Wordpress plugins – Installing

I was absolutely floored at how many plugins were available for Wordpress! In case you don’t know what a plugin is, it is a small application that modifies the functionality of your site. There are tons of cool FREE applications that you can add to your blog to do just about anything. Basically if you have a Wordpress blog you NEED to check out the Plugin Directory. I used several to get this site to do what I wanted it to and so can you.

Installing plugins on Wordpress is about the simplest thing ever. Go to the Plugin Directory and research the ones available for what you need to do. I would read reviews and see how many have been downloaded. The ones with the highest stars are usually the best. Once you find the one you want, click “Download” and save it to your local harddrive (My Documents or something). Make sure to read the “installation” tab on the plugin to find out if there is any special instructions.

Click on “Plugins” on the left side bar of your admin portal and then click “Add New”. This will take you to the upload file feature. Browse to the plugin you downloaded and upload the entire zip file. Once uploaded it should be open and running but you may need to “Activate” it. Sometimes little boxes will appear at the top of your admin portal with instructions on how you need to set up the plug in so watch out for those.

To see what plugins you have click on “Plugins” to the left and click on “Installed”, here you can activate and remove plugins as needed. Also you might want to check your left side bar closely after installing a plugin as they sometimes will add new menu features, normally these show up under “Settings”.