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Tag: wordpress website

  • How to Start a Succesful Blog in 2023 (Detailed Tutorial)

    Blogging has been around since the late 1990s and has become one of the most popular mediums for people to express their thoughts, share information, and generate income. If you’re thinking of starting a blog of your own, it’s important to understand the steps needed to be successful. In this post, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on how to start a blog. So, let’s dive in and explore the possibilities.

    What is a Blog?

    A blog is an online platform where you can regularly publish and share content. It acts as a digital journal or online diary, allowing people to express ideas, experiences, tutorials, or opinions on various subjects. They can cover multiple topics, provide a space for writers to connect with others, and create a community around published content. With the ability to incorporate text, images, videos, and interactive elements, blogs offer a dynamic and accessible resource for sharing information and fostering an online community.

    WordPress.org

    One of the most popular platforms for a blog is WordPress. There are two iterations of WordPress: .org and .com. Either one will suit your needs, but it’s important to understand their differences. WordPress.org is a self-hosted solution, which means you install and host the software on a WordPress hosting provider. On the other hand, WordPress.com offers a blogging platform with its own hosting, which can be a solid choice for beginners. For this tutorial, we will focus on the .org version of WordPress and walk you through the steps to launch your online blog.

    How To Start a Blog: Step by Step

    To succeed at blogging, it’s important to set goals, determine who you intend to cater to, and pay attention to more technical considerations. These include picking the right host, choosing a worthy platform, and incorporating all the moving parts needed to support your efforts.

    Step 1: Setting a Goal for Your Blog

    The first and most important step in the process is planning. Sit down and list what you’d like to accomplish with your blog. Are you interested in monetizing your blog? If so, research how you want to turn your blog into a money-making machine. Consider whether you want to run ads directly on your blog or use other methods, such as Google Adsense. You can also incorporate a good advertising plugin that will allow you to create and host banner ads on your blog quite easily.

    Consider creating an informational blog if monetization isn’t in the cards right now. These types of blogs are a great source of information and tend to perform well in search results; that is, if your SEO copywriting is up to par.

    Lastly, decide whether to incorporate social media into your blog. Having a social media presence on your website is a wonderful way to drive more traffic to your website. There are a lot of excellent social media plugins available that will allow you to embed social feeds, schedule posts to Facebook, or incorporate events.

    Step 2: Picking a Niche

    The next thing to evaluate is whether you want a lifestyle blog that encompasses various topics or drill it down to be more of a niche blog. In general, niche blogs are great for people looking for specific information on a topic versus a more generalized lifestyle blog. There are several benefits to creating a niche blog, including appealing to individuals with particular interests, being excellent for building email lists, and, most importantly, being easier to manage.

    Step 3: Picking Your Domain

    The next crucial step in the process involves securing a domain name, which plays a pivotal role in shaping your online presence. When choosing a domain for your business, it’s important to ensure that it is both memorable and easy to spell, while accurately reflecting your business’s niche. While various top-level domain (TLD) extensions are available besides .com, opting for this widely utilized TLD is often best due to its trustworthiness. However, alternatives like .net or .org can also be considered, particularly if your preferred domain with the .com extension is unavailable.

    Namecheap domain registrar

    In certain cases, it is possible to acquire a domain that has already been taken, although this can be challenging, especially if the desired domain already has an associated website. To explore available domains, we recommend using a reputable domain name registrar such as Namecheap.

    Step 4: Choosing Your Hosting

    how to start a blog using SiteGround

    Once you’ve planned out your blog and chosen a niche and a domain, you’ll need to find a good hosting provider. Generally speaking, you’ll want to avoid free hosting platforms and opt for a good managed hosting provider like SiteGround, because they offer the most bang for your buck. Not only do they provide competitive pricing, but they’re one of the fastest hosting companies you can get.

    A fast host is crucial to your blog’s success for several reasons. First, no one likes a slow website. Potential readers who land on your site and wait for the page to load aren’t going to stick around. Secondly, a fast website is good for search engine optimization (SEO). Because Google and other search engines prioritize speed, going for a quality host is in your best interest.

    Step 5: Create Your Blog

    Now that you have all of the necessary moving parts in place, it’s time to start the exciting process of creating your blog. In this section, we’ll advise you on the best blogging platform to use, recommend a good theme and plugins, and walk you through the process of setting up your categories, tags, and templates.

    Pick a Platform

    While there are many blogging platforms to choose from, they are still far from matching the versatility of WordPress.org. With full site editing capabilities and a platform that was built for blogging, WordPress is the way to go. It’s free to use, has a huge following, and provides endless customization options. Plus, it’s relatively easy to learn, making it a great solution for beginners.

    get WordPress

    When it comes to installing WordPress, you can usually leave the dirty work to your web host. The best WordPress hosting providers will install WordPress for you when you set up your account, making your life a lot easier. However, that also depends on the hosting you choose. Most VPS hosting or dedicated hosting companies won’t offer this feature, requiring you to install it on your own through cPanel.

    Pick a Theme

    how to start a blog with Divi

    Now that we’ve opted for WordPress.org as a place to build our masterpiece, we’re going to need a good WordPress theme for bloggers. Although we may seem a bit biased, Divi is the absolute best solution. With the ability to create pages using a no-code Visual Builder incorporating more than 200 design elements, Divi is capable of showcasing your blog beautifully.

