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24 Best WordPress Themes for Membership Sites

best wordpress themes, Showcase, wordpress membership templates, wordpress membership themes, WordPress Themes

Are you looking for the best WordPress themes for membership websites. Unlike blogs and business themes, membership websites need a wide-variety of templates to use in different membership areas. In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best WordPress themes for membership sites.

WordPress themes for membership sites

Making a Membership Website with WordPress

WordPress is the top website builder in terms of popularity and global usage.

There are two types of WordPress, and it’s important that you choose the right one for your membership site. See the difference in our WordPress.com vs WordPress.org comparison chart.

We recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you all the powerful features without any limitations.

To start a membership website with WordPress, you’ll need a domain name, website hosting, and a SSL certificate (you need it to accept payments online). You can buy them from different companies and prices may vary from one company to another.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest hosting companies and officially recommended by WordPress. They have agreed to offer our users a free domain, free SSL, and 60% off web hosting.

Once you have purchased hosting, you will need a WordPress membership plugin. We recommend using MemberPress which is the best WordPress membership plugin in the market. It will turn your WordPress site into a full-fledged membership and subscriptions based community.

We have created a complete guide on how to make a WordPress membership website with step by step instructions for beginners.

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress themes for membership websites that you can try.

1. Public Opinion

Public Opinion

Public Opinion is a magazine style WordPress theme for content rich websites including membership sites. Its homepage and category pages are designed to showcase your content in a beautiful grid layout. It has a primary navigation menu below the header and a secondary menu on top with an additional social profiles menu.

It comes with dedicated spots to easily add Google AdSense ads. You can choose custom layouts, and it also includes a full-width page to use with any WordPress page builder plugin. All theme options are located under the customizer allowing you to make changes with live preview of your website.

2. Ultra

Ultra

Ultra is the ultimate all-purpose WordPress theme designed to create any kind of website without editing any code. It includes several ready-made website designs that you can install with full demo content. It is also equipped with a powerful drag and drop page builder to edit existing pages or create new page layouts.

This theme is packed with features like custom widgets, social media integration, multiple header styles, unlimited layout combinations, and more. It is ecommerce ready and works well with MemberPress or any other WordPress membership plugin.

3. Hive

Hive

Hive is a minimalist WordPress theme focused on readability and a clean design. It features grid layout for your homepage and archive pages. It also includes a full width page template to use with your favorite page builder plugin.

It is designed to work out of the box and all theme settings are located under the customizer. It is translation ready and can also be used to create a multilingual websites.

4. Blockchain

Blockchain

Building a membership website for a cryptocurrency community? Blockchain is a WordPress theme to build cryptocurrency websites. It features a beautiful modern design with a fully functioning cryptocurrency exchange rates module.

It also includes custom post types for projects, services, case studies, and job listings. Inside you will also find custom widgets, page templates, full support for page builders, and more. It is very easy to set up and customize with built-in customizer.

5. Binder Pro

Binder Pro

Binder Pro is a multi-purpose WordPress business theme suitable for membership websites. It includes ready to use modules that you can just drag and drop to create your own unique page layouts.

It comes with several turn key website designs that can be installed with 1-click. Other notable features include contact form support, pricing tables, Google Fonts, custom widgets, social media icons, and full WooCommerce support.

6. Shoppe

Shoppe

If you want to run an online store with your membership website, then you’ll love Shoppe. This WooCommerce WordPress theme comes in 4 website skins, multiple layouts, several header styles, and unlimited colors. It also ships with an integrated drag and drop page builder to quickly create landing pages.

It is easy to set up with a quick 1-click demo installer, custom theme dashboard, and live customizer. It is super flexible and allows you to customize layouts and design of any page or post without affecting rest of your website.

7. Latest

Latest

Latest is another beautifully designed WordPress theme for ecommerce and membership websites. It comes with a highly engaging homepage design that can be automatically populated with recent posts or your top selling products.

Its main features are beautiful typography, beautiful handling of images, and detailed product pages. It is designed to work out of the box and requires minimum set up. All theme options are available under customizer where you can set up your theme in minutes.

8. Spencer

Spencer

If you are looking for a professional WordPress business theme for your membership site, then take a look at Spencer. This clean and elegant theme is designed for businesses with a flexible design. It has custom widgets, unlimited colors, multiple layouts, and support for all essential WordPress plugins.

Spencer includes a widgetized homepage where you can just drag and drop widgets to set it up. It also has a sticky navigation menu on top with a clear call to action to convert visitors into customers. It is beginner friendly and quite easy to use.

9. Elegant

Elegant

Elegant is a clean and modern WordPress theme for business and membership websites. It has multiple homepage styles available in 6 color schemes and quick 1-click demo content importer. It also ships with an integrated page builder allowing you to create any layout you want.

Other notable features include multi-column layouts, social icons, portfolio section, contact form, and full WooCommerce support. It has a custom theme settings page which walks you through theme set up.

10. Lenscap

Lenscap

Lenscap is a magazine style WordPress theme suitable for content rich membership websites. It has a beautiful homepage layout with a customizable header showcasing your best content and categories. It has templates for product pages with beautiful image galleries.

It works out of the box and only includes options you’ll actually use, which makes it quite easier to set up for beginners. Inside you will also find a getting started page with instructions to set up your website with this theme.

11. Loft

Loft

Loft is a powerful WordPress eCommerce theme suitable for membership websites. Loft comes with multiple homepage styles for eCommerce, blog, business, and portfolio layouts and they all look equally beautiful.

It has a sticky navigation menu, call to action buttons, custom widgets, and multiple page templates. It also includes content types to add services, portfolio, team members, and testimonials. Theme set up is quite simple and easy to follow even for beginners.

12. Checkout

Checkout

If you are creating a pay per view website or membership website with digital downloads, then you will love the Checkout theme. It is a WordPress eCommerce theme that works beautifully with MemberPress and Easy Digital Downloads.

Checkout includes beautiful page templates for your posts and pages. It also includes portfolio, team members, contact page, customizable headers, and crisp typography. It is quite easy to use and takes very little time to set up.

13. Composition

Composition

Composition is a WordPress theme for stock photography websites. It can be used to sell your photographs and illustrations with a subscription option using a membership plugin. It features a stunning homepage layout with a fullscreen background image and a search box.

It includes beautiful templates to display your articles in masonry grid layout. You can also visually rearrange homepage items and add portfolio, blog, newsletter, and more. It is fully widgetized and allows you to design your website with simple drag and drop.

14. The Thinker

The Thinker

The Thinker is a premium WordPress theme for bloggers, magazine, and membership websites. It is a simple and minimalist theme with beautiful typography and gorgeous display of featured images.

It includes multiple page templates, several widget-ready areas, premium WordPress slider, contact form support, and more. It is beginner friendly and can also be used to create a multilingual website.

15. Noozbeat

Noozbeat

Noozbeat is a WordPress news and magazine theme ideal for subscription based online publications and membership websites. It’s homepage features masonry grid layout of your top content, custom logo upload, and dedicated spots to display ads.

It comes with full color control, category templates, custom widgets for social media and content discovery, and multiple layout options. You can use it with your favorite page builder plugin to create custom page layouts in WordPress.

16. Mesmerize

Mesmerize

If you are looking for a free WordPress theme for your membership website, then checkout Mesmerize. This beginner friendly WordPress theme comes with flexible options allowing you to easily create a professional looking website without any coding.

It features a beautiful homepage with 5 header designs and over 30 ready to use content sections that you can customize. Some other notable features included are video background, slideshow background, header content types, gradient overlays, and more.

17. Indigo

Indigo

Indigo is an excellent WordPress multi-purpose theme with flexible features. Its homepage features two navigation menus, featured slider, 3-column widget area, sticky menu, featured categories, and more.

It also includes custom widgets to add popular posts, recent tweets, newsletter signup form, social icons, and more. It has magazine, blog, two column, and three column layouts with 6 color schemes to choose from.

18. Cactus

Cactus

Cactus is another free WordPress theme that can be easily used to build a membership website. It has 10+ content areas where you can just drag and drop widgets to create your homepage.

It has a sticky floating navigation menu on top, which is followed by a slider and your top content sections. It is tested with popular page builder plugins and it is WooCommerce ready out of the box. It has full support for multilingual websites using Polylang plugin.

19. Silk

Silk

Silk is a WordPress theme for fashion blogs and websites. It features a stylish modern homepage layout with minimal distractions which makes your content pop out. It has two navigation menus on top, followed by featured content slider, and your recent posts in a grid layout.

It uses beautiful typography and includes several custom widgets for popular posts, newsletter signup, photo galleries, and more. It has a floating social sharing bar for single posts with a sticky widget area that remains on the screen as users scroll down.

20. Flash

Flash

Flash is another great free WordPress theme for membership websites. This modern multi-purpose WordPress theme is WooCommerce ready and comes with beautiful design that looks very clean and professional.

