Welcome back to Starting your own Jewelry Business

We have worked very hard to get to this stage in the series. 

By now we have nearly everything we need in place to get our business website up and running. 

In the last post we talked about WordPress Themes and how we can use them to style and consistency to our website.

You want to add certain types of design tools and business functions to your website dashboard that will make your life run smoothly and efficiently.

This is where WordPress Plugins come in.

Plugins are like apps, that you can add to your website to perform certain functions and tasks.

What are WordPress Plugins

A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress.

  • SEO Management
  • Email and Newsletter List Managers
  • Design Tools such as Page Builders
  • Store and Cart Tools
  • Media Tools
  • Social Media Tools
  • Analytic Trackers
  • Ad Inserters 

From the WordPress Dashboard, hover over Plugins in the Navigation Panel on the left and the Plugins sub-menu pops out to the right. 

Click on Installed Plugins to access the currently installed Plugins that are preinstalled with WordPress and by your Host provider. 

How to add new WordPress Plugins

Just like adding a new theme, there are several ways to add new Plugins using the WordPress Dashboard Navigation Panel. 

Option 1 - From the Dashboard Home

  • Hover over Plugins in the Navigation Panel

  • Click Add New

Option 2 - From the Installed Plugins Workspace

 

  • Click the Add New Button at the top

Option 3 - From the Add Plugins Workspace

  • Click  Upload Plugin Button

Options 1 and 2 will bring up the Add Plugins Work Area and 1000’s of plugins on WordPress you can install and activate right from this screen.

You can use the Search Box in the top right to search for plugins based on  keyword, author/developer or tag.

Option 3 is used when you either purchase a Professional Plugin or have downloaded the Plugin Zip File directly from the developer. 

Managing Plugins and Settings

Some Plugins will add sections to your Navigation Panel and others will have to be managed from the Installed Plugins work area. 

Always read the Documentation provided by the developer of the Plugin for settings and and How To information. 

Many developers have YouTube videos to help you set up and manage plugins. 

Key Plugins for your Website

Jetpack is a popular WordPress plugin created by Automattic, the people behind WordPress.com.

The Jetpack plugin brings many of the most powerful features available on WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress sites, and thereby contributing greatly to the improvement of WordPress powered blogs and websites

Traffic

  • Site stats & analytics
  • Social sharing
  • Enhanced distribution
 
 

Management

  • Plugin auto-updates
  • Bulk site management
  • Centralized posting

Design

  • Convenient widgets
  • Custom image galleries
  • Easy CSS editing
 

WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress.

It is designed for small to large-sized online merchants using WordPress. 

With WooCommerce powering 30% of the internet’s online stores, it’s hard to argue with the fact that WooCommerce is one of the best ecommerce plugins for WordPress. The best part about this plugin is it’s free.

WooCommerce is flexible and designed with the user in mind. It also gives you complete control to do what you need to with your ecommerce site. As such, this plugin offers hundreds of free add-ons to help you tailor your ecommerce site to be whatever you need it to be.

  1. Ability to update your inventory quickly. 
  2. Sell downloads. 
  3. Affiliate sales. 
  4. Robust payment options. 
  5. Shipping and tax costs are easy. 
  6. Inventory tracking. 
  7. Mobile access. 
  8. Style. 
  9. Integrations. 
  10. Built with developers in mind. 

These are the top 10 features of the WooCommerce plugin, but there are hundreds of other features that make this plugin the number one ecommerce plugin for WordPress.

MailChimp is a web-based email marketing service.

It helps you design email newsletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results.

Mailchimp integrates easily with many other plugins making it easy to build contact and subscription lists.

SumoMe is a WordPress plugin that offers a plethora of tools to help you grow your email list.
 
Easily create Pop-up forms to collect emails, create special offers and much more.
 
Google Analytics is a free Web analytics service that provides statistics and basic analytical tools for search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing purposes.
 
The plugin is free and easy to use. 
A Google Analytics account is required. 

Page Builder Plugins

A page builder plugin that replaces the basic WordPress editor with a live frontend editor.
 
So you can create complex layouts visually, and design your website live, without having to switch between the editor and the preview mode.
 
They have their own frontend dashboard editors which make designing your content super easy and provide you with loads of extra widgets. 
 

I totally recommend Elementor Page Builder for many reasons.

They offer a great free version and I like this plugin so much that I bought the Pro version. 

This is the easiest to use page builder I have used to date. 

  • Elementor gives you lots of extra widgets for design and function. 
  • The drag and drop design is fast and efficient.
  • There are many beautiful templates to choose from. 
  • The pro version adds tons of extra features at a very affordable price.
  • They have great support and how to videos for everything you can think of. 
  • You don’t need to know code or have any specialized web designer skills. 

Plugins Wrap-Up

There are 1000’s of plugins on the market and I will have more resources available listed soon. 

I am almost ready to wrap up this series. My final post will be a walk through on adding a theme, installing and activation plugins and a review of the basic WordPress Dashboard functions. 

But don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging there. 

In my next series, I will show you how to set up your main Website Pages and Woocommerce Shop. 

Need to catch up on this Series?

I am Affiliated with Jetpack, Woocommerce, WordPress.com and Elementor.