Guest Post
The Problem with Plugins

I’m sure that you don’t need me to tell you that WordPress is huge. Let’s look at the statistics – at the time of writing, there were just under 65 million WordPress sites in the world, and over 371 million people view more than 4.1 billion WordPress pages every month.
That’s just for WordPress.com – self-hosted WordPress.org sites are arguably even more popular, thanks to their adaptability and the ease of use that the CMS offers. In fact, TechCrunch, CNN and the NFL all use WordPress sites, and it’s likely that WordPress as a CMS will continue to see dramatic growth.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I love third-party plugins, they can offer a whole host of new functionality to your website and enable you to do things that you never even dreamed of. But they can also cause problems, particularly if you’re plugin happy and install everything that you can find.
Here are some of the most common problems that WordPress plugins cause, along with a few hints on what you can do to avoid them.
Security vulnerabilities
Let’s jump in at the deep-end – the worst-case scenario is that you’ll install a plugin which opens up a huge security vulnerability, allowing hackers or even the plugin’s developer to access the back-end of your website.
And it’s not always because of a malicious developer, too – take this case from a couple of years ago, when three popular plugins had unwanted backdoors added to them. Luckily, in this case, WordPress reacted quickly to reset all users’ passwords as a precaution and no lasting damage was done.
Of course, some other plugins are designed specifically to try and catch an unsuspecting admin out, and you need to look out for the warning signs. But don’t worry, help is at hand!
What to do: Change your password regularly, and use a separate password for your WordPress site than you do for all of the other sites that you frequent. Also, consider using a .htaccess file that blocks anyone from accessing your admin panel unless they’re logging in from your IP address(es). Make sure that you update your plugins whenever new versions are released (checking several times a week), so that you’re not running outdated software that might not have been patched. And finally, always take a look at the rating of the plug-in on the WordPress.org website – if it has a low rating, other admins have probably experienced problems.
Clashes with other plugins
Unfortunately, not all plugins were created equal – a quick Google search turns up over 550,000 results for ‘WordPress plugin clash’. The sad fact is that, on the odd occasion, two different plugins are completely incompatible, often due to duplicate variables, or two lines of code that get stuck in a loop.
Worse still, many developers aren’t aware of these clashes – there are just too many plugins out there for even the most dedicated development teams to test their work against every other plugin on the market.
What to do: If you can track them down, report the problem to the developers – if they’re still supporting the plugin, they’ll probably fix the bug for future releases. If you can’t find them, or if the plugin is no longer supported, you’re just going to have to avoid using whichever plugin you value the least. To make matters worse, if you really need the new plugin and you’re not sure which of your existing plugins it’s crashing with, you’re just going to have to try deactivating plugins in batches of three to try and narrow down which one is causing the problem. Oh, and have a look around online first to make sure that it is a clash, and that it’s not just a plugin that doesn’t work.
Faulty plugins
As we’ve just established, not every plugin works first time, and quite a few of them no longer work at all. In these circumstances, you’ll find that you’ve installed and activated the plugin, but it’s not having the desired effect. Now what can you do?
What to do: Unfortunately, if the plugin doesn’t work, all you can do is report it to the developers, give the plugin a poor rating on WordPress.org to warn other admins, and move on. See if you can find another plugin that does the same thing, and try that instead.
Unsupported plugins
Let’s presume that you’ve pinpointed a problem and you want to report it to the developers. How do you go about doing that? Well, the first step is to find the plugin’s page on WordPress.org and click on the ‘support’ tab – with a bit of luck, you’ll be shown a list of recent posts about the plugin, and you’ll be able to raise your own issue here.
Alternatively, most plugins have either an author bio alongside them, and you’ll be able to find more information about the developers here. It’s also worth checking any documentation that came with the plugin.
But if you use enough plugins, you’ll eventually find a plugin that doesn’t include any developer information or documentation, and you’ll be left scratching your head and wondering what to do next.
What to do: Have a look around on Google and see if you can find someone else that’s had a similar problem. If it’s a popular plugin, you might well find that someone has already encountered and solved the problem, documenting the process along the way. If not, you’re out of luck – you’ll just have to remove the plugin and move on.
Not specifically designed for the site
Even if you find that your plugin is working correctly, it might not fit the look and theme of your website. This is quite a common pitfall, and one that’s impossible for developers to predict – they design their plugins to work on as many themes as possible, paying particular attention to the most popular ones during their testing, but it’s just not possible for them to guarantee that their plugin will display correctly on whatever theme that you’re using.
