WordPress 6.3 has been released as the second major WordPress release of 2023.
This new WordPress version has several significant updates, new features, enhancements, and bug fixes that make WordPress even more powerful and useful.
In this article, we’ll show what’s new in WordPress 6.3 and which features you should try after the update.
WordPress 6.3 introduces a more polished navigation experience for the site editor.
The left column will now show Navigation, Styles, Pages, Templates, and Patterns. Users can easily locate the section they want to edit from here.
The new navigation interface includes a search button at the top. Clicking on it will bring the new command palette (more on this later).
You’ll also notice that Template Parts are not among the main navigation items. That’s because they are moved under the Patterns.
Improved Pattern Management
WordPress 6.3 now includes an improved pattern management experience in the Site Editor. Starting with the Site Editor navigation, which now has Patterns as one of the main navigation items.
Clicking on Patterns shows synced and unsynced patterns along with template parts.
Reusable blocks are now called Synced Patterns. You can find your reusable blocks under the My Patterns tab. These can be used across your website, and changing them affects all places where the pattern is used.
Unsynced patterns are those that can be used anywhere, and changing them doesn’t affect the original pattern.
You can also click on the Add (+) button to create a new pattern or template part.
At the bottom of the navigation column, you will find links to manage all your patterns and template parts.
Edit Pages in The Site Editor
A lot of folks coming from other web platforms may want to add or edit a page when editing their website.
WordPress 6.3 makes creating and editing pages directly from the site editor easy.
Simply click on the Pages menu in the Editor navigation, and it will show you a list of your pages.
You can click on a page to start editing it or click on the add (+) button to create a new page draft.
Manage Navigation Menus in The Site Editor
WordPress 6.3 also introduces a new way to manage navigation menus inside the Site Editor.
Previously, users had to add a navigation block and then edit it. Now users can create, edit, and manage menus by clicking on the Navigation tab in the site editor.
This will show you all the navigation menus you have created on your website.
To edit a menu, click to open it in the site editor.
First, you will see the menu items as a list in the navigation column. If you just want to rearrange them, you can move the menu items up and down.
To edit a menu, click the edit button or the editor canvas and start editing the menu in the site editor.
Easily Switch Theme Styles in The Site Editor
Earlier, theme styles were tucked away under the Styles panel inside the site editor. This made them a little less noticeable for beginners.
Now users can see the styles in the site editor navigation itself. This way, they can start with the style they prefer and immediately start editing it to their liking.
Preview Themes in The Site Editor
Before, users were able to preview WordPress themes using Theme Customizer. This allowed users to preview a theme without activating it on their website.
WordPress 6.3 will allow you to preview block themes inside the site editor. Go to the Appearance page in the admin area and click the Live Preview button below a block theme.
This will open the theme in the site editor with a live preview of how your content would appear in the new theme.
You can also edit the theme, try different styles, use your own colors, and make any changes before actually choosing the theme. However, to save those changes, you’ll need to activate the theme.
Note: Classic themes without site editor support will still show the live preview using the old theme customizer.
Similarly, WordPress 6.3 now allows you to see revisions for your styles and easily undo any changes.
Simply select a style or block that you want to edit in the Styles panel. Click on the ‘Revisions’ button and then select ‘Revision history’.
This will show you the changes you have made to that particular style or block. You can move between different revisions to see how an item looked at that time.
To undo changes, simply click on the Apply button, and WordPress will restore that revision.
Introducing the New Command Palette Tool
Keyboard shortcuts help you become more productive by quickly doing things without taking your fingers away from the keyboard.
WordPress comes with a bunch of keyboard shortcuts already, but with WordPress 6.3, it now has a command palette tool too.
To give it a go, simply edit a WordPress post or page or open the site editor. Once you are in the editor, press the CTRL+K or Command+K keys on your keyboard.
It will show a search popup where you can find keyboard shortcuts to toggle panels, create new posts or pages, navigate to the site editor, and more.
The command palette tool also has an API that allows third-party developers to add their own commands to the tool.
Two New Blocks in The Block Editor
The block editor in WordPress 6.3 ships with two brand-new blocks that you can use.
Footnotes Block
Footnotes are the easiest way to provide references to resources at the bottom of your article. However, WordPress users had to create them manually or use separate plugins to add footnotes.
Now, with WordPress 6.3, you can just use the Footnotes block. Simply select the ‘Footnote’ option using the three-dot menu in the toolbar.
The Details Block
Details block allows you to hide content requiring users to click on an item to reveal the hidden content.
Simply add the Details block and provide the content you want users to see. Below that, you can provide content that will be revealed when users click on the visible content.
You can add any kind of block to be hidden, including paragraphs, images, media, blocks added by plugins, and more.
You can also add multiple detail boxes together to create a FAQ section, trivia questions, info panels, and more.
Better Padding and Margin Tools
Previously, when users unlinked padding and margin tools, they took up a lot of space.
The new padding and margin tools now take up much less space and are more user-friendly.
Select Aspect Ratio for Your Images
WordPress 6.3 allows users to select the aspect ratio to display an image. Instead of resizing and cropping an image, users can now choose an aspect ratio that looks good across devices.
Improved Top Toolbar
WordPress shows a toolbar over the block you are working on in the post editor.
It also has the option to move the toolbar to the top for a cleaner editing experience.
However, the top toolbar appeared just below the toolbar on the top.
It took up more space and didn’t look great.
WordPress 6.3 now includes an improved toolbar on the top panel for easier and quicker access.
Cover Block with Layout and Color Options
The Cover block also has also received a facelift in WordPress 6.3.
Just like the Group block, users can now choose the Layout for the Cover block.
It also includes more design options in the block settings panel.
You can also use Duotone filters with a Cover block like the Image block.
Link Control Enhancement in WordPress 6.3
Link control is the tool used by the block editor to add links. WordPress 6.3 comes with improved Link control settings.
For instance, you can now create a page directly from the link control popup.
WordPress 6.3 has also moved the toggle to open a link in a new tab or window.
It is now located under the Advanced settings when adding a link.
Under The Hood Changes
WordPress 6.3 also includes several changes intended for developers. Here are some of the most significant under-the-hood changes.
Image performance enhancements to improve page load speeds and resolve some of the common core web vital issues such as rendering of the LCP and prioritizing images in users’ viewport. (Details)
Improved emoji loader to reduce the time spent on loading the emoji script. (#58472)
Defer and async support added to the WP Scripts API. (#12009)
Fetch priority support was added for images. (#58235)
Skipping lazy loading for images outside the loop in classic themes. (#58211)
Attempt rollback for failed plugin and theme updates. (#51857)
We hope this article helped you discover what’s new in WordPress 6.3 and which new features to try out. We are particularly excited about all the changes to the site editor and performance improvements.
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.
Each product added to your WooCommerce store has a unique identity number assigned to it. Sometimes, you may need this ID to locate a product, display it in a sale campaign, and more.
In this beginner’s guide, we’ll show you how to find a product ID in WooCommerce quickly.
What is Product ID in WooCommerce?
WooCommerce saves all your product data in the WordPress database system.
To make each record unique, it automatically assigns an ID number to each product you add to your WooCommerce store.
This allows WooCommerce to display a product when requested, process orders, and do many cool things behind the scenes.
However, sometimes you may need to find a product’s ID to perform certain tasks.
For instance, you may be building a WooCommerce product page, and you need a product ID to display a specific product.
Similarly, you may use a WooCommerce plugin that needs product IDs to show related products or offer upsells.
Let’s look at how you can quickly locate a WooCommerce product’s ID.
How to Locate a Product ID in WooCommerce
WooCommerce makes it very easy to find a product ID.
Simply go to the Products » All Products page. You will see a list of the most recent products added to your WooCommerce store.
Take the mouse over to a product title, and a line of commands appears below the product title. This line also includes product ID displayed as ID: followed by the ID number.
For instance, the demo product ID is 81 in the above screenshot.
If your store has only a handful of products, then you can scroll down the products page to locate a product and see its ID.
You can also use the search on the top right corner of the products table to quickly look for a product by name.
This will help you narrow down the list of products displayed.
You can then locate a specific product and take your mouse over to its title to view the product ID.
You can also find a product ID by clicking on the Edit link.
This will open the Edit Product page now if you look at your browser’s address bar, you’ll find the product ID in the URL.
Finding Product ID For a Variation Product in WooCommerce
If the product you are looking for doesn’t have variations, then you can use the above method to find a product ID.
However, if the product you are looking for has variations, each variation is assigned its unique product ID.
For instance, if you sell a T-shirt in three colors like Red, Blue, and Green, then you will add different colors as a product variation.
If you only need a product ID for a specific variation, here is how you’ll find it.
Simply locate the product by visiting the Products » All Products page. After that, click on the Edit Product link below the product title.
On the product edit screen, scroll down to the Product Data section.
From here, click Variations, and it will show you all product variations with their IDs.
What is The Difference Between Product SKU and ID?
SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit. It is a unique identifier a store owner assigns to a product to keep track of their inventory or stock.
Retailers, wholesalers, and other store owners also use SKUs in product barcodes.
However, Unlike product IDs, SKU identifiers are not automatically generated by WooCommerce. A store owner will have to manually add it to WooCommerce products.
If you don’t track inventory in WooCommerce, your products may not have SKUs or need them.
For instance, if you sell digital downloads or virtual products, you may not need to keep track of your stock or inventory.
On the other hand, each product in your online store has a unique product ID, which is automatically generated by WooCommerce. Even if you never put in an SKU, each product in your store will have a product ID.
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 redirect your 404 page to your home page in WordPress?
Redirecting the 404 ‘Not Found’ page to your website’s home page can help reduce your bounce rate and allow your users to discover other useful content on your website.
In this article, we will show you how to redirect your 404 page to your home page in WordPress.
Why Redirect Your 404 Page to Your WordPress Home Page?
When a user tries to visit a page that doesn’t exist on your WordPress website, WordPress will show them a 404 error page instead.
The wording and appearance of this page can vary depending on the theme you are using.
Most users who land on the default 404 page will leave your site quickly. This can increase your overall bounce rate and negatively impact your search engine rankings.
That’s why you should take the time to create a custom 404 page. However, until you do that, you can take the shortcut in this tutorial and redirect users to the homepage.
