Mods not showing up in "Mods" Tab

[asdfghjkl;]

Im new to minecraft modding, so forgive my noobness. 

I decided to test out my forge by getting what i think is a small mod, Useful_Backpacks, and did as it directed.

1. download the mod,

2. go to Run, go into %appdata%\.minecraft\

3, put the .zip file of the mod into the "mods" folder.

4. done.

but, after it, nothing but the default mods are showing up in the "Mods" Tab

Did i miss something? plz remember that im new to this, please try to put 300 IQ explanations in as simple words as possible.

Edited July 11, 2019 by asdfghjkl;

[STOKESTER]

Pretty sure the mod needs to be a .jar file. Try extracting the zip in the mods folder?

Edited July 11, 2019 by STOKESTER
Better explanation

[DavidM]

12 minutes ago, STOKESTER said:

Pretty sure the mod needs to be a .jar file. Try extracting the zip in the mods folder?

Modders don’t usually zip their .jar mod files in a zip. I’m suspecting that OP downloaded an outdated mod or downloaded from a repost site.

 

@asdfghjkl; Mods do not come in zip files nowadays. Please make sure you only download your mods from CurseForge or the official site of that mod.