The following steps are a general guide for installing any plugin into Wordpress. For further information, you may also want to consult the official Wordpress documentation on plugins. Many plugins also come with specific additional instructions, so be sure to check any documentation that came with the plugin you are installing. This guide is based on Wordpress 2.7.

1. Extract the plugin files from the .zip archive. You’ll want to be sure and keep the directory structure intact. Most extraction utilities will do this automatically.
2. Connect to your web host using an FTP client. (If you’ve never used one, consult the Wordpress page on FTP clients.)
3. Navigate to your wp-content/plugins directory, and upload the plugin folder into it. If your extracted plugin files are not in a folder, you will need to create one.
4. Login to the Wordpress Admin panel, and click on ‘Plugins’ on the left menu.
5. Locate the plugin you have just uploaded. Click on the ‘Activate’ link on the right, under the ‘Action’ column.

Once these steps are completed, your plugin is installed. You may want to check your ‘Settings’ menu to see if the plugin has added its own configuration panel.