Do you want to greet each user with a custom welcome message in WordPress?
Greeting users with a welcome message can help boost engagement on your website, as it makes people feel welcomed and cared for. It’s a great way to keep in touch with your visitors, generate leads, and increase sales.
In this article, we will show you how to greet each user with a custom welcome message in WordPress.
Why and When You Should Greet Users With Welcome Messages in WordPress
Not all websites need to greet users with a custom welcome message. However, if you are running an online store, trying to generate leads, or boosting user engagement, then a welcome message can be very useful.
There are different types of welcome messages that you can use. The goal here is to offer users a lot of value with each message.
Here are some use cases for showing a welcome message on your WordPress site:
When customers arrive at your eCommerce store, you can show a welcome message greeting them with discount offers, the deal of the day, or assist them in the checkout process.
A welcome message helps provide live support to users who might not be familiar with your products and services. You can encourage them to ask questions and resolve any questions they might have.
Showing a welcome message to returning visitors can boost sales on your site. You can show a popup with popular products, discounts, and other incentives.
You can also create personalized welcome messages in different languages for your global audience. This helps boost engagement and makes users from around the world feel welcome.
On a WordPress blog, a welcome message can help you grow your email list. You can encourage users to download a free course, show them your best content, and more.
Creating a welcome message for a nonprofit website can help you get more donations. You can greet users and show top causes to support in the popup message.
That being said, let’s see how to easily greet each user with a custom welcome message in WordPress. We will cover 2 methods, so you can click the links below to jump to any section:
Method 1: Greet Users With a Custom Welcome Message Using OptinMonster
For this method, we will be using OptinMonster. It is the most popular lead generation software in the world that helps you convert website visitors into subscribers and customers.
First, you need to sign up for an OptinMonster account. Simply visit the website and click the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button to get started.
It is a free plugin that acts as a connector between your WordPress site and OptinMonster.
Upon activation, you will see the OptinMonster setup wizard and welcome screen. Go ahead and click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.
After that, a new window will now open.
You need to click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button to connect your WordPress website with OptinMonster.
You are now ready to create a new campaign for your website.
Simply head to OptinMonster » Campaigns from the WordPress admin panel and click the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ option.
Next, you need to choose a campaign type and a template. OptinMonster comes with different campaign types, and you can use any of them to greet users with a welcome message in WordPress.
For this tutorial, we will be using the slide-in campaign type with the Flatland template.
Next, you will be asked to give your campaign a name.
Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Start Building’ button.
OptinMonster will now launch the drag-and-drop editor, where you can simply add any element and edit it.
You can add different blocks like columns, text, video, buttons, sign-up fields, and more.
You can also change the text in the welcome message popup.
OptinMonster also integrates with your email marketing services. Simply switch to the ‘Integrations’ tab at the top.
After that, you will need to click the ‘Add a New Integration’ button from the menu on your left.
Go ahead and select the email marketing tool you would like to integrate and click the ‘Connect’ link. You can then follow the onscreen instructions to log in to your preferred service.
Next, you need to switch to the ‘Display Rules’ tab to select when you want to display the greeting.
OptinMonster comes with a bunch of options that you can use to create less intrusive and highly engaging welcome messages.
Displaying Welcome Message Using Time on Page Rule
By default, OptinMonster will use the time-on-page display rule to show your welcome message campaign.
Let’s say a user arrives at your eCommerce store and spends 5 seconds on the homepage. You can then show a popup message welcoming the user and show recent sales, popular products, or other incentives.
Similarly, if you have a WordPress blog, you can display popular articles, the latest announcements, or information about new products or services to users in the welcome message.
Simply select the ‘Time on Page’ display rule to get started and set the time to 5 seconds.
If you want to show the campaign on all the pages on your website, then you will need to use the ‘current URL path’ and ‘is any page’ rules.
However, you can change these settings and increase the time or select a particular page to show your welcome message.
Display Welcome Message Based on Location
You can also show your display different messages to users from specific locations. You can even create multiple campaigns and greet users in their native languages.
All you need to do is select the ‘Physical Location’ display rule in OptinMonster.
Next, you can enter the country name in the display rule settings.
From here, you will need to click the ‘Validate’ button.
After setting up the display rules, you can switch to the ‘Publish’ tab at the top.
On the next screen, you will need to confirm the location that you entered.
Simply click on the location name to continue.
You can keep the setting for displaying the campaign on all the pages.
However, if you want, you can edit this and show your welcome message on a particular page, like the homepage.
There are many more display rules you can use in OptinMonster to show your welcome message. For instance, there are options to show the campaign based on a user’s device, when they click a link, when they visit a particular page, and more.
Publish Your Welcome Message Campaign
Once your welcome message is ready, go ahead and change the Publish Status to ‘Publish.’ Then, you can click the ‘Save’ button at the top and exit the campaign builder.
Next, you will see the WordPress output settings for your campaign.
To make sure your campaign is live, click the ‘Status’ dropdown menu on the right and select the ‘Published’ setting.
Don’t forget to save the settings after changing the status.
You can now visit your website to see your custom welcome message in action.
Method 2: Greet Users With a Custom Welcome Message Using LiveChat
LiveChat is the best live chat support software for WordPress websites. It allows you to create beautifully-designed live chat buttons and live chat support for your WordPress site.
You can customize the greeting message, display your own buttons, upload your logo, show agent profiles, and more.
First, you need to visit the LiveChat website and sign up for an account. Simply follow the onscreen instructions to set up your account.
After that, you will be taken to your LiveChat dashboard.
Next, you need to go to the ‘Settings’ tab from the left panel and head to the Chat widget » Customization page.
Here, you can customize your chat widget.
LiveChat lets edit widgets directly on your website. Simply enter your site’s URL into the ‘Customize widget on website’ option and click the blue arrow button.
You can now change the color of your chat widget, select dark or light mode, adjust the style, and change the alignment and spacing.
LiveChat also lets you edit the appearance of your live chat widget from the dashboard settings.
Besides that, you can also make additional tweaks to your chat widget.
For instance, there are options to show a logo or an agent’s photo, enable sound notifications, let customers rate agents, and more.
Next, you need to switch to the Engagement » Targeted messages section from the panel on your left.
By default, LiveChat enables a few targeted messages. However, you can create your own types of targeted messages, such as:
A welcome message to new customers
A welcome message to returning customers
Help on the pricing page
A discount on the checkout page
Product announcements
New feature releases
Time-sensitive deals and discount offers
You can click on the default messages to further customize them or add a new message.
For this tutorial, we will add a new welcome notification by clicking the ‘New targeted message’ button.
Next, a small window will open where you can choose the type of message you’d like to create. Go ahead and select the ‘Greeting’ option.
After that, you can edit the message that users will see as a greeting.
LiveChat also offers templates for your greeting message. For instance, you can show a product, announce a new feature, share knowledge, and more. We will use the default template for this tutorial.
There are also options to change the button text, add another button, and more.
Once you have edited the greeting message, simply click the ‘Next: set conditions’ button at the bottom.
Next, you will need to specify when the greeting message will appear. LiveChat shows 3 options, which include showing it to all visitors, first-time visitors, or returning visitors.
The live chat software also lets you choose the time a user spends on a page before showing the greeting message. After that, you will need to select a page where the message will appear.
When you have made the changes, simply click the ‘Save greeting’ button.
A new window will now open. Go ahead and enter a name for your greeting message and enable the ‘Set greeting live’ option. After that, click the ‘Save’ button.
Note that you can disable the default welcome message set by LiveChat if you have just created a new one.
Next, you need to select an eye-catcher. This is an image that is displayed when the LiveChat window is minimized.
LiveChat comes with several ready-made eye-catchers that you can use. You can also upload your images and use one of them.
Simply go to Engagement » Eye-catcher in the LiveChat settings and click the toggle to enable the eye-catcher. Don’t forget to click the ‘Save changes’ button when you are done.
Once you are happy with the design of your LiveChat window and custom greeting, you are ready to add it to your WordPress website.
Next, you can switch back to your WordPress admin area to install and activate the LiveChat plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled LiveChat to your WordPress admin sidebar. Plus, it will redirect you to a login screen, where you can select your LiveChat account and click the ‘Log in’ button.
You will now see a success message that you have successfully added LiveChat to WordPress.
Simply click the ‘Got it’ button to continue.
That’s it. You have successfully added a welcome greeting message through live chat on your website.
You can now visit your site in a new browser tab to see the LiveChat custom greeting in action.
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Are you looking to sell video downloads online? Maybe you are wondering whether you can sell videos using a WordPress website.
The answer is yes. Selling videos with WordPress is easy and gives you the most control over your content and earnings. You’ll be able to sell the same video files countless times.
In this article, we will show you how to start selling video files online with WordPress.
Why Sell Videos Online?
If you are into making videos, then there are a lot of ways to sell your work online.
Selling your video content online will let you make money while helping others.
You can sell video assets that other creatives can download and use in their own projects. These include stock footage, drone footage, motion graphics, logos, openers, and more.
Or you might want to sell your own finished videos, such as training videos, music videos, product reviews, or video gameplay.
One way to make money from your videos is to create a membership site like our own WordPress 101. Members pay a subscription or create free accounts to watch your content from your website.
Some are better suited to physical products than digital downloads like video files. Moving platforms in the future can be complicated and take a lot of time and effort.
WordPress is the best website builder on the market, used by over 43% of all websites.
Now, it’s important to know that there are two types of WordPress software, and you don’t want to choose the wrong one.
First, there is WordPress.com, which is a blog hosting platform. Then, there is WordPress.org, which is also known as self-hosted WordPress. For a detailed comparison, you can see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
You need to use the self-hosted WordPress.org platform because it gives you full control over your website. It provides complete freedom to sell any type of digital product using a plugin like Easy Digital Downloads.
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is the best WordPress eCommerce plugin for selling digital products and is built specifically with the features you need to promote, sell, and distribute video files online.
In this way, you don’t have to waste time configuring features that aren’t necessary for selling digital products, such as shipping and inventory management settings.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how you can easily sell video files in WordPress. You can use the quick links below to jump to different parts of the tutorial:
To start selling digital downloads with WordPress, you will need a domain name, web hosting, and an SSL certificate.
