Which Extensions to Install for New Joomla Blog

Question

What are the most basic extensions to be installed for a Joomla personal blog site? Can everything be handled only by 5 extensions? No more features needed, but only the basic functions like security and speed.

Answer 1

one of the extension that I would suggest is easy blog, it has a number of features including spam control and allows for third party plugin integrations.Here is the link

http://extensions.joomla.org/extension/easyblog

and if you want it to have wordpress features then check this one :-

http://extensions.joomla.org/extension/wordpress-blog-for-joomla

But both are paid extensions so check the reviews from other users before purchasing.

Answer 2

Joomla has it's own Article Manager. Each article you can assign to a category of your choice. You can then use the core Joomla modules to display things such as:

• List of categories
• 5 latest articles

There's no need to use 3rd party extensions for a simple blog.

As for speed, in your case, this all simply depends on your hosting environment and size of images used if there are any

Answer 3

You can certainly have a successful secure blog with 5 or less extensions.

Depending on your definition of a blog, the only thing that might need to be added is a comments extension of which there are plenty to choose from: http://extensions.joomla.org/category/contacts-and-feedback/articles-comments

Brian Teeman's blog is a good example of using (almost) native Joomla for a blog. For details, see: https://brian.teeman.net/joomla/784-native-joomla-2-5-blog-site

I recommend installing an extension for backups and implementing a web application firewall on every site for backup and security.

You might also consider installing a third party template. Depending on whether the template includes social networking buttons, you might consider adding an extension to make it easy for visitors to share content.

In summary, the 5 extensions I recommend adding are:

1. comments e.g. JComments
2. backup e.g. Akeeba Backup
3. web application firewall e.g. Akeeba Admin Tools Pro
4. third party template
5. social networking e.g. CoalaWeb Social Links

Answer 4

You can use K2 for blogs, too. It's lightning fast and you can use it with K2Booster to enhance speed even more.

I will list 5 extensions here:

1. K2

2. JFB Connect (social integration)

3. K2 Booster (plugin to increase performances of K2)

4. JCE Editor (great editor for Joomla, it will help you when writing articles)

5. JCH Optimize (best plugin to optimize all the website with a very simple configuration)