    Divi Theme Builder

    Plus, you’ll gain the benefit of full site editing, which allows you to create custom templates for your posts, categories, tags, and more, through Divi’s Theme Builder.

    Install Key Plugins

    One of the best aspects of WordPress is the ability to install plugins. They add features and functionalities to your site, allowing you to build any website you wish. For example, if you’d like your blog to have gated content, you can install a membership plugin, set up a paywall, and you’re off to the races. There are plugins for literally anything you can fathom. You can get a little help getting seen in the search engines by installing a good SEO plugin, such as Rank Math.

    Monster Insights Homepage Jan. 2023

    Furthermore, you can track how your posts are performing by incorporating a plugin such as MonsterInsights, which provides crucial information on what’s working on your site and what’s not. This is especially important when you’re just starting out. No matter what you want your site to do for you, there’s a plugin for it. To help you determine what you need, take a look at our article, 31 Best WordPress Plugins in 2023 (Everything You Need).

    Set Up Categories

    Before you can start writing posts, you’ll need to create categories. Using categories is an essential part of SEO and, if done correctly, can help bring traffic to your website. For example, let’s say you’re building a blog about pets. You’ll want to create categories for the types of pets you want to write about and subcategories that would pertain to those pets.

    To add categories, navigate to the WordPress dashboard, then hover over posts. Next, click categories.

    WordPress blog categories

    The next step is to give your new category a name, add a description, then click Add New Category.

    naming WordPress categories

    Once you have created a main category, you can create new top-level categories or subcategories by assigning a parent category.

    parent category

    Alternatively, categories can be created on the fly at the post level. To accomplish this, click on Posts > Add New.

    Add new post

    To add a new category at the post level, click the Categories dropdown on the WordPress editor’s right-hand side. Then, click Add New Category.

    how to start a blog

    Once you have added all the categories you need, you can showcase your category list on a blog roll page in a sidebar or any other page. As a Divi user, you can even find creative ways to display them in your header or footer by using the Theme Builder.

    Create Your Pages

    Next, we’ll use Divi to create our first page. To keep things simple, we’ll use one of Divi’s awesome layout packs. First, we’ll create the home page from the Marketing Layout Pack for Divi. Navigate to Pages > Add New in your WordPress dashboard.

    Add wordpress page

    Add Home as the title, then click the Use Divi Builder button.

    create a new page

    Next, select Browse Layouts.

    browse layouts

    Choose the marketing layout back by clicking on it.

    Select marketing layout pack

    Next, click on the Homepage layout.

    how to start a blog

    Finally, click the Use This Layout button to insert the design into your page.

    load layout

    If you’d like to import the presets of the layout pack, be sure to check Import Presets, then click the Import button.

    import layout

    Once the page reloads, you can edit the text and images in the layout’s modules by hovering over the module you’d like to edit, then clicking the gear icon to bring up the module’s contents.

    how to start a blog

    Make your edits by replacing the placeholder content in text modules.

    edit text module

    Once you’ve completed the editing process, save your draft or publish the page by clicking the corresponding button in the lower right-hand screen of the Visual Builder.

    Publish Divi page

    Create Your Templates

    As previously mentioned, Divi’s Theme Builder allows you to create custom templates for every section of your website. Design custom headers and footers, blog post layouts, category and tag page templates, and more.

    The default website template (1) is the section you’d use to create a global header, body, and footer. This allows you to create any layout to feature your blog’s navigation. To create new templates, you’ll click the Add New Template button (2). If you want to use a premade theme builder set, click the + icon (3). To save your templates, click the save button (4). The remaining icons allow you to delete (5), view your design history (6), and import or export your layouts (7).

    theme builder options

    As you begin creating templates for your website, you’ll notice that multiple templates can get messy. So, take steps to organize them so they are easier to find.

    Ok, on to creating your first template. Start by navigating to Divi > Theme Builder.

    Divi theme builder

    As noted, you’ll click the Add New Template button to create a template. Select Build New Template from the popup.

    how to start a blog templates

    Next, tick All Posts, then click the Create template button. These selections will allow you to create a template for posts which will be applied to every post you write.

    create post template

    Next, click Add Custom Body in the All Posts template. Click Build Custom Body when the popup appears.

    Build custom body

    From there, you can use the Visual Builder to design a blog post template to match your site’s design.

    Step 6: Create a Content Strategy

    Now that your pages and blog post template are created, you can concentrate on forming a content marketing strategy. It involves creating content that is specifically related to your niche. Strategizing your content can help you get your business noticed, build a good reputation, and boost your SEO. You’ll be best served by analyzing your competition, learning about your potential audience, and conducting keyword research.

    Step 7: Write Your First Post

    When the time comes to write your first post, the most important thing is to focus on writing quality content. Be sure to keep your target audience in mind so that you’re delivering content that aligns with their interests. Start by organizing your thoughts, creating a blog post outline, and structuring your post to maximize your reader’s attention. Remember, writing your first post sets the tone for your blog, so take your time and make it a captivating and valuable piece that leaves a positive impression on your readers.

