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3 Useful alternative Wordpress Plugins for WooCommerce

Don’t just get Wooed by Woo-commerce. Despite being the no. 1 plugin for e-commerce, there are several other plugins that can be used for e-commerce as well. Sneak peek into the best 5. 

1. WP eCommerce: A simple and powerful tool that is sturdy and can last several years. It is one of the oldest and steadfast plugins offering plenty of features. 

Features

Make the plugin your own with CSS and HTML customizations

Integration with dozens of different payment gateways

Integrate with many popular WordPress plugins

Use built-in marketing tools to sell more

Shipping is easy with built in shipping tools and integration with popular couriers

Manage your orders and catalogues with powerful built-in tools

Extend your eCommerce site with additional modules

Integrate with WordPress multisite

With hundreds of available hooks, developers can make WP eCommerce do anything you can imagine

2. Jigoshop: This plugin offers a 360 degree e-commerce solution taking all important details into account from SSL certificate to design aspects. 

Features

Setup your web store in minutes with an extensive amount of shop settings including base country, currency, catalog options, stock management, unlimited tax settings, shipping and payment gateways out of the box.

There are hundreds of additional extensions to build up Jigoshop to be an even more powerful WP eCommerce solution.

Jigoshop includes several product type options for your eCommerce shop like -Downloadable or Virtual products,Variable products (e.g. offer Size: S,M,L for one product),Affiliate (External) products (i.e. link your Add to cart button off-site),Grouped products

Within the Jigoshop eCommerce plugin are various reporting features to give you real-time insight of your shops performance. 

Features include sortable sales graphs and incoming order/review notifications

Jigoshop has the ability to manage your shops stock. 

 We have over one hundred extensions for Jigoshop available that will further extend the power of the best eCommerce plugin ever! They include more Payment Gateways, more Shipping methods and much more.

3. Easy Digital Downloads: Despite the name sounding different , this plugin has all the features that you need to establish an ecommere store. 

Features

Cart system for purchasing multiple downloads at once

Complete promotional code system

Many payment gateways. PayPal, Amazon, Test Payments are included by default 

Complete payment history

User purchase history and ability to redownload files

Multiple files per downloadable product

Variable prices for multiple price options per product

Bundled products

Customizable purchase receipts

Earnings and sales charts

Detailed purchase and file download logs

Data export options for CSV and PDF

Add functionality with many extensions

Developer friendly with dozens of actions and filters. 

Apart from these, you can also check out ECwid and marketPress which offer solutions to establish your e-commerce business. 

So,go set up your business today! 

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How to introduce Amazon affiliate links in Wordpress

One of the best ways to earn money from your wordpress blog or website is affiliate marketing. The primary technique of affiliate marketing is to advertise a product on your website, and if any reader or viewer clicks the product or buys the product you earn a share of the profit. 

Now that you already have the idea how affiliate programming works, let’s look a little more in amazon. Before we begin, apart from amazon there are plenty of other websites like GoDaddy and Clickbank that also offers affiliate programs. We will be focusing on Amazon today, though!

Short Affiliate Links for Amazon

If you want to advertise any product from amazon, by default these links are lengthy. 

Something like this: 

ttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470560541/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0470560541&linkCode=as2&tag=wpb09-20

But having such a long Url increases the chances of having a broken link. So, use one of the many WordPress plugins to create a shorter URL.

But often the clocked links do not bear the name of Amazon. So users don’t have a clue where they are headed. But it is always better to display the name of Amazon since that comes with a kind of reliability which the viewers can trust and chances of clicking increases. 

Moreover, Amazon strictly prohibits cloaking and it is advisable not to cloak the links.

How to Create Amazon Short Affiliate Links 

There are two kinds of short URls that can be created.

You need to simply add /dp/yourproductid/?tag=youraffiliatetag.

Check out the example below:  http://amazon.com/dp/0470560541/?tag=wpb09-20

You can create an even shorter URL by using amzn.com domain name. Simply remove the /dp/ prefix and add your product id with your affiliate tag. http://amzn.com/0470560541/?tag=wpb09-20

Now that you have successfully affiliated the amazon links you can easily post your advertisements and make some extra cash.

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The Ultimate Plugin Guide for Images in Wordpress

Believe it or not, the images of your website plays a significant role in drawing the traffic for your website. Standard images taken by professionals screams loud and clear to grab attention while blur images literally repulse your traffic and make them run to the next website. 

Now, we get it that it is not always possible to get the best images of the web. Also, if you’re working on a personal blog you might want to go for some personal pictures. So, here’s a list of 5 great plugins that would help you edit images in your WordPress website. 

1. WP Lightbox 2 

One of the most widely used plugins, it is a great tool for applying effects and playing with images in you website. 