What to do: Learn how to use CSS and play around with the plugin’s stylesheets – you might find that you’re able to correct the issue yourself. Depending upon your budget, it’s also worth looking for a freelance developer who may be able to come up with a fix. If all else fails, report the bug to the developers, but they’re less likely to correct an issue with how the plugin displays than they are to correct a problem that stops it from working altogether.
Slowing the load time
Let’s presume that everything is working correctly, that it all displays fine on your modified template and that the plugin does everything you were hoping for. But then you load up your website and spot a noticeable difference in the amount of time that it takes for your pages to load.
This is even more important in the age of Google – they found that when they ranked slow websites in their results pages, people actually used the search engine less frequently. Because of this, they now take loading times into account when they generate their results. It’s not just Google, either – Shopzilla shaved three seconds off their loading time, and experienced a 25% increase in page views and an increase in revenue of up to 12%.
What to do: Deactivate any plugins that you aren’t using, and investigate Google’s Webmaster Tools – they can increase your loading speed by up to 60%, by using a couple of innovative techniques. First off, they’ll pre-load information in anticipation of a user clicking through to the most popular pages. Secondly, they’ll defer the less important information and get it to load after everything else on the page has displayed.
As long as you’re sensible and look out for the warning signs, there’s no reason that you can’t add plugins safely and securely to your WordPress website. There are also other things that you can do, like backing up your database and your website files, to ensure that even if there is a problem, it won’t knock your site out of commission for good.
What WordPress plugins do you use? Have you ever experienced a problem? Let me know with a comment!
Author Bio:
Dane Cobain is a social media specialist for UK-based creative agency fst the Group. He’s also a gadget-lover and tech fanatic, as well as an internet addict.
Guest Post
The Complete In-Depth Guide to Getting Started with WordPress Development in 2022


Is WordPress Easy for Beginners?
Yes, WordPress in all fairness is clean for novices to apply and navigate. Many human beings, after they first begin with their weblog or internet site, might also additionally sense slowed down withinside the technicalities and functions of a notably complicated and customizable platform, however, getting commenced with WordPress actually isn’t that difficult. Plus, it’s absolutely unfastened!
To create a web presence, all you want is a site call (that is the net address) after which you set up WordPress on top of that. It’s now no longer as complicated as it sounds and also you don’t want to be a pc genius to grasp it.
WordPress is the most famous CMS, and plenty of corporations and product brands, in addition to limitless people and expert carrier providers, have motives for having a WordPress internet site.
Regardless of whether or not you’re launching a brand new WordPress internet site, or in reality remodeling your present online presence the usage of the WordPress platform, there are some matters to hold in your thoughts earlier than you get commenced. You will want a site for your web page. What approximately net website web hosting or a content material transport community to your web page? Selecting simply the proper WordPress subject is prime attention as well. Hire an expert WordPress developer for greater success.
All of the above are crucial concerns while getting commenced with WordPress. Especially in case you are doing this in your personal life, the complete procedure can quickly turn out to be overwhelming. And even if operating with an expert you must recognize the necessities of having commenced with WordPress and launching a brand new WordPress internet site. Here are some vital steps on the way to making a large difference.
Before Launching a New WordPress Website
Any powerful online presence calls for a very good foundation. That is especially proper for something as complicated as a cellular-first WordPress internet site. At the onset of any WordPress assignment, we talk necessities along with web hosting, the usage of a content material transport community (CDN), and some different basics.
Considerate this to be your pre-release checklist.
Website Domain
Especially in case you are launching a brand new WordPress web page you want to present cautious attention to your area call. While there are numerous extraordinary to be had alternatives a dot com area remains taken into consideration to be the first-rate in phrases of usability and search engine optimization.
Of course, a few dot com domains are very difficult to return back through, or very luxurious. In that case, you may need to mess around with the area and call a chunk to peer if every other alternative would possibly paint higher.
You must usually keep away from unique characters along with hyphens or dashes, “cute” spellings, or overly lengthy domains. Check out those 10 guidelines for selecting a site call from GoDaddy. We additionally endorse you operating them to buy and check-in your new area.
Web Hosting
And that is one example wherein in reality going for the most inexpensive alternative will surely paintings towards you. Any WordPress internet site in all fairness is complicated and does higher in case your website web hosting issuer focuses on website web hosting WordPress web sites. For e-trade websites, this turns into even extra critical.
