03/01/2022 | Building a Successful Online Business with WordPress

Understanding the Benefits of WordPress Plugins

One of the main advantages of choosing WordPress is the ability to easily expand your WordPress site’s functionality using applications called plugins.

Do you use WordPress for business? Learn what plugins are and how you can use these to expand your site’s functionality.

Understanding the Benefits of WordPress Plugins

One of the main features of the WordPress software is that you can easily enhance your WP site’s functionality using applications called plugins.

About Plugins

Like most of us, you probably have a device like a mobile phone. What do you do when you would like to access something new on your device like a new game or business productivity tool?

You download and install an app!

An app is a piece of software that is really simple and easy to install and integrates new features and functionality into any mobile device.

(Just as there are social sharing apps for smart devices…)

A plugin is very much like an app. You install a software that adds new functionality to your website or blog…

(… There are also social sharing plugins for WordPress sites!)

Typically, adding a new feature to an already-built site involves additional cost. Depending on the complexity of the new features or enhancement, things can become fairly expensive, particularly if website developers have to create new code or modify code or install scripts that integrate into your current site.

This also applies to creating a new website. Companies often spend up front on bells and whistles they may simply not need.

As part of sound strategic business planning, we recommend a modular approach when growing a website and WP plugins are ideal for doing this.

Imagine being able to:

1) Start simply and inexpensively. Get a web presence up and running fast, then…

2) As new features are required, add new software modules with a few mouse clicks that integrate seamlessly with your existing website or blog, to give your web site an entirely new range of practical functionality, and…

3) Cost not a single dollar more to download and install on your site?

Well, that’s precisely what WordPress plugins allow you to do!

Benefits Of Using WP Plugins

We started this article by comparing plugins with smartphone apps. In the same way that some apps are free to download and some may cost a little bit of money, so do WP plugins.

In fact, many plugins can be installed on your sites.

Plugins that cost money are called Premium plugins. The good news, is that when you compare this to the cost of hiring a professional web developer to add similar features and functionality on your site, most Premium (i.e. “Paid”) plugins cost very little.

Also, since WordPress is an Open Source application, any person can create, modify and customize any portion of the WP code. This has enabled thousands of professional web development companies to enhance the WP software.

WP plugins allow you to get started simply with a basic web site and then add new features and enhancements to your site only as necessary.
WP plugins let you add almost unlimited functionality to your website easily, quickly and cheaply.
WP plugins give you virtually unlimited expansion capabilities.
WP plugins allow anyone to have a website that they can manage themselves.
Most plugins will work “right out of the box” and only require installation and activation to give your web site instant new enhancements and features.
Some plugins can be slightly more advanced and could require some configuring.

Plugins – Powerful, Flexible… And (Many Are) Completely FREE!

Like WordPress themes, thousands of plugins are available to WordPress users… Often at no cost!

You can access thousands of WordPress plugins from the Free WP Plugin Repository…

As previously mentioned, you will find WP plugins that can do just about anything you could possibly need a site to do.

WP plugin categories cover:

Web Site Administration
Content Management
Online Traffic Generation
User Engagement
Social Media
Media Utilities Automation
Improving Sales Conversions And Lead Generation
Data Monitoring & Reporting
Web Site SEO

You can expand a WP site with plugins such as:

