Choosing the Right Plugins. Ira Horowitz Cornershop

Transcription

1 Choosing the Right Plugins Ira Horowitz Cornershop

2 About Cornershop Creative Online services company that provides excellent design, expert web development, and innovative online strategy for nonprofits and small businesses

3 Summary Where to Find Plugins? Criteria for Selecting a Plugin Must Have Plugins

4 FINDING PLUGINS

5 Where to Find Plugins WordPress.org ( Can Filter by Tags and Popularity It s integrated directly into the WordPress Admin Pnel Tidy Repo ( Tagline of A curated list of the best WordPress Plugins All plugins are tested and verified before listing

6 Where to Find Plugins Code Canyon ( More than 3,000 plugins Custom Premium plugins Search and filterable Google If you can t find it via these sources, google it

7 CRITERIA FOR SELECTING PLUGINS

8 Do You Need a Plugin? Is it functionality already provided by the theme or somewhere else? Is custom functionality better for your purpose? Is there a web service that works without installing a plugin?

9 Number of Downloads

10 Plugin Rating

11 Plugin Reviews This is where most of the complaints will exist Common or often complaints can be an indicator of a bad plugin

12 Updated Regularly How often is it updated? Does the publisher make bug fixes quickly? Are there security patches or concerns? Are updates performed when WordPress releases?

13 Compatibility Make sure it is compatible with the latest versions of WordPress Ensure that it is still in active development and maintenance

14 Plugin Website

15 Support System Check out FAQs Look at documentation or knowledge base

16 Plugins by same author Check to see if the same person/company is actively developing other plugins Multiple plugins from one author with high rating are typically safe

17 Where there s one There are probably 10 Review other similar plugins and don t just take the first one you find

18 Go Pro! If available, it s worth the small investment (usually only $20-$50) Better features Better support

19 MUST HAVE PLUGINS

20 Advanced Custom Fields Let s developers easily create custom fields on posts and pages

21 Gravity Forms Create unlimited number of forms Collects responses in WordPress Customized confirmation page and Dozens of extensions that let you collect payments, and send data to third-party tools like MailChimp & Salesforce

22 WordFence Makes your site secure Regular security threat notifications Lockout notifications Blacklist spammers

23 Backup Buddy Keep a backup of your content should anything go wrong

24 HAVING FUN WITH PLUGINS

25 Intuitive Custom Post Order Easily drag and drop to sort posts, pages or anything in WordPress

26 Collapse-o-Matic Create collapsible menus in the body of your pages Great for FAQs or long-content pages

27 Widget Menuizer Sick of the same old boring dropdown navigation menu? Create more dynamic and engaging menus Pulls widget areas in a menu, so anything you can put in a widget, can now be in a menu

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29 NextGen Public Uploader Let users submit their own photos to your site, showing their support Make a great action campaign Let users submit their photos and automatically display in a variety of excellent gallery layouts

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31 Photo Contest WordPress Plugin Create photo contests Easily reset contest Run multiple contest at once

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33 WP Lightbox 2 Add a mobile responsive lightbox to your website

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35 BBPress Create dynamic and interactive forums

36 Conclusion Don t just look at the WordPress.org Plugin Gallery Research all alternatives before selecting a plugin Before using, confirm it s legitimate via downloads, reviews, and support Go Pro!

37 @ira_horowitz