WordPress: Finding the Perfect Themes and Plugins

With over 30,000 plugins and over 5,000 themes out there in the wild west of the Internet, it can be an intimidating job finding just the right ones for your WordPress sites. In this presentation, we’ll cover all of the best techniques for finding quality plugins and themes that you can trust, and what you can to do to avoid messy upgrades.

Transcript

1. Finding the Perfect
   Themes and Plugins
   Bryan Petty
   bpetty@bluehost.com
   github.com/tierra
   @ibakunet
   

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3. You’re Doing
   It Wrong!
   

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5. ● Pick your theme first, then build on plugins
   that work with your theme (they don’t
   always play nice).
   ● Break down your workflow to four steps:
   Making Life Easier
   1. Free Themes (2,300)
   2. Premium Themes (~3,000)
   3. Free Plugins (30,000)
   4. Premium Plugins (~2,000)
   

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6. Themes
   Photo by firetrd (CC BY 2.0)
   

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7. (as in beer and speech)
   Free Themes
   

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8. ● http://wordpress.org/themes/
   ● All themes go through a thorough review
   process. Most popular themes are well
   supported and ratings help filter out the
   bad ones.
   ● Support is not guaranteed.
   ● 2,300 themes categorized by colors,
   columns, width, and features which you’ll
   mostly find useless for filters.
   WordPress.org Themes
   

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12. ● Stats on the theme itself:
    ○ Last Updated
    ○ Number of Downloads
    ○ Reviews
    ○ Support threads solved
    ● Stats on the theme author:
    ○ Do they have other themes approved?
    ○ Are they active in the community?
    Evaluating WordPress.org Themes
    

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14. (as in paid or commercial)
    Premium Themes
    

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15. ● Commercial Theme Shops Individually
    ○ http://wordpress.org/themes/commercial/
    ○ Use caution trusting anyone not listed.
    ● Trusted Marketplace
    ○ Creative Market
    ○ MOJO Marketplace
    ○ Theme Forest
    Premium Theme Locations
    

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16. ● Blog
    ● BuddyPress
    ● Business
    ● Creative
    ● Corporate
    ● eCommerce
    ● Entertainment
    ● Landing Page
    ● Magazine
    ● Mobile
    Premium Theme Categories
    ● Nonprofit
    ● Photography
    ● Portfolio
    ● Responsive
    ● Restaurant
    ● Retail
    ● Technology
    ● Theme Frameworks
    ● Wedding
    

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17. ● Documentation
    ● Is it actively updated?
    ● Support
    ● Reviews (if using a Marketplace)
    ● Is the author active in the community?
    ● Is the code high-quality?
    Evaluating Premium Themes
    

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18. Never let your theme
    handle a feature you’d like
    to keep using after you
    replace the theme.
    

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19. http://themeshaper.com/jumpstart/
    Jumpstart:
    More Theme Search Tips
    

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20. Plugins
    Photo by popculturegeek (CC BY 2.0)
    

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21. (as in beer and speech)
    Free Plugins
    

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22. ● http://wordpress.org/plugins/
    ● All plugins go through a thorough review
    process. Most popular plugins are well
    supported and ratings help filter out the
    bad ones.
    ● Support is not guaranteed.
    ● 30,000 plugins categorized by useful tags
    WordPress.org Plugins
    

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24. ● admin
    ● buddypress
    ● comments
    ● email
    ● facebook
    ● gallery
    ● google
    ● images
    Common Plugin Tags
    ● links
    ● media
    ● pages
    ● photos
    ● posts
    ● seo
    ● shortcode
    ● sidebar
    ● social
    ● spam
    ● stats
    ● twitter
    ● video
    ● widgets
    ● youtube
    

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26. (as in paid and commercial)
    Premium Plugins
    

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27. ● WordPress.org - usually in the form of a free plugin
    with “premium features”.
    ● Trusted Marketplaces?
    ○ MOJO Code
    ○ MOJO Marketplace (plugins shutdown)
    ○ WP App Store (shutdown)
    ○ Code Canyon
    ○ Easy Digital Downloads
    ○ WP Plugins (shutdown)
    ● Commercial Plugin Shops Individually
    ○ Unfortunately no WordPress.org listing.
    Premium Plugin Locations
    

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28. ● Documentation
    ● Is it actively updated?
    ● Support
    ● Reviews (if using a Marketplace)
    ● Is the developer active in the community?
    ● Is the code high-quality?
    Evaluating Premium Plugins
    

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29. Recap
    ● Never Google free themes or plugins
    ● Only download free themes from WP.org
    ● Know your themes and plugins:
    ○ Documentation
    ○ Support
    ○ Reviews
    ○ Actively Updated
    ○ Contribution Activity
    

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30. Questions & Discussion
    speakerdeck.com/u/tierra
    Bryan Petty
    bpetty@bluehost.com
    github.com/tierra
    @ibakunet
    

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