A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what visitors will type into their browsers to reach your website, such as ‘wpbeginner.com’.
Web hosting is a service that will store your website files and digital downloads. To help you out, we have hand-picked some of the best WordPress hosting that you can buy.
An SSL certificate creates a secure connection between your website and users so that you can safely accept online payments.
One of our top recommended hosting providers, SiteGround, offers managed WordPress hosting for Easy Digital Downloads. Their plans come with a free SSL certificate, EDD preinstalled, and optimization features. Plus, you get a huge 73% off!
Basically, you can create and run your website for less than $5 per month.
Let’s walk through how to purchase your domain, web hosting, and SSL certificate.
Go ahead and open the SiteGround website in a new tab so that you can follow along. The first thing you need to do is click on the ‘Get Plan’ button.
After that, SiteGround will ask you to enter a domain name for your website. If you don’t have a name in mind, then you can see our guide on how to choose the best domain name.
Finally, you will need to add your account information.
You will also be able to purchase some optional extras. You can always add these at a later date if you need them. If you are not sure, then we recommend skipping this step.
After entering your payment details, SiteGround will send you an email with instructions on how to log in to your hosting account. This is a web hosting control panel where you can manage your new website.
Simply log in to your SiteGround account, and you will see that SiteGround has already installed WordPress for you. It has also preinstalled Easy Digital Downloads.
You can then click on the ‘WordPress Admin’ button. This will take you to your WordPress site’s dashboard.
If you prefer not to use SiteGround for some reason, then you can install WordPress on other hosting companies like Bluehost, Hostinger, and WP Engine by following a similar process.
Step 2: Creating an Online Store With Easy Digital Downloads
By default, WordPress doesn’t include eCommerce functionality out of the box, so you will need a plugin to sell digital downloads.
Plugins for WordPress sites are like apps for your phone. They add all kinds of different features and functionality to your website.
If you claimed our SiteGround EDD hosting deal in the previous step, then Easy Digital Downloads is already installed on your website. You can move on to the ‘Entering Your Business and Location Information’ section below.
Note: For this tutorial, we will be using the free version of EDD. However, you may want to purchase Easy Digital Downloads Pro to access premium extensions like Dropbox File Store and Amazon S3, which are recommended for storing large files online.
Entering Your Business and Location Information
Upon activation, you need to visit the Downloads » Settings page in your WordPress admin area. This will start the Easy Digital Downloads setup wizard.
On the setup wizard’s first page, you will be asked to enter your business name and location.
You might wonder why your location is needed when you are selling online. This is because when a customer makes a purchase, Easy Digital Downloads will use the country and state information to auto-fill some fields. Also, your location may be used to calculate sales tax.
To add your location, open the ‘Business Country’ dropdown menu. You can now choose the country where your business is based.
Next, find the ‘Business Region’ field. Here you can type the state or province where your store operates from.
Depending on your location, you may also want to customize the currency used on your website. By default, Easy Digital Downloads shows all of your prices in US dollars. It also places the dollar sign before the price, so five dollars is shown as ‘$5’.
To change the default currency settings, scroll down to the Currency section and open the ‘Currency’ dropdown. You can now choose a new currency.
Just be aware that some payment gateways may not accept every currency. If you are not sure, then it’s a good idea to check the website for your chosen payment gateway. Most payment gateways have a list of the currencies that they support.
Once you are finished, you will need to click on the ‘Save & Continue’ button. This will bring you to the next page, where you can set up your payment methods.
Setting Up Your Payment Methods
Next, you need to set up a way to collect online payments.
Stripe is one of the top payment companies that does not require going through a long process to sign up for a merchant account. They allow anyone with a legitimate business to accept credit card payments online.
To quickly get started with Stripe, simply click on the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button.
If you need, you can add more payment gateways later. Simply take a look at the options on the Easy Digital Download extensions page, such as PayPal, Braintree, and Authorize.net.
When you are done, just click the ‘Save & Continue’ button at the bottom of the screen.
Configuring Your Receipts
Every time someone buys a video file, Easy Digital Downloads will send them an email.
This email has a link that the customer can use to download the file they just purchased.
You can change that email by adding your own text and branding. Strong branding can make your business look more professional and inspire customer loyalty.
To add a logo to your emails, click on the ‘Attach File’ button and upload or choose an existing image from your WordPress media library.
You can also add a ‘From Name’. This name will be shown in the customer’s inbox. You will want to use something that immediately lets customers know who you are, likes your website’s name.
You will also need to add a ‘From Email’. This email will act as the ‘from’ and ‘reply-to’ address. Since customers may reply to your messages, you will want to use a professional email address that you check frequently.
Once you are happy with your email branding, you might like to edit the contents of the email receipt. Keep in mind that the default message will work well for most marketplaces.
Finally, make sure to click the ‘Save & Continue’ button.
Selecting Conversion and Optimization Tools
The setup wizard will now offer to install some free tools to help boost conversions and optimize your digital store.
These tools include:
Auto Register: An Easy Digital Downloads extension that optimizes the checkout experience by automatically creating user accounts for new customers.
We recommend keeping all of the boxes checked. However, you can uncheck the boxes of any tools you don’t want to install.
You will also find a toggle button where you can help improve Easy Digital Downloads by sharing anonymous usage data with the developers. You can learn more in our guide on giving permission for WordPress plugins to collect data.
Once you have made your selections, just click the ‘Save & Continue’ button at the bottom of the page.
Adding Your First Product
You are now on the last page of the Easy Digital Downloads setup wizard. Here you can add your first product to your website.
If you are ready to add a new product now, then you can enter its details into the form and then click the ‘Save & Continue’ button.
Otherwise, feel free to click the ‘Skip this step’ button to finish the Easy Digital Downloads setup wizard. We will show you how to add your videos to your online store in the next section.
Congratulations, you have now completed the initial setup of your online store.
Step 3: Adding Downloadable Video Products to Your Online Store
Once you’ve set up your online store, you are ready to start adding video files as products. Easy Digital Downloads refers to digital products as ‘downloads’.
To add a product to your store, you need to select Downloads from the WordPress admin menu. After that, just click the ‘Add New’ button to add a new video.
This will open a page where you can type a title, description, pricing, and other details for your video.
Adding a Title and Description
You can type a title and description using the WordPress content editor. If you are familiar with creating a new blog post, then this works the same way.
Make sure you give shoppers all the information they need to decide whether the product is right for them. For example, you might include licensing information, the video’s duration, resolution, file size, frame rate, and whether the video can be looped.
You might also want to display customer reviews and a star rating to show that other customers have benefited from buying the video.
Setting a Price or Variable Pricing
Under that, you will see the pricing options. If you will be charging a fixed amount for the video, then simply type the price of the video in the field. For free downloads, you can leave the amount at ‘0.00’.
Easy Digital Downloads also supports variable pricing. This allows you to charge more for a higher-resolution video, for example.
If you want to sell variations, then select the ‘Enable variable pricing’ checkbox. This adds a new section where you can start to build your variations.
You can type in an option name and price for each variation. You can add more variations by clicking the ‘Add New Price’ button.
With that done, you’ll need to set the default variation, which will be selected when the visitor first lands on the product page. Simply check the ‘Default’ radio button next to the variation you want to use.
Adding Categories and Tags
Categories and tags can help shoppers find what they are looking for more easily.
For example, you can use categories to organize the different types of videos in your store and tags to describe the locations, subject matter, and more, like an index.
A helpful thumbnail image will give your customers an accurate idea of what your video contains. It can also help increase sales.
You need to scroll down the page until you find the Download Image section on the right. Clicking on ‘Set Download Image’ launches the WordPress media library, where you can choose an image or upload a new file from your computer.
Uploading Your Video File or Files
You’re now ready to start uploading your video files. This is what your customers will receive after purchasing the product.
Before you upload the files, we recommend you zip them first. These compressed files will take up less storage, be faster to download, and work for individual videos or bundles.
To zip an individual video, simply right-click the file. Then, on Windows, you choose ‘Compress to ZIP file’, and on Mac, choose the ‘Compress’ option. To zip a video bundle, simply select all of the files in the bundle before right-clicking.
Once your zip files are ready to upload, you need to scroll down to the Download Files section at the bottom of the page.
If you are selling the product with a fixed price, then you need to click the link icon under File URL. This will open the WordPress Media Library, where you can upload your zip file or select it if you have already uploaded it.
The file name field is the clickable link text that will be used on the confirmation page and email. This will be filled in automatically with the file name, and you can update it with a more descriptive name if you like.
For example, you could type ‘Download my video’ or ‘Download the HD version’.
If you are using variable pricing, then the steps are similar, and you need to upload the file by clicking the link icon under File URL.
After that, you’ll also need to choose the correct pricing option under Price Assignment. In our example below, if you were uploading the high-def file, then you would choose the ‘Coba Pyramid High Def’ option.
You can click the ‘Add New File’ button to add more uploads as required.
There is also a Bundle option where you can select multiple files, but we recommend you compress multiple files into a single zip file and use the Single Product option instead.
After the purchase, the customer will get an auto-expiring link on their purchase confirmation page and the confirmation email. This link will also be protected from search bots and unauthorized users to help prevent piracy.
Creating a Refund Policy
Hopefully, everyone who buys your videos will be happy with their purchase. However, it’s still smart to think about how you’ll handle refunds.
If you scroll to the ‘Refunds’ section in the left-hand menu, then you’ll see that Easy Digital Downloads offers your customers a 30-day refund by default.
You can change the settings here to change the refund period to a different number of days or make the product non-refundable.
We recommend offering refunds wherever possible. It’s an important part of good customer service, and an easy refund process will encourage more people to buy.
Step 4: Testing Your Digital Download
It’s a good idea to test the digital download to see whether there are any problems or anything you want to change.
Enabling Test Purchases
To start, you’ll need to put Easy Digital Downloads into test mode so that you can buy products without having to enter any payment information.
In the WordPress dashboard, go to Downloads » Settings and then click on ‘Payments.’
On this screen, check the box next to ‘Test Mode’.
Next, select ‘Store Gateway’, as this allows you to make a purchase without typing in any credit or debit card information.
After that, click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.