That being said, let’s look at how to redirect all 404 errors to your home page. We will cover two methods and also show you how to create custom redirects for individual pages:
Method 1: Redirect All 404 Errors to the Home Page in WordPress
For this method, we will be using All in One SEO for WordPress (AIOSEO). It is the best WordPress SEO plugin that allows you to set up redirects, optimize your content for search engines, and more.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate All in One SEO (AIOSEO). For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Note: There is a free version of All in One SEO, but we will be using the Pro version since Redirect is a Pro addon.
Once the plugin is activated, you need to go to All in One SEO » Redirects.
If you haven’t set up redirects yet, then you must click the ‘Activate Redirects’ button.
This will install All in One SEO’s Redirects module.
Next, you will need to click on the ‘Settings’ tab at the top of the page. This page allows you to configure redirects in AIOSEO.
You need to scroll down the page until you find the ‘Advanced 404 Settings’ section. Enable this section by simply clicking the toggle button so that it turns blue.
Now you will be able to see some more settings. You should toggle the ‘Enable default 404 redirect’ button to the on position. After that, make sure that the ‘Home Page’ option is selected.
Notice that there’s also a ‘Custom URL’ option. This allows you to redirect 404 errors to any post or page. Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the top or bottom of the page to store your settings.
Now when your visitors try to visit a URL on your website that doesn’t exist, they will be taken to the home page instead of seeing the default 404 page.
Method 2: Redirect All 404 Errors to the Home Page Using Code
If you prefer not to use a plugin, then you can use a simple code snippet to redirect all 404 pages to the homepage.
First, you will need to create a new file in your WordPress theme folder and name it 404.php. If your theme already has a 404.php file, then you must edit that file instead.
To edit this file, you need to connect to your WordPress hosting account with an FTP client or their file manager tool.
Once you are connected to your website, you will be able to see the 404.php file in your WordPress themes folder.
You need to add the following code as the first line in your 404.php file:
<?php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: ".get_bloginfo('url'));
exit();
?>
Next, save the 404.php file and reupload it to your theme directory using FTP or your hosting control panel.
Now, when a page is not found, instead of seeing a 404 page, visitors will be redirected to your WordPress home page.
Bonus: Set Up Custom 404 Page Redirects With AIOSEO
The best and most SEO-friendly way of handling 404 errors is to redirect visitors to the most relevant page, not just your homepage.
The All in One SEO plugin’s Redirects feature can also track all 404-page errors and let you set up smart 404-page redirects in WordPress.
If you installed and activated AIOSEO when you followed Method 1, then all you need to do is navigate back to the All in One SEO » Redirects page and click on the ‘Settings’ tab.
Next, scroll down until you see the ‘Logs’ section. Your 404 logs are a record of URLs that your visitors have tried to use to visit pages that no longer exist on your site.
Make sure the ‘404 Logs’ is toggled on so that it looks blue. You can also choose how long you want the plugin to record your logs by selecting the time period from the dropdown menu.
Don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ before moving on.
After that, you can click the ‘404 Logs’ menu option to see the last accessed 404 page.
Remember, since you just enabled logging, it may not display anything right away. You might need to wait up to 24 hours before you see any useful insights there.
The ‘URL’ column will show you the pages users tried to visit but don’t exist.
You can redirect any of these URLs to an existing page by clicking the ‘Add Redirect’ link in the ‘Redirect’ column. This will open a dropdown where you can enter your redirect information.
For best results, you need to enter the most relevant page for the original query in the ‘Target URL’ box and then click ‘Add Redirect’.
For example, if you deleted a tutorial on how to start a WordPress blog and then wrote a new one, then it’s best to redirect that old URL to the new blog post rather than your homepage.
To add multiple 404-page redirects, simply follow the same steps as above.
Remember, generally, you don’t want to redirect your 404 page to your home page forever. It’s a great temporary solution until you create a custom 404 page design that will convert better or set up individual redirects that take users to a relevant page that does exist.
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 the best way to host and manage a virtual event?
Maybe you’d like to hold your next conference online or run a webinar about your products and services. You may be worried that it will be too expensive, or you won’t have the technical knowledge to pull it off.
In this article, we’ll list all of the equipment on online services you’ll need, and teach you everything you need to host a virtual event in WordPress. Plus, if your business doesn’t have a website, then we will cover that too.
Why Host Virtual Events?
Are you looking to host a conference to build your authority in your niche, or invite users to a webinar where you can demonstrate your products and services? You can use your WordPress website as a launchpad for virtual events.
A virtual event is an online gathering where people connect using computers and mobile devices instead of meeting in the same physical location. These events can range from small gatherings to full-scale conferences with thousands of attendees.
They are a good way to generate leads, boost user engagement, and even make money through sponsorship opportunities, selling premium tickets, and offering paid membership.
There are many benefits to running these events online. You won’t need to worry about paying for a venue, and your users won’t have to worry about transport. You also won’t be so affected by time zone differences.
These benefits mean that you’ll likely have a larger attendance at the event. However, virtual events are also more prone to technical problems and difficulties. Organizing an event will always require effort, planning, and the right resources, even when you hold it online.
Are you ready to learn how to host a virtual event using your WordPress website? We’ll walk you through each step.
Here’s a quick outline that you can use to easily browse the article:
If you already have a WordPress website set up, then you can click skip this section. If you like, you can simply use your business website. For big events, you might like to create a landing page on a separate website.
Once your website is set up, the next step is to choose and install an event plugin.
Choosing and Installing a WordPress Event Plugin
You can add the features you need to host an event to your WordPress site by installing a WordPress event plugin. The plugin you choose will depend on your needs, such as whether your users need to purchase a ticket or simply register or RSVP to attend the event.
You should start by deciding whether you want to display an RSVP form, event calendar, or event registration page on your website.
Create an RSVP Form in WordPress
If you simply want your users to RSVP to your event, you can use the free plugin WPForms Lite to create a simple RSVP form on your website.
This will let you keep track of who will be attending and give you an idea of the number of participants you will have.
An event calendar is an easy way to let your users know about the events you are running. Depending on the plugin you choose, you will be able to display your events, let users RSVP to events, sell tickets, add and manage venues, and much more.
For example, The Events Calendar is a feature-rich event management system that makes it easy to add all your event details, including a separate page for venues and organizers.
You have multiple different views for displaying your event calendar on the front end, including day, week, or month. You can even spotlight events to increase engagement on the events you want the most attention on.
Plus, you can add filtering, so your users can find the exact events they’re looking for, and they offer several addons for selling tickets.
Create an Event Registration Page in WordPress
If you decide to sell tickets to your event, you will quickly discover that many third-party event registration and ticketing services will charge a small fee for each ticket you sell.
You can avoid some of these issues by creating your own event registration page in WordPress. This will allow you to collect online payments directly, store attendee information on your website, and use your own brand name when promoting the event.
You can easily create an event registration page using WPForms.
The free Lite version supports Stripe credit card payments, and you can unlock additional payment methods such as PayPal, Square, and Authorize.net by upgrading to the Pro plan.
Now that you have a way that users can let you know they will attend your event, you should create a landing page. This is a carefully designed page that lets your visitors know about your event and encourages them to sign up.
It should contain a clear call to action that is linked to the RSVP form, event calendar, or event registration page that you created.
In our guide on how to create a landing page with WordPress, we show you how to use the top three solutions for creating landing pages in WordPress. These landing page builders are easy to use, optimized for speed, and affordable for small businesses. You can pick the solution that best fits your needs.
Once you have a landing page for your event, you can start to promote it. You can start by linking to your event landing page in your email newsletter and social media.
Getting the Right Audio and Video Equipment
Unless you’re getting started on a really tight budget, you and the speakers at the event shouldn’t use the built-in webcam and microphone on your computer. Your users will instantly notice the low audio and video quality and may decide not to attend future events.
Your most important choice of equipment will be your microphone. We recommend you choose a USB mic so you can plug it straight into your computer without the need for extra gear. Here are three popular microphone choices:
The Samson C01U is a good entry-level USB microphone.
The Rode NT-USB is a high-quality USB microphone that comes with a desktop mount and pop filter.
The Heil PR-40 is what the pros use. It has the standard XLR connection instead of USB, so you’ll need to buy a 3.5mm to XLR Cable, audio interface, or mixer as well.
Your microphone will sound best if you purchase a few more items, such as a microphone arm, shock mount, and pop filter. For example, if you are using the Rode NT-USB microphone, you will need the Rode SM6 shock mount with a built-in pop filter and Rode PSA1 boom arm.
The Rode Podcaster kit is good value and comes with a mic arm and shock mount, and we use this at WPBeginner.
If you don’t want to buy all of your equipment at once, then you could use your built-in webcam while you get started, but you will likely get better video quality out of your smartphone’s camera.
You will need to mount your phone on a tripod, and the GripTight GorillaPod Stand PRO is a good option for any type of phone. It has adjustable legs that can be attached to any surface.
Eventually, you can upgrade to a 4K webcam like the Logitech BRIO Webcam. This camera is perfect for video conferencing and easily clips onto any computer. It has excellent video quality even in low light.
You’ll also need decent headphones so that the audio from your speakers isn’t picked up by your microphone. Headphones that plug in are more reliable than Bluetooth headphones. A good option is the Sony MDR7506.
Choosing and Integrating a Video Conferencing Service
You will need to choose an online service that allows you to run virtual events. You can check our list of the best webinar software platforms and compare their features so you can choose the best webinar platform to fit your needs and budget.
We believe that GoToWebinar, LiveStorm, and EasyWebinar are good options because they offer all the powerful webinar features that you need with high-quality video streaming and affordable pricing plans.
If you’re just starting out, then we recommend Zoom because it is easy to use, well-known, and mobile-friendly. Zoom lets you schedule meetings in advance and provides a unique link for each event that you can share with the participants and include on your website.
It is also easy to integrate Zoom with WordPress but to do that you need at least the Pro version of Zoom and the Zoom webinar addon. There is a free version, but you’ll need to have a paid account in order to set up the integration.
You will need to set up Zoom correctly and then connect your account with your WordPress website. Once you’ve done that, you can set up a workflow using Uncanny Automator to automatically register your users with Zoom once they sign up or purchase a ticket.
