Blast Off with Jetpack!
Before this lesson, I knew of Jetpack but I did not realize how many different features were included in one plugin. Jetpack has several tools that can help with things like website statistics, security, performance and sharing content. Instead of installing a completely different plugin for every little thing, some of these features can be managed through Jetpack.
One feature I would find useful for About A Native is site statistics. I have Google Analytics installed now too, but sometimes I just want a quick idea of what people are actually looking at on my website. Being able to see which posts are getting views can help me understand what visitors are interested in. If I notice that certain topics are getting more attention, I can use that information when deciding what I want to write about next.
Another useful feature is social sharing. A blog is not very useful if I am writing posts and nobody knows they exist. Social features can make it easier to share new content and get it in front of people outside of my website. This is especially useful for a blog because I will continue adding new posts instead of creating a website that stays exactly the same.
The third feature I would use is downtime monitoring and security. If my website goes down, I want to know about it instead of finding out days later when I happen to visit it. Security is also important because WordPress websites use themes, plugins, user accounts and other things that can potentially create vulnerabilities if they are not managed correctly. Having tools that help monitor the website gives me another way to keep an eye on it.
Jetpack has a lot more features than I would probably need to use all at once, but I like that there are several tools available within one plugin. For About A Native, the statistics, sharing and monitoring features are the ones I can see being the most beneficial. They would help me understand my visitors, share my posts and make sure my website is actually available for people to use.