It has its own companion plugin, which allows you to easily import demo content into your website. It also includes multiple blog layouts, page builder templates, multiple header styles, multiple color choices, and more.

21. Digital Pro

Digital Pro

Digital Pro is a clean and professional WordPress business theme. It is built on top of the Genesis theme framework, which is known for its rock solid code, speed and performance. It is ideal for membership websites offering digital content and downloads.

Theme homepage is fully widgetized and you can just drag and drop widgets to set it up. It has theme options panel, 3 custom widget areas, customizable header, and full WooCommerce support.

22. Specialty

Specialty

If you are building a WordPress membership website for online job board, then check out Specialty. This theme is designed as a job board theme with front-end job post submission form for job hunters. Its home page features a quick job search form followed by the recent listings.

It works with any page builder plugin and includes several page templates that you can utilize to create landing pages. Other notable features include custom widgets, social icons, blog page template, and more.

23. Paperback

Paperback

Paperback is a magazine style WordPress theme that can be easily used for content-rich membership websites. Its homepage features a featured content area on the top, followed by different sections of your website. It is optimized for better readability with beautiful typography and spacious layout.

Paperback is designed to work without too much tinkering with the theme. It only includes the options you will actually use, which makes it quite easy to set up.

24. Float

Float

Float is a multi-purpose WordPress theme that can be used for any kind of websites. Its main feature would be the beautiful parallax background effects on the homepage which create a very engaging user experience.

Float includes several pre-designed demos that can be imported with 1-click. It offers a variety of layout combinations and comes with an integrated page builder. For theme set up you can use the custom theme options panel which walks you through everything. After initial set up you can customize every aspect of your website with simple point and click.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress themes for membership sites. You may also want to see our ultimate step by step WordPress SEO guide for beginners.

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 24 Best WordPress Themes for Membership Sites appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Use the Plugin Organizer to Speed Up Your WordPress Site

wordpress plugin optimizer, WordPress Plugins, wordpress speed optimization

After WordPress hosting, plugins are the second biggest reason that can cause your WordPress site to be slow. Often times this can be mitigated by either disabling the plugin or stop it from loading in areas where you don’t need them. In this article, we will show you how to use the Plugin Organizer to speed up your WordPress site.

Using Plugin Optimizer to speed up WordPress

How WordPress Plugins Affect Your Website Speed?

One of the most frequently asked questions that we get is how many WordPress plugins are too many? The two things that concerns most users are WordPress security and how plugins may affect speed and performance?

All good WordPress plugins are coded in a way that they are only loaded on your website when needed. You can see our infographic on how WordPress actually loads plugins (behind the scenes).

WordPress doesn’t load inactive plugins which means they don’t affect your website’s performance. However, it does load all active plugins which then run their code when needed.

Now sometimes plugin authors cannot anticipate when and where you will use their plugin features on your website. In that case, they may load their code whether or not you need it. If the plugins are loading JavaScript and CSS files, then this may increase your website’s page load time.

How WordPress Plugin Organizer Can Speed Up Your Site

Depending on the plugins that you’re using, there may be some that you only need on specific pages, posts, or post types. Some plugins you may only need in the WordPress admin area, so they shouldn’t load on the front-end of the website.

WordPress Plugin Organizer allows you to do the following things:

  • Selectively enable or disable plugins based on URL
  • Enable or disable plugins for user roles
  • Enable or disable plugins based on post types
  • Rearrange the order in which plugins are loaded
  • Disable plugins and only load them when needed

Basically, it gives you the ability to fine-tune your website performance.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to use the Plugin Organizer to speed up WordPress.

Using WordPress Plugin Organizer to Manage Active WordPress Plugins

First, thing you need to do is install and activate the Plugin Organizer plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Important: Plugin organizer is a very powerful plugin. Reordering or disabling plugins can cause conflicts and unexpected behavior which could make your site inaccessible. We recommend that you create a complete WordPress backup before disabling or reordering any plugins.

Once you are ready, you need to head over to the Plugin Organizer » Settings page to configure your settings.

Plugin organizer settings

There are several options on this page, and we will look at each option, what it does, and which ones you should turn on.

Fuzzy URL Matching

This option allows you to enable/disable plugins on child URL. This means that settings will affect http://example.com/sample-page/ and all subsequent URLs under it. For example, http://example.com/sample-page/child-page1/ and http://example.com/sample-page/child-page2/.

Ignore URL Protocol

This option is turned off by default. It allows the plugin organizer to ignore http and https part of plugin URLs. This is particularly helpful if you have SSL enabled on your WordPress site.

Ignore URL Arguments

This option allows you to ignore URL arguments. For example, http://example.com/page/?foo=1&bar=2 is a URL with arguments. Turning on this option is only helpful on URLs with arguments. You should leave it OFF in most cases.

Only allow network admins to change plugin load order?

If you are running a WordPress multisite network, then turning on this option will only allow Network Administrator to rearrange plugin order. We highly recommend that you turn this on if you have a WordPress multisite network.

Custom Post Type Support

This option allows you to select the post types where you want to enable/disable plugins. This option is particularly useful if you have plugins that you only need for specific post types.

Auto Trailing Slash

This option adds or removes the trailing slash at the end of plugin filter URLs based on your WordPress permalink settings.

Selective Plugin Loading

This option allows you to selectively load plugins even if they are disabled in plugin settings. You need to turn on this feature if you want to enable or disable plugins on individual content types.

To properly use this option, you need to add a must use plugin or mu-plugin in WordPress. MU plugins can be added to any WordPress site, and they are activated by default. The plugin will try to create an MU plugin itself, but if it fails then you will need to create it. We will show you how to do that later in this article.

Selective Mobile Plugin Loading

This option allows you to selectively enable or disable plugins on mobile browsers.

Selective Admin Plugin Loading

You can turn on this option if you want certain plugins to only load inside the WordPress admin area.

Disable Plugins By Role

This option allows you to disable plugin by user roles. You can turn on this option and then select user roles that you want to use in the next box.

Don’t forget to click on the save settings button to store your changes.

Creating an MU Plugin for Plugin Organizer

Plugin Organizer needs an MU plugin to work properly. The plugin will try to automatically add it to your website, but if it fails then you will have to create it yourself.

To find out whether the plugin has successfully created the MU plugin. You need to visit Plugins » Installed Plugins page. You will see a new link labeled Must-Use, clicking on it will show you the installed MU plugins on your site.

Must Use plugins installed in WordPress

If you don’t see the plugin or Must-Use plugins link, then this means that the plugin organizer failed to create the file, and you will need to manually do it yourself.

First, you need to connect to your website using an FTP client or File Manager app in cPanel.

Next, Go to the /wp-content/mu-plugins/ folder. If you don’t have a mu-plugins folder in your /wp-content/ folder, then you need to create one.

After that you need to go to /wp-content/plugins/plugin-organizer/lib/ folder and download the file called ‘PluginOrganizerMU.class.php’ to your computer.

Copy MU plugin file

Next, you need to go to the /wp-content/mu-plugins/ folder and upload the file from your computer.

Plugin Organizer mu-plugin file

The Plugin Organizer can now you use this file to properly manage your plugins efficiently. You can go ahead and continue with plugin settings.

Set up Global Plugin Options

Plugin Organizer allows you to activate plugins but keep them disabled. To set up which plugins remain active and which plugins are disabled, you need to go to the Plugin Organizer » Global Plugins page.

Set plugins to disable globally

You will see your installed plugin on the left. Active plugins will be highlighted and displayed on top. If you want to disable a plugin, then you can simply drag and drop it to the Disable column.

This will disable the plugins without deactivating them.

You can re-enable the plugin you disabled for individual post types, single post or page items, individual URLs, from different pages in the plugin settings. We will walk you through each of them later in this article.

Enable or Disable Plugins on Search Results Page

To disable or enable certain plugins on search results, you will need to visit the Plugin Organizer » Search Results page.

Disable plugins on search results page

On this screen, you need to simply select a plugin from the left column and drop it to the disable column. You will notice that the disable column has different boxes. You will need to click on the box where you want to disable the plugin. For example, adding a plugin to ‘Disabled Standard’ box will disable the plugin for all users on all pages.

If you previously set a plugin to be disabled globally, and you want it to be loaded on search results page, then you can simply drag and drop it from disabled plugins column back to available plugins.

Enable plugins on search results page

Selectively Enable / Disable Plugins for Custom Post Types

To control which plugins work on certain post types, you need to visit Plugin Organizer » Post Type Plugins page.

Enable or disable plugins for post types

First, you will select the post type where you want to apply the changes. After that, you can drag and drop plugins from available items column to the disable column.

You can also enable a plugin that you have disabled in Global Plugins page by dragging it from the Disabled column to the available items.

Group Plugins and Change Plugin Load Order

By default, WordPress loads your current active plugin files alphabetically. This alphabetical order may sometimes cause conflicts if you have plugins depending on each other’s code.

