Plugins

Hey all! Lauren here, finally!! I know, I know, November = Epic fail on the Designer Blogs' blog. But I'll let you all in on a little secret, we've been super busy working on lots of new and exciting things for the New Year and the ol' blog got a little neglected. Plus I'm working on baby #5! Yup, the Nelson family is expecting a bundle of joy come June 2012!! Yay, so lots of goodies coming your way and now onto the tutorial...

Let's talk about plugin's, shall we? (This is a Wordpress thing so you Blogger peeps please feel free to read on and think about making the switch. ;)

First of all, what is a plugin and why do you need one (or lots)?
I once heard plugin be compared to an "app" for a smart phone, if that helps you visualize. Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. In the Wordpress Plugin Directory you can find, download, rate, and comment on all the best plugins the WordPress community has to offer.


Some of the most popular plugins that I've used and seen used are the following:

Google Analytics for WordPress
Track your WordPress site easily and with lots of metadata: views per author & category, automatic tracking of outbound clicks and pageviews

Contact Form 7
Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible.

Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines to better index your blog.

All in One SEO Pack
Automatically optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).

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Now let's get to the nitty gritty. How do I use a plugin??? You'll need to install them to your WP site through your dashboard.

There are a couple of ways to install a WordPress plugin. Today we're going to talk about two of those way.

1. Automatically through WordPress – easiest, some server setup
2. Manually uploading a plugin through WordPress – medium, some server setup

Method #1

Method #2

That's the basic gist of plugins!! Not too hard to understand and not too hard to use. If you have any questions on this tutorial or you have any ideas for future tutorials please email us at info@designerblogs.com.