Tag: WordPress Plugin

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

What Are Plugins?

Like most of us, you most likely own a smart phone. What happens when you would like access to something new on your device like a new application, 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 integrates new features into any smart device.

(Just as you will find social sharing apps for mobile devices …)

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

(… you can also find social sharing plugins for WordPress sites!)

Generally, if you plan to add new features to your web site, additional cost is involved. Depending on the complexity of the feature or enhancement, the cost can be fairly significant, particularly if it requires modifying code.

This is also applicable when creating a new website. Organizations sometimes spend money in advance on added components they may not need.

For this reason, we recommend a modular strategy to developing a web site and WordPress plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine if you could:

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

2) As you need new features and functionality, install new software modules with just a few mouse clicks directly from your dashboard panel, and give your website a completely new range of possibilities, and also …

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

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

WordPress Plugins – Benefits

Earlier, we compared WP plugins with mobile apps. Just like many apps are free to download and some cost a little money, the same is true with WP plugins.

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

Plugins that you buy are referred to as Premium plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the cost of paying for professional web development services to add the same functionality on your site, most Premium plugins are priced quite low.

Also, since WordPress is an Open Source application, any person can create, modify and customize any portion of the WordPress code. This has allowed many third-party software development professionals to enhance and contribute to the WPsoftware.

• Plugins allow you to get started with only a simple web site and then expand when required.
• WP plugins let you add practically endless features to any online business presence quickly, easily and quite cheaply.
• Plugins give you almost unlimited expanding capabilities.
• WordPress plugins allow non-technical users to own a site that they can fully manage.
• Most plugins will 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 functionality.
• Some plugins are slightly more advanced and could require some configuration.

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

Like many WordPress themes, thousands of plugins are made available to WordPress users … for FREE!

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

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

There are WP plugins for:

• User Administration
• Content Syndication
• Driving Site Visitors
• Visitor Engagement
• Social Engagement
• Media Utilities Automation
• Improving Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data And System Monitoring & Reporting Tools
• Optimizing Your

You can expand your WordPress site with plugins such as:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• Surveys
• Rotating advertising banners
• E-commerce (from setting up single ordering with PayPal buttons, to full scale e-commerce with online shopping carts, payment processing, recurring billing, discount codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Private Membership sites
• Newsletter subscription forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your website’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• User feedback forms
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change all content on your pages 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.
• Cloud storage management
• Faster page loading
• Event management
• Business directories
• Automatically sell advertising on your site
• Set client appointments and appointment reminders
• Help customers make reservations and bookings
• Detect broken hyperlinks on your pages and email you reports
• Redirect URLs
• Monitor what other sites are posting about your business
• Make your pages printable or downloadable as a PDF file
• Add sitemaps
• Hide pages from showing on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Hide page content sections
• Migrate information from non-WordPress platforms
• Perform bulk data edits
• Fight SPAM
• Customize guest commenting (e.g. displaying Facebook posts)
• Inserting scripts and script elements into your website’s header or footer
• Add tables
• Display animated graphic elements and advanced text formatting options
• Create and manage QR codes
• Improve your local search listings on Google
• Add a map of your business location
• Post your content automatically on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and others
• Show countdown timers (for scarcity 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 plan to build a website or blog for your business, or your existing website isn’t powered by WordPress, then consider choosing it in the future.

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

For example, if you want to publish content which is only accessible to some but not all users, you can use plugins to make an area of a post inaccessible, or transform your WordPress site into a full paid membership site with personal login details for all users …

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

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

You can also add complex features to your site using relatively inexpensive paid plugins. For example, you can purchase plugins that automate functionality on your website such as managing customer testimonials and booking events …

And also set up a complete bookings and reservations system online … all for a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring software developers to create similar applications for you …

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

For example, your web visitors can easily:

• Post comments on your blog posts (which can grow into online discussions) using either the built-in WP commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which then get shared throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with additional exposure).
• Share your content with other web users on bookmarking sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage online with other members through online forums or even set up a private community on your own domain.
• Engage with members of your team using live video chats
• Dial your business directly from their laptops when browsing your website
• Get help via a client support helpdesk
• And so much more …

Finally you, can also integrate sophisticated third-party applications within a WP “front end”. This lets you control your business sales and marketing, while your 3rd-party application handles the technical areas …

Plugins – Some Useful Things To Know

• There are so many fantastic plugins available. Be careful of overloading your server with an excessive amount of plugins, as this will start to affect your website’s resources and site loading times. It also creates more maintenance work for you resulting from possible conflicts.
• Only keep those plugins you really use. Delete any plugins you don’t use from your site, as these also use resources.
• Many free plugins typically come with very little to no support from the plugin author. When considering paid plugins, ensure that you check around a little and understand what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, updates, new features, etc. Be sure to check some of our plugin recommendations for more information.
• If you see that an unsupported plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two years), then think twice before installing it on your website or blog. WordPress changes often and older WP plugins can cause conflicts.
• Always keep your plugins up-to-date. Outdated plugin not only can cause issues, they could also have security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, WP plugins are an important part of WordPress and contribute to making it the most used CMS available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with an easy, simple and inexpensive way to add new functionality to their web presence without spending thousands of dollars on web developers.

One last thing on the subject of WordPress plugins:

If there is a feature you want for your web presence, you can guarantee that a someone has probably already authored one that will do exactly what you need it to do, and that it will either be available at no cost, or if it’s a paid plugin, that the price will be minimal.

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

And, if by any chance such a WordPress plugin does not exist, then a custom plugin that does just what you need it to do can most certainly be written for your business at a reasonable cost.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of WP plugins – what plugins are and how they can significantly improve your business blog. See our related posts to learn more about usingplugins.

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