    When writing in WordPress and Divi, there are a couple of ways to create your post, either in the Visual Builder, classic editor, or the Gutenberg editor. Since we created a template for our blog posts, the easiest route is using Gutenberg. It functions much like the word processors of the past, allowing you to directly type text, or use blocks to add other content.

    block editor

    If you find yourself suffering from writer’s block or need a little help crafting a good headline or outline for your post, consider incorporating a good AI writing software to help jumpstart your creativity.

    Once you’ve added all of your content, you can easily make your post live by clicking the Publish button.

    Publish post

    Step 8: Optimize Content for SEO

    You can write the best content in the world, but you’re missing the mark if you aren’t optimizing for SEO. To optimize your content, start by using a good keyword strategically throughout your post, avoiding keyword stuffing. It’s also important to add alt tags to your images, ensure that you’re using headlines properly, and keep your paragraphs concise, yet engaging.

    pn page SEO

    Additionally, pay close attention to on-page SEO elements such as titles, permalinks, and meta descriptions, as they contribute to search engine visibility. Finally, ensure that you’re focusing on mobile SEO, considering more than half of all internet users utilize a smartphone to navigate the internet.

    To help you keep a handle on things, consider incorporating a good SEO tool, such as SEMRush, in addition to your chosen SEO plugin.

    Step 9: Post Content Consistently

    how to start a blog

    Next, you’ll want to plan how often you release new posts. Set a regular posting schedule that works for you and your target audience, whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. A good editorial calendar plugin helps you plan how often to release new content and helps to keep track of your goals. By establishing a good routine, you create expectations for your readers to keep them coming back for more.

    Step 10: Monetize Your Blog

    Once you have established a solid foundation and built your audience, you can take steps to generate income with your new blog. One popular method is through native advertising, where you can display ads or sponsored posts anywhere on your blog to earn revenue based on clicks or impressions.

    ad placement

    Another option is affiliate linking, where you promote products or services to earn a commission for every sale. Remember that choosing affiliate partnerships that align with your niche is important to provide value to your audience.

    You’ll also want to incorporate a good affiliate marketing plugin to help disguise ugly links, gain access to reporting, or offer discounts on purchased products.

    Final Thoughts on How to Start a Blog

    Starting a successful blog requires careful planning, dedication, and consistent effort. By following our step-by-step process, you can establish a strong foundation for your blog and increase your chances of success. It begins with setting a clear goal and identifying a niche that truly resonates with your audience. As you progress, partnering with a reputable host like SiteGround provides a reliable platform for your blog to thrive. Remember the importance of optimizing your blog for search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure maximum visibility. Let’s not forget about the exciting prospect of income-generating opportunities that can put some cash in your pocket.

    Are you looking for more tutorials? Check out a few Divi-related how-to’s to kick your new blog into high gear:

    Featured Image via Fonstra / Shutterstock.com

    The post How to Start a Succesful Blog in 2023 (Detailed Tutorial) appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • 9 Things to Do if Your WordPress Site Keeps Going Down

    Are you wondering what to do if your WordPress site keeps going down?

    A website that is down (offline) can hurt your business. It creates a bad user experience for visitors who cannot access your content, and you may even lose customers and potential sales.

    In this article, we will share the most important things you need to do if your WordPress website keeps going down.

    Things to do if your WordPress website keeps going down

    Why Does Your WordPress Website Keep Going Down?

    When your WordPress website is down, your users will see an error message that prevents them from visiting the page.

    If your website is down due to one of the common WordPress errors, then you can simply fix it to resolve the issue.

    However, if the issue keeps happening, or your website is not showing an error, then you will need to investigate it further.

    Website downtime can happen for several reasons, including unreliable hosting, an expired domain, security reasons, an error in custom code, and more.

    Another reason for downtime can be increased website traffic that exceeds your WordPress hosting resource limits.

    No matter the reason, if your WordPress website keeps going down on a regular basis, then it can harm your business. Your conversion rates may fall, and you might lose customers.

    Luckily, we have compiled a list of things to do if your WordPress website keeps going down. These steps will help you troubleshoot the cause and fix it easily.

    1. Check if It Is Just You or if the Website Is Down for Everyone

    Your WordPress website may not be down for everyone. Sometimes you might just be unable to access your site due to a network error or lack of internet connection.

    First, you will need to verify that your website is down for everyone and not just you.

    To do that, you can use IsItWP’s free uptime checker.

    First, visit the Website Uptime Status Checker website and enter your site URL.

    IsItWP Uptime Checker Tool

    Click on the ‘Analyze Website’ button, and the tool will tell you if your website is down for everyone or just you.

    If it is only down for you, then we recommend checking your internet connection. You can try clearing your browser cache or restarting your network router.

    On the other hand, if your website is down for everyone, then continue reading to learn how to fix it.

    2. Make Sure Your WordPress Hosting Plan Has Not Expired

    One of the most common reasons for website downtime is your WordPress hosting provider. Your plan may have expired, or the provider might be having server problems.

    First, you need to make sure that your hosting plan hasn’t expired. You can usually find this information in your hosting account dashboard.

    If your plan has not expired, but your WordPress website keeps going down, then you will need to contact your hosting provider. It is possible that they are facing an issue on their end and can provide you with more information about it.

