How to add an extra plugin to your blog

Firstly, what is a plugin?

Wordpress is comprised of a whole bunch of ‘core files’. The basic files that run your blog. These core files shouldn’t really be edited. It’s not impossible, but if you make changes you will lose them all when you come to upgrade to the latest version of wordpress. So to add more functions to your wordpress blog plugins were invented!

A plugin is a bolt on. You load it into your plugins folder, and activate it in your Admin area. Then it adds certain features to your blog.

There is a plugin that will alter how the title of your blog looks so it’s optimized for search engines (in the blue bar at the top of your browser).

There is a plugin that lets people rate your blog posts with stars.

There is a plugin that will pull pictures in from flickr.

There is almost a plugin for everything you could possibly want to do with your wordpress blog!

Your YourNicheBlog.com blog is running with about 15 – 20 different plugins.

So how do you add more?

Easy!

1. Find the plugin you want to install from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

2. Right click on the red Download box that you will see on the plugin page and choose ‘Copy Link Location’ or ‘Save Link As’. You can see the red download box shown here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/

3. Log into your blog admin area, hover over Dashboard (top left) and click on Plugin Central.

4. Right click in the main plugin central box on the screen that loads, and paste your red download link into the space.

5. Press for Plugin Central to do it’s thing, and your plugin will be added to your blog!

6. Now hover your mouse over ‘Plugins’ (at the top) and click ‘Plugins’ from the drop down menu.

7. Scroll down until you see the plugin you just added, and click ‘Activate’.

8. Congratulations. You just learned how to make your wordpress blog do almost anything

Lewis