Contact forms
Quizzes and polls
Social contests
Rotating advertising banners
E-commerce (from managing single-item sales with PayPal buttons, to enterprise scale e-commerce with online shopping carts, payment processing, recurring billing, discount codes, etc.…)
Social sharing buttons
Membership sites
Newsletter opt-in forms
Sales workflow
Mobile conversion
Improving your site’s SEO
Image galleries (with rotating images, lightboxes, etc.)
User feedback forms
Language translation (e.g. You can instantly change your website’s content from English to German)
Statistical reporting (e.g. Number of visitors, pages visited, keywords searched, etc.)
Custom navigation menus
Customer interactivity – contest, live chat, currency conversion, etc.
Cloud storage integration
Faster page loading
Event management
Niche directories
Automatically sell and manage advertising on your blog
Set appointments and appointment reminders
Automate reservations and bookings
Detect broken hyperlinks and email you the reports
Redirect website pages
Monitor what other sites are posting about your business
Make pages available for your printing or downloading as PDF
Add a site map
Hide specific from displaying in areas of your site (e.g. Sitemaps, feeds, etc.)
Hide content on your pages and posts
Migrate content from non-WordPress applications
Search and replace content
Block SPAM commenting
Customize guest comment displays (e.g. Displaying Facebook posts)
Inserting HTML and script elements into your posts, pages and sidebar menus
Add formatted tables
Add animated graphics and advanced content formatting options
Add and manage QR codes
Improve your local search listings on Google
Add location maps
Post your posts automatically on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and many others
Display countdown timers (for expiring offers, discount coupons, etc….)
Display personal greetings, timed offers, etc….
And so much more!

As it’s clear to see, plugins give you practically endless possibilities. If you are currently planning to build a website for your business, or your existing site was not built with WordPress, then consider getting one built on your domain, or you could be missing out on some serious features.

In case you’re still wondering just how powerful and flexible plugins are, let’s take a look at how you can benefit instantly by installing a plugin on your website.

For example, if you need to publish content which is only accessible to some users, you can use plugins to make an area of a post inaccessible, or create a full membership site with separate login details for users…

As mentioned before, free plugins can be used to enhance your web presence in lots of ways. From installing features that will enhance your business, your visitors’ experience and your ability to review visitor metrics …

To increase your business visibility across social media and search engines…

You can also add complex features to your site using relatively inexpensive paid WordPress plugins. For example, you can download plugins that integrate and automate tasks on your site like a customer testimonial and event bookings management…

And even set up a complete bookings and reservations system online… All for a small fraction of the cost of paying web developers to create custom functionality for you…

Additionally, you can take advantage of native WP commenting features and plugins that can make your site even more interactive…

For example, your web visitors can easily:

Leave comments on your site (which can turn into online discussions) using either the built-in WordPress commenting feature, or integrated Facebook comments (which are then displayed throughout the visitors’ Facebook pages, providing you with added exposure).
Bookmark your posts on various social sites.
Contact you using contact forms
Engage in online discussions with your team members through online forums or even set up a private social network on your own site.
Engage with members of your team via live webcam conferencing and chat room facilities
Call your business from their mobile phones while browsing your pages
Open a support ticket
And so much more…

You can also integrate sophisticated enterprise applications with a WP “front end”. This lets you control the content that your visitors will see on your site, while your 3rd-party application handles the technical aspects…

Some Useful Things You Should Know About Plugins

There are many plugins to choose from. Be careful of overloading your site with an excessive amount of plugins, as this will inevitably start to affect your website’s resources and site loading times. It can also create more maintenance issues for you as a result of potential conflicts.
Install only those plugins you really need to use. Delete all deactivated plugins from your site, as these use server resources.
Many free plugins normally come with little to no support from the plugin developer. When choosing premium plugins, we recommend that you do a little research first to see what kind of reputation the plugin developer has when it comes to providing support, updates, new improvements, etc. Be sure to check the plugin reviews we publish here for additional information.
If you see that an unsupported plugin has not been updated for a very long time (e.g. Two years), then think twice before using it on your site. WordPress is updated often and older plugins can create issues.
Ensure to always maintain your plugins updated. Older plugins not only can create errors, they could also have security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers and malware.

As you can see, plugins are an important feature of WordPress and contribute to making it the most popular content management system available. Plugins also provide WordPress users with easy, simple and inexpensive ways to add instant functionality to their website without having to spend thousands of dollars on outsourced web developers.

One last thing on the topic of plugins:

If there is any feature you want for your website, you can be sure that a someone has probably already created one that will do exactly what you want it to do, and that this plugin will either be available for FREE, or if it’s a premium plugin, that the cost will be quite reasonable.