    For example, your hosting company might be performing server maintenance, facing DDoS attacks, or may have taken down a few servers. All of these reasons could result in downtime.

    Your website may also be down due to the failure of some hardware components of the host’s server.

    In these cases, your website should be up and running again once the hosting provider fixes the issues.

    If you’re constantly running into issues with your hosting provider, then it’s a good idea to switch to a more reliable managed WordPress hosting company.

    We recommend going with either SiteGround, Hostinger, or WP Engine.

    3. Make Sure Your Domain Has Not Expired

    Sometimes the website goes down because the domain name you bought when starting your website might have expired. If this is the case, it needs to be renewed.

    To check if your domain is still valid, you can use a WHOIS lookup tool. You just need to enter your domain name and click the ‘Lookup’ button.

    The tool will then look up details of your domain name. If your domain has expired, it might show as available for registration.

    Domain available for registration

    If your domain has expired, then you can now go ahead and renew it using any domain registrar, such as Domain.com.

    You can also obtain a free domain from some hosting providers, including Hostinger. This is a top WordPress hosting company that provides a free domain name with any web hosting plan.

    You can also use our Bluehost coupon code, which provides WPBeginner users with a free domain name, SSL certificate, and a discount on web hosting plans.

    4. Check Your Plugins and Themes

    WordPress plugins or themes can sometimes cause website downtime. The software may be outdated and / or have a vulnerability that hackers can use to take down your site.

    Similarly, a WordPress theme can conflict with a particular WordPress version or a plugin on your website.

    To see if a plugin or theme is causing downtime, you will need to deactivate all of your plugins and switch to a default theme.

    Deactivate All WordPress Plugins

    Deactivating all of your WordPress plugins can quickly show you if one of the tools is causing your site’s downtime.

    If you have access to the WordPress admin area, then you need to visit the Plugins » Installed Plugins page from the admin sidebar.

    From here, you can select all plugins by simply checking the bulk select checkbox at the top.

    Check the box next to the Plugins option

    Next, open the ‘Bulk actions’ dropdown menu and select the ‘Deactivate’ option.

    After that, click on the ‘Apply’ button to deactivate all of the plugins.

    Choose the deactivate option from the Bulk Options dropdown menu

    However, if you don’t have access to the WordPress admin, then you can deactivate plugins using a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client.

    First, you need to connect to your website using an FTP client or the File Manager app in your hosting account control panel. Once your site is connected, head to the /wp-content/ folder.

    Inside, you should see a folder named ‘plugins.’ This is where all your WordPress plugin files are stored.

    Rename plugins folder

    Simply rename the plugins folder to ‘plugins_deactivate.’ This will deactivate all WordPress plugins installed on your website.

    For more detailed instructions, please see our tutorial on how to deactivate WordPress plugins when not able to access WP-Admin.

    Switch to a Default WordPress Theme

    Your WordPress theme may also cause your website to malfunction. This can happen if you are using a poorly coded or outdated WordPress theme that has not been updated for a while.

    To find out if your current WordPress theme is causing downtime, you will need to switch to a default WordPress theme.

    First, connect to your website using an FTP client or the File Manager app in your hosting account control panel.

    After that, go to the /wp-content/themes/ folder.

    From here, you need to locate the ‘themes’ folder. This is where all the themes from your WordPress website are stored.

    Simply rename the folder to ‘themes_deactivate’ to deactivate your current theme.

    Rename themes folder

    Next, you need to create a new folder named ‘themes.’

    After that, you can go ahead and download a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-Three from the WordPress themes directory.

    Downlaod default theme to your computer

    Once it has been downloaded, you need to unzip the file.

    Next, simply upload the downloaded theme file in the new ‘themes’ folder. This will activate it on your WordPress website.

    Upload theme folder

    You can also delete themes using the WordPress database. For more instructions, you can see our guide on how to delete a WordPress theme.

    If changing the theme or deactivating plugins didn’t resolve the issue, then continue reading.

    5. Check Your WordPress Settings

    Your website may also experience downtime due to incorrect WordPress configuration settings. Most commonly, your site may be using the wrong WordPress address.

    First, you will need to check if your WordPress address and site address are the same.

    The WordPress address is where your WordPress files and folders are stored. By contrast, the site address points to the part of your website that visitors see and interact with.

    If you have access to the WordPress admin dashboard, then just visit the Settings » General page from the admin sidebar.

    From here, make sure that the ‘WordPress Address’ and ‘Site Address’ boxes have the same URL.

    Check your WordPress and site address from the WordPress admin

    However, if you don’t have access to the WordPress admin, then you can check your site URLs by editing the wp-config.php file.

    For more detailed instructions, you can check out our tutorial on how to change your WordPress site URLs.

    Permalinks are the permanent URLs for posts and pages on your website.

    Your permalinks can break due to installing or updating a particular theme or plugin. Additionally, migrating your website to a new server or domain can also break your permalinks and cause your site to go down.

    In this case, you can regenerate your site’s permalinks by going to Settings » Permalinks from the admin sidebar. Here, make sure that you have the right permalink structure selected.

    Next, you simply need to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom to repair the broken permalinks.

    Check Permalinks

    If this method doesn’t work, we recommend checking out our tutorial on how to regenerate permalinks in WordPress for other solutions.

