I went to a WordPress Users Group meeting last where we focused on plugins. Between the vast amount plugins and widgets, it is often hard to choose. Our discussions became intense at time, and often very informative.  It is helpful to hear other people’s opinions before embarking on a journey of trial and error.  I walked away with what we all know to be true:  each of us wants our blog to perform different functions, so creating a generic list is out of the question. But some of the plugins are generic to all blogs, they just make good sense. Here is my generic list of plugins and why I think they are so great:

• Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu: anything that makes life easier goes to the of  the list
• WordPress Database Backup: OK, learned this the hard way. Backup your site often.
• Google Analytics for WordPress:  it’s Google, it’s analytical.

Some of the other recommendations last night included:

• Revision Control:  allows you to control the number of revisions to posts/pages
• G-Lock Double Opt-in Manager: mailing list management
• Google XML Sitemap:  creates sitemap to be updated to Google, YAHOO, and others

It’s also nice to check out http://www.wordpress.org/showcase to see what has been done, and what can be done with WordPress.