And, if by chance such a WordPress plugin is not available, then one can probably be created for your business for a very reasonable price.

Hopefully this post has given you a better understanding of plugins – what they are and how they can enhance the functionality of your web site. See our published posts to learn more about using WordPress plugins.

Want more help with WordPress? Please tell us what you think below and feel free to share this article with your friends.

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WordPress is huge and can sometimes be overwhelming about where to start. As you move on to the next Page, you will have a clearer picture of where to start and progress to building a professional WordPress Site.

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Disclaimer: This site is not associated with WordPress or any of the WP products reviewed on this site. We may derive a financial benefit from sales of products advertised, reviewed or linked to from this site. The product images and information on this page have been supplied from the plugin’s own website and sites that provide Premium WordPress Services

Thrive Leads – List Building Plugin For WordPress

A great list of responsive subscribers has the potential to become your most reliable and constant source of profit. In this blog post we review a conversion-boosting mailing list builder for WordPress called Thrive Leads.

Savvy marketers know the power of mailing lists.

This is because a list of email subscribers gives you traffic on demand and access to repeat customers.

Marketing studies show that, on average, 50%-80% of visitors to your web site who leave will never return. That’s a lot of money and opportunities you’re missing out on. Marketing research also shows that it takes an average of 7 interactions with your business before a purchase decision is made. It’s so important, therefore, to look for a strategy that will help you interact repeatedly with site visitors.

How can you do this, however, if most visitors leave and never return?

One of the main purposes of a business is to build a relationship with your customers. The best way to do this, is to get them to sign up to your newsletters with their email address.

Building a list is an essential aspect of building a successful online business. A great mailing list has the potential to become your most reliable and constant online source of profit.

If you sell one or more products on your website, or your business relies on traffic, then list-building is essential, because it is the key to having access to repeat visitors and relationship-building.

Now … there are many ways and effective strategies to build a list of email subscribers, but until now, it was very difficult to find an affordable and simple solution that gives users access to almost, if not all of the most effective methods available to capture visitors’ email addresses on your website.

Announcing …

Thrive Leads – WordPress List Building Plugin

Plugin Description

Thrive Leads mail list-building plugin for WordPress could easily become the ultimate list-building plugin for WordPress. It lets you build a list of subscribers quickly using a wide range of opt-in forms, split-test different offers, improve your conversions, and get traffic on tap, working directly from your WordPress dashboard …

As mentioned earlier, there are many different ways and effective strategies to build an opt-in list, and almost all of these methods and strategies require using opt-in forms.

One of the key differences between Thrive Leads and other solutions that allow you to collect email addresses is that Thrive Leads comes with a range of flexible and powerful conversion boosting technologies and list-building strategies already built-in.

The Thrive Leads mailing list builder for WP is developed by Thrive Themes, a conversion-focused WP theme developer. As such, the plugin was developed to help WordPress users not just build a mailing list, but to build it faster.

For more details go here: Thrive Leads – Mail List-Building Plugin For Conversion-Focused WP Sites

Benefits Of Using Thrive Leads

Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Thrive Leads to build a list of subscribers quickly and get traffic on call on your website:

It’s A Plugin For WordPress Users

The Thrive Leads mailing list-building plugin for WordPress eliminates the need to install multiple plugins . This not only reduces the possibility of plugin conflicts, but also keeps your website’s loading speed down.

Easy, Fast & Simple To Install

Thrive Leads installs just like every WordPress plugin. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate.

Very Simple To Use

The Thrive Leads plugin has made it very simple to set up one or more opt-in forms, use their pre-designed form templates and start collecting subscriber details. No technical skills or design skills are required.

To get the most out of the plugin, you will want to implement all of the advanced targeting, testing and reporting features. If you are a complete beginner, allow 20-60 minutes to learn how to use all of the plugin’s features. Fortunately, Thrive Themes provides extensive training content, case studies as well as a responsive support team that is available to help you out.

