You are here: Home / Guest Bloggers / Keep An Eye On Those WordPress Plugins

Keep An Eye On Those WordPress Plugins

Article by

Karen is a lover of blogging and everything in between, her humble blog Blazing Minds is a mixed bag of blogging and anything that takes her fancy she will blog about. she's also a bit of a TwitterHolic ;)

Karen has written 6 articles for ComLuv.com
I normally write at http://blazingminds.co.uk

Twitter: @BlazingMinds | Facebook | Google Profile
Become a guest blogger on ComLuv just like Karen
June 15, 2011 By 66 Comments

Blogging with WordPress

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!

Filed Under: Guest Bloggers Tagged With: , , ,

Comments

  1. Neal Jansons
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 15, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    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!My Profile

    Reply
  2. Mushfique
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 15, 2011 at 6:19 pm

    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!

    Reply
  3. Jane | Time Management
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 15, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    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!My Profile

    Reply
  4. Carol Yates Wilkerson
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 15, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    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. :)

    Reply
  5. localwebhub says:
    June 15, 2011 at 8:10 pm

    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 StrategyMy Profile

    Reply
  6. Stephanie - Home with the Kids
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 15, 2011 at 9:14 pm

    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 PlanMy Profile

    Reply
  7. Steve
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 15, 2011 at 9:38 pm

    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 TaxesMy Profile

    Reply
  8. Mitz Pantic
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 16, 2011 at 6:55 am

    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 PluginMy Profile

    Reply
  9. rtyrt says:
    June 16, 2011 at 8:10 am

    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.

    Reply
  10. blogmobilepro
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 16, 2011 at 9:02 am

    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 aboutMy Profile

    Reply
  11. Mick Guelph
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 16, 2011 at 10:06 am

    Ok that photo of the dog just cracked me up, and made my day. I thank you for this!

    Reply
  12. Antonia says:
    June 17, 2011 at 4:52 am

    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 LanguageMy Profile

    Reply
  13. Thomas
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 17, 2011 at 10:03 pm

    Hi Karen
    I have been wondering what you actually look like in real life. Now we all know :-D
    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.
    Thomas recently posted..Windows Powershell for NewbiesMy Profile

    Reply
  14. subzero525 says:
    June 18, 2011 at 9:52 pm

    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
    subzero525 recently posted..تحميل البالتوك العربي الاصدار العاشر 2011 تنزيل البالتك العربي مجاناMy Profile

    Reply
  15. Wayne Lambert
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 19, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    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.
    Wayne Lambert recently posted..Best Internet Marketing ToolsMy Profile

    Reply
  16. Rammesh Perumal
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 22, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    Very useful info Karen, I just recently did some plugin clean job. Wayne Lambert has add awesome tips also. The W3 Total Cache plugin is awesome. Thanks for sharing guys.
    Rammesh Perumal recently posted..How to Make 100 Dollars OnlineMy Profile

    Reply
  17. Paul Salmon
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 22, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    I regularly go through my list of plugins to determine if I really need the plugin installed. If I don’t, then I remove the plugin – checking my blog first to ensure that it is still working.

    Many times I find that a new plugin I install may do the same as two or three plugins, so reviewing my plugins allows me to remove redundant plugins.

    Reply
  18. Harish says:
    June 24, 2011 at 11:25 am

    Well found, all these plugins are bound to work good at the early stage but seems are unable to maintain their level of commitment till long. I have seen many websites taking too much time to load and even some don’t display properly in a browser – Hope all these might be the reason of stopped plugin or any script in terms of plugin is not working properly.

    Reply
  19. sureshpeters
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 24, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    I recommend to use w3 total cache and setup CDN, clear all your unwanted plugins and delete the un-installed plugins from your wordpress . image optimization, and ajax pagination and many more speed up your blog :) i have tweaked a lot successfully done with it
    sureshpeters recently posted..How To Increase Your Torrent Download Speed With CheatEngineMy Profile

    Reply
  20. Christopher Ross
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 24, 2011 at 6:10 pm

    Karen, I stopped using W3 for my blogs recently. It’s a great plugin but a little excessive for the average blogger. I know they do a great job with it but it’s just feels like they’ve added too many things to a simple service.

