Tag: What Is A Plugin

One of the main benefits of the WordPress web content management software is that you can quickly enhance your WP web site’s functionality using plugins.

What Are WordPress Plugins?

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

You download and install an app!

An app is a little software that is really simple and easy to install and integrates new functionality into a mobile device.

(Just like you can find social sharing apps for mobile phones …)

A WordPress plugin is very much like an app. You download and install a software that provides new functionality to your website …

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

Almost always, adding a new feature to an existing site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the new feature or enhancement, this could get quite expensive, particularly if web developers have to add new code or edit templates or develop programs that integrate into your existing set up.

This also applies when starting a new website. Businesses tend to invest money in advance in extra bells and whistles they may simply not need.

For this reason, we suggest a modular strategy to setting up a website and WordPress plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply and with minimal cost involved. Get a professional website up and running quickly, then …

2) As new features or functionality become necessary, install new applications with only a few clicks of the mouse that integrate seamlessly with your current site, giving your web site an entirely new and expanded range of capabilities and functionality, and also …

3) Cost not a single cent more to download and install on your site?

Well, this is precisely what a plugin lets you do!

WP Plugins – Benefits

I began this article by comparing WordPress plugins with apps. In a similar way that many apps are free to download and some cost a little bit of money, the same is true with WordPress plugins.

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

WP plugins that you purchase are referred to as “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when you compare these to the cost of paying for professional web development services to add the same functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. paid) plugins cost very little.

Also, since WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, anyone can create, rewrite and customize any part of the WordPress code. This has allowed thousands of third-party software developers to build more plugins that “plug into” WordPress than you can possibly imagine.

• WP plugins let you start simply with only a basic site and then expand as necessary.
• Plugins allow you to add practically unlimited functionality to any site easily and inexpensively.
• Plugins give you virtually unlimited expansion capabilities.
• WordPress plugins allow non-technical users to have a web presence that they can manage themselves.
• Most plugins will work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your website or blog new capabilities, enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins offer more advanced features and require some initial configuration.

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

Just like WordPress themes, thousands of great WordPress plugins are currently available to WP users … for FREE!

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

As mentioned earlier, you can find plugins that will do just about anything you want done.

There are WordPress plugins for:

• Web Site Management
• Content Distribution
• Online Traffic Generation
• Visitor Interactivity
• Social Monitoring
• Managing Media – Video, Graphics, Audio, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Biz And Online Sales Automation
• Increasing Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Analysis Tools
• WordPress SEO

For example, you can enhance your website with plugins like:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• Surveys
• Display advertising banners
• E-commerce (from managing single sales with PayPal buttons, to enterprise scale e-commerce with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring billing, discount codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Membership sites
• Newsletter subscription forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s SEO
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonials
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change all content on your pages from English to Spanish)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation menus
• Customer interactivity – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Cloud storage management
• Faster page loading
• Managing events
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell spots on your site
• Set up client appointments and reminders
• Manage reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links and email you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor social signals
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add sitemaps
• Exclude certain from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect content on your pages and posts
• Migrate information from non-WP applications
• Search and replace content
• Prevent SPAM
• Customize guest commenting (e.g. display Facebook posts)
• Insert HTML and code elements into your pages
• Add and format tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced content formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map
• Publicize your posts automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and others
• Show countdown timers (for expiring offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display custom greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As you can clearly see, WordPress plugins give you virtually limitless business scalability. If you are currently planning to build a web site for your business, or your existing site isn’t powered by WordPress, then consider choosing WordPress in the future.

In case you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using WP plugins, let’s take a look at how you can benefit by simply adding a plugin to your website.

For example, if you want to protect your content, you can install plugins to make a section of your post or page inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a complete paid membership site with customized login details for all users …

As mentioned before, free plugins can be used to enhance your web site in lots of different ways. From adding functionality that will improve your business, your site’s user experience and your ability to review website data …

To increasing your site’s reach across various social sites and search engines …

You can also add sophisticated functionality to your website using relatively inexpensive premium plugins. For example, you can install plugins that automate processes on your site such as customer testimonial and event bookings management …

And even set up a custom-branded bookings and reservations system online … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of paying programmers to create similar functionality for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of built-in WordPress commenting features and plugins that will increase your site’s interactivity …

For example, your visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your blog posts (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WordPress commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which then get shared throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
• Share your content with other online users on social networking sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage online with your support staff through online forums or even set up an online community on your own site.
• Engage with your support staff via live video chats
• Call your business from their laptops when visiting your pages
• Get support via a dedicated client support helpdesk
• And much more …

You can also integrate complex “back end” applications within a WP “front end”. This allows you to control your business marketing, while your 3rd-party application handles the technical aspects …

Additional Things To Know About WP Plugins

• There are so many good plugins to choose from. Be careful not to overload your server with an excessive amount of plugins, as this can affect your site’s performance and page loading speed. It also creates more maintenance issues for you as a consequence of potential errors.
• Install only the plugins you really use. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these utilize server resources.
• Many free plugins typically come with very little to no support from the plugin developer. When choosing premium WordPress plugins, ensure that you check around a little and see what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, updates, new features, etc. Be sure to check the plugin reviews we provide here for additional information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two years), then think twice before using it on your site. WordPress updates often and older plugins that have not been updated can cause conflicts.
• Always maintain your plugins updated. Older plugins not only can create conflicts, they could also have vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making it the most popular content publishing tool in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to add instant functionality to their website without having to spend thousands of dollars on web development costs.

One last thing regarding WP plugins:

Whatever feature or functionality you need for your web presence, you can be sure that a someone has probably already developed one that will do just what you need, and that this plugin can either be accessed at no cost, or if it’s a premium plugin, that it will be surprisingly affordable.

(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 a custom plugin that does precisely what you need it to do can probably be created for your business for a very reasonable price.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of plugins – what they are and how they can help enhance the functionality of your business blog. See our published posts to learn more about usingplugins.

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