by WebHelper | Building a Blog, WP-Plugins, WP-Themes
What Do They Do?
Why should you care about your website theme or plugins? And I’m not just talking about WordPress, but those for any platform, including Joomla. At any point when a plugin or a new theme is called for, they all do just one thing:
They Solve A ProblemThe gist of it is that when you want a type of layout, or certain functions in your website, or ease of custom features, you will (eventually) Â look for a theme that will give you what you are looking for…
Some of these themes will include the plugins built-in (sliders, anyone?) More and more, these problem solvers will simply be plugins.
Do you wish to have a recipe that can be indexed and printed? There are plugins for that,
Would you like to reduce the size of your photos automatically? Plugins will accomplish that task.
Need help with the mysteries of SEO? Plugins can solve this problem.
In fact, this is why there are so very many of them available, and they are both free and premium in just about every blogging platform: they do all sorts of coding and create answers to your need for everything from an ecommerce site to adding easy ways to post to social media.
Just.About. Everything.
The difficulty is choosing the best ones to add style or function to your own blog.
Quickly, what to look for?
- Ratings. Â See what users think about the themes and plugins you are considering.
- Updates. Plugins can have vulnerabilities, and need to be kept updated if at all possible.
- Support. If there is good support from a community or developer, it can help trouble shoot when not working right with your site. What good is a plugin that doesn’t work or causes problems… or becomes unusable after platform updates?
- Function. It does what you need without unnecessary bloat. Plugins, too big or too many, can slow your site.
So basically that is what your theme, with its built-in plugins and setup, and the plugins themselves will do… they are meant to solve your problems and meet your needs. Blogwise, anyway.
by WebHelper | Wordpress, WP-Plugins
Beginning or advanced bloggers who are building their WordPress site rely on plugins to make their blog do what they want it to. How do you find the best ones and what are the potential problems?Plugins Grow Powerful
It used to be that the theme brought special functions to a WordPress platform, but increasingly the power has shifted from both the core installation of the WordPress software and from the theme to an array of plugins.Plugins are the preferred way to expand function. This pullquote is by way of a shortcode plugin.
A plugin makes it easy to add the code necessary to do something either very simple like make a list of recent posts, to something very complex like adding a community system (i.e. “Buddypress”).
The WP team has increasingly decided to make features reside in something outside the core.Remember
Too many plugins can cause “bloat” and slow down your site. Try to limit to your “most needed and wanted”.Problems With Plugins
Most of the problems that arise with plugins revolve around “conflicts” with other functions or plugins, and “vulnerabilities”, or ways that hackers can get into your site through the code of the plugin.
With all problems from this source it is important that the plugins be updated. If you have updates in your wordpress installation, don’t delay implementing them. WordPress platform has made that easy.
What is more difficult is when you don’t know something is vulnerable or it needs updating when bundled into a theme.
Best practices that are now advocated by developers is that plugins handle many functions and that they “stand alone” instead of being introduced on the inside of a theme.
Recently, a well known, much used photo slider had been compromised in a very dangerous way. It was inside many themes, and alerts were put out, but there are many, many sites that probably go on without correction of the problem. Read about this here.
This isn’t to strike fear into your heart, but to educate you. Be aware of what to watch out for in a WordPress installation.Things To Watch
Watch for conflicts between plugins or with your theme. If something isn’t working turn off all and then turn on one at a time to see if that is the problem.
How To Add A WordPress Plugin To Your Blog
Which Choices Out Of Thousands?
There are the basics, the features, and those for specific tasks.
Akismet is one of the basics. It prevents spam.
Although I changed around a bit, I use Yarpp (Yet Another Related Post Plugin) which brings up related posts for further discovery of your posts. This is an example of a feature: something your blog will really benefit from, but not a basic concern.
The third example of plugins that I like are those which add a function or feature that I need for a specific purpose. an example of that is one for recipes, or reviews. Adding social icons, or my favorite, an editorial organizer like “WordPress Editorial Calendar”. Specialty Purposes For recipes I like “Easy Recipe“, although there are others that probably would work as well. If I were a food blogger, I would want to research what worked best for my needs, and possibly buy a premium version.
Book blogging also has a choice of a number of special plugins for reviews. I like “Book Review Library” by Chris Reynolds the best. Book Review Library Adsense Publisher Plugin has worked well for me.
I’ve tried a number of Adsense ones, but they had issues, so I’m now using Google Publisher for Adsense. It sometimes has problems with my theme, but is better than other ones I used previously.
The amount of this type is huge, and the best way to find what you want is to read reviews and find the recommendations of the users who test them. I like reading WPTavern blog for ideas about new ones.