Before you know it, the time will arrive to run your event. If you’ve chosen the right webinar software platform, you will have all of the features you need, along with reliable, high-quality video and audio.
You will be able to feature multiple presenters and hosts and share your screen with the participants for demonstrations.
We recommend that you mute everyone by default. However, using your platform’s built-in chat feature, participants will be able to interact with you and one another during the event.
They will also be able to ask and answer questions, and you can have them fill in polls to provide you with feedback. We recommend UserFeedback by MonsterInsights for this sort of interaction.
Event Follow Up
After the event is finished, you should follow up with your participants as soon as possible, while they are most interested and the event is still fresh in their minds.
Because you have their contact details from when they registered, you can send them a follow-up email. In that email, you can ask for their feedback. You might like to follow our guide on how to create a survey form in WordPress.
You can follow up with further emails to let them know about the events you have coming up and to gauge their interest in different topics by creating an interactive poll.
Most webinar services will allow you to record the event, and some can even create transcripts. This will allow users who couldn’t attend the live event to see the content.
Finally, most webinar services include actionable analytics so you can see what’s working and what’s not. They will show you who attended, gauge the audience’s interest, list the questions that were asked, and more. This will allow you to fine-tune your event in the future for maximum conversions.
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 the best webinar software for your business?
There are many webinar platforms that allow you to run live webinars and automated evergreen webinars to connect with your users and grow your business.
In this article, we will share the best webinar software for small businesses, and compare their features so you can choose the best webinar platform to fit your needs.
What Kind of Webinar Software is Right for You?
There are many options for webinar platforms out there. Some that run live webinars. Some that do conference meetings, and some that run webinars as a live simulation (called automated webinars) which are often used for lead generation and sales funnels.
When choosing a webinar software, you need to make sure that the platform you are choosing allows you to do what you have in your mind.
A good webinar platform should have the following features:
Great video quality and reliable webinar hosting service that doesn’t have delays or downtime
Ability to do live webinars and automated webinars for lead generation
Real-time chat features, so you can engage with your audience and answer questions
Ability to have multiple presenters and hosts
Ability for presenters to share screen and record webinar for future webinar replays
Seamless integration with third-party email marketing services, marketing automation tools, and CRM software, so you can connect with users after the session
Smart webinar registration pages and landing pages to boost registration and attendance
Actionable webinar analytics that lets you see what’s working and what’s not, so you can fine-tune your webinar for maximum conversions
Aside from these webinar features, you want a webinar software that offers great support and fair pricing options.
Having said that, let’s take a look at the best webinar software for small businesses.
RingCentral is a well-known business VoIP provider, trusted by 400,000+ businesses, that also offers one of the best webinar software platforms on the market.
In minutes, anyone can easily set up a professional, engaging webinar, no technical experience required. You can manage the entire webinar setup, live event, and event analytics, all from one user-friendly app.
RingCentral Webinar also makes the process easy for your attendees. They can quickly join your webinar from their browsers, no additional download is needed, which is proven to boost attendance.
It comes with all of the powerful features you need to host successful webinars, including built-in webinar rehearsals, interactive chat, polling, Q&As, panelist links, lead capture forms, and more.
To attract attendees, you can easily create beautiful registration pages using the pre-built templates and customize them with your own branding by dragging and dropping.
You can also add trackable social media sharing links on your registration forms, which can help you measure your reach online, as well as set up automated webinar reminder and follow-up emails.
In addition, RingCentral Webinar seamlessly integrates with popular marketing automation tools and CRM platforms like Marketo to help you convert registrations into leads.
Pricing: Starts from $30 per month per host for up to 500 attendees when paid annually. RingCentral Webinar also offers a 30 day free trial so that you can try out the software.
Livestorm is a popular webinar software that offers three types of webinars: live video webinars, on-demand webinars, and automated webinars.
They’re a fast growing webinar platform among marketers because they offer browser-based webinars. This means your users do not have to download any software to join. Frictionless joining is proven to increase webinar attendance rate.
Livestorm web conferencing works on all web browsers including Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.
It comes with all the powerful webinar features such as HD video, chat messaging during webinars, screensharing, live Q&As, audience polling functionality, automatic email reminders, ability to share documents, and more.
Livestorm aims to be a comprehensive video communication platform, so you can use the webinar for live events, product demos, customer training sessions, company communication, and even teach online courses.
You can invite teammates as moderators to help you host and better engage with your audience. Their webinar data insights allows you to analyze your performance, so you can improve your conversions.
It connects with over 1000+ marketing platforms using built-in integrations and Zapier, so you can send customer data where you need it to improve your workflow.
The best part is that their pricing is very affordable for small businesses.
Pricing: Free plan comes with up to 10 registrants and a 20 minute webinar. Pro plans start at $99 for up to 100 live attendees.
GoTo Webinar is one of the original and most popular webinar software platforms on the planet. It is built by the same team behind the GoToMeeting video conferencing suite.
While it started out as a live webinar solution, they have evolved with the industry needs to add automated webinars with their Simulated Live feature, which allows you to create and schedule pre-recorded webinars.
Being one of the original webinar platforms, they offer a wide-range of features such as live presentation, webinar templates, event management, custom registration, webinar polls & surveys, webinar recording, and more.
They have seamless integration with all the popular marketing automation tools like Mailchimp and CRM platforms like Salesforce since it’s used by both small businesses and Enterprise companies.
Their analytics reports are very detailed and let you see who attended, how interested they were, what questions they asked, an so much more, so you can refine your webinar strategy to grow your business.
The best part about GoTo Webinar is their video quality and reliability. If you’re looking to host online events or virtual conferences, then they’re a leading webinar platform for that.
Pricing: The Lite plan starts from $59 per month for up to 100 participants. Their pricing scales with the number of attendees, but it’s very affordable even for large virtual events.
EasyWebinar is a popular webinar platform for marketers because it lets you do both live webinars as well as automated evergreen webinars.
Their live webinars allow you to have high quality video without any delays, real-time chat, multiple presenters, ability to record and archive, screen sharing, and more.
You can use their EasyCast feature to livestream simultaneously on multiple social media platforms like YouTube Live and Facebook Live at the same time.
Their automated webinars allow you to easily run evergreen webinars to reach a larger audience by optimizing for user’s local time zones. You can easily repurpose any of your live webinars and convert them into automated webinars to collect more leads and build a high-converting sales funnel.
You can use their customization options to make the webinar templates match your brand styles. Their registration embed option allows you to host a registration form on your own website, with landing page builders like SeedProd, Clickfunnels, Leadpages, and more.
They integrate with all the popular email marketing services, so you can engage with users by sending them offers, notifications before and after the webinar, and more.
Pricing: Starts at $78 per month with up to 100 live attendees. You can use their YouTube live integration to have unlimited live attendees on this plan.
StealthSeminar is known as the best automated webinar platform because it’s entirely focused on helping you maximize evergreen webinars and automate your sales funnel.
You can use StealthSeminar to run pre-recorded webinars as if they were live to better leverage user time zones, avoid tech failures such as low internet bandwidth, and remove presentation nerves.
They also allow you to run live webinars as well with YouTube Live, or even a hybrid webinar that lets you run pre-recorded webinar with live chat for engagement.
StealthSeminar comes with customizable pre-made templates that are designed to help you convert more leads. This includes registration templates, smart CTAs, surveys & polls, and scarcity tools like countdown timers.
For small businesses, they do have the option to add faux attendees to make your webinar look more popular and build authority. It’s a grey hat marketing tactic that utilizes the ‘fake it till you make it’ strategy.
Their webinar analytics shows you registration opt-in, webinar attendees, webinar conversion rate, and total sales generated. You can even see engagement reports for specific call-to-actions.
StealthSeminar allows you to add sales pixel tracking, Google and Facebook retargeting pixels, and split testing to fine tune your strategy further.
Pricing: Starts at $69.96 per month for 150 simultaneous attendees. Also includes worldwide SMS reminders up to 6000 a month.
Zoom is the most trending video conference call company in the market right now for online meetings. However, what many don’t know is that Zoom has also gotten into the video webinar market.
Known for their high video quality and reliable streaming, this move was a no brainer.
Now you can use Zoom to run interactive video webinar with screen sharing, Q&A chat, and the ability to like and up-vote questions.
Zoom also allows you to run polls, promote attendees to panelists, have whiteboarding and annotation tools, and more.
Aside from running live webinars, Zoom lets you record webinars and even add transcripts. You can also run practice sessions for pre-event panelists as well.
What’s unique about Zoom’s webinar platform is that it lets you have 100 panelists with over 49 viewable on screen at one time. This allows you to promote attendees to be panelists and join the conversation.
They also allow you to live stream simultaneously to unlimited audiences on Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and other custom streaming services.
Zoom integrates with all the popular email marketing services and CRM platforms. For WordPress website owners, you can use WPForms and the Uncanny Automator plugin to automatically register users for webinars in Zoom.
Their built-in analytics and marketing tools aren’t as powerful as some of the other webinar software in this list, but their reliability and video quality is superb.
Pricing: Starting at $40 per month for 100 attendees. But as it scales, it does get more expensive. For example, 3000 attendees will cost you $990 per month on Zoom vs $499 on GoTo Webinar.
Demio is a fast growing webinar software among marketers because it offers frictionless joining, so your users can join the webinar in the browser with one click without downloading any software.
You can use it to run live webinars with webcam video, screen sharing, and upload your presentation slides directly in Demio.
Their user-friendly platform allows you to engage with your audience using interactive polls with stats, launch offers and call-to-actions during the event, share handout gifts or bonus downloads, organize and answer user’s questions, chat with users through public or private chat, and even bring attendees to stage.
You can also download your live webinars and repurpose them into automated webinars to share recordings or use it in your automated sales funnel. You can also join the automated webinar and interact in the live chat to make it feel more real time.
Pricing: Starting at $49 per month for 50 attendees.
GetResponse is a popular email marketing service that has added a webinar feature to make it easy for users to centralize their marketing efforts.
You can use GetResponse webinars to run both live and on-demand webinars. You can have up to 1000 live attendees, share the stage with multiple presenters, and have unlimited webinars.
The best part is that you can automatically follow up with with your audience, run automated nurturing campaigns, add personalization with list segmentation, and promote your special offers right from their marketing automation platform, which is included in the price.