Make a Test Purchase
Now you are in test mode, you need to go to Downloads » Downloads and hover your mouse over the product you want to test.
When it appears, click on the ‘View’ link.
This opens the item’s product page on your online store.
To go ahead and make a test purchase, click on the ‘Purchase’ button.
Easy Digital Downloads will now add this product to your shopping cart.
To keep going, click on the ‘Checkout’ button.
On the checkout page, you can type in your name and email address. Easy Digital Downloads will send the purchase receipt to this address, so you’ll need to use a real email address that you have access to.
Under ‘Select payment method’ make sure that ‘Store Gateway’ is selected. After that, just click on the ‘Purchase’ button at the bottom of the page.
After a few moments, you will see the purchase confirmation page and also get a purchase confirmation email. Both of these contain download links.
You should click the link to make sure the file downloads successfully.
If everything works as expected, then you can take Easy Digital Downloads out of test mode and start accepting payments from real customers.
You just need to go back to Downloads » Settings and select the ‘Payments’ tab. Here, uncheck the box next to ‘Test Mode’ and the box next to ‘Store Gateway’.
Step 5: Selecting and Customizing Your WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme controls the appearance of your online store, including its layout, typography, color, and other design elements.
You might like to use the Vendd theme for your digital goods marketplace because it is designed for digital downloads. This free theme works together with Easy Digital Downloads to give you a lot of options and features for your online marketplace.
If you purchased SiteGround EDD hosting as we recommended earlier, then Vendd was installed and activated automatically when you installed WordPress.
Otherwise, you will need to install and customize the theme yourself. For more information, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress theme.
However, there are thousands of other WordPress themes available. For example, both the Astra theme and the Coaching Pro theme are fully compatible with EDD.
Another option is to create your own custom theme from scratch. To create a custom theme, you can use SeedProd.
It is the best website builder plugin on the market and is used by over 1 million websites. You can use SeedProd to create beautiful website layouts that are professionally designed and optimized for conversions and sales.
SeedProd also comes with lots of ready-made templates. These include designs that are perfect for promoting digital downloads like eBooks or videos.
At this point, you have created one or more digital video products, but you still need to drive potential customers to your product pages so they can buy your videos.
Promotion can involve creating a sales page where you advertise your most recent video files, adding a particular product page to your website’s menu, or even highlighting your favorite video on a custom home page.
You could even write a WordPress blog where you talk about how other creatives can use your video products in their own projects.
No matter how you promote a product, you will need to know its URL.
To find this link, head over to Downloads » Downloads. You can then hover your mouse over a product and click on its ‘Edit’ link.
You will find the URL under ‘Summary’ in the right-hand menu.
You can now link to this product page from any area of your website simply by using its URL. To learn more, see our step-by-step guide on how to add a link in WordPress.
Easy Digital Downloads also creates a ‘Purchase’ button for each digital download. Visitors can click this button to add your video to their shopping cart.
You can add this button to any page, post, or widget-ready area. This allows visitors to start the purchasing process without visiting the product’s page.
To get the button’s shortcode, simply scroll to the product’s Download Settings section. You can then copy the text in the ‘Purchase Shortcode’ field.
Here are some great WordPress plugins that can help you get more visitors to your website and turn them into customers:
All in One SEO: The best WordPress SEO plugin that can help you optimize your website to get more search engine traffic.
MonsterInsights: The best WordPress analytics plugin. It helps you learn where your customers come from and what they do when they reach your website.
OptinMonster: This plugin allows you to create popups and optins to grow your email list and turn visitors into customers. It can also help you reduce shopping cart abandonment.
PushEngage: The best push notifications plugin. It allows you to reach visitors after they have left your website and encourage them to return to your online store.
TrustPulse: This social proof plugin can help you increase video sales by increasing customer trust.
FAQs About Selling Videos Online
In this guide, we showed you how to videos online using Easy Digital Downloads. If you still have questions, then these FAQs may help.
Where can I sell my videos online?
There are lots of platforms, stores, and digital marketplaces where you can upload your digital art and sell it. Some popular choices include Sellfy, Vimeo, and Uscreen.
Many of these platforms already have a large audience. By uploading your files to these sites, you can promote your work to an existing audience.
However, many of these marketplaces and websites take a percentage of every sale you make, and some even charge upfront fees. To boost your profits, we recommend creating your own website instead.
In this way, you will have complete control over your brand and get all the profits from each digital sale.
How much does it cost to create a website to sell my videos?
We always recommend a business model where you start small. That way, you can spend more money as you build your audience and start to sell more digital art and graphics.
The good news is that setting up a digital store is much easier and cheaper than opening a physical shop. You can start with SiteGround EDD Hosting for around $5 per month and use free plugins and themes to limit your costs.
By using Easy Digital Downloads to sell your artwork, you can avoid many of the upfront costs and middleman fees you can expect when selling via an online marketplace such as Sellfy. Instead, you just have to pay industry-standard credit card transaction fees.
Can I also sell physical products with Easy Digital Downloads?
At some point, you may want to sell physical products, such as DVDs or some other type of physical storage containing your video assets. Despite the name, you can also use Easy Digital Downloads to sell physical products.
There’s even a Simple Shipping addon that adds shipping features to the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. This allows you to ship your branded merchandise, framed prints, or other physical products to customers using the tools you are already familiar with.
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Do you want to know what is an email blast and how to do it “the right way”?
An email blast or broadcast sends a single email message to many subscribers in your mailing list. This can be highly effective strategy to get more sales, and bloggers use these blasts to get more website traffic.
In this article, we will explain how to do an email blast the proper way and share some examples.
What Is an Email Blast?
An email blast is a single email message that is sent to an entire email list, a large segment of that list, or many email lists at the same time.
These emails target most or all contacts in your mailing list, making an email blast a broad reach-out campaign.
Email blasts are also known as broadcast emails, mass emails, bulk emails, e-blasts, and email campaigns. Most people use the term ’email campaigns’ to avoid the aggressive feeling associated with the term ’email blast’.
Email blasts are mainly used for sending promotional content and newsletters. At WPBeginner, we use email blasts to promote our premium WordPress plugins and share our helpful tutorials.
If you want to let all your subscribers know about special offers, then email blasts are the most reliable and efficient form of communication.
Are Email Blasts Outdated?
Although email blasts are great for delivering any message to a large number of people, some consider them an outdated communication method.
That’s because email blasts are bulk emails sent to everyone regardless of their choice, priorities, and needs. At times, blast emails can feel irrelevant and useless to the recipients.
Due to this, the email recipients may ignore the message, mark the email as spam, or even unsubscribe from your email list.
Here are the top reasons why users don’t like email blasts:
1. Unsegmented: Email blasts often use the entire mailing list without segmentation. Your email subscribers are usually very different, and they may be interested in different products or services.
2. Untargeted: The email blasts send the same message to everyone without considering their interests, past interactions, or needs. Users often unsubscribe from your mailing list after receiving these unwanted emails.
3. Not personalized: We all love reading a message that addresses us personally. Email blasts that don’t personalize the emails are often marked as spam.
4. Unexpected: Broadcast emails are usually unexpected, so there can be a natural feeling of resistance from the recipients.
Unlike 10 or 15 years ago, many new marketing methods are available, like social media, pay-per-click advertising, and more. However, none are as effective as email.
So, you might be wondering: is email blast dead? The answer is NO.
Email is still the most reliable form of communication in the world. With new technology, there are better ways to do an email blast to get higher results.
We will explain how to do an email blast the RIGHT way in the following section.
How to Do an Email Blast “the Right Way” – Step by Step
Marketers from big and small companies alike are still using email blasts to promote their product launches, discount offers, and more.
And the results are brilliant. That’s because they are using email blasts the right way.
If you are not a professional marketer, you can follow the steps below to run an email blast successfully:
First, you need a robust email marketing service to create an email blast. An email marketing service lets you create a mailing list, segment that list, and send bulk emails.
There are dozens of email marketing services in the market. Among them, Constant Contact, Brevo, Drip, and ConvertKit are the most popular companies.
We have tried and tested all of the above email marketing services, and we believe they are great at what they offer. However, we recommend Constant Contact because they provide the best deal.
Constant Contact is the most beginner-friendly email blast software. It has dozens of pre-made email templates to help you quickly get started. You can choose a template and easily customize that using their drag and drop editor.
It has simple options for collecting emails, automation features to send/trigger emails based on user actions, and more. Plus, it lets you segment your subscribers and send targeted email campaigns.
You can quickly create a Constant Contact account as they offer a free trial account (no credit card required).
Once done, you will see your Constant Contact dashboard, where you can manage your email lists, see subscribers, and send email blasts.
Alternatively, you can also use Brevo, which offers a free email marketing plan.
Step 2. Create Your Email List
An email list is simply a list of email addresses you can send messages to. It is like your contact book containing the email addresses of your subscribers and prospective customers.
To create an email list in Constant Contact, just go to the ‘Contacts’ menu at the top and click on the ‘Create List’ button.
An email list is where you store all your email contacts.
Clicking on the button will bring up a popup where you need to enter a name for your email list and click the ‘Save’ button.
To create segments in Constant Contact, you need to go to the ‘Contacts’ menu and click on the ‘Segments’ tab. After that, click on the ‘Create Segment’ button.
Constant Contact offers a bunch of criteria you can choose from.
In the next screen, you can create a segment by choosing the criteria you want.
You can create a segment by contact activity like emails sent, opened, clicked, or did not open. You can also include email subscribers by contact details, including job title, city, country, etc.
Once you are finished, simply click on the ‘Save and Preview’ button.
Then, you can repeat the process if you need to create more segments.
Step 4: Create a Targeted Email Campaign
After creating segments, the next task is to create a targeted email campaign or an email blast.
You can create an email campaign in different ways depending on the email marketing software you use.
To design an email campaign in Constant Contact, you must go to the ‘Campaigns’ menu and then click the ‘Create’ button.
This will bring up a popup showing a bunch of campaigns you can make with Constant Contact.
You need to choose the Email option to continue.
After that, you will see dozens of pre-made email templates ready for use.
You can preview the templates individually or simply type keywords to search for a template.
Simply click to choose a template as a starting point.
