WordPress Plugins allow you to extend the functionality of your site well beyond that of the basic WordPress platform. The beauty of the thousands of plugins available is that many of the have their own development team dedicated improving the effectiveness of the plugin. This gives us access to an ever-improving collection of WordPress plugins.
Plugins offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.
Plugins can add such features as:
Backup – One of the most important things you can do is to make sure that you regulary backup your website. There are a wide variety of excellent backup plugins to allow you to keep copies of your site safe. Some plugins can be configured to automatically run scheduled backups and send them to you by email or even send them to your Amazon S3 account.
Ecommerce – For those who want to sell items directly from their website there are some excellent plugins available. Some of these will allow you to receive payments directly into your Paypal account while other have a wide variety of payment options.
Gallery – These plugins all you to create stunning photo galleries on you website. You can create spectacular slideshows complete with an almost endless variety of special effects.
Membership – Create free or paid memberhsip websites that only allow access to select visitors.
SEO – Intelligently optimizing your website for the search engines has been made so much simpler with these plugins. Today’s SEO plugins are so flexible that you can quickly do basic SEO or much more comprehensive SEO if you desire.
Video – Video plugins allow you to do everything from create a video gallery to display YouTube videos on you website to hosting your videos remotely using a CDN (Content Delivery Network).
But you know what a plugin is. And you know how valuable the right plugin combinations can be to your blog. In fact, so many talented developers have developed plugins for virtually everything you can think of. If you have something that you want your blog to do, chances are someone has already created a plugin to accomplish that task and chances are that plugin is free of charge.
Free WordPress Plugins vs. Premium WordPress Plugins
There are two different “types” of plugins available. There are free plugins that are found in the WordPress plugin repository. This is found at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins. Even the most novice WordPress users are familiar in some capacity with this area. At the time of this article’s creation, there are over 600 pages of plugins listed in the plugin repository. Currently there are over 20,000 plugins available for free.
There are so many outstanding plugins out there that are free to use and knowing how to use them can take your website to the next level as well as save you a lot of time and money.
If you take the time to get to know some of these exceptional free plugins that are in the WordPress repository you will find a gold mine of hidden treasure that can take your site to new heights. Nine times out of ten, there is an existing plugin that will do what the new shiny premium WordPress plugin will do. By getting to know every nook and cranny of the WordPress Repository first, you can save a bundle of money without sacrificing functionality.
Here on WP Companion we have profiled many of the top WordPress plugins that are available for free as well as useful premium plugins.
The profiles are structured to answer 3 basic questions:
1 – WHAT does the plugin do? – Every plugin has a certain function or function(s) that it provides. I try to get to the essence of the plugin very quickly and succinctly.
2 – HOW is the plugin configured? – Some plugins work “right out of the box” as they say and you don’t have to tweak the settings or configure them in any way. Others are quite complicated to set up. I try to show the most effective way in my opinion to get the plugin working at full force.
3 – WHY do you need this plugin? – Let’s face it, some plugins are for show, some plugins are needed by everyone and some perform highly specialized functions that only advanced WordPress users will find useful. We examine the why’s as well as if there are any other plugins that provide similar functionality and therefore why this plugin should be chosen over the competitors.
We may also provide screenshots or videos of important details when applicable to make our plugin information that much more useful to you. This will hopefully give you an excellent benchmark of each plugin. You many find different features that you have never used on a plugin that you already always use. You may learn of new plugins that will make your site better. You may find another alternative to a plugin you have been using for years, one that will also make your site better.
We are confident that our coverage of WordPress plugins will help to:
– Save You Money
– Enhance Your WP Plugin Knowledge
– Make your Site better