Modern clients are impatient and could in reality now no longer anticipate your web page to load. A slow, unresponsive web page will most effectively boost your jump rate, and ship your target market to your competitors.
Even worse, in case your website web hosting issuer does now no longer provides a few kinds of internet site protection and backup your web web page is vulnerable to getting hacked or taken down absolutely. And that on my own could make restoring your internet site after it was hacked a prolonged and luxurious procedure.
Before making a decision concerning a website web hosting carrier issuer, make certain to cowl those questions:
That consists of any unfastened subject and any subject that isn’t well matched with the present-day model of WordPress or has now no longer been up to date through the subject writer in the previous few months.
Instead of in reality going for a “pretty” layout or “cool” capability make certain to choose a WordPress subject on the way to honestly aid your quick and lengthy-time period commercial enterprise goals. That method you must appear for:
Responsive: As we recognize Google offers a part to responsive web websites in searches from cellular gadgets so selecting a WordPress subject that is responsive will come up with a common higher consumer experience.
Many human beings mistakenly consider that launching a brand new WordPress internet site is all it takes. After all, you simply constructed a brand-new WordPress internet site, delivered search engine optimization optimized content material, checked to ensure it appears and features extremely good on pills and smartphones, and decided on optimized WordPress website web hosting.
The Dashboard
All WordPress websites use the equal log-in URL: https://mydomain.com/wp-admin/ To log in you want to go into the consumer call and password you place whilst you created your WordPress installation. If you had your net host or fashion dressmaker create your setup you want to get the specified log-in information from them.
CONCLUSION:
We provide a complete variety of WordPress internet site consulting and layout offerings for corporations and product brands, together with custom net layout and development, e-trade solutions, seek engine optimization, and WordPress optimization.
If you need to study our WordPress layout and aid offerings, let’s talk! Our group will concentrate on your concerns, compare your wishes, and decide the first-rate manner to release and optimize your new WordPress internet site or online store.
Author Bio –

Hermit Chawla is an MD at AIS Technolabs which is a Web/App design and Development Company, helping global businesses to grow by Global Clients. He loves to share his thoughts on Web & App Development, Clone App Development, and Game Development.
For More:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hermit-chawla-lion-82b6513b
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aistechnolabs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aistechnolabs
Guest Post
Best Shopping Cart Themes for WordPress

With time and innovation, WordPress has undergone a lot of changes and is now completely refurbished from what it was when it started. It is not just a platform for blogging. You can use it to start an online shopping page. Small scale businesses and corporate companies alike are using this platform to set up their online shopping site. With unlimited options to grow a business and gain popularity, the companies are looking to impress their targeted audience. WordPress provides a chance to do just this in the most professional and fun way possible. It offers a wide range of plug-ins to make the theme you choose extremely functional. They are meticulously designed and developed by professionals who make sure only the best quality is offered for the shopping sites.
What is the most important feature of an online shopping site? They are the shopping carts. One in two shoppers is likely to buy more than one product from an online website. It is time-consuming to buy every product and make payments separately. When a consumer wishes to buy more than one product, he or she can simply add the products to the cart and continue shopping. Once he is done, he can click on the cart and make payments for all the products he bought in a single payment. This saves time and all the unnecessary hassles for a customer. They also browse across different categories. To offer them a smooth shopping experience, you have to choose a theme that offers excellent e-Commerce support.
There are a lot of shopping cart themes available exclusively for online shopping pages. Here are a few simple shopping cart themes you can consider for your page:
Velvet Sky:
It is ideal for both private and commercial use. It offers a charming and pleasant atmosphere at the same time retaining the professional look. It offers a lot of customization options and a neat layout. The shopping experience will be smooth for the customer who visits the site. The key features of this theme are:
- It offers a personalized home page.
- Horizontal and submenu options.
- Separate unit for the custom slide show.
- Home page option with combo slider.
- Support for one-page checkout and guest checkout.
- Compatible with all the leading search engines.
http://dapurpixel.com/theme/velvet-sky
Dangdoot:
Though the name may not sound so professional, it is one of the best shopping cart themes to choose from. There is the free and premium version of this theme. It is an excellent theme for any music-based company. It has myriad features to simplify your work. The custom panel of the theme is user-friendly and you can set up your online website in a matter of minutes. The key features of this theme are:
- An easy-to-use layout with a professional look.
- Slideshow supported by JavaScript.