Features

Fully Responsive WordPress Lightbox

Easy install and use

Works on all modern browsers

WP Lightbox 2 works perfectly with all versions of WordPress

Group related images in post and navigate through them with ease

Ability to use lightbox in comments

Ability to display download link for images

Ability to reduce large images to fit smaller screens

Ability to set Animation duration

Lightbox effect for WordPress Galleries

User-friendly back-end for WP Lightbox 2 plugin

2. EWWW Image Optimizer 

Once our editing is done now we proceed to image optimization. As bizarre as the name sounds, ironically, this unique and helpful tool is more awww than ewww. . 

Features

Your pages will load faster. 

Faster backups. 

Less bandwidth usage. 

Super fast. 

Best JPG optimization. 

Best PNG optimization. 

Root access not needed 

3. Image Gallery

Now that you have edited and optimized your images, check out this unique image gallery plugin. 

Features

Fully Responsive 

Widget Integration

Unlimited Galleries

Unlimited Photos

Quick and Effective Support

Lightbox Customization

Design Customization

4. Quick Featured Images 

This plugin enables you to set, replace and control images in your website. From deleting bulk images to getting overview and lists, this plugin has got it all. 

Features

It sets, replaces and removes featured images for hundreds of posts and pages in one go. You can run it over all contents or let it work only to desired contents by using flexible filters.

It displays assigned features images in an additional sortable image column in lists of posts, pages and custom post types if they support thumbnails. So you get a quick overview about used thumbnails of all posts and pages.

It enables you to define presets for automatic default featured images for future posts as many as you need. You can set accurate rules based on post properties.

So, it’s time to take those images of your website seriously and use these plugins to get the easy way out. 

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How to Add a Favicon to your WordPress website

Nowadays, you might have noticed that many websites have a tiny icon or logo next to the website title. That is known as a Favicon. In today’s tutorial, we take you through the steps to add a favicon to your WordPress website.

 How can Favicon help to improve your business? 

Like many business strategies, Favicon helps to grow your brand name. Once you have a logo or a particular franchise, adding that small icon reminds the user of your presence. 

Of course, you can add a logo to your website, but most of the time we have multiple websites opened in different tabs. We generally check the icons in the tabs and browse the websites. Also, for a large number of tabs, the name of the website maybe hidden and only the favicon may be visible. 

Hence, having a Favicon is actually a great trick to produce a brand name. It is just one of those tricks that helps to market without much hype. 

How to add Favicon to Wordpress Website? 

1. Create the Favicon: You can have your logo or any other icon as a favicon. Keep a transparent background and have an optimum sized image of 512X512 pixels. This can be easily done using tools in Photoshop. 

2. Add Favicon ( For Wordpress 4.3 and above versions): From 4.3 onward you can directly add the favicon from the admin panel. Visit Appearance >> Customize  and click on site identity. In the ‘site identity’ section there are options to create a site icon. Just update the image from your computer. 

3. Add Favicon ( For Wordpress 4.2 and lower versions): First upload the favicon to the root directory using FTP. Then copy paste the code in header.php

<link rel="icon" href="http://www.yourwebsite.com/favicon.png" type="image/x-icon" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.yourwebsite.com/favicon.png" type="image/x-icon" />

Change the www.yourwebsite.com with your personal website name.

4. Use Plugin: The All in one favicon plugin can be simply used to update favicon and it is fairly simply. Add the plugin and update the image.

Conclusion The brand building can’t be done overnight. It requires small approaches continuously and adding a small favicon is nothing but a venture to grow your brand.

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How to add Youtube Subscribe  Button to Wordpress

Many of us have a youtube channel that we want to link to our blogs. Now, if a subscribe button is available the job can be done without a fuss. A simple social icon that the user can click and your list can grow. 

So, in this tutorial, we’re going to learn two very simple methods to include a youtube subscriber button in your WordPress website. 

1. The Manual Method

Not everything that’s done manually is hard, especially when you have a simple guide to follow.

First visit the Youtube subscribe button page in the Google Developer’s website. 

Scroll downward and reach the ‘Configure a button’ section. 

Enter your channel’s name, choose a layout, the subscriber count and a theme of your choice. You can actually see the preview and change the layout accordingly. 

Now, login to the admin section of your website and visit Appearance >> Widgets section.  Next, drag and drop the text widget in the side bar and paste the code of the YouTube subscriber button inside the widget. 

Save your changes and Voila! You have a YouTube subscriber button hooked to your Wordpress website.

2. Using a Plugin Wordpress is the ultimate place to find a plugin. There are plugins for almost anything you want to do in WordPress. For those who find the manual method difficult can definitely use the Youtube subscriber plugin. 

First you have to activate the plugin, then visit appearances >> widgets page. Now, simply drag and drop it on the sidebar where you want to display it. 

The widget has all the configuration options of official Youtube subscribe button. 

As before, provide the name of your channel, choose a theme or layout and save the settings to make it visible on the website.

Inserting a Youtube subscribe button helps to grow your traffic and also socially connect your blog to the platform. It is a unique part of your marketing strategy and definitely needs a get go. So, go get the Youtube Subscribe button now.

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5 Best Wordpress Security Plugins

When it comes to the security of a website, it is not something to be fiddled with. From Spammers to hackers, your website can be vulnerable to tons of sources, some of which you may not be even aware of. 