For example, if you have a plugin file apple.php which relies on functions in another plugin called zebra.php, then you may need the zebra.php file to load first so that apple.php works properly.

Plugin Organizer allows you to manually change the plugin order and group plugins. However, be very careful as this could make your website inaccessible.

To rearrange the plugin load order, you need to visit Plugin Organizer » Group and Order Plugins page.

The plugin organizer will display your plugins in default alphabetical order, and you can rearrange the order by simple drag and drop.

You can also group plugins together by selecting ‘Create new group’ from the drop down menu at the top. Next, you need to enter a name for the group and select the plugins you want to add in it.

Creating a plugin group

Once you are done with the group, click on the Submit button to continue. Plugin organizer will now create a plugin group for you.

Now if you go to the Plugins page, then you will see a new link named after your group name. When you click on it, you will see all the plugins inside that group.

Plugin group list on the plugins page

Creating Plugin Filters with Plugin Organizer

Plugin Organizer allows you to enable or disable plugin based on URL. To do that you need to create Plugin Filters. These filters will allow you to enable or disable plugins that match specific URLs.

First you need to go to the Plugin Organizer » Plugin Filters page and click on ‘Add Plugin Filter’ link.

Add plugin filter

This will bring you tothe add new plugin filter page. You will need to provide a name for your plugin filter and then add permalinks (URLs) that you want to be affected by this filter.

Creating a plugin filter

You can add multiple URLs by clicking the Add Permalink button.

Under the settings section, you can choose whether this filter will also affect child URLs of permalinks you have added. You can leave the priority field blank.

After that, scroll down to the ‘Plugins’ section. Here you can drag and drop plugins from the available items to Disabled boxes.

Disable plugins based on URL filters

Similarly, you can also drag and drop a plugin from the disabled column to available items to make a plugin load when this filter is matched.

Additionally, you can save this filter inside a filter group. Filter groups are like categories. Their purpose is to help you sort similar plugin filters together.

Organize your filters in groups

Once you are done, click on the publish button to make this plugin filter active. It will start working as soon as you click on the publish button.

Enable or Disable a Plugin on a Single Post or Page

Plugin Organizer also allows you to load or disable plugins on a single post, page, or custom post type item. First you need to make sure that you have enabled the post type support on Plugin Organizer » Settings page.

Post types enabled

Next, go ahead and edit the post, page, or custom post type you want to change. On the post edit screen, scroll down to the ‘Plugin Organizer’ section.

Plugin organizer section on post edit screen

You will see the plugin organizer settings with your plugins. You can drag and drop plugins to disable them or drag disabled plugins to available items to make them active.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes or update button to store your changes.

Troubleshooting Plugin Organizer Issues

Plugin Organizer plugin is used to change the default behavior of WordPress plugins on your website. Your settings may cause unexpected results including fatal errors, syntax errors, or white screen of death.

A quick way to resolve those issues is by deactivating all your WordPress plugins via FTP. This will deactivate plugin organizer as well.

To uninstall Plugin Organizer, simply delete the plugin from the plugins page. This will not only delete the plugin itself, but it will also delete all plugin settings. You can then reinstall the plugin if you want.

For most errors, see our comprehensive list of most common WordPress errors and how to fix them. If the error you are seeing is not listed, then try our step by step WordPress troubleshooting guide to find the cause of the error and possible solutions.

We hope this article helped you efficiently use WordPress plugin organizer to speed up your WordPress site. If you want to just install best of the best plugins, then see our list of must have WordPress plugins for all websites.

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 How to Use the Plugin Organizer to Speed Up Your WordPress Site appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Add a Cookies Popup in WordPress

cookie notification plugin for wordpress, EU cookie law, EU cookie law popup in wordpress, WordPress Plugins

Do you want to add a cookies consent popup in WordPress? The European Union’s cookie law requires websites to get user consent to set any cookies on their computers. As a WordPress website owner, your website may be using cookies as well. In this article, we will show you how to add a cookies popup in WordPress.

How to add cookies consent popup in WordPress

How WordPress Uses Cookies?

By default WordPress uses cookies for authentication purposes to store session information for logged in users. It also sets a cookie when someone leaves a comment on your site.

Apart from these, WordPress plugins can set their own cookies to store different information. For example, WP Favorite Posts plugin shows a user’s favorite posts by storing them in a cookie.

While cookies are extremely useful, they can also be used to collect information about a user and share it with third party advertising platforms.

This is why in Europe and few other countries, website owners are required to let users know about their usage of cookies. If your website is based in one of those countries or mainly targets audiences in those regions, then you need to show a cookie consent disclaimer on your website.

Cookies notification popup displayed on the BBC website

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily display a cookie consent popup in WordPress.

Showing a Cookie Consent Notification in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Cookie Consent plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Cookie Consent page to configure plugin settings.

Cookie consent notification settings

On this page, you can control when and where you want to show the cookie consent notification. You can also select how you would like it to be closed.

In other settings, you can show or hide it for people visiting from specific geographic locations and set an expiration time for the cookie.

The default settings would work for most websites. Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Next, you need to switch to the ‘Content’ tab. This is where you can edit the content that will be displayed to your users in the notification.

Edit cookie consent notification content

Here you also need to select your privacy policy page. If you haven’t already created a privacy policy page, then you can follow our guide to create a privacy policy page in WordPress and then select it here.

Once you are done, click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Changing the Appearance of Your Cookie Consent Notification in WordPress

Your cookie consent popup is almost ready. You just need to setup how you would like it to be displayed.

First you need to visit Settings » Cookie Consent page and then click on the Styles tab.

Cookie consent popup notification style

On this tab, you can choose the position, colors, borders, and style for your cookie consent popup notification. You can also set a container class and then add custom CSS for your popup.

Once you are finished, click on the save changes button to store your settings.

You can now visit your website to see your cookie consent popup in action.

Cookie consent popup on a WordPress website

We hope this article helped you add a cookie consent popup to your WordPress site. You may also want to see our ultimate step by step WordPress SEO guide for beginners.

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.

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10 Highest Performing Google AdSense Banner Sizes & Formats for Your WordPress Site

Beginners Guide, google adsense, google adsense ad formats, google adsense ad types, google adsense banner sizes

One of the most common questions beginners ask after signing up with Google AdSense is which are the highest performing Google AdSense banner sizes? Some Google AdSense ad formats are more noticeable which means they get more clicks and bring more revenue. In this article, we will show you the highest performing Google AdSense banner sizes and formats, and where to place them for best results.

Google AdSense Banner Sizes

How to Properly Setup Google AdSense Ads in WordPress?

Before getting started, you will need to sign up for a Google AdSense account. Once you have signed up, see our guide on how to properly add Google AdSense in WordPress.

By default, you can easily place AdSense ads in your website’s sidebar. Some WordPress themes may also have dedicated areas to display ads.

However, the best way to manage your Google AdSense ads in WordPress is by using an ad management plugin. We recommend using AdSanity, it is super easy to use and allows you to easily insert ads into sidebars, post content, and anywhere else you want.

Why Some Google AdSense Banner Sizes and Formats Work Better?

Google AdSense comes with several banner sizes and ad formats that you can add on your website. However, not all of them produce the same level of results.

Ads that are closer to the content and easily visible upon page load will get you a higher CTR (click through rate). You need to make sure that you choose the ad size that is easily noticeable. Some of the Google AdSense ad sizes are too small and some could be too large to affect user experience.

Next, factor that affects ad performance on your website is how many advertisers are running ads for that format. Some ad formats and banners are more popular among advertisers which means using them gets you a larger inventory and better paying ads.

Lastly, some ad formats are optimized for mobile devices. If mobile users make the most of your traffic, then these ads are going to perform better on your website than other sizes.

Top Performing Google AdSense Banner Sizes and Formats

Most website owners try different banner sizes to determine which formats work best for their websites. Google AdSense engineers also continuously run their own tests to see how ads are performing on participating websites.

We have done several testing with Google AdSense over the years on our own websites. Below are the top performing Google AdSense banner sizes and ad formats that offer the best value for your advertising real estate.

1. The Medium Rectangle (300×250)

Medium rectangle

This ad format supports both display / text ads, and it can also be used on mobile layouts. The best part about this ad size is that it’s easy to fit in the sidebar or inside the content area without annoying users.

That’s why this ad format gets a larger ad inventory which means more and better paying ads for your site. Since it’s perfectly-sized for in-content ads, it is also reported to have the best CTR for most websites.

2. Large Rectangle (336×280)

Large rectangle

Large rectangle takes the second position on our list. It is larger and more noticeable than the medium rectangle ad above, but it may not fit in all website sidebars and is not mobile optimized.

If your website’s sidebar or content area is a bit narrow, then the ad could squeeze the content which is not good for user experience.

That being said, the large rectangle could easily outperform medium rectangle on your website if placed inside the content area in between paragraphs. It supports both image and text ads.

