar anywhere. I do love the Identicon as available on the WordPress.com bloggers because not everyone have its own avatar yet.
Download this plugin here.

WordPress Thread Comment
This is where you’ll see in the comment section of my post. It helps me to reply message easily to the person who had leave a comment or question for me.
Love this plugin? Download it here.

WordPress Related Post
I’ve put this plugin at the end of each post. It will list down tags related post. For instance when I write about movie, then it will list down the latest post about movies too. Pretty useful isn’t it?
Love this plugin? Download it here.

All in one SEO Pack
Basically I don’t really understand what SEO is. It is a shortform of Search Engine Optimization. As far as I concern, this additional plugin will help search engine to find your blog faster and easier. Just key in some related keywords and your blog will be founded at least in the top 30 search result. I love it when search for my own name at Google. Google list my blog better than Yahoo!.
Love this plugin? Download it here.

Gostats
Gostats works just like the same as the WordPress.com Stats. However, if you are not using WordPress such as Blogspot etc, you can try use gostats. It helps to know where my visitor came from, what they type in search engine before found my blog, which post and page they read and which links they click from my list of bloggers. I use this plugin on 3belas blog because WP Stats plugin doesn’t work there.
Click this link to check out Gostats.com