To help you out here’s a collection of top 5 WordPress security plugins that protects your website and make’s your work hassle-free.  

1. Wordfence Security

From blocking rel time attackers to checking if your site is infected with malware, wordfence literally fences your websites and protects it from all the corners. 

Features

Blocking Features: It blocks attackers, networks and malware. It also limits the crawlers and bots scanning your website aggressively 

Login Security:   Includes two-factor authentication, strength of password checking and other login security measures. 

Security Scanning

Wordpress Firewall

Monitoring Features

Multi-Site security

Caching Features

IPV6 compatible

2. iTheme Security 

Formerly known as Better Wp, this plugin is one of the most popular ones and the reason is the immense features that it offers. 

Features

User Action Logging - Track when user's edit content, login or logout.

Two-Factor Authentication - Use a mobile app such as Google Authenticator or Authy to generate a code or have a generated code emailed to you.

Malware Scan Scheduling - Have your site scanned for malware automatically each day. If an issue is found, an email is sent with the details.

Generate Strong Passwords - Generate strong passwords right from your profile screen.

Dashboard Widget - Manage important tasks such as user banning and system scans right from the WordPress dashboard.

Online File Comparison - When a file change is detected it will scan the origin of the files to determine if the change was malicious or not. Currently works only in WordPress core but plugins and themes are coming.

Google reCAPTCHA - Protect your site against spammers.

3. Sucuri Security 

This free plugin can be effectively used to combat malware, and offers auditing and security hardening. 

Feature

Security Activity Auditing

File Integrity Monitoring

Remote Malware Scanning

Blacklist Monitoring

Effective Security Hardening

Post-Hack Security Actions

Security Notifications

Website Firewall (add-on)

4. All in One WP Security and Firewall 

A very easy to use and user-friendly plugin covering all the venues of security and offering comprehensive features. 

Features

User Accounts Security

Login Security

Registration Security

File and database Managment 

Firewall Function

Spam Protector

Security Scanner. 

5. Bulletproof Security

As strong as the name sounds, this plugin is full of useful features that increase the reliability of your website. 

Features

One-Click Setup Wizard

.htaccess Website Security Protection (Firewalls)

Login Security & Monitoring

Idle Session Logout (ISL)

Auth Cookie Expiration (ACE)

DB Backup: Full|Partial DB Backups | Manual|Scheduled DB Backups | Email Zip Backups | Cron Delete Old Backups

Security Logging

HTTP Error Logging

FrontEnd|BackEnd Maintenance Mode

These plugins could ease your task of maintaining a website and also secure the procedure. To engage readers and ensure traffic, having a safe website is of utmost necessity. So, go ahead, and grab one of these plugins now! 

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How to embed Facebook Videos in Wordpress

Never upload videos to WordPress. Yes! Instead, use a video sharing site.  Facebook is the biggest social network, and their videos are growing fast especially after it introduced an auto-play feature for videos which marketers all over the world are raving about because it increases user engagement and overall reach.

For a more immersive social experience add Facebook page plugin, install Facebook comments, and add Facebook like button on your WordPress site. Let’s take a look at how to embed Facebook videos in a WordPress site.

Embedding Facebook Videos in WordPress

The step by step guide on how to embed Facebook Videos in WordPress is as follows:

1. Find the video that you want to embed on your WordPress site.

2. Right click on the date below the profile or page name to copy link address.

3. Visit the Facebook embedded video player website (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/embedded-video-player) and scroll down to the code generator section.

4. Paste the URL copied earlier in the URL of the video field.

5. Click on the get code button, a popup showing two boxes of code will emerge.

6. The first part of the code needs to go to your website’s header section. It can be done in multiple ways. If you are comfortable editing theme files, then you can add it in your theme or a child theme by simply editing the header.php file and paste it right after the <body> tag. Alternatively, you can install and activate the Insert Headers and Footers plugin. Upon activation, go to Settings » Insert Headers and Footers page and paste the code in the footer box. Click on the save button to store your changes. Note: Add the first part of the code once, next time while adding a Facebook video, you will only need to copy and paste the second part of the code.

7. Now return to the Facebook video embedded page and copy the second part of the code. This code can be added in WordPress posts, pages, or even a widget area.

There you go! Facebook videos will now appear in your WordPress blog!

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5 SEO Tools to analyze your WordPress website

SEO is a significant part of online business. From finding keywords to backlinks, the total task can be time-consuming and tiresome. To ensure that you get constant traffic, use five great SEO tools to make the task easy as pie. 

1) HubSpot's Website Grader Cost: Free

Website Grader is an online tool that generates personalized reports based on the following key metrics:

• Performance: They determine your site's page size, requests and speed. • Mobile Readiness: They see if your website is mobile-friendly in terms of responsiveness and viewport settings. • SEO: They check if your website is easy to find. This considers factors like page titles and meta descriptions. • Security: They check for things like an SSL certificate. This serves as a way to prove to visitors that your site is authentic. Using Website Grader plug in information and get a score (1-100) plus a detailed report within seconds.

