Tag: WordPress Plugin Directory

One of the most useful benefits of the WordPress content publishing platform is the ability to quickly and easily increase your WordPress website’s functionality using inexpensive (and often free) applications called ’plugins’.

Understanding WordPress Plugins

No doubt, you probably have a cell phone. What do you do when you would like access to something new on your phone like a new application, software or business tool?

You download and install an app!

An app is a little software that is very easy to install and adds new features and functionality to your smart phone.

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

A plugin is really similar to an app. You simply download and install a software application that provides new functionality to your WP web site …

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

Typically, expanding the functionality of an already-built site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the new features or enhancement, this cost can be significant, particularly if website developers have to add new code or edit code or develop programs to integrate into your existing site.

This also applies to setting up a website. Businesses often fork out money for features or customizations they may simply not need.

To keep your costs to a minimum, we recommend a modular strategy when developing a web presence presence and WordPress plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

1) Start simply and inexpensively. Get your business web presence up and running fast, then …

2) As you need more features and functionality, you can install new software modules with a few mouse clicks that integrate seamlessly with your site, giving your site an entirely new and expanded range of practical capabilities, and …

3) Cost not a single dollar extra to install on your web site?

Well, this is just what plugins allow you to do!

Benefits Of Using Plugins

I began this article by comparing plugins with smartphone apps. Just like some apps are free to download and some apps cost a little bit of money, so do WP plugins.

In fact, loads of great plugins are freely available for users.

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 add the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium plugins cost very little.

Also, since WordPress distributes its software as an Open Source application, any person can create, rewrite and customize any part of the code. This has allowed thousands of professional web development companies to enhance and contribute to the core WordPress software application.

• WP plugins let you start simply with only a simple web presence and then expand as required.
• WP plugins allow you to add practically unlimited features to your web site quickly and very cheaply.
• Plugins give you practically endless expanding capabilities.
• Plugins allow ”non-techies” to own a digital presence that they can manage themselves.
• Most plugins will typically work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to provide your website with instant new capabilities and functionality.
• Some plugins can be slightly more complex and could require some configuring.

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

Just like themes, tens of thousands of WP plugins are currently available to WordPress users … often at $0 cost!

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

As previously mentioned, you can find plugins that will do just about everything you want done.

There are WP plugins for:

• User Management
• Content Management
• Traffic
• Visitor Interactivity
• Social Media
• Media Management Automation
• Improving Sales & Opt-In Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data And System Analysis
• Optimizing Your WordPress Site

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

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• User Surveys
• Rotating banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single sales with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce stores with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring payments, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Private Membership sites
• Newsletter opt-in forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile integration
• Improving your site’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonials
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change all content on your site from English to Spanish)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation menus
• Customer engagement – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Cloud storage management
• Faster page loading
• Event management
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell spots on your website
• Set client appointments and appointment reminders
• Set up reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks and email you reports
• Redirect website pages
• Monitor what social media users are posting about your business
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add sitemaps
• Hide pages from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide content on your pages and posts
• Migrate data from other publishing platforms
• Search and replace data
• Block SPAM
• Customize visitor commenting (e.g. display Facebook posts)
• Inserting code and script elements into your posts and pages
• Add tables
• Display animated graphics and advanced font display formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add location maps
• Post your content automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and many others
• Show countdown timers (for expiring offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so much more!

As you can clearly see, WordPress plugins give you virtually endless business flexibility. If you plan to build a web site, or your existing site isn’t powered by WordPress, then consider getting one in the future, or you could be missing out on some serious functionality.

In case you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using plugins, let me show you how you can benefit by installing an inexpensive plugin on your website.

For example, if you need to protect your content, you can install plugins to make just a couple of paragraphs on your page or post inaccessible, or create a full paid membership site with separate login details for all users …

As mentioned before, you can use free plugins to improve your business site in so many ways. From installing features that enhance your business, your website visitors’ experience and your ability to analyze website data …

To increasing your business visibility across multiple social media and search engines …

You can also add sophisticated functionality to your site using relatively inexpensive paid WP plugins. For example, you can install plugins that integrate and automate functions on your pages such as user feedback and event registrations management …

And even run a complete bookings and reservations system online … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of paying web developers to code these functionality for you …

You can also take advantage of native WP commenting features and plugins that can enhance visitor engagement …

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your blog posts (which can turn into online discussions) using either the native WP commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then shared throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
• Bookmark your content on social media.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online with your team members via forums or even set up an online community on your own site.
• Engage with your support team via live video chats
• Call your business directly from their cellphones when visiting your site
• Get support via a client helpdesk
• And so much more …

You can even integrate complex 3rd-party applications within a WP “front end”. This lets you control your business marketing, while your 3rd-party application handles the technical aspects …

Useful Tips About WordPress Plugins

• There are lots of useful plugins available. Be careful of overloading your server with an excessive amount of plugins, as this can inevitably affect your website’s resources and page loading speed. It can also create more maintenance work for you as a consequence of potential errors.
• Only keep the plugins that you really need. Delete inactive plugins from your site, as these also consume server resources.
• Many free plugins typically receive little to no support from the plugin developer. When choosing paid WP plugins, ensure that you check some reviews online and see what kind of reputation the developer has when it comes to offering support, updates, new features, etc. Be sure to check our plugin reviews for more 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 using it. WordPress is updated often and out-of-date WordPress plugins can create conflicts.
• Always update your plugins to the most recent version. Older plugin not only can create issues, they may also contain vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and malicious software.

As you can see, plugins are an integral part of WordPress and contribute to making it the most preferred content management system available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to expand quickly without having to spend thousands of dollars on outsourced web development costs.

One last thing on the subject of plugins:

If there is any feature you want for your website, you can guarantee that a WP plugin already exists that will do what you need, and that it can either be downloaded 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 this WP plugin is not available, then it can most certainly be created for your business at a reasonable cost.

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

***

***