Tag: WordPress 101

One of the main advantages of building a website with the WordPress software is that you can quickly increase your WP web site’s functionality using applications called ’plugins’.

Understanding Plugins

No doubt, you most likely own a smart phone. What happens when you would like access to something new on your device like a new software or 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 instantly adds new features and functionality to any smart device.

(Just like there are social sharing apps …)

A WP plugin is like an app. You simply download and install a little piece of software that adds new functionality to your WordPress website …

(… there are also social sharing plugins for WordPress users!)

Almost always, expanding the functionality of an existing site involves additional cost. Depending on how complex the feature or enhancement is, things can get fairly expensive, particularly if web developers have to create new code or edit code or develop scripts that integrate with your existing set up.

This also applies when setting up a website or business blog. Businesses often pay up front for features they may never need.

To reduce business expenses, we suggest using a cost-effective strategy to growing your digital presence presence and WordPress plugins are ideal for doing this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

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

2) As you need new features or functionality, add new applications with only a couple of clicks of the mouse that integrate with your current website or blog, giving your website or blog a whole new range of practical functionality, and …

3) Cost not a single cent extra to install on your website?

Well, that’s precisely what a WP plugin lets you do!

WP Plugins – Benefits

I began this post by comparing WordPress plugins with ’apps’. Just like many apps are free to download and some may cost a little bit of money, the same is true with WordPress plugins.

In fact, many great plugins can be installed and activated on your sites.

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

Also, as WordPress is an Open Source application, anyone can create, rewrite and customize any portion of the WP code. This has enabled thousands of third-party software developers to enhance the WordPresssoftware.

• WP plugins allow you to start off with only a simple web site and expand when required.
• Plugins let you add almost unlimited features to your web site quickly, easily and cheaply.
• WP plugins give you almost unlimited expansion capabilities.
• Plugins allow business owners to own a digital presence that they can manage themselves.
• Most plugins will normally work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to give your site new capabilities and enhancements.
• Some plugins provide more extensive options and could require some configuration.

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

Just like WordPress themes, loads of WP plugins are made available to WP users … often at $0 cost!

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

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

WP plugin categories cover:

• Web Site Management
• Content Distribution
• Increasing Site Visitors
• Visitor Interactivity
• Social Sharing
• Uploading Media Files – Video, Images, Podcasts, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Commerce And Online Sales & Marketing Automation
• Improving Website Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data Analysis Applications
• Securing Your

You can expand a WordPress site with plugins like the following:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• User Surveys
• Display ad banners
• E-commerce (from managing single-item ordering with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce with online shopping carts, payment processing, recurring payments, coupons, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Private Membership sites
• List-building opt-in forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User feedback forms
• Instant language translation (e.g. you can instantly change your website’s content from English to German)
• 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
• Making pages load faster
• Managing events & bookings
• Business directories
• Automatically sell advertising on your site
• Set client appointments and appointment reminders
• Help customers make reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links on your pages and send you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor social conversations
• Make your pages available for printing or downloading as PDF
• Add a site map
• Hide certain from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide content on your posts and pages
• Migrate information from non-WordPress applications
• Perform bulk content edits
• Fight SPAM commenting
• Customize guest comment displays (e.g. displaying Facebook posts)
• Inserting HTML and code elements into your pages
• Add tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced font display formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve Google search
• Add a map
• Publish your content automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and many others
• Display countdown timers (for special offers, discount coupons, etc …)
• Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As you can clearly see, plugins give you limitless possibilities. If you are planning to build a web site for your business, or your existing website isn’t powered by WordPress, then consider getting a WordPress site or blog added to your domain, or you could be missing out on some serious features.

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

For example, if you need content protection, you can use plugins to make an area of a page or post inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a professional membership site with personal login details for every member …

As mentioned previously, you can use free plugins to enhance your business site in so many ways. From installing functionality that enhance 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 advanced features to your website using relatively inexpensive paid plugins. For example, you can purchase plugins that automate functionality on your pages like displaying customer testimonials and booking events …

And also set up a custom-branded bookings and reservations system on your site … all for a small fraction of the cost of hiring software developers to design similar applications for you …

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

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your site (which can turn into online discussions) using either the native WordPress commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with additional exposure).
• Bookmark your content on various social sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage in online discussions with your support staff using online forums or even set up an online social network on your own domain.
• Engage with members of your team using live web conferencing and chatroom facilities
• Dial your business directly from their cellphones while visiting your site
• Get support via a customer helpdesk
• And much more …

You can also integrate sophisticated enterprise applications using a WordPress “front end”. This allows you to control your business marketing, while your 3rd-party application handles the technological side of things …

Some Useful Things To Know About WP Plugins

• There are loads of plugins available. Be careful not to overload your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this can eventually affect your site’s resources and site loading times. It can also create more maintenance issues for you resulting from possible errors.
• Only keep the plugins that you really need. Delete all inactive plugins from your site, as these use resources.
• Many free plugins typically come with very little to no support from the plugin developer. When considering premium plugins, we recommend that you check some reviews online and understand what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to offering support, upgrades, new features, etc. Be sure to check our WordPress plugin reviews for additional expert information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two years), then think twice before installing it. WordPress changes frequently and outdated plugins can cause conflicts.
• Always update your plugins to the most recent software version. Outdated plugins not only can cause issues, they may also contain security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and malicious software.

As you can see, plugins are an important feature of WordPress and contribute to making it the most downloaded CMS available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to expand quickly without having to spend thousands of dollars on web development costs.

One last thing on the topic of plugins:

Whatever feature or functionality you need for your website, you can be sure that a someone has probably already created one that will do just what you need, and that this plugin can either be accessed for FREE, or if it’s a premium plugin, that the cost to purchase it will be reasonable.

(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 coded for you for a reasonable price.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of WP plugins – what plugins are and how they can significantly expand your web site. See our published posts to learn about more popular plugins that we recommend using.

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