The process of setting up a WordPress site isn't just about hosting and getting a great theme in place. It's not just about adding your own design elements and it's more than just writing great content. There's that one other bit, the glue, that you need in order to bring the whole site together.
No one wants a slow site
The challenge is knowing how many plugins to use – especially when you read reports like these about the performance of some of these plugins. Who wants a slow site? Not me and not you. So you temper the desire to use a plugin with the need to make sure you site loads quickly.
Tough Trade-offs
But that still leaves you with decisions. What should you code directly? What should you do with a plugin? What should you just skip for now? And when, if ever, should you pay for a plugin. These are the tough decisions that every developer/designer has to make – often with clients that are asking for more and more features. So how do you decide?
Well there are four strategies I recommend in the presentation I gave to a few WordPress meetups.
One Simple Approach
But there's also one I didn't state in that deck. And it's really simple. It goes like this:
Rather than testing out every possible plugin option for each of the features you want on a site, why not meet with or get to know someone who has already done that. When they do it, ask them to write it up and give it to you for free.
If they say yes, you're golden.