Do you want to convert your WordPress categories into custom taxonomies? Categories are one of the two default taxonomies that help you sort your content. However, WordPress also allows you to create and use custom taxonomies. In this article, we will show you how to easily convert WordPress categories into custom taxonomies.
Why and When Do You Need to Convert Categories to Custom Taxonomies
Categories and tags are the two default taxonomies in WordPress. Taxonomies are used to sort and organize content into different topics.
As your website grow, you might find a need to convert your categories into a custom taxonomy. For example, let’s say that you have a category called topics with a lot of sub-categories. It would be time-consuming to edit each post and file it under your new custom taxonomy.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could bulk convert some or all of your categories to the new custom taxonomy?
Let’s take a look at how you can easily convert categories to custom taxonomies without manually editing each post.
Converting WordPress Categories to Custom Taxonomies
Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Taxonomy Switcher page in your WordPress admin area to convert categories to custom taxonomies.
On this page, you can select the taxonomies you want to convert. For this tutorial, we will select ‘Categories’ as the taxonomy we want to switch from, and ‘Topics’ as the custom taxonomy we want to switch to.
If you want to convert all categories to a custom taxonomy, then you can go ahead and click on the ‘Switch Taxonomies’ button.
The plugin will convert all categories to your selected custom taxonomy. You will see a success message like this:
If you just want to convert specific categories, then you will need to add the IDs of those categories next to ‘Comma separated list of term ids to switch’ field. See our article on how to find category IDs in WordPress for more details.
Additionally, if you want to skip child categories of a specific category, then you can add the IDs of the parent category next to ‘Limit taxonomy switch for child terms of a specific parent’ option.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Switch Taxonomy’ button to save your changes.
Setting Up Redirects from Category to Custom Taxonomy
After you switch categories to a custom taxonomy, the category archive page will now show a 404 error page. This is nothing to be worried about if your website is not live yet.
However if your website is live, then search engines may have already crawled your category pages and indexed them. This means that those pages can appear in search results and users coming from search engines will see a 404 error page.
To fix this, you need to redirect users to the new taxonomy page for each category.
Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Redirection page. In the Source URL field, you need to enter /category/.* and in the Target URL field you need to enter your custom taxonomy slug, e.g. /topic/$1
Next, you need check the box next to ‘Regex’ option, and then click on ‘Add Redirect’ button.
This redirect will now send all category archive traffic to your custom taxonomy. Only use this, if you don’t want to use categories at all.
If you want to redirect individual categories to a custom taxonomy page, then see our beginner’s guide on setting up redirects in WordPress with detailed step by step instructions.
Recently one of our readers asked us if they can change their WordPress theme from the database. WordPress makes it extremely easy to manage themes from the admin area. However, if you are unable to access your WordPress admin area, then you will need to find other ways to change your WordPress theme. In this article, we will show you how to easily change your WordPress theme via phpMyAdmin.
Why and When You Need to Use phpMyAdmin?
Normally, the easiest way to change your WordPress theme is by visiting the Appearance » Themes page in WordPress admin area. However, sometimes a WordPress error can make your website admin area inaccessible.
In that case, the safest way to recover your website is by restoring it from backup. Another way is to troubleshoot the WordPress error causing the problem. In troubleshooting, the easiest way to switch themes is to make a backup of your existing theme via FTP, and then remove all theme folders from /wp-content/themes/ except for the default theme. WordPress will automatically revert to the default theme.
Both of the above methods will give you access to the WordPress admin area, and you will be able to change the theme.
However if you don’t have a backup, and you don’t want to revert to a default theme, then you can change to a custom WordPress theme from your database by using phpMyAdmin.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to change your WordPress theme via phpMyAdmin.
Changing Your WordPress Theme via phpMyAdmin
This method allows you to tell WordPress which theme to use by changing the information in the database. For this method to work, the theme you want to switch to must already be installed on your website.
You will need to connect to your website using a FTP client and go to the /wp-content/themes/ folder. There you will be able to see all the themes that are currently installed on your website.
Note: Write down the theme folder name that you want to switch to. You will need it in the next step.
After making sure that theme you want is installed on your website, you can now go ahead and change the theme via phpMyAdmin.
First, you need to go to cPanel dashboard of your WordPress hosting account. Next, scroll down to the databases section and then click on phpMyAdmin.
Once you are in phpMyAdmin, you’ll see a list of databases on the left side of the screen. Simply click on the database that you are using for your WordPress site.
Next, it will show you the list of tables in this database. You need to click on the ‘wp_options’ table to open it.
Note: By default, WordPress database tables use wp_ as the prefix for table names. However, it is possible to see a different database prefix if you or an administrator on your site had changed the WordPress database prefix.
Upon opening the table, you need to scroll down and locate ‘template’ and ‘stylesheet’ rows. Next, click on the Edit button next to the template row.
This will open the row editor where you need to change the value for the option_value field to the theme you want to use. It is usually the same as the folder name in /wp-content/themes/ folder.
After that click on the ‘Go’ button below to save your changes. Now, repeat the process for stylesheet row as well.
Once you have saved your changes, you can go to your website to see the new theme in action.
We hope this article helped you learn how to change WordPress theme via phpMyAdmin. You may also want to see our complete beginners guide to WordPress database management using phpMyAdmin.
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 learn how to accept credit card payments on your WordPress site? By default, WordPress does not come with credit card payment options, but there are plenty of plugins and tools that can help solve that. In this article, we will show you how to easily accept credit card payments on your WordPress site.
Note: You will need to enable HTTPS / SSL on your website to accept credit card payments.
Accepting Credit Card Payments in WordPress without Shopping Cart
Often users don’t want to setup a full-fledged shopping cart to accept credit card payments. This makes a lot of sense specially if you’re only selling a single product or accepting payments for consulting / services.
In this case, all you need is an online order form with a credit card payment option.
Here is how you can easily accept credit card payments without adding a shopping cart to your website.
WPForms is the most beginner friendly WordPress form builder plugin. While they have a Lite version that’s free, you will need their PRO plan to access the payment add-ons.
Upon activation, you need to visit WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information in your WPForms account area.
