Author: Nathanael Fakes

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How to Get the Most Out of Integrated Video Tutorials

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With our integrated videos plugin, you can embed high-quality educational tutorial videos on your site’s frontend and admin!

Video tutorials are a great resource to share insightful information in an organized way for you and your users.

The Integrated Video Tutorials plugin (IVT) functions as a perfect method to improve WordPress skills, onboard new users, and reduce support requests, making it valuable for anyone with access to your site to refer to.

Included are 45+ WordPress training videos which we keep regularly updated, white-label branding, user displays, and more. Plus, you can create and have your own custom training videos, along with even customized playlists.

In this article, you will learn how to get the most out of integrated tutorials. I’ll be going over how to:

  1. Install the Plugin and Explore the Overview of the Videos Dashboard
  2. Quickly Add a Custom Video
  3. Edit and View Videos
  4. Easily Create a Customized Playlist
  5. Adjust Additional Settings

When you’re finished reading, you’ll know the best way to deploy these videos for your WordPress sites and use them to their full potential — in just a few clicks!

1. Install the Plugin and Explore the Overview of the Videos Dashboard

From The Hub dashboard, you can download the integrated videos plugin from the Plugins tab. Once you click on the integrated videos tab, you’ll get the options to Install or Download.

Where you download the integrated videos plugin.
When downloading, there’s also a detailed description of what’s all included.

Choosing to install makes it simple. It will pull-up all of the sites you have in The Hub, and you can install it directly from here and your WordPress dashboard.

Where you install integrated videos on individual sites in The Hub.
Simply click on the website that you’d like to install the video tutorials on.

Once installed, you can get a 360-degree overview of the dashboard. From here, you can view the most recently updated video, playlists, create new videos, and more.

The videos dashboard.
Quickly gain access to your videos from the dashboard.

You can see the total videos you have at the top of the dashboard, the date of the last uploaded video, your most recently updated video, your newly created custom video, and the latest playlist you created.

Top of the videos dashboard.
In this example, you can see there are 49 total videos available.

In the Video section, you can quickly access all of the 45+ videos that come with the plugin, create a custom video, edit the titles, and more.

Where you access videos.
Go to any video to quickly access it.

And finally, in the dashboard, the Playlists area lets you view and edit all of your playlists.

Where you access playlists.
Quickly view all your playlists by clicking on the ‘View All’ button.

It’s fast and easy to organize, access, create playlists and more — right from the dashboard.

2. Quickly Add a Custom Video

Do you need to explain something to your users that aren’t already covered in our videos? Something specific to your brand or your website? No problem! Integrated Video Tutorials lets you add custom videos quickly and easily.

From the Video section of the dashboard, get started by clicking the Add Custom Video button.

Button to add a custom video.
Be on the way to a custom video in one-click.

The Add Custom Video button opens up an area where you’ll select what source your custom video is hosted from. You have the options for Wistia, YouTube, and Vimeo. (Note: More options are coming very soon for Dailymotion, Amazon S3, Google Drive, and more!)

Simply choose what option you have for the video and add the link.

In this example, it’s a YouTube video.

From here, you can change the title and set a customized start & end time. Also, upload a thumbnail image if you’d like.

Where you add a custom video.
Want to change the title? Change it right in the title bar.

After hitting continue, add it to a playlist in a click. A drop-down menu will appear with all of your current playlists options. You can even add it to multiple playlists at one time!

When done, it’ll be all set to go when you hit Publish.

Add a video to as many playlists as you like.

It’s then displayed in the Available Videos.

Where a new video is located.
The newest video shows up on top.

You can access it and edit the custom video at any time.

Next, I’ll show you how to…

3. Edit and View Videos

Quickly access your custom video to edit and view in just a few clicks. You’ll simply go to the Available Videos section, find your video, and access or edit accordingly.

Click on the gear icon next to the video you’d like to gain access to and you’ll get the options to Edit Video, Copy Shortcode, or Delete.

Where you edit, copy shortcode, and delete a video.
A dropdown menu appears with various options.

