Tag: WP Plugins

One of the main benefits of choosing the WordPress web site management software is the ability to quickly expand your WP web site’s functionality using plugins.

What Are WP Plugins?

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

You download and install an app!

An app is a software application that is very simple and easy to install and immediately adds new features and functionality to any mobile device.

(Just like you will find social sharing apps …)

A plugin is similar to an app. You install and activate a little piece of software that adds new functionality to your website or blog …

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

Normally, adding new features to an existing web site involves additional cost. Depending on how complex the features or enhancements are, things can become fairly expensive, especially if it involves website development.

This also applies when starting a website or business blog. Organizations will often fork out money upfront for features they may not ever need.

For this reason, we recommend a sustainable approach when developing your website and WP plugins are ideal for helping you achieve this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply with minimal expense involved. Get your website up and running quickly, then …

2) As more features are needed, install new applications with just a couple of clicks of the mouse directly from within your WP admin section, giving your website an entirely new range of capabilities and functionality, and …

3) Cost not a single dollar more to download and install on your site?

Well, this is precisely what WP plugins let you do!

Benefits Of WordPress Plugins

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

In fact, loads of plugins can be installed on your websites.

Plugins that you purchase are called Premium plugins. The good news, is that when compared to the price of hiring a professional web developer to add similar functionality on your site, most Premium plugins cost very little.

Also, since WordPress makes its code publicly available, any person can create, modify and customize any portion of the code. This has allowed thousands of third-party software developers to build more new applications that “plug into” WordPress than you can imagine.

• WP plugins allow you to start off with only a basic yet professional site and then add new features and enhancements to your site when required.
• Plugins allow you to add almost unlimited functionality to your web presence easily and cheaply.
• Plugins give your digital presence practically endless expansion capabilities.
• Plugins allow business owners to own a web presence that they can self-manage.
• Most plugins will work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your web site instant new capabilities, enhancements and functionality.
• Some plugins offer more advanced features and require some initial configuring.

Plugins – Powerful, Flexible … And (Many Are) 100% FREE!

Like WordPress themes, loads of great plugins are currently available for WordPress users … and many of these great plugins are 100% FREE!

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

As mentioned earlier, you will find WP plugins that will do almost everything you could imagine.

Plugin categories cover:

• Blog Management
• Content Syndication
• Traffic
• User Engagement
• Social Monitoring
• Inserting Media – Videos, Images, Podcasts, Multimedia, etc.
• e-Commerce And Online Sales Automation
• Improving Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
• Data And System Monitoring & Reporting
• Optimizing Your

For example, you can add features to your website with plugins like the following:

• Contact forms
• Quizzes and polls
• Social contests
• Display advertising banners
• E-commerce (from managing single sales with PayPal buttons, to complete e-commerce stores with shopping carts, invoicing, recurring payments, discount codes, etc …)
• Social media integration
• Membership sites
• Newsletter opt-in forms
• Sales funnels
• Mobile conversion
• Improving your site’s Search Engine Optimization
• Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
• Customer testimonial forms
• Language translation plugins (e.g. you can instantly change all content on your pages from English to Spanish)
• 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
• Faster page loading
• Event management
• Business directories
• Automatically sell and manage advertising on your site
• Set appointments and appointment reminders
• Automate reservations and bookings
• Detect broken links 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
• Exclude certain from displaying on areas of your site (e.g. site maps, feeds, etc.)
• Protect post content
• Import information from other CMS platforms
• Perform bulk data replacements
• Prevent SPAM commenting
• Customize guest comment displays (e.g. displaying Facebook discussions)
• Insert code and script elements into your content
• Add tables
• Display animated graphic elements and advanced font display formatting options
• Add and manage QR codes
• Improve Google search
• Add location maps
• Post your content automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and others
• Show countdown timers (for special offers, coupons, etc …)
• Display personalized greetings, timed offers, etc …
• And so many other features!

As you can clearly see, plugins give you practically limitless possibilities. If you are planning to build a website, or your existing website wasn’t built with WordPress, then consider getting a WP site or blog built on your domain, or you will be missing out on some serious functionality.

In case you’re still wondering just how powerful and flexible plugins are, let me show you how you can benefit by simply installing a plugin on your site.

For example, if you need content protection, you can use plugins to make an area of your page inaccessible, or create a full membership site with customized login details for users …

As mentioned before, free plugins can be used to enhance your site in so many ways. From installing functionality that will enhance your business, your site’s user experience and your ability to analyze visitor data …

To increasing your site’s reach and visibility across social sites and search engines …

You can also add advanced functionality to your website using relatively inexpensive paid plugins. For example, you can set up plugins that integrate and automate functionality on your pages such as user feedback and event registration management …

And also set up a complete bookings and reservations system online … all for a small fraction of the cost of hiring programmers to create custom applications for you …

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

For example, your visitors can easily:

• Leave comments on your blog posts (which can grow into online discussions) using either the native WP commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then displayed throughout a visitors’ Facebook pages, giving your site increased exposure).
• Share your content with other online users on social networking sites.
• Contact you via contact forms
• Engage online directly with your team members through forums or even set up a private online social network on your own domain.
• Engage with members of your team using live video chats
• Call your business from their devices when visiting your website
• Get help and support via a dedicated user help desk
• And much more …

You can also integrate sophisticated enterprise solutions within a WP “front end”. This allows you to manage the content that your visitors see on your web site, while your 3rd-party application handles the technical areas …

Additional Tips About WordPress Plugins

• There are many WordPress plugins to choose from. Be careful not to overload your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this will inevitably begin to affect your site’s resources and site loading times. It also creates more maintenance issues for you as a consequence of potential conflicts.
• Install only those plugins that you really need. Delete any plugins you don’t need from your site, as these utilize extra resources.
• Many free plugins typically receive very little to no support from the plugin author. When considering premium plugins, ensure that you do a little research first to understand what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, upgrades, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check the plugin reviews we publish on this site for additional information.
• If you see that a plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. two or more years), then think carefully before using it on your site. The WordPress software updates often and older plugins can cause errors.
• Always update your plugins to the most recent software version. Older plugin not only can create conflicts, they may also contain security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malicious users.

As you can see, plugins are an important element of WordPress and contribute to making WordPress the most preferred content publishing software available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to expand without spending thousands of dollars on outsourced web developers.

One last thing regarding plugins:

If there is any functionality you want for your website, you can guarantee that a WP plugin already exists that will do what you need, and that it will either be available for FREE, or if it’s a paid plugin, that it will be fairly inexpensive.

(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 certainly be written for you at a reasonable cost.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of plugins – what they are and how they can enhance the functionality of your WordPress web site. See our published posts to learn more about using WordPress plugins.

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