Having a self-hosted blog on the WordPress platform is probably one of the best things that I’ve ever done when it comes to blogging, those early days of using Googles “Blogspot” then moving to a hosted blog on WordPress.com, then eventually taking the plunge with my own domain and hosting for my Blazing Minds blog have given me several learning opportunities about blogging and the Internet.
One of the things that a lot of us in the early days of a self-hosted WordPress tend to do is grab those plugins that give you the chance to simply add “bells and whistles” to your blog without you having to know any programming knowledge and simple installing and forgetting about them.
But Be Warned!
These plugins that you add are all very well and probably make your blog look nice and initially make it run like a dream, but, in the long term they can cause no end of problems.
In the early days of your blog, you will be ok, but as your blog gets ever more popular and you get more and more views to your blog, you will find that some plugins will stop working, you may get
that “WordPress white screen of death” or even worse the host will stop your site because it’s using too much CPU usage on their serves!
I’ve had the issue with my blog, Blazing Minds, as the blog has got more popular with around 32,000 to 37,000 views per month my blog was getting quite hungry and like most early bloggers I had plugins aiding my blogging addiction and this in turn caused a memory drain on other needed plugins, such as CommentLuv! (Thanks Andy for the memory usage tweet, you inspired me to work on the blog that little bit more)
How To Fix The Problem
It’s quite an easy fix really, simply go through your list of plugins and see what you are using, what you can live without and what you can probably do with some coding instead. After all plugins are hungry beasts.
Uninstall the plugins you don’t want and delete them, I have heard that even having them sitting in a disabled state will s
till cause a slight memory loss, so if you don’t them, “Delete Them”
Also grab yourself a cache plugin, such as W3 Total Cache, in turn this will also help speed up your blog and reduce the amount of memory and CPU usage that your blog will be demanding off your server, specially if you have shared hosting!
What If Removing The WordPress Plugins Doesn’t Work!
Well to be honest, it may be time to get in touch with your hosting provider and enquire about VPS hosting or even your own server, but the majority of the time the above tips should work for you and if you are short on funds, then surely removing a few unwanted plugins is better than forking out more hard earned cash 
So To Round Up
Don’t over do it with your WordPress plugins, make sure you really want that amazing plugin, keep an eye on your plugins that you already have, if you aren’t getting too much use out of them remove them, if at a later date you do decide you need that plugin, you can always install it again. If you can do it without a plugin then the better.
So do that spring clean on your WordPress installation and dump those hungry plugins!
Twitter: NealJansons
says:
Awesome pic and some good tips, though I would recommend using WP Super Cache, though that needs a little configuring if you are using a CDN or the WPTouch plugin. It rolls the features of W3 and the old WP Cache plugin together and is very nice.
Neal Jansons recently posted..Save Stargate Universe and Save Stargate Facebook Pages Hacked!
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Thanks for commenting Neal, I’ll have to take a look at WP Super Cache, I’ve found W3 a little over the top lately with it’s recent updates and it’s mass of options
Karen recently posted..Save Stargate Universe On FaceBook Gets Hacked!
Twitter: ibucketbot
says:
My blog is currently hosted in blogger, but am looking forward to self host another blog of mine just to get the ‘feel’ of wordpress. I had this idea to fill my blog with awesome plugins but your article has somewhat saved me, for the long term!
The pic is too much!! lol!
Take care!
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
The key is, to only use the plugins that are essential, use plugins for SEO etc and always remember to have CommentLuv, that’s a must
Karen recently posted..The Magic of an 80s Montage
Twitter: janesheeba
says:
LOL just had my site down earlier this week for the same reason. I was using 62 plugins. 45 active and others idle. I cleaned them up to 19 and brought my blog back to life.
Jane.
Jane | Time Management recently posted..7 Hard Truths About Blogging You Need to Know!
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Wow, that’s loads
Have you noticed a speed difference in your blog since you cleaned out a lot of your plugins?
Karen recently posted..Using Amazon With WordPress Is Easy With WordPress Amazon Associate
Twitter: webduck
says:
It’s probably been over a year ago that I suggested to WP peeps that they incorporate the date of installation in the list of plugins. At the time, they thought it was a good idea, but it never got implemented. It might sound a little weird to want this, but it would help me remember just how long I’ve had the plugin and then be able to evaluate if I really still need it. Good advice on purging some though. I tend to get plugin happy and over-install.
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
That sounds a great idea for keeping a check on plugins, I think we all get a bit “plugin happy” at times and this is what causes the majority of problems.
Karen recently posted..5 Extremely Successful Brands in Facebook Marketing
Great tip, those plugins can clatter up your WordPress blog very quickly and easily burden the server. In our testing you can actually shave quite a bit of time on page load (in metrics) by simply removing what is unused.
localwebhub recently posted..Why Social Media Should Be A Part Of Marketing Strategy
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
With the way search engines are looking for speed in a website these days, it’s best to really keep an eye on what’s is been used and what’s is really needed
Karen recently posted..Save Stargate Universe On FaceBook Gets Hacked!
