One of the greatest features of WordPress is the vast extent to which users can customize (through plugins, themes, and hacks) the look, feel, and functionality of their weblogs – allowing your blog to be simultaneously powerful and unique. As stated in the codex:

“Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress. The core of WordPress is designed to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins offer custom functions so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs”

WP plug-ins can do anything from addg technorati tags to your blog to grabbing your latest furl or de.li.cio.us links and automatically displaying them on your site to generating teaser previews of your posts.

But where do you get plugins for WordPress? Well, if you know PHP you can make them yourself, but most will probably want do download the plugins that others have authored and made freely available to the wordpress community.

I’ve found the following pages to contain links to many plugins. However, it is often unclear whether a plugin was designed to work in v1.5 or if it only works in older versions of wp (it is up to each individual plugin author to decide whether they want to update their plugins), so for now you’re just getting a bunch of links out of me, but I have plans to go through them all and put together a comprehensive list of plugins that work in wordpress 1.5+.

Sources for wordpress plugins:

• The WordPress Plugin Directory
• The WordPress Plugins Database (provides wp 1.2 & wp 1.5 compatibility information, although I haven’t always found it to be accurate..)
• Blogging Pro’s list of wp plugins
• The Wordpress Plugin and Mod Competition Blog and Wiki
• MundoGeek’s wordpress plugin list – seems very comprehensive, but it’s in spanish (also does not give compatibility info)
• Plugins « WordPress Codex

Be warned though, some plugins do not play well with others, so if you experience a problem simply deactivate the plugin through the plugin manager (or, if for some reason you cannot access it, rename the file in your plugins directory)

WordPress plugins are generally easy to install, only requiring you to upload them to your wp-content/plugins/ directory and then go to your Plugin Manager and ‘Activate’ the plugin of choice.

For information on customizing the look and feel of your wordpress site make sure to read the following articles on templates and themes:

• How to customize an existing WordPress 1.5 theme just the way you want