Due to its size and ideal placement next to content, this ad size gets a better ad inventory as well.

3. The Leaderboard (728×90)

Leaderboard

The leaderboard is a traditional banner ad size that is perfect for website header. It supports both text and image ad formats but doesn’t support mobile ads.

Since the leaderboard is ideal to be placed on top (inside or immediately after the website header), it gets more ads which means better ads for your website. Due to its size and prominent placement, it performs fairly well on most websites.

4. Half Page aka Large Skyscraper (300×600)

Half page

Large Skyscraper is a wide vertical banner also known as half page due to its size. It gets attention from advertisers who want more ad space to effectively communicate their message during retargeting.

It is becoming more popular among publishers because it tends to give more exposure for brands which means better paying ads.

You can place the large skyscraper in the sidebar or next to the content. However, due to its size it may not be a good fit for all websites.

5. Large Mobile Banner (320×100)

Mobile banner

Large mobile banner is a mobile ad format, and it is an equivalent of the leaderboard ad format in terms of effectiveness but for mobile devices. Ideally it works best when placed on top just below the header.

Since mobile traffic makes up a good chunk of users for most websites, this ad format gets a better ad inventory.

It can be placed as a less intrusive ad and as an alternate to the medium rectangle ad format.

6. Mobile Leaderboard (320×50)

mobile leaderboard

Mobile leaderboard is half in height compared to the large mobile banner ad format. It is slightly less effective but also less intrusive and offers even better ad experience on smaller mobile devices.

Mobile ads are popular among advertisers which means it gets a sizable ad inventory. With proper placement, it can work really well with your mobile traffic.

7. Wide Skyscraper (160×600)

Skyscraper

The wide skyscraper is a vertical banner ad that is designed specifically for narrow sidebars. It supports both image and text ad formats and is popular among advertisers.

It is a less intrusive ad option and can easily blend in with your website design. However, it is less effective than wider half page banner ads which tends to draw more user attention towards ad.

8. Portrait (300×1050)

Portrait

Portrait is a slightly wider and longer vertical banner. Due to its size, this ad format attracts brand-centric advertisers who want more ad space for their message.

It is ideally placed next to the content or in the sidebar where it is more noticeable as your users scan the contents of your page. The tricky part is to implement it without affecting user experience on your website.

9. The Billboard (970×250)

Billboard

The billboard is another brand-centric ad format. It is a wide horizontal banner ad that can be ideally placed on top or bottom of your pages. It tends to get better ads due to the space it offers to the advertisers, but it has a smaller ad inventory.

Depending on the content and keywords of your website, it could be a hit or a miss if it fails to attract enough ads for your website.

10. The Square (250×250)

Generally larger ads are considered more noticeable. However, not all websites are designed in the same fashion. If you are using a minimalist WordPress theme, then this small square ad format could beautifully fit in your layout and still be noticeable.

The downside is that it has a smaller ad inventory which could result into low paying ads. However, if your website is in a competitive industry, then it can work really well without affecting user experience.

More Tips to Make the Most out of Your Ad Space

We are often asked by users how they can make more money with Google AdSense? Since each website is different, there is no single perfect answer to this question.

Here are some tips to make sure that you are fully utilizing your website’s potential when using Google AdSense to generate revenue.

  • Test different ad placements – Try different ad formats to figure out which formats give you a better CTR and which formats give you better ads.
  • Display multiple ads – Google AdSense allows you to use up to 3 ad units on a page. Try different placements and ad formats to test which combinations work best for you.
  • Think of users first – While ad revenue is important for the survival of many websites, you also need to think of your users. Placing ads in a way that affects user experience would affect your website’s user engagement as well as your WordPress SEO.
  • Optimize website performance – Research shows that faster websites usually get more engaged audience which means higher CTR for your ads. See how to speed up WordPress and boost performance.

We hope this article helped you find the highest performing Google AdSense banner sizes and formats. You may also want to check out our comprehensive guide on other ways to make money online to supplement your Google AdSense income.

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 10 Highest Performing Google AdSense Banner Sizes & Formats for Your WordPress Site appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Start a Fashion Blog (and Make Money) – Step by Step

Beginners Guide

Are you looking to start a fashion blog but don’t know where to begin? It is easy to start a blog, but the difficult part is to be successful and make money from it. In this article, we will show you how to start a fashion blog as well as share tips on how to make money from your fashion blog.

Starting a fashion blog and making money

Why You Should Start a Fashion Blog?

If you are passionate about fashion and style, then you must have seen some top fashion bloggers and influencers on Instagram.

These fashion blogs not only provide a platform to the bloggers, but they also bring lots of opportunities their way. You will be surprised to discover the many ways fashion bloggers make money from their blogs.

According to Harper’s Bazaar, designers and top brands spend over a BILLION dollar each year advertising on Instagram alone.

Top 10 Fashion Blog Examples That Are Crushing it in 2018

Top fashion blog examples

Apart from money, a fashion blog allows you to express yourself in the most creative way. Here are some of the top fashion blog examples that you can follow for inspiration.

  1. We Wore What – (Danielle Bernstein)
  2. Sincerely Jules – (Julie Sariñana)
  3. The Blonde Salad – (Chiara Ferragni)
  4. Gal Meets Glam – (Julia Engel)
  5. Song of Style – (Aimee Song)
  6. Kayture – (Kristina Bazan)
  7. Wendy’s Lookbook – (Wendy Nguyen)
  8. Atlantic-Pacific – (Blair Eadie)
  9. The Chriselle Factor – (Chriselle Lim)
  10. Gary Pepper Girl – (Nicole Warne)

One thing you’ll notice about each of the top fashion blog examples above, is that they all have their own unique voice, personality, and taste in fashion. These fashion bloggers bring their own unique perspective to highlight their favorite products, merchandise, and brands.

If you believe that you have a unique take on fashion and style, then you should definitely start a fashion blog.

While setting up the fashion blog part is easy, like all important things in life making the blog popular and monetizing it requires effort.

However if you do it right, then you’ll certainly find the experience to be rewarding and fulfilling.

What You’ll Need to Start Your Fashion Blog

Fashion blogging

First, you need to choose the right platform to build your own fashion blog. You have plenty of choices, but each one of them have its own pros and cons (see our comparison of the best blogging platforms).

For example, you can start a free blog on a platform like WordPress.com, Tumblr, Blogger, etc.

These are called free blogs, and they are very limited in terms of features and flexibility when it comes to growing your personal brand. Most important limitation is your ability to make money from your content.

What about Starting a Fashion Blog with Instagram?

Instagram is awesome, but you don’t own it. You can build a huge following and all of this can go away immediately if Instagram decides that your content violated some of their policy.

We are not saying that you shouldn’t use Instagram. You must use it to build a large audience, but you will need a central platform that you can control where you can keep the audience coming back for years to come.

The best way to build your fashion blog is by creating your own website with complete ownership and full control.

Now the question is, how could a beginner with no knowledge of coding can build a website?

This is where WordPress.org comes in. It is a powerful website builder which gives you absolute control and full ownership of your website. It’s important not to confuse WordPress.org with WordPress.com. They’re two different platforms. (See our comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org for more details).

There are three things you need to start a fashion blog using WordPress.org:

  1. Domain name – This will be your website’s address and what users will type in browser to visit your blog (Example, wpbeginner.com).
  2. Web hosting – This will be your blog’s home and where you will store all your website files.
  3. Your undivided attention for 30 mins

Yes, you can start a brand new fashion blog in 30 minutes, and we’ll walk you through the whole set up step by step.

In this tutorial, we will cover the following:

  • How to Register a Domain Name for Free
  • How to Choose the Best Web Hosting
  • How to Install WordPress
  • How to Find the Perfect Theme (website design) for Your Fashion Blog
  • How to Add Content to Your Fashion Blog
  • How to Get More Visitors to Your Fashion Blog
  • How to Make Money from Your Food Blog
  • Resources to Learn WordPress and Grow Your Fashion Blog

Ready? Let’s get started.

Setting up a Fashion Blog Using WordPress

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.

Luckily, our friends at Bluehost are offering a free domain, a free SSL, and a 60% discount on hosting to our readers.

Basically, you can get started for as low as $2.75 / month.

← Click here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost offer →

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 setup your web hosting + domain so you can get started.

First you need to go to the Bluehost website and click on the get started button.

On the next screen, you will be asked to choose a plan. We recommend either the basic or plus plans. You can always upgrade later if you need to.

Next, it will ask you to choose a domain name for your website.

Choose domain name

Domain name is your website’s address and this is what your users will type in their browsers to visit your blog.

You need to choose a domain name that reflects your personal voice. It should be unique, creative, and interesting. For more details, see our tips on choosing a great domain name for your website.

After you enter your domain name, you need to fill out your details to complete the purchase.

You will receive your account details in an email sent to the address you provided during signup. This email contains your web hosting dashboard link and login information.

