Now that we have gotten WordPress ready to go, you can now start working about plugins you need and themes you can use. One really nice resource for WordPress themes can be found at themes.wordpress.net. There are dozen there to choose from.
Just make sure if you do decide to use one of those, you pay attention to the author’s notes. Some require that you keep certain links on your Web page back to them – and others have “sponsor links”. I would suggest to stay away from the “sponsor links” ones because that is just a little slimy in my opinion.
Now for plugins – there are a lot of good ones for WordPress. A good resource for WordPress plugins would be wp-plugins.net. You can also find a good plugin directory on WordPress.org as well under /extend/plugins/.
Here are a few good plugins I use to get you started right:
Now for most themes and plugins getting them installed it a pretty easy process. You will need to startup your FTP client and get yourself into the “wp-content” folder. From there you will see a folder for themes and a folder for plugins.
The rest of this pretty much explains itself.
Put themes in the themes folder and plugins in the plugins folder.
Plugins are often just one .php file so getting them in there should not be a problem. When uploading a theme, make sure you grab the entire folder for the theme and upload it. Themes have multiple files inside them so if you don’t grab them all – often they won’t work. Each theme and plugin should have a “Read Me” file with it to give you more specific instructions if needed.
Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 108!
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