Tag: WordPress Plugin

One of the most useful features of WordPress is the ability to quickly enhance your WP website or blog’s functionality using inexpensive called ’plugins’.

What Are WP Plugins?

Like most people, you most likely have a device like a cell phone. What do you do when you want to access something new on your device like a new game or productivity tool?

You download and install an app!

An app is a piece of software that is easy to install and integrates new functionality into your mobile phone.

(Just like there are social sharing apps …)

A WordPress plugin is like an app. You download and install a software that provides new functionality to your web site …

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

Generally, if you plan to add a new feature to your site, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancement, this cost can be significant, particularly if it requires website development.

This also applies to setting up a website or business blog. Many businesses will often fork out money up-front for additional bells and whistles they probably will never need.

To keep costs to a minimum, we recommend a sustainable strategy to setting up a online presence presence and WordPress plugins are ideal for doing this.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could:

1) Start simply and with minimal cost involved. Get a web presence up and running fast, then …

2) As the need for new features or functionality arises, simply add new applications with a couple of clicks of the mouse that integrate with your existing site, and give your site a completely new range of practical capabilities, and also …

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

Well, this is precisely what a WordPress plugin enables you to do!

Benefits And Advantages Of WP Plugins

I started this blog post by comparing plugins with ’apps’. In the same way that some apps are free to download and some may cost a little money, the same is true for WordPress plugins.

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

WordPress plugins that you have to pay for are called “Premium” plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the cost of paying for professional web development services to add the same features and functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. paid) plugins are priced quite low.

Also, since WordPress is an Open Source application, anybody can create, rewrite and customize any part of the WP code. This has allowed thousands of professional web developers to build more new tools that expand WordPress than you can possibly imagine.

• WP plugins let you get started with just a simple web site and then add new features and enhancements to your site only when necessary.
• WP plugins let you add almost unlimited features to your site easily and cheaply.
• WP plugins give you almost endless expansion capabilities.
• WordPress plugins allow business owners to own a site that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins typically work “right out of the box” and only require to be installed and activated to provide your web site with instant new capabilities and enhancements.
• Some plugins provide more advanced features and could require some initial configuration.

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

Like many WP themes, tens of thousands of great WP plugins are made available for WP users … often at no cost!

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

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

Plugin categories cover:

• Blog Administration
• Content Syndication
• Online Traffic Generation
• Visitor Engagement
• Social Sharing
• Media Management Automation
• Improving Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data & System Analysis Applications
• Optimizing Your

You can expand a business online presence with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Polls and quizzes
• User Surveys
• Display advertising banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single-item sales with PayPal buttons, to full e-commerce stores with online shopping carts, invoicing, recurring billing, coupon codes, etc …)
• Social sharing buttons
• Private Membership sites
• List-building subscription forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile integration
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (including rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User testimonial forms
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change all content on your site from English to German)
• Statistical reporting (e.g. number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
• Custom navigation menus
• Customer engagement – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
• Media management
• Faster page loading
• Event management
• Niche directories
• Automatically sell advertising on your blog
• Set up appointments and reminders
• Manage reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links on your pages and send you reports
• Redirect users from old pages to other areas on your site or other websites
• Monitor what social media users are posting about your business
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add a site map
• Exclude pages from showing on areas of your site (e.g. sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect post content
• Import information from non-WordPress platforms
• Perform bulk content edits
• Prevent SPAM
• Customize visitor comment displays (e.g. display Facebook discussions)
• Insert scripts and script elements into your posts and pages
• Add and format tables
• Add animated graphics and advanced text formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map
• Syndicate your posts automatically on social pages like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest 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, WordPress plugins give you endless business scalability. If you plan to build a web site, or your existing web site isn’t powered by WordPress, then consider getting a WP site or blog built on your domain, or you could be missing out on some serious functionality.

If you’re still wondering about the power and flexibility of using WP plugins, let me show you some practical uses of adding a plugin to your web site.

For example, if you want to protect your content, you can use plugins to make a section of your page or post inaccessible, or create a professional paid membership site with personal login details for every member …

As mentioned previously, you can use free plugins to improve your site in lots of ways. From installing features that will enhance your business, your web users’ experience and your understanding of what is happening on your site …

To extending your business reach across many social media and search engines …

You can also add sophisticated features to your website using inexpensive paid WordPress plugins. For example, you can buy plugins that integrate and automate functions on your website like managing customer testimonials and event registration details …

And also run a complete bookings and reservations system online … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring programmers to design the same functionality for you …

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

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your site (which can turn into online discussions) using either the built-in WordPress commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then displayed throughout the visitors’ Facebook pages, giving your site increased exposure).
• Bookmark your content on social networking sites.
• Contact you using contact forms
• Engage online with other customers via forums or even set up an online social network on your site.
• Engage with members of your team using live video chats
• Call your business directly from their smart phones when browsing your site
• Open a support ticket
• And much more …

You can even integrate complex 3rd-party solutions within a WP “front end”. This allows you to control the content that your visitors see on your website, while the 3rd-party application handles the technical side of things …

Plugins – Additional Information

• There are lots of plugins to choose from. Be careful of overloading your site with too many plugins, as this can affect your website’s resources and site loading speed. It can also mean more maintenance issues for you as a consequence of potential errors.
• Install only those plugins you really need. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these use server resources.
• Many free plugins normally receive little to no support from the plugin author. When considering premium WordPress plugins, ensure that you do a little research first to understand what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to offering support, upgrades, new improvements, 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 while (e.g. two years), then think twice before installing it. The WordPress application changes on a regular basis and out-of-date plugins can cause problems.
• Always maintain all plugins updated. Older plugins not only can create issues, they may also contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

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

One last thing regarding WordPress plugins:

Whatever feature or functionality you want for your website, you can guarantee that a someone has probably already developed one that will do just what you want, and that it will either be available for FREE, or if it’s a premium plugin, that it will be reasonably inexpensive.

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

And, if by chance such a plugin is not available, then one can probably be coded for your business at a reasonable cost.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of plugins – what they are and how they can significantly enhance the functionality of your web site. See our published posts to learn more about usingplugins.

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