    If your website is still down after repairing its permalinks, then you will need to continue reading.

    7. Try Reuploading the WordPress Core Files

    Updating the core WordPress software can also cause downtime due to changes or corruption of the core files. When this happens, important system files for your website cannot be accessed.

    To fix this problem, you can try reuploading the /wp-admin/ and /wp-includes/ folders from a fresh WordPress install.

    Note: This method will not remove any information or content from your site, but it may fix a corrupted core file.

    First, you’ll need to visit the WordPress.org website and click the ‘Download & Extend’ menu link, followed by ‘Get WordPress’. Next, click the blue ‘Download WordPress’ button to download the .zip folder to your computer.

    How to download WordPress

    Next, you’ll need to extract the zip file and find the ‘wordpress’ folder inside of it.

    After that, connect to your website using an FTP client. Once you have made the connection, head to the root folder of your website. It is typically called ‘public_html’ and it contains the wp-admin, wp-includes, and wp-content folders, along with other files.

    Open the WordPress folder on your computer in the left column. Then, select all of its files and hit ‘Upload’ to transfer them to your website.

    Upload core WordPress files

    The FTP client will now transfer these folders to your server.

    Next, it will ask if you would like to overwrite the files. You need to simply check the ‘Overwrite’ option and then select ‘Always use this action.’

    Overwrite WordPress core files

    Finally, hit the ‘OK’ button. Your older WordPress files will now be replaced with fresh copies.

    If replacing corrupted files doesn’t solve the problem, then you need to move to the next step.

    8. Install a Firewall on Your Website

    Your WordPress website might also be down due to malware or DDoS attacks.

    During a DDoS attack, a hacker sends a large amount of data requests to your WordPress hosting server. This causes the server to slow down and eventually crash.

    Similarly, malware is software that injects itself into your WordPress files. It uses up your WordPress server resources by attacking other websites or generating spam.

    Luckily, you can easily prevent DDoS attacks and malware by using a web application firewall.

    The firewall acts as an filter between your website and incoming traffic. It identifies and blocks all suspicious requests before they reach your server.

    We recommend using Sucuri because it is the best WordPress security plugin with a website firewall.

    It runs on a DNS level and catches DDoS attacks before they can even make a request to your website.

    Sucuri Website Application Firewall

    However, if you are looking for a free solution, then we recommend using Cloudflare instead.

    You may want to read our article on Sucuri vs Cloudflare for a detailed comparison.

    For better website protection, you will also need to use security best practices on your WordPress website. For more details, see our complete WordPress security guide with step-by-step instructions on how to secure your site.

    9. Move to a Reliable WordPress Hosting Plan

    Finally, if you have tried all the steps above and your website keeps going down, then it might be time to move to a reliable WordPress hosting provider.

    If you have a small business or blog, then we recommend moving to Bluehost or Hostinger.

    If you run an online store, then SiteGround is the go-to hosting provider because it comes with a managed EDD hosting plan. This enables you to launch a ready-to-go eCommerce store.

    Alternatively, if you have a rapidly growing business, then you should consider switching to a managed WordPress hosting provider like WP Engine.

    Once you have chosen a provider, you will need to move your website to the new host.

    Most hosting companies offer a free migration service that allows you to migrate your website without downtime.

    You can also move your website on your own. For detailed instructions, you may want to see our tutorial on how to move WordPress to a new host or server.

    We hope this article helped you learn what to do if your WordPress website keeps going down. You may also want to see our article on the best email marketing services compared and our tutorial on how to get a free SSL certificate for your website.

    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.

    The post 9 Things to Do if Your WordPress Site Keeps Going Down first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • 14 Best Ways to Use OpenAI on Your WordPress Website

    Are you wondering how to use OpenAI and ChatGPT on your WordPress website?

    OpenAI can help with everything from generating meta descriptions for your posts to writing email sales copy. You can use OpenAI on your WordPress site to save time, cut costs, improve your SEO and workflows, and grow your business!

    In this article, we will show you 14 of the best ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website.

    The best ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website

    A (Brief) Introduction to OpenAI

    You have probably heard the terms “OpenAI” and “ChatGPT” used interchangeably, but they’re not exactly the same.

    OpenAI is the research laboratory (read: a group of very smart people) behind the chatbot ChatGPT and the deep-learning, image-generating model DALL-E 2, among other AI-powered products.

    OpenAI homepage

    The team over at OpenAI created ChatGPT which is an AI assistant to help streamline your workflows and save you time.

    It can write email newsletters for you, suggest blog post ideas, do keyword research, automate your workflows, and so much more.

    To improve your WordPress website workflows with artificial intelligence, you will first need to create an account with OpenAI. Getting signed up is FREE. All you will need is an email and a password.

    We also recommend reading our guide on the best ChatGPT prompts for bloggers, marketers, and social media, so that you can interact with the program more easily.

    With that in mind, let’s look at 14 ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website.

    1. Generate Titles and Meta Descriptions with AIOSEO

    All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best SEO plugin for WordPress, and it just got an AI-powered boost. After adding your keywords to your blog posts, let AIOSEO and OpenAI further optimize your content for search engines.

