Miami WordCamp 2015 Beginner Course – Plugin discussion
WordCamp Miami 2015 is kicking off with an early Beginner Workshop which happened today at Nova University in Davie, FL.
The all day beginner workshop focuses on getting started with WordPress.
My presentation this year was all about plugins.
Plugins add functionality outside of the design
(Themes should focus on design)
Plugins can be as simple as just adding a button on your site to a complete transformation of WordPress into a social platform (BuddyPress) or forum application(BBPress).
WordPress repository has over 37,000 plugins.
Many free and well supported.
And custom plugin developers:
- Gravity Forms
- Pippins plugins
- DeliciousBrains
How to choose the right ones? Evaluate carefully:
Plugins should have a good track record.
- What type of rating does it have?
- How many downloads does it have?
- How long has it been since it was updated?
- Is it compatible with the latest version of WordPress?
- How well is it supported?
- Author’s credibility.
How many plugins are too many?
It is not a matter of numbers it is a matter of how well the plugins are coded.
Categories of plugins
- Security (very simple)
- Limit Login Attempts
- Force Strong Passwords
- SEO
- WordPress SEO by Yoast – lots of configurations and the most popular by far +million installs
- Form builders
- Gravity Forms (Premium)
- Contact Form 7 (free +million installs)
- Google Analytics
- Google Analyticator
- Google Analytics by Yoast
- Development
- WP Example Content
- Redirection
- WP Migrate DB Pro
- Social Sharing
- Jetpack – Sharing
- Shareaholic
- Sharebar
- Autosharing
- Jetpack – (publicize)
- Official apps (Twitter and Facebook)
- External services (twitterfeed, IFTT, etc…)
- Misc
- Duplicate Post
- Q&A FAQ and Knowledgebase for WordPress
- Simple Sitemap
Install a plugin direct from repository
Install a plugin ZIP file uploaded through admin dashboard (not FTP)
Categorized in: Web Design, WordPress
Published On: May 3, 2015