Tag: WordPress 101

One of the most unique advantages of using the WordPress platform is that you can easily increase your WordPress website or blog’s functionality using plugins.

About Plugins

Like most people, you probably use a device like a mobile phone. What do you do when you want access to something new on your device like a new application, game or tool?

Why, simple … you download and install an app!

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

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

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

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

Almost always, expanding the functionality of an existing site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the new features or enhancement, things could become quite expensive, particularly if it involves website development.

This also applies to creating a website. Business owners often fork out money in advance for added bells and whistles they probably will never need.

For this reason, we suggest a cost-effective strategy when developing a web site and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine if you could:

1) Start simply with minimal cost involved. Get your business web site up and running quickly, then …

2) As more features and functionality become necessary, install new applications with just a couple of mouse clicks that integrate with your existing website and blog, and give your site an entirely new and expanded range of practical features and capabilities, and …

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

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

Benefits & Advantages Of Using Plugins

We began this article by comparing WordPress plugins with apps. In a similar way that some apps are free to download and some apps cost a little money, so do plugins.

In fact, thousands of plugins can be downloaded and installed on your sites.

Plugins that you have to buy are referred to as Premium plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of hiring a professional web developer to get the same functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. ”paid”) plugins cost very little.

Also, because WordPress makes its source code available to everyone, anyone can create, modify and customize any part of the WP code. This has enabled many professional software development companies to enhance and contribute to the WPsoftware.

• Plugins allow you to start off with just a basic web presence and expand if required.
• WP plugins let you add almost endless functionality to your site easily and inexpensively.
• WP plugins give you virtually endless expanding capabilities.
• Plugins allow non-technical website owners to own a site that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins will work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to give your website instant new capabilities, enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins are slightly more complex and may need some initial configuration.

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

Like many themes, loads of great plugins are available for WP users … often at $0 cost!

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

As previously mentioned, you can find plugins that will do just about everything you need your site to do.

There are plugins for:

• Site Management
• Content Distribution
• Increasing Web Traffic
• User Interactivity
• Social Connectivity
• Adding Media Files – Videocasts, Images, Audio, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Biz And Online Sales And Advertising Automation
• Improving Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data And System Analysis
• Securing Your

For example, you can enhance a WordPress site with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• User Surveys
• Managing ad banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single sales with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce with shopping carts, payment processing, recurring billing, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Private Membership sites
• List-building opt-in forms
• Sales workflow
• Mobile integration
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• Customer feedback forms
• Language translation (e.g. you can instantly change your website’s content from English to Spanish)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation
• Customer interactivity – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Offline storage integration
• Making pages load faster
• Managing events
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell spots on your site
• Set client appointments and reminders
• Help customers make reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks and email you reports
• Redirect visitors from certain pages to other areas on your site or other sites
• Monitor social signals
• Make your pages available for printing or downloading as PDF
• Add sitemaps
• Hide pages from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect content on your pages and posts
• Migrate information from non-WordPress platforms
• Perform bulk content edits
• Block SPAM
• Customize visitor comment displays (e.g. display Facebook comments)
• Inserting HTML and code elements into your pages
• Add and format tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced text formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map of your business location
• Post your content automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and others
• Display countdown timers (for scarcity offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

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

If you’re still wondering just how powerful and flexible plugins are, let me show you some practical uses of installing an inexpensive plugin on your website.

For example, if you need content protection, you can use plugins to make a section of a post 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 enhance your website in lots of different ways. From adding functionality that can improve your business, your visitors’ experience and your understanding of what is taking place on your site …

To extending your site’s reach and visibility across social media and search engines …

You can also add sophisticated functionality to your website using inexpensive premium WordPress plugins. For example, you can download plugins that automate features on your pages such as managing customer testimonials and event bookings …

And even set up a complete bookings and reservations system online … all for a small fraction of the cost of paying web developers to create custom applications for you …

You can also take advantage of built-in WP commenting features and plugins that will make your site even more interactive …

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your blog posts (which can grow into online discussions) using either the built-in WP commenting function, or integrated Facebook comments (which then get shared throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with additional exposure).
• Bookmark your posts on bookmarking sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online directly with your team using online forums or even set up an online community on your site.
• Engage with members of your team via live web conferencing and chatrooms
• Call your business from their cellphones while visiting your pages
• Get help and support via a dedicated user support helpdesk
• And so much more …

You can even integrate sophisticated “back end” applications using a WordPress “front end”. This enables you to control your business marketing, while the third-party application handles the technical side of things …

WP Plugins – Additional Information

• There are many plugins available. Be careful not to overload your server with too many plugins, as this will affect your site’s resources and page loading speed. It can also create more maintenance issues for you resulting from possible conflicts.
• Only keep the plugins you really plan to use. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these also utilize resources.
• Many free plugins normally receive very little to no support from the plugin developer. When considering paid plugins, we recommend that 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 plugin reviews for additional expert information.
• If you see that an unsupported 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 or blog. The WordPress core application updates regularly and outdated WordPress plugins can cause conflicts.
• Always maintain your plugins up-to-date. Older plugins not only can cause errors, they may also contain security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious software.

As you can see, WordPress plugins are an important element of WordPress and contribute to making it the most powerful, flexible and scalable CMS available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to expand quickly without spending thousands of dollars on web development.

One last thing regarding plugins:

Whatever feature you want for your website, you can guarantee that a WP plugin currently exists that will do just what you want, and that this plugin will either be available at no cost, or if it’s a paid plugin, that it will be fairly affordable.

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

And, if by any chance such a plugin is not available, then it can probably be created for your business for a reasonable price.

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

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