You have all the powerful webinar features such as polls & surveys, screen sharing, call-to-actions during the webinars, interactive whiteboards, and more.
GetResponse comes with built-in landing pages and sales funnels to help you further optimize your conversions. You can also use the OptinMonster popups integration to get more attendees and subscribers.
Pricing: $99 per month for 300 attendees, and it includes over 1000 email subscribers and all their marketing automation features.
Google Meet is a free webinar software that’s a part of the Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) platform.
It offers enterprise-grade video conferencing built on top of Google’s robust infrastructure to ensure that your webinars and meetings are secure.
Google Meet is a fully web-based platform, which means that participants aren’t required to download external third-party software. Simply set up a meeting, share the link, and participants can click to join from desktops or mobile devices.
It also offers dial-in phone numbers so that participants can join your webinars on-the-go, even without Wi-Fi or data.
In addition, if you’re already using Google, it will seamlessly integrate with all of your favorite tools like Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Forms, Chrome, and more.
Pricing: Google Meet is free to use. Premium plans start at $6 per month per user for up to 100 participants and additional features.
WebinarNinja is one of the best webinar tools that’s specifically built for coaches, teachers, trainers, and consultants. It’s an all-in-one platform for creating and running webinar courses.
It comes with an easy visual builder for creating your webinar course. You can add sessions, downloadable handouts, assignments, and even on-demand videos that you can play during your webinar.
You have the option to broadcast your webinars live in real-time, offer pre-recorded webinars, or do a hybrid of recorded content that’s hosted live.
WebinarNinja comes with all of the interactive features you need such as group chats, private chats, questions, polls, and more.
There’s also landing pages that you can use to convert visitors into attendees and the built-in email marketing lets you send automatic email notifications, reminders, and follow-ups.
Pricing: Starts at $29 per month for unlimited webinars and up to 50 live attendees.
BlueJeans by Verizon is another popular video conferencing software that you can use to run webinars, online events, seminars, and virtual meetings.
It offers 1080p video, Dolby Voice audio, and powerful production tools that let you produce TV-quality webinar experiences. It also lets you customize your webinar streams with your own logos, background, colors, ticker banners, and name cards.
You can encourage participant engagement by posting comments and reactions on screen and by using features like chat, handraising, and real-time Q&As and polls.
Plus, you can live stream your webinars to Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and other streaming platforms simultaneously to extend your reach.
Attendees can join your webinars from any device, no download needed, which will make your webinars easily accessible.
Pricing: There’s a free plan for up to 25 participants. Paid plans start at $9.99 per month per host for up to 150 participants.
BigMarker is a top-rated webinar software platform that’s used by big brands like TED, Samsung, Dell, and others. It works well for large webinars, virtual events, and hybrid events.
You can create multiple different formats of webinars including live, Simulive (automated), recurring, on-demand, series, and even 24/7 webinar rooms.
It comes packed with a ton of interactive features like Q&A sessions with upvoting, polls, quizzes, public and private chat, whiteboard, breakout rooms, screen sharing, and much more.
There are also built-in call to action popups that you can add to your webinars. These can help you sell products or encourage webinar attendees to take your desired action.
Other key features include detailed webinar metrics, sponsor banners, dial-in for presenters, customizable webinar rooms, and integrations with many popular CRM and email marketing services.
Pricing: BigMarker pricing is only available upon request.
ClickMeeting is another flexible browser-based webinar software platform. It lets you easily host webinars, online training courses, and online business meetings.
You can broadcast live webinars or share on-demand, pre-recorded webinars. You can also run automated webinars, which let you set up functionalities like chat moderation and surveys ahead of time.
It offers all of the necessary webinar features like screen sharing, whiteboard, polling, breakout rooms, waiting room, webinar statistics, and more.
In addition, you can easily monetize your webinars. ClickMeeting integrates with PayPal to accept online payments and you can automatically send certificates to attendees after the event.
Pricing: Starts at $26 per month for 1 host and up to 25 attendees.
LiveWebinar is another webinar platform that you can use to improve your business’ marketing strategy. You can use this intuitive software to host webinars and collaborative business meetings.
You’ll get interactive webinar tools like chat, screen sharing, polls and surveys, whiteboard, and calls-to-action. It also offers an easy user-interface that lets you customize your webinar sessions to match your branding.
To boost productivity, you can connect LiveWebinar to many of your favorite tools including HubSpot, Slack, Zapier, Constant Contact, Drip, AWeber, and many more.
Plus, you can easily sell tickets to your webinar and accept online payments using Stripe or Braintree payment gateways.
Pricing: There’s a free plan for up to 5 attendees. Paid plans start at $14.42 per month for up to 100 attendees.
They offer all the powerful webinar features that you need with high-quality video streaming and affordable pricing plans.
Their conversion tools are optimized to align with your goals whether it is lead generation, sales, running demos, or anything else. These platforms adapt to your business needs to ensure that you get maximum results.
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Disclaimer: To help our readers avoid choice paralysis, we only compared the best webinar software platforms in our expert opinion. This list doesn’t include other webinar services like WebinarJam, EverWebinar, WebEx, Zoho Meeting, Adobe Connect, MyOwnConference, etc.
Do you want to learn how to sell your photos online?
No matter whether you are a professional photographer or an enthusiastic hobbyist, you can make money by selling your photography. You can sell your work to businesses that need beautiful stock photos for their projects or even to individuals who are simply looking for a nice photo.
In this article, we will show you how to start selling your photos online using WordPress.
Why Sell Your Photos Online?
Stock photography websites are very popular with businesses, organizations, and even individuals who need professional images for their projects. If you are looking for an online side business, then selling photos online is a great way to make money.
By selling your photos as downloadable files, you can make money without having to pay for shipping or professional printing. You can also sell the same file countless times. You will just need to create your website, upload your files, and make extra income without a lot of day-to-day effort.
If you are a professional photographer, then selling your work online can also introduce your brand to a wider audience. As a result, people who like your work may book you for professional photoshoots and events.
With that in mind, let’s see how you can sell photos online.
Which Platform Should You Use to Sell Photos Online?
First, you will need to choose an eCommerce platform that you will use to upload your photos and then sell them.
While you can change your eCommerce platform later, it will often take a lot of time and effort and will almost certainly disrupt your business. So, it’s important to choose your eCommerce platform carefully.
Since you want to sell photos online, it’s a good idea to use a platform that’s designed specifically to sell digital downloads.
WordPress is the best website builder in the world. According to our CMS market share report, WordPress powers over 43% of all websites on the internet, including millions of websites that sell digital downloads. WordPress gives you full control over your digital store, so you can design a beautiful website that shows off your photography.
Meanwhile, Easy Digital Downloads is the best WordPress eCommerce plugin to sell digital products. In fact, we use the plugin ourselves to sell many of our premium WordPress plugins.
With WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads, you can sell as many photos as you want to a worldwide audience without paying high transaction fees. This gives WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads a big advantage over other platforms like Sellfy, Gumroad, WooCommerce, and Sendowl.
Let’s see how you can quickly and easily start selling photos online using WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads. You can use the quick links below to jump to different parts of the tutorial:
Before you start building your WordPress website, it’s important to know that there are two types of WordPress software: WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
For your online store, you will need WordPress.org. Also known as self-hosted WordPress, it has more features and flexibility. You can also install any WordPress plugin, including Easy Digital Downloads, which is designed for selling products online.
To start selling digital photos with WordPress, you will need a domain name. This is the address that people will type into their browser when they want to visit your store, like shutterstock.com or stockphotos.com.
You’ll also need web hosting, which is where your website’s files are stored online, and an SSL certificate so that you can securely accept credit card payments.
A domain name typically costs $14.99/year, and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. The price of an SSL certificate differs depending on where you buy the certificate, but you can expect to pay anywhere between $50-200/year.
As you can see, the costs can really start to add up, especially if you are just getting started.
Thankfully, SiteGround is offering a huge 73% discount on their managed hosting for Easy Digital Downloads. Their plan comes with a free SSL certificate, Easy Digital Downloads pre-installed, and all the optimization features you need to make a successful business website.
This means you can start selling your photos for less than $4 per month.
Let’s go ahead and show you how to easily buy a domain name, web hosting, and an SSL certificate.
To get started, you need to go to the SiteGround website and click on ‘Get Plan.’
After that, SiteGround will ask you to enter a domain name for your online store and will also show some optional extras you can buy. You can add these extras at any point, so we recommend skipping this step.
Then, simply enter your payment information to finish the purchase. After a few moments, you will get an email with details on how to log in to your SiteGround account.
Once you log in, select the ‘Websites’ tab. Here, you will see two buttons: Site Tools and WordPress Admin.
Site Tools is SiteGround’s hosting dashboard, where you can manage everything related to your site, such as setting up your emails.
To log in to your new website, go ahead and click on the ‘WordPress Admin’ button.
This will take you to a screen where you can log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Here, simply type in the username and password you created, and then click on ‘Log In.’
Now, you are ready to start building a store to sell your digital photos online.
Upon activation, you need to go to Downloads » Settings in your WordPress dashboard and enter your license key into the ‘License Key’ field.
You can find this information in your account on the Easy Digital Downloads website. With that done, just click on the ‘Activate License’ button.
First, you need to set your store’s location.
You may be selling your photos online, but Easy Digital Downloads will still use your location to auto-fill some fields when a visitor makes a purchase. It may also use your location to calculate sales tax.
To add your location, simply open the ‘Business Country’ dropdown menu. You can then choose where your business is based.
Next, find the ‘Business Region’ field.
Here, you can open the dropdown and choose the area where your store operates from.
When you are happy with the information you have entered, simply click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
Step 3: Adding a Payment Gateway to WordPress
When selling photos online, you will need a way to accept credit payments in WordPress. By default, Easy Digital Downloads supports popular payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and Amazon Payments.
Pro Tip: Want to use a different payment gateway instead? You can add extra payment options using the Easy Digital Download extensions.
To add payment gateways to your website, simply click on the ‘Payments’ tab.
You can then follow the onscreen instructions to set up Stripe or PayPal for your website.
When done, go ahead and click on the ‘General’ link.
In the Active Gateways section, check the box for each of the gateways that you want to add to your digital product marketplace.
If you check more than one payment method, then you will need to open the ‘Default Gateway’ dropdown and choose the payment method that will be selected by default.
