Tag: What Is A Plugin

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

Understanding WP Plugins

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

You download and install an app!

An app is a software application that is very easy to install and integrates new functionality into any mobile device.

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

A plugin is similar to an app. You simply install and activate an application that adds new functionality to your WordPress website …

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

Generally, if you decide to add a new feature to a website, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the features or enhancement, this cost can be significant, particularly if web developers need to add new code or modify code or install programs to integrate with your existing set up.

This is also applicable to developing a new website. Organizations will often fork out money in advance on bells and whistles they probably will never need.

As part of sound strategic business planning, we recommend a modular strategy to setting up your web site and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine if you could:

1) Start simply and with minimal expense involved. Get a web site up and running quickly, then …

2) As the need for new features or functionality arises, simply install new software modules with a couple of clicks of the mouse directly from your WP administration area, giving your website or blog a whole new range of practical functionality, and …

3) Cost not one cent extra to download and install on your site?

Well, that’s exactly what a WP plugin allows you to do!

Plugins – Benefits And Advantages

Earlier, we compared plugins with apps. In the same way that some apps are free to download and some cost a little money, so do plugins.

In fact, many plugins can be downloaded to your site for free.

Plugins that cost money are called Premium plugins. The good news, is that when you compare it to the cost of investing in professional web development services to add similar features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins cost very little.

Also, as WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, any web developer can create, edit and customize any portion of the WP code. This has allowed thousands of third-party web developers to create more new applications that integrate seamlessly with WordPress than you can imagine.

• WP plugins let you get started with only a basic website and then add new features and enhancements to your site as required.
• Plugins let you add almost endless functionality to any web presence easily, quickly and quite inexpensively.
• WP plugins give you almost endless expanding capabilities.
• WP plugins allow anyone to own a web presence that they can manage.
• Most plugins typically work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to give your website or blog new capabilities and enhancements.
• Some plugins provide more extensive features and could require some configuring.

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

Like WordPress themes, thousands of great WordPress plugins are currently available for WordPress users … for FREE!

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

As previously mentioned, you will find WordPress plugins that will do almost anything you want done.

WP plugin categories cover:

• Blog Management
• Content Distribution
• Web Traffic Generation
• User Interactivity
• Social Sharing
• Uploading Media Files – Videos, Graphics, Audio, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Biz And Online Sales & Advertising Automation
• Increasing Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data And System Reporting Applications
• WordPress Optimization

For example, you can enhance a business online presence with plugins like the following:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• User Surveys
• Managing ad banners
• E-commerce (from managing single ordering with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce with shopping carts, payment processing, recurring payments, discount codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Private Membership sites
• List-building subscription forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonial forms
• Automatic language translation (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
• Customer engagement – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Offline storage management
• Faster page loading
• Event management
• Business listing directories
• Automatically sell advertising on your blog
• Set client appointments and reminders
• Set up reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks on your pages and email you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor social conversations
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Exclude certain from showing on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect page content sections
• Import content from non-WP applications
• Perform bulk content replacements
• Fight SPAM commenting
• Customize visitor discussions (e.g. display Facebook comments)
• Insert code and code elements into your site’s header and footer
• Add and format tables
• Add animated graphics and advanced font display formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map
• Publish your posts automatically on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and many others
• Display countdown timers (for expiring offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display custom greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so many other features!

As it’s clear to see, plugins give you virtually limitless possibilities. If you plan to build a website for your business, or your existing website was not built with WordPress, then consider choosing WordPress in the future.

In case 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 site.

For example, if you need content protection, you can use plugins to make an area of a page or post inaccessible, or create a complete paid membership site with personal login details for every user …

As mentioned previously, you can use free plugins to enhance your web site in so many ways. From adding features that improve your business, your website visitors’ experience and your understanding of what is happening on your site …

To extending your site’s reach across a number of social networks and search engines …

You can also add sophisticated functionality to your site using relatively inexpensive paid WordPress plugins. For example, you can set up plugins that automate tasks on your website such as managing customer testimonials and booking events …

And even set up a complete bookings and reservations system online … all for a small fraction of the cost of paying programmers to code similar applications for you …

Additionally, you can take advantage of built-in WordPress commenting features and plugins that can allow you to engage even more with your visitors, clients and registered site users …

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 displayed throughout your visitors’ Facebook pages, giving your site increased exposure).
• Share your content with other online visitors on social networking sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online with your support team via online forums or even set up an online community on your site.
• Engage with members of your team via live chats
• Dial your business directly from their laptops while browsing your website
• Get support via a dedicated client helpdesk
• And much more …

Finally you, can also integrate sophisticated enterprise-level solutions using a WP “front end”. This lets you manage your business sales and marketing, while your 3rd-party application handles the technological functions …

Useful Tips About Plugins

• There are many awesome plugins to choose from. Be careful of overloading your server with too many plugins, as this can affect your website’s performance and page loading times. It also creates more maintenance work for you as a result of potential conflicts.
• Only keep those plugins you really use. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these utilize extra server resources.
• Many free plugins normally receive little to no support from the plugin developer. When considering premium WordPress plugins, ensure that you check around a little and see what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to providing support, upgrades, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check the plugin reviews we provide on this site for more expert 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. WordPress changes often and older plugins that have not been updated can create issues.
• Always upgrade your plugins. Outdated plugin not only can create issues, they may also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, WordPress plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most downloaded content management system in the world. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to add instant functionality to their website without spending thousands of dollars on outsourced web developers.

One last thing about WP plugins:

If there is any feature you want for your web site, you can guarantee that a plugin probably exists that will do exactly what you need, and that this plugin can either be downloaded for FREE, or if it’s a paid plugin, that the price will be reasonable.

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

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

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

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