2) Moz Pro Tools Cost: Free 30-day trial, then paid plans from $99/mo - $599/mo

Moz's store of research tools supplies subscribers with the facilities they need to spot SEO opportunities, track growth, make reports, and optimize net efforts. The “Moz Pro” subscription is an all-in-one tool for increasing a business' search ranking.

3) Check My Links Cost: Free

To certify that your links on a webpage work, check out “Check My Links”. This broken link checker makes it easy for a publisher or editor to make corrections before a page is live. Considering Wikipedia, for example, a Wikipedia page for the term "marketing" contains a stupendous 711 links, not only did Check My Links identify this within seconds, but it also pointed out several broken links.

4) Google Webmaster Tools Cost: Free

The best way to fathom your site the way Google does other than asking Google. Google’s Webmaster Tools are novice-friendly resources that elucidate the fundamentals of Google search. For example, Google’s Fetch as Google tool enables you to view an URL as Google does, which is essential while troubleshooting for SEO performance. The information can aid in modifying the page for better results, and can even help in isolating problematic code when the site's been hacked.

5) SEO Report Card Cost: Free

SEO Report Card allows you to examine your website to gauge how it fares against your rivals. In exchange for some your contact information, SEO Report Card will give a report covering the following:

• Rank Analysis: A view of where your website ranks on Google, Yahoo, and Bing! • Link Building: A detailed account of the websites that link to your website. • On-Site Analysis: Focus on how efficient you were in integrating your main keyword throughout your site. • Website Accessibility: Focuses on your site's load time and ease of accessibility for crawlers. • Trust Metrics: An overview of your site's level of trust or authority. • Current Indexing: An evidence of how many of your site pages have been indexed.

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Peepso - An awesome Wordpress Social Network plugin

PeepSo is a super-light, free, social network plugin for WordPress that makes for swift and easy adding of a social network or an online community, like Facebook, right inside the WordPress site. 

The goal of this social networking plugin for WordPress was to furnish those who wanted to create a community with WordPress a substitute to the existing solutions, with a contemporary look and feel with better aspects and extensibility. The plugin supports the inclusion of a social networking plugin in the main area of a WordPress site. Widgets that showcase users' photos, videos and friends are also accessible on installation and can be put on any widget location inside the theme, or staright inside PeepSo itself.

PEEPSO DASHBOAD

To monitor activity on your Peepso site, there is a main dashboard which displays the latest user engagement for things like comments, statuses and likes. From here latest members can be seen, the mail queue can be viewed and other addons can be purchased.

PEEPSO ADDONS

Peepso seems like a well put together plugin with a nice user interface. The problem is that basic functionality is missing from the free core version. The available add-ons that can be purchased to add more functionality include:

• PicSo – PicSo adds the ability to add photos on the stream. • VidSo – VidSo adds the ability to post videos on the stream. • MsgSo – Private messaging between members of their community. • MoodSo – Lets members share one of sixteen different moods on their stream using emoticons. • TagSo – Lets members tag friends or other members who contributed to a stream post. • FriendSo – Once installed, a button titled “Add as Friend” is visible.

These add-ons cost $30 each or can be purchased as a bundle for $90 or $120 which will include all the add-ons.

VERDICT

What sets PeepSo apart from other social networking solutions is its light weight and stellar design. PeepSo works right out of the box and within seconds, you can start a social network, right inside your WordPress site. There's no need to hire a developer or mess with code.

What I did like about Peepso was the fact that the plugin combines with any WordPress theme – I tested it with a number of default WordPress themes and it displayed well. This is only the first version of the plugin so I would expect more features and add-ons to be developed over time, a big exclusion is the lack of groups or forums. It’s a promising start so worth it if you want to add light-weight members system to your existing WordPress installation and don’t mind paying a little for extra functionality.

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How to use Themecloud to create Wordpress Website

Themecloud is chiefly a cloud-based managed WordPress host, but it isn’t just a managed WordPress host, they do more by eliminating the hassle of setting up a WordPress site. It can be considered as a version of WordPress.com that enables you to install custom themes and plugins. 

To put it simply, Themecloud integrates self-hosted WordPress and managed hosting into one, eliminating the tiresome job of setting up a site.

Creating a WordPress site using Themecloud

Creating a WordPress website with Themecloud is pretty effortless, all you have to do is create a user account and then just build your site in a few easy steps. 1. Firstly head over to Themecloud.io and create a free user account, and after activation of your account login to your dashboard. 

2. At the absolute top, there is the main navigation menu with links to the main dashboard, the Themecloud marketplace and a drop-down menu using which edit your profile or logout.

The dashboard is divided into three sections:

• Websites which lists your sites • Snapshots which is simply another term for backups • Templates which holds the templates you create and publish to the marketplace

3. Hit the New Website button to launch this popup:

You can opt to install your WordPress site “From scratch” or “Use a pre-built website” template.

4. Click Next and select your hosting plan. For the purpose of this tutorial let us make do with the free 15-day trial one.