Every Kind Of Form Your Business Needs

With the Thrive Leads plugin, you can begin to capture subscriber email address using pre-designed templates, and every kind of form you will ever need.

For example, you can use the plugin to add unblockable “pop-up” forms …

Insert slide-in forms …

You can use it to place great-looking in-line forms anywhere inside your content, or the bottom of your blog posts using a simple short code …

Insert a form into any widget area of your site …

You can add 2-step opt-in links that open a light box form when visitors click on a link …

And even add ribbon forms to your site that display at the top of the screen and remain “sticky” even while the visitor scrolls down the page …

As you can see, Thrive Leads integrates every kind of subscription form you need in one single WP plugin …

And it gets even better …

Thrive Leads Features

Thrive Leads offers many features to website owners. Here are just some:

Fast And Easy To Install And Configure

Be up and running in no time. As already mentioned, the plugin developer provides extensive training content and tutorials, webinars, case studies, plus a dedicated support team.

This tool not only integrates every type of opt-in form your business needs into one single plugin, as you’ve just seen, but it also lets you run all your list-building campaigns directly from your WP administrator account.

All-In-One List Building Strategies

Thrive Leads integrates the following list-building strategies into one easy-to-use tool:

Design And Deploy

Thrive Leads provides dozens of built-in professionally-designed and web optimised form templates that can be fully customised to suit your needs, with no technical skills required.

Simple “point and click” technology and a visual editor lets you create, modify and customise your forms …

Powerful A/B Testing Engine

Split testing is the fastest way to boost your conversion rates and accelerate your list growth.

Thrive Leads comes with a powerful A/B testing engine that makes it easy to test a whole range of variables, including:

Split-Test Multiple Designs And Content

The Thrive Leads plugin lets you test different opt-in form designs and content, and provides a “set and forget” feature that automatically eliminates the losing variations, and display only the campaigns that convert well after enough data has been collected.

You simply start testing and the plugin takes care of the rest, automatically increasing your conversion rates over time.

A/B Test Form Triggers

Thrive Leads lets you customise when and how your forms should appear to visitors.

For example, you can set up:

Time-based triggers to display a buy button on your screen after 35 seconds
Scroll-depth triggers where a message will appear only when your site visitors scroll down at least 40% of the web page
Exit-intent triggers that can detect when someone is about to leave the page and presents them with a pop-up form.

Additionally, you can test if the form performs better when displayed instantly, or when the form animates into view (e.g. slide in). You can test many triggers against one another to further increase your conversion rate.

Test Form Types

The plugin also lets you perform A/B tests on different form types. For example, you can test a widget form on your sidebar vs a “sticky” ribbon form and see which type of form creates better results for your business.

Split-Test Offers

Thrive Leads even lets you test entirely different offers.

For example, you can connect different forms to different email campaigns to help you determine which campaign offers yield the best conversion results for your business.

Not only does the Thrive Leads plugin give you enormous flexibility when it comes to split-testing your forms, but you can easily duplicate any existing form – even make multiple copies, then change the element(s) you want to test and instantly start running your A/B split test again, and and you can do all this in just a few minutes.

Additional features of Thrive Leads include:

Smart Targeting Features

You can create hyper-targeted offers for your visitors with three targeting levels (Easy, Advanced, Ultimate). You have granular control over how you target your offers to make your offers highly relevant.

For example, you can create a “catch-all” offer to show on all posts and pages or only your blog posts, or specify exactly where kinds of offers — even specific designs — will display across your entire website based on certain rules you set (e.g. a ribbon form on the Front Page only), including which post types, archive pages, etc. or, conversely, where to exclude forms from displaying on your site.

You can even create specific “content upgrade” offers for posts that receive the most traffic over time. Use this feature to create hyper-targeted and extremely profitable lists.

You can even use different lists with different services and different forms.

Advanced Lead Generation Forms Supported

Advanced form features supported include multiple fields, check boxes, radio buttons & drop-down menus.

Fully Mobile Responsive

Your forms and list marketing campaigns will show up correctly on any device or screen size.

