Category: WordPress 101

One of the most unique benefits of WordPress is that you can quickly and easily increase your WP site’s functionality using inexpensive (and often free) software called plugins.

About Plugins

No doubt, you probably have a device like a mobile phone. What do you do when you want to access something new on your device like a new application, software or a new productivity tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a software application that is easy to install and instantly integrates new features and functionality into any smart device.

(Just like there are social sharing apps …)

A WordPress plugin is very similar to an app. You simply download and install an application that adds new functionality to your website or blog …

(… there are also social sharing plugins for WordPress users!)

Typically, adding new features to your web site involves additional cost. Depending on how complex the new features or enhancements are, things can get quite expensive, especially if website developers need to create new code or modify code or develop programs to integrate with your existing site.

This is also applicable when developing a web site. Many business owners sometimes invest up-front for extra bells and whistles they probably will never need.

For sound, strategic business planning reasons, we suggest considering a sustainable approach to developing your presence online presence and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply and inexpensively. Get a web presence up and running fast, then …

2) As new features are needed, just install new software modules with only a few mouse clicks directly from your WordPress dashboard section, to give your website or blog an entirely new range of practical functionality, and also …

3) Cost not a single cent extra to install on your web site?

Well, that’s precisely what a plugin enables you to do!

WordPress Plugins – Benefits And Advantages

We started this blog post by comparing WP plugins with apps. In the same way that many apps are free to download and some apps cost a little bit of money, so do plugins.

In fact, loads of great plugins can be downloaded and installed on your sites.

Plugins that cost money are referred to as ’Premium’ plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the cost of hiring a professional web developer to get similar features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins are priced quite cheaply.

Also, because WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, anybody can create, modify and customize any part of the WP code. This has allowed thousands of professional web development professionals to create more plugins that add new features to WordPress than you can possibly imagine.

• Plugins allow you to get started simply with just a basic yet professional web site and then add new features and enhancements to your site only when required.
• Plugins let you add almost endless features to your web site quickly and inexpensively.
• WP plugins give you practically unlimited expansion capabilities.
• WP plugins allow anyone to have a site that they can manage.
• Most plugins will work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to provide your site with immediate capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins are slightly more advanced and require some configuration.

Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And (Many Of Them Are) 100% FREE!

Like themes, thousands of great WP plugins are available for WP users … often at no cost!

You can access thousands of plugins from the Free WordPress Plugin Directory …

As mentioned earlier, you will find WordPress plugins that can do almost everything you need done.

There are plugins for:

• Site Management
• Content Distribution
• Increasing Site Visitors
• Visitor Engagement
• Social Connectivity
• Media Utilities Automation
• Increasing Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Reporting Tools
• WP SEO

You can add features to your business online presence with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Social contests
• Managing banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single ordering with PayPal buttons, to enterprise scale e-commerce stores with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring payments, discount codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Private Membership sites
• Newsletter subscription forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile integration
• Improving your website’s SEO
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonials
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change your website’s content from English to German)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation
• Customer engagement – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Offline storage management
• Faster page loading
• Event management
• Business directories
• Automatically sell spots on your site
• Set up appointments and appointment reminders
• Set up reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links on your pages and email you reports
• Redirect web links
• Monitor social conversations
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add sitemaps
• Hide pages from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide content on your posts and pages
• Migrate content from non-WordPress platforms
• Search and replace data
• Block SPAM commenting
• Customize guest discussions (e.g. display Facebook posts)
• Insert scripts and code elements into your posts and pages
• Add tables
• Add animated graphics and advanced font display formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map
• Publicize your content automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and others
• Show countdown timers (for special offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And hundreds of other features!

As you can clearly see, plugins give you practically endless business scalability. If you are planning to build a website for your business, or your existing website isn’t built with WordPress, then consider choosing it in the future.

In case you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using plugins, let’s take a look at some practical uses of adding a plugin to your website.

For example, if you need to protect your content, you can install plugins to make an area of a page inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a complete paid membership site with personal login details for every user …

As mentioned before, free plugins can be used to enhance your web presence in so many different ways. From adding functionality that improve your business, your site’s user experience and your understanding of what is taking place on your site …

To extending your business visibility across social media and search engines …

You can also add advanced functionality to your website using relatively inexpensive paid plugins. For example, you can set up plugins that automate features on your pages like user testimonial and event registrations management …

And even set up a custom bookings and reservations system online … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring programmers to code the same applications for you …

You can also take advantage of native WordPress commenting features and plugins that can make your site even more interactive …

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Post comments on your blog posts (which can grow into online discussions) using either the built-in WP commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which then get displayed throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
• Share your content with other web users on social networking sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage online with your support team through online forums or even set up a private community on your own site.
• Engage with your support team using live web conferencing and chatroom facilities
• Dial your business from their smart phones while browsing your site
• Get support via a client helpdesk
• And so much more …

Finally you, can even integrate sophisticated enterprise applications with a WP “front end”. This enables you to manage the content that your visitors will see on your web site, while your 3rd-party application handles the technological aspects …

Useful Things To Know About WordPress Plugins

• There are loads of WordPress plugins to choose from. Be careful not to overload your site with too many plugins, as this will invariably affect your site’s performance and site loading times. It also creates more maintenance issues for you resulting from potential conflicts.
• Install only the plugins that you really use. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these use resources.
• Many free plugins normally receive very little to no support from the plugin author. When considering premium WP plugins, make sure you do a little research first to see what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, upgrades, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check some of the plugin reviews we provide on this site for additional helpful information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two or more years), then think twice before installing it. WordPress changes on a frequent basis and older plugins that have not been updated can cause errors.
• Ensure to always maintain all plugins updated. Older plugin not only can cause errors, they could also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious software.

As you can see, plugins are an important part of WordPress and contribute to making it the most downloaded CMS available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to expand without spending thousands of dollars on web development costs.

One last thing about plugins:

If there is a feature you need for your website, you can guarantee that a someone has probably already created one that will do what you want it to do, and that it can either be downloaded at no cost, or if it’s a paid plugin, that the price to purchase it will be surprisingly reasonable.

(Whatever you need done, there’s a WordPress plugin for that!)

And, if by any chance such a plugin is not available, then it can certainly be coded for you for a reasonable price.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of plugins – what plugins are and how they can enhance the functionality of your web site. See our published posts to learn about more useful plugins that we recommend using.

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