Tag: What Is A Plugin

One of the main benefits of using the WordPress website publishing software is that you can quickly expand your WP web site’s functionality using inexpensive (even 100% free) software called plugins.

What Are Plugins?

Like most people, you most likely use a smart phone. What happens when you would like access to something new on your device like a new application, game or a tool?

You download and install an app!

An app is a piece of software that is easy to install and instantly adds new features to a smart phone.

(Just as there are social sharing apps for mobile devices …)

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

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

Almost always, adding a new feature to your site involves additional cost. Depending on how complex the new features or enhancements are, things can become fairly expensive, especially if it requires modifying code.

This is also applicable to developing a website or business blog. Organizations often fork out money on features they probably will never need.

For sound, strategic business planning reasons, we suggest a modular strategy when developing your web site and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine being able to:

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

2) As you need more features and functionality, you can install new software modules with a couple of mouse clicks that integrate seamlessly with your existing web site, giving your website a completely new range of possibilities, and …

3) Cost not one dollar extra to add to your website?

Well, this is precisely what plugins let you do!

WP Plugins – Benefits

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

In fact, loads of powerful plugins can be downloaded to your site for free.

WordPress plugins that cost money are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when you compare the cost of buying a Premium plugin to the price of paying for web development services 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, edit and customize any portion of the code. This has allowed thousands of third-party software developers to create more new applications that enhance the WordPress engine than you can imagine.

• Plugins let you get started with a simple online business presence and then add new features and enhancements to your site when required.
• WordPress plugins allow you to add almost endless functionality to your site quickly, easily and very inexpensively.
• WordPress plugins give you practically unlimited expanding capabilities.
• Plugins allow anyone to own a digital presence that they can fully manage.
• Most plugins typically work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to give your website or blog immediate capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins offer more extensive options and require some configuration.

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

Just like WP themes, thousands of great plugins are currently available to WP users … and many of these great plugins are 100% FREE!

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

As mentioned earlier, you can find WordPress plugins that will do just about anything you could possibly need your site to do.

There are WordPress plugins for:

• Website Administration
• Content Management
• Increasing Web Traffic
• Visitor Interactivity
• Social Sharing
• Inserting Media Files – Videocasts, Graphics & Images, Audio, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Commerce And Online Sales Automation
• Improving Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data & System Monitoring & Reporting Applications
• WP Optimization

For example, you can add features to your website with plugins like the following:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• Surveys
• Rotating banners
• E-commerce (from managing single-item ordering with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce stores with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring payments, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Membership sites
• List-building opt-in forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonials
• Instant language translation (e.g. you can instantly change all content on your site from English to Norwegian)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation
• Customer engagement – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Cloud storage integration
• Faster page loading
• Managing events & bookings
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell and manage advertising on your blog
• Set appointments and reminders
• Help customers make reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks and send you reports
• Redirect affiliate links
• Monitor social conversations
• Make your pages available for printing or downloading as PDF
• Add sitemaps
• Hide certain from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect content on your posts and pages
• Migrate information from non-WordPress platforms
• Perform bulk content edits
• Block SPAM
• Customize visitor comment displays (e.g. display Facebook discussions)
• Insert code and code elements into your posts
• Add formatted tables
• Add animated graphic elements and advanced text formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map of your business location
• Distribute your posts automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and many others
• Display countdown timers (for special offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As it’s clear to see, WP plugins give you virtually limitless business scalability. If you plan to build a website or blog for your business, or your existing site wasn’t built with WordPress, then consider using it in the future.

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

For example, if you want content protection, you can use plugins to make a section of a page inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a full paid membership site with customized login details for each member …

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

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

You can also add sophisticated features to your website using inexpensive paid WordPress plugins. For example, you can set up plugins that automate processes on your site such as displaying customer testimonials and event registration details …

And also run a custom-branded bookings and reservations system online … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of paying programmers to design these functionality for you …

You can also take advantage of built-in WordPress commenting features and plugins that will increase user engagement …

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your site (which can grow into online discussions) using either the built-in WordPress commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
• Bookmark your content on various social sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online directly with other users through online forums or even set up an online social network on your own site.
• Engage with your support staff using live web conferencing and chatroom facilities
• Call your business directly from their devices while browsing your website
• Get help and support via a dedicated user support helpdesk
• And so much more …

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

Plugins – Some Useful Things To Know

• There are loads of plugins available. Be careful not to overload your server with too many plugins, as this can eventually affect your website’s resources and site loading speed. It also means more maintenance issues for you as a result of possible conflicts.
• Only keep the plugins that you really plan to use. Delete all deactivated plugins from your site, as these use resources.
• Many free plugins normally come with little to no support from the plugin developer. When considering premium 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 improvements, etc. Be sure to check our WordPress plugin reviews for more expert information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two years), then think carefully before using it on your site. The WordPress platform is updated on a regular basis and older plugins that have not been updated can cause conflicts.
• Ensure that you always maintain your plugins updated. Outdated plugins not only can cause conflicts, they may also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious users.

As you can see, WP plugins are an important part of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most preferred online open source platform in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to expand quickly without spending thousands of dollars on web development costs.

One last thing regarding WP plugins:

If there is a feature you want for your web presence, you can be sure that a WordPress plugin currently exists that will do just what you want it to do, and that this plugin can either be downloaded 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 chance this plugin is not available, then it can probably be written for you at a reasonable cost.

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

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