Thrive Leads has also been tested for compatibility will all popular web browsers.

Reports For Actionable Insights

The Thrive Leads plugin gives you access to detailed reports that let you see exactly how your opt-ins and A/B tests are performing over time.

Additionally, you have access to a “lead sources” report that shows you exactly where your most valuable traffic comes from, allowing you to plan your campaigns for getting the most highly qualified traffic from your best sources.

Seamless Integration With Major Autoresponders & Leading Email Marketing Solutions

If your autoresponder allows HTML forms to be embedded then Thrive Leads with work seamlessly with your service.

Also, you can use different lists and different services for different forms, so you’re not dependent on any one solution.

As you can see, Thrive Leads gives users opt-in testing capabilities that extend far beyond what other list-building software provide.

Testimonials From Customers

Here are some of the testimonials and comments that plugin users have submitted regarding the Thrive Leads plugin:

“Your stuff is beautifully designed, fast and has great options for marketers that you just don’t see with other themes. Great, great job! Absolutely love Thrive!” David Coleman

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“I really look forward to more training from the Thrive Themes team. Love the product and want to get better!” Cristina Favreau

Plugin Support

As mentioned earlier, Thrive Themes provides extensive tutorials, webinars as well as a responsive support team that is available to provide users with any assistance they need.

The plugin interface provides video tutorials that explain exactly what you’re seeing and how to use the plugin. You can also access an extensive knowledge base of tutorials, training webinars, case studies and list building strategies, so you can learn how to get the most out of the Thrive Leads plugin.

The software is well-supported, and users get 1-year updates with their purchase, backed by a no-risk, thirty day, full money-back guarantee.

Plugin Price

The Thrive Leads plugin is available in the following editions:

Single Site Edition – This option lets you install & activate the plugin on one single domain. Includes all plugin features, plus Free, unlimited updates, with 1 year of support included. Cost = $49.00.
Unlimited Sites Edition – The Unlimited Sites license allows you to install & activate the plugin on unlimited domains that you own and operate. Includes all plugin features, and Free, unlimited updates, with 1 year of support included. Cost = $97.00.
Agency – The Agency option lets you install & activate the plugin on all websites that you own and operate, and on all of your client sites. Includes all plugin features, and Free, unlimited updates, with 1 year of support included.. Cost = $199.00.

Note: The cost to purchase Thrive Leads depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product is selling for the prices shown above. This may or may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin developer when you visit the website and there may be additional up sells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.

Check the plugin’s website for the latest pricing details here: Thrive Leads – List Builder For Boosting WP Conversions

Additional Plugin Info

Even on an existing site with hundreds of posts, you can install the plugin and use the targeting feature to retroactively show the most relevant and higher-converting opt-in forms across your entire website.

For a demo video showing how the software works, including help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support help desk, contact details and more, visit the Thrive Leads website.

We Recommend

Building a list is absolutely essential for building a successful online business. When it comes to growing a list, the only way to improve your results is by continually running tests and then analyse your performance to find out what works best on your site. Thrive Leads makes available to WordPress users a powerful tool that, until recently, only marketing professionals had access to, and at great expense.

With Thrive Leads, you have complete control over exactly where and how your opt-in forms show to visitors, and intelligent reporting that helps you improve your opt-in rates. There are other form of plugins and solutions for list-building, but the main difference is that other list-building plugins focus more on functionality, such as enable the user to create and add popups to their site. Thrive Leads starts with this type of functionality, but the real focus of the plugin is on conversion optimisation.

As Thrive Themes state on their website …

“It’s not just about helping you build your mailing list. It’s about helping you build your mailing list as fast as possible!”

For full details, check out the plugin here: Thrive Leads – WordPress Mailing List Builder

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Disclaimer: This site is not associated with WordPress or any of the WP-related products reviewed on this site. We may derive a financial benefit from sales of products advertised, reviewed or linked to from this site. All images and information used in this review have been sourced from the plugin’s own website and sites that provide Premium WordPress Services