After that, the email campaign builder page will open. First, you need to name your campaign.
Next, click the ‘Email Settings’ link to edit the email subject line, sender name, and more.
Then, you need to click on the ‘Personalize’ option.
Here, you can choose the first name or any other contact details to insert in your subject line.
You can also enter a generic name like Customer, User, or Friend to address users whose names are unavailable. Once done, simply click on the ‘Insert’ button.
You will see some text with large brackets added in your subject line.
For example, you can see [[FIRSTNAME OR “customer”]] in the screenshot below.
After that, you can edit your email preheader From Name (company or organization name) and From Address.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.
The next step is to customize the email body.
You can simply point and click on any element in the email to edit or delete it.
You can also drag and drop elements and layouts from the left sidebar.
Once your email design is complete, you can preview your email. If it looks good, just click on the ‘Continue’ button in the top right corner.
Next, you will see email send (blasting) options on the screen.
From here, you can select recipients from email lists or segments. For example, we will choose the segment that we created earlier.
In the right sidebar, you will see options to send your email campaign now or schedule it for later.
Step 5: Measure Results and Improve Email Deliverability
Sending an email campaign doesn’t mean that your work is done. After posting your email blast, you will need to measure your results and see how the recipients interact with your messages.
Top email marketing services like Constant Contact have built-in email stats features.
To view your email campaign stats, just click on the ‘Reporting’ menu item at the top.
You can also see the performance of your email campaigns individually by clicking on them.
You will see the email open rate, the total sent emails, bounces, and successful deliveries. The reports will also reveal click rate, did not open, unsubscribes, and marked spam stats.
The biggest challenge of email blasting is email deliverability. A lot of the time, your emails don’t get delivered at all or are sent to the spam box directly.
Here are some proven techniques to improve email deliverability:
Update your email list occasionally to remove fake email addresses, deleted emails, and more.
Maintain the frequency of your emails (no spikes).
Avoid misleading subject lines.
Make your emails useful with valuable and engaging content.
Best Email Blast Examples
There are two main types of emails used for marketing: Broadcast Emails (Email blasts) and Triggered Emails.
Triggered emails are automated emails that are sent to your users following their actions. For example, you can send a welcome email after a user subscribes to your list.
Email blasts are different because you will manually create campaigns and send them to a large segment at once. Email blasting is done with the belief that the single message will be helpful to every subscriber in a list or segment.
You can’t broadcast a welcome email to your entire email list, which may also include old customers. So, email blasts can be used only for specific purposes.
Here are the best email blast examples:
1. Flash Sale
If you are offering a flash sale, you can send mass emails in bulk to inform all of your subscribers.
Here are a couple of subject line examples for a flash sale email blast:
[FLASH SALE] Fashion Shoes 40%-60% off!
[LAST CHANCE] 40%-60% off sale ends today!
2. Event Information like Webinars
You can send mass emails if you run online courses and webinars for your users.
Here are a couple of email subject lines for an event information email blast:
LIVE Training: 10 steps to create a winning email campaign
Join us LIVE tomorrow at 5 PM for a FREE marketing class
3. New Products
You can send an email blast when you launch a new product. It’s best to segment your list into already purchased customers and new subscribers so that you can send different campaigns to them.
4. Newsletters
Newsletters are the most common type of broadcast email. News, magazine websites, blogs, as well as business or non-profit organizations send newsletters to inform their subscribers about the latest news.
You can see our tutorial on starting an email newsletter to learn more about best practices to make it more successful.
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Is the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error stopping you from accessing a WordPress website?
This error is only seen when visiting a website that uses an SSL certificate. It is caused by out-of-date or misconfigured software on either the website or the user’s computer.
In this article, we will show you how to fix the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error in WordPress.
What Is the ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH Error?
We recommend that everyone with a WordPress website install an SSL certificate. This can help keep your website data secure.
An SSL certificate is required if you want to accept payments in your online store, and it also protects your users in other ways.
SSL stands for ‘Secure Sockets Layer’, and TLS stands for ‘Transport Layer Security’ protocol. These protocols rely on certificates that tell the user the identity of the website they are communicating with.
When visiting a secure website, your browser will automatically check for an SSL certificate to see if it is valid and up to date. It also checks the version of the protocols being used.
If there’s an issue, then you’ll see an SSL error like ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH.
This error message appears when your browser doesn’t recognize the version of the SSL protocol being used or when the SSL certificate is not configured correctly.
This can happen when the user is using an out-of-date web browser that doesn’t recognize the latest TLS protocols. It can also be caused if the website’s SSL certificate or software is out of date or mismatched.
With that being said, let’s take a look at some steps you can take to fix the ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH error in WordPress:
The first thing you need to do is scan your WordPress website for SSL errors. This will help you identify problems that can cause the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error.
The easiest way to check is by using an online tool like the Qualys SSL Labs SSL Server Test. Simply type in the website’s domain name and then click the ‘Submit’ button.
This will perform a thorough test on the website that takes a few minutes to finish. After that, you will see a very detailed report about the site’s SSL certificate.
In the screenshot below, you will find the results of a scan on wpbeginner.com. You can see that the WPBeginner SSL certificate is valid and trusted and supports the latest TLS protocol, which is TLS 1.3. This is an example of a great SSL test result.
You can scroll down to the Configuration section of the report.
This will show you which versions of the TLS protocol are supported. In this case, both currently used versions are supported, which are TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3.
It’s also important that the other protocols are not being used because they have known security issues.
If your test result looks similar to this, then the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error is not being caused by the website. You can scroll down to the last section of this tutorial to learn how to troubleshoot the software on your computer.
On the other hand, here is a screenshot from a scan that found SSL errors. The errors are summarized at the top of the report, and more details are given below.
You can go to a page with detailed notes about an error by clicking the ‘MORE INFO »’ link.
If the SSL test report for your website lists some SSL errors, then you can follow these guidelines to fix them.
Your Site Uses Outdated TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, or RC4 Cipher Suite
Old TLS protocols like TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 should never be run because they have security issues, and modern web browsers have stopped supporting them.
The same goes for the RC4 cipher suite. A cipher suite is a set of algorithms used to secure your website with TLS. However, the RC4 version has been found to be insecure and should never be used.
Reputable WordPress hosting companies never use insecure versions of the TLS protocol or cipher suite.
However, if your website is using any of these outdated versions, then you should contact your hosting provider and get them to enable TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3. You will also need to switch to AEAD cipher suites (AES-GCM).
Because an SSL certificate proves that your website is what it claims to be, the domain name on your certificate must match your site’s domain name. When they are not the same, this is called an ‘SSL certificate name mismatch’.
When you see this error in your SSL report, it will list the potential reasons:
The website does not use SSL but shares an IP address with some other site that does.
The website no longer exists, yet the domain name still points to the old IP address, where some other site is now hosted.
The website uses a content delivery network (CDN) that does not support SSL.
The domain name is an alias for a website whose main name is different, but the alias was not included in the certificate by mistake.
This error is likely caused by a problem with your SSL setup.
In particular, make sure you have set up your SSL certificate to work with all of the variations (or aliases) of your domain name that will be used, including www and non-www URLs.
Another solution is to redirect your website visitors to the correct variation of your domain name.
For example, if your SSL certificate has the URL ‘https://www.example.com’, then you can redirect ‘https://example.com’ to that address. See our article on how to set up redirects in WordPress for more details.
This error could also appear if you have recently moved your website to a new domain name or server. You will need to update your SSL certificate with the new details.
If you are using a CDN service, then you should also make sure that it supports SSL. If you need to upgrade, then you can see our expert picks of the best WordPress CDN services for recommendations.
If you need help with any of these issues, then don’t hesitate to reach out to your hosting provider’s technical support team.
When the Website Is Not the Problem
If the website is not the problem, then the error is caused by software on your computer. Most likely, you have an out-of-date web browser, or your antivirus software is causing the error.
You can follow these steps to troubleshoot the problem.
Update Your Web Browser to the Latest Version
If you are using an outdated web browser such as Internet Explorer or an old version of a modern web browser, then you may see this error. This happens because the old software was written before the latest versions of the TLS protocols and doesn’t recognize them.
In that case, all you need to do is switch to the latest version of a modern web browser like Google Chrome.
If, for some reason, you can’t update to a later version of your browser, like if you are stuck using Microsoft Windows XP, then you may be able to enable a later version of TLS in your browser.
For example, on Google Chrome, you can type chrome://flags in the address bar, search for ‘TLS 1.3’ and enable the option.
Or if you are using Firefox, then you should type about:config in the address bar, search for TLS, and then set the security.tls.version.max value to 4.
Clear Your Browser Cache and SSL Cache
If you still see the error message after doing this, then there are a few more troubleshooting steps you can take. The first thing is to delete your browser cache and cookies.
On Windows, you can also clear the SSL cache. This may be storing out-of-date SSL information about the website you are trying to access.
You can open ‘Internet Options’ by searching for it in the Start menu. Now switch to the Content tab and click on the ‘Clear SSL state’ button.
Temporarily Disable Your Antivirus Software
Finally, it’s possible that your antivirus software or firewall software may be configured incorrectly. This can sometimes cause the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error to appear when it shouldn’t.
If your software has an automatic SSL scanning feature, then you can try turning it off. Otherwise, you will need to temporarily disable your antivirus software. Once you have done that, you can try accessing the website again.
If you can access the software with your antivirus software disabled, then you can contact the antivirus company’s technical support team about the error or switch to a more reputable application.
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Are you looking for a way to translate a WordPress plugin into your language?
By translating a WordPress plugin into another language, you will make it accessible to a broader audience. This allows users from different countries to use the plugin in their native languages.
In this article, we will show you how to easily translate a WordPress plugin into your language.
Similarly, most of the top WordPress plugins are also translation-ready. All you have to do is ask the plugin author if you can help by contributing translations in other languages.
By translating the plugin, you can increase its reach and create a larger user base. This can lead to more installs, feedback, and exposure for the plugin.
It can also help you establish yourself in the WordPress community and provide you with new networking opportunities with other developers, translators, and businesses in the industry.