Plugin | Feature | Price |
|---|
YARPP | adds a group of related posts to keep readers interested in your content | free |
Yoasts SEO | Powerful functions to help your SEO | free |
BruteProtect | Secures against security attack | free |
Dealing With HTML And CSS
I know how to use these, but many don’t. But despite the fact that I can customize my site and add tables to pages does not mean I want to have the headache of doing all the work ( espeically when it comes to building tables.
Never mind, Beginner and Expert alike! There are plugins that prove very handy for these chores.TABLES
Wordpress posts benefit form visual aids like tables. They are an easy way to organize information. The trouble is that a complex table can be hard to get set up. “Tablepress” is the plugin I use, it is an improvement on an older plugin that I have used on my garden site , and it works like a dream. TablepressHTML ELEMENTS
Shortcode is the name for easy additions of blocks of code that do specific things. It used to be mainly built into themes, but now you can have numerous plugins that create boxes, insert Facebook like buttons, make image sliders- all sorts of things.
There is no single plugin that does this, but I like Elegant Themes shortcode plugin, not the least because I use their themes.My Experience
I’ve had some trouble with plugins over the years. Some cause conflicted- even breaking my theme. If you have trouble with your theme or even your whole site breaks after updates, go through your plugins to see if that is the culprit.METHOD:
Turn off (deactivate) all the plugins. Turn each one back on,, individually and check to see if one was causing the problem. Unfortunately, you will probably have to delete that one until the developer fixes it.
Many developers provide support and answer questions or run a forum where problems acan be addressed and fixed.SOMETIMES IT WORKS UNTIL IT DOESN’T
If it worked and then suddenly doesn’t do what it used to, it maybe that you will have to find a similar plugin to do that feature. Authors don’t always keep them updated.
Or sometimes you find the occasional one that does something (secretly) that you don’t like, monetizers that take some of your income without your permission. Though usually it is through defaults you were not aware that you needed to change. This happens less with the newer plugins, which tend to cost something upfront. Be aware is all I can say about that. by WebHelper | Wordpress, WP-Plugins, WP-Themes
The new way to customize themes is increasingly centered inside a plugin. That is what I am using with the theme that comes with the present WordPress, Twenty Fourteen . Â I decided to try out a child theme for it.
The child theme is called ‘Sequel’, and relies upon a couple plugins. After the child theme is chosen and the plugins are installed, it is a matter of cycling through a large number of choices that will then customize the look to conform more to what you desire.
I liked the look just fine before I started changing it, but wanted to try out this child theme and see how plugins create changes. Among the things that I didn’t have access to previously is the Googlefonts . I love fonts, and have the hardest time deciding which one is best for a site, but eventually my “trial and error” method will conclude with a basic look.
I tried out at least six that I like equally well, and have a general wish for the font to convey the fact that this is a personal site with tidbits of information. Nothing heavy and imposing or too stiff, as though we are taking ourselves too seriously here.
The capacity for using different fonts adds unique character to a site.
We just want to have fun blogging and setting it up. We like to get quick troubleshooting for common problems. that is what I am writing about here, because that is what I most appreciate.
Does your theme have Googlefonts included for customizing? Â Do you like the choices or would you rather have the typography taken care of and brand your site in other ways?
If you want to try it out, the “Styles” plugin is available in the WP repository. Styles
by WebHelper | WP-Plugins
Although it is hard for me, a posting schedule using a plugin seems to be one of the most helpful tips to building a blog that I have found so far.
I started using WordPress Editorial Calendar on Ilona’s Garden, and while it does produce a bit of pressure, it also helps me to get busy and work on unfinished ideas. AND publish posts! I’m going to try it on more of my blogs.
You can drag posts around, schedule far in advance, edit strait from the calendar and all sorts of things. The visual is what is really helping me get my blogging act together.
by WebHelper | Featured, WP-Plugins
I started using the plugin from google for adding Adsense to my site. The idea was to give it a couple weeks. And although coincidentally the spring is my most visited season on my garden site, the amount of income that came from using the plugin has proved that it really is a success.
I am not a big earner, by any means, but the amounts from 2013 had become downright pathetic. I would be happy for 2 cents a day. Â Now it is much better, and I have hope that with hard work on the site, Adsense might be a supplement to online income.
I says it is still in Beta, but I am hoping they continue to develop it; this plugin has been a real boon to my site. I am hoping to use it on more of my sites, soon.
If you are interested in trying it out yourself, here is the link in the WordPress repository:
Google Publisher Plugin
by WebHelper | Notes, WP-Plugins
Love it, but it started to put loads of share button repeats at the bottom of the posts. I deactivated, deleted, reinstalled and changed the position to the top of the post. Seems to work properly now.