You can use any gateway you want, but Stripe can accept credit cards as well as Google Pay and Apple Pay. With that being said, you may want to use Stripe as your site’s default payment gateway.
After selecting one or more payment gateways, just click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.
By default, Easy Digital Downloads shows all your prices in US dollars. Once you have set up your payment gateway, you may want to change the currency that’s used on your website.
To show your prices in any currency other than US dollars, select the ‘General’ tab, followed by the ‘Currency’ link.
Next, open the ‘Currency’ dropdown and choose the currency you want to use.
Just be aware that some payment gateways may not accept every currency. If you are not sure, then you can always check your chosen payment gateway’s website. Most have a list of currencies that they support.
When you are happy with how the plugin is set up, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
Step 4: Turning Individual Photos Into Downloadable Products
Once you have set up at least one payment gateway, you are ready to create your first digital product. This can be any photo or digital file that you want to sell online.
To create a digital product, simply go to Downloads and then select the ‘Add New’ button.
You can now type a name for the product into the ‘Enter download name here’ field.
This will be shown on the product’s page, so you will want to use something that catches the visitor’s attention and accurately describes your photo.
Next, type out the description that will appear on the product page. You will want to give visitors all the information they need to decide whether they want to buy this photo.
For example, you might include the image’s dimensions and resolution or your camera’s technical specifications. You could also talk about the product’s licensing and how the customer can use the photo after buying it.
Many online stores use product categories and tags to help shoppers find what they are looking for. These categories and tags can also encourage visitors to explore related photos, which can get you more sales.
Next, you will want to set a price by scrolling to the Download Prices section.
Here, type in how much visitors will need to pay to download this photo.
Easy Digital Downloads also supports variable pricing. For example, you might sell the same photo in multiple resolutions or sizes.
If you want to offer variable pricing, then just select the ‘Enable variable pricing’ checkbox. This adds a new section where you can type in a name for each digital download and set the price.
To create more pricing variations, simply click on the ‘Add New Price’ button.
You can then type in a title and price for each variable.
After adding all the options, you will need to set the default option. This will be selected automatically when the shopper arrives at the product page.
Simply find the option you want to use, and click its ‘Default’ button.
You are now ready to upload the image file that you want to sell. When it comes to images, WordPress supports gif, heic, jpeg, png, and webp formats.
To get started, click on the ‘Upload a File’ icon.
You can now choose any image from the WordPress media library or upload a new file from your computer.
Easy Digital Downloads will generate a file name automatically. However, you can change the file name by typing into the ‘File Name’ field.
If you have enabled variable pricing, then you need to open the ‘Price Assignment’ dropdown.
Then, choose a price from the list.
After that, just click on the ‘Add New File’ button.
This adds a section where you can upload a file, add a title, and choose a price assignment.
Simply repeat these steps for each pricing variation you want to offer.
Once you have uploaded your photo files, the next step is adding a product image.
When you are selling photos online, you don’t want people to steal your work without paying. For this reason, we do not recommend using the original photos as your product image.
Instead, you can use a lower-resolution version of the original photo or add a watermark.
If you create a watermark using web design software, then make sure you show this watermark in a location that isn’t easy to crop out. Many photographers place their watermark in the center of the image, or they use the watermark in a repeating pattern that covers the entire photo.
To add a product image, simply scroll to the Download Image section and then click on ‘Set Download Image’.
This launches the WordPress media library, where you can choose an image or upload a new file from your computer.
When you are happy with your digital download, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button to make it live. You can now repeat these steps to add more digital downloads to your WordPress website.
Once you have uploaded all your individual photos, you may want to create bundled photo packs that shoppers can buy.
For example, you could add all your foodie-themed photos to a pack that people can use on their restaurant websites or create packs showing a particular workplace or location.
This can save your customers time since they don’t have to search through your entire catalog and buy each photo they want to use.
You may also want to offer these photo bundles at a discount compared to buying each photo individually. In this way, you can get more conversions and increase the average order value.
To add multiple photos to the same bundle, simply create a new digital product following the same process described above. Just like before, you can add a title, description, categories and tags, a price, and more.
Next, under ‘Download Files’, you will need to open the ‘Product Type Options’ dropdown and choose ‘Bundle’.
This adds a new ‘Bundled Downloads’ section.
You can now open the dropdown that shows ‘Choose a Download’ by default.
In the dropdown, start typing in the name of the first photo you want to add to the bundle. When the photo name appears, just click to select it.
With that done, you need to click on ‘Add New File’.
You can now add a second photo to the bundle.
Simply repeat these steps to add all the photos you want to offer as part of this bundle.
When you are happy with how the bundle is set up, click on ‘Publish’ to make it live. You can now repeat these steps to create as many photo bundles as you want.
Step 6: Customizing Your Digital Download Emails
Every time someone buys a photo from your website, Easy Digital Downloads will send them an email with a link to download their product.
While this default email has everything the customer needs to download their file, we still recommend customizing it with your own logo, branding, and messaging.
To customize the default email, simply go to Downloads » Settings. Then click on the ‘Emails’ tab.
You may want to start by adding your own logo.
This branding appears at the top of your purchase receipt emails, so customers can clearly see who the email is from.
To add a logo, click on the ‘Attach File’ button.
You can now either choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a file from your computer.
You can also add a ‘From Name’.
This name will appear in the customer’s inbox, so you will want to use something that the customer will recognize, like the name of your website, business, or photography studio.
You will also need to add a ‘From Email’, which will act as the ‘from’ and ‘reply-to’ address.
Some customers may reply to the purchase receipt email. For example, if they are having problems downloading the file, then they might reach out by clicking ‘Reply’. With that in mind, you will want to use a professional email address that you check frequently.
After making these changes, just click on the ‘Purchase Receipts’ tab.
On this screen, you can type in an email subject, add a heading, and also change the email’s body text.
You could simply type in the text that you want to send to every customer. However, you can create more helpful and personalized emails by using the Conditional Emails feature.
Conditional Emails use ‘template tags’ to personalize your content. Every time it sends an email, Easy Digital Downloads will replace these tags with real values, such as the customer’s name and how much they paid for the digital download.
To see all the available tags, simply scroll to the bottom of the ‘Purchase Receipts’ screen.
When you have finished making changes, you may want to send a test email to see how the message will look to your customers.
To do this, simply click on the ‘Send Test Email’ button, and Easy Digital Downloads will send an email to your WordPress admin email address.
Have you clicked on the ‘Send Test Email’ button but didn’t get a test email? Your WordPress website may not be sending emails properly, which can be a big problem. If customers don’t get purchase confirmation emails, they won’t be able to download your photos.
When you are happy with the purchase receipt email, go ahead and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Step 7: Testing Your Digital Download
Once you have created your first Easy Digital Downloads product and customized the purchase emails, it’s a good idea to check that visitors can buy your photos without any issues.
To test your download, you will need to put your site into test mode. This allows you to test the purchasing process without typing in your credit or debit card information.
To put your store into test mode, go to Downloads » Settings and then click on the ‘Payments’ tab.
Under ‘Active Gateways’, you must check the box next to ‘Store Gateway’.
After that, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes’.
Now that you are in test mode, go to Downloads » All Downloads and hover over the product that you want to test. When it appears, click on the ‘View’ link.
This opens the product page where shoppers can buy the photo or photo pack.
To make a test purchase, simply click on the ‘Purchase’ button.
Easy Digital Downloads will now add this item to your cart.
After that, it’s time to click on the ‘Checkout’ button.
You can now type in your email address and name and then click on ‘Purchase’.
Since you are in test mode, you don’t need to enter any payment information.
After a few moments, you will get a purchase confirmation email containing a link to download the individual photo or all the files in a stock photo pack.
Once you have completed the test, you are ready to take your store out of test mode and start accepting payments from visitors.
To do this, head over to Downloads » Settings » Payments. You can then uncheck the ‘Store Gateway’ box.
Step 8: Selecting and Customizing Your WordPress Theme
Themes control how your WordPress website looks, including the colors, layout, fonts, and widget-ready areas. The right WordPress theme will make a good first impression on visitors and make them want to explore more of your site.
With that in mind, you will want to choose a design that looks great and has exactly the features you need.
To help you make the right choice, we have put together a list of the most popular WordPress themes. Our top pick is the Astra Theme since it’s fully compatible with Easy Digital Downloads, free, and completely customizable.
Another option is to create your own custom page designs with SeedProd. It’s the best drag-and-drop WordPress theme builder on the market and comes with more than 180 ready-made, professionally designed templates.
You can use SeedProd to design landing pages and sales pages where you promote your photographs and photo packs.
This can get you more conversions and boost your profits.
If you want complete control over your store, then you can even use SeedProd to design your own theme without writing a single line of code. Simply find the blocks you want to use, and then drag them onto your page designs in the SeedProd editor.
Another option is writing great blog posts about industry topics. You can then include links to a few relevant products that readers may want to buy.
You can also build an email list and then send your subscribers updates about new photos you have just added to your site, your latest blog posts, or other interesting content that will make them want to visit your store.
No matter how you promote a product, you will need to know its URL.
To find this link, simply go to Downloads » Downloads. You can then find the product you want to link to and click on its ‘Edit’ link.
You will find the URL in the right-hand menu.
You can now link to this product page from any area of your website 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 unique ‘Purchase’ button for each photo. You can add this button to any page, post, or widget-ready area.
Visitors can simply click this button to add the photo to their shopping cart. In this way, you can start the purchasing process from any page on your website, including landing pages, sales pages, and any ads you show on your WordPress blog.
You can add this button to any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode that Easy Digital Downloads creates automatically.
To get a product’s shortcode, simply scroll to its Download Settings section. You can then copy the text in the ‘Purchase Shortcode’ field.
MonsterInsights is the best analytics solution for WordPress. It helps you see where your visitors are coming from and the actions they take on your online store. This allows you to fine-tune your site and marketing activities to get more sales based on real data.
OptinMonster is the best conversion optimization software on the market. You can use it to create optin forms to grow your email list and convert visitors into paying customers. It can also help reduce your shopping cart abandonment rates.
PushEngage is the best push notification software for WordPress. It allows you to send personalized web push notifications to visitors and customers. For example, you might notify them about a flash sale or a new photo pack that you just added to your website.