- Categories are denoted by thumbnails.
- Featured products or recent albums appear on the home page.
- Product view can be categorized.
- A lot more ad spots and sidebar widgets.
http://portfolio.icreativelabs.com/free-wordpress-e-commerce-theme-dangdoot/
Beauty Store:
Do you want to start an apparel or beauty store online? This is the theme to go for! It is a two-columned theme with a simple and neat look. The shopping cart available on this theme provides a smooth shopping experience for the customers. You can download Beauty Store for free. It is a perfect theme for clothing boutiques, beauty stores, books, and music stores. The key features include:
- A customized page for the Home page.
- Supports threaded comments.
- XHTML 1.0 support.
- Widget ready
http://themes.rock-kitty.net/shopcart-beauty-store/
These are a few themes you can consider for your E-Commerce website. However, it is difficult to highlight a single one and call it the best. Each theme is compatible with a particular kind of business. A theme that is suitable for a music store may not be the right one for a finance company. There are myriad other options like Online Clothing Shopping, TeeShirt, Aventura, Dealers, The Vineyard, etc. The names give you an idea of the type of business it can be used. Decide on what kind of business you are going to start and your branding strategy. Are you going to go for a typical corporate look or are you going to take the fun and innovative angle? You will find all types of shopping cart themes online.
This is a guest post by Lance Goodman of www.dishtvoffer.com, a site that offers savings and current information on Dish TV.
P.S.S. These are outdated I will add updated ones at a later date
Guest Post
Beat Recession Blues with These PHP Web Development Best Practices

With the recession taking over the majority of economies across the globe, securing your job has become the topmost priority. The scenario is the same across different verticals and for programmers, it is even worse. As the resource pool of PHP developers is expanding, the crunch of right projects and jobs is also deepening. Organizations are paying emphasis on quality rather than quantity. It’s all about the survival of the fittest.
Getting your hands on a handsomely paying project is not just a matter of luck. It also readily depends on the quality of services rendered by you as a developer. A PHP web development project requires you to have in-depth knowledge of the language and deploy industry best practices. As you scan your clientele in hope of grabbing onto the next breakthrough project, here are some coding best practices that can get you through the stringent quality evaluations of even the daintiest clients:
- Get Friendly with Single Quoted Strings: Using single quotes over double quotes gives you a marginal performance benefit, especially if you are coding some intricate project. A PHP string that is surrounded in double quotes is misinterpreted as variables and special characters by the PHP interpreter. If you want a single-string output, it is best to use single quotes. It enhances the performance of your PHP application as the string doesn’t get parsed.
- Don’t Use Regular Expressions Unnecessarily: Keep a safe distance from ereg and preg function groups as and when possible, especially if you are performing basic string operations. When str_replace and strtr functions are faster than preg_replace, why do you wish to stick with old school functions? Move on and save your application from those crunch cycles.
- Short Open Tags are a Big No-No: Are you still torturing your PHP application with short tags? It’s time you show some mercy. <? Is just a bad code form and creates conflict with XML parsers. It will also annoy people who will try modifying your code in PHP directives. So, you won’t find even a single justification for using open tags. Use full tags instead and let your application breathe.
- Keep Functions out of Loop Declarations: Using functions inside loops is not a great idea. It is annoying to see how some developers stake the performance of the application to save an extra line of code. If you use a function inside a loop, it will get executed as and when iteration initiates. If you have a bigger loop, this will mean you are increasing the execution time, which is not a bit user-friendly.
- Document Your Code: You might have heard it a hundred times, but it by no means depreciates its value. Documenting your code means you value your hard work as well as your client’s investment in the programming phase. Many organizations will hire you just on the basis of your documentation habits.
- Variable Initialization is a Must: If you don’t initialize a variable, PHP will create it automatically, but it is best not to rely on this feature. The code becomes sloppy and God forbids if you have to track down the initiating point of the variable, you will have to scan through the entire code. Moreover, incrementing of an uninitialized variable takes more time than that of an initialized variable. So, it’s best to initialize a variable.
PHP web development can be a tricky job, especially when so many others are keeping a watch, waiting to grab any opportunity that comes their way. It is best to follow best practices and adhere to stringent quality standards, to rapidly increase your client base.
Author:- Steve Graham is an expert in PHP Web Development, who has been blogging on the niche for the last 6 years. Currently, he is associated as a freelancer with a PHP development firm that deals in PHP Development Outsourcing.
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