Category Archives: WordPress Plugins

5 Best WordPress Survey Plugins (Compared)

WordPress Plugins

Are you looking for the best WordPress survey plugin for your website? Surveys allow you to collect user feedback, so you can use it to improve your business. In this article, we will compare the best WordPress survey plugins in the market.

Best WordPress survey plugins

What to Look for in a WordPress Survey Plugin?

There are many ways you can collect user feedback on your website. You can add a contact form, create polls, ask users to leave comments, and more.

Adding a survey is a little bit more involved than that. You need to make it engaging, fun, and easy to get maximum user participation.

A good survey plugin makes your form look great, and it’s easy to use. Reporting is crucial for surveys. That’s why you need to make sure that you can store user submitted data with an option to export it, so you can use it in a spreadsheet or a CRM software.

You also need to consider how you want to share the survey results. If you want to display the results on your website, then you will need a plugin that lets you embed survey results in a beautiful format.

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress survey plugins and how they handle all these features.

1. WPForms

WPForms

WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin on the market. It comes with a powerful surveys and polls addon which allows you to quickly create highly engaging survey forms.

You can combine the surveys and polls addon with other powerful WPForms features like conditional logic, multi-page forms, custom notifications, email integration, and more.

You can convert any form into a survey by simply clicking a checkbox. You can add any form field to your survey with a click including text, checkboxes, radio buttons, ratings, and the Likert scale field.

The best part about WPForms surveys is the reporting section. WPForms automatically creates beautiful reports with graphs and charts based on survey responses. You can show survey results on any WordPress page with a shortcode or redirect your users to the results page after they fill the survey.

You have the ability to export beautiful survey graphs as images to share on social media or your powerpoint presentations. You can also print the reports to include in your proposals or pitches.

For detailed instructions, see our article on how to create a survey in WordPress with beautiful reports.

2. Polldaddy

Polldaddy

Polldaddy is a famous WordPress polls and survey plugin. It is not a contact form plugin and unlike some other plugins in the list will not be suitable for purposes other than polls and surveys.

It is available as a free plugin, but you’ll need a WordPress.com account to get the API key. The free version is limited in terms of features and will also add Polldaddy logo to your survey form.

Polldaddy is easy to use with a drag and drop tool to create your survey and polls. You can change survey sharing settings, results sharing, and styling options for each survey you create. It also includes captcha to block spam and some basic IP filtering to prevent multiple responses.

3. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is one of the oldest WordPress form plugins which comes with many add-ons including one to create surveys. It is easy to use, and you can create any kind of form using the form builder with many common form fields including a survey field.

However, the survey results can only be viewed inside the admin area, and there are no charts / graphs. You can export survey results to a CSV file and display the results on your website using a WordPress tables plugin.

Note: You will need at least the Elite plan to access the survey addon.

4. Quiz and Survey Master

Quiz and Survey Master

As the name suggests, Quiz and Survey Master is designed to help you add quizzes and surveys to your WordPress site. It doesn’t have the friendliest user interface, but it is well documented and comes with many useful features.

The base free plugin allows you to create surveys with all common form fields, and you can even create multi-page surveys. You can also use it to add quizzes in WordPress with interactive answers, leaderboards, and scoring.

The plugin can also send emails after completion of the survey to thank users or redirect them to any page on your WordPress website. For reporting and analysis, you will need to separately purchase a premium add-on.

5. WP-Polls

WP-Polls

If you are looking for a simple poll solution for your users to participate, then WP-Polls is an easy free option. Unlike other plugins on this list, it doesn’t have a form builder, and you can only use radio buttons or checkboxes to collect responses which makes it quite limited.

Users are automatically shown poll results after they cast their vote. It saves user responses in the logs where you can see how registered users voted. For non-registered users, you can see IP addresses to filter out duplicate votes.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress survey plugin for your website. You may also want to see our guide on how to track user engagement in WordPress using Google Analytics.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 5 Best WordPress Survey Plugins (Compared) appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Use Antispam Bee to Block Spam Comments in WordPress

antispam bee, antispam plugin, block spam, block spam comments, spam comments, WordPress Plugins

Are you getting a lot of spam comments on your WordPress blog? Spam comments can become a big issue as your website grows. In this article, we will share how to use the Antispam Bee plugin to block spam comments in WordPress.

How to Block Spam Comments in WordPress

Why You Should Block or Delete Spam Comments?