Twitter: HomeWithTheKids
says:
It’s definitely a good idea to keep an eye on your plugins. While it’s a bit of a pain if you change themes, remember that some changes a plugin makes can be easily added into your theme by hand, and may put less of a load on your server if done that way.
Stephanie – Home with the Kids recently posted..What’s Your Backup Plan
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Exactly Stephanie and thanks for commenting, we should all learn a few basics and start removing those unessential plugins
Karen recently posted..How To Keep Safe In The Kitchen
Twitter: 2009Taxes
says:
The hosting providers are going to love your suggestion to switch from shared hosting to VPS hosting. Host Gator makes the suggestion to anyone that exceeds their CPU limits one time. But you can work on your site and look at what is taking the most time to load with the pingdom tools speed test. Make some tweaks and not hear from the support teams for another 6 months. Also taking a look at the error log in the root of the site will give you problems with the plugins that you are running.
Steve recently posted..Akron Ohio Cheap Taxes
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Thanks Steve, a good point about the error log and one, which I forgot to mention in my post
Karen recently posted..Using Amazon With WordPress Is Easy With WordPress Amazon Associate
Twitter: wordpresswb
says:
Great subject to bring up! I seriously have forgotten about some plugins and they have caused problems. I like to find out a way to add the function to my website manually.
Mitz Pantic recently posted..EasyAzon Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Hi Mitz, if you do a few searches on the net, you’re bound to found alternative methods to the plugins that you may be using, making your server a little less strained
Karen recently posted..5 Extremely Successful Brands in Facebook Marketing
Great subject to bring up! I seriously have forgotten about some plugins and they have caused problems. I like to find out a way to add the function to my website manually.
Twitter: blogmobilepro
says:
Hi Karen,
You’re so right. I’m beginning to devote little time into learning a bit of wordpress coding. From word go, I make sure a plugin is worth it before installing but since you can work around some with a bit of coding, it’s a better choice.
Thanks a lot 4 d tips.
blogmobilepro recently posted..4 Solid Niche Ideas to Start a Blog when you don’t know what to blog about
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Many thanks for stopping by and commenting
Karen recently posted..The Magic of an 80s Montage
Twitter: seoguelph
says:
Ok that photo of the dog just cracked me up, and made my day. I thank you for this!
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Karen recently posted..Game Review- The New Half-Life Game
It’s recommended to have only the basic plugins installed on the long run, else you’ll get e call from your hosting company telling you to upgrade because you’re eating all the servers resources. At that point you can either chose to downgrade your blog (remove plugins) or switch to a VPN or something similar. I would chose the second option, because plugins are a part of what makes your blog unique.
Antonia recently posted..Using Hypnotic Language
Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Did you find the move expensive, or did you find it more value for money that a little more to pay?
Karen recently posted..Woot Woot! It’s Friday Already!
It’s actually really expensive compared to shared shostings
)
But it’s worth it. And by the time you need the upgrade, you shold already have some steady income from the blog, at least to pay for the VPN.
Antonia recently posted..Using Hypnotic Language
Twitter: techwork_dk
says:
Hi Karen
I have been wondering what you actually look like in real life. Now we all know
I try to be a little conservative about adding plugins, well that was what I thought until I read this post and took a look on my blog. 36 active plugins..! Maybe don’t really need all those. Thank you for the reminder Karen. Two other thing I try to be look out for in my WordPress blog is the size of the pictures I add and the size of the MySQL database. Those to can also have a big impact on load time of a blog.
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Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Hi Thomas, when it comes to using pictures on your blog, I opt for going with the maximum size that my blog will accommodate, I opt for a maximum width of 500 pixels to fit in on the post page, I then use “Smush It” to reduce the size of the image file, saving those valuable bytes
Karen recently posted..The Magic of an 80s Montage
nice tip but i use a plugin called “super cash” it helps to reduce memory and CPU usage and i monitor all of that by a plugin called ” WordPress health status” it shows me hard disk usage, ram usage, bandwidth usage and database size. all of that appears in my WP dashboard
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Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Sounds like a handy plugin, but! then again, it’s another plugin
Karen recently posted..Why Your Web Site Needs Live Streaming Video Hosting
Twitter: TheProfitShare
says:
It’s important to not have too many plugins on your blog. A few good suggestions to reduce load on your server are:
1) Use a CDN to deliver images, javascript and CSS. Amazon Cloudfront will do but MaxCDN is a better solution for a little more investment.
2) Use Yahoo’s SmushIt to reduce your images down to optimum web size.
3) Buy a premium theme where a lot of the functionality of plugins is already available. This means you won’t need so many plugins to get the same functionality.
4) Use W3 Total Cache to do some of the techy things like minifying JavaScript and using caching options and database compression, etc.
5) Leave all video off your shared hosting server. Host it using Amazon S3 instead where it will serve much more easily for just a few cents. This will help keep a load off your server.
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