5. Hit the Select button on the free plan and the installation process starts. Within seconds a popup for the successful installation of your new site will appear.

6. You can learn more by clicking on the Start the Tour button, which launches a tour to get you familiar with the service. Or you can skip it.

7. From here, click the Go to My Website button to see your new WordPress site. To use the admin area, use the Admin button. Also, you can create quick backups using the New Snapshots button.

And that’s it, there’s nothing more to it!

Things to Note

• Using a pre-built template from the Themecloud marketplace gets you a whole website, not just a theme. You get demo content, theme and plugins. Bend the template as you deem fit.

• After installing your site, you can upload your own WordPress theme via WordPress admin as you’d normally do i.e. navigate to Appearance -> Themes -> Add New   Themecloud Features

Themecloud offers quick website setup, top-notch managed hosting and numerous tools that help propel a website and boost productivity. Here’s what in store:

• Tighter Security & Automatic Updates • Daily Backups to Amazon s3 • One-Click Restore • Scalability & Speed • Beautiful Templates, FTP Access & Great Support

Themecloud Pricing

Themecloud comes in three paid packages and a free 15-day trial. The Personal plan goes for $10 per month, a $30-per-month Pro pack, and the powerful Business plan that costs $80 bucks per month. Each comes with unlimited support and distinct set of features, so opt for one best suited for your business.

Verdict

Themecloud is effortless to use, aesthetic and affordable. It works as promoted, making it the perfect tool for business persons, designers and developers alike. Themecloud can be relied upon, be it creating a site for a client, developing one for your own business or are setting up demos for your themes.

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How to promote old posts in Wordpress website

We all wish to increase your website traffic don’t we? One of the simplest and smartest method to get more page views is to promote old evergreen articles. 

Most people write a blog post, share it a couple of times, and then leave it to rot in their blog’s archive page. Letting all your time, money and efforts go to waste is not a prudent choice, as promoting relevant bygone articles can lead to maximization of traffic. In this article, we will look at some great ways to promote old posts in WordPress. Here are 8 fool proof methods to promote old posts in WordPress:

1. Regularly Share Your Old Posts on Social Media

Most of your social media updates are seen by a portion of your followers, as there is so much noise and everyone is not online simultaneously. Hence it is recommended to share at various different times of the day. The Revive Old Post plugin automatically shares old posts on social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Plus, it spreads out updates for different times increasing exposure.

2. Showcase Related Posts on Your Blog

Popular blogs like TechCrunch, Mashable, or even WPBeginner, have related content next to or below each article. If a user has scrolled down to read your entire article then they are occupied. Using a related posts plugin, users can be provided with an opportunity to explore more of your website.

3. Display Your Popular Posts

The 80-20 rule is applicable here too, 20% of your website content gets 80% of your traffic, certain articles are just more popular than others. Getting more traffic to them is advisable. Start showcasing your most popular content as people coming to your website are more likely to read what many other users have already found interesting.

4. Create Better 404 Pages

A 404 page is displayed when a page that the user is looking for is not found. Most WordPress themes come with a default 404 page template. Use this opportunity to showcase popular content and keep visitors engaged.

5. Better WordPress Search

The default search feature in WordPress is fairly limiting, but it can be worked upon. These two common approaches will help improve WordPress searches: • Use Google Custom Search form to replace the WordPress search • Use a search plugin like SearchWP

6. Custom Archive Pages

Creating a custom archive page is one of the best way to highlight old content. Showcase popular articles, most commented posts, recent posts, display all your post categories/tags, add compact archives and include a search form. This will not only aid people in finding content, but will also help them understand what your blog is about.

7. Interlink Old Articles

Building internal links is one of the most important SEO strategy. It is helpful to users when you link to your old posts whenever relevant. People browse the web by clicking on one link to another. It can substantially effect traffic.

8. Link Old Articles in Comments

When answering user comments on your own blog, you should try to use links to guide them to other articles on your own website. This increases page views plus the link you add will stay there and any future visitors with the same question will visit that link.

Utilizing these subtle but potent schemes traffic foe old posts can be effectively enhanced. Hope this article helped you fine some new ways to promote old posts on your WordPress site.

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A Quick Guide to display Recent Posts in Wordpress

Very often we visit several blogs and websites which display a column of recent posts on the side. Not only are we drooled to click on some of the posts, but it is one of the many tricks to actually increase the popularity and traffic for a website. 

So, in this short guide, we are going to explain in details how to make recent posts appear on WordPress using simple tools.

The Wordpress Recent Posts Widget

Wordpress comes with a default widget knows as Recent posts. To implement this widget, follow the steps below:

Appearance -> Widgets, and then add Recent Posts to your sidebar. This built-in recent post widget has some basic features – naming, setting the date and add a number to the posts. Now, click the save button to save the changes. 

Recent Posts Extended Plugin

The default plugin is very limited and comes with only a few features. But we can additionally add “Recent Posts Extended” plugin by separately downloading it from the Wordpress website. 

