Hair-Plugs are Out but WordPress Plug-Ins are IN!

In the beginning, WordPress was just a super innovative way to set up your blogging system. Now, WordPress is one of the most widely used and respected Content Management Systems on the market. In other words, if WordPress was around in the wild and wooley days of the Wild West and were in a duel with Billy the Kid AND plug-ins were ammunition…well, you get the point

What used to be next to impossible without spending thousands of dollars is now possible for a fraction of the cost. How is this possible? It is possible with a thing called “Plug-Ins.” Add in a few of these “Plug-Ins” favorite friends called Widgets, Themes and Imagination, well….get ready to have your mind blown.

No longer is it just the “Big Dogs” that can afford all of the impressive bells and whistles. Small to Mid sized businesses, start-ups, brick & mortars and even your cake-maker extraordinaire sister Courtney can give Carlos the Cake-Boss a run for his money when it comes to super-sweet websites.

Everyone has their favorite toys. Some will even go as far as to bite one’s finger is attempting to take their favorites as their own. Not Apple Marketing. We are so excited about OUR favorite WordPress Plug-Ins that we feel like we have to share or discoveries with the world!

In no particular order, here are our Top 3:

1. Membership Plug-In – Turn any website into a “Paid-Membership” website. Offer free trials to try your services, allow only paid-members to see certain pages within your website, let members assign themselves their own unique profile, collect dues and more! Who would benefit best from a “Paid Membership” website?

• Realtors
• Home Owner Associations
• Specialty Clubs
• Dieting, Weight loss, Fitness Advise
• Hobbyists
• Online Communities

2. Event Calendar on Steroids. Are you constantly on-the-go and needing a PDA for your website that YOU can control? If you are a business person that needs a website that will keep up your busy schedule, take a look at these capabilities and drool.

• Recurring Events
• Custom Event Attributes
• Saved Venues & Organizers
• Venue Pages
• Advanced Event Admin
• Event Cost
• Sidebar Calendar
• Online Sign-Up for Event

3. Advertising / Event Slideshow. By now, everyone should know that using FLASH to display your products in a slideshow fashion is not a good idea is you are trying to take full advantage of Search Engine Optimization for your website. The plug-in we use for our slideshows are extremely mulch-functional and can be easily updated by our clients. The features of this Slideshow are what really caught our attention.

• Totally Search Engine Friendly
• Vertical AND Horizontal Transitions
• Auto play
• Text & Hyperlink (Per Slide) Capabilities
• RSS Feed Options
• Video / Image Portfolio
• Touch Screen Friendly

Now that we have shared our top 3 WordPress Plug-in’s, let us share with you our favorite ways to use plug-ins. We LOVE it when we get a request for a plug-in that doesn’t yet exist. For instance, www.KCStrategicShopping.com needed a way to make a shopping list that could be added to a visitors “custom” shopping list that they could then print-out and take with them on their shopping trip. Yeah, we did that and it is amazing! Better yet, once we create a custom plug-in for a client….we don’t share it with our other clients or the world. That custom plug-in belongs to their site and will never be found anywhere else on the web!

Some might say we have a “weird” addiction to plug-ins. We will be the first to admit that yes, we might have a problem.