Category: WordPress Basics

One of the most unique benefits of building a website using WordPress is that you can easily expand your WordPress website’s functionality using inexpensive (and often completely free) applications called plugins.

About WordPress Plugins

Like most people, you most likely own a device like a cell phone. What happens when you want access to something new on your device like a new game or a business tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a piece of software that is simple and easy to install and integrates new functionality into any smart device.

(Just like there are social sharing apps …)

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

(… there are also social sharing plugins for WP sites!)

Generally, expanding the functionality of an existing web site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancement, this cost can be significant, particularly if website developers need to add new code or edit programs or install programs to integrate with your existing set up.

This also applies when setting up a website or business blog. Companies sometimes spend money in advance on features and customizations they may not need.

To reduce unnecessary costs, we suggest using a cost-effective approach when growing a online presence presence and WordPress plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

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

2) As the need arises, simply install new applications with just a few clicks of the mouse directly from your WP administration area, giving your website or blog a whole new range of practical features and capabilities, and …

3) Cost not a single cent more to install on your website?

Well, that’s precisely what WP plugins let you do!

Plugins – Benefits And Advantages

Earlier, we compared WP plugins with mobile apps. Just like some apps are free to download and some may cost a little money, so do plugins.

In fact, thousands of plugins can be downloaded to your site at no cost.

Plugins that you buy are referred to as Premium plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of hiring a professional web developer to add the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. paid) plugins are generally quite inexpensive.

Also, since WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, any web developer can create, edit and customize any part of the code. This has allowed many professional software development professionals to enhance the WordPresssoftware.

• WordPress plugins allow you to start off with only a basic web presence and then add new features and enhancements to your site only if required.
• WP plugins let you add practically endless features to your web site quickly, easily and quite inexpensively.
• WP plugins give your site almost unlimited expansion capabilities.
• WordPress plugins allow non-technical users to own a web presence that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins will work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to provide your website with instant new capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins can be slightly more advanced and could require some initial configuration.

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

Like many themes, thousands of WordPress plugins are made available to WP users … often at $0 cost!

You can access thousands of plugins from the Free WP Plugin Repository …

As previously mentioned, you will find WP plugins that can do almost everything you can possibly want your website to do.

WP plugin categories cover:

• User Management
• Content Management
• Traffic
• Visitor Interactivity
• Social Engagement
• Media Management Automation
• Increasing Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data & System Monitoring & Reporting Tools
• Securing Your

You can enhance your WP site with plugins like:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• Surveys
• Managing ad banners
• E-commerce (from managing single sales with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce with online shopping carts, payment processing, recurring payments, discount codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Membership sites
• List-building subscription forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonials
• Language translation (e.g. you can instantly change your site’s content from English to Spanish)
• 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
• Making pages load faster
• Managing events & bookings
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell advertising on your blog
• Set client appointments and appointment reminders
• Set up reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks and email you reports
• Redirect visitors from specified pages to other pages on your site or other sites
• Monitor what other sites are posting about your business
• Make your pages available for printing or downloading as PDF
• Add a site map
• Hide pages from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect content on your posts and pages
• Import data from non-WordPress applications
• Search and replace content
• Prevent SPAM commenting
• Customize guest comment displays (e.g. displaying Facebook discussions)
• Inserting code and code elements into your posts
• Add formatted tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced font display formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add location maps
• Post your posts automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and others
• Show countdown timers (for scarcity offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display custom greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As you can clearly see, WP plugins give you practically limitless business scalability. If you are currently planning to build a website, or your existing web site isn’t built with WordPress, then consider getting one in the future, or you will be missing out on some serious features.

In case you’re still wondering just how powerful and flexible plugins are, let’s take a look at some practical uses of installing a plugin on your web site.

For example, if you need to protect your content, you can use plugins to make just a couple of paragraphs on your post inaccessible, or create a complete membership site with customized login details for each member …

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

To increasing your business reach across social media and search engines …

You can also add sophisticated functionality to your website using inexpensive premium plugins. For example, you can set up plugins that automate functionality on your site such as user feedback and event registration management …

And also set up a complete bookings and reservations system online … all for a small fraction of the cost of paying programmers to create the same applications for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of native WP commenting features and plugins that can make your site even more interactive …

For example, your visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your site (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WordPress commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which then get displayed throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
• Share your posts with other web users on social media.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage online directly with your team members via forums or even set up a private community on your own site.
• Engage with your support team through live webcam conferencing and chatroom facilities
• Dial your business directly from their cellphones when visiting your website
• Open support tickets
• And so much more …

Finally you, can also integrate sophisticated “back end” applications using a WordPress “front end”. This lets you control your business sales and marketing, while your third-party application handles the technological areas …

WP Plugins – Some Useful Things You Should Know

• There are loads of plugins available. Be careful not to overload your server with an excessive amount of plugins, as this will affect your website’s performance and page loading times. It can also mean more maintenance work for you as a result of potential conflicts and errors.
• Only keep the plugins that you really need. Delete any plugins you don’t need from your site, as these use additional resources.
• Many free plugins typically come with little to no support from the plugin author. When choosing paid WP plugins, ensure that you check around a little and understand what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, updates, new features, etc. Be sure to check some of our WP plugin reviews for additional information.
• If you see that an unsupported plugin has not been updated for a while (e.g. two or more years), then think carefully before installing it. The WordPress platform changes regularly and outdated WordPress plugins can create errors.
• Always keep your plugins updated to their latest software version. Outdated plugins not only can create errors and conflicts, they may also have security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and malicious users.

As you can see, plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most downloaded content management system available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to expand without having to spend thousands of dollars on web development.

One last thing regarding WP plugins:

If there is any feature or functionality you need for your website, you can guarantee that a plugin currently exists that will do what you want it to do, and that it can either be accessed for FREE, or if it’s a premium plugin, that it will be fairly inexpensive.

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

And, if by any chance this WordPress plugin has not been created yet, then it can probably be coded for you for a reasonable price.

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

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