Spam comments take up unnecessary space in your WordPress hosting database. What’s worst is if you accidentally approve a spam comment, then it makes your brand look bad.

There are multiple ways to block spam comments in WordPress. You can do it manually by reading and deleting them one by one, but that could take hours.

Mark Spam Comments

Alternatively, you can use the free Antispam Bee plugin to automatically block the spam comments based on the rules that you set.

Let’s take a look at how to block spam comments in WordPress with Antispam Bee plugin.

Using Antispam Bee to Block Spam Comments

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

Once activated, you need to go to the Settings » Antispam Bee page in your WordPress admin area.

Settings Page

On this screen, you will see the Antispam Bee settings divided in three sections: Antispam Filter, Advanced tools and More options.

Antispam Filter

Antispam Filter settings are the basic settings that help you detect spam comments. This allows you to filter and review the comments before they show on your blog posts or website.

These settings are organized in an order which they execute. We have explained each setting in the descriptions below.

Antispam Filters

Trust approved commenters

You can enable this option to automatically approve comments from regular and trustworthy commenters. These commenters may post valid comments and generate conversations on your blog posts, so the plugin remembers them and approve their comments right away.

Trust commenters with a Gravatar

This setting will allow you to approve comments from users with a specific Gravatar image and posting valid comments. It is the same technique as approved commenters, but with this setting the plugin will remember the Gravatar of the trustworthy comment makers.

Consider the comment time

If enabled, the filter will considers the comment time. This setting is not recommended by the plugin author for blogs or websites using page caching.

BBCode is spam

It is a recommended setting to check comments with BBCode (Bulletin Board Code) links and mark them as spam. These links format are widely used by spammers to highlight words and links.

Validate the IP address of commenters

The plugin allows you to validate the IP addresses used by the commenters to check their network information like hostname. This helps in finding the online background of the commenter to decide if the comment is useful or spam.

Use regular expressions

If enabled, it helps in finding the unwanted comments with a set of predefined patterns that are useful to detect spam.

Look in the local spam database

If you check this option, it will look for the spam content on your site’s database and then treat it as you define further settings for the spam.

Use a public antispam database

This setting is linked with the Stop Forum Spam to detect IP addresses of active spammers and quickly check the history of the commenters. It works with the complete IP addresses of the senders, so the commenters from EU countries will be avoided.

Block comments from specific countries

You can add the list of specific countries to filter spam comments. The Blacklist and Whitelist ISO codes are given with this setting, so you can easily declare the country codes in the respective sections.

Block Comments from Countries

Allow comments only in certain language

This setting allows you to specify a language for the commenters, so comments in all other languages will be blocked or deleted as you define later.

Allow Comments of a Language

Advanced Tools

In the advanced settings, you can further set the options to manage, block and delete the unwanted comments. There are few settings that are enabled by default however you can make changes to these settings as needed.

Advanced Tools

Mark as spam, do not delete

If you enable this setting, it will keep the spam comments and won’t delete them until you enable the settings below.

Spam-Notification by email

If you enable this option, then you will receive an email notification for every spam comment. We do not recommend this setting because it’ll become extremely annoying really fast.

Do not save the spam reason

If enabled, this setting will not store the suspicious values of a comment in a separate column. These suspicious values can be the formatted links, comment time and more.

Delete existing spam after X days

This is an important option because it allows you to define the number of days after which the spam comments are automatically deleted. It is linked with many other settings that we discussed above about deleting the comments.

Limit approval to Comments/Pings

This option will define whether you want to approve comments or trackbacks. If you limit approval to comments, then trackbacks will be automatically deleted. Similarly, if you limit approval to trackbacks, then the spam comments will be automatically deleted from your blog or website.

In case this option is not enabled, it follows the previous settings.

Delete comments by spam reasons

You can delete comments with predefined spam reasons. You can select multiple reasons from the options to delete the unwanted comments automatically.

Delete Comments by Spam Reason

These advanced settings will make your life easy while reviewing comments on your site.

More Options

After the advanced settings, you can take a look in the reporting options to display your daily spam updates on WordPress admin dashboard area.

These reports will help you monitor the spam comments easily, and you can also analyze between the numbers of useful and unwanted comments.

More Settings

Generate statistics as a dashboard widget

If enabled, this setting will create a spam report in an interactive widget for your WordPress admin dashboard area. These statistics will give you an overview about the spam comments on your blog.

