Tag: What Is A Plugin

One of the main features of WordPress is the ability to easily expand your WordPress web site’s functionality using plugins.

What Are WordPress Plugins?

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

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

An app is a little piece of software that is simple and easy to install and integrates new features into your smart device.

(Just like there are social sharing apps …)

A WordPress plugin is very similar to an app. You install and activate a software that adds new functionality to your WP website or blog …

(… you can also find social sharing plugins for WP users!)

Normally, if you want to expand the functionality of an existing site, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the features or enhancements, things could get quite expensive, especially if website developers have to create new code or edit programs or develop programs that integrate with your current set up.

This also applies to starting a web site. Companies tend to invest money upfront for extra features or options they may not need.

To reduce costs, we suggest considering a cost-effective strategy to developing a web presence presence and WP plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

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

2) As the need becomes evident, install new software modules with only a couple of mouse clicks that integrate seamlessly with your web site, to give your website a completely new and expanded range of useful features, and …

3) Cost not one dollar extra to install on your website?

Well, this is just what a WP plugin allows you to do!

Benefits And Advantages Of Using WP Plugins

I began this blog post by comparing WordPress plugins with mobile apps. In the same way that many apps are free to download and some apps cost a little bit of money, the same applies to WordPress plugins.

In fact, thousands of plugins are freely available for users.

Plugins that cost money are called Premium plugins. The good news, is that when you compare the cost of buying a Premium WP plugin to the price of paying for web development services to add the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins cost very little.

Also, as WordPress makes its code available to everyone, any person can create, modify and customize any part of the WordPress code. This has enabled many professional web developers to build more plugins that plug seamlessly into WordPress than you can probably imagine.

• WP plugins allow you to start off simply with a simple online business presence and expand as necessary.
• Plugins allow you to add almost unlimited functionality to any website quickly and quite cheaply.
• Plugins give your online presence virtually endless expansion capabilities.
• WP plugins allow business owners to own a website that they can fully manage.
• Most plugins will work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your site immediate capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins are a little more advanced and require some initial configuration.

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

Like WordPress themes, thousands of WP plugins are available to WP users … and many of these great plugins are 100% FREE!

You can view and download thousands of WP plugins from the Free WP Plugin Repository …

As previously mentioned, you will find WP plugins that can do just about everything you can think of.

There are plugins for:

• Website Management
• Content Distribution
• Online Traffic Generation
• User Interactivity
• Social Connectivity
• Adding Media – Videocasts, Images, Audio, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Commerce And Online Sales And Advertising Automation
• Improving Sales & Opt-In Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data And System Analysis Applications
• Site SEO

For example, you can add features to a business online presence with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Surveys
• Rotating ad banners
• E-commerce (from managing single-item sales with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce with shopping carts, payment processing, recurring billing, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Membership sites
• Newsletter opt-in forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your site’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonials
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change your site’s content from English to Norwegian)
• 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 integration
• Faster page loading
• Managing events
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell and manage advertising on your site
• Set client appointments and appointment reminders
• Manage reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links and email you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor social conversations
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add sitemaps
• Hide pages from showing 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 visitor comment displays (e.g. display Facebook discussions)
• Inserting HTML and code elements into your posts and pages
• Add and format tables
• Display animated graphic elements and advanced text formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve Google local search
• Add a map of your business location
• Post your content automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and others
• Show countdown timers (for expiring offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And hundreds of other features!

As it’s clear to see, WordPress plugins give you endless possibilities. If you are planning to build a web site, or your existing web site wasn’t built using WordPress, then consider getting one added to your domain, or you will be missing out on some serious functionality.

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

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

As mentioned previously, free plugins can be used to improve your business site in so many different ways. From installing new features that enhance 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 sites and search engines …

You can also add complex functionality to your website using relatively inexpensive paid plugins. For example, you can install plugins that integrate and automate processes on your site like customer testimonial and event bookings management …

And even run a custom-branded bookings and reservations system on your site … all for a small fraction of the cost of hiring programmers to design these applications for you …

You can also take advantage of built-in WP commenting features and plugins that will let you engage even more with visitors, customers and registered site users …

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Post comments on your site (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WordPress commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout the visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with additional exposure).
• Share your content with other online users on social networking sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage in online discussions with other members via forums or even set up an online community on your domain.
• Engage with members of your team using live chats
• Dial your business from their laptops while browsing your site
• Get help via a dedicated customer help desk
• And so much more …

Finally you, can even integrate sophisticated third-party solutions within a WordPress “front end”. This enables you to control your business marketing, while your 3rd-party application handles the technical areas …

Additional Tips About WordPress Plugins

• There are lots of fantastic plugins available. Be careful of overloading your site with too many plugins, as this will start to affect your website’s resources and page loading speed. It also means more maintenance issues for you resulting from possible conflicts.
• Install only those plugins that you really need. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these also consume resources.
• Many free plugins often come with very little to no support from the plugin author. When considering premium plugins, ensure that you do a little research first to understand what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to providing support, updates, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check some of the plugin reviews we provide on this site for additional 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 using it on your website. WordPress is updated frequently and older WordPress plugins can cause conflicts.
• Always update your plugins to their latest software version. Older plugins not only can create problems, they could also contain 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 used CMS in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to add instant features to their website without spending thousands of dollars on outsourced web developers.

One last thing about plugins:

If there is a feature or functionality you need for your web presence, you can be sure that a someone has probably already created one that will do exactly what you need, and that this plugin can either be accessed at no cost, or if it’s a paid plugin, that it will be surprisingly inexpensive.

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

And, if by chance such a plugin does not exist, then one can probably be developed for your business at a reasonable cost.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of WP plugins – what they are and how they can significantly to improve your blog. See our published posts to learn more about using WP plugins.

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