FAQs About Selling Photos Online
In this guide, we showed you how to sell photos online using WordPress. If you still have questions, then here are our FAQs about running an online photography business.
Where Can I Sell My Photos Online?
There are lots of platforms, stores, and digital marketplaces where you can upload your photos and sell them to an existing audience.
Some popular choices among photographers include Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, and Alamy. These popular platforms already have lots of users, so you can reach a large audience and introduce your photography to people who may not know about your brand.
However, many of these stock photography marketplaces and websites take a percentage of every sale you make, and some even charge upfront fees.
To build a successful photography business, we recommend creating your own website instead. This gives you complete control over your brand, and you get to keep all the profits from every sale.
How Much Does It Cost to Sell Photos Online?
We always recommend a business model where you start small. That way, you can spend more money as you build your audience and start selling more products.
The good news is that selling photos online is already a low-cost and easy online business. To further reduce your startup costs, we recommend taking advantage of SiteGround EDD Hosting and using free WordPress themes and plugins.
By using Easy Digital Downloads to sell your photos directly to customers, you can avoid many of the upfront costs and middleman fees of selling via third-party marketplaces like iStock and Getty Images.
The easiest way to make money from your photos is by selling them online. You can either sell your photographs for a one-time fee or sell licenses that control how customers can use those photos.
Another option is to create a membership website and sell subscriptions. For example, you might allow members to download and use as many photos as they want or create membership tiers where your most popular photos are reserved for the highest-paying members. Another option is selling group memberships for corporate teams.
Can I Also Sell Physical Products Using Easy Digital Downloads?
At some point, you may want to sell physical products. For example, you might create merchandise featuring your most popular photos or sell your photographs as framed prints.
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. In this way, you can ship your branded merchandise, framed prints, or other physical products to customers using the tools you’re already familiar with.
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Are you looking for a way to get quick feedback on your articles in WordPress?
Feedback will help improve content quality by identifying any areas of improvement for your WordPress articles. It can also help build trust, leading to increased engagement on your website.
In this article, we will show you how to easily get quick feedback on your articles in WordPress.
Why Ask For Quick Feedback on Your WordPress Posts And Pages?
Most WordPress websites encourage users to leave comments and provide feedback on blog posts and articles.
However, fear of judgment, lack of time, or preferring to use social media prevents many users from doing this. Readers may also not know what exactly to say in their comments.
By using ‘was this helpful’ WordPress plugins, you can enable users to easily give their feedback on whether your content was useful to them.
These plugins usually display a thumbs-up/thumbs-down or a Yes/No button at the end of your WordPress post or pages that visitors can use to rate your content.
You can even use WordPress survey plugins to create a quick survey so that visitors can provide feedback.
This helps increase user engagement on your WordPress blog and shows the user that their feedback is valued. It also shows that you, as the website owner, are actively working to improve the user experience.
Using feedback plugins can also improve your website’s SEO rankings by reducing bounce rates, as users are more likely to stay on a website that has useful content.
Having said that, let’s see how you can easily get quick feedback for your WordPress articles. We will cover two methods in this post, and you can use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use:
Upon activation, the plugin will automatically start working out of the box and add a ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ option next to the ‘Was this article helpful?’ question at the end of your posts and pages.
Users visiting your site can now easily rate your content using these buttons.
To view the feedback on your WordPress posts, you will need to visit thePosts » All Posts page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once there, you will see the ‘Helpful’ column added to the right side of the screen.
From here, you will be able to monitor the ratings for your content and find out the number of people who have clicked the Yes and No buttons on your posts.
Method 2: Add a Survey for Quick Feedback Using UserFeedback (Recommended)
If you want to add a quick survey to your pages and posts to collect feedback, then this method is for you.
Note: The UserFeedback plugin also has a free version that you can install. However, we will be using the Pro version for this tutorial to unlock more features.
Upon activation, you need to head over to the UserFeedback » Surveys page from the WordPress admin sidebar and click the ‘Create New’ button.
This will take you to the ‘Select a Template’ page.
From here, you can use any of the pre-made templates as surveys on your website, including restaurant menu surveys, eCommerce store surveys, phone lead forms, post-purchase reviews, and more. You can also ‘Start From Scratch’ and design your own survey.
For this tutorial, we will be using the Content Engagement template because we want to add a quick feedback survey on our site asking people how we can improve our content.
Just click on the survey template. This will direct you to a new page where you can start creating your survey.
By default, the Content Engagement template already comes with a question asking users if they found the content engaging.
However, you can easily change this by typing a question of your choice, like ‘Did you like this article?’ into the ‘Question Title’ field.
Once you have done that, you need to choose an answer mode for users from the ‘Question Type’ dropdown menu.
For instance, if you want users to provide a star rating for your article, then you can choose the ‘Star-Rating’ option.
You can also display checkboxes, radio buttons, email capture options, single text fields, long answers, and Net Promoter Scores as modes of answers.
If you choose the radio button or checkbox, you will have to provide the different answers for the survey question under the ‘Possible Answers’ option.
After that, scroll down to the next question that already comes in the Content Engagement template, asking users the kind of content they’d like to see created.
You can change that question to ask users to provide their feedback on the article they just read. This way, users will first get to rate your content, and then they can provide any feedback that they may have for the article.
For this question, make sure to choose the ‘Long Answer’ option from the ‘Question Type’ dropdown menu so that users can easily provide descriptive feedback on your website.
Once you have done that, just click the ‘Preview’ button at the top to customize the survey widget. From here, you can select the background color, text color, and button color.
Once you are done, you need to click the ‘Next Step: Settings’ button to move forward.
This will take you to the ‘Settings’ page, where you can start by scrolling down to the ‘Targeting’ section. From here, you can select the device types where the survey will be displayed, including desktop, mobile, and tablet.
After that, you must choose the pages where the survey will be displayed. If you select the ‘All Pages’ option, then the quick feedback survey will be shown across all posts and pages on your website.
However, if you want to limit the survey to certain pages, then you can select the ‘Advanced’ option.
Once you do that, you must specify the conditions for the survey display from the dropdown menu.
For instance, if you want to only display the survey on posts, then you can select the ‘Post type is’ option from the dropdown menu on the left. After that, pick the ‘Post’ option from the dropdown menu on the right.
Now your quick feedback survey will only be displayed on WordPress posts.
Next, scroll down to the ‘Behavior’ section. Here, you can configure the display timing and length of your survey.
You can even schedule a run time for your survey by selecting the month and date you want the survey to end.
After you are done, simply click the ‘Next Step: Notifications’ button to move ahead.
On the next screen, you can start by toggling the ‘Send Email’ switch to active if you want to receive an email notification every time a user provides feedback on your website.
Next, you need to provide the email address where you want to receive the notifications and click the ‘Next Step: Publish’ button.
On the new screen, simply scroll down to the ‘Publish’ section and switch the ‘Survey Status’ to ‘Publish’.
If you want, you can also schedule your survey for later by toggling the ‘Schedule for Later’ switch to active and providing a publication date and time.
Finally, click the ‘Save and Schedule’ or ‘Save and Publish’ button to store your changes.
Now, you can visit your website to check out the quick feedback survey in action.
Once your survey has been published, you can see its results by visiting the UserFeedback » Results page from the admin sidebar.
From here, you will be able to check out the number of responses, impressions, and all the answers provided by your visitors.
This can help you improve the overall content of your WordPress website.
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Do you want to add smart app banners in WordPress?
Smart banners are an easy way to promote your mobile app and get visitors to download it. If an iOS user already has your app, then the banner will encourage them to open the app for a better user experience.
In this article, we will show you how to add smart app banners to WordPress.
Why Add Smart App Banners in WordPress?
Many website owners create a companion mobile app where visitors can browse their content in a way that’s optimized for mobile.
Since these apps are designed for mobile devices, they often provide a better user experience. You can also show reminders, personalized content, offers, updates, and more using mobile push notifications. All of this means more engagement, conversions, and sales.
You can encourage iPhone and iPad users to download your mobile app using a smart app banner. This is a banner that appears at the top of the screen when an iOS user visits your site using the Safari browser.
Visitors can click the banner to download your app from the App Store. If the visitor already has your app, then the banner will ask them to open the app instead. In this way, you can get more downloads and engagement.
If the visitor is using a non-Apple device or a different web browser, then WordPress will hide the banner from them automatically.
For example, the following image shows the same website in the Chrome mobile browser.
With that being said, let’s see how you can add smart app banners in WordPress. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use:
Method 1: Using WPCode (Show a Smart App Banner Across WordPress)
The easiest way to add smart app banners to your WordPress website is by using WPCode. This free plugin allows you to show the same banner on every page and post using one line of code.
With that in mind, WPCode is the perfect choice if you want to promote a single iOS application. However, if you want to show different banners on different pages, then we recommend using method 2 instead.
When adding custom code to WordPress, some guides will ask you to edit your site’s functions.php file. We don’t recommend this, as even a small typo or mistake could cause common WordPress errors or even make your site inaccessible.
By using WPCode, you can add custom code to WordPress without any risks. You can also enable and disable code snippets with the click of a button.
First, you need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For more instructions, please see our beginners’ guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, head over to Code Snippets » Add Snippet. Next, click the ‘Use Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
This will take you to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can type in a name for the code snippet. This is just for your reference, so you can use anything you want.
After that, open the ‘Code Type’ dropdown and choose ‘HTML Snippet’.
For the next step, you will need to know your application’s ID.
To get this information, open a new browser tab and head to the Apple Services Marketing Tools page. Here, type in the name of the application you want to promote and click on the ‘Search’ icon.
To see all the iOS apps that match your search term, simply scroll to the ‘Apps’ section.
Here, find the app you want to promote and give it a click.
At the bottom of the screen, you will see a ‘Content Link’.
The app ID is the value between id and ?. You will need this information in the next step, so either leave this tab open or make a note of the app ID.
Now you have the app ID, switch back to the WordPress dashboard. You can now add the following snippet into the code editor, replacing the app ID with the information you got in the previous step:
With that done, you must scroll to the ‘Insertion’ box. If it isn’t already selected, click on ‘Auto Insert’ and then select ‘Site Wide Header’ from the dropdown menu.
When you are ready, scroll to the top of the page and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.