Once you have purchased hosting, the next step is to install WordPress. You can do that by following the instructions in our step by step guide on how to start a blog.

Choosing a Design for Your Fashion Blog

Fashion blog design examples

A blog about fashion and style cannot just go with a plain looking business or blogging layout. Your website needs a design that represents your unique sense of style and creativity.

Most fashion bloggers are not website designers, so how do create a website design that is unique, elegant, stylish, and of course creative?

Luckily there are thousands of pre-made WordPress templates that you can choose from.

Our editors have hand-picked the best WordPress themes for fashion blogs that you can check out. All themes in the list feature creative designs with flexible options to easily make them uniquely yours. Most importantly, all of them are responsive (aka mobile friendly) which means they look good on mobile and tablets as well.

Each of these themes comes with its own settings page. This is where you will set up the theme, add your website logo, choose colors, and select basic settings.

Depending on which theme you choose, you will find tons of customization options. We recommend striving for simplicity in your website’s design for a cleaner look.

Add Useful Content To Your Fashion Blog

Gal Meets Glam - a top fashion blog

Once you have a functioning design in place, you can start working on content. We recommend adding the static content first.

Static content are pages that are common among all websites on the internet. This includes a contact form page, about us page, and a privacy policy page.

If your theme includes a page builder plugin, then you can use it to create other static landing pages as well.

Next, you would want to start adding articles / blog posts. See our guide on how to add a new blog post in WordPress and utilize all the features.

Now, this is where you will develop your own voice. Your blog posts need to be entertaining, informative, and helpful. Running a blog means, you will need to regularly come up with new ideas for your blog posts. Check out these 73 types of blog posts that are proven to work, and you can easily adapt them for your fashion blog.

We recommend choosing a consistent frequency for your articles. Busier and larger websites post new content every day. You can start by adding a few posts per week and then gradually increase your frequency to daily updates.

To come up with regular blog post ideas, visit popular blogs in the fashion industry to gather inspiration. See what these top blogs are doing and replicate it on your blog.

Hashtag fashion on Instagram

We are not saying that you should just steal / recreate the same content.

You just need to gather topics, collect ideas, and get inspiration. After that you should use those ideas on your blog by adding your own unique voice, style, and flavor to it.

Optimize Your Fashion Blog to Get More Visitors

Once you start adding useful content, the next step is to make sure that users can find your website.

Here is how you ensure that your website gets visitors and those visitors engage with your content.

Start Working on Your Website’s SEO

Improve your blog SEO

Most popular blogs get a large portion of their traffic from search engines like Google and Bing. Marketers use SEO, Search Engine Optimization, to optimize their website for higher rankings.

WordPress itself is quite SEO friendly out of the box, but there are still things you can do to further optimize it. Follow our step by step WordPress SEO guide for improving your website ranking.

Improve Website Speed

Improve your blog speed

Speed is one of the most important factors that affects user experience on your website. It also affects your website’s search engine rankings as Google considers speed one of the top ranking factors.

You can make your website significantly faster by implementing certain performance tweaks in WordPress. We have created a complete step by step guide on how to speed up WordPress and boost performance.

Track User Engagement

Following user activities on your blog

Things your users do after arriving on your website are called user engagement. Highly engaged audience means, more page views and more success for your fashion blog.

This is where you’ll need Google Analytics. It tells you where your visitors are coming from, what they do on your website, and how you can keep them coming back.

Simply head over to our tutorial on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress, and it will start tracking your website traffic.

Google Analytics offers a lot of data. How do you figure out where to look for the information you need?

To answer this question, we have a separate article on how to track user engagement in WordPress using Google Analytics.

Start Making Money from Your Fashion Blog

Making money from your fashion blog

Ever wondered how fashion bloggers afford their clothes, makeup, and accessories? Actually, they don’t have to. Most successful fashion bloggers promote sponsored content where brands pay them to promote products.

Paid and sponsored content is the major source of revenue for many fashion bloggers. Here we will list the most effective ways you can start making money from your fashion blog when you’re first starting out.

1. Display Ads Using Google AdSense

Most websites on the internet rely on ads to generate revenue. Google AdSense allows you to easily display ads on your website and make money from your blog even when you’re just starting.

See our step by step guide on how to properly add Google AdSense in WordPress for detailed instructions.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing allows you to recommend products you love. You get a referral commission when your users purchase a product after clicking on your link.

To make money with affiliate marketing, you will need to find fashion products and brands with an affiliate program. The biggest affiliate partner you can sign up for is Amazon Affiliates. They have tons of products in fashion, clothing, and accessories that you can recommend and get paid for it.

See our guide on how to add and manage affiliate links in WordPress.

3. Build an Instagram Following

Instagram has placed itself as the top social network for fashion and style influencers. You need to join Instagram and start posting with relevant hashtags to make sure that your posts reach the right audience.

The best way to come up with an Instagram strategy is by following other top fashion blogs on Instagram. Study their posts, descriptions, and hashtags and try to replicate the same effect with your Instagram posts.

You should also network with other influencers and do S4S, share for share, campaigns. In this strategy, each party will share the other’s Instagram posts and tag them. It helps both people increase their following.

Another easy way to build Instagram following is by sharing your Instagram posts on your WordPress blog.

4. Brand Promotions

Allow brands to reachout to you

Reach out to brands, fashion startups, and agencies to partner up with them. The best way to find which companies are doing blog promotions is to keep an eye on top fashion bloggers and their Instagram posts.

For more ways to generate revenue from your fashion blog, see our guide on proven ways to make money from your blog.

Mastering WordPress Skills

WordPress is easy to use and beginner friendly. However, whenever you start using a new platform, there are always new things to discover and learn. This is where WPBeginner can help.

WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners. We have lots of helpful content which is created specifically for beginners, business owners, and bloggers.

To expand your WordPress skills you should check out:

  • WPBeginner Dictionary – Our WordPress glossary is the best place to familiarize yourself with the WordPress lingo
  • WPBeginner Videos – New WordPress users can start with these 23 videos to master WordPress.
  • WPBeginner Blog – The central place for all our WordPress tutorials and guides.

You can also subscribe to our YouTube Channel where we regularly upload new video tutorials to help you learn WordPress.

We hope this article helped you start your fashion blog and make money from it. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide to keep your blog safe.

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 How to Start a Fashion Blog (and Make Money) – Step by Step appeared first on WPBeginner.

21+ Best Free WooCommerce Plugins for Your Store (2018)

free woocommerce extensions, free woocommerce plugins, woocommerce, woocommerce addons, WordPress Plugins

Are you looking for the best free WooCommerce plugins for WordPress? WooCommerce, just like WordPress, comes with thousands of extensions and plugins. These plugins add new features to your eCommerce store and help you grow your business. In this article, we have hand-picked the best free WooCommerce plugins for WordPress that you can try right away.

Best Free WooCommerce Plugins

If you haven’t started your online store yet, then we have a step by step guide on how to start an online store with WooCommerce. It walks you through how to choose the best WooCommerce hosting, install WooCommerce, select a theme, and everything that you need.

Having that said, let’s take a look at the best free WooCommerce plugins for WordPress.

1. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist

YITH WooCommerce Wishlist

YITH WooCommerce wishlist plugin allows your customers to save products to their wishlist. They can use the wishlist to make the purchase later or share their wishlist with friends and family.

This is a perfect addon for your online store during busy holiday seasons when people are making their shopping lists and purchasing gifts.

2. WooCommerce Multilingual

WooCommerce Multilingual

Non-English WordPress websites surpassed the English WordPress websites in 2014. Since then more WooCommerce stores are created in languages other than English. WooCommerce Multilingual adds compatibility layer with the popular WPML WordPress multilingual plugin.

This allows you to translate your product and other WooCommerce pages in multiple languages. Your customers can choose to browse your website in their preferred language.

3. WooCommerce Products Slider

WooCommerce Products Slider

WooCommerce Products Slider allows you to easily create beautiful product sliders and carousels and add them anywhere on your WooCommerce store.

4. WooCommerce Customizer

WooCommerce Customizer

WooCommerce Customizer provides an easy user-interface to use built-in WooCommerce filters. These filters allow you to customize things like button text, labels, fields, and much more.

Normally, you would have to write PHP code to use these filters. With WooCommerce customizer, you can easily use those filters from a simple settings page (no coding necessary).

5. WooCommerce EU VAT Compliance

WooCommerce EU VAT Compliance

As the name suggests, this simple plugin makes your WooCommerce shop compliant with the new EU VAT. It will automatically detect your customer’s location and will display prices with correct VAT from the first page.

6. Order Delivery Date for WooCommerce

WooCommerce Order Delivery Date

This plugin allows users to choose a delivery date for products during the checkout. WooCommerce store owners can see the desired delivery date on their orders page in the admin area.

7. YITH WooCommerce Quick View

YITH WooCommerce Quick View

WooCommerce Quick View allows your customers to peek into product details by simply taking their mouse over a button. This enables customers to quickly get the product information without leaving the product listings or shop page.

Users will be able to see a larger product image, product description, and an add to cart button in a lightbox popup.

8. WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips

Download WooCommerce PDF Invoices & Packing Slips

This nifty plugin allows you to send PDF invoices and packing slips to customers via email. Users can also download their invoices and slips from their account area. As a site admin, you can also bulk generate invoices, download them, and email them to users from an admin area.

9. YITH WooCommerce Compare

WooCommerce Compare

As the name suggests, this plugin allows your customers to compare two or more WooCommerce products side by side. You can choose which fields users will see in the comparison table and reorder them as needed.

10. WooCommerce Menu Bar Cart

WooCommerce Menu Bar Cart

Normally, your WooCommerce theme would prominently display a cart button at the top. However, if your theme doesn’t show a cart button, or you don’t like its placement, then WooCommerce Menu Cart will fix this for you.

It allows you to add the cart button into your WordPress navigation menu. It works with any WordPress theme and will display cart icon, items and price in your navigation menu.

11. YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search

Ajax Product Search

Speed is crucial for the success of any website, particularly for online stores. A single second delay in page load can significantly increase cart abandonment and lower user engagement.

YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search offers a powerful search feature to instantly display products as users start typing. It uses Ajax to fetch the results which means your users can search without leaving the page they are currently viewing.

See also: Proven tips to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment

12. MailChimp for WooCommerce

MailChimp for WooCommerce

MailChimp is one of the top email marketing services in the world. MailChimp for WooCommerce is their official WooCommerce extensions that integrates email marketing into your ecommerce website.

13. WooCommerce Checkout Field Editor

WooCommerce Checkout Field Editor

Do you want to add custom fields to WooCommerce checkout page? The WooCommerce Checkout Field Editor plugin allows you to easily add, customize, and rearrange fields on the checkout page of your online store.

This allows you to customize the whole checkout experience for your customers and use the data to grow your business.

14. Minimum Purchase for WooCommerce

Minimum Purchase for WooCommerce

Minimum Purchase for WooCommerce allows you to setup minimum purchase rules to your products. You can add rules for a single product or create rules for a product group.

The plugin also allows you to apply rules on minimum purchase amount or quantity, set different rules based on user role, and set up custom messages to display when rules are not matched.

15. WooCommerce Gift Cards

WooCommerce Gift Cards

Gift cards for WooCommerce allows you to add gift cards to your online store. Your customers will be able to purchase gift cards of different amounts and give them to their friends and family who then apply the gift card when shopping on your store.

You can setup gift cards of different pricing and sell them as virtual products. When a customer applies the gift card on purchase, the equivalent amount is deducted from their bill.

16. WooCommerce Currency Switcher

WooCommerce Currency Switcher

As the name suggests, this plugin allows your customers to easily switch currencies and get real time conversion rates in their local currency. You can add the currency switcher by using the shortcode or a sidebar widget.

17. WooCommerce Colors

WooCommerce Colors

WooCommerce Colors adds a WooCommerce section to the theme customizer where you can change the color of buttons and other WooCommerce elements. It is simple and highly useful if you want to customize WooCommerce elements without adding any custom CSS.

18. WooCommerce Products Filter

WooCommerce Products Filter

WooCommerce Products Filter allows your site customers to filter products by categories, attributes, product tags, product custom taxonomies, and price. You can add the filter anywhere using the shortcode or the sidebar widget.

19. WooCommerce Shortcodes

WooCommerce Shortcodes

WooCommerce comes with a bunch of shortcodes that you can use throughout your website to add products, buttons, and more. The WooCommerce Shortcodes plugin adds a drop down in your WordPress visual editor, allowing you to easily select and insert shortcodes in content areas like post, page, or products.

20. Booster for WooCommerce

WooCommerce Booster

Booster for WooCommerce allows you to add several useful features to your WooCommerce website that allow you to run your online store more efficiently. It uses a modular approach similar to Jetpack and acts like a plugin suite with tons of features.

21. Custom Product Tabs for WooCommerce

Custom Product Tabs for WooCommerce

Normally, product pages require users to scroll down to view more information. Custom Product Tabs for WooCommerce allows you to divide product description and details into tabs. This helps users switch to the section they want to view while making sure that your website looks neat and organized.

Bonus Plugins

These plugins are not free, but we believe they are highly useful for any WooCommerce store.

22. WooMarketing Bundle

WooCommerce WooMarketing Bundle

The Woo Marketing bundle is a pack of WooCommerce marketing extensions developed and maintained by the folks behind WooCommerce. It includes email marketing, dynamic pricing, smarter discounts, transaction emails, Facebook retargeting, and more.

23. Woo Pack & Ship Bundle

Woo Pack & Ship Bundle

If you pack and ship products to customers, then you’ll need this bundle. It is maintained by the WooCommerce team and includes extensions like invoices, packing slips, customize shipping options, product kits, multi-address shipping, track shipping, and more.

Purchasing this bundle also gives you access to the WooCommerce 360° images extension, WooCommerce Storefront and all its child themes.

24. OptinMonster

OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the most powerful conversion optimization software in the market. It helps you convert abandoning website visitors into subscribers and customers.

You can use it on your eCommerce website to reduce cart abandonment, increase sales conversion, grow your email list, show targeted website messages, onsite retargeting, and more.

If you’re serious about growing your email list and boosting sales, then you need this conversion optimization optimization toolkit.

We hope this article helped you find some of the best free WooCommerce plugins for your online store. You may also want to see our expert pick of the best WooCommerce themes for your ecommerce 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 21+ Best Free WooCommerce Plugins for Your Store (2018) appeared first on WPBeginner.

What, Why, and How-To’s of Creating a Site-Specific WordPress Plugin

Beginners Guide, how to create a site-specific wordpress plugin, site-specific wordpress plugin, what is a site-specific plugin for wordpress, why do you need a site-specific wordpress plugin, wordpress functionality plugin

Do you want to add a site-specific plugin to your WordPress website? A site-specific plugin allows you to easily add code snippets to your WordPress website without relying on your theme. In this article, we will explain how to create a site specific WordPress plugin and why it’s important.

Site Specific WordPress Plugin

What is a Site-Specific WordPress Plugin

A site-specific WordPress plugin is a standalone plugin that you can use to add all customization snippets that are not theme dependent.

When working on your website, you’ll often find WordPress tutorials asking you to add code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

WordPress doesn’t come with a site-specific plugin. You’ll need to create your own and then install / activate it.

Why Create a Site-Specific WordPress Plugin?

As we mentioned earlier that you’ll often come across tutorials showing some code that you can add to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

These custom codes can be used to add new post types, taxonomies, shortcodes, and tons of hacks to improve your website.

If you add the custom code to your theme’s functions file, then it will disappear if you update or switch your theme. You can create a child theme and use the child theme’s functions file to save your code. However, your code will still disappear if you switch themes.

A site-specific WordPress plugin allows you to easily add custom code snippets to your WordPress website and make sure they’re theme independent. It is a standalone WordPress plugin which means it doesn’t depend on your theme, and you are free to update or switch your theme.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add custom code using site-specific plugin. We will show you two ways to do that, and you can choose the method that works best for you (hint Method #2 is easier for beginners).

Method 1. Manually Create a Site-Specific WordPress Plugin

We know this may sound a bit geeky to beginners, but we will try to make it as simple as possible for you.

First you need to create a new folder on your desktop and name it after your website for example, mywebsite-plugin.

Creating your site-specific plugin folder

Now open a plain text editor on your computer like Notepad or TextEdit. You need to create a new file and save it as mywebsite-plugin.php in the plugin folder on your desktop.

Creating the plugin file for your site-specific plugin

Your plugin file needs specific header code so that WordPress can recognize it as a plugin. Go ahead and add the following code to your mywebsite-plugin.php file: 

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Site Plugin for example.com
Description: Site specific code changes for example.com
*/
/* Start Adding Functions Below this Line */
 
 
/* Stop Adding Functions Below this Line */
?>

You can replace example.com with your own domain name. Once you do that, your site-specific plugin is ready.

There are two ways to upload your site-specific plugin to your website. You can either upload it via your WordPress admin panel or use FTP.

1. Install Site-Specific Plugin from WordPress Admin Area

This method is easier and recommended for all users.

First, you need to create a zip file of your site-specific plugin folder.

Windows users can simply right-click on plugin folder and select Send to » Compressed (zip) folder.

Creating zip file in Windows

Mac users need to right-click and select “Compress mywebsite-plugin”.

Creating a zip folder on Mac

Once you have the plugin’s zip file, go to the Plugins » Add New page in your WordPress admin area and click on the ‘Upload Plugin’ button on the top.

upload plugin

Next, click on the choose file button to select the zip file you created earlier and then click on the ‘Install Now’ button.

WordPress will now upload and install the plugin for you. Once its uploaded, you need to click on the activate button to start using your site-specific plugin.

Activate plugin

2. Upload Your Site-Specific WordPress Plugin via FTP

For this method, you don’t need to create a zip file. You will be uploading the plugin via FTP.

First, you will need to connect to your website using a FTP client.

Once connected, go to /wp-content/plugins/ folder under remote site column. Next, you need to select your site-specific plugin folder and upload it to your website.

Uploading plugin via FTP

Your FTP client will now transfer your site-specific plugin folder to your WordPress website. This will install the plugin on your website.

However, you’ll still need to activate the plugin to start using it. You can do this by going to the ‘Plugins’ page inside your WordPress admin area and then click on the ‘Activate’ link below your site-specific plugin.

Activate plugin

That’s all. Your site-specific plugin is now ready to be used.

Adding Custom Code Snippets to Your Site-Specific Plugin

There are two ways to edit your plugin and add custom code snippets to it.

First method is to do it via WordPress admin area. You can go to Plugins » Editor page. You will see a warning message, and you need to click on ‘I understand’ button to continue.

Next, you need to select your site-specific plugin from the drop down menu labeled ‘Select plugin to edit’. The editor will load your plugin file, and you will be able to add code snippets in it.

Plugin editor

Once you are done, click on the ‘Update File’ button to save your changes.

If there is something missing in your code or it has potential to break your website, then the plugin editor will automatically undo your changes.

However, if the editor fails, and you see the white screen of death, then you can use FTP to edit your plugin file and undo those changes.

The second method is to directly edit the plugin file using FTP. Simply go to the plugin folder using your FTP client. Right click on the plugin file and then select View/Edit file.

Editing plugin file via FTP

You can also download the plugin file to your computer, edit it, and then upload it back.

Method 2. Using The Code Snippets Plugin

This method is a lot simpler and gives you a better way to manage your individual code snippets in WordPress.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Code Snippets plugin on your website. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled “Snippets” to your WordPress admin menu. This is where you will manage all your custom codes.

To add a custom code, you need to go to Snippets » All Snippets page and click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top.

Adding a new code snippet

This will bring you to the ‘Add New Snippet’ page.

First enter a title for your custom code snippet. This could be anything that helps you identify the code.

After that you can go ahead and paste your code snippet into the code box.

Adding custom code

You can also add a description for the code in the field below the code box. You should use this area to write down what this code does, where you found it, and why you are adding it to your website. This will help the “future you” remember why the “past you” added this code.

Add your code description

You also have the option to assign tags to your code snippets which can help organize code snippets by topic and functionality.

Finally, you can click on the ‘Save Changes and Activate’ button. If you just want to save the code snippet without activating it, then you can click on save changes button instead.

The plugin also allows you to select where you want to run the code snippet. You can choose from admin area, front-end, or everywhere options.

If you are unsure, then keep the default ‘everywhere’ option checked.

Once you have saved and activated a code snippet, it would become effective on your website.

For more details see our guide on how to easily add custom code snippets in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn why and how to create a site-specific WordPress plugin. You may also want to see our list of useful functions file tips and most wanted WordPress hacks to best use your site-specific plugin.

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 What, Why, and How-To’s of Creating a Site-Specific WordPress Plugin appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Fix the 413 Request Entity Too large Error in WordPress

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Are you seeing the 413 Request entity too large error in WordPress? This error usually occurs when you are trying to upload a theme or plugin file in WordPress. In this article, we will show you how to easily fix the 413: request entity too large error in WordPress.

WordPress 413 error - Request entity too large

What Causes WordPress 413 Request Entity Too Large Error?

This error usually happens when you are trying to upload a file that exceeds the maximum file upload limit on your WordPress site.

Your web server will fail to upload the file, and you will see the 413 request entity too large error page.

413 request entity too large error example

Normally, most WordPress hosting companies have their servers configured, so that WordPress users can easily upload large images and other media.

However, sometimes this setting is not high enough to upload large theme or plugin files.

It would also stop you from uploading large files in media library. In that case, you will see a different message, clearly stating that the file size exceeds maximum allowed limit.

File size exceeds maximum upload size limit

That being said, let’s take a look at how to fix the the WordPress 413 request entity too large error.

Fixing 413 Request Entity Too Large Error in WordPress

There are multiple ways to fix the request entity too large error in WordPress. We will cover all these methods, and you can try the one that works best for you.

Method 1. Increase Upload File Size Limit via Functions File

Simply add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin. 

@ini_set( 'upload_max_size' , '64M' );
@ini_set( 'post_max_size', '64M');
@ini_set( 'max_execution_time', '300' );

You can increase the values in upload_max_size and post_max_size to be more than the file you are trying to upload. You will also need to increase the max_execution_time to the time you think it would take for the file to upload. If you are unsure, then you can try doubling this value.

Method 2. Increase Upload File Size Limit via .htacces File

For this method, you will need to edit the .htaccess file and add the following code at the bottom: 

php_value upload_max_filesize 64M
php_value post_max_size 64M
php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value max_input_time 300

To learn more about increasing file upload size limit, see our guide on how to increase the maximum file upload size in WordPress.

Method 3. Manually Upload File via FTP

If the 413 error only occurs when you are uploading one particular file, then you may want to consider uploading the file manually via FTP.

If you are trying to upload a WordPress theme, then see our guide on how to install a WordPress theme and jump to the ‘Installing a WordPress theme using FTP’ section.

If you are trying to upload a plugin, then see our guide how to install a WordPress plugin and jump to ‘Manually install a WordPress plugin using FTP’ section.

For other files, see our guide on how to manually upload WordPress files using FTP.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix the WordPress 413 request entity too large error. You may also want to see 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.

The post How to Fix the 413 Request Entity Too large Error in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Create an Online Course with WordPress using LearnDash (Review)

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Do you want to create an online course in WordPress? Selling online courses allows you to make money from your blog by teaching others how to do what you’re good at. In this article, we will show you how to create and sell an online course in WordPress using LearnDash.

Creating online learning course in WordPress using LearnDash

What Do You Need to Create / Sell an Online Course?

You will need the following things to start selling courses online with WordPress.

  1. A domain name. This will be your website’s address (Example, wpbeginner.com).
  2. A WordPress hosting account. This is where your website’s files are stored.
  3. A learning management addon to create and manage courses.

You can create your online course with WordPress in less than an hour, and we’ll walk you through every step of the process.

Let’s get started.

Step 1. Setting up Your WordPress Website

There are plenty of website builders that you can use to build your website. However, we always recommend WordPress because it offers you the flexibility and freedom to take your website in any direction you want.

There are two types of WordPress, and often beginners end up confusing the two. First there is WordPress.com which is a hosting service, and then you have the original WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress. See our guide on the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

We recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you access to all the WordPress features that you will need.

To start a self hosted WordPress.org website, you will need a domain name ($14.99 / year), WordPress hosting ($7.99 / month), and SSL certificate to accept online payments ($69.99 / year).

This is quite a lot of start up money.

Luckily, Bluehost, an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a discount on web hosting.

Basically, you can get all of the above for $2.75 per month.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive Bluehost offer ←

After purchasing hosting, head over to our guide on how to create a WordPress website for step by step set up instructions.

Step 2. Install and Setup LearnDash LMS Plugin

LearnDash is the best LMS plugin for WordPress. It is an all-in-one solution with complete course management, lesson plans, quizzes, assignments, course progression, and more.

Disclaimer: At WPBeginner, we believe in transparency. If you sign up with LearnDash using our referral link, then we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We would get this referral fee for recommending just about any other solution, but we only recommend products that we personally use and believe will add value to our readers. And no, we were not paid to write this review.

Now that we’re on the same page, let’s get started with the course setup process.

First, you will need to install and activate the LearnDash plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit LearnDash LMS » Settings page and click on the LMS License tab to enter your email address and the license key. Once you have entered the information, click on the ‘Update License’ button to store your settings.

Enter your LearnDash license key

Next, you need to switch to the ‘PayPal Settings’ tab. This is where you will enter your PayPal information to receive online payments from your users.

LearnDash PayPal payment settings

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

LearnDash also has Stripe and 2Checkout payment gateways available as Addons. You can install those if you don’t want to use PayPal.

Once you have configured the payment settings, your LearnDash LMS plugin is ready to go, and you can start creating courses.

Step 3. Creating Your First Course

LearnDash makes it super easy to create and manage online courses.

First, you need to visit LearnDash LMS » Courses page and then click on the ‘Add New’ button.

Adding a new course in LearnDash

This will bring you to the ‘Add New Course’ screen. You will need to start by providing a title for your course and then adding a detailed description. You can also add course categories / tags, and a featured image also known as course thumbnail.

Creating course

Below the course description, you will see the course options box. This is where you can set different options for the course including course price and what type of course it is: open, free, closed, buy now, or recurring.

Course options

Once you are satisfied with your course options, you can click on the save or publish button to make your course publicly available.

You can click on the preview button to see your course in action.

Note: You will not see the ‘Take This Course’ button if you are viewing the course page while logged in as an administrator in WordPress. We recommend opening an incognito browser window or log out to preview the course page.

Step 4. Adding Lessons to Your Course

Now that you have created your first course. It’s time to add lessons to the course. LearnDash allows you to create highly interactive lessons and then add them to your online course.

You can add a lesson by visiting LearnDash LMS » Lessons page and then click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top.

Adding new lessons in LearnDash

First you need to provide a title for your lesson and then start adding lesson content. You can add text, images, embed videos, and more.

Below the lesson editor box, you will find lesson options. Here you can add the lesson to a course by selecting the course you created earlier from ‘Associated Course’ drop down box.

Lesson settings

You can also choose whether this lesson requires submission of assignments, lesson timer, lesson progression, and more.

Once you are satisfied with the lesson, you can click on the publish button to save your lesson.

Your lesson will now automatically appear on the course page below the course details. You can repeat the process to add more lessons to your course.

You can also break down an individual lesson into topics. Simply go to LearnDash LMS » Topics page and click on the ‘Add New’ button to add a topic.

Creating a topic is similar to creating a lesson. Instead of associating it to a course, you will just need to associate it to a lesson.

Adding topics to your lessons

Step 5. Adding Quizzes and Assignments to Your Online Course

LearnDash comes fully equipped with dynamic quizzes and assignments. This allows you to make your online course a dynamic and engaging experience for your students.

You can make the quizzes and assignments required for your users before they can progress to the next lesson or course. You can also review assignments and give feedback to students.

Creating Quizzes in LearnDash

To add a quiz, you need to visit LearnDash » Quizzes page and click on the Add New button.

Adding new quiz

First you will need to provide a title and description for your quiz. After that you need to scroll down to ‘Quiz’ box and associate your quiz to a course, lesson, or topic.

Quiz settings

The default quiz settings would work for most cases, but you can customize the settings as needed from the advanced quiz settings area.

Once you are done, click on the save or publish button to save your quiz. You will now notice the new option to add questions to your quiz.

You need to switch to the ‘Questions’ tab and then click on ‘Add Question’ button.

Add question to the quiz

This will bring you to the ‘Add new question’ screen. LearnDash allows you to create different type of questions (multiple choice, true or false, fill in the blank, essay, free choice, etc).

You can add multiple answers for your question, add the correct answer, choose message to display for correct or incorrect answers, and more.

Don’t forget to click on the save button before you move onto the next section.

Depending on your settings, your quiz would appear on your lesson, topic, or the course page.

Enable Assignments in LearnDash

You can easily add assignments by editing a lesson and going to the lesson options area. You need to check the box next to upload assignment option.

Enable assignment upload option

After that, you can provide the assignment instructions in your lesson. At the end of the lesson, users will see an option to upload their assignment.

Upload assignment form

Once users have uploaded their assignments, you can view them by visiting LearnDash LMS » Assignments page.

Review assignments

Here you can edit assignments, approve, or give comments on submitted assignments.

Step 6. Giving Certificates on Course Completion

LearnDash allows you to automatically give certificates upon completion of a course. However, creating a certificate in LearnDash requires some basic knowledge of HTML.

First, you will need a certificate image file. This is basically the background image you want to use for your certificates.

You can find certificate templates on free image creating websites like Canva. Once you find a template you like, simply delete all text from it and download it to your computer.

Creating a certificate template

Next, you need to visit LearnDash LMS » Certificates page and click on the ‘Add New’ button.

Add new certificate

On the add new certificate screen, you need to set the certificate background image as featured image and click on the save button to reload the page.

You will now see your certificate template in the background of the visual editor. You can start adding text you want to be displayed on the certificate.

Certificate editing

To insert user’s name in the certificate, click on the LearnDash icon in the editor to insert the username shortcode.

Once you are satisfied with the certificate, you need to publish it.

Next, you need to edit the quiz you added to your course lesson. In the Quiz options box, you need to associate your certificate to the completion of the quiz.

Add certificate to the quiz

You can now save your quiz settings.

Users who complete the course and pass the quiz will see the option to print their certificate.

Print certificate

Taking Your Online Courses To Next Level

Now that you have learned how to easily create an online course in WordPress, you are ready to launch your online learning course website.

LearnDash seamlessly integrates with numerous providers including WordPress eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, and it can run alongside your existing online store.

It also works with MemberPress, the best WordPress membership plugin in the market. This allows you to not just sell your courses, but you can also run a membership website with powerful subscription models.

We hope this LearnDash review helped you learn how to create an online course with WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate step by step WordPress SEO guide for beginners.

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 How to Create an Online Course with WordPress using LearnDash (Review) appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Add a Stats Dashboard On Your WordPress Site

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Do you want to add a stats dashboard on your WordPress site? Analytics help you find out how people find and use your website, so you can keep them coming back. In this article, we will show you how to easily add a stats dashboard on your WordPress site.

How to add a stats dashboard in WordPress

Why You Need a Stats Dashboard in WordPress

Normally you can install Google Analytics and view your reports by logging into your Google analytics account. This sounds great, but most people forget to check their blog stats on a regular basis.

The two biggest reason for that are:

  1. You have to login to a separate website (Google Analytics) to check the stats.
  2. You have to dig around Google Analytics to actually find what you’re looking for.

While Google Analytics is a powerful tool, it often requires some digging to get to the good parts of the reports you want to view. Most beginners never make it this far.

Adding a stats dashboard to your WordPress website solves this problem. You will be able to quickly view the stats that matter without leaving your WordPress admin area, and it will require far easier.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add a stats dashboard on your WordPress site.

Adding a Stats Dashboard in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Insights » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find the license key under your account on the MonsterInsights website.

MonsterInsights license key

Next, you need to connect your website to your Google Analytics account. You can do this by visiting the Insights » Settings page and clicking on the ‘Authenticate with your Google account’ button.

Authenticate with your Google account

This will redirect you to Google accounts where you will be asked to sign in or select a Google account if you are already signed in.

Sign in or select your Google account to continue

You need to click on ‘Next’ to continue.

After that, you will be asked to allow MonsterInsights to access your Google Analytics account. This step is necessary, so MonsterInsights can bring the report back to your WordPress dashboard.

Allow MonsterInsights to access your Google Analytics account

Go ahead and click on the ‘Allow’ button to continue.

The final step is to select the profile you want to track. You need to select your website here and then click on the ‘Complete authentication’ button to continue.

Select your website profile

You will now be redirected back to your WordPress site.

That’s all you have successfully installed and setup Google Analytics on your WordPress site. If you haven’t installed Google Analytics on this website before, then it will take sometime before Google Analytics starts showing your stats.

Viewing Your WordPress Stats Dashboard

Now that you have set up Google Analytics using MonsterInsights, you can view your WordPress stats by visiting Insights » Reports page.

Website stats reports

On top of the stats dashboard, you will see a graph of your WordPress page views and visitor sessions for the last 30 days. This gives you a quick overview of incoming traffic to your blog.

Below that, you will see a comparison of your website stats against previous 30 days. It will show numbers of sessions, page views counter, session duration, and bounce rate.

Stats break down

After that you will see charts showing new vs returning visitors and devices used to access your website. This is followed by top countries people visiting your website from and top referral websites sending you the most traffic.

MonsterInsights also acts as a pageview counter and shows your most popular WordPress posts and pages. This helps you find your top performing content, so you can plan your content strategy accordingly.

Top posts and pages

Viewing More WordPress Stats with MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights also shows custom reports depending on your settings. You can switch to publishers, ecommerce, search console, and dimensions.

The publishers tab shows reports made for content-rich websites like blogs, news, or magazine websites. It will show you the following stats:

  • Top landing pages
  • Top exit pages
  • Top outbound links
  • Top affiliate links
  • Top download links
  • Age, gender, and interests (visible only if you have them enabled in Google Analytics)

Tracking Ecommerce Stats in WordPress with MonsterInsights

If you run an online store using WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, then you’ll love MonsterInsights eCommerce tracking features.

First, you will need to visit Insights » Addons page to install and activate the MonsterInsights eCommerce addon.

Ecommerce addon

Next, you need to visit Insights » Settings and click on the tracking tab.

Enable eCommerce tracking

On the tracking tab, you need to scroll down and select the eCommerce settings and then check the box next to ‘Use Enhanced eCommerce’ option.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Now you can view your ecommerce stats in WordPress by visiting Insights » Reports page and clicking on the ecommerce tab.

ecommerce stats in WordPress

Ecommerce reports will show you the break down of the following stats:

  • Conversion rate, transactions, revenue, and average order value
  • Top products
  • Top conversion sources
  • Total add to cart and total remove from cart
  • Time to purchase and session to purchase stats

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily add a stats dashboard in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your search rankings and get more traffic 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.

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