Next, you need to head over to WPForms » Addons page and locate the Stripe addon. Go ahead and click on the ‘Install Addon’ button and then click on the ‘Activate’ button.
Stripe is a credit-card processing platform that makes it easy for businesses to accept credit card payments on their website. WPForms makes it easy to connect your WordPress website to Stripe.
Once the Stripe addon is activated, we need to connect WPForms to your Stripe account. To do that, head over to WPForms » Settings page and click on the ‘Payments’ tab.
You will need to enter your Stripe API keys. You can find this information in your account settings on Stripe’s website.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Settings’ button to store your changes after entering the API keys.
WPForms is now ready to accept credit card payments. Let’s create an online billing or order form that you can add to your website for accepting credit card payments.
Head over to WPForms » Add New page. From here you need to provide a title for your form and then select ‘Billing / Order Form’ template.
WPForms will pre-load the form builder with a billing/order form template with commonly used fields. You can point and click to edit any form field. You can also add new fields from the left column.
Next, you need to scroll down to the Payment Fields section in the left column. From here you can add payment related form fields.
WPForms allows you to add multiple items as well as single items that users can order. You can click on the item field to change item details and pricing.
After editing item details, go ahead and click to add the credit card field to your form.
Now that your form is setup, let’s enable payments for this form. To do that, you need to click on the Payments tab on the left and then select Stripe.
You will need to click on the checkbox next to ‘Enable Stripe payments’ option and provide a description of the payment. Optionally, you can send an email receipt to your users by selecting the email field from the drop-down menu.
Next, you may want to receive an email notification for new orders and purchases. You can also send a confirmation email to notify the user that you have received their order.
Let’s setup notifications for your billing form.
You need to start with clicking the ‘Settings’ tab on the left and then select ‘Notifications’. You will notice that WPForms has already created a notification that sends an email to your WordPress admin email address when a new order is placed.
You can edit this notification message. For example, you can provide additional email addresses, change email copy, subject, and more.
If you want to send a separate notification to your users, then click on the ‘Add New Notification’ button.
You will be asked to provide a name for the new notification. Let’s call it ‘Customer Notification’. After that you will see the notification fields that you can edit.
You need to click on the ‘Show Smart Tags’ link next to ‘Send to email address’ option and select the ‘Email’ field. This allows WPForms to use the email address that your customer provided when submitting the form.
You can edit rest of the notification email by providing a subject line and message. You can also use smart tags to use the form fields submitted by the user to add item details, user’s name, and other personalized information.
Once you are done, you can click on the save button at the top and exit the form builder.
Your online credit card payment form is now ready, and you can add it to any WordPress page on your site.
Simply edit a page or create a new one, and then click on the ‘Add Form’ button above the page editor.
This will bring up a popup where you can select the order form and click on the add form button to continue. WPForms will now enter the required shortcode to your post edit area.
You can now save or publish your page and click on the preview button to see your form in action.
Note: Don’t forget to test your form to make sure everything is working fine. If you are unable to send or receive email notifications, then follow the instructions in our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.
WPForms is the simplest way to accept credit card payments in WordPress, and it is the easiest way to create just about any type of form in WordPress. This is why it ranks #1 in our list of the best WordPress contact form plugin. WPForms has over 1 million active installs and a 4.9 out of 5 star rating average.
If you don’t want to use Stripe, then you can also use PayPal to accept credit card payments using the WPForms PayPal addon.
However a simple payment form isn’t a perfect solution for everyone. Based on use-case, you may need a different solution for accepting credit card payments on your website. Here are some other ways to accept credit card payments in WordPress.
Accepting Credit Card Payments in an Online Store
If you want to add a shopping cart and sell multiple items, then you will need an eCommerce plugin like: WooCommerce. It is the best WordPress eCommerce plugin on the market. WooCommerce makes it easy to sell things online and accept credit card payments.
Accept Credit Card Payments on a Membership Website
If you want to build a membership website to sell membership subscriptions and paid content, then we recommend using MemberPress. It is the most powerful WordPress membership plugin that easily integrates with Stripe, PayPal, or Authorize.net to accept credit card payments on your website.
If you want to sell online courses, then we recommend using LearnDash. It is the best LMS plugin for WordPress and allows you to process credit card payments on your website.
Recently one of our readers asked if it was possible to allow contributors to edit their approved posts? WordPress user roles allow you to set different permissions for each user on your site. By default, a WordPress user with a contributor role can’t modify their published posts. In this article, we will show you how to let contributors edit their posts after being approved.
Let Contributors Edit Their Posts After Being Approved
Contributors or guest authors with contributor user role write posts and send them to review in WordPress. A user with the administrator or editor user role can review and publish it. Once published, the contributors are unable to edit their own posts. This is a generalized hierarchy in WordPress that distribute user role and status.
Upon activation, you need to visit Users » Capabilities in your WordPress admin area to edit capabilities of contributor user role.
On this page, you need to select Contributor role on the right side, so you can change their permission level.
Once selected, you’ll see a lot of options in this section. In the Editing Capabilities area, you need to select Edit Published option and scroll to the bottom to click on Save Changes button.
After that you can test the permissions by switching to a contributor role in WordPress and going to the Posts page. You will now see the option to edit published posts. Hint: you can instantly switch between user accounts while testing roles and permissions in WordPress.
Method 2: Manually Allowing Contributor to Edit Their Posts
This method requires you to add code to your WordPress files. If you haven’t done this before, then please take a look at our guide on how to copy and paste code in WordPress.
// get the "contributor" role object
$obj_existing_role = get_role( 'contributor' );
// add the "Edit published posts" capability
$obj_existing_role->add_cap( 'edit_published_posts' );
This code snippet needs to run only once which means you can save it and then delete it. It will allow contributors to edit their published posts in WordPress.
Even though we have shown you how to allow contributors to edit their published posts, we believe it is not a good practice to let contributors or authors edit their published content.
If there’s a need for any change or correction in the content, then the writer should ask an administrator or editor to update it. This allows you to maintain editorial integrity.