Finally, just click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to store your changes.
How to Test the Smart App Banner Code in WordPress
The best way to test the smart app banner is by visiting your website on an iOS device using the Safari mobile app. In fact, the smart app banner won’t even appear if you try to view the mobile version of your WordPress site from desktop.
If you need to quickly check whether the code snippet is working, then one workaround is to use your browser’s Inspect tool. It allows you to see whether the <meta name> code has been inserted into your site’s <head>section, which suggests it’s working as expected.
To do this, go to any page or post on your WordPress blog. Then, right-click anywhere on the page and select ‘Inspect’.
A new panel will open, showing all the site’s code.
Simply find the <head> section and click on its arrow to expand.
Now, look for the <meta name="apple-itunes-app"> code you added in the previous step.
If you see this code, then the smart app banner should be appearing on iOS devices.
Method 2: Using Smart App Banner (Add Banners to Specific Pages and Posts)
Sometimes, you may want to only promote apps on specific pages and posts. For example, you typically won’t show a smart app banner on sales pages and landing pages as the banner might distract from the main call to action.
You may even want to show different banners on different parts of your website. For instance, if you are an affiliate marketer, then you might have a list of apps you want to promote.
In this case, we recommend using the Smart App Banner plugin. This plugin allows you to show different banners on different pages and include affiliate data in those banners. These features make it a great plugin for affiliate marketers.
First, you will need to install and activate the Smart App Banner plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can add an app banner to specific pages or posts, the WordPress homepage, or across your entire website.
To start, let’s look at the app’s settings. Here, you can add a banner to every page and post or add a smart app banner to your homepage only.
To start, go to Settings » Smart App Banner and type the application’s value into the ‘App ID’ field.
You can get this information by following the same process described in Method 1.
If you are using affiliate marketing to make money online blogging, then you can type your affiliate token into the ‘Affiliate data’ field. The information will vary, so you may need to log in to your affiliate portal or speak to your partners to get the right token.
After that, you can either check the ‘Show on all pages’ box or leave it unchecked. If you leave the box unchecked, then the app banner will only appear on your homepage.
When you are happy with how the banner is set up, simply click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to make it live.
Do you want to add a smart app banner to specific pages and posts instead? This allows you to control exactly where the banner appears on your website.
For example, if you are an affiliate marketer, then you might promote different apps on different pages and then use Google Analytics to see which banners get the most conversions.
To do this, simply open the page or post where you want to add the banner. Now, find the new ‘Smart App Banner’ section in the WordPress content editor.
Here, just add the app ID and optional affiliate information by following the same process described above.
When you are happy with the information you have entered, just click on ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ to make your changes live.
Then, you can simply repeat these steps to add a smart app banner to more WordPress posts and pages.
FAQs About Adding Smart App Banners in WordPress
In this guide, we showed you how to promote your mobile app on specific posts and pages or across your entire WordPress website.
If you still have questions, then here are our top FAQs about how to add smart banners to your WordPress website.
What is a smart app banner?
Smart app banners appear at the top of the Safari web browser and give users the option to open an app or download it from the Apple App Store.
Since they are created by Apple, smart app banners have a consistent design that many iOS users recognize. They only appear to people who are using iPhones and iPads running iOS 6 or higher.
Why can’t I see my smart app banner on desktop?
The smart app banner won’t appear on desktop computers, even if you view the mobile version of your site.
To see the banner in action, you will need to visit your site on an iPhone or iPad using the Safari mobile app.
Why can’t I see the smart app banner on my iPhone or iPad?
Smart app banners only appear on devices running iOS 6 or higher when you are using the Safari mobile app. If you don’t see the smart app banner, then you should start by checking you have the latest versions of both iOS and the Safari mobile app.
The smart app banner also detects whether the device can support the app and if the app is available in your location. If you don’t see the smart app banner, then it’s possible that your device has failed one of these checks.
Why has the smart app banner disappeared in Safari?
If you dismiss the banner by clicking the ‘x’ button, then it won’t appear again by default.
Depending on your mobile device, you may need to open a private browser tab, clear your cache or cookies, or perform some other action to reset your settings.
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Are you looking for a way to create popups with Yes/No buttons on your website?
Maybe you have seen these popups used as an email list optin or another special offer on a big website. Multi-step Yes/No campaigns can improve your conversion rate by encouraging users to click on your promotion.
In this article, we will show you how to create a Yes/No optin for your WordPress site.
What Is a Yes/No Optin, and Why Should You Use One?
A Yes/No optin is a popup form that has 2 options, which are either buttons or links. You can click ‘Yes’ to opt in or ‘No’ to refuse the offer.
Sometimes these are called 2-step optins or multi-step optins because they require the user to take 2 steps instead of 1.
Here’s an example of a Yes/No optin from Advanced Coupons offering a discount deal. Users can either click on the ‘Claim Your Discount’ button or the ‘Maybe next time’ option.
Note: The options don’t necessarily need ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ labels.
It might seem strange to get users to go through an extra step before they can join your email newsletter or take some other action.
However, Yes/No popups can be highly effective. This is because they use a psychological tactic called the Zeigarnik Effect.
The Zeigarnik Effect says that when someone starts a process, they are likely to finish it. In this case, it means that someone who clicks ‘Yes’ will likely go ahead and put in their email address.
Plus, a Yes/No optin gives your visitors a choice. That feeling of freedom is powerful. It makes it more likely that your visitors will make the positive choice to opt in to your email list.
Even better, you can use the ‘No’ option effectively, too.
For instance, you could create an optin like this one from WP Mail SMTP. It appears if a user looks like they are about to leave the WP Mail SMTP site’s pricing page.
If the user clicks ‘Get WP Mail SMTP Now’, then they stay on the pricing page. Or if they click ‘I have a few questions first’, then they are directed to the Contact page. Here, they can easily contact your sales or support team, which may ultimately lead to a successful conversion.
Creating a Yes/No Popup Using OptinMonster
The easiest way to create a yes/no popup in WordPress is by using OptinMonster. It is the best lead-generation software that helps you convert website visitors into customers and subscribers.
It allows you to create beautiful popups, countdown timers, slide-in forms, and more to nudge users in the right direction.
OptinMonster is the best solution if you are looking for powerful display options for your popup. It offers multiple display rules that help detect user behavior and trigger your campaigns.
For instance, you can show the yes/no optin when a user is about exit your site or when someone clicks a link or visits a specific page.
That said, let’s create a yes/no optin using OptinMonster.
Setting Up OptinMonster and Creating a New Campaign
First, you will need to sign up on the OptinMonster website. Simply visit the website and click the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button.
For this tutorial, we will be using the OptinMonster Pro plan because it includes the Yes/No optins.
This lets you connect your WordPress site with your OptinMonster account. If you don’t have a premium account with OptinMonster yet, go ahead and get it.
Upon activation, you will see the OptinMonster welcome screen and a setup wizard. Go ahead and click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.
You will now see a small window where you can sign in to your account.
Simply click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button to add your WordPress website with OptinMonster.
Now, go to the OptinMonster » Campaigns page in your WordPress admin.
Simply click the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ button to make a new campaign.
OptinMonster will now ask you to select a template or use a playbook. If you select the template option, then you can create your yes/no popup and customize it. OptinMonster also has ready-to-use campaigns inspired by successful brands.
You can go ahead and select the ‘Templates’ option.
After that, OptinMonster will show you different campaign types to choose from.
Next, you will be asked to give your campaign a name.
Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Start Building’ button.
Your chosen template will now open in the OptinMonster drag-and-drop campaign editor.
Here, you will find different options to customize your campaign. You can add different blocks like images, videos, buttons, progress bars, social media icons, and more from the menu on the left and drop them onto the template.
Editing Your Yes/No Optin in OptinMonster
By default, OptinMonster will have the Yes/No optin option enabled.
However, some templates will not have a built-in Yes/No view. With these, you will get a blank canvas to design your optin.
To enable the optin, simply click on the ‘Yes/No’ tab near the bottom of your screen. From here, you need to click the ‘Enable Yes/No for This Campaign’ button.
Next, go ahead and edit the Yes/No view as you want.
Simply click on the part of the template you want to change. For instance, you can change the text in the headline.
It’s also easy to edit the image in the campaign builder. Just click on it and then upload the image you want to use.
You may also want to change the Yes and No buttons. Simply click on them to edit the buttons. It’s super easy to change their text, color, and more.
Just make your changes in the left-hand panel, and the preview of your optin will automatically update on the right.
By default, clicking the ‘Yes’ button will take the user to the optin view of the campaign. Clicking the ‘No’ button will simply close the campaign.
You can change these actions by selecting the button and then clicking the ‘Button Click Action’ dropdown.
For example, you can redirect users to a URL, reload the page, open an email client, copy the text, click to call, and more.
Next, you now need to edit the optin view of your campaign. This is what your users will see upon clicking on the ‘Yes’ button.
Simply click on the ‘Optin’ tab at the bottom of the screen to edit the optin view. Then, edit the text, image, and anything else you want to change.
Finally, you need to change the ‘Success’ view of the campaign. This is the screen users will see after entering their email addresses.
First, click the ‘Success’ tab at the bottom of the screen. Then, go ahead and change the design until you are happy with it.
Once you have finished creating your optin, make sure to click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen.
Connecting Your Optin to Your Email List
If you are using your optin to gather email addresses, then you need to connect it with your email marketing service.
To do this, you must open the ‘Integrations’ tab at the top and then click the ‘Add a New Integration’ button.
Next, you can select your email provider from the list. You can also search for an email service using the search bar.
OptinMonster will then give instructions for connecting your account to your preferred email provider.
Once you have connected your account, go ahead and click the ‘Display Rules’ tab for your campaign.
Setting the Display Rules for Your Yes/No Campaign
By default, your optin will appear after the user has been on any page for 5 seconds. However, you can use different types of display rules.
For instance, you can show the yes/no optin on a specific page, after scroll distance, based on a user’s physical location, and more.
For our optin, we will use the ‘Exit Intent’ display rule. This way, our yes/no popup will appear just as a user is about to leave our WordPress blog.
OptinMonster also lets you choose the sensitivity of the Exit Intent technology.
Lastly, you can select where the campaign will appear on your website. OptinMonster will use the ‘current URL path is any page’ option by default. This way, the popup will appear on your entire website.
