We decided to write this article to let you know the process we follow for selecting plugins to load onto our blog.

Before we begin, some of you may be wondering what a plugin is. Well, you should read one of our previous articles, The Difference Between Widgets and Plugins, which will describe what a plugin is and where you can find them as well.

When we first started out (and didn’t know any better) we simply installed some plugins which were recommended to us such as Akismet (no regrets there, as this plugin has been faithfully removing spam from our blog!) Later, as we learned more, we started browsing through the list of plugins available in the WordPress Plugin Directory directory, to see what was available. When we found a plugin that we thought would be nice to have on our site, we did some further investigation.

Over time, we developed some steps for ourselves to decide which plugins we should load on our site. These steps are:

1. Research
2. Installation
3. Configuration
4. Ongoing Maintenance

Each of these is described in more detail below.

Research

Before you go and download a plugin, there are some research guidelines we recommend you should follow.

First decide what your expectations are for the plugin. How much time and effort did you want to spend on configuring the plugin? Do you only want to use out of the box functionality? Or do you want to enhance the existing functionality with additional configurations options which may include editing html code?

Also decide what you are expecting the plugin to do for you. What functions do you want the plugin to perform for you? For example, if you want to advertise books on your site and get paid for them using the Amazon Associates program, what should the plugin do? (Want to know more about plugins that work with Amazon Associates Program? Read our articles How to Use AmazonSimpleAdmin WordPress Plugin-Amazon Associates or How To Use Amazonify WordPress Plugin-Amazon Associates) Should it display images of the book? Or should it display only the text for the book?

Once you find several plugins that perform the functions you would like, you can refine your list by doing the following:

• Go to the WordPress Plugin Directory and check the “last updated date” on the plugin. This will tell you when the plugin author last updated the plugin. If it was recently, then you will know that the plugin is still being supported.

Stats for Plugins - General Info About Plugin

• Check the compatibility version to make sure the plugin is compatible with your version of WordPress. It may be the plugin is only supported in an older version of WordPress than what you currently have running.
• Read the author’s website (if he/she has one) which should describe the plugin in more detail.
• How long has the plugin been around? The longer the plugin has been around means that the author has probably had time to work out the bugs (unless you like being a guinea pig!)
• How often is the plugin being downloaded? If the plugin has been downloaded consistently over time, in large quantities, then you can probably assume that it works without any bugs. If you find that the number of downloads have dropped significantly over the last while, you may want to question why. Our possible thoughts are, it may not be compatible with the latest version of WordPress, it may no longer be supported, or people may have found bugs in the plugin which the author has not fixed.

Status for Plugin - Downloads Per Day

Stats for Plugin - Gen Stat History

Installation

Although each plugin has slight variations on how to download them, there are some basic steps to follow to install all plugins.

1. Read the notes under the Installation section in the WordPress.org Plugins. This will provide you with the basic installation instructions specific to the plugin.
2. Download and unzip the plugin file.
3. Read the README.TXT file that comes with the plugin. This file will generally provide you with a description of the plugin, other information about the plugin which may not have been available on WordPress site, as well as the installation instructions.
4. Upload the specified file(s) into your WordPress server account. You will need to have an FTP client in order to perform this step.
5. Activate the plugin through your WordPress Administration panel. You should see the newly added plugin under the plugins area of your Administration panel. Simply select the “Activate” option under the plugin to enable it on your blog.

Configuration

Each plugin will have different configuration options available. Some will automatically be configured once you’ve activated them, while others have some configurations that need to be done in order to use them. Again, you should read the author’s website or the README.TXT file that comes with the plugin to find out what configuration options, if any, need to be performed.

Ongoing Maintenance

Once you have a plugin activated, WordPress will automatically notify you when a new version of the plugin is available. You should see the following message below the plugin in the Administration panel:

WordPress Plugin Upgrade Notice

You will notice you have 2 links available to you: “View version x.xx detail” and “upgrade automatically“. The first link will take you to a page describing what is available in the latest version. If all you want to do is upgrade the plugin, simply select the “upgrade automatically” link in the message. You will then see the following messages appear.

WordPress Plugin Upgrade Successfull Notice

Look for the last message which states “Plugin reactivated successfully”. Congratulations! You will now be running the latest version of the plugin.

Final Remarks

One note of caution when selecting any plugin; don’t become reliant on plugins. Keep in mind that any plugin you install can become unsupported at any time by the author and there is nothing you can do about it. When this happens, you could hope someone else takes ownership of the plugin and keep providing upgrades. This would be known as the HAP strategy (Hope And Pray!) Remember these plugins are free downloads, and the authors are providing the functionality to us from the kindness of their hearts!