source: One Tree Hill Studios

As I mentioned on my setting up a new blog post, one of the reasons I use WordPress.org as my blog platform is because of the ability to choose from thousands of available plugins to improve the function and design of your site. Today, I’m sharing nine WordPress plugins that I use to save time and increase productivity:

1. Drafts Dropdown

I love the Drafts Dropdown plugin. I started using it during the 31 Days of Organizing for a Better 2010 series, when I had drafts for every post started ahead of time to simplify the posting process. It adds a quick tab to the top right corner of your screen so that you can open any draft post quickly with just a couple clicks. Now I’m just hoping they’ll develop a Pending Review Dropdown!

2. Akismet

In my opinion, Akismet is the only spam management plugin you need. I rarely have any spam that makes it past the filter, and other than when I asked you all to share your blog URLs in last week’s question of the day, I rarely have to rescue comments from spam. And because this plugin learns from your actions, it becomes a better spam filter over time!

3. Batch Categories

I don’t know about you, but occasionally I realize that the way I’ve been categorizing posts isn’t as logical as it seemed when I set it up. Clicking through hundreds of posts and editing them one at a time just isn’t my idea of fun, but the Batch Categories plugin allows you to search by category, tag or even keyword to edit posts in batches. Definitely a time saver!

4. All-In-One SEO

While you won’t find me dropping celebrity names or controversial keywords in order to get more search engine traffic, thinking about SEO (search engine optimization) is an important part of growing your blog. The All-In-One SEO Pack automates many of the things you should be doing for SEO anyway, such as creating meta tags, optimizing your titles, and more. It works out of the box for beginners while also allowing advanced users to customize the options for even more search engine optimization.

5. Post Template

Do you write similar posts frequently, such as giveaways, store deals or carnivals you host? If so, the Post Template plugin is for you. Unfortunately, there is a fee for the latest version of this one, but I’m fairly certain the time you save makes the cost worth it, and you can try the older version for free before you buy.

6. Broken Link Checker

The Broken Link Checker plugin is an easy way to make sure that all of the links on your site — internal or external — actually work. With an easy to use interface, you can quickly view and fix any broken links.

7. WordTwit

I’ve tried other online programs to automatically tweet new posts, but I much prefer WordTwit, which runs from my dashboard and ties in with my bit.ly account to create links. I know there are other plugins that let you customize your tweets and do more, but this one works for me!

8. Search & Replace

The Search & Replace plugin should be part of every blogger’s toolbox. It enables you to quickly and easily search for and replace words, phrases and URLs on your site. Whether you’re updating your Twitter name, changing some piece of code or adding the nofollow attribute to old links, you can do it from the dashboard using this plugin.

9. Scribe

Finally, Brian Clark from Copyblogger and his team just released Scribe, a new SEO plugin that has blown all expectations out of the water. It literally analyzes your posts, custom title tag and meta description for keywords, links, readability and more to help you optimize your content for search engines without sacrificing your content. This is a subscription plugin with plans ranging from $27 to $97 a month, but it’s one that any blogger who hopes to turn their blog into a business should consider. (And through Friday, you can get the Advanced plan for a lifetime rate of $27 per month, so don’t wait too long if you think it’s something you’d be interested in!)

What other plugins do you think should be on this list?