Using Wordpress Plugins to Extend the Functionality of Your Blog

Using WordPress Plugins to Extend the Functionality of Your Blog

Posted by Cathy Matheny | Posted in Niche Marketing | Posted on 23-06-2010

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A WordPress plugin is a small piece of code, or several pieces of code, that sits on top of your WordPress blog and increases the functionality of the website in some manner. (Translation: Plug-ins give your blog more features which allows it to do more than it could when you first installed it.) Most plug-ins are written in the PHP scripting language and add an extra feature or function to your blog.

Plug-ins blend in seamlessly with WordPress so there’s no need to mess around with your WordPress code. That’s another great advantage of using plug-ins. They won’t actually affect your original WordPress set up. They are separate pieces and just interact with WordPress.

How did plug-ins get “invented”? The development of plug-ins came to exist because programmers wanted to improve the function of WordPress without needing to alter the code within WordPress itself. Basically, coders said “I wish WordPress could do this or that” – and then created plug-ins to make it happen. Of course, other programmers got excited by this and it spread. More and more developers jumped on board and created these small add-ons to the WordPress code and now WordPress can do more than the original creators ever imagined it could simply as a result of these little plug-ins. Now there are over 9000 plugins on the market that add various features to WordPress.

Many plug-ins are free and so it is important to understand that they often don’t have technical support services. When selecting a plug-in, it is wise to look for the following:

How long has it been since that plug-in was updated. Is it compatible with the current version of WordPress, or the version that you are using?
Does the plug-in’s homepage still exist?
Have the people seeking support on the plug-in been given answers to their questions?
What is the overall tone of the discussions of the plug-in download page?

There is a plug-in for almost anything you want to achieve in WordPress. If you want to keep an eye on your website visitor statistics, increase interaction with your visitors, add a shopping cart to WordPress, add a photo gallery, earn money with WordPress plugins, automatically back up your database or anything else you have a desire to do with your WordPress blog, you can most likely find a plug-in to use, and like we said, most of them are free.

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