Spam counter on the dashboard

If enabled, it will display the number of total comments marked as spam in a prominent style. If you are deleting the spam comments, then it will also show the number of deleted comments in an additional column. Some new bloggers find it fun to look at this number after they first start their blog.

Do not check trackbacks / pingbacks

By default, the plugin put a check on all the comments, trackbacks and pings. You can avoid checking the trackbacks with this setting. If enabled, the trackbacks / pingbacks from any site will be automatically approved.

Comment form used outside of posts

This option will monitor comments on your archive pages.

Once you are done, click on the Save Changes button to apply these settings on your blog.

That’s all. We hope this article helped you block spam comments in WordPress. You may also want to check out our guide on how to stop spam registrations on your WordPress membership site.

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 Antispam Bee to Block Spam Comments in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

5 Best WordPress RSS Feed Plugins To Import RSS Content

RSS Feed Plugin, RSS Plugin, WordPress Plugins

Looking for the best WordPress RSS feed plugins? These plugins can help you do something simple – like display RSS feed items via a shortcode. But some also get more advanced and can help you do neat stuff like import RSS feed items as actual WordPress posts, filter RSS feeds by keywords, and lots more. ... Read more5 Best WordPress RSS Feed Plugins To Import RSS Content

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6 Best WooCommerce Reports And Analytics Plugins For Your Store

WooCommerce Reporting, WooCommerce Reporting Plugins, WordPress Plugins

Do you know how well your WooCommerce store is actually doing? If you’re using the default WooCommerce reports, that’s not always the easiest thing to know. Don’t get me wrong – they’re functional enough for basic uses. But there are much more detailed (not to mention more usable) options out there. And I’ve collected some ... Read more6 Best WooCommerce Reports And Analytics Plugins For Your Store

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9 Best Testimonial Plugins for WordPress

best testimonial plugins for wordpress, carousel, slider, WordPress Plugins, WordPress Testimonial Plugins, wordpress testimonials

Are you looking for the best testimonial plugins for your WordPress site? Testimonials add social proof to your website and help build trust among your users. In this article, we have hand-picked the best WordPress testimonial plugins that you can use on your website.

Best testimonial plugins for WordPress

1. Testimonial Rotator

Testimonial Rotator

Testimonial Rotator is an easy to use WordPress testimonials plugin. It allows you create a testimonial carousel and add rotating testimonials anywhere on your website.

You can also create multiple rotators and manually enter customer information such as feedback, job title, and photo. For detailed step by step instructions, see our article on how to add rotating testimonials in WordPress.

2. Easy Testimonials

Easy Testimonials

Want to allow customers to submit reviews and display them on your website? Easy Testimonials allows you to add a customer feedback form on your website, so you can collect testimonials. You can also manually enter testimonials from your WordPress admin area.

After that, you can easily display testimonials using a simple shortcode. For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add a customer reviews page in WordPress.

3. Testimonials Widget

Testimonials widget

Testimonials Widget is another flexible WordPress testimonials plugin. Despite the name, it allows you to add testimonials anywhere on your website.

It comes with a sidebar widget allowing you to easily display testimonials in sidebars. Testimonials are displayed in a carousel with a beautiful slide-in and fade effects.

4. Strong Testimonials

Strong testimonials

Strong Testimonials is one of the most customizable WordPress testimonial plugins. It comes with multiple display options including testimonial slider, grid layout, masonry layout, single column layout, and more.

It also includes a custom form allowing your customers to easily add their reviews and testimonials. If you have been getting customer reviews on social media, then this plugin can also embed Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more.

5. Testimonial Basics

Testimonial Basics

Testimonial Basics is a complete testimonial management solution for your WordPress website. It includes multiple display styles, sidebar widget, and a feedback form to collect user testimonials.

User-submitted testimonials use Gravatar to fetch client photo. However, you can also manually upload photos directly from your WordPress admin area.

6. WP Testimonials with rotator widget

WP Testimonials

WP Testimonials is a simple yet highly customizable testimonials plugin. It allows you to easily add testimonials and sort them into categories and tags.

After creating testimonials, you can display them using a shortcode. This shortcode comes with many parameters that you can use to customize the appearance of testimonials. The plugin also comes with a widget with the same options as the shortcode offer.

7. BNE Testimonials

BNE Testimonials

BNE Testimonials is another easy to use option for adding testimonials to your WordPress site. It comes with a shortcode and a sidebar widget to easily display testimonials.

