i am looking into finally getting my blog up and running and was wondering what kind of blog ping services to setup so as to notify "the world" that my blog has been updated..

also a list of adult friendly blog list directories that would be worth the time to submit to..

also if you have a kills list of plugins that are a must have please list them..

i hope i am not going over something that has been posted to death here but if i am i am sorry in advance..