    The first step is installing AIOSEO. Please see our guide on how to install WordPress plugins.

    Then, from within the WordPress post editor, you can tell OpenAI to generate titles and meta descriptions that best fit your content with the click of a button.

    Simply go to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ at the bottom of your page and find the ‘Post Title’ box.

    The AIOSEO OpenAI post title generator
    Next, you need to click on the robot icon. If you hover your mouse over it, you will be able to see a ‘Use AI Generator’ message.

    Now, you can see 5 post title suggestions. Simply click on the ‘+’ icon next to one to use it for your post.

    AIOSEO OpenAi SEO post title suggestions

    If you don’t like any of the suggestions, you can also click ‘Generate New Titles’ to see new ones.

    Then, simply repeat the same steps by clicking on the robot icon in the ‘Meta Description’ box. AIOSEO will then suggest a few meta descriptions for your post.

    Plus, connecting your OpenAI account to your AIOSEO account is as easy as copying and pasting an API key. You can check out AIOSEO’s documentation for more details.

    2. Generate Ad Copy and Product Descriptions

    Due to GPT-3’s talent for SEO, it is probably no surprise that it can handle more of your content creation needs. You can use OpenAI to create short, effective ad copy that matches your brand or long-form product descriptions for your WooCommerce store.

    For example, we prompted ChatGPT to describe the need for running shoes using the “problem-agitate-solve” framework.

    Creating a product description with ChatGPT

    Simply edit the text to match your preferred sentence structure, include your keywords, throw in some on-brand and product-specific language, and then watch your sales increase!

    3. Generate Blog Post Ideas

    If you are anything like us, then coming up with content ideas for your WordPress blog can be time consuming. Fortunately, OpenAI runs on one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

    So, you can ask it to come up with ideas for new content on your blog.

    In our previous examples, we used OpenAI to help with tasks by inputting prompts directly into ChatGPT.

    In our next few examples, we will look at how to integrate OpenAI directly into your WordPress workflow, truly leveraging the power of automation and AI to save time and resources.

    Uncanny Automator is one of the best automation plugins for WordPress, and it enables you to connect OpenAI to your WordPress site in many useful and interesting ways.

    For this example, we will use OpenAI with Uncanny Automator to generate ideas for new content based on a user’s form submission. Then, we will automatically send OpenAI’s response to your content management spreadsheet or database, like Google Sheets or Airtable, for the whole team to access.

    If you don’t already have Uncanny Automator, you can download the Automator plugin for FREE to try on your WordPress site.

    Once you have downloaded Automator, you will need to connect Automator to OpenAI. Then we will build the automation recipe below.

    Automator and OpenAI content ideation recipe

    First, you need to create a new form using a contact form plugin like WPForms. From your WordPress admin sidebar, navigate to WPForms » Add New.

    Then, create a new contact form and make sure to add two number fields labeled ‘Temperature’ and ‘Maximum length’, and one single line text field labeled ‘Open AI Prompt’.

    WPForms OpenAI prompt

    Now, you must head to Automator » Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, simply select ‘Logged-in users’, followed by ‘Confirm’.

    Automator logged-in recipe

    Next, give your new recipe a title that makes it easy to recognize. For example, we have named our recipe ‘OpenAI Content Ideation’.

    In the ‘Triggers’ panel, you need to select ‘WPForms’. From the drop-down list that appears, select ‘A user submits a form’ and choose the WPForms form that you just made. When you are finished, just click ‘Save’.

    WPForms Automator trigger

    After that, in the ‘Actions’ panel, you have to select ‘OpenAI’.

    From the drop-down list that appears, choose ‘Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model’.

    Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model

    In the Actions section, map the fields from the WPForms form to the Temperature, Length, and Prompt fields in the OpenAI action.

    To do this, click the ‘*’ icon to the right of each field to choose the correct token associated with the trigger.

    How to use WPForms tokens with OpenAI prompts using Automator

    When you are finished, simply click Save.

    To send the blog post ideas to an external spreadsheet, you will need to add a second Action. To do this, click ‘Add action’ in the ‘Actions’ panel.

    Add recipe action with Automator

    From the menu of available integrations, simply choose Google Sheets.

    Then, from the drop-down list, select ‘Create a row in a Google Sheet’.

    Create a row in a Google Sheet with OpenAI

    In the editor, you must select your content management spreadsheet. Then, click ‘Get columns’ and add the OpenAI Response token to the appropriate column(s).

    Make sure to click ‘Save’ when you are done.

    Add response token to Automator recipe

    Finally, in the top right corner, toggle your recipe from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live.’

    Now, whenever you enter information into your blog post idea generator form, Automator will tell OpenAI to suggest new content ideas and send them to your Google Sheets spreadsheet.

    Make the Automator recipe live.

    In our example, we entered “Give me 5 fun blog posts on pediatric dentistry” into the WPForms form.

    Then, OpenAI generated a response, and Automator added it to the worksheet in the recipe.

    OpenAI topic ideas

    4. Perform Sentiment Analysis

    There is no way of knowing if AI has any feelings of its own. If we had to guess, we would say that it probably doesn’t. At least, not yet. But that doesn’t mean that it cannot understand human emotions.

    You can use OpenAI to perform sentiment analysis by asking it to interpret the mood of your customers’ feedback.