Before publishing a post, an editor checks multiple necessary elements like keywords, images, meta description, URL, and more. These things are important to get better rankings in search results. A user with a contributor user role may not be fully aware of your editorial best practices and can make mistakes that would go unnoticed if not reviewed by an editor or administrator.
One way to deal with this is by sharing a blog post checklist with your contributors and authors. This checklist will help them cover all the tasks before submitting a post to review. It will also help an editor to quickly review a post.
We hope this article helped you learn how to let contributors edit their posts after being approved. You may also want to see our guide on how to allow users to submit posts in WordPress without even accessing the WordPress admin area.
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 quiz plugins for your WordPress site? Many popular websites like BuzzFeed use quizzes to create viral content and boost user engagement on their websites. In this article, we have hand-picked the best quiz plugins for WordPress that will help you engage your users and increase time spent on your site.
LearnDash is the best WordPress LMS plugin on the market. It comes with a powerful Quiz feature which allows you to create any type of quiz that you need. It has multiple question types including: single choice, multiple choice, free text, sorting, matching, essay, fill-in-the-blank, and survey.
Some of the other features include: timed quizzes, randomized questions, question bank, multi-page quizzes, limit attempts, and more. Post quiz options include redirects, messages, quiz result displays in multiple styles, leaderboard, certificates, and levels.
Whether you are selling online courses or creating viral content, LearnDash is the most flexible WordPress quiz plugin for all types of quizzes.
TryInteract is a powerful web-based app to generate viral quizzes and use them to generate leads, build social media following, generate traffic, and improve conversions. It allows you to create highly interactive quizzes with a nifty drag and drop quiz builder.
You can choose different styles, colors, designs, and more than 100 ready-to-use quiz templates. It supports quiz branching which allows you to show questions based on user’s answers to previous questions. You can use their scoring system to easily show results at the end.
It can be easily added to your WordPress site using a simple shortcode and integrates beautifully with your email marketing and CRM software.
WP Quiz is a flexible and easy to use quiz plugin for WordPress. It comes with 3 quiz types: trivia, personality, and flip cards. You can add images to your questions and answers, allow users to restart quiz, show results at the end, and more.
WP Quiz comes with two styling options: multi-page or single page quiz. You have the ability to auto-scroll and add social sharing buttons. The pro version of the plugin allows you to force users to perform an action to view results, randomize questions and answers, countdown timer, and display ads.
Quiz and Survey Master is a flexible quiz plugin and WordPress survey plugin. This powerful two-in-one plugin may look a bit rough around the edges, but it makes up for it with excellent features and extensive documentation.
It supports multiple types of questions including multiple choice, true and false, fill the blanks and more. It also allows you to create multiple result pages, so you can customize them based on user score. It comes with email support, certificates, leaderboards, hints, comment boxes, and even more features available with paid add-ons.
mTouch Quiz is a mobile-friendly WordPress quiz plugin written with mobility and learning in mind. It supports hints, multiple correct answers, highlight correct answer during or after the quiz, restrict answer attempts, and more.
You can create customized start and finish screens as well as randomize questions. It also comes with point values for each question for show a score card at the end.
Quiz Cat is a free WordPress quiz plugin with an easy to use interface and great options to create viral quizzes for your website. It allows you to add images to each question and answer. You can also create a start and finish screen for your quiz.
Upon activation, the plugin will ask you to connect to their website API. However, it would work just fine without connecting to the API. It is easy to use with simple options that work really well.
HD Quiz is another awesome free quiz plugin for WordPress websites. It has a responsive design and allows you to create unlimited quizzes with as many questions and answers as you need. You can also use GIF images with your questions and answers to make them more interactive and fun.
Other notable features include quiz timer, question tooltips for hints, social sharing, use images as answers, scoring, and more.
ARI Stream Quiz allows you to use quizzes for lead generation by collecting user email address and name. It supports integration with MailChimp and other email marketing service providers. Apart from lead generation, the actual quiz builder features an easy to use interface to build your quizzes.
It uses ajax for faster performance, have multiple themes, social media integration, Open Graph support, and more.
Chained Quiz is a WordPress quiz plugin with the conditional logic feature where the next question in the quiz depends on user’s answer to the previous question. This allows you to create highly interactive personality quizzes that change dynamically.
It supports multiple choice, single choice, and essay answers. You can assign scoring to each correct answer and decide what to do when the user selects an answer.
Which is the Best WordPress Quiz Plugin?
After reviewing each of these plugins, we believe that LearnDash and TryInteract are the most comprehensive quiz building solutions in the market.
If you’re looking for a standalone solution to quickly build viral quizzes, then nothing beats TryInteract.
We hope this article helped you find the best quiz plugin for WordPress. You may also want to see our article on how to track user engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics.
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.
We are often asked by users whether they should install a WordPress plugin or add code to their theme’s functions.php file? Some users believe that adding code is always the better method for performance, but that’s actually not true. In this article, we will explain the pros and cons of WordPress plugin vs functions.php file and which method is better.
Installing WordPress Plugins vs Custom Code in Functions.php File
You will often find two solutions to add something to your WordPress site. You can either install a WordPress plugin or add a code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file.
Both methods will do the same thing, and they are both correct. However, many users want to know which one is better for WordPress speed and performance.
Some users feel concerned about installing too many plugins, and how it may affect their website speed and WordPress security. Others worry that adding custom code can break their website, and they may not be able to easily fix it.
Let’s compare both solutions to figure out which one is better for WordPress performance.
Pros and Cons of functions.php File
Functions file in WordPress allows theme developers to define custom functionality for their theme. This file acts like a giant WordPress plugin and can be used to add any other custom code snippets you may want to add to your website.
Here are the advantages of adding custom code to your theme’s functions.php file.
Pros
You can easily use built-in theme editor in admin area to edit functions.php file
You can copy and paste all code snippets in one file
You get a chance to study the code and learn how it works
However, there are also some disadvantages of using functions.php file to save all your custom functionality.
Cons
Your custom code will not work if you switch themes
Unless you are using a child theme, updating your theme will overwrite functions.php file
It becomes harder to understand where theme code ends and where your custom code begins
Some code snippets can be too large and need additional scripts and styles
Understanding Limitations of WordPress Functions File
Adding code snippets to your functions.php file will have the exact same impact on performance, that a WordPress plugin with the same code would have otherwise.
