Building a Website Pro: Wordpress Training, How to Build a Website, Web Design for Small Business, Entrepreneurs & Individuals

BAWP 008: An Outlet for the Best WordPress Plugins

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Podcast Episode Overview

In this episode of Building a Website Pro, we get to the core of WordPress plugins. With over 27,000+ plugins in the WordPress.org database alone (and growing), it’s easy to get lost in analysis paralysis in terms of what to actually install in your WordPress website. I cut through the clutter answering (hopefully most) of your burning plugin questions as well as share the essential plugins I recommend (and even a few “non-essential” ones I really appreciate).

More specifically, in this session you’ll learn:

  • What are WordPress plugins? (Aren’t those the air fresheners you put in the wall to make the room smell nice?)
  • Why do I need plugins?
  • How many plugins should I use?… and no, it’s not … every one that looks shiny
  • What Makes a WordPress Plugin Essential?
  • How do I search for plugins and Research plugins before installing them?
  • When I started with WP, I wanted to know which ones I even needed! So…What Essential WordPress Plugins Does Michael Recommend? I will share with you the top 10 plugins I install on nearly every website (And guess what? They’re they’re all free!) Yippee!
  • And much more!
    • Resources and Links Mentioned in this Session Include:
    • VIDEO VERSIONS of “how tos” in my podcasts will be available soon. Would you like to be one of the few who finds out first? Feel free to join other special people like yourself who have signed up to receive my newsletters. I will only send valuable, actionable information. No Spamming. I don’t like it either.
    • Have you tried WorkFlowy yet? Excellent way to organize your to-dos and other thoughts! Try it free with this link and you get an extra 250 items you can enter per month! Sweet!
    • OpenMyToolbox.com – Memorable access to the tools of señor Michael Szapkiw of BuildingAWebsitePro.com
    • GoProGift.com – Get a jump start in building your website.
      • Get instant access to my free ebook, “7 Important Things You Need to Consider When Building a Website.”
    • GoProWebHosting.com – The Web hosting provider I love and recommend to family and friends (that’s you too).
      • What Essential WordPress Plugins Do I Recommend?

      Top 10 plugins I install on Nearly Every WordPress Website (Hint: They’re all free!)

      ESSENTIALS

      1. Akismet – Plugin for spam protection. (You just need a free WordPress.com account to get your free key to use it on your website.)
      2. WordPress SEO – Great solution for optimizing your website for search engines.
      3. Better WP Security – Improve the security of your WordPress website settings.
      4. Google XML Sitemaps – When your blog has a sitemap, search engines can more easily crawl your content.
      5. Use Google Libraries – Use Google’s library for common files to speed up site performance.
      6. WP-DBManager – Create automatic backups of your site content.
      7. Contact Form
        1. Contact Form 7
        2. Contact Form 7 reCaptcha Extension
        3. Better WordPress reCAPTCHA
        4. Gravity Forms (Paid Plugin)
        5. Analytics
          1. Google Analytics for WordPress
          2. Clicky for WordPress (Clicky by Yoast)

            3. LESSER-ESSENTIALS (but still in my top ten… or should I say “teven”)

            1. Pretty Link Lite
            2. SOCIAL MEDIA
              1. Sharebar – Sharebar adds a dynamic and fully customizable vertical box to the left of a blog post that contains links/buttons to popular social networking sites.
              2. Sociable
              3. Facebook Like Box
              4. Follow on Twitter Button
              5. Add Link To Facebook – Automatically add links to published posts or pages to your Facebook wall, pages or groups and more.
              6. BONUS Plugin (number “teven”): Jetpack by WordPress.com – Supercharge your WordPress site with powerful features previously only available to WordPress.com users.
                7. Pro Pointer

                The Pro Pointer for this show included a brief discussion on the free Web service called WorkFlowy. It’s so simple but it is truly powerful. This service helps you create bulleted to-do lists, but it does it in such a seamless way that you can practically have your whole life in one sheet… but organized. I now keep it in an open tab in my Web browser now. And it’s great for my podcasting notes to use for recording. Check out WorkFlowy now. If you go through this link, you’ll get an extra 250 items capacity (on top of your free 500 items per month)… and I 250 extra too! Awesome. Did I mention it’s free? You can upgrade, but free is enough for me.

                Help Out the Show!

                And lastly, if you haven’t done so already I would love if you took a minute to leave a quick rating and review of the podcast on iTunes by clicking on the link below! It would be extremely helpful for the show and I’m aiming for 50, 5-star ratings before the end of the year! I am honored to have you here! Thank you!

                • Leave a review in iTunes for the Building a Website Pro podcast!
                  • Thanks!

                  Thank you so much for listening! I hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast! 

                  Please let me know what you think in the comment section below. And let me know what topics you might like to hear about in future episodes!

                  Ciao for niao!

                  Michael

                   

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                  Building a Website Pro: Wordpress Training, How to Build a Website, Web Design for Small Business, Entrepreneurs & IndividualsBy Michael Szapkiw | Insights on: WordPress, Web Design, Starting an Online Business | Niche Website | Online Portfolio | Eportfolio | Passive Income | Internet Marketing |Mobile Marketing |Email Marketing |Online Marketing | SEO & Much more!