    Reply
  21. Lorenzo says:
    June 24, 2011 at 8:32 pm

    I try not to use too many plugins, mainly just ones I think are necessary. No problems so far but thanks for the warning.
    (name edited to remove keyword)
    Lorenzo recently posted..Google SEO Tips for 2011My Profile

    Reply
  22. redkathy
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 26, 2011 at 3:56 am

    Oh my gosh Karen I love the photo! I learned the hard way about plugins. Getting the Admin white screen for a newbie is the worst ever. I’ve gotten into the habit now of monitoring speed and load time daily after installing a new plugin.
    redkathy recently posted..Chocolate Pudding Pie – Newtons Fruit Thin Crumb Pie CrustMy Profile

    Reply
  23. ditesco
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 26, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    I had this problem before Karen and I did exactly what you recommend, clean them all up and left only those that I could not live without. Problem with utilization of too much CPU resources was dragging my blog. Despite all the cleanup though, I noticed that while page load time has improved somewhat, the “intermediary” solution I found to working quite well actually is CloudFlare.
    ditesco recently posted..Protect Your Online Business, Free WordPress BackUp SolutionsMy Profile

    Reply
  24. hilman says:
    June 27, 2011 at 6:17 pm

    Hi Karen,
    During this time I also use blogspot as my blog hosting. but using my blogspot limit to the creative, maybe because I do not know about programming. after using the self-hosted, was easier for me. wordpress plugin helps me be more creative.
    thanks for the interesting article
    Hilman

    Reply
  25. izwan
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 27, 2011 at 7:18 pm

    well it’s good to know that not all plugins are good for your blog and a careful selection must put in place
    izwan recently posted..isra dan mikraj:kita tak menghargai nabiMy Profile

    Reply
  26. Brian Parker
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 27, 2011 at 7:49 pm

    Hello Karen,

    Personally, I have “W3 Total Cache” installed, and it does speed up the loading time quite a bit.
    My blog is new and visitors are few currently, but this is definitely a wake-up call to action for me to really go through all the plugins that I’ve installed and do some serious “spring cleaning”.

    Thanks so much for the great tips there. I’ll take it to heart, when I install the next latest plugin on my site. :)

    Cheers,
    Brian
    bestcars101.com

    Reply
  27. Khabri Chacha
    Twitter:
    says:
    June 28, 2011 at 5:12 pm

    Haha,, i was using around, 23 plugins,, and it was increasing my load speed.. i removed the use less plugins :p Happy Blogging :D
    Khabri Chacha recently posted..8 Ways to Improve Page RankMy Profile

    Reply
  28. Boris
    Twitter:
    says:
    July 13, 2011 at 12:06 am

    I didn’t realise that having the plugins would really slow down a website that much. It’s a good idea to do some cleaning. I wonder if I should just completely removing the inactive ones as well… Thanks for the post! :)
    Boris recently posted..When is the Best Time to Invest?My Profile

    Reply
  29. nick goddard
    Twitter:
    says:
    July 23, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    Thanks for this, on my blogging learning journey, something else to be aware of, although don’t think I’ll get up to thousands of visitors!
    nick goddard recently posted..Urgent – File Your Annual Return!My Profile

    Reply
  30. amandagordon says:
    July 26, 2011 at 5:40 am

    I think you struck a nerve there. In the initial days I used to spend considerable time “hunting” for plugins. I would always be on the lookout for the latest cool plugin. It is only after a long time I realized how futile and unnecessary this was.

    Thanks for the tip on W3 Total Cache. While I wanted to try a caching plugin, I had put it off for quite a while (talk about going between extremes!).
    amandagordon recently posted..Automatic Vacuum CleanersMy Profile

    Reply
  31. josejose28 says:
    July 28, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    Hi Karen, this can be called plugin addiction :) . There are lots of incredible plugins for WordPress, but we need to be sure we go to use them. If we are not responsible with this practice, our web hosting will suffer consequences.
    josejose28 recently posted..Conoce el BlackBerry Torch 9800My Profile

    Reply
  32. Richard Strange
    Twitter:
    says:
    November 11, 2011 at 8:20 am

    Choose plug-ins that help you drive leads, traffic and connect to people – and try one of the SEO plug-ins if you haven’t already
    Richard Strange recently posted..B2B Call to Action buttons guide: powerful internet marketing tipsMy Profile

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Speeding Up A Blog! It's Been Tweaking Time Again! says:
    June 30, 2011 at 7:51 am

    [...] you who follow me around the net will have seen the Guest Post I wrote on CommentLuv titled “Keep An Eye On Those WordPress Plugins“, shortly after this I came back to the blog and started work tweaking it to help improve its [...]

    Reply

Speak Your Mind

*

CommentLuv badge