Not all functionality and features you need can be added to the functions.php file. For example, a custom code may need additional scripts and stylesheets to work properly.
We believe that the theme’s functions.php file should be used for what it’s intended purpose was: theme based functionality added by developers.
Pros and Cons of Installing WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins are like apps for your WordPress website. They contain code that hooks itself to the core WordPress software to provide more features and functionality.
Here are some advantages of using a WordPress plugin instead of adding code to your functions file.
Pros
A WordPress plugin doesn’t depend on your theme
If it is the same code, then it would have the same performance impact as functions file
It is easier to disable, update, or reinstall as needed
Easier to manage as you know what each plugin does from its description
Now, we are not saying that installing all WordPress plugins is good. There are some disadvantages as well.
Cons
You will have to install updates for another plugin
Plugin author could abandon the plugin in the future specially if it’s free
You wouldn’t get to practice with the code
WordPress Plugin vs Functions File – Which One is Better?
If there is a WordPress plugin with the same code, then we believe that using a plugin is a better choice.
In terms of performance, it does not matter where the code runs. Whether it loads from functions.php file or as a separate plugin, if it is the same code, then it will have the same performance impact.
Managing separate plugins is much easier than editing a single large functions file. Adding random code snippets in the same file even when they are not related or dependant on each other makes things complicated.
If you choose a plugin, then you can benefit from future updates which may improve performance, fix bug, or patch security vulnerability.
When Should I Add Code to Functions.php File?
If the functionality you are trying to add is not available as a plugin and the code snippet is really simple, then you can add it to your theme’s functions file.
Another possible scenario is when you are adding functionality that is related to your WordPress theme or child theme. For example, creating new image sizes, showing dates, adding custom code before or after content, and more.
If you often add custom code snippets to your website, then there are even better ways to do that. You can save them in a site-specific WordPress plugin or use Code Snippets plugin to organize all your custom code.
We hope this article helped you understand WordPress plugin vs functions.php file and which one is better. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide on how to choose the best WordPress plugins 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.
Are you seeing the ‘failed to open stream’ error in WordPress? This error usually points out the location of the scripts where the error has occurred. However, it is quite difficult for beginner users to understand it. In this article, we will show you how to easily fix the WordPress failed to open stream error.
Why Failed to Open Stream Error Occurs?
Before we try to fix the error, it would be helpful to understand what causes the ‘Failed to open stream’ error in WordPress.
This error occurs when WordPress is unable to load the file mentioned in website code. When this error occurs, sometimes WordPress will continue loading the site and only show a warning message, while other times WordPress will show a fatal error and will not load anything else.
The message phrasing will be different depending on where the error occurs in the code and the reason for failure. It will also give you clues about what needs to be fixed.
Typically, this message would look something like this:
Warning: require(/home/website/wp-includes/load.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/website/wp-settings.php on line 19
Fatal error: require(): Failed opening required ‘/home/website/wp-includes/load.php’ (include_path=’.:/usr/share/php/:/usr/share/php5/’) in /home/website/wp-settings.php on line 19
Here is another example:
Last Error: 2018-04-04 14:52:13: (2) HTTP Error: Unable to connect: ‘fopen(compress.zlib://https://www.googleapis.com/analytics/v3/management/accounts/~all/webproperties/~all/profiles?start-index=1): failed to open stream: operation failed’
Having said that, let’s take a look at how to troubleshoot and fix ‘failed to open stream’ error in WordPress.
Fixing Failed to Open Stream Error in WordPress
As we mentioned earlier, the error can be caused by a variety of reasons and the error message will be different depending on the cause and location of the file that’s causing the error.
In each instance, failed to open stream phrase would be followed by a reason. For example, permission denied, no such file or directory, operation failed, and more.
Now if your error message contains ‘no such file or directory’, then you need to look in the code to figure out which file is mentioned at that particular line.
If it is a plugin or theme file, then this means that the plugin or theme files were either deleted or not installed correctly. Simply deactivate and reinstall the theme / plugin in question to fix the error.
However, it is also possible that WordPress is unable to locate the files because of a missing .htaccess file in your root folder. In that case, you need to go to Settings » Permalinks page in your WordPress admin and just click on the ‘Save changes’ button to regenerate the .htaccess file.
If the error message is followed by ‘Permission denied’, then this means that WordPress does not have the right permission to access the file or directory referenced in the code.
Lastly, some WordPress plugins load scripts from third-party sources like Google Analytics, Facebook APIs, Google Maps, and other third-party APIs.
Some of these APIs may require authentication or may have changed the way developers can access them. A failure to authenticate or incorrect access method will result in WordPress failing to open the required files.
If none of these tips help you resolve the issue, then follow the steps mentioned in our WordPress troubleshooting guide. This step by step guide will help you pinpoint the issue, so you can easily find the solution.
We hope this article helped you fix the WordPress ‘failed to open stream’ error. You may also want to bookmark our list of the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.
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 convert WooCommerce visitors into customers? Bringing traffic to your WooCommerce store is only half the battle, the other half is to convert those visitors into paying customers. In this article, we will show you how to easily convert WooCommerce visitors into customers like a pro.
Why I Need to Conversion Optimization for My WooCommerce Store
However, more than 75% visitors who find your website through search engines will never find it again. Those who stick around, only a small percentage of them will add products to the cart.
In the end, more than 69% shopping carts are abandoned without making the purchase. Shipping costs, complicated checkout experience, and bad design are among the top reasons for abandoned carts.
Now, considering these statistics, your eCommerce website will continue losing potential customers if you don’t work on converting those visitors into customers.
How do I Convert Visitors into Customers?
The process and technique that are used to convert visitors into customers is called conversion rate optimization (CRO). Marketers and usability experts use CRO to successfully drive visitors to become a customer or a potential customer.
Basically, you remove obstacles that affect a user’s experience on your website. You also incentivize users to make a purchasing decision.