Once you install and activate this tool, again visit the same directions and add the widget to your sidebar. The benefits of this plugin are the extra features and full control on this widget. From thumbnails to sticky posts, this widget is highly customizable. You can also display a recent post from any other post type on the website. 

Display Recent Posts Using Shortcodes

Now, what if you want to display recent posts within a particular post or a page. For that, you will need the help of shortcodes. Go ahead and install the Display Posts Shortcodes plugin and activate it for your WordPress website.

Next within the post or page where you want to display these recent posts, use the Shortcode with your own parameters. The plugin has several parameters that can be used in the shortcodes.

Check out some of the examples below: 

Display 5 recent posts with thumbnails and excerpt [display-posts posts_per_page="5" image_size="thumbnail" include_excerpt="true"] Display recent pages instead of posts [display-posts posts_per_page="5" post_type="page"] Change the order to title instead of date. [display-posts posts_per_page="5" orderby="title"] Display recent pages under a specific parent page. [display-posts posts_per_page="5" post_type="page" post_parent="5"]

For a full list of parameters visit the plugin’s documentation.

Manually Display Recent Posts

You can also manually display recent posts. One of the easiest ways is to use WP_ Query class. Use the code below for best results:

01 <ul> 02 // Define our WP Query Parameters 03 <?php $the_query = new WP_Query( 'posts_per_page=5' ); ?> 04 05 // Start our WP Query 06 <?php while ($the_query -> have_posts()) : $the_query -> the_post(); ?> 07 08 // Display the Post Title with Hyperlink 09 <li><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li> 10 11 // Display the Post Excerpt 12 <li><?php the_excerpt(__('(more…)')); ?></li> 13 14 // Repeat the process and reset once it hits the limit 15 <?php 16 endwhile; 17 wp_reset_postdata(); 18 ?> 19 </ul>

The code only displays the link, number, and excerpt. But there are other features which can also be displayed manually. Though the manual process appears tougher, but it gives much more flexibility than plugins.

So, go ahead and display your recent posts to engage your readers more.

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How to access multiple WordPress website from a single location

If you have numerous self-hosted WordPress sites, or you cater to multiple WordPress installations for your clients, keeping them all up-to-date with the latest versions of the WordPress core, the plugins they are utilizing and their themes can prove to be a tedious task, requiring you to login to each site and execute necessary tasks.

Here are some of the best tools available to save time and make life easier while catering to multiple WordPress sites.

  WP REMOTE

Spot what versions of WordPress themes and plugins are installed on your sites and show notifications when updates are applicable. 

Update WordPress core, plugins and themes when latest versions are available, straight from the dashboard.

Create backups by downloading a zip file archive of the site’s files and database.

Notify you from the dashboard if one of your sites is down.

Classify sites for easier management.

Responsive design makes it easy to use on a smartphone.

MANAGE WP Manage WP is a much more feature-packed service and will appeal to site managers who want more centralized access and control over their sites. It comes in free as well as paid packages.

FREE FEATURES OF MANAGE WP:

Install themes and plugins straight to sites from the dashboard.

Access the sites dashboards and admin areas inside Manage WP.

Restore backups.

Mobile access to Manage WP via iPhone and Android smartphones.

PREMIUM FEATURES OF MANAGE WP

Mass add new posts and pages

Manage and add users and specify their roles as you would from inside your sites own WordPress dashboards

Google Analytics Widget to see your site stats according to Google 

Search Engine Rank Tracker to view where your sites are ranked in the search engines 

Traffic change alerts to inform you about spikes in visitor numbers

Create backups including delivery to S3, Dropbox or Google Drive

Scheduled online backups

Clone or migrate your sites to other locations on your list of managed sites

Manage WP is an efficient service for those wanting more control over their sites, plus time-saving benefits of being able to install and clone existing site or templates and mass install, update and manage themes and plugins, not to mention mass publishing and scheduled backups.   INFINITE WP With Infinite WP you can view and manage most functions of your WordPress sites through the dashboard. You can login to the admin dashboard of individual sites with just one click rather than typing in the URL, entering your login credentials, saving you considerable time and effort.

Overall Infinite WP has all the aspects of a good a premium WordPress management service. The fact that you can pay a one-off fee for the add-ons, and can choose to buy only the ones you need, might make the pricing composition more attractive.

  ICONTROL WP iControl WP is another WordPress management service that enables you to work with numerous sites from one central location. This isn’t a self-hosted service like Infinite WP so getting started is basically a case of registering with the iControl WP and then installing the free plugin on the sites you want to govern. While this isn’t a free service and neither is there a tiered pricing, there is a free 30-day trial so you can give it a try and see if it matches your needs.

FEATURES OF ICONTROL WP:

Govern all sites from one dashboard.

o Clone tool for quick and easy replication of sites. 

o One-click updates for WordPress core, themes, and plugins through the iControl WP dashboard.

Create, manage and restore backups using the WorpDrive service.

Overall iControl WP has some great features but whether it can challenge Manage WP and Infinite WP remains to be seen.

