What is a plugin? Are they essential and what are they for?

Blogging platforms such a WordPress provide a uniform set of features and functions. These include adding and editing posts and pages, maintaining comments, being able to update a theme and so on.

Everything that your blog is capable of doing is controlled by the software that runs your blog. But, what happens when you want to add an extra piece of function or change the way something works?

With a piece of software such as Word or Excel, you have little choice in making changes. But with blogs you can make these changes. You could, if you wanted to, actually update the WordPress code. But you would need to reapply these changes every time that you updated the software.

Instead, WordPress and other blogging platforms allow you to add on extra code in the form of “plugins”. These are little routines that include many instructions, from when to run to what to do. For example, a simple plugin just removes rel=”nofollow” from all comment author’s links. One of the best known plugins is Akismet, which protects your comments from spam.

There are thousands of plugins available, from simple devices to shopping carts, stats packages, contact forms and probably just about anything you might want to add on!

Do not be bewildered by the terms you might come across in blogging, just ask!

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