You can even add the translation to your portfolio and demonstrate your skills and contributions to the WordPress community.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily translate WordPress plugins in your language. We will cover a few different methods in this post, and you can use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use:
Method 1: Translate a WordPress Plugin Into Your Language for Everyone
If you want to translate a WordPress plugin in a way that helps other people use the plugin in their languages, then this method is for you.
WordPress.org currently hosts a web-based translation tool that allows anyone to contribute translations for plugins within the WordPress repository.
First, you will need to visit a plugin’s page on the WordPress.org website. Once you are there, just switch to the ‘Development’ tab at the top.
Here, you will see a link asking you to help translate the plugin into your language.
You can simply click on it to start contributing to the plugin translation.
However, if the link isn’t available, then you can visit the Translating WordPress website.
Once there, you will see a list of languages on the screen. From here, find your language and simply click the ‘Contribute Translation’ button under it.
This will take you to a new screen, where you need to switch to the ‘Plugins’ tab.
After that, search for the plugin you want to translate using the search field and then click the ‘Translate Project’ button under it.
This will direct you to the plugin translation page, where you must select the ‘Stable (latest release)’ sub-project from the left column.
If you want to translate the plugin’s development or readme files, then you can choose those sub-projects from the list instead.
Finally, you will be taken to a new page where you will see the original strings in one column and the translations in another.
Keep in mind that you will need to be logged in to your WordPress.org account to contribute translations.
From here, just click on the ‘Details’ link in the right column to open up the string you want to translate.
Once you have done that, a text field will open where you can add a translation for the original string.
Once you are done, simply click the ‘Save’ button to submit your translations.
Method 2: Translate a WordPress Plugin for Your Own Website
If you only want to translate a WordPress plugin for your own website, then this method is for you.
Upon activation, head over to the Loco Translate » Plugins page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Here, you will see a list of plugins that are currently installed on your website. Just click on the plugin you want to translate.
This will take you to a new screen, where you will see a list of languages available for the plugin, along with the translation progress status for each language.
If the language you want to translate the plugin into is listed there, then simply click on the ‘Edit’ link under it.
If not, then you need to click the ‘New language’ button at the top.
This will direct you to a new page where you can start by selecting a language.
From here, you can pick the ‘WordPress language’ option and then choose your language from the dropdown menu under it.
This option will automatically start using the language file if a user sets the WordPress admin area in this language.
If you don’t want to use a WordPress language, then you can select the ‘Custom Language’ option.
Next, you have to choose where you want to store the translation files. By default, Loco Translate will recommend saving the translation files in its own folder.
However, you can easily change that to save the files in WordPress languages or the plugin’s own languages folder.
Once you have done that, just click the ‘Start translating’ button to continue.
This will take you to a new screen, where you will see a text source section along with a translation field.
You can now start by adding a translation for the source string and then select the next string to translate.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your settings.
Method 3: Translate a WordPress Plugin on Your Computer
If you want to translate a WordPress plugin on your computer using gettext translation apps, then this method is for you.
Keep in mind that you can also submit these translations to plugin authors so that they can include them in their plugins.
First, you need to download the plugin you want to translate on your computer. Next, double-click the plugin zip file to extract it.
Once you have done that, you need to open the plugin’s folder and then find and click on the ‘languages’ folder.
You should find a .pot file inside this folder. This is the translation template file that you will need to translate the plugin.
If the plugin doesn’t have a .pot file or a languages folder, then it is most likely not translation-ready.
In that case, you can contact the plugin author and ask if they have any plans for their plugin translation. For more details, please see our guide on how to ask for WordPress support and get it.
Once you have the .pot file, you are ready to translate the plugin into any language.
Next, you need to download and install the Poedit app on your computer, which is a free translation app for Mac and Windows.
After you have the app installed, go ahead and open it up. This will launch the Poedit home screen, where you must click the ‘Create New’ option.
You will now be directed to your computer’s file manager. From here, simply find and select the .pot file for the plugin that you want to translate.
Once you have done that, Poedit will ask you to choose a language for translation from the dropdown menu.
After that, click the ‘OK’ button to continue forward.
Poedit will now show the translation interface, where you will see the list of strings available.
All you have to do is click on a string to select it and provide a translation in the ‘Translation’ field.
Once you are done translating the plugin, go to File » Save from the menu bar at the top and name your file after the language name and country code.
For example, if you are saving a French translation for the plugin, then you should save the file as ‘fr_FR’ for French and France.
Poedit will save your translation as .po and .mo files.
Now, all you need to do is place these files in your plugin’s languages folder to start using the translated plugin on your website.
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Google Domains helps you register a domain name for your website. However, the service is shutting down and migrating to Squarespace. That has sent many customers looking for a new place to register or transfer their old and new domain names.
In this article, we will show you the best Google Domains alternatives.
Why Do You Need a Google Domains Alternative?
Google launched a domain registration service in 2015 to help users find, buy, and manage a domain for their business.
However, the Google Domains service will close down, and Squarespace will take over the business and assets. Squarespace is a popular website builder that also provides hosting services.
With Google Domains ending, all the existing customers and their domains will be migrated to the Squarespace platform.
One of the drawbacks of transitioning to Squarespace will be domain renewal costs. Squarespace has said it will honor all existing Google Domains customers’ renewal prices for at least 12 months. However, you can expect higher renewal costs after that.
Besides that, many other domain registration services in the market offer free domain names with hosting plans. Plus, the hosting plans are often much cheaper than Squarespace.
That said, let’s look at some of the best Google Domains alternatives you can get your hands on today.
Domain.com is the best Google Domains alternative in the market and one of the most popular domain registrars. You get top-level domain name extensions (TLDs) and lots of country code top-level domains (ccTLDs).
It makes it very easy to search for and manage a domain name. For instance, you can access tools like WHOIS privacy protection, bulk registration, private registration, DNS management, renewals, and more.
Domain.com also easily integrates with Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite). You can use your Gmail for business emails and access other tools like Google Drive for storage. You also get file-sharing tools and can communicate with others using Google Meet.
Besides that, Domain.com offers web hosting services, website builder and web design services, email marketing services, and more. There are different security features, including SSL certificates, daily malware scans, DDoS protection, blacklist monitoring, and more.
While these additional services are beneficial, Domain.com is the perfect solution for registering a domain without hosting and using it as an alternative to Google Domains.
For WPBeginner readers, Domain.com is offering a 25% off discount on domain products. Simply use our Domain.com coupon code to get your hands on the offer.
Hostinger is another popular WordPress hosting service that also offers free domain registration. You can choose from top-level domain name extensions (TLDs) and get free WHOIS privacy protection.
What makes Hostinger a great Google Domains alternative is that you get a variety of web hosting types to choose from. For instance, you can share hosting, cloud hosting, managed WordPress hosting, and VPS hosting.
Plus, it offers affordable hosting prices compared to Squarespace, which will be the domain hosting platform once Google Domains shuts down.
Besides that, Hostinger offers free CDN, a 1-click WordPress install, automatic updates, enhanced security features, 24/7 live chat support, free email, free SSL, unlimited bandwidth, WordPress acceleration, and more.
You can check out our Hostinger coupon to get exclusive discounts and also read our expert Hostinger review for complete details.
GoDaddy is the next Google Domains alternative on our list. It is one of the oldest and most popular domain registrars.
GoDaddy offers over 84 million domains to choose from, with over 500 domain extensions. It is a great place to search and register a domain.
It is an excellent alternative to Google Domains because it is a one-stop solution. You can buy a domain of your choice, choose a web hosting plan, and start to build a WordPress website. It also offers one of the cheapest domain registration services, with prices starting from $0.99 per year.
If you can’t find the domain you’re looking for, then GoDaddy also offers a WHOIS search feature and domain broker service. You can hire GoDaddy to find, negotiate, and purchase a domain in the broker service.
There is also an auction section on GoDaddy where you can see domains up for sale. Simply bid for a name you’re looking for before the auction ends.
Besides that, you get other features like beginner-friendly domain management facilities. This includes domain name changes, bulk domain renewals, and more. GoDaddy also offers WordPress hosting, website builder, email marketing service, and other tools.
Network Solutions is another Google Domains alternative and one of the largest domain registrars in the market, with over 7 million domains registered.
It offers domain features such as domain transfer, forwarding, private registration, expiration protection, WHOIS search, trademark protection, and more.
With Network Solutions, you can register a wide variety of domain extensions, like .com, .org, .net, .biz, .info, and other niche TLDs. This makes it a create Google Domains alternative as you can choose from different domain extensions.
Aside from that, it also offers web hosting, website builder, SSL certificate, cybersecurity solution, email marketing tools, SEO tools, and more.
Bluehost is the best web hosting service and the official WordPress hosting partner. They offer fast and affordable hosting services along with domain name registration services.
If you’re looking for a Google Domains alternative that also offers web hosting and free SSL, then Bluehost is one of the best solutions.
With Bluehost, you get a free domain name and a free SSL certificate with each hosting plan. This means you don’t have to pay extra to purchase a domain or get an SSL certificate.
Another benefit of choosing Bluehost is that WordPress comes pre-installed. It also has a beginner-friendly interface, and you can easily manage everything from a single dashboard. Plus, you can use Google Workspace to set up your business emails.
WPBeginner readers can enjoy a 60% off discount on Bluehost. This means you can start with a domain name and web hosting for only $2.75 per month.
Namecheap is another attractive Google Domains alternative. It is a popular domain registrar that offers a powerful domain search tool. Plus, Namecheap provides suggestions for different domains if the preferred name or extension isn’t available.
Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is free with every purchase of a domain name. This provides an extra layer of security by checking the DNS address and keeps your domain secure from cyber threats.
Namecheap also provides different types of hosting services. You can choose from shared, WordPress, VPS, dedicated servers, and reseller hosting.
Besides that, you get 24/7 customer support, a free 2-month email address trial, privacy protection, domain transfer, SSL certificates, and more.
Hover is a beginner-friendly domain name registrar service and a great alternative to Google Domains.
It makes it very easy to find a domain name of your choice and purchase it. You can also choose from popular domain extensions and other niche TLDs. You can also transfer domains, and renew them.
The best part of using Hover is getting WHOIS and 2-factor authentication for free with every purchase. This is something that makes it different from Google Domains and worth checking out as a replacement for the service.
