Plugins never show up in wordpress WordPress Plugins Forum

Hullo,

I've installed several different plugins by uploading them to my wordpress directory on freehostia. I'm afraid I'm very new to all this, although very keen to learn. The plugins never show up on the plugins page of my wordpress dashboard, even though I take care to upload every single file.

I have a paid hosting package, so outgoing links are not an issue. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for your help, and apologies if I'm asking an obvious question…

Is install the same as download? I'm really sorry to be annoying. This is what it says on the 'installation instructions':

1. Unzip into your /wp-content/plugins/ directory. If you're uploading it make sure to upload the top-level folder. Don't just upload all the php files and put them in /wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
3. Visit your SEO options (Options – All in One SEO) for Wordpress 2.3.x, (Settings – All in One SEO) for Wordpress 2.5.x-2.7
4. That's it!

 I've done all of this by logging into Freehostia who provide my webhosting, and uploading the plugins as instructed. But nothing came up! And I've doen it for two other plugins as well, and they haven't appeared on the plugins page of my wordpress dashboard.

Any ideas?

I need a video contest plugin for wordpress..hope anyone can help..very hard to find. I want free ones. Thanks:))