When you have set your display rules, click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen.
Making Your Yes/No Optin Live on Your Site
Now, it’s time to make your optin live on your site.
First, you need to click the ‘Publish’ tab at the top of the screen. Then, change the ‘Publish’ Status to ‘Publish’.
Your Yes/No optin will not be live on your site yet. Simply click the ‘Save’ button at the top and exit the campaign builder.
Next, you will see the WordPress Output Settings for your campaign.
Just make sure that your campaign status is ‘Published’. If not, then you must click the dropdown menu and select the ‘Published’ option.
Your campaign will now be live on your website.
Here is how ours looked on our demo site.
That’s it! You’ve successfully created a yes/no optin for WordPress using OptinMonster.
Alternative method: Another way to add a yes/no popup to your site is by using Thrive Leads. It is part of Thrive Themes suite and helps you generate leads, grow your email list, and boost conversions. The plugin lets you create lightbox popups, alert bars, slide-in popups, and more.
Yes/No Popup Types to Create to Get More Conversions
Now that you know how to make a yes/no popup, there are different types of campaigns you can create to get more conversions.
Let’s look at a few examples of yes/no popups that you can design for your WordPress website.
1. Offer Content Upgrades to Grow Your Email List
A yes/no content upgrade offers users bonus content if they sign up for your email list. For instance, you might offer spreadsheets, PDF files, eBooks, videos, and more.
This is great for getting more leads on your website. You can easily grow your email list by offering free valuable content to users.
Another way to use yes/no popups is by offering exclusive discount coupons or promoting special offers to your visitors.
This will help inform users about an offer they can take advantage of. Plus, it will boost conversions and sales on your website.
You can pair this with OptinMonster’s Exit Intent technology and show a popup just as the user is about to leave the website. For example, OptinMonster shows a yes/no optin on their website, displaying a special offer.
3. Guide New Users with a Welcome Mat
You can also show new website users a welcome mat or a full-screen popup with yes/no options to help them better understand your brand.
This is great to point people in the right direction when they first arrive on your site. You can inform them about your products and services by redirecting them to a specific blog post or landing page.
4. Convert Abandoning Visitors
Additionally, you can convert abandoning visitors by showing a yes/no popup. Simply show the popup when a user adds items to the cart but doesn’t check out.
You can offer different incentives like discounts or free downloadable content to keep visitors on your site and convert them into paying customers.
For example, Easy Digital Downloads shows a popup with yes/no options when a user tries to abandon the checkout page.
Do you want to learn how to track third-party domain requests in WordPress?
If your website is slow, then visitors may leave before it even has a chance to load. However, even if you’ve optimized every part of your website, third-party domain requests can still have a big impact on your page loading times.
In this article, we will show you how to track third-party domain requests in WordPress.
Why Track Third-Party Domain Requests in WordPress?
By reducing your page load times, you can improve the user experience, get more visitors, and boost your WordPress SEO. There are lots of ways to speed up your website, including optimizing your images and choosing the best WordPress hosting.
However, third-party domain requests can also affect your site’s performance even with the best hosting and optimization.
A third-party domain request loads content or resources from a location outside of your domain. Some common examples include content from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, advertising networks including Google AdSense, and even some WordPress comment plugins.
A large number of third-party domain requests can slow down your website. However, sometimes even a single third-party request can block the rest of the page from loading. When this happens, WordPress will connect to the third-party URL and download all the required content, before loading the rest of your page.
With that being said, let’s see how you can speed up your website by tracking and optimizing third-party domain requests in WordPress.
How to Identify Third-Party Domain Requests in WordPress
The first step is identifying all the third-party domain requests your site is making, using Pingdom. Pingdom is a popular performance monitoring tool that allows you to monitor your WordPress server uptime. It can also show all your site’s third-party domain requests.
First, you need to visit the Pingdom website and paste your domain name into the ‘URL’ field. Then, click on ‘Start Test.’
After a few moments, Pingdom will show a breakdown of your site’s performance. To see all the third-party domain requests, scroll to the ‘File Requests’ section.
Here, you’ll see the content type, URL, and size of each request.
To find the third-party requests, simply look for any items that don’t begin with your site’s domain name.
If you want to learn more about a request, then simply hover your mouse over its bar in the waterfall chart.
Here, you’ll see all the steps that WordPress takes to get content from this third-party domain including making a DNS lookup, SSL handshake, and downloading data from that domain.
Pingdom also shows how long each step takes, so you can identify the domain requests that make the biggest impact on your site’s performance.
If you don’t recognize a third-party service, then just paste its URL into a search engine such as Google. Often, this will bring up links to documentation, pages, and forums where you can learn more about the domain.
How to Optimize Third-Party Domain Requests
Once you’ve identified the third-party domain requests that are hurting your website’s performance, there are a few different ways to optimize those requests and boost your WordPress speed.
The method that works best for you may vary depending on how your WordPress website is set up, the requests it makes, and other factors. With that in mind, simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to learn more about.
This isn’t a good option for all WordPress blogs, but removing one or more third-party requests can have a huge impact on your page loading times.
You may have added a domain request by accident, or you might have changed direction so a particular third-party request no longer works well for your business.
For example, you may have originally added Google AdSense but now make more money selling WooCommerce products on your online store. By removing Google AdSense, you might improve your store’s performance to a point where you get lots more sales, and make far more money compared to showing online ads.
Here, there’s no easy solution that will work for all websites. With that in mind, you may want to try removing different services and content from your site, and then tracking the impact this has on important metrics such as your conversion rates.
If you do decide to remove feature and plugins that make third-party domain requests, then it’s smart to back up your WordPress website. This allows you to quickly restore your website if you encounter any errors, or simply realize you made a mistake.
You may also want to put your site into maintenance mode while making this change, just in case it breaks your website.
The steps for removing third-party domain requests will vary depending on the request.
However, you can often find detailed step-by-step guides in the documentation for the related service, plugin, or software, or by typing your search query into Google. For more on this topic, please see our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support and get it.
Method 2. Remove Unnecessary WordPress Plugins
Plugins are a huge reason why WordPress is so popular. With the right plugins, you can add missing features, extend the built-in functionality, and turn your WordPress blog into any kind of website.
However, some WordPress plugins make a lot of third-party requests and may even slow down your website. You might be completely unaware that these requests are even happening.
With that in mind, it’s a good idea to go to Plugins » Installed Plugins in the WordPress dashboard, and remove any plugins that you no longer need.
You can even try replacing multiple smaller plugins with a single WordPress plugin. For example, there are countless SEO plugins and tools on the market, but AIOSEO is a complete SEO toolkit that performs a long list of important SEO tasks.
Method 3. Preconnect to Important Third-Party Domains
Another option is to connect to the external domain right at the beginning of the page loading process. When a browser preconnects to an external domain first, it can often download the third-party content much faster.
Just be aware that preconnecting to an external URL takes resources away from loading the rest of your page. If the external resource isn’t crucial, then prioritizing it in this way may hurt the user experience by delaying the rest of your content.
To use the preconnect method, you’ll need a list of all your third-party domain requests. If you haven’t already, then you can get this information using Pingdom, and by following the process described above.
WPCode is the best code snippets plugin that allows you to add custom CSS, PHP, HTML, and more without putting your site at risk. You can also enable and disable your code snippets with the click of a button.
First, you will need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For more information, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once the plugin is activated, go to Code Snippets » Add Snippet.
Here, you will see all the ready-made WPCode snippets you can add to your site. These include a snippet that allows you to completely disable comments, upload file types that WordPress doesn’t usually support, disable attachment pages, and much more.
Simply hover your mouse over the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option and click the ‘Use snippet’ button when it appears.
On the next screen, you need to type in a title for the code snippet. This is just for your reference, so you can use anything you want.
Then, open the ‘Code Type’ dropdown and choose ‘JavaScript Snippet.’
With that done, you’re ready to add each domain that WordPress should preconnect to.
For example, in the following code snippet we’re preconnecting to Google Fonts.
In the code editor, simply add each external URL that you want to use.
With that done, go ahead and scroll to the ‘Insertion’ settings. Here, select ‘Auto Insert’ if it isn’t already selected.
You can then open the ‘Location’ dropdown and choose ‘Site Wide Header.’
When you’re ready to make the code snippet live, scroll to the top of the page and click on the ‘Inactive’ toggle so it changes to ‘Active.
Then, click on the ‘Save Snippet’ button.
Method 4. Implement DNS Prefetching
DNS prefetching allows you to perform a DNS lookup in the background before the visitor needs the linked content or resource. This is particularly useful for third-party resources that are used across your website, such as Google Analytics, Google Fonts, or your WordPress Content Delivery Network (CDN) service.
To use DNS prefetching, simply create a new JavaScript snippet using WPCode, and by following the same process described above.
With that done, add each domain name that you want to prefetch using the following format:
After entering this information, add the code to your site-wide header by following the steps described in Method 3, and then publish the code snippet.
Method 5. Host Resources Locally
When used correctly, preconnecting and prefetching allow you to make third-party domain requests without impacting the visitor experience. However, where ever possible you should try to host resources and content locally.
Retrieving content from a local server is typically much faster, and it’s easier to improve that content’s performance. For example, you might use a caching plugin, or set up a CDN.
There are lots of different WordPress plugins and services that can help you host content locally. For example, if you want to use custom typography then you can host local fonts in WordPress rather than loading them from a third-party such as Google Fonts.
If you’re using Google Ads, Google Analytics, Campaign Manager, or other popular free Google products, then you can host the gtag.js script locally on your own server using MonsterInsights with the Performance Addon.
By replacing external domain requests with local resources, you can often improve your website’s performance without compromising on its features and content.
Method 6. Use Lazy Loading
Instead of loading all your content at once, lazy loading downloads only the content visible on the user’s screen. It will then load more content as the user scrolls down the screen. This can make it seem like the page is loading faster.
WordPress will lazy load images by default, but depending on their location it may help to lazy load externally hosted content too. For example, if you want to embed YouTube videos in WordPress blog posts, then you can choose a plugin that has lazy loading built-in.
Other plugins such as Smash Balloon YouTube Feed come with built-in caching and delayed loading for the video player. This can improve the perceived page load times, even when you’re showing content from third-party websites.
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