Wordpress.org Plugins - Getting Started (Guide Series Part 3)

Really, WHAT is a Plugin?

To put it briefly, a plugin is something you add to your site or blog that gives you a few more options. A plugin can create a widget option, a stat tracker, a spam filter, a random generator, and so much more. It PLUGS IN to your existing Wordpress.org files and you can pick and choose to turn your plugins on or off at any time.

“Plugins” is a tab item on the left-hand side of your Wordpress.org dashboard. It shows you what plugins you have, both active and inactive.

How do I get a plugin?

When you start working on Wordpress.org, the kind people there have already set you up with the Akismet plugin. It’s a fantastic spam filter that keeps everything in a spam queue until you read and approve or disapprove it. If spam sits for more than 14 days, it is automatically deleted. If you mark spam “approved,” Akismet recognizes that it’s a valid comment and will allow future comments from that user and/or IP.

For some reason, Wordpress.org also starts you off with a whackjob plugin called “Hello Dolly.” It’s a random quote generator from the musical. If you have ANY self-respect, turn it off immediately. You know, unless you’re into that sort of nonsense…which of course is fine. Seriously.

But other plugins are everywhere! See the link below for some suggestions right from Wordpress.org, or just Google the term “wordpress plugin” and surf the dozens of sites that offer great options. Most sites will give you detailed information on how to upload their specific plugins, and Wordpress For Dummies gives you nice general info that supports most of them.

If you are working on Wordpress 2.7 or higher, you can use the Plugin Installer to search for and install these plugins and not worry about FTP.

LINKS TO ALL PLUGINS ON THIS PAGE ARE BELOW.

WP-Ban: Stop Your Spammers, Spiders and Bots!

Raise your hand if you hate spam comments!

Raise your hand if you hate having your content stolen!

The Akismet plugin (see above) does a great job of protecting your site from spammers. But if you have frequent spammers or, more tragically, stolen content lifted by bots and spiders, why not take some action? Get the IP address of the offending party off the Akismet report and block those jerks!

I started WP-Ban after I had some content stolen. Anytime Akismet catches a spam comment or a ping (basically a trackback to your site that shows you if your content is duplicated somewhere), you will see what’s called an IP address. WP-Ban is so simple that all you need to do is add that IP address to a list of IPs to block. That’s it. No one at that IP will be allowed back. Hah! Shot down!

WP-Ban integrates into the Wordpress.org dashboard and you will see it show up under the “Manage” tab as “Ban.” This is where you can go and add the evil IPs. I have not had a repeat offender since I started adding spammers’ IPs to WP-Ban.

Wordpress Mobile Edition

Do you have friends who read you on the go? Do you THINK you have friends who might even possibly read you on the go? Well, if they don’t have the whole fancy-schmancy internet capabilities of the iPhone or Android, they’ll thank you for this plugin.

Wordpress Mobile Edition takes your site or blog and makes it easy to read on the basic internet that comes on so many phones these days. For my blog, it eliminates the header graphic and background and just uses text for the title. All text becomes black and all links become blue. You will still have page/post navigation capabilities and the opportunity to leave comments. When you’re on a Sidekick like I am, it’s hugely helpful.

This plugin does not change ANYTHING about the appearance of your page when readers are viewing it on the “real” internet, via mobile device or computer.

Statistics and Tracking: WP-Stats Plugin vs. Google Analytics

The first stat tracker I tried was the WP Stats Plugin, downloaded directly from the Wordpress plugin site. It has a 3.5/5 star rating and has been downloaded almost 350,000 times.

If you’ve used Wordpress.com before, WP-Stats will look familiar to you. It collects information like page views, most popular posts, links people clicked to get to or from your site, incoming links, and my personal favorite, a cache of search terms people used to get to your site from search engines. This last is particularly amusing because sometimes I show up on Google in a search for “hot boyfriend cupcake” or “fisting Laurie” and that gives me both a good laugh and a good wonder. WP-Stats is built right into your Wordpress.org dashboard so you can look at it any time you are logged in.

Google Analytics is en fuego right now. It has a whole different slew of information than WP-Stats, which is why I actually run BOTH of these plugins. Analytics provides me with information like how long the average visitor stayed on my site, bounce rate (did they leave and head off somewhere else?), average number of pages viewed per visit (did they stay on my main page or click around?) and a nifty little map that shows me where my hits are coming from. You can customize reports in Analytics and also use it to track more than one blog or website in the same account.

Now for the comparisons:

Data Accuracy:
Google Analytics counts unique hits and repeat users on your reports. This is neat, but the thing it doesn’t know is how many of its TOTAL hits are YOU, the author, checking things out on your own page. This completely throws me off because when I post, I’m going back and making corrections and changes several times before I’m done. It’s also annoying when you’re trying to redo page design in any way and checking your progress several times in a row.
WP-Stats doesn’t provide nearly as much information about the specifics behind your numbers as Google Analytics does, who from where and how long they hung out, etc. However, since it runs as part of Wordpress and is integrated right there on your dashboard, it knows when you are logged in and magically does not count your own visits to your blog. For this reason, I’ve found that the numbers in my WP-Stats overall counter match those in my counter that I got from FreeCounters.com or wherever the wretched thing came from.

Ease of Use:
I love that WP-Stats is right on my dashboard when I log in. Easy-peasy. Everything is on one screen.
Google Analytics is easy to click to from my Google account (and you must have one, but that is simple) and the report customization is an excellent feature. It takes a few more clicks to get to all the information, but there is more detailed information so that makes perfect sense. If I ran more than one site, I would be tickled pink by Analytics’ capability to keep all my stats in one single account.

Activation:
WP-Stats is just a quick upload via FTP, and then you enter your API key. You must be signed up on Wordpress.COM (not .org) to have an API key.

For Google Analytics, you must upload the plugin called Google Analyticator and enter your Google UID number. You will get this number when you sign up for an Analytics account with Google.

In both cases, you go to your Plugins screen to activate, and it will prompt you to enter the required information,

I run both of these plugins because I like getting the more in-depth information from Analytics and what I think is the more accurate count information from WP-Stats. Take your pick or try them both!