    OpenAI sentiment analysis

    But how can you use this with your WordPress website?

    Maybe your contact forms are connected to a help desk plugin, and you want to assign priority based on the message urgency.

    Alternatively, maybe you want to automatically approve positive blog comments. You could even quickly identify negative feedback in surveys powered by your favorite WordPress form plugin.

    In both cases, you will be able to address negative feedback quicker, keep your customers happier, and improve your online reputation.

    5. Automate Customer Support with Intelligent Sentiment Analysis

    Now that you know how to use OpenAI to perform sentiment analysis, you can easily add it to your workflows. By combining OpenAI’s emotional intelligence with Uncanny Automator’s efficiency, you will be able to create a seamless customer support system.

    For this example, you will need the pro version of Uncanny Automator so that you can add conditional actions to the automation.

    Let’s put together an Automator recipe that creates tickets in our customer support plugin whenever a customer reviews a product.

    First, we have OpenAI perform sentiment analysis on the reviews as they come in.

    Then, using Automator’s Filters feature, we create tasks with different priority levels based on OpenAI’s assessment of the customer’s sentiment.

    In this recipe, if OpenAI decides that a new WooCommerce product review is negative, then it creates a new help desk ticket in FluentCRM and adds an Urgent tag.

    How to tag a negative support ticket with OpenAI and Automator

    If you are ready to take things to the next level, you could even use the submission to create a draft reply for the ticket.

    Just add an extra OpenAI action to generate a draft reply, then include that response as the ticket draft.

    This works best with the GPT-3.5-Turbo model because you can use Automator to also send context. For example, you can tell it to answer the prompt as a helpful support agent from your website.

    6. Create Event Summaries, Recap Podcast Episodes, and Take Meeting Minutes

    Running special events on your WordPress website is easy with WordPress calendar plugins. Unfortunately, not every customer of yours can save the date.

    After all, we cannot do everything and be everywhere all at once, but OpenAI can.

    If your customers missed the big day, OpenAI can create event summaries for you. You can even choose the length and format of the summary you want OpenAI to make.

    For example, we asked ChatGPT to create a 100-word summary of an October 2008 IMF town hall. In less than one minute, ChatGPT turned the 1,500-word opening remarks into a 100-word summary.

    ChatGPT text summary

    Alternatively, maybe you are trying to grow your podcast audience. To help your listeners who don’t have two hours a day to consume media, you can use OpenAI to recap your podcast episodes, hitting all of the highlights.

    Using transcripts, we asked ChatGPT to summarize the first 15 minutes of a popular podcast.

    Podcast summary from OpenAI

    Finally, some conference call tools, like Zoom and Google Meet, allow users to record their meetings with audio transcripts. You can then feed those transcripts into OpenAI and create meeting summaries in just a few seconds.

    7. Draft Blog Posts (and Seamlessly Integrate Them Into Your Workflows)

    For content writers (including us), few things are more stressful than a blank page. Thankfully, artificial intelligence is the sledgehammer that can break through any writer’s block.

    Using one of our blog post ideas from our previous recipe, we told OpenAI to draft a blog post for us.

    In this Automator recipe, a form submission (the trigger) tells OpenAI to draft a new blog post. Then, it messages the writer in Slack to let them know the draft is ready for them.

    Generate a post with OpenAI

    From your WordPress admin sidebar, simply go to WPForms » Add New.

    Then, create a new form with at least two number fields labeled ‘Temperature’ and ‘Maximum length.’ You will also need two single-line text fields labeled ‘Title’ and ‘Open AI Prompt’.

    WPForms OpenAI blog post draft

    Next, you must go to Automator » Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, select ‘Logged-in users’. Then, simply give your new recipe a title like ‘OpenAI Blog Post Draft’.

    In the ‘Triggers’ panel, you need to select ‘WPForms’ From the drop-down list that appears, you must choose ‘A user submits a form’ and pick the form you just created.

    OpenAI blog post generator

    When you are finished, make sure to click ‘Save’.

    Moving on, in the ‘Actions’ panel, you must select ‘OpenAI’. From the drop-down list that appears, choose ‘Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model’.

    In the editor, fill in the fields using the tokens from your form’s fields that match the fields in the editor. When you are finished, just click ‘Save.’

    How to use WPForms tokens with OpenAI prompts using Automator

    Now, it is time to set up an automatic blog post that will be created with the OpenAI content.

    In the ‘Actions’ panel, simply click ‘Add action’. Then, from the menu of available integrations, select ‘WordPress’.

    Automator WordPress integration

    Next, from the drop-down list, hit ‘Create a post’. In the editor, you must fill in the ‘Title’ field with the Title token from your form and enter the OpenAI Response token into the ‘Content’ field.

    Then, make sure to click ‘Save’.

    Create a post using Automator and OpenAI

    Optional: You can also add a ClickUp action to your recipe to create a task with the post URL in the description.

    Additionally, you can include a Slack action to notify your content writer that a new task and draft post is waiting for their review.

    Send a direct message to a Slack user

    Finally, in the top right corner, toggle your recipe from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live’.

    In our WPForms form, we then asked OpenAI to ‘Write a casual blog post on three ways to make dental visits fun for kids.’

