So you want to install some stuff on your blog, right? Some cool stuff? Well, there are two main kinds of cool things to install on your blog (or, for that matter, on your $100 website, if I built one of those for you — they’re proving to be really popular, don’t you know). Those cool things are themes and plugins.

Let’s start with plug-ins.

Plugins are so badass. If you want your blog to do just about anything (give a list of related posts following each post you make, add a contact form to your contact page, shave sheep), chances are there is a plugin that will make doing it super, ridiculously, retardedly easy for you.

Starting with WordPress 2.7, the kind folks at WordPress (which is the software that runs your website or blog if you’re awesome (and if you’re on Blogger or something else instead, you should totally migrate to WordPress)) have finally made adding plugins very easy.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Log in to your blog’s admin console.

2. On the left, click “Plugins,” then “Add New” under that.

Click to enlarge

3. Enter a term into the search box that describes what you want. So for instance, if I wanted to add a contact form, enter “contact form.”

Click to enlarge

4. A list of plugins will come up. Choose one, and click on “Install” at the right.

Click to enlarge

5. Now, click “Install now.”

Click to enlarge

6. After that, you’ll want to activate the plugin by clicking “Activate Plugin.”

Click to enlarge

Congratulations! You’ve added a plugin. Way easy, huh?

Themes
Your blog or website’s “theme” determines, in a nutshell, what the blog or site looks like. Change your theme and you totally change the look of the site. Again, thinking like the awesome people that they are, the WordPress development team finally added easy-install theme functionality when they rolled out WordPress version 2.8, similar to what they already had for plug-ins.

Here’s how you install a new theme.

1. Find a theme.
Now, disclaimer here… this quick install only works for themes that exist in the WordPress Themes Directory. The bad news is that a lot of people develop themes that aren’t in the directory, and if you want to install those, you’ll still need to use FTP (which is kind of geeky). But the good news is that there are a hell of a lot of themes in the directory. Like, most of them are in there.

So go to the directory, browse through the themes, poke around, and find one you want to use. DON’T DOWNLOAD IT. Just note that theme’s name.

So for instance, I’m going to use iNove.

Click to enlarge

2. Go to your blog’s admin console and on the left, click “Appearance” on the left, and then “Add new themes” under that.

Click to enlarge

3. Enter the name of the theme you want in the search box.

Click to enlarge

4. When your theme comes up, click “Install.”

Click to enlarge

5. This little lightbox display will come up. Click “Install Now.”

Click to enlarge

6. Now, just activate the theme by clicking on “Activate.”

Click to enlarge

7. Now go to your blog’s main page and refresh. Voila!

Click to enlarge

Congratulations. You are now a tech geek. Please form an orderly line at the left to receive your pocket protectors, taped-up glasses, and punch in the gut by the high school quarterback.

P.S: But what if you’re on a version of WordPress below 2.7 and don’t have these options available to you? Well, fortunately, I have a solution for you.