Lastly if a user must leave without making a purchase, then your goal is to try and get their information through lead generation. This allows you to communicate with them via email and offer personalized messages, special discounts, or new product announcements.
In early days of eCommerce, you would have needed programming skills to work on all these but not anymore. Now you have tools that make it extremely easy to do all these things without writing code or acquiring any new technical skills.
That being said let’s take a look at how to convert WooCommerce visitors into customers.
This tutorial is about WooCommerce, so we will be using it in our screenshots. However, all these techniques would also work on any other eCommerce platform including Shopify.
We will be using the OptinMonster tool. It is the best conversion optimization software on the market and helps you easily convert WooCommerce visitors into customers.
OptinMonster is a paid service, and you will need at least their Pro plan to access all the features mentioned later in this article.
Ready? let’s begin.
Disclosure: We believe in full transparency. WPBeginner founder, Syed Balkhi, is also the co-founder of OptinMonster. We only recommend tools that we personally use and believe will add value to our readers.
This plugin is just a connector between your WooCommerce store and OptinMonster.
Upon activation, you need to click on the OptinMonster menu item in your WordPress admin sidebar. You will be asked to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on OptinMonster website.
You have now successfully connected your WooCommerce store to OptinMonster, and you can now start optimizing your conversion rates.
Creating Your First WooCommerce Conversion Optimization Campaign
Let’s create your first WooCommerce conversion optimization campaign using OptinMonster. Our first campaign will reduce shopping cart abandonment rate while increasing conversions at the same time.
Visit the OptinMonster page in WordPress admin area and then click on ‘Create New Campaign’ button.
This will take you to the OptinMonster website where you will be asked to select a campaign type and a campaign template. For this tutorial, you need to select lightbox as your campaign type. We will be using the ‘Coupon’ template in this tutorial, but you can use any template that you like.
As soon as you select a template, you will be asked to provide a name for your campaign and enter the website address where you will be using it.
After entering this information, click on the ‘Start Building’ button to continue.
This will launch the OptinMonster builder interface with a live preview of your popup. You can simply point and click on any item to edit it.
As you can see we are using a popup that collects user’s email address. You can connect OptinMonster to your favorite email service provider by clicking on the integrations tab.
From here you can add a new integration to connect with your email service by following the on-screen prompts.
Next, you need to choose which users will see the popup and when.
Click on the ‘Display Rules’ tab from the left menu, and OptinMonster will show you a list of default display rulesets that you can use.
First, click on the ‘Exit Intent’ ruleset to expand it, and then make sure it is active. Exit-Intent basically detects user’s behavior and prompt them with a message at the precise moment they’re about to leave.
When a visitor adds a product to the cart, WooCommerce automatically sets a cookie ‘woocommerce_items_in_cart’ in their browser with the number of items in their cart.
We only want to show our popup to users who have products in their cart. To do that, scroll down a little and then click on ‘Select visitors with a specific cookie’ ruleset to expand it.
This ruleset allows you to trigger a campaign when a specific cookie is found. From here you need to switch the status toggle to ‘Active’.
First, option in this ruleset is to show when a cookie name is matched. After that, click on ‘Add a condition’ button and select ‘Cookie value’ does not exactly match 0.
Lastly, click on the save button at the top right corner of the screen to save your changes and then click on the publish button next to it.
Your campaign is now ready to be served on your WooCommerce store. You just need to click on the ‘OptinMonster’ tab in your WordPress admin area and then click on ‘Campaigns’ tab.
You will see the campaign you just created listed there. If you don’t see your campaign, then click on the ‘Refresh campaigns’ button.
Next, you need to click on the ‘Go Live’ link below your campaign.
That’s all your lightbox popup is live now. To test it out, you will need to open a new browser window in the incognito mode and visit your store. Simply add a few products to your cart and then try to leave.
Congratulations! you have just set up your first conversion optimization campaign targeting users who are about to abandon their cart and leave without purchasing.
Other Campaign Ideas to Boost WooCommerce Conversions
OptinMonster is a powerful tool with tons of different campaign styles that you can use with a wide range of display rules. This allows you to target customers with highly effective messaging at the perfect time.
Here are some more campaign ideas that can help you boost WooCommerce conversions.
Using Multiple Campaign Types
OptinMonster comes with several campaign styles including lightbox popups, slide-in scroll box, floating bar, countdown timer, sidebar forms, in-line forms, and more.
You can maximize your WooCommerce conversion rates by using multiple campaign types. For example, you can target users leaving your website with an Exit-Intent ® popup while showing other campaigns throughout your store.
Page Level Targeting
OptinMonster allows you to display your campaigns on any page on your website. This page can be a product, product category, a blog post, homepage, or a landing page.
Simply go to OptinMonster page in your WordPress admin area and click on the ‘Edit output settings’ link below your campaign.
This will show you a variety of page level targeting options that you can use. It also includes WooCommerce specific targeting options.
Apart from these options, you also have display rulesets in the OptinMonster app which provide even more page level targeting options.
Peronalization and Behavioral Targeting
Personalization helps you improve user experience by making it more personal for each user. Behavioral targetting allows you to target your campaigns based on customer behavior.
For example, you can greet logged in customers with their name, show them products based on their browsing history, offer them discount or coupon.
Edit your campaign in the OptinMonster app and click on the ‘Display Rules’ tab. Scroll down to the ‘Who should see the campaign’ section, and you will find a treasure of targeting options.
Click on any of these options to expand them. From here you can activate the ruleset and set it up.
Using FOMO to Increase WooCommerce Conversions
FOMO or ‘fear of missing out’ is a psychological term used to describe anxiety about missing out on something exciting and trendy.
As an eCommerce store owner, you can take advantage of this human behavior with your marketing strategy and improve your conversions.
OptinMonster comes with the countdown timer templates, floating bars, and coupon themes that you can use to build up FOMO in your marketing campaigns.
Combine it with behavioral targeting and customization to make your campaigns even more effective.
Do you want to add a custom post status for your blog posts in WordPress? Post status is an editorial tool that allows you to organize your articles based on their respective stages during the editorial workflow. In this article, we will show you how to easily add custom post status to blog posts in WordPress.