    And here is the draft that Automator created with OpenAI’s response.

    OpenAI blog post

    We call that the anti- writer’s block recipe! You can also use AI to generate your SEO title, write a meta description, and even set up a featured image.

    8. Draft Emails in Minutes

    Writing carefully-worded emails takes time. Unless, of course, OpenAI is writing them for you.

    Whether you are sending out an internal notice, responding to a customer’s questions, or reaching out to prospective clients, OpenAI can draft your email in seconds. After that, it is just a matter of proofreading and including specific information.

    We prompted ChatGPT to “write a 300-word marketing email promoting a Black Friday sale on limited edition clothing.” Less than 30 seconds later, we had an email that we could easily customize to suit our branding and needs.

    ChatGPT Black Friday marketing email

    If you pair OpenAI with customer relationship management (CRM) apps, you will be drafting emails faster than your SMTP server can send them!

    9. Create Blog Post Summaries for Social Media

    Promoting your blog posts on social media is important. However, sometimes, writing the appropriate character-length tweets and captions can be even more challenging than creating a whole article.

    With OpenAI and Automator, you won’t have to stress about the perfect hashtags.

    Here is an example of an action that takes a new blog post and sends it to OpenAI to generate a summary that can be shared on Twitter:

    Create a post summary for Twitter

    Automator will send that summary, complete with hashtags, to our WhatsApp account. There, we can review, edit, copy, and then paste the content into our social media accounts when we are ready to publish it.

    For a post on connecting ChatGPT to LearnDash, OpenAI wrote this summary:

    Embrace the robot revolution and use OpenAI and LearnDash to create the e-learning platform of your dreams. #AI revolution is here! Harness the power of AI for your #elearning platform w/ OpenAI & ChatGPT models. Automate content creation, create course outlines & answer students’ questions. Save time & money w/ Uncanny Automator! #LearnDash #NolejAI #RobotRevolution.

    You could even extend your recipe to make Automator post the summary straight to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.

    OpenAI social sharing

    10. Generate AI Images for Your Posts or Landing Pages

    Are you tired of scrolling through stock photography databases trying to find the perfect image for your blog post? Or finding a picture and then realizing that every other article with your keywords is using the same image?

    Fortunately, OpenAI’s image generator DALL-E 2 can create original images from descriptive plain text.

    OpenAI’s Content Policy and Terms give you all of the rights to the images that you create with DALL-E 2, “including the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise.”

    Using our original WPForms form with an added field for an image prompt, we used Automator to create a draft blog post complete with a featured image.

    Generate AI images with Automator

    Here is that same blog post about dental visits with a featured image created by DALL-E.

    As you can see, it has a fun graphic with a tooth, toothpaste, and different toothbrushes.

    To make the process even easier, whenever you tell DALL-E to create an image using Uncanny Automator, Automator will add the image to your WordPress media library, with no hotlinking necessary.

    11. Create Course Outlines in Your LMS

    OpenAI is smart. After all, “intelligence” is in the name.

    With Uncanny Automator and a learning management system (LMS) like LearnDash, you can be just as smart as AI. Or, at least, you can create outlines for courses that will make you as smart as AI (if you do your assigned reading).

    We asked OpenAI to create an advanced 8-week course outline on supercomputers, which, funnily enough, is kind of like an OpenAI autobiography.

    OpenAI course outline

    Once you have your course outline, don’t forget to use AIOSEO’s OpenAI integration to write your meta description.

    12. Create Lessons in Your LMS

    Using a similar Uncanny Automator recipe to the previous one, you can easily fill in the course outline that you created with OpenAI-generated content.

    Automator recipe for an OpenAI lesson

    We used OpenAI’s response from our previous recipe to help us create this lesson.

    Here is the first part of it.

    ChatGPT lesson on supercomputers

    With the right prompts, you can also create a recipe that generates unique images for your lessons and uploads them automatically to your WordPress media library.

    Using Automator tokens, you can also set your new DALL-E 2 generated image as the featured image for your lesson or include it somewhere in the lesson itself.

    OpenAI supercomputer lesson with DALL-E image

    13. Create a Chatbot

    As a natural language processor, OpenAI loves to talk. You can use this feature to communicate with customers in your online store or business website.

    This can help you target users who are having problems on your site or want to learn more about your products and services.

    With the right recipe, you can actually turn OpenAI into a chatbot on your WordPress website. You can read this guide on how to create an AI-powered chatbot with OpenAI and Automator.

    14. Have Fun! Write Short Stories, Poems or Cook Up Recipes

    Once you have fully integrated OpenAI and Uncanny Automator into your workflows, you will have enough time to do the things that really matter like growing your business or spending more quality time with family.

    Playing around with OpenAI and trying out new things is a great way to learn how to create better prompts that get the results you are looking for, so you can continue to save time and optimize your workflows.

    OpenAI and WordPress plugin development are in the super early stages right now, and there is so much more in the works. We will be sharing more details and updates in this guide in the coming months.

    We hope this article helped you find some ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website. You may also want to see our guide on the best AI chatbots software for your website, or how to create an email newsletter to connect with visitors after they leave your website.

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    The post 14 Best Ways to Use OpenAI on Your WordPress Website first appeared on WPBeginner.