SICK NETWORK

Sick Network is the latest addition when it comes to WordPress management services and hence it is available at a discounted price that includes access to all the features and uses on unlimited sites. The one-time price for unlimited sites will be a major selling point for many people and while the product is still in beta, the price is very affordable. You will have to take a leap of faith with this new product, although there is a 30-day money back guarantee.  

Overall it looks like Sick Network could be a strong competitor for the title of best WordPress management service. However, this all hinges on what the finished product is like and how much they charge for it.

VERDICT

As these services are all different from each other in terms of either features or pricing it is hard to highlight one service as the best but if you just want the basic features WP Remote is probably the right option for you, however, if you only have five sites or less, the free version of Manage WP might be a better option.

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Migrating from Joomla or Drupal to Wordpress

These tips for migrating to WordPress from another platform try to help make the transition as hassle-free as possible. Though the task can prove to be a daunting one, it is an opportunity to refurbish your prevailing site and update its design, organisational structure and clean up an errant code. By following these WordPress migration tips, you can do your best to ensure it goes off smoothly while improving your website.

MIGRATING FROM JOOMLA

Joomla is a favourable CMS and if you have made the choice of migrating your site to WordPress, the good news is that the job can be finished comparatively in a simple fashion. However, there are a few admonitions to address first:

 The design like the templates and themes will have to be refurbished after importing the content. Performances from modules or plugins will also have to be refurbished using matching WordPress plugins

The steps to accomplish the transformation from Joomla to WordPress are as follows:

 Install WordPress on your new domain (if you are using an existing site you might need to delete the entire content)

 Install the free FG Joomla to WordPress plugin on your new WP site

 Go to the Joomla importer screen in your WP site at Tools > Import and select the Import Joomla tool

 Provide the required details for your Joomla site and click the ‘import content’ button

 The time taken will vary with the size of your site

 Once the automated import is completed you will be nudged to modify internal links so click on the ‘modify internal links’ button to start

Utilizing the free version of this plugin enables you to migrate Joomla sections as WP categories, migrate categories from Joomla as WP sub-categories, import posts either as WP posts or pages and migrate images in numerous ways to match your WP settings among other things. With an approving rating from users, this procedure is relatively a headache-free process of moving from Joomla to WordPress.

MIGRATING FROM DRUPAL

While migrating from Drupal to WordPress, there isn’t a selection of plugins to select from for untangling this job. The entire procedure requires more work on your behalf than when migrating from other popular platforms but it can be completed if you are able to work through the stages.

In case your Drupal site is small, then you might find it simpler to manually copy and paste the content into WP. Before beginning, make a note of the URLs of each page and oversee any internal links employing a spreadsheet.

As the procedure of migrating from Drupal 6 to WordPress 3 is quite comprehensive, I will simply link to a few handy resources and services that can aid you in achieving your goal:

Migrating Drupal 6 to WordPress 3

Migrate to WP

CMS to CMS

Provided you do decide to migrate from Drupal to WordPress ensure you do a meticulous backup of your site prior to the start.

Though it can be a lot of work in certain cases, migration gives numerous advantages beyond moving to WordPress, such as updating your site, clearing old content and adding new features. Optimistically this will have provided you sufficient insight to plan your migration efficiently and get the work done without too much hassle.

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Useful SEO Guides for Your Wordpress Website

Does Google love your website? To make the search engine fall in love with your website, just good content is not enough. We have to step up the ladder and use some SEO tricks and guides to make our website irresistible.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization tricks help to increase the traffic of your website. But it is not as simple as it sounds. Let’s learn how we can grab the attention of Google or any other search engine. 

1. Content is King: It is a phrase that simply never gets old because it’s the hard truth. Unique, updated content is something every search engine loves. Google’s algorithm helps to find out the plagiarized content and definitely, they do not make the list. So, make sure your website is filled with real and unique content to attract more traffic.

2. Work on your Tagline: A Tagline for your website is something similar to a pickup line when you want to get a girl at the bar. Now, a cheesy pickup line actually doesn’t get you anywhere with the woman. Similarly, a smart tagline can work wonders for your website while a corny one can ruin it. Use a tagline that not only represents the website but also can connect with your audience.

3. Keyword: Doing a keyword search with keyword engines can definitely be helpful only if you don’t spam the website with those keywords. Using a keyword in the title is good enough, but do not force the words that do not fit into the place. Use keywords as a natural flow to get the best results.

4. Permalinks: A permalink is a structure that defines your URL. By default, WordPress uses a permalink similar to http://freelancersohini.com/?p=123

However, change the permalink best suited for your website page, like http://freelancersohini.com/home/

You can customize the permalinks going to settings -> Permalink in your WordPress dashboard.

5. Optimize the Images: heavy content in your website often makes the site slow and it lags. Google loathes a slow website and so does the other search engines. Optimization of images is an easy fix for those slow loading websites. Plugins and tools are available to help image optimization in WordPress.  Moreover, add a description to each image that you insert to progress the SEO boosting. Check the ‘Alternative Text Area’ in your image to enter a description.