What is Post Status in WordPress and Why Do You Need it?
Post status is an editorial tool that tells WordPress the stage of a blog post during editing. For example, posts that are incomplete are saved with the post status labeled ‘Draft’. When you publish an article, the status changes to ‘Published’.
Post status helps WordPress choose how to handle and display blog posts on your website. For example, it will automatically exclude posts labeled draft from your homepage and other publicly viewable areas of your website.
By default, WordPress comes with the following post status that you can use:
Draft – An item that is saved but incomplete and not yet published
Auto draft – WordPress has an auto-save feature that automatically saves a draft as revision.
Pending review – Items that are complete and submitted for review but not yet published.
Inherit – Child pages that automatically inherit status of their parent page.
Apart from these default post statuses, you can also create your own custom post statuses to improve your editorial workflow. For example, you can add a label ‘Not suitable’ for posts that are complete but not suitable for publication.
Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily create custom post statuses in WordPress.
Method 1. Create Custom Post Status Using a Plugin
This method is easier and recommended for most users. It allows you to create custom post statuses as well as efficiently manage editorial workflow on your multi-author WordPress blog.
Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled ‘Edit Flow’ to your WordPress admin menu. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s settings page.
Edit Flow comes with a lot of useful features, and you can turn them On/Off from this screen. Go ahead and click on the ‘Edit Statuses’ button under ‘Custom Statuses’ box to continue.
Edit Flow automatically creates the following custom post statuses:
Pitch – Used to pitch new article ideas and this status also becomes the default post status of every new post.
Assigned – You can select an author and mark an article as assigned so that the author can work on it.
In progress – Writer is working on the post but is not yet available as a readable draft.
You can create your own custom status by providing a name and description in the left column. Once you are done, click on the ‘Add new status’ button to save your changes.
Your custom status will now appear in the right-hand column, so you can edit or delete it at any time.
Next, you need to go to Posts » Add New page to create a new post. On the post edit screen, click on the ‘Edit’ link next to status option under the ‘Publish’ meta box.
This will reveal a drop-down menu showing all post statuses that you can select including the custom post status you just created.
You can also see all articles filed under different post statuses by visiting Posts » All Posts page.
Method 2. Create Custom Post Status Using Code
WordPress has a known bug in the API used to register custom post statuses. It allows you to create custom post status, but you cannot use it in the admin panel. This means that the coding method can get the job done, but it is not as clean, and you will need to change it after it is officially fixed.
However if you still want to do it manually, then you can continue reading.
This method requires you to add code to your WordPress site. If you haven’t done this before, then take a look at our guide on how to copy and paste code in WordPress.
// Registering custom post status
function wpb_custom_post_status(){
register_post_status('rejected', array(
'label' => _x( 'Rejected', 'post' ),
'public' => false,
'exclude_from_search' => false,
'show_in_admin_all_list' => true,
'show_in_admin_status_list' => true,
'label_count' => _n_noop( 'Rejected <span class="count">(%s)</span>', 'Rejected <span class="count">(%s)</span>' ),
) );
}
add_action( 'init', 'wpb_custom_post_status' );
// Using jQuery to add it to post status dropdown
add_action('admin_footer-post.php', 'wpb_append_post_status_list');
function wpb_append_post_status_list(){
global $post;
$complete = '';
$label = '';
if($post->post_type == 'post'){
if($post->post_status == 'rejected'){
$complete = ' selected="selected"';
$label = '<span id="post-status-display"> Rejected</span>';
}
echo '
<script>
jQuery(document).ready(function($){
$("select#post_status").append("<option value=\"rejected\" '.$complete.'>Rejected</option>");
$(".misc-pub-section label").append("'.$label.'");
});
</script>
';
}
}
Don’t forget to replace all instances of the word rejected with your own custom post status.
This code registers a custom post status and after that, it uses jQuery to add it to the admin panel. You can now edit a WordPress post, and you will be able to see it in the status drop-down menu.
Do you want to start a WordPress blog the right way? We know that starting a blog can be a terrifying thought specially when you are not geeky. Guess what – you are not alone. Having helped over 130,000+ users start a blog, we have decided to create the most comprehensive guide on how to start a WordPress blog without any technical knowledge.
There are three things you need to start a WordPress blog:
A domain name idea (this will be the name of your blog i.e wpbeginner.com)
A web hosting account (this is where your website live on the internet)
Your undivided attention for 30 minutes.
Yes, you read it right. You can start a blog from scratch in less than 30 minutes, and we will walk you through the whole process, step by step.
In this tutorial, we will cover:
How to Register a Domain Name for Free
How to Choose the Best Web Hosting
How to Install WordPress
How to Change Your Theme
How to Write Your First Blog Post
How to Customize WordPress with Plugins
How to Add a Contact Form
How to Setup Google Analytics Tracking
How to Optimize Your Website for SEO
How to Make Money From Your Blog
Resources to Learn and Master WordPress
Ready? Let’s get started.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
Step 1. Setup
The biggest mistake beginners make when starting a blog is choosing the wrong blogging platform. Thankfully you’re here, so you won’t be making that mistake.
For 95% of users, it makes more sense to use WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress. Why? Because it is free to use, you can install plugins, customize your site design, and most importantly make money from your site without any restrictions (see the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org).
You might be wondering why is it free? What’s the catch?
There’s no catch. It’s free because you have to do the setup and host it yourself.
In other words, you need a domain name and web hosting.
A domain name is what people type to get to your website. It’s your website’s address on the internet. Think google.com or wpbeginner.com
Web hosting is where your website live. It’s your website’s house on the internet. Every website needs web hosting.
A domain name typically costs $14.99 / year, and web hosting normally costs $7.99 / month.
That’s a lot for beginners who are just starting out.
Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.
Bluehost is one of the oldest web hosting companies, started in 1996 (that’s before Google). They are also the largest brand name when it comes to WordPress hosting because they host millions of websites including our own.
On top of all this, Bluehost has been working with WordPress since 2005, and they are committed to giving back. That’s why they have promised us that if you cannot get your blog online within 30 minutes by following this tutorial, then our expert team will complete the process for you without any cost. They will compensate us, so you don’t have to. Contact us for free blog setup help.