When you click Edit, you’ll get the options that were discussed earlier for custom videos. You can change the title, start & end time, and upload a thumbnail image.

Add custom a video.
Upload a custom image to go with your video.

For any of the pre-uploaded videos that come with this plugin, you have the option to Edit Title and Copy Shortcode.

Where you edit the title and copy shortcode.
The duration of time for each video is also displayed.

Preview any video by clicking on the video title in the Available Videos section.

Play the video in the preview area at any time.

Ready to publish? Use the Shortcode to embed videos. Add the shortcode to any acceptable area, and you’ll be all set.

An example of shortcode.
An example of using the shortcode on a new post.

It’s as simple as that to access and edit videos!

4. Easily Create a Customized Playlist

Manage, create, delete, and customize playlists from the Playlists area. Playlists are great when you have a specific topic that includes several related areas you would like to cover in separate videos.

This section shows you how many playlists you currently have, recently created playlists, and recently updated playlists.

The playlist area.
The playlist dashboard has everything you need to manage your playlists.

Let’s create a new playlist first. To do that, click on Create Playlist.

The create a playlist button.
The Create Playlist button is on the very top of the page.

It will then prompt you to add a name, description, and – if you want – a thumbnail image.

Where you create a new playlist.
If you don’t upload a thumbnail image, a default one will be used from the first video’s thumbnail.

Once Continue is hit, you can search for videos to add or simply click on the ones you want to include in the playlist. If you want to delete one from the list, you can do that as well in one-click.

Add as many videos as you’d like!

Your playlist will then appear with all of the other playlists you already have.

With any of the playlists, you can click on the gear icon and get the options to:

  • Edit
  • Add videos
  • Add visibility settings
  • Copy shortcode
  • Delete
The gear icon.
The gear icon opens up a lot of options to your playlists.

Editing and adding videos is exactly the same as when they’re created. And if you add Visibility Settings, you can control which user roles (e.g. author) can view the playlist and the default locations for it to display.

The visibility section.
Pick and choose what default locations will show this playlist.

Add a video at any time to a playlist quickly by clicking on the icon next to a video. You’ll then choose what playlist you want to add it to, and you can also add it to multiple playlists by checking the boxes.

Pick any amount of playlists that you’d like by checking the boxes next to each one.

And just like that, you have a customized playlist for your video tutorials.

5. Adjust Additional Settings

You can adjust additional settings for your tutorials in the Settings area in the admin. This is so you can determine how your videos should display in the admin area of your website.

In the Display Settings section, you can enable a tutorials tab in the WordPress admin sidebar in the Tutorials Tab area in one-click

Determine the location of the videos page in the admin menu. You can pick to display all the videos under the WordPress Dashboard menu item, or you can have it be a top-level menu item.

Plus, you can set the menu title that will be displayed as your tutorial videos menu in the WordPress admin sidebar.

The display area.
In this example, the WP Admin sidebar will show ‘Video Tutorials’ as the tab.

The Help Videos area is where you can enable the option to have videos appear in the Contextual Help boxes. It’s based on how you set your visibility settings for your playlists.

Where you add videos to contextual help area.
Add videos to the Contextual Help area in one-click.

Do you want someone else to have admin access to edit playlists and videos? You can configure permissions in the Permissions area.

Simply choose which user roles can have access.

The permissions area.
If you just want the administrator to have access, just check that box — and that’s it!

Once you change the settings, you can always adjust them at any time.

Closing Credits

As we close the credits on this post, you can see how using our integrated video tutorials is quick, easy, and beneficial. And since we already have you stocked up with over 45 useful videos to begin with, you can implement them right away!

For more information, be sure to check out our documentation. And keep tabs on what’s coming up next in our Roadmap.

Install the plugin to train and empower new WordPress users and start reducing your support costs today!

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A Forminator Quiz Is the Answer to Collecting Emails and Generating Leads

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Collecting leads has never been as much fun! Thanks to our free 5-star plugin, Forminator, you can now create engaging quizzes and capture emails simultaneously.

Plus, you can easily manage your leads, integrate the emails with a 3rd party app (like Mailchimp, Aweber, etc.), automatically run submission reports, and more!