6. Theme Wonders: Well, does your website theme affect the SEO? Surprisingly, yes. A shabby and cumbersome theme is a strict no-no when it comes to Google. Anything that’s lightweight and informative works. So, whether you choose a free theme, design one or buy one, make sure that the components do not make your website heavy. After all, don’t we all love those fast and responsive websites?

There are several other ways to make sure that you get a higher ranking in Google. But to keep up the position and to build up a steady subscriber base can be a hard task. So, leave no stone unturned to make the search engines fall in love.

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5 WordPress plugins to provide Admin Support

When you are the admin of a website, it is not just enough to customize your website but also to make the admin dashboard organized and easy to access. 

Wordpress plugins and tools are widely available that not only help you change the colors, arrange the columns but also add links and make the most out of the admin panel.

1. Adminize 

This tool is used to hide all the unnecessary information that make your dashboard cumbersome. It actually keeps it cleaner and provides you all the details that you need and hides the others.

Features

Changes the administration backend and gives you the power to assign rights on certain parts. 

Activates/deactivates every part of the menu and even parts of the sub-menu. 

Meta fields can be administered separately for posts and pages. 

Certain parts of the write menu can be deactivated separately for admins or non-admins. 

The header of the backend is 

minimized and optimized 

2. Admin Columns

It is used to segregate the columns according to posts, links, images and other media types. It uses a simple drag and drop interface for users.

Features

Sortable, filterable and editable columns & import/export

Third party plugin integration

Custom field column

Supported content types – post type, user type, comment type, media type and link type.

3. Admin Menu Editor

This tool enables you to customize, reorder, hide and arrange the admin panel according to requirements.

Features

Change menu titles, URLs, icons, CSS classes and so on.

Organize menu items via drag & drop

Change menu permissions by setting the required capability or role.

Move a menu item to a different submenu.

Create custom menus that point to any part of the Dashboard or an external URL.

Hide/show any menu or menu item. A hidden menu is invisible to all users, including administrators.

4. AG Custom Admin

 It is a compact plugin for all your admin troubles. From customizing to setting links, everything can be customized using this plugin.

Features

Admin Bar: Hide or change admin bar items. Remove WordPress traces from admin bar. Brand it with custom colors.

Admin Menu: Change and remove existing and add custom admin menu items. Brand it with custom colors.

Admin Themes: It has never been so easy to apply free and commercial responsive admin panel themes with just a few clicks.

Colorizer: This tool is integrated with AG Custom Admin panel and can be used to change default WordPress admin panel colors, admin bar, admin menu, login page, background and text.

Branding: Brand your admin panel pages with custom content, colors, images  and text.

5. Analitify

 It is a WordPress plugin that has been introduced by Google to compute the analytics of your WordPress website. The plugin shows all the analytics regarding the website on your dashboard and helps to understand the user trends.

There are plenty of other admin plugins available to help you with all the tasks in the dashboard. Keeping a clean panel help to organize everything in the website and make the performance more flexible.

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How to add a Facebook Author Tag in your WordPress Website

Every time an article or post is shared on Facebook a tiny author information is also shared with it. Now, Facebook is the number one social media platform today and to enhance you writing career having your name, however small it may be, on the bottom of posts can be beneficial. 

Before we talk about how to add Facebook author tag, let’s take a glance at what this author tag is all about. 

How does Facebook Author Tag function?

If the Facebook author tag is added to your website, every time a post is shared there is a link back to your profile. This helps you develop your rapport as a brand as well as, author. The author tag works similarly for single author as well as multiple author blogs. 

How to add Facebook author Tag to wordpress website?

There are primarily two ways to add the Facebook author tag – manually by coding and by using a plugin. 

Manual Coding Method:

The coding method is fairly simple. You need to add the following lines of code in the <head> </head> section of your HTML code. 

<meta property="article:publisher" content="http://facebook.com/yourpagelink" /> <meta property="article:author" content="http://facebook.com/yourprofilelink" />

In the above code replace the ‘yourpagelink’ and ‘your profile link’ with the respective links and it will be added. You can also use the ‘Install Headers and Footers’ Plugin to insert special scripts in headers and footers directly. 

Using Yoast Wordpress SEO plugin

Yoast Wordpress SEO plugin has the built-in support for Facebook Open graph meta data which enables sharing information from a remote website to Facebook. Using this meta data Facebook enables control on the data which is shared by a third part website. Anyway, getting back, let’s follow two simple steps of Yoast SEO to enable facebook user tag. 

1. Once you have added this plugin visit the SEO >> Social page in the wordpresss admin panel and make sure the ‘Add Open Graph Meta Data’ option is clicked. 2. Next you need to add your facebook id to your wordpress site using this plugin. For this, visit Users-> Your Profile page and enter your Facebook URL and save changes. 

That’s all. The plugin will add the Facebook Author Tag and also allow you to give description and meta tags for Facebook posts. You can also set your own thumbnail for each post.

So, boost up your brand name using a Facebook Author Tag.