WP Plugin – WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins, what are they..? why do they exist..? how do you install & use them..? These are some of the questions that many new bloggers will often ask.
Ok lets start at the beginning, WordPress is a blogging platform in the same way that a car is car, but different people want different things from a car, some want a great stereo, others a sliding sun roof, still others want a towing bracket for a caravan, but the car manufacturers do not produce a car to suit all tastes! The same is then true of WordPress, yes it is a CMS (content management system) for blogging, but different people want different things from their blogs, so where you have ancillary shops for cars, you have plugin designers / builders for WordPress. The idea being that these additional snippets of code will enable WordPress to perform better & be better able to meet each individual bloggers requirements.
Please Be Warned !
Sounds great doesn’t it..? And yes in most cases it is, but there are occasions where you will get the flip side, times when they can crash your blog, times when they can slow down the operation of your blog, times when they will clash with previously installed plugins. So before attempting to install any plugin (irrespective of how much people rave about it), always do a database backup! Then should things go pear shaped & your blog becomes unusable, it is simply a matter of using your FTP software to access & delete the offending WP Plugin & then restore your database using your latest backup.
What Can Plugins Do..?
There are literally in excess of nine thousand plugins available, designed to do all manner of wierd and wonderful things to your blog. Checkout what’s available on the WordPress Website. Some will not be suitable for your blog, based on what they do, some possibly have not been tested with your version of WordPress, so always check for compatibility before trying to install. It is also a good idea to read any info that the plugin author has posted, as this will often contain information on any other plugins that are incompatible with the one you are planning to install. By all means read peoples comments that are posted on a plugin, but don’t be put off at the first negative comment.
The reason for this is quite simple, look at how many have downloaded the plugin (often 30k +) & then look at how many negative comments are there..? If there were 1,000 then I may be concerned, however you will usually find that there are half a dozen negative comments and very often these are posted by people that are new to WordPress & don’t really know what they are doing!
Installing Plugins
To install a plugin you normally have 2 options; (1) you can do a direct install from WordPress by clicking on the big button that says “Install” or (2) you can download the WP plugin in zipped format to your computer, this can then be uploaded via the plugin admin panel. Simply click on “Add New” & you will then access a browse window where you select the file to be uploaded. These WordPress plugins should be uploaded in the same zipped format that you downloaded them, WordPress will extract & install once the file is uploaded. It only remains for you to activate the WP plugin when you are ready.
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Posted by Steve (Admin)
on May 5 2010. Filed under Wordpress Plugins.
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Hi,
Ok well 1st of all if you bought & paid for the domain name cometear.com then regardless of where you are hosted, you will retain the same site name. If you choose to move (which I strongly advise you do) you will then have access to settings that are not under your control with WordPress hosting and therefore although the admin panel would be very similar, there will be differences.
If you choose to move to a self hosted setup you can either use export to export a backup of all posts, categories, links etc etc or simply do a complete backup. The most important being a database backup ! It is then fairly straightforward to transfer to a hosting account elsewhere.
If you need any help then give me a shout ok !
Steve (Admin)
Hi there! I had some minor problems! See I’m working on a blog on wordpress.com (cometear.com) and it has a domain name. My problem was I couldn’t find my plugin tab and I found out wordpress.com doesn’t support plugins so I was wondering: How do I switch from wordpress.com to .org? Do I need a Web Host? If I get a Web Host will I still see the usual wordpress dashboard and tabs? Will my site have the same theme? Name? Thats my problem. Please reply.
~Cometear