Hover also offers tools like custom emails and Realnames emails to create a personal touch for your readers. The Realnames email lets you turn your name into an email address in the format of firstname@lastname.
DreamHost is another great Google Domains alternative. Like many other options on the list, it also helps you register a domain and get web hosting for your website.
You get a free domain name, SSL certificate, and domain privacy with any hosting plan. However, you can purchase a domain name for your business using DreamHost.
There are over 400 domain extensions to choose from. Besides that, DreamHost provides a variety of hosting options.
For instance, you can select shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting called DreamPress, dedicated server hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, and more. You can see our details DreamHost review to learn more.
It also easily integrates with Google Workspace. Plus, DreamHost offers email hosting, a website builder option, custom web design, SEO marketing, social media marketing, and other website management services.
HostGator is the last Google Domains alternative on our list. It is another popular hosting provider for WordPress that offers a free domain name.
What makes it an attractive option compared to Google Domains is the pricing plans. You get affordable plans that include free one-year domain registration, SSL certificate, easy WordPress install, and more.
HostGator also offers a domain transfer feature. You can migrate a domain from another platform, such as Google Domains, to HostGator.
Aside from that, the hosting service provides other features like website builder, shared and dedicated hosting, Google Workspace integration, web design facility, SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) consultation, and more.
Which Google Domains Alternative is the Best?
After reviewing multiple services, our top picks are Domain.com, Hostinger, GoDaddy, and Network Solutions.
Domain.com makes it super easy to find a domain name with multiple domain extensions. It also offers some of the best domain management and security features.
On the other hand, if you want a domain name with web hosting, we highly recommend Hostinger. With each hosting plan, you get a free domain name and SSL certificate for one year.
If you’re in the market to just register a domain name, then GoDaddy and Network Solutions are excellent alternatives to Google Domains. Both offer powerful domain search tools.
FAQs about Google Domains Alternatives
Here are some frequently asked questions about choosing a Google Domains alternative.
1. Is Google good for buying domains?
Google launched Google Domains in 2015 to help users buy a domain name for their websites and offer competitive prices compared to other domain registration services. However, Squarespace acquired Google Domains in 2023. Once the migration is complete, you can purchase domains on Squarespace, and Google Domains will no longer be available.
2. Why is Google Domains better than GoDaddy?
One of the reasons why people liked Google Domains is because it offered cheaper domains compared to GoDaddy. However, with Google Domains transitioning to Squarespace, GoDaddy is a more attractive option than Squarespace. You get more features, web hosting, a website builder, and more in GoDaddy.
3. What is the lowest cost of a domain?
The cost usually depends on the domain name and extension you’re looking for. Domain.com offers domain names starting from $11.99. On the other hand, Hostinger offers a domain for free with its WordPress starter and higher plans. GoDaddy lets you register a domain for as low as $0.99.
4. Can I sell my Google domain?
Yes, you can sell your Google domain. There are many domain registrars and marketplaces where you can sell your domain. For example, GoDaddy lets you select domains from your portfolio and list them for sale. Besides that, you can also use marketplaces like Flippa and Efty to sell your domain or website.
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Are you looking to make the most of custom fields on your WordPress website?
Custom fields are a handy WordPress feature that allows you to add extra data and information to your WordPress posts and pages. A lot of popular WordPress plugins and themes use custom fields to store important data.
In this article, we will show you how to use WordPress custom fields with some tips, tricks, and hacks.
Since this is a long article, we have added a table of contents for easier navigation. Just use the quick links below to jump to the section you want to read:
The second part is the information about that content. For example, the title, author, date, time, and more. This information is called metadata.
A WordPress website automatically adds all the required metadata to each post or page you create. You can also create and store your own metadata by using custom fields.
By default, the custom fields option is hidden on the post edit screen. To view it, you need to click on the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the screen and select ‘Preferences’ from the menu.
This will open a popup where you need to switch to the ‘Panels’ tab and then enable the ‘Custom fields’ option.
After that, simply click on the ‘Enable & Reload’ button to reload the post editor.
The post editor will reload, and you will be able to see the Custom Fields panel below the content editor.
Custom fields can be used to add any information related to the post, page, or other content type. This meta information can then be displayed in your theme.
However, to do that, you will need to edit your WordPress theme files.
Note: This tutorial is recommended for users who are already familiar with editing theme files. It is also helpful for aspiring WordPress developers who want to learn how to properly use custom fields in their own themes or plugins.
Having said that, let’s take a look at how to add and use custom fields in WordPress.
Adding Custom Fields in WordPress
First, you need to open a post or page in the block editor so that you can add custom fields. Then, you must go to the Custom Fields meta box.
Next, you need to provide a Name for your custom field and then enter its Value. Click on the ‘Add Custom Field’ button to save it.
The field will be stored and displayed in the Custom Fields meta box like this:
You can edit this custom field any time you want and then just click on the ‘Update’ button to save your changes. You can also delete it if you don’t want to use it anymore.
Now, you need to save your post to store your custom field settings.
Displaying Custom Fields in WordPress Themes
To display your custom field on your website, you will need to edit your WordPress theme files and code snippets.
We don’t recommend directly editing the theme files because the slightest mistake can break your website. An easier way to do this is by using WPCode.
It is the best code snippet plugin for WordPress that lets you add custom code and manage snippets from your WordPress dashboard.
Upon activation, you will need to go to Code Snippets » + Add Snippet from the WordPress dashboard and select the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
Now you need to copy this code to add to your theme files:
From here, you can scroll down to the Insertion section.
Here, you can select where the code will run. By default, WPCode will Auto Insert the code and run it everywhere on your website.
However, you can change this and select where you would like the custom field to appear.
For example, we will choose the ‘Page Specific’ tab and select the ‘Insert Before Post’ option. This way, the custom field will appear at the beginning of the blog post.
You can now save your changes and visit the post where you added the custom field to see it in action.
You can use this custom field in all your other WordPress blog posts as well.
You can also easily adjust the custom field for different blog posts. Simply create a new post or edit an existing one.
Then, go to the Custom Fields meta box and select your custom field from the dropdown menu and enter its Value.
Once you are done, simply click the ‘Add Custom Field’ button to save your changes and then publish or update your post.
Troubleshooting: Can’t Find Custom Field in Dropdown on Post Edit Screen
By default, WordPress only loads 30 custom fields in the dropdown menu on the post edit screen.
If you are using WordPress themes and plugins that already use custom fields, then those might appear first in the dropdown menu, and you won’t be able to see your newly-created custom field.
To fix this issue, you will need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or by using WPCode (recommended):
Upon activation, you need to visit the ACF » Field Groups page and click on the ‘Add New’ button.
A field group is like a container with a set of custom fields. It allows you to add multiple panels of custom fields.
Now, you need to provide a title for your field group and click the ‘+ Add Field’ button in the top-right corner.
You can now select a field type.
Advanced Custom Fields allows you to create all sorts of fields, including text, image upload, number, dropdown, checkboxes, and more.
Next, you can scroll down to see other options for that particular field, like field name, field label, and default value. You can change them to your own requirements.
You can also add multiple fields to your field group if you want. Once you are finished, just click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Next, edit a post or create a new one, and you will see a new panel with your WordPress custom fields below the content editor.
How to Hide Empty Custom Fields With Conditional Statements
So far, we have covered how to create a custom field and display it in your theme.
Now let’s see how to check that the custom field is not empty before displaying it. To do that, we will modify our code to first check if the field has data in it:
Don’t forget to replace Mood with your own custom field name.
Adding Multiple Values to a Custom Field
Custom fields can be reused in the same post to add multiple values. You just need to select the field again and add another value to the ‘Value’ box.
However, the code we have used in the above examples will only be able to show a single value.
To display all values of a custom field, we need to modify the code and make it return the data in an array. You will need to add the following code to your theme file:
Again, don’t forget to replace Mood with your own custom field name.
In this example, you will notice that we have changed the last parameter of get_post_meta function to false. This parameter defines whether the function should return a single value or not. Setting it to false allows it to return the data as an array, which we then displayed in a foreach loop.
How to Search Posts by Custom Field in WordPress
WordPress’s default search doesn’t work with any custom fields on your website. It only uses the content to find the post you or your visitors are looking for on your site.
However, SearchWP changes that by improving your WordPress search. It’s the best WordPress search plugin that goes beyond using the post content and indexes everything, including WordPress custom fields, PDF documents, custom tables, text, files, and more.
You can adjust the search algorithm without editing code using SearchWP. Simply install the plugin and then head over to SearchWP » Algorithm from your WordPress admin area.
After that, you need to go to the ‘Engines’ tab and then adjust the Attribute Relevance slider. This will change the importance given to each attribute during a search.
For instance, you can set the Custom Fields slider to maximum and adjust sliders for other attributes accordingly. This way, SearchWP will give preference to data in custom fields when searching for content in WordPress.
Another advantage of using SearchWP is that works with some of the most popular custom field plugins, including Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), Meta Box, and Pods.
WordPress allows you to display posts with custom keys and their values. For example, if you are trying to create a custom archive page to display all posts with specific custom keys, then you can use the WP_Query class to query posts matching those fields.
You can use the following code as a starting point:
$args = array(
'meta_key' => 'Mood',
'meta_value' => 'Happy'
);
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
<?php
// the query
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args ); ?>
<?php if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : ?>
<!-- the loop -->
<?php while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?>
<h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2>
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<!-- end of the loop -->
<!-- pagination here -->
<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
<?php else : ?>
<p><?php _e( 'Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.' ); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>
Don’t forget to replace meta_key and meta_value parameters with your own values.
How to Add Guest Author Name Using Custom Fields
Do you want to add a guest post but don’t want to add a new user profile just for that post? An easier method is adding a guest author name as a custom field.
To do this, you will need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or use WPCode (recommended):
This code hooks a function to the_author and get_the_author_display_namefilters in WordPress.
The function first checks for the guest author’s name. If it exists, then it replaces the author’s name with the guest author’s name.
Now you will need to edit the post where you want to display the guest author’s name. Go to the Custom Fields meta box, add your guest author name, and finally click on the ‘Add Custom Field’ button.