Quizzes are highly engaging, can offer personalized feedback, are interactive, and entertaining. Combine all of these elements with Forminator –the best form builder for WordPress– and you have a powerful and creative way to generate leads in just a few simple steps.

In this article, we’ll be going over how to:

  1. Set Up a Quiz in Forminator to Gather Leads
  2. Customize the Lead Generation Form to Your Specifications
  3. Adjust the Quiz Module Editor
  4. Set Up Email Notifications and Integrations
  5. Implement Quizzes on Your WordPress Site
  6. Easily View Submissions

You’ll have your lead generating quiz up quickly and added to your WordPress site in no time.

So…

I think that’s the best answer, too.

1. Set Up a Quiz in Forminator to Gather Leads

It takes only a switch of a button to get the lead generator feature on your next quiz.

From the Forminator dashboard, simply click Create, name the quiz, and pick whether you want to create a knowledge or personality quiz. When you hit Continue, activate the option for collecting email leads in one-click.

One-click and your quiz is primed for collecting leads.

It’s that simple! There’s nothing more to get your lead generating quiz started.

From here, you’re ready to…

2. Customize the Default Lead Generation Form to Your Specifications

When it comes to adjusting your quiz, you’ll see all of the available options in the Edit section of the dashboard.

Since we’ve covered the basics already on creating a quiz in other articles (check out the quiz section in Getting the Most Out of Forminator for more details), we’ll jump down to Leads.

When you’re in this section, the Lead Generation Form area is where you can customize the default lead generation form. To edit, just click on the pencil in the container that shows the quiz’s name, and it will open up in a new tab.

The lead generation form.
This example is named ‘Test Quiz.’

When you open the new tab, you’ll find the default fields are already in place. These include:

  • HTML
  • Email Address
  • First Name
  • GDPR
Where you edit the fields.
These fields are an excellent start for creating a quiz with lead generation.

Add as many fields as you feel are necessary by clicking Insert Fields. Also, adjust the default ones by clicking on each area’s gear icon.

With Forminator’s drag-and-drop functionality, you can arrange the fields any way you want. Also, delete any fields with one-click.

When it comes to editing the rest of the form, you’ll notice that Email Notifications and Integrations are locked. That’s because these are shared settings between the quiz and form modules. They’re configured back in the quiz editor (which we’ll get to in a moment).

The unaccessable areas to edit.
You can’t access Email Notifications or Integrations from here.

Everything else is accessible and editable.

In the Appearance section, you can pick the form container’s design style, change colors of separate areas, use custom fonts, create an optional border, adjust the spacing, and even add custom CSS.

Blue? Bold? Want a new font? You can do it all from here.

Choose what you want to happen after a form is successfully submitted in the Submission Behavior section.

In terms of validation, you decide if you want validation checks when the user submits the form using Ajax (which is recommended). The live method will inspect fields at the same time as the user fills them out.

Plus, you can enable inline validation with one-click.

Also, the Submission Indicator can be activated to show a loader on your form until it’s submitted.

The submission behavior area.
Choose your validation method and whether you’d like a submission indicator to be displayed.

You can enable autofill, boost security by enabling Honeypot protection & enabling logged in submissions only, and set the life span of the form for submissions.

We’ll add some added protection to this quiz with Honeypot.

In the Settings area, it’s possible to disable the store submissions in your database.

Also, determine how long you want to retain the form’s submission form by the number of days, customize how you’d like to handle erasure requests, and, if your form contains files, decide if the file gets deleted with deleted submissions.

The privacy area where you can edit submissions.
Customize exactly how long you want to retain your form’s submission and more.

The global privacy settings can also be accessed from here, where you can adjust however you’d like.

The global privacy settings.
When clicking the global privacy settings, it opens up in a new tab, and you can adjust.

You’ll also notice that the status is Published. That’s because when created, it’s automatically connected to the quiz module.

The status says it's published.
The status tells you it’s published.

Since it’s published, all you need to do is save any changes by clicking on Update.

Where you'll update to save changes.
Clicking update will save all of your changes.

