Plugins: Taking Your WordPress Site to the Next Level

From WordCamp Philly 2015

You’ve set up your blog with WordPress and you’re pretty happy with how easy it is to add new posts, add images to those posts, and publish them to your site.

But now what? You might think that it would be nice if you could notify your Twitter or Facebook followers when you make a new post on your blog. What about selling your cooking e-book to your readers? What to do with all this spam and how do you make sure your site is backed up in case anything happens?

There’s an answer to all these questions (and even more you didn’t ask): use plugins!

Transcript

1. plugins. taking your WordPress site to the next level
2. info. Happiness Rocketeer at Automattic Support for the Jetpack plugin
 Find me online: Twitter: @carolynsonnek Web: carolynsonnek.com Carolyn Sonnek
3. your website.
4. plugins.
5. Plugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress. what is a plugin?
6. 38,245
7. how to choose. Choose plugins from reliable sources: • WordPress.org Plugin Directory • Community Recommendations • Trusted Authors or Companies
8. how to choose. Recently Updated Good Support Is It Necessary Downloads & Ratings
9. now what?
10. spam.
11. Filters out your comment spam. Catches an average of 7.5 million 
 pieces of spam per hour. Most used WordPress plugin. Free.
12. i want it all!
13. • Install over thirty popular plugin features with one click. • Engage millions of WordPress.com users, allowing
 them to interact with your site. • Boost your site’s performance by taking the load of
 certain features off your servers.
14. • Get regular updates, enhancements, and
 troubleshooting from the same folks who build
 WordPress.com. • Work seamlessly with Akismet to stop spam from your 
 comments and contact forms • Customize your site using CSS without affecting your 
 theme files.
15. • View/Visitor Statistics • Site uptime monitoring • Beautiful galleries/slideshows • Comments using social media • Extra sidebar widgets • Social media sharing • Auto-publish to social media • Brute force security monitoring • Plugin/update management • Subscriptions Plus amazing support!
17. VaultPress protects and backs up your site with: • Automated backups with easy restores. • Daily security scans with one-click repairs. • Help from the WordPress experts.
18. hello?
19. • Edit .htaccess + robots.txt file • Social Integration • Multi-Site Compatible • Import & Export functionality • Multilingual support • Great documentation + support • Page Analysis • Advanced WordPress SEO 
 configuration • Meta & Link Elements • XML Sitemaps • RSS Optimization
20. moar speed.
21. WP Super Cache Creates static HTML files from your site. Saves your server from processing heavier PHP files. Helps protect your site from spikes in traffic.
23. Easily sell your digital content. No license restrictions. No expensive hidden costs. Free.
24. Perfectly integrates into your WordPress site. Free for the basic version. Free & Premium extensions to do even more. The sky’s the limit!
25. photo. there’s more?
26. http://bit.ly/WCPhillyPlugins extra credit.
27. questions?
28. thanks. Carolyn Sonnek @carolynsonnek carolynsonnek.com speakerdeck.com/csonnek