Archives > August 4, 2009

Introduction to WordPress, Part 3: Plugins

By James Martell

In this installment of my three-part WordPress series, I’d like to tell you a bit about plugins.

If you’re not familiar with WordPress, there are thousands of plugins available that help you to customize and tweak your website or blog. According to the WordPress.org website, "Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine."

They also claim that "WordPress Plugins allow easy modification, customization, and enhancement to a WordPress blog. Instead of changing the core programming of WordPress, you can add functionality with WordPress Plugins."

Could this be true? Yes – and it’s free.

With over 6,000 plugins available, you can fine-tune your site or blog without breaking the budget on expensive marketing or add-ons. These plugins include everything from shopping carts, analytic tools, RSS feeds and image handling to Twitter and advertising space.

Sure, pouring through thousands of plugins can be time consuming (and maybe a little bit boring) but it’s well worth the effort.

To save you some time, I’d like to share my top 15 picks:

1. Akismet
   Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not.
2. All in One SEO Pack
   Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog.
3. BluBrry PowerPress
   Adds podcasting support to your blog. Features include: media player, 3rd party statistics and iTunes integration.
4. Featured Content Gallery
   Used to create a fully automated featured content gallery anywhere within your WordPress theme.
5. Google AdSense Now!
   Aiming at simplicity, AdSense Now! does only one thing: it puts your AdSense code in up to three spots in your posts and pages (both existing ones and those yet to be written).
6. Google Analytics for WordPress
   Google Analytics is a free, and very impressive, statistics package. Easily add the tracking code to your pages with this plugin and track your progress.
7. LinkToThisPage
   The Link To This Page (BETA) WordPress plugin provides a quick, simple to use, and unobtrusive way for users to obtain a link to your page or post for their own web site.
8. Role Manager
   Role Management for WordPress.
9. ShareThis
   Let your visitors share a post/page with others. Supports e-mail and posting to social bookmarking sites.
10. TubePress
    Displays gorgeous YouTube galleries in your posts, pages, and/or sidebar.
11. TweetMeme Button
    Adds the TweetMeme button into your posts and RSS feed.
12. Twitter for WordPress
    Displays yours latest tweets in your WordPress blog.
13. Viper’s Video Quicktags
    Easily embed videos from various video websites such as YouTube, DailyMotion, and Vimeo into your posts.
14. WordPress Automatic Upgrade
    Every now and then you need to upgrade WordPress to the latest version, with this plugin you can do so by clicking to upgrade and it is taken care of for you, even backing up your site before the upgrade.
15. WordPress Database Backup
    On-demand backup of your WordPress database.

Honorable Mentions…by Members of My SUPER BootCamp!

1. WP Popup Scheduler
   Allows you to schedule a popup as and when you want it. This pop-up plugin is fully customizable and can be used for all kind of situation.
2. FlickrRSS
   This plugin for WordPress allows you to display Flickr photos on your weblog.
3. WordPress Global Translator Plugin
   Automatically translate your blog in 41 different languages.
4. FeedBlitz “Member Mail”
   Enables hosted WordPress blogs to integrate FeedBlitz email newsletter signup with the user registration screen.
5. Simple:Press
   A feature rich chat forum plugin for WordPress. It fully integrates into your WP based site utilizing the same user records and database and displaying on a single WP page.
6. Exclude Pages
   Provides you with a checkbox on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation.

SUPER BootCamp members rely on these plugins to bring extra functionality to their websites and blogs because they are easy to install. If you don’t feel comfortable tackling a plugin on your own, you can always hire an Elance professional to do the dirty work for you.

Best of all, WordPress offers a search feature that allows you to narrow your results. If you’re looking for something in particular, you may find out that someone else has already created the perfect plugin.

Don’t be afraid to take the plunge – WordPress isn’t as scary as it sounds (and neither are plugins). It’s all part of creating a site or blog that appeals to your visitors and makes them want to return time and time again.

To learn more about WordPress, please check out the fourth installment in my next edition of The Martell Newsletter.

Also See:

• Tools & Technology: Introduction to WordPress

• Tools & Technology: Introduction to WordPress, Part 2: Themes

All the best,

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