You can adjust the settings at any time if you ever need to make changes.

3. Adjust the Quiz Module Editor

Now that we have the default lead generation form set up, you can hop back over to the tab that has the quiz editor, and you’ll be able to adjust additional settings.

In the Leads section, you’ll notice that you now have Form Placement and Skip Form options.

Where you'll edit the form placement.
You now have two more areas to adjust since editing the default lead generation form.

Form Placement is where you want to embed the lead generation form. You can choose between the beginning of the quiz or before showing the results.

If you want to give users the option to skip the form, you can enable the Skip Form feature.

Enter a customized message when you enable the Skip Form feature.

You can configure the Appearance and Behavior of the quiz, too. For help with this, please refer to our documentation on Appearance and Behavior.

4. Setting Up Email Notifications and Integrations

We can now get back into the Email Notifications and Integrations area since we set up the lead generation default. They were locked, but are now accessible. This is where we’ll set up email notifications every time a user opts into the quiz.

In the Email Notifications area, set up the Admin Notification and Participant’s Notification.

Where you can adjust the email notifications.
The admin’s email is also displayed here.

In terms of setting up, both of these fields function the same.

You can edit the message to the admin & participants that will go out after opting in, edit what emails the message goes out to, create advanced customizations with the email (e.g. CC & BCC), and add conditions.

Customize email notifications the way you want them.

Plus, in our new form data dropdown list, you can add quiz and form data in the body of your emails.

Add any specific piece of data in the emails that you’d like.

If you have any 3rd party apps integrated with Forminator, you can connect them in the Integrations area. Just click on the plus sign, and that particular app will walk you through on how to connect.

A view of the integrations area.
Easily sync your quiz up with MailChimp, Zapier, and more!

Once connected, you can start collecting the quiz’s data with any supported integrated app.

5. Implement Quizzes on Your WordPress Site

Once you have your quiz set up the way you’d like, hit Publish. Then, Forminator will give you a shortcode that you can use on any post, page, or acceptable widget.

Forminator hands over the shortcode as quick as that. 

Simply copy and paste the code, and that’s it. Your quiz is now ready to collect leads!

6. Easily Viewing Submissions

Viewing and monitoring submissions is quick and easy. The Quizzes dashboard gives you an immediate glimpse of activity.

You can see when the last submission was made, the number of submissions in the last 30 days, and easily access the submissions for a specific quiz.

Forminator's quizzes dashboard.
You can create a new quiz, view submissions, and edit quizzes in Forminator’s dashboard.

To see submissions from a specific quiz, locate the name of the quiz, tap on the gear icon, and then View Submissions.

Where you'll view submissions.
View submissions and much more from the gear icon.

Once you click View Submissions, Forminator brings up all the submissions to that particular quiz. It shows the submission date & time, email address, first name, and information from other fields you included.

Individual submissions display.
The submissions are also numbered by the submission date.

By clicking on the dropdown on individual submissions, you can view detailed information, quiz results, and any details on 3rd party integrations.

All of the field information is displayed here and quiz results.

Want to download the data? That’s a click away.

Click on Export and you can download a CSV file. Plus, you can apply submission filters and schedule exports by specific times, making them automatically emailed directly to you.

Manually or schedule exporting the data.

Q: What’s the Best Lead Generating Quiz Maker Out There?

A: With a 5-star rating and many tens of thousands of active downloads, we have to side with our four-eyed friend as the best lead generating quiz maker because he makes it quick, easy, and free to do.

Plus, Forminator can create contact & registration forms, collect payments, make polls, perform calculations, and much more. He’s continuously updated, thanks to Forminator’s awesome team of developers and designers.

To check out what else is coming out with Forminator, check out our Roadmap. And to learn more, you can always refer to Forminator’s documentation.

Finally, for a quick overview of what we just covered, be sure to watch this short video:

Need a recap? Check out this video.

Happy lead-generating quiz making!

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How to Simply Set Up Users & Roles in The Hub for You and Your Clients

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With The Hub 2.0, you can give unlimited users multiple roles — even if they aren’t WPMU DEV members! All of this can be easily set up in a matter of minutes, allowing you the flexibility to give users access to as much or as little as you’d like on your WordPress site.