How to Display Contributors to an Article Using Custom Fields
On many popular blogs and news sites, many authors contribute to writing a single article. However, WordPress only allows a single author to be associated with a post.
Another method is adding contributors as a custom field.
First, you need to edit the post where you want to display co-authors or contributors. Then, scroll down to the Custom Fields meta box and add author names as co-author custom fields.
Now, you need to add this code to your theme files where you want to show co-authors:
One way to do this is by using custom fields. Just edit the post or page where you want to show a different sidebar and then add the sidebar as a custom field.
Now you need to edit your WordPress theme file, such as single.php, where you want to display a custom sidebar. You will be looking for the following code:
This code simply looks for the sidebar custom field and then displays it in your theme. For example, if you add webpage as your sidebar custom field, then the code will look for a sidebar-webpage.php file to display.
You will need to create the sidebar-webpage.php file in your theme folder. You can copy the code from your theme’s sidebar.php file as a starting point.
Manipulating RSS feed Content With Custom Fields
Want to display additional metadata or content to your RSS feed users? Using custom fields you can manipulate your WordPress RSS feed and add custom content into your feeds.
First, you need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or use WPCode (recommended):
Now, just create a custom field called ‘coolcustom’ and add any value you like. You can use it to display advertisements, images, text, or anything you want.
How to Manipulate RSS Feed Title With Custom Fields
Sometimes you may want to add extra text to a post title for RSS feed users. For example, this can be handy if you are publishing a sponsored post or a guest post.
First, you need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or use WPCode to add the custom code snippet without breaking your website:
Next, you need to edit the post where you want to display the extra text in the title field.
Then, add guest_post and sponsored_post as custom fields.
If either of these two custom fields is found with a value “true”, then the code will add the appropriate text before the title. This technique can be used in many ways to fit whatever you like.
How to Set Expiration Date for Posts in WordPress Using Custom Fields
Want to set an expiration date for some posts on your WordPress site? This comes in handy when you want to publish content only for a specific period like running surveys or limited-time offers.
One way to do this is by manually removing the post content or by using a plugin like Post Expirator.
Another option is using custom fields to automatically expire posts after a specific time. You will need to edit your theme files and modify the WordPress loop like this:
<?php
if (have_posts()) :
while (have_posts()) : the_post();
$expirationtime = get_post_meta($post->ID, "expiration", false);
if( count( $expirationtime ) != '' ) {
if (is_array($expirationtime)) {
$expirestring = implode($expirationtime);
}
$secondsbetween = strtotime($expirestring)-time();
if ( $secondsbetween >= 0 ) {
echo 'This post will expire on ' .$expirestring.'';
the_content();
} else {
echo "Sorry this post expired!"
}
} else {
the_content();
}
endwhile;
endif;
?>
Note: You will need to edit this code to match your theme.
After adding this code, you can add the expiration custom field to the post you want to expire. Make sure you add the time in this format mm/dd/yyyy 00:00:00.
How to Style Individual Posts Using Custom Fields
Want to change the look of an individual post using CSS? WordPress automatically assigns each post its own class, which you can use to add custom CSS.
However, by using custom fields, you can add your own custom classes and then use them to style posts differently.
First, you need to edit a post that you would like to style differently. Go to the Custom Fields box and add the post-class custom field.
Next, you need to edit your WordPress theme files and add this code at the beginning of the WordPress loop:
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Are you looking to add an express checkout button to your online store?
Express checkout helps streamline the checkout process and improves the overall shopping experience for your customers. It can also boost conversions and reduce cart abandonment.
In this article, we will show you how to add express checkout buttons in WooCommerce.
Why Add Express Checkout in WooCommerce?
Adding express checkout to your WooCommerce store provides a better shopping experience for your customers.
It allows customers to go directly to the payment page and skip the shopping cart or checkout pages. They also won’t have to go to a payment provider page or fill out a checkout form to complete their purchases.
Express checkout buttons make the entire buying process quicker. Customers can simply click the buttons and log in to pay for the products they wish to buy in an instant. As a result, you may see a boost in conversions and fewer abandoned carts.
Adding express checkout also helps mobile users where their screen sizes are small. Customers will just tap the buttons to quickly purchase the products.
However, WooCommerce doesn’t offer an express checkout option by default. You will need to use a WooCommerce plugin to add the feature to your online store.
That said, let’s see how you can add express checkout buttons in WooCommerce.
Setting Up FunnelKit on Your WooCommerce Store
FunnelKit is the best WooCommerce sales funnel plugin on the market. It lets you add express checkout buttons and create different funnel pages for your online store.
The best thing about using the plugin is that it works with Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal Express, Amazon Pay, and other payment gateways for express checkout. This way, you don’t have to add each payment provider to your online store using third-party plugins or extensions.
FunnelKit also provides user-friendly templates and lets you do A/B testing. You can easily customize your funnels using different drag-and-drop page builders. Plus, there are multiple pre-built templates and automation features for your marketing campaigns.
Note: For this tutorial, we will be using the FunnelKit Pro plugin because it includes premium templates and more customization options. You can also use the free Funnel Builder for WordPress by FunnelKit plugin to add express checkout buttons in WooCommerce.
First, you will need to install and activate the FunnelKit plugin. If you need help, then you can follow our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you will see the FunnelKit setup wizard. Go ahead and click the ‘Get Started’ button.
After that, you will need to enter your license key. You can find the key in the FunnelKit account area.
Simply click the ‘Activate’ button after entering the license key.
Once you have enabled your preferred payment gateways, you can head to the FunnelKit » Store Checkout page from your WordPress admin panel.
From here, simply click the ‘Create Store Checkout’ button.
On the next screen, FunnelKit will show you professionally-designed templates for your checkout page. It will also let you create a checkout page from scratch.
However, we recommend using a template and quickly customizing it according to your requirements.
Simply hover over a template you’d like to use and click the ‘Preview’ button.
For this tutorial, we will use the Livewire template.
Next, go ahead and click the ‘Import This Funnel’ button at the top.
Depending on the template you use, FunnelKit may ask you to install additional plugins like Elementor to edit the checkout page.
Next, you will need to enter a name for your store checkout and click the ‘Add’ button.
After that, you will see all the steps that are included in the template.
You can simply click the ‘Edit’ button for the Checkout page to continue.
Next, you can switch to the ‘Optimizations’ tab. From here, simply enable the ‘Express Checkout Buttons’ option.
FunnelKit will also let you choose the position of the buttons from the following options:
Top of the checkout page
Before/after the product switcher
Before/after the order summary
Above the payment gateways
When you are done, simply click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
That’s it, you have successfully added express checkout buttons to your online store.
If you want to edit the appearance of the checkout page, then you can switch to the ‘Design’ tab and click the ‘Edit Template’ button.
Once you have made your changes, simply visit your online store to view the express checkout buttons in action.
Additionally, FunnelKit helps you upsell products in WooCommerce. This way, you can boost sales by encouraging users to buy more products.
You can also set up automated emails in WooCommerce using FunnelKit Automations, a sister product of FunnelKit. This plugin lets you create automated workflows and send email campaigns to customers.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to add a screenshot to your blog post but are not sure of the best way to do it?
Screenshots allow you to share an image snapshot of your desktop or mobile screen in your blog posts. This makes it easier for your audience to follow the steps in a tutorial and better understand your content.
In this article, we will show you how to take a screenshot for your WordPress blog posts.
The Benefits of Taking Screenshots for Your Blog Posts
Adding screenshots to your WordPress blog can make your content more engaging. These are screen captures or snapshots of whatever is on your mobile or desktop screen.
You can use screenshots for a tutorial and guide users step by step. This way, people will know exactly where to click and what to enter when setting up software or plugins.
Similarly, you can use screenshots for a roundup or list post. For example, let’s say you are writing about the top 10 best email marketing tools. You can take screenshots of each tool’s homepage and show them in your content.
Since there are so many different ways to take a screenshot, we have created a step-by-step guide on how to take a screenshot on different devices and apps.
To make it easy for you, we have also created a table of contents below, so you can quickly find the method that’s applicable to you.
Droplr is a popular screen capture app. It allows you to easily take a screenshot on your computer and share it.
Droplr automatically saves the screenshot and screen recordings to the cloud and provides a link to share with others. Plus, you can manage all your screenshots from a dashboard and share them on any platform, including WordPress.
It works great with Mac, Windows, and Chromebook devices to quickly capture a selected area or entire screen. There is also a Chrome extension, so you can quickly take screenshots from your browser.
To take a screenshot using Droplr, you will first need to install the app for your preferred device. After that, you can click the Droplr icon in the Mac menu bar or the Windows Taskbar.
From here, simply click the ‘Screenshot’ option.
If you are a Mac user, then you can also press ‘Option + Shift + 4’ to capture the screenshots. You can press ‘Alt + Shift + 4’ on Windows to take a screenshot with Droplr.
Next, you need to select the area you’d like to take a screenshot of.
Droplr will open the screenshot in a browser window as soon as you are done. Here, you can download the image or share the link with others.
If you click the ‘Markup’ button at the top, then you will find options to edit the screenshot.
For instance, you can add arrows to point at a button or an important feature. You can also draw shapes, add emojis, blur different parts of the image, add text, and more.
Once you are done, simply save the image or download it.
Taking Screenshots Using Droplr Chrome Extension
You can also use the Droplr Chrome extension to take screenshots and screen recordings. The extension works just like the desktop app, and you can easily access it from the Chrome extension toolbar.
First, you will need to install the Droplr extension by visiting the Chrome web store.
Then, click on ‘Add to Chrome’.
Once the extension is added, you can click on the Droplr icon from the toolbar at the top of your browser.
Next, you can screenshot a selected area, application window, full screen, or entire page.
After taking a screenshot, Droplr will open the image in a new tab with a link that you can share.
Droplr also allows you to create a video screencast to create quick tutorials with audio. Simply click the Droplr icon in your browser’s menu bar and select the TV icon to record your screen.
If you choose the ‘Full desktop’ option, then you will need to select which window to record. On the other hand, you can use the ‘Current tab’ option and screencast your browser tab.
How to Take a Screenshot on Mac
If you are using a Mac device and want to take a screenshot, then there are several options.
On Mac devices, you can capture the entire screen, a selected portion of your screen, a specific window, and more.