NOTE: At WPBeginner we believe in transparency. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral link, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money and get a free domain). We would get this commission for recommending just about any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we use personally use and believe will add value to our readers.
Let’s go ahead and purchase your domain + hosting.
First thing you need to do is click on the green Get Started Now button to get started.
On the next screen, select the plan that you need (basic and plus are the most popular).
After that, you will be asked to enter the domain name for your website.
Lastly, you will need to add your account information and finalize the package info to complete the process. We recommend going with the 36 month plan because that’s best value.
On this screen, you will see optional extras that you can purchase. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you purchase these, but we generally don’t recommend purchasing them right away. You can always add them later on, if you decide that you need them.
Once completed, you will receive an email with details on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel). This is where you manage everything from support, emails, among other things. But most importantly, this is where you install WordPress.
Step 2. Install WordPress
In the cPanel, you will see dozens of small icons for different services and features. This can be a bit overwhelming, so ignore 95% of them because you will never need to use them.
Scroll down to the website section and click on the WordPress icon.
You will be redirected to the Bluehost Marketplace Quick Install screen for WordPress. Click on the Get Started button.
On the next screen, you will be asked to select your domain name. Choose the domain from the dropdown and then click Next.
After that, you need to enter your Site Name, username, and a password for your site. You also need to check all the checkboxes and then click Install.
The QuickInstall will start installing WordPress. The marketplace will prompt you to browse WordPress themes, while WordPress is being installed.
No need to do that right now. We’ll show you how to get free WordPress themes in the next step.
Once WordPress is finished installing, you will see the success notice in the top header bar.
Click on the Installation Complete link, and it will take you to the screen with your WordPress login URL and password.
Congratulations, you have created your WordPress site. That wasn’t too bad right.
Click on the WordPress login link to login to your dashboard.
Now we’re ready to customize your site’s appearance and start blogging.
Step 3. Selecting your WordPress Theme
The visual appearance of your WordPress blog is controlled by themes. When you first visit your blog, it will look something like this:
This is not very appealing to most people.
Customizing the look and feel of your blog is by far one of the most exciting and rewarding part in the journey of creating your WordPress site.
There are thousands of pre-made WordPress themes that you can install on your site. Some of them are free, while others are paid.
You can change your theme by going to your WordPress dashboard and clicking on Appearance » Themes.
Go ahead and click on the Add New button.
On the next screen, you will able to search from 5600+ free WordPress themes that are available in the official WordPress.org themes directory. You can sort by popular, latest, featured, as well as other feature filters (i.e industry, layout, etc).
You can take your mouse over to a theme and you will see a Preview button. Clicking on will open the theme preview where you can see how it would look on your website.
The preview of your theme may not look exactly as shown in the screenshot, which is normal as you will get to customize and set it up later. What you need to look for is design, colors, typography, and other elements.
The best tip to select the perfect WordPress theme is to strive for simplicity in design. It helps you keep things clean and clear while offering a good experience to your users.
When you have found the theme that you like, simply bring your mouse on it, and it will show the Install button. Click on it and wait for the theme to be installed. After that, the install button will be replaced with an Activate button. You need to click on it to Activate the theme.
Once you have installed your theme, you can customize it by clicking on the Customize link under the Appearance menu.
Once you have selected your WordPress theme, you are now ready to create your first blog post.
Step 4. Creating Your First Blog Post
To write your first blog post, click on the Posts » Add New menu in your WordPress dashboard.
You will see an editor area where you can write your first blog post.
Once you’re done writing, go ahead and click on the Publish button on the right to publish your first blog post to the world.
On the posts screen, you will notice several other sections such as Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your blog posts. We have a great writeup on the difference between categories vs tags, which we highly recommend that you read.
Often beginners are confused between posts and pages menu in the WordPress dashboard. That’s why we have written a complete guide on the difference between posts vs pages in WordPress.
Step 5. Plugins & Customizations
Once you have written your first blog post, you probably want to get started with adding other usual elements on your website such as contact forms, galleries, sliders, etc.
To add all these additional features, you need to use plugins.
WordPress plugins are apps that allow you to add new features to your website.
There are over 55,000 WordPress plugins available in the free WordPress plugin directory alone. This means no matter what you want to accomplish, there is a plugin for it.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to use plugins to add some essential features to your WordPress blog.
How to Create a Contact Form in WordPress
Every website needs a contact form. It allows your users to contact you directly. Since WordPress doesn’t come with a built-in contact form, you will need a WordPress form builder plugin to add a contact form on your site.
We recommend using the WPForms Lite plugin. It is free version of the popular WPForms plugin, which is #1 in our list of best contact form plugins for WordPress.
You can install the plugin by going to Plugins » Add New page and typing WPForms in the search box. Next, you need to click “Install” and then “Activate”. Upon activation, you need to head over to WPForms » Add New page to create your first form.
This will open the WPForms builder interface.
First, you need to enter a name for your contact form and then click on ‘Simple Contact Form’ template.
WPForms will now create a simple contact form for you with all the required fields. You can click on any field to change it, or add a new field from the left column.
Once you are done editing the form, click on the save button at the top right corner and then exit the form builder.
You can now create a new page in WordPress by going to Pages » Add New and call it ‘Contact’. On the edit screen, you will notice a new ‘Add Form’ button.
When you click on it, it will bring up a popup where you need to select the form you created earlier and then click on the add form button.
WPForms will now add the form shortcode into your page. You can now save and publish the page and visit it in your browser to see your contact form in action.
Google Analytics helps you see how many people are visiting your blog, where they are coming from, and what are they doing on your website?
It is best to install Google Analytics when starting your blog, so you can see how much your blog has grown over time.
First, you need to visit Google Analytics website and sign in using your Gmail account.
Once you are logged in, you can go ahead and sign up for a free Google Analytics account.
You will be asked to provide your information and website URL. After that, you will be presented with your Google Analytics tracking code.
You can stop here because we will be using a plugin to automatically fetch and add this code to your blog.