Plus, With The Hub Client, you can create your Hub for your clients and collaborators, using your branding.

Oh, and did we mention it’s all free for your users and you’re able to be set up in minutes?

In this article, we’ll be going over how to:

  1. Easily Set Up Users
  2. Set Up Roles in Just a Few Clicks
  3. Add User Customization Settings
  4. Gain Quick Access to Sites
  5. Set Up the Hub Client
  6. Include Users & Roles & The Hub Client

This post’s features are accomplished from the Users & Roles tab in The Hub dashboard, except for The Hub Client, accessed by the Hub Client Plugin (which I’ll show you how to activate).

1. Easily Set Up Users

You can create new users in The Hub, allowing them to access specific areas on your WordPress site. Creating new users in The Hub is the easiest way to allow access to users because everything is done from one place.

Click the Users tab and Add First User to get started.

Where you'll add your first user.
Creating new users is perfect for collaborations with other users.

From here, you’ll enter their email. Then, you can select sites that they’ll have access to (all the sites that you have with WPMU DEV are shown in the dropdown), and the user role to view, edit, or custom role (which can be modified and changed at any time).

Where you'll invite a new user.
Clicking on Invite will notify the new user with a confirmation email.

Once that user gets the email and hits Confirm, the user will be redirected to WPMU DEV to set up a free account with their email, name, and password.

They don’t even need to be a WPMU DEV member. And again, there’s no cost for the users. The only cost would be if the new user wants to upgrade to a WPMU DEV membership of their own.

Where a user creates a free account.
There are only three fields to fill out for a new user to get set up.

When they click Join – that’s it!

A new user is added and will have access to the sites and roles determined by the admin when invited.

From the admin point of view, they can then see their new user in the Users area. If the invited user accepts, it will show Active in the status. If the user hasn’t confirmed yet, it will show Pending.

All of the users and roles.
All your users are shown in one spot in The Hub.

It also displays the user’s email, role, sites that the user has access to, and status.

Add as many users as you’d like by clicking on the New User button.

Setting up a user can be done with the tap of a button.

As you can see, creating and organizing users takes no time at all.

2. Setting Up Roles in Just a Few Clicks

When you send a person an invite to be part of the team, you also add user roles. Roles are what determines which access capabilities users have.

The predetermined roles that are initially available are:

  • View & Edit
  • View Only

You can pick between these two or create your own.

Create your own role under Roles by clicking on New custom user role.

Where you'll create a new custom role.
All the available roles will be displayed here.

Name the new role anything you’d like and customize accordingly. Let’s check out how to customize it by…

3. Adding User Customization Settings

Customizing access for a role can be determined by clicking on all the available options (e.g. sites, security settings, SEO, etc). Also, choose to have View & Edit or View Only for sites.

You decide what to include in this new role.

The Custom option gives you detailed task descriptions about specific roles that each option can allow.

As an example, here are various tasks you can include for Plugins in this new role. Click on the options you want the user to have the capability to manage.

Plugin customization options
Allow this role to uninstall plugins, activate plugins, and more.

Once you have the new tasks determine, click Save, and you’re all set.

For more detailed information on each task description, you can see all of them listed here.

With roles determined, the ability to assign them is all in one place. Everything under Role shows what that user has access to.

Where it shows the roles.
As you can see, the current role is View & Edit – All.

Want to change roles? Customize what sites they have access to and switch roles accordingly by clicking on the roles and what sites you want the user to have access to.

Once updated, the user will have the roles that you applied to them.

And like all things in The Hub, you can edit anything whenever you want.

4. Gain Quick Access to Sites

You have instant access to view your sites and how many users each site has in the Sites tab. The Sites tab makes it quick and easy to view and edit roles for specific sites.

All the websites are displayed here with the number of users displayed next to the site’s name.

All of the sites under each user.
You can also click the arrow to sort by name or number.

Hover over the number to bring up all the users for that site.

