For most people, using WordPress.com to create a website or blog, means using free WordPress. But serious users know that taking a paid upgrade plan means, getting more so you can do more.
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When you think of WordPress.com, what readily comes to your mind? That it's FREE! This means that once you register an account on WordPress.com, you can start blogging for free.
By creating a simple website or blog, you can get it up and running in minutes and all, without spending a dime. For first time bloggers or website owners, this way of starting out means, getting a grip of what it feels like, to create a site from scratch.
Because to say the truth there's simply no effort on your part to do any back-end job. In fact you don't need to do anything. Once you create your site, choose a theme, and customize it, you can then start posting content.
All other aspect such as hosting, essential plugins is taken care of by the WordPress.com infrastructure. But what you are using as free WordPress.com, is actually, the free basic starter plan.
With the basic plan, you can do things like,
-site creation
-posting and publishing content, etc.
However, much of what you can do, such as adding new plugins, or having a wide choice of themes to choose from, etc., is limited. Most people are comfortable with free WordPress.
But if you're a person that wants to do more, you can upgrade to a paid plan. This is where you have access to thousands of plugins, themes, and other helpful tools you can use to enhance your website. So what's a paid plan?
What is a Paid Plan
A paid plan simply means, paying for a product to access premium features. For example, if you download a software, you will most certainly start using the free or basic version of the software, which you don't pay for.
But this way of using the product is limited and doesn't exactly give you the full potentials of how the software really works. With a paid upgrade plan, you can access the full premium functionalities the software has.
Likewise, when you take out a WordPress.com paid plan, you are essentially having the opportunity to access a wide range of plugins and themes. Plugins for example, are extremely essential to your site.
In fact WordPress.com has over 5,000 plugins available for you to choose from. But what exactly are they? How do you know which plugins to choose?
Let's talk about it here.
What are Plugins?
Plugins are small programs or software designed to perform a specific function once installed and activated on your WordPress.com site. They are very useful tools you can use if you want to,
Add extra functionality to your site
Plugins can add extra functionality to your website, allowing you to have more useful ways to operate your site.
Enhance the performance of your website
With the right plugins, you can enhance the performance of your website in ways that can elevate your site, and give visitors, a more smoother site surfing experience.
The WordPress plugin marketplace
Adding extra functionality and enhancing the performance of your site is all made possible with the help of the WordPress Plugin marketplace. This is because, it plays a crucial role by serving as a sort of directory where you will find thousands of plugins.
With the WordPress Plugin marketplace, you have a plethora of plugins right at your fingertips. Whatever plugin you are looking for, unless it hasn't been created, you are sure to find it in the plugin marketplace.
However despite the enormous amount of plugins, it is advisable to choose only those that you think will most likely help enhance your website. But choosing which plugins are a best fit for your site sometimes comes with difficulties.
So how do you know which plugins to use?
Choosing the plugins you need, means searching through thousands of available plugins that you'll find in the WordPress plugin marketplace. But to use the marketplace means understanding how to search the marketplace.
How to use the marketplace
To visit the WordPress plugin marketplace, go to your WordPress.com dashboard and scroll down and click the Plugins tab, on the left side of the page. This will open the plugins marketplace page and here, you can choose what plugins to use.
Here's how to navigate the marketplace.
1) Type a keyword into the search bar
You can type a keyword for the plugin you want to find, into the search bar at the top of the page. Click on the discover tab, and this will bring up all the plugins for that keyword.
2) Choose by category
if you go to the marketplace, the first thing you will notice is that, there are different categories of plugin. Categories such as,
Security,
Social,
Analytics,
Finance and payments, just to mention a few.
To choose a plugin from a category, click on the specific category tab at the top of the page. This will bring up so many corresponding plugins for that category.
Choose between free plugins and plugins by subscription.
-Free plugins
Within each category you will find plugins that are completely free to download and install.
-Plugins by subscription
While there are free plugins in every category, you will also find plugins that require a monthly subscription payment, if you want to install and use them.
Plugins can be compatible, non-compatible, and untested
In the WordPress plugin marketplace, you will also come across compatible plugins, and those that are non-compatible.
-Compatible and non-compatible plugins
Compatible plugins are plugins that are usually created to function on a particular version of WordPress. This means that they will work perfectly well, if installed on say for example, on WordPress version 4.0.
This means that any plugin created to work on a WordPress version higher than version 4.0, is a non-compatible plugin, and may not function properly on your WordPress.com site.
If you are interested in installing a particular plugin and click to view it, you may see written,
This plugin is compatible with your WordPress version.
Similarly you may see plugins that are not compatible, in which case you will see written,
This plugin is not compatible with your WordPress version.
-Untested plugins
From time to time you may come across plugins that may be shown as not yet tested. Now this doesn't mean that they cannot work. It only means that they could be recent releases, and so my have not been tested on any WordPress release version, yet.
With such plugins, caution is required if you are going to install them.
-Plugins require a Paid Upgrade Plan
To access thousands of plugins on WordPress.com requires upgrading to a paid plan. And so you may have a situation where you see a particular plugin that you are interested in. If you are using the basic free plan and the plugin requires a plan upgrade, you will see clearly written,
requires a plan upgrade beside the plugin.
Installing a plugin
To use a plugin on your site you must search for the plugin in the marketplace. Once you find what you are looking look for, click to download and install the plugin. Before you do so however, check to find out if the plugin is
-Free
-Requires a monthly payment
-Is compatible or non-compatible with your WordPress version,
-Is untested.
Once you've gone through the above list you can then click to download and install the plugin and then activate it. Sometimes plugin activation is automatic, right after installation. Where this doesn't occur then you can manually activate the plugin,
One thing to note about plugins is that they are generally stand alone programs. This means that they function independently once installed and activated. However installation of plugins may also be required for certain WordPress themes.
Essentially what this means is that, if you down a specific theme, you may be required to download specific plugins to go along with the theme.
Choosing a plugin
Far from whether a plugin is provided free, or requires a monthly subscription payment plan, it is important to know exactly what plugins you need for your website. And what you need are the essential most important plugins to get you started.
As a website owner and content creator, here are the plugin categories to focus on when searching for plugins.
-SEO-Search Engine Optimization
-Speed
-Design
-Security
SEO: if you want your site to be discoverable and rank in the search engines, you can achieve this by install a SEO plugin for that purpose.
Speed: Site speed is everything and there is a plugin for that. Site speed is all about how fast pages on your site load. If you don't want to keep your visitors waiting impatiently for a page on your website to load, then you need a plugin for that purpose.
Design: An easy website builder with easy customization and drag and drop features, is what you need, to create a professional looking website. There is a plugin for that purpose.
Security: Protecting your website from threats and malware is important if you do not want your site to be infected or hijacked. For this purpose you need a plugin that will take care of the security of your site.
Conclusion
With plugins you can enhance your WordPress.com site. However, to get access to thousands of plugins requires having a WordPress.com paid upgrade plan. Because only with a paid upgrade plan will you be able to access the plugins that really matter.
See available paid upgrade plans.
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