Akismet - filters your comments from spam, pretty nicely, I might add.

Custom Contact - create a custom contact form, using custom fields & dropdowns.

fQuick - a great way to add sidenotes, random links or thoughts.

Get Custom Field Values - allows you to retrieve variables outside of the loop. Very useful.

WP-PostRatings - add a rating system to each post, so that you can determine popularity.

WP-PostViews - similarly, view the number of times a post has been viewed by the public.

WP-PageNavi - I’ve hacked this one, time and time again. When sorting through pages of items, this plugin gives you the ability to move forward and backwards, easier, and gives you the ability to add page number-specific images.

rc:custom_field_gui - probably the most important plug-in.. this gives you the ability to give each post more customized fields so that you can sort and organize them with greater ease.

Related Posts - fairly self-explanatory.

Ultimate Tag Warrior - a better way to organize posts than through categories. Leave your categories open to be used for classifying other things.

WordPress Database Backup - a necessity when moving your wordpress installation, or simply backing up your information. Extremely simple.

That’s all for now.