Shows the user and role for site.
For this site, there’s one user and one role.

Click on the plus sign by the site’s name to manage the user’s access.

Editing a users access.
Clicking the plus site will lead you to edit a user’s access.

This shows who has access and whether they’re active or not. Uncheck the user to remove access and add a new user from here, too.

Who has access to a site and their roles.
Want to remove access for someone? Click on the green checkmark and that user won’t be able to access any longer.

You can also resend an invitation to a pending user from this section.

5. Set Up The Hub Client

The hub client image.
The Hub Client has arrived so that you can personalize The Hub the way you want it.

With The Hub Client, you can provide access to clients, collaborators, and users using your personalized white label Hub. It’s your own Hub, the way you and your organization want it, customized to your perfection.

Plus, you can use any host (including our own managed hosting), sell our services, and run at your domain.

To use The Hub Client plugin, you have to be connected with The Hub to access its API. You can see how to do that here.

When connected to The Hub, the Hub Client plugin can be downloaded from the White Label page and then clicking on Find out more about The Hub Client.

Download the hub client.
One-click on White Label, and you’re there.

Once downloaded and installed, you’ll get a welcome message.

The Hub client welcome screen.
Welcome to the Hub Client!

The welcome message can walk you through everything on getting started by, you guessed it – clicking Get Started.

Begin by changing your name to replace WPMU DEV by clicking on the title and entering whatever you’d like.

Where you change the brand name.
We’ll just call this one Dev Man.

Replace the WPMU DEV logo with your own by uploading an image in the Your Logo section (e.g. Dev Man).

Adding your logo.
A cartoon Dev Man will do for this example.

You can change the colors for the Navigation background, Navigation text, and Navigation text selected & hover in the Color scheme area. Do this by visually picking the colors or by color number (e.g. #FFFFFF for white).

Pick and choose appropriate colors that fit your branding.

Head over to the Configuration to select a pre-made menu to appear after Sites.

Where you configure the menu.
Configure the menu how you’d like.

And for the client page, you can set up any page you’d like to replace your client hub. All the pages you have in your WordPress site will appear in the dropdown menu.

Where you choose a page to replace the hub.
Choose a specific page to replace ‘hub.’

For example, I created a page called Client Login that I’m going to use for my clients to log in at.

A sample page used for the hub.
We’ll use this page as an example.

And now, when your users log in, they’ll be greeted with your branding, colors, and configurations.

Custom user log in area.
What the user login area now looks like.

That’s how you have your own completely white-labeled Hub Client organization (yippee!).

So, let’s set up…

6. Users & Roles & The Hub Client

Your colleagues, users, and clients can now log in and use your very own branded WordPress site and customized Hub with The Hub Client. The Hub Client includes controlling all user access levels and roles.

It has to be activated and running to do this, so be sure to read through the section in this article on setting up The Hub Client first.

Once The Hub Client is ready, adding, and setting up users & roles is all accessible in The Hub Client > Users & Roles.

The Hub client users and roles.
All of your users will be displayed instantly.

This section is precisely how Users & Roles are set up in The Hub, except the Setting tab.

The Hub has the Settings tab, and The Hub Client has a Terms of Service & Privacy tab, so you can edit and set your Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

You can easily add a new client or user by clicking the New User box.

Where you add a new user in the hub client.
Add as many new users as you’d like.

Once clicking on that, you’ll fill out the new user’s email address, grant site access, and select the user’s role.

Adding a new user.
Three simple steps will get a new user set up.

The user will get an email invitation to join. Once confirmed, they’ll appear in your Users & Roles admin as active.

When you have your users in the system, you can manage their access to websites. All you do is click on the individual, and a pop-up will appear where you can select Access to Selected Websites or Access All Websites.

If you choose Access to Selected Websites, you can remove or add sites that the individual can access in one-click.

Where you can access websites for users.
The blue checkmark means the user can access it.

Create a new role in the Roles tab. Plus, see what User Roles are already set up. (For more on New Roles, please see the Add User Customization Settings).

create new role.
Have a new role you want to create? Get one set up in a minute or less.

