I’ve been using the blogging software WordPress for around three years now and in all of that time there really is nothing to touch it. Why? Its free (Open Source), it has a massive user base and support network, plug-ins, mods, widgets and themes galore, oh and did I mention it doesn’t cost a penny?

Of course free doesn’t always mean great but in this case, you get what you don’t pay for. I have tried literally hundreds of mods over the years, different themes/skins and modifications. Basically I like to tinker and I think I’m getting closer to my ideal WordPress install (at least for my needs).

Buzzsonic.com (as of today) runs on WordPress v2.0.2, so its not the latest install (which is v2.1.2). Anyway, I thought I’d list my top ten (or eleven!) modifications which I’m finding the most useful right now. This could well change soon but these are what I consider the most useful WordPress mods.

1. Glossy Blue Theme- For a simple, quick overhaul of the default WordPress look this neat two column Web 2.0-ish looking theme is one of the easiest ways to get a cool looking make-over. A close second was Glued Ideas Subtle which you might go for if you prefer a three column look. Honorable mentions go to Misty Look and Semiologic (I’m using an older install of this theme here).

2. Flickr FAlbum and Flickr Post Bar – These two plug-ins work together and require you have a Flickr account. The Flickr Post Bar ads an admin panel at the bottom of the new posts edit screen and enables you to easily add pics from your own Flickr account or others by Flickr keyword. Using the Post Bar with FAlbum you can host the thumbnails locally if you don’t want to link to images directly on the Flickr server.

3. Ultimate Tag Warrior – UTW allows you to add tags either through the write post page in WordPress in a tag box or on posts using an AJAXy box. From the write post page, you can also get suggestions for tags using the Yahoo keyword suggestion service. The tags can either appear below or above each post.

4. Popular Tags For UTW – You can see this in action right here. You need UTW (see above) and Widgets (see below) but simply put it arranges one of those neat looking (or not, depending on your taste) tag clouds where ever you add your text widget.

5. WordPress Widgets – This plug-in enables you to drag and drop all sorts of plug-in widgets into your sidebar.

6. Sociable – This enables your readers to automatically add links to your posts on popular social bookmarking sites. You can add/delete social bookmarking icons at will in the admin area.

7. Bad Behaviour – Deny automated spambots access to your WordPress install (or any PHP website) with this plug-in.

8. Del.icio.us Widget – Get the code from del.icio.us and paste it into a text widget (see number 5) and your latest saved links from del.icio.us will appear in your blog sidebar. There’s another mod that’ll publish your daily links as a post.

9. FeedBurner – There’s all sorts of RSS tweaking available via FeedBurner who offer a number of services to polish up delivery of your RSS feed, including email subscriptions for people who haven’t got to grips with RSS yet.

10. Add This – Get rid of all those little RSS buttons clogging up your sidebar by signing up to Addthis.com. Here your users can collect the content they come across and save it into their favorite bookmarking service.

11. Snap Preview Anywhere – This one you either love or hate. Some people will find it useful (Techcrunch are using it) some will find it obtrusive, what it does is preview outgoing links from your site so readers can preview the link by hovering over the text. I’m trying it out at iExploreFlorida.

And thats it so far. Obviously the mods wont appeal to everyone and I’m not claiming it to be definitive so I’d be interested to see any readers recommendations.
Related Reading

Getting Started With WordPress (WordPress Codex)
Why Everything You Think You Know About Blog Architecture is Wrong (Pearsonified.com)
What Would I Do Different if I Had to Start My Blog Over? (ProBlogger.com)
How To Customize WordPress Pt.1 (Performancing.com)
Tutorial (WordPress.com)