Coastside Business Today: WordPress Plug-ins: Small software bits to enhance your site
by Monique Hodgkinson
Open source software is a great thing. Not only is it free, but it also allows users to look at the source code and build communities for sharing information and support. Most open source software packages provide tools that allow users to extend the capabilities of the software. The small packages of code are known as plug-ins. They are easily installed on top of the main software framework.
WordPress is a great example of extendible, open source software with thousands of plug-ins that allow an administrator to customize your software installation. Whether you need analytics, tools to better manage your blog, or an image display tool — from A to Z, WordPress has a plug-in in its library to help you. Here are some of the software packages that I find useful:
Ad-minister allows for visual or html creation of static ads, using the WordPress interface. Image files are uploaded into a database rather than into a specific directory.
Datafeedr Random Ads V2
This plug-in provides an easy-to-use tool to create rotating ads within your WordPress site; it works well with the html source code created by Ad-minister.
Akismet filters spam that is submitted as a comment, holds it in a queue for 15 days, and then automatically deletes any comments that have not been reviewed manually.
TweetMeme Retweet Button
This plug-in provides a badge on each blog post that allows readers to easily send a tweet. When the badge is clicked upon, it will open a browser window to Twitter with the title of the blog post and a shortened link, ready to tweet.
With this plug-in you can add a Digg button to individual posts. The button does not show up on the main page the way the TweetMeme badge does, but when you look at individual articles, it will be there.
Google Analytics for WordPress
The Google Analytics plug-in makes it easy to integrate analytics into your blog.
This tool allows for easy integration of a Zazzle store into a WordPress blog.
WP-Simple-Contact-Form-with-Captcha
This plug-in provides a very simple way to add a contact form, including a captcha — an image containing a code to type into the form, to ensure that a human rather than a computer program is entering the information.
Are you now thinking about how plug-ins can help you expand the capabilities of your WordPress site? With just six steps you can add a new plug-in to your site.
• From within WordPress, click “Plugins” from the menu.
• Select “Add New.”
• Enter a term to search for.
• Choose the plug-in to install.
• Click the “Install” link.
• Activate the plug-in.
Each plug-in is different. Many are accessible through the Settings menu. All of the plug-ins that can be downloaded have documentation that you can access to learn more about the configuration. Take the time to experiment. If a plug-in isn’t what you expect, it is as easy to deactivate and uninstall as it was to install.
Monique Hodgkinson is the founder of Screen Caffeen, specializing in Internet strategy development, custom Web design and social media marketing. Screen Caffeen will wake up your online presence. Visit screencaffeen.com, call 650-740-1491, or follow @screencaffeen on Twitter.