To quickly view your websites, view users for each site, and add or remove users from your site, go to Sites.

The sites in users and roles.
Click on a number to view the users for a particular site.

With the Users & Roles in the Hub Client, you’ll have your clients up-and-running in your white-labeled Hub in minutes. All accessible right from the dashboard in your WordPress site.

You can add an unlimited amount of collaborators and users with access to WPMU DEV products, plugins, and support.

There is No Sub for The Hub

As you can see, adding users & roles and creating your Hub for you and your clients is doable in just a few clicks. There’s just no other substitute out there for an all-in-one CMS when it comes to managing your WordPress sites.

And if you think this is good, just wait. Coming soon, we’re including automated site creation & client billing, making your white label Hub your own SaaS business!

To keep tabs on what’s coming, be sure to follow our Roadmap. And for more, check out The Hub’s documentation and stay tuned to our blog.

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How to Create a Powerful and Secure Customized Firewall with Defender

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Hackers can be persistent at trying to get into your site and drop malicious code, figuring out your credentials, and leaving spam. Thankfully, with WPMU DEV’s 5-star security plugin, Defender, you can set up a firewall, block IP addresses with customized lists, and more…leaving troublemakers unable to take even the first step into your WordPress site.

This tutorial will demonstrate how easy it is to set up Defender’s IP banning and keep your WordPress site safe.

Here are 8 areas we’ll be covering (jump to a specific topic by clicking on it):

  1. Automatically Identify Bad Acting IP Addresses
  2. Creating a Custom Blocklist & Allowlist
  3. Active Lockout Displays
  4. Unlocking IP Addresses
  5. Location Banning
  6. Creating Custom Message for Banned Users
  7. Importing and Exporting Custom Blocklist & Allowlist
  8. Check Your Lockout Log for Suspicious Activity

Most areas of this tutorial are accessible in Defender under the Firewall and IP Banning section unless specified differently.

Let’s get started with the best and most powerful feature of Defender’s firewall…

1. Automatically Identify Bad Acting IP Addresses

Defender automatically identifies bad acting IP addresses and adds them to a firewall, providing your site with ongoing security and protection.

You can lock out users who attempt a number of failed login attempts. Defender gives you control over the threshold and duration of the lockout in the Login Protection screen (Defender > Firewall > Login Protection).

Defender Login Protection screen.
Defender lets you set how many failed login attempts will trigger a lockout for a user’s IP address.

You can view how many IP addresses have been temporarily blocked in the Active Lockouts section of the IP Banning screen (Defender > Firewall > IP Banning > Active Lockouts). You can also unblock IP addresses here.

Defender Active Lockouts
View and release temporarily blocked IP addresses in the Active Lockouts section.

You can also enable 404 detection (Defender > Firewall > 404 Detection), and Defender will automatically block IP addresses that repeatedly request pages on your website that don’t exist. It will also temporarily block these offending IP addresses from accessing your site.

Defender 404 Detection
Defender’s 404 detection blocks IP addresses that repeatedly request pages on your site that don’t exist.

Tip: You can use the 404 detection feature in combination with Defender’s login masking feature to immediately identify and block IP addresses requesting your site’s login page.

In addition to Defender’s automatic IP blocking features, you can also block IPs manually, as the next section explains.

2. Creating a Custom Blocklist & Allowlist

Creating a custom blocklist & allowlist with Defender will keep unwanted IPs from accessing your site.

It’s done by easily entering any IP addresses. This includes admins, too.

The first area is for your Blocklist.

The area to enter your blocklisted IPs.
The area to enter your blocklisted IPs.

You can type out any IPs you want to be blocked, and they’ll no longer be able to access your site.

When you scroll down a bit further, you’ll have the option to add IP addresses to your Allowlist.

The Allowlist area.
The Allowlist area.

It’s the same as the blocklist, where you just enter the IP addresses that you’d like to always have access to your WordPress site.

IPv4 and IPv6 are both supported for the blocklist and allowlist.

Note: We recommend adding your own IP to avoid getting locked out by accident. Your current IP address will be shown below the allowlist and you can easily copy and paste it in.

