Category: WordPress Training Manual

One of the main benefits of building an online presence with WordPress is that you can easily increase your WordPress site’s functionality using plugins.

What Are WordPress Plugins?

No doubt, you most likely own a smart phone. What do you do when you want access to something new on your device like a new game or a new business productivity tool?

You download and install an app!

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

(Just like you will find social sharing apps …)

A plugin is very much like an app. You simply install and activate a software that provides new functionality to your WP web site …

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

Typically, adding a new feature to an already-built web site involves additional cost. Depending on how complex the new feature or enhancement is, this cost can be fairly significant, especially if it involves programming code.

This is also applicable to starting a web site. Organizations tend to spend up-front on features and customizations they may never need.

For sound, strategic business planning reasons, we suggest using a modular approach to setting up your web site and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply and inexpensively. Get your business website up and running quickly, then …

2) As the need arises, simply install new applications with only a few clicks of the mouse that integrate with your existing website, giving your site a completely new and expanded range of practical functionality, and also …

3) Cost not a single dollar extra to add to your website?

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

Plugins – Benefits And Advantages

Earlier, we compared WP plugins with ’apps’. In a similar way that many apps are free to download and some may cost a little money, so do plugins.

In fact, loads of useful plugins can be installed and activated on your sites.

Plugins that you have to pay for are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when you compare the cost of buying a Premium WordPress plugin to the cost of hiring a professional web developer to get the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins are generally very inexpensive.

Also, as WordPress is an Open Source application, anybody can create, rewrite and customize any part of the code. This has enabled thousands of third-party software development professionals to build more plugins that expand the WordPress application than you can possibly imagine.

• WP plugins let you start simply with a simple yet professional website and then expand as necessary.
• WordPress plugins let you add almost unlimited functionality to any site easily and inexpensively.
• WordPress plugins give your web site practically endless expanding capabilities.
• Plugins allow ”non-techies” to have a website that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins normally work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to provide your site with new capabilities, enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins offer more extensive features and could require some configuring.

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

Like WordPress themes, loads of great WP plugins are currently available to WordPress users … for FREE!

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

As mentioned earlier, you can find WordPress plugins that can do almost anything you could possibly want a site to do.

WordPress plugin categories cover:

• Website Administration
• Content Syndication
• Driving Site Visitors
• User Engagement
• Social Monitoring
• Media Management Automation
• Increasing Sales And Opt-In Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data And System Analysis
• WordPress Optimization

For example, you can add features to your business online presence with plugins like:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Social contests
• Display advertising banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single-item ordering with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce stores with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring billing, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Membership sites
• List-building subscription forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s SEO
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonial forms
• Language translation (e.g. you can instantly change all content on your website from English to Portuguese)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation
• Customer interactivity – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Cloud storage integration
• Making pages load faster
• Managing events
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell spots on your blog
• Set appointments and appointment reminders
• Automate reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links and email you reports
• Redirect users from broken pages to other areas on your site or other sites
• Monitor social signals
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Hide pages from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide content on your posts and pages
• Import content from non-WordPress applications
• Perform bulk content edits
• Prevent SPAM
• Customize guest commenting (e.g. displaying Facebook discussions)
• Insert code and script elements into your pages
• Add tables
• Add animated graphic elements and advanced font display formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve Google local search
• Add location maps
• Post your content automatically on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, StumbleUpon and many others
• Show countdown timers (for special offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so many other features!

As it’s clear to see, WordPress plugins give you limitless possibilities. If you plan to build a web site for your business, or your existing website isn’t built with WordPress, then consider getting one in the future, or you will be missing out on some serious features.

If you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using plugins, let’s take a look at some practical advantages of adding an inexpensive plugin to your web site.

For example, if you want to publish content which is only accessible to some but not all users, you can install plugins to make a section of a page inaccessible, or create a complete paid membership site with personal login details for every member …

As mentioned previously, free plugins can be used to improve your business site in lots of different ways. From installing features that enhance your business, your site’s user experience and your ability to review site data …

To increasing your business reach across many social networks and search engines …

You can also add complex features to your site using inexpensive premium WordPress plugins. For example, you can purchase plugins that automate features on your website like user feedback and event registrations management …

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

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

For example, your web visitors can:

• Leave comments on your site (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WP commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which then get shared throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, giving your site additional exposure).
• Share your posts with other web users on social media.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage online directly with your team using forums or even set up an online social network on your domain.
• Engage with your team using live chats
• Dial your business from their cellphones when visiting your site
• Get help and support via a dedicated customer help desk
• And so much more …

Finally you, can even integrate sophisticated “back end” solutions within a WordPress “front end”. This allows you to manage the content that your visitors see on your website, while your 3rd-party application handles the technical areas …

Useful Tips About Plugins

• There are loads of plugins to choose from. Be careful not to overload your server with too many plugins, as this can invariably affect your website’s performance and site loading speed. It can also create more maintenance issues for you resulting from possible conflicts and errors.
• Only keep those plugins you really need to use. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these utilize extra server resources.
• Many free plugins normally receive very little to no support from the plugin author. When considering paid plugins, make sure you check around a little and understand what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to providing support, updates, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check our WordPress plugin reviews for additional information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a while (e.g. two years), then think twice before using it on your site. WordPress changes frequently and older WP plugins can create errors.
• Always maintain your plugins updated. Outdated plugins not only can create errors and conflicts, they could also have vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, WordPress plugins are an important aspect of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most popular web publishing tool in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to expand without spending thousands of dollars on outsourced web development.

One last thing regarding plugins:

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

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

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

Hopefully, this information has given you a better understanding of plugins – what plugins are and how they can significantly to improve your business blog. See our related posts to learn more about usingplugins.

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