To take a screenshot of the entire screen on a Mac device, simply press ‘Shift + Command + 3’, and it will capture your screen.
If you want to capture a selected portion, then press ‘Shift + Command + 4’. Next, click and drag the crosshair (pointer) to take a screenshot of the selected area.
If you want to take a screenshot of a specific window, then press ‘Shift + Command + 4’ and also press the ‘Space bar’ on your keyboard.
You will see that the pointer will change into a camera icon. Simply drag the camera icon on a window to highlight and capture it.
Note: Not all apps will allow you to take a screenshot of their window. In that case, you can take a screenshot of the selected portion and crop it.
By default, all the screenshots will be saved on your desktop with the capturing time/date as the filename and .png as the file extension.
How to Take a Screenshot on Windows
To take a screenshot on Windows devices, you will need to press the ‘PrtSc’ keys. This will capture the entire screen.
Next, you can open this screenshot in an image editing software like Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo to crop the required area and save it on your computer.
Another way of taking screenshots is by using the Snipping tool. The tool lets you capture a specific part of your screen and automatically save it to a clipboard.
Another way to take screenshots in Windows is by pressing the ‘Windows + Shift + S’ keys to start taking screenshots with the Snipping tool.
Next, click and drag the pointer to select an area on your screen. It will capture the screenshot automatically when you release the right click.
Since the screenshot is saved to a clipboard, you can paste it into any image editing software like Adobe Photoshop for further changes and then save it on your computer.
How to Take a Screenshot on Chromebook
In Chromebook, you can simply click the Screenshot key with a camera icon. This will take a screenshot of your entire screen or a selected area.
Besides that, you can click the Quick Settings option in the right corner and then select the ‘Screen Capture’ option.
After that, you need to choose whether you’d like to capture the entire screen or a selected area.
Once you have taken a screenshot, it will be automatically copied to the Clipboard.
If you are using Chrome OS 64.0.3282.134 or later, then you can simply press the ‘Power + Volume Down’ buttons to capture your entire screen.
To take a screenshot of a selected area, you need to press the ‘Ctrl + Shift + Switch Window’ keys. Then, click and drag the crosshair (pointer) to select the area that you want to capture.
Upon releasing the click, you will see a notification in the bottom right corner of your screen that shows your screenshot is saved in the ‘Downloads’ folder.
If you are using a Chromebox with an external (general) keyboard attached to it, then press ‘Ctrl + F5’ to take a screenshot. The F5 key will function the same as the ‘Switch Window’ key on a Chromebook.
How to Take a Screenshot on iPhone
Taking a screenshot on iPhones and other smartphones is actually quite simple.
If you are using an iPhone X or higher, then you need to open your blog post or the app on the screen. After that, simply press the ‘Side’ button on the right side and the ‘Volume Up’ button on the left side of your phone.
Make sure that you press both buttons at the same time. This will take a screenshot of the screen and save it to the ‘Screenshots’ folder on your phone.
If you are using an iPhone 8 or earlier model, then open the screen that you want to capture. Then, simply press the ‘Power + Home’ buttons at the same time to take a screenshot.
How to Take a Screenshot on Android Phone
There are many different phone manufacturers that sell smartphones with Android OS (such as Samsung Galaxy, Motorola, Google Pixel, etc). However, most new devices follow the same universal process to take a screenshot.
On your Android phone, you need to open the screen that you want to capture. Next, press the ‘Power + Volume Down’ buttons together.
This will take the screenshot and save it in your photo gallery.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you looking for WordPress FAQ plugins to use on your website?
Using FAQ plugins can improve the customer experience by making it easier for users to find answers to their questions without leaving your website. It can also boost your search engine rankings and help more people find your content.
In this article, we will share some of the best WordPress FAQ plugins that can help add an attractive FAQ section to your website.
Why Use a WordPress FAQ Plugin?
FAQ plugins create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on your WordPress website with a list of some commonly asked questions and their answers.
This helps build trust and credibility with your customers by letting them know that you understand their questions and worries. FAQs can even increase conversion rates.
FAQs also allow users to find an answer to their questions without needing to contact customer service. This saves time and enables your customer support team to focus on other issues.
Additionally, using these plugins can also improve your search engine rankings because most FAQs often contain long-tail keywords that users commonly search for using search engines.
That being said, let’s look at some of the best WordPress FAQ plugins that can help improve user experience on your website.
The plugin comes with an FAQ block that helps you create an attractive FAQ section in the block editor. Within the block, you can enter questions and answers for your FAQ section.
You can also customize your FAQ section from the block panel, including its text color, background color, typography, and title wrapper.
Moreover, All in One SEO even allows you to add FAQ schema to your WordPress website. This schema markup can increase your visibility on Google and bring more traffic to your website.
Note: The AIOSEO free version comes with an FAQ block. However, you will need to buy the Pro version of the plugin to unlock the FAQ schema feature.
To activate the FAQ schema, you need to scroll down to the AIOSEO section in the block editor and switch to the ‘Schema’ tab.
After that, click the ‘Generate Schema’ button to open up a prompt.
Once the Schema Generator opens up, click on the ‘FAQ’ option to add the schema.
Next, you can add questions and answers to the schema template. For more detailed instructions, please see our tutorial on how to add FAQ schema in WordPress.
Apart from FAQs, AIOSEO has custom sitemaps, advanced redirects, SEO titles and descriptions, multiple keyphrases, and more. These features make it the ultimate toolkit for improving SEO on your website.
Heroic FAQs is a premium WordPress plugin that comes with a drag-and-drop interface to organize, reorder, or group related questions together.
It offers 5 pre-designed FAQ templates and a visual editor that lets you insert images, blockquotes, lists, videos, and more into your FAQ content.
You can display the FAQs in accordion or toggle format. You are also able to choose from 15 different FAQ icon styles to match your website’s design.
Using the Heroic FAQs plugin can also improve your website visibility and search engine rankings because it has a built-in FAQ schema.
Some of its other features include fast loading, FAQ search, analytics reports, mobile responsiveness, and page builder integrations. It is the perfect solution if you are looking for an all-in-one FAQs management kit.
It also comes with an Accordion block that lets you create FAQs by adding text sections that expand and collapse to any part of your page.
First, you will need to choose a template and start building your page with SeedProd. For detailed instructions, you may want to see our guide on how to create a landing page in WordPress.
Then, you can drag and drop the ‘Accordion’ block onto the landing page from the block panel on the left side of the screen.
You can now add a question and an answer in the text box to start creating an FAQ section.
After that, you can also customize the font size, icon image, typography, text color, and background color for your FAQs.
You can even add custom CSS and animation effects to your FAQs.
SeedProd also comes with built-in SEO features that will allow you to optimize your landing pages for search engines and increase visibility.
Thrive Architect is another powerful drag-and-drop page builder that helps you easily create custom landing pages, layouts, and content for your WordPress site.
It comes with a Toggle element that lets you add an FAQ section in an accordion style to your landing pages. Once you drag and drop the Toggle onto your page, its settings will open up in the settings menu on the left.
You can now add content to the toggle headlines. To expand the toggle and add an answer to the question, click the ‘Expand’ button in the block toolbar above each toggle.
You are able to customize the FAQ section by adjusting the columns, width, vertical space, and dropdown animations.
With Thrive Architect, you can also further customize the FAQs section by changing the icons, typography, layout, background color, borders, adding HMTL attributes, and more.
It allows you to create an FAQ section for your product pages and also enables customers to submit their own questions that can be answered by the support team.
This can help increase user engagement in your WooCommerce store and provide a better customer experience.
It is a highly customizable plugin with a category filter and search feature to make it easier for users to find the answers to their questions.
With YITH WooCommerce Questions and Answers, you can even implement a voting system, activate the email notification process, hide inappropriate questions, and encourage users to post their own answers in the FAQs section.
Ultimate FAQ is a popular WordPress plugin that provides shortcodes and blocks in the Gutenberg editor to add an FAQ section to your website.
It comes with unlimited support for categories and tags and even lets you add an unlimited number of FAQs to a single section.
By default, the plugin comes with accordion and toggle styles. However, you can also use custom CSS to style your FAQs according to your liking.
Other than that, it lets you import FAQs in bulk by using Google Sheets and even offers a search and filtering feature that customers can use to find the answers to their questions.
The plugin is super easy to use and helps create SEO-friendly FAQs to improve your search engine rankings.
Moreover, Ultimate FAQ also integrates with WooCommerce, so you can easily add an FAQ section for your online store.
Some of its other features include email support, social sharing, custom fields, multiple FAQ layouts, video/image support, and more.
Easy Accordion is a powerful FAQ builder plugin that provides a drag-and-drop interface to create an accordion-style FAQ section.
It’s lightweight, fast, and SEO-friendly, helping you quickly optimize your website content for search engines.
The plugin offers more than 16 pre-designed templates and other customization options, including typography, icon sets, font colors, themes, animation effects, padding, color schemes, and more.
This makes it the perfect choice if you want to create a highly customizable FAQ section.
Besides that, Easy Accordion has a responsive layout that works on various devices, including mobile phones, iPads, desktops, and tablets.
WP Responsive FAQ with Category is a simple WordPress plugin that uses shortcodes to add FAQ sections to your pages or posts.
If you are looking for a beginner-friendly and easy-to-use solution to create FAQs, then this plugin is for you.
It comes with a drag-and-drop interface and 15+ pre-designed templates that will help you create an aesthetically-pleasing FAQ section for your website.
Other than that, WP Responsive FAQ also offers WooCommerce support and makes it super easy for you to display an FAQ section in your online store.
Some of its other features include image/video support, customization settings, accordion animation adjustments, and more.
Which Is the Best WordPress FAQ Plugin?
In our expert opinion, All in One SEO is the best WordPress FAQ plugin because it allows you to easily add FAQ sections and schema to your pages and posts.
However, if you want to create an FAQ section on a landing page, then you can also use SeedProd or Thrive Architect. They are the best WordPress page builders on the market that come with built-in features to help create an attractive FAQ section.
You can also use the Heroic FAQs plugin if you are looking for an all-in-one solution. Its user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface allows you to easily build FAQs and FAQ schema.
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