When you have all the information added to the blocklist and allowlist, there’s a Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen that will save everything.

Unwanted IPs are no longer going to be stopping by your WordPress site.

3.Active Lockout Displays

You can easily view any IP addresses that are blocked from accessing your site based on your rules.

Active lockouts screen.
Active lockouts screen.

Once you start having lockouts, they’ll all be compiled here. You can see how many IP addresses are currently blocked.

And if you need to unblock any IPs, there’s…

4. Unlocking IP Addresses

Sometimes an IP is blocked or banned and you need to unblock it for many reasons.

Defender makes it simple to release any IP addresses from the Active Lockout area by hitting the Unlock IPS button.

Unlock IPs area.
You can see there are 30 IP addresses currently blocked here.

This will reveal all of the blocked IP addresses and it’s one-click to unblock them by clicking Unblock.

Where you’ll unblock an IP address.
Where you’ll unblock an IP address.

There’s no need to hit anything further after this. It will unblock the IP and you’re all set.

You can also search for specific IPs in the search area if you’re having difficulty locating them on the list.

5. Location Banning

Along with IP addresses, you can also ban entire countries with Defender. This feature is handy when you don’t want or expect traffic from specific locations and want to put a stop to hackers and bots visiting from certain areas.

All of this can be achieved in the Locations section.

Defender works with a company called MaxMind, so it can have access to the GeoLite2 Database. It’s free to set up an account and will ask you to do so when first setting up location banning.

The Locations area. When you get started with Defender, it asks you to set up an account with MaxMind.
The Locations area. When you get started with Defender, it asks you to set up an account with MaxMind.

There are prompts for a free account. From there, they’ll email you steps to set up a password. Once you login in, you click the link for a new license key in Defender’s dashboard.

Create a new license key in MaxMind and then it will be ready to copy and paste into Defender.

Where a new key is produced.
Where a new key is produced.

Once your new license key is pasted, you’ll be all set once you hit the Download button. It may take a few minutes for the key to register, so keep that in mind.

Now you have the option to Blocklist & Allowlist any country.

There is a drop-down menu that displays them. Once you start typing, it will populate any corresponding countries that start with that letter.

The drop-down menu of countries. Select as many as you’d like to blocklist or allowlist.
The drop-down menu of countries. Select as many as you’d like to blocklist or allowlist.

They’ll all appear in the box below your choice of blocklist or allowlist. You can also take them off the list by clicking on the ‘X’ next to the country’s name.

Blocklist of countries.
List of the countries added so far.

When completed, it’s all saved by hitting the Save Changes button.

6. Creating Custom Messages for Banned Users

Give any locked out hacker a customized message from Defender himself. All of this can be done in the Message area.

You have the ability to add a customized message in this space.

Customized blocklist message.
Where you’ll type in a customized message.

And after that, anyone that is on the blocklist will be greeted by Defender.

A message from Defender.
Defender is here to tell them what’s happening.

After clicking the Save Changes button, the message will be functioning and unwelcome guests will know why they’re IP isn’t making the cut.

7. Importing and Exporting Blocklist & Allowlist

If you have a blocklist or allowlist from another website and want to import them, it’s quick and easy to do. Likewise, you can export your list that you have for blocklist and allowlist to use on another website.

All of this is under Import and Export in Defender.

Where you can import and export blocklist and allowlist.
Where you can import and export blocklist and allowlist.

There’s an Import button to import and Export button to export a list.

Importing will not remove existing IPs. Also, when you export, it will include the blocklist and allowlist.

8. Check Your Lockout Log for Suspicious Activity

You can view all of your lockouts and quickly ban, allowlist, or delete the list in just a couple of clicks. Plus, you can easily download your activity logs of IP lockouts.

This, unlike the previous sections, is located in Firewall and Logs on Defender’s dashboard.

Where you can view all of your lockout activity.
Where you can view all of your lockout activity.

Once here, you can sort logs by the latest, oldest, or IP address. You can also export them as a CSV and adjust the date range.

Where you can sort the logs.
Where you can sort the logs.

Also, take care of the issