Using Plugins in a WordPress Blog – How to Use WordPress Plugins on Your Blog
WordPress is an astounding blogging platform right out of the box. It is packed with features and functions that allow you to blog at a pretty high level even at its most basic. But there might be some things you want your blog to do that the default WordPress blog won’t. That’s where plugins come in. WordPress plugins are so ridiculously awesome that I think we should crack open a bottle of something and toast to them together.
Basically, a plugin is a program that adds a specific feature or function to your blog and it’s integrated seamlessly with the design of the blog allowing for stupidly simple customization without changing the actually programming of WordPress at all. Best of all, there’s a plugin for just about everything and although there have been brilliant plugins developed that have a small price tag, there are thousands of mind-blowingly fabulous plugins that are absolutely free for you to use. Here’s why I love them so much. I am not a web designer. I don’t know code. I don’t intend to learn code. But I can design you a pretty kick butt website by simply starting with WordPress and adding a theme and the right plugins. And you can do the same. So here’s how to get started with plugins on your own blog.
In your WordPress dashboard, check out the menus going down the left side. Find the one called “”Plugins””. Click “”Add New””. This is where you’ll always come to search for plugins that you need. I guarantee you that for most needs you’ll ever have, there will be a free plugin available that will serve your purposes brilliantly. Let’s first talk about a few plugins I recommend that you install right away. Then we’ll walk through an example of how to install the plugin and activate it on your blog.