Virtually everyone has heard of MTV’s Pimp my Ride. The world of web development has been blessed by a little friend called a plugin that allows webmaster’s to pimp their websites. A plugin is the webmasters best friend when designing personalized websites via open source (aka free) CMS (content management systems) like WordPress or Joomla. They are many times free or available for low subscriptions or onetime fees.

WordPress and Joomla are common open source or free software packages that are available for download and usage via the Internet. These two CMS packages represent a easy to use software program that allows provides the backbone or a website. Both come with fairly basic functionality that can be expanded by searching for and adding any number of plugins. These plugins are mini-applications that perform a specific action or task for a given website. While many times free and easy to install, they do pack a powerful punch for building a tripped out website and pimping this website to meet a company’s or webmaster’s specific requirements.

Plugins come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can create a social network, help provide SEO or search engine optimization, or they can provide quick contact form for website visitors. There are many and they are readily available for open source CMS’s packages regardless of the webmaster’s knowledge level.

In fact, in all honestly, WordPress plugins require little effort to install. The webmaster simply needs to find the plugin, click install, and review the available setting options. The plugin does all the heavy lifting and work.

So before you second guess the power of a CMS package, you might want to review the available list of plugins. These little guys can take your website from ho-hum to outstanding in just a few clicks.