It has a slider and plain list layout for testimonials, which inherits your theme’s style for display.

8. Testimonial

Testimonial

Testimonial is a straight-forward WordPress testimonials plugin with simple options and the ability to choose your own colors.

It has draggable box items and allows you to choose different fonts, font-sizes, text color, and featured photo. The plugin does not have a slider or rotator, so testimonials will be displayed in grid or list style.

9. Testimonial Slider

Testimonial Slider

Testimonial Slider offers a modern WordPress testimonial slider with an improved user experience. It comes with a slider as well as plain list layout. You can also add a front-end contact form to collect customer testimonials.

You can add testimonials anywhere using the shortcode or sidebar widget. The testimonial slider is touch / mobile friendly and works great on all screen sizes.

We hope this article helped you find the best testimonial plugin for your WordPress website. You may also want to see our complete list of must have WordPress plugins for business 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 9 Best Testimonial Plugins for WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Build an Auction Site like eBay using WordPress

auction site with wordpress, how to add auctions in wordpress, wordpress auction, wordpress auction plugin, wordpress auctions, WordPress Plugins

Do you want to build an auction site like eBay using WordPress? An auction website allow users to bid on products to purchase them. This allows you to maximize profits while selling unique products. In this article, we will show you how to easily build an auction site like eBay using WordPress without any technical skills.

Building an auction site like eBay using WordPress

What Do You Need to Build an Auction Site Using WordPress?

You will need the following things to make your own auction site like eBay using WordPress.

  • A domain name (This will be your website’s name that people will type to find your site e.g. wpbeginner.com)
  • A web hosting account (This is where your website’s files are stored)
  • SSL Certificate (You need this to recieve online payments)
  • An ecommerce addon (This will turn your website into an ecommerce platform)
  • An auctions addon (This will add auction features to your website)
  • Your undivided attention for 40 mins

Yes, you can start your own auction site in 40 minutes, and we will walk you through the whole process, step by step.

In this tutorial, we will cover the following:

  • How to get a domain name for free
  • How to choose the best website hosting
  • Install WordPress and set up your ecommerce addon
  • Install and set up auctions addon
  • Add and manage auctions
  • Resources to learn WordPress and grow your business

That being said, let’s get started.

Step 1. The Right Setup

First, you need to make sure that you are using the right website platform, and since you’re on this article, you won’t be making the mistake that others do.

There are two types of WordPress software, so it’s easy for beginners to get confused. First, there is WordPress.com which is a hosting platform, and then you have WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress.

We recommend using self-hosted WordPress.org because it gives you access to all WordPress features out of the box. For comparison, see the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

First, you will need a domain name and a web hosting account. But you cannot sign up with just any web hosting company. You will need a hosting provider that specializes in WooCommerce hosting because this is the software you’ll be using as your e-commerce platform.

Usually, a domain name costs $14.99/year, web hosting 7.99/month, and SSL certificate 69.99/year.

Now, this is a lot of money if you are just starting out.

Fortunately, Bluehost, an officially recommended WordPress and WooCommerce hosting provider has agreed to offer our users a free domain + free SSL and discount on their cloud WordPress hosting.

Basically, you can get started for $6.95 / month.

← Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer →

Once you have purchased the hosting, then follow our step by step tutorial on how to start an online store for complete setup instructions.

You would now have a WordPress website with WooCommerce installed on it. By default, WooCommerce doesn’t allow you to add products for auction on your website.

Let’s change this by installing an auctions addon for WooCommerce.

Step 2. Turn Your Ecommerce Store into an Auctions Site

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

YITH WooCommerce Auctions is a paid plugin and a single site license will cost you 81 Euros. This gives you access to the plugin downloads, documentation, and 1 year of support and updates.

Upon activation, you need to visit YITH Plugins » License Activation page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on plugin’s website.

Enter WordPress auctions plugin license key

Next, you need to head over to the YITH Plugins » Auctions page to configure plugin settings.

Auction settings

The default settings would work for most websites, but you can still review and adjust them as needed.

Step 3. Adding an Auction Item

YITH WooCommerce Auctions makes it super easy for you to add an item for auction using the built-in WooCommerce products.

Simply add your auction item as a new WooCommerce product by visiting Products » Add New page.

Adding a new auction item as a product

On this page, you need to enter your auction item details like you would add a product. After that fill out the title, add details, and upload pictures.

Below the editor, you need to select ‘Auction’ next to Product Data option, and you will see settings for the auction item.

Auction item settings

From here you can set an auction starting price, bid up, minimum increment amount, reserve price, and buy now price.

After that, you need to select the auction dates and time. You can also add an overtime for the auction to offer a grace period after the auction ends.

Once you are satisfied with the settings, click on the publish button to save your changes.

Your auction will now appear on your WooCommerce shop page. Auction items on the shop page will be highlighted with an icon.

auction item displayed on your website

You can use the auction plugin to add auction items along with other fixed-price WooCommerce products.

You can also create a separate page to only list the products available for auction. Simply create a new WordPress page and add the following shortcode.

[yith_auction_products]

Don’t forget to publish the page to make it live on your website.

Creating an auction products page

Step 4. Managing Your Auctions

You can add auction items at any time, and they will start appearing on your website right away. However, the auction will not begin until the auction start time.

This allows you to publish items way before the auction begins and use this time to promote items. Once the auction begins, any registered users can bid on an item.

Auction view

The plugin will show an auction timer next to the item. Users can see the current highest bid and add their own bids.

Previous bids will be displayed below with usernames partially encrypted.

Auction bids

You have the option to remove a bid at any time. Simply edit the auction product, and you will see all the bids at the bottom of product page.

Delete individual bids

The auction will end depending on each item’s individual auction settings.

If the auction time ends, then the highest bidder’s price will be accepted. If a user decides to offer the buy now price, then the auction will end, and they will be able to add the product to their cart.

Auction winner

All users who participated in the auction will receive an email notifications for each new bid, auction grace time, auction end, etc. The final email will be sent to the auction winner, informing them that they can now make their payment.

Step 5. Allowing Other Users to Add Auction Items

If you want to allow other users to add their own products for auction, then you can do that as well. However, YITH WooCommerce Auctions plugin doesn’t allow users to add their own auction items.

By default, WooCommerce assumes that you are the only seller on your website and only you can add new products. To change this you need to make your WooCommerce platform a multi-vendor marketplace.

For detailed step by step instructions, see our guide on how to create an online marketplace using WordPress.

multi-vendor settings

Once you set up your website as an online marketplace, other users will be able to apply and become a seller on your website. After you approve their application, they will be able to add new products for auction. You can then approve their auctions and it will become live on your site.

Once the auction is over and the winning bidder has made their payment, you will get your commission out of the winning bid.

Step 6. Mastering WordPress to Promote Your Auction Site

WordPress is the best website builder in the world. It is very easy to learn and you can customize any feature you want.

Here are some useful resources that will help you take your auctions site to the next level.

We hope this article helped you build your own auction site like eBay using 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 Build an Auction Site like eBay using WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

Weglot Review: Fully Translate Your WordPress Site In Just A Couple Minutes

blog translation, translate blog, WordPress Plugins, wordpress translation

If you need to translate your WordPress site, there’s a good chance you’ve come across a plugin called Weglot. Having recently passed 20,000 users and €44,000 in monthly revenue, Weglot isn’t really a newcomer to the translation scene anymore. After using Weglot several times, I can see why they’ve been successful – Weglot is definitely ... Read moreWeglot Review: Fully Translate Your WordPress Site In Just A Couple Minutes

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MyCryptoCheckout Review: Accept Cryptocurrency on WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads

BitCoin, Blockchain, CryptoCurrency, WordPress Plugins

Last time I checked in with you all about cryptocurrency, Bitcoin was soaring high at $18,474.10. Prices have dropped a little since then (a moment of silence for my portfolio), but with a market cap of $372 billion, cryptocurrency is still here to stay. And that fact might have you interested in accepting cryptocurrency payments ... Read moreMyCryptoCheckout Review: Accept Cryptocurrency on WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads

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10Web Review: WordPress Site Management + 60 Premium Plugins For One Price

WordPress Plugin Club, WordPress Plugins, WordPress Theme Club

10Web is an intriguing new service that aims to make it a heckuva lot easier to manage a fleet of WordPress websites. It’s: Part all-access theme/plugin club Part website management dashboard for multiple WordPress installs So where do those premium themes and plugins come from? Well, I can’t find anything officially linking the two, but ... Read more10Web Review: WordPress Site Management + 60 Premium Plugins For One Price

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