Switch to your WordPress admin area to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. It is the free version of the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, and it is the easiest way to add Google Analytics on your site.
Upon activation, you need to visit Insights » Settings page to configure the plugin settings.
On the settings page, click on the ‘Authenticate with your Google account’ button to connect Google Analytics to your WordPress site.
Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the setup. Once done, you will be able to see your website analytics report straight from your WordPress dashboard under the MonsterInsights tab.
Most beginners don’t optimize for SEO when creating a blog. SEO or search engine optimization helps users find your blog in search engines. If you want more traffic, then it’s crucial that you optimize your blog for SEO from the beginning.
To get started, first you need to install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin. It is the complete WordPress SEO plugin that will help you optimize your blog.
Upon activation, you will see a new menu item labeled ‘SEO’. Clicking on it will take you to the plugins settings page.
The plugin comes with a quick configuration wizard to help you walk through the set up. You can also follow the instructions in our Yoast SEO guide for manual set up.
We also recommend you to follow our complete step by step WordPress SEO guide to set up your blog’s SEO.
More WordPress Plugins and Customizations
There are a ton of others WordPress plugins that you can install. Often beginners find it a bit overwhelming to search for the plugins they need.
At WPBeginner, we often feature the best WordPress plugins to help you add the functionality that you need.
Here is our expert pick of the best WordPress plugins that you should check out.
Security – Sucuri Security is a free security scanner for WordPress. We have a complete step by step WordPress security guide for beginners that will help you secure your blog.
If you are curious about the plugins and tools we use on our site, then check out WPBeginner’s Blueprint. It has all the plugins and tools that we use on the WPBeginner blog.
Now that you’ve built your blog and customized it to your liking, you are probably wondering how can I actually make money from my blog?
There are actually a lot different ways to successfully monetize your blog. However there is no such thing as a get rich quick scheme.
Don’t be fooled by the pictures of expensive cars and mansions because those are all fake.
Unlike other “make money online” articles, we have created the most comprehensive guide on how to make money from your blog using WordPress.
That’s a 4000+ word guide that everyone who starts a blog and wants to make money from it needs to read. We have shared our 14+ years of online wisdom in that ultimate guide.
As long as you’re willing to put in the hard work and effort, you’ll reap the reward. Remember, there are no shortcuts.
Here are some of the best ways to make money from your WordPress blog.
1. Google AdSense
Many bloggers make money by showing ads on their blog. If you make a blog with monetization in mind, then Google AdSense is the best way to do this.
It is the largest advertising platform for bloggers and publishers. Acting as a middleman between you and the advertiser, Google allow advertisers to bid for keywords matching your content. This allows you to get the best rates possible for the ads.
Affiliate marketing is the second most commonly used monetization strategy among bloggers. Basically, you recommend products and services to your readers and when they make a purchase you get a referral commission.
The key in affiliate marketing is to recommend high-quality products and services that you already use and trust. There are plenty of affiliate marketing plugins and tools for WordPress that can help you make more money when promoting affiliate products.
We have a complete step by step affiliate marketing guide for beginners, that will help you get started.
3. Online Store
Many bloggers make money by selling things directly from their blog. This could be physical products, digital downloads like ebooks, artwork, music, and more. Some bloggers even offer consulting services.
That’s not all you can do with your WordPress blog. You can make WordPress blogs specifically for reviews, fashion blogging, food blogging with recipes, and more. Each of these blog types brings you more unique opportunities to make money.
Step 7. Mastering WordPress
WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.
At WPBeginner, our main goal is to provide cutting-edge helpful WordPress tutorials that are easy to understand for small businesses, bloggers, and non-techy WordPress website owners (see more about us).
To expand your WordPress knowledge, you should check out:
WPBeginner Dictionary – The best place for beginners to start and familiarize themselves with the WordPress lingo
WPBeginner Videos – New to WordPress? Watch these 23 videos to master WordPress.
WPBeginner Blog – The central place for all our WordPress tutorials.
You can also subscribe to WPBeginner’s YouTube Channel where we regularly share video tutorials to help you learn WordPress.
Lastly, you can use Google to type your question and add WPBeginner in front of it. Our users find this very helpful because you’ll likely find an answer to any WordPress questions that you have.
In case you don’t find an answer to your question, simply use our contact form to send us a message. We love helping users get started with WordPress.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Having helped thousands of people start a blog, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about creating a blog.
Can I create a blog without WordPress?
Yes, there are several other blogging platforms available. We have compared them all, and WordPress is by far the best solution in the market to make a blog with complete ownership and freedom.
Can I create a blog without hosting?
No, that’s not possible. Web hosting is where your website files are stored. All websites need web hosting.
If you want to have a public-facing blog but want to remain anonymous, then you need to make sure that your domain has WHOIS privacy turned on. Often people use a pseudonym / nickname to write under. You should also create a unique email just for your blog. It goes without saying, don’t post your pictures or anything on the blog. For more detailed instructions, see our article on how to blog anonymously using WordPress.
Social media plays an important role in bringing new visitors to your website and keeping your followers engaged. WordPress has plenty of great social media plugins that you can use. These plugins allow you to easily add social sharing buttons to your website and engage your audiences across platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.
Can I create a blog in my own language?
Yes, you can use WordPress in other languages. You can select your language during installation or from Settings page in WordPress admin area. WordPress is fully translated in more than 56 languages and partially translated into dozens of other languages. Many top WordPress themes and plugins are also available in multiple languages. You can also translate a theme or a plugin that you want to use on your website.
Yes, you can. WordPress comes with a user role management system that you can use to create a multi-author blog.
Can I sell online courses from my WordPress blog?
Yes, you can. WordPress has some of the best LMS plugins to make it happen. You can create a blog and sell courses online from your WordPress blog. For detailed step by step instructions, see our guide on how to create an online course with WordPress.
Can I create a membership based WordPress blog?
Yes, you can. WordPress has some powerful membership plugins, that allow you to easily restrict any content you want and limit it to members only. You can create paid memberships with multiple levels and sell premium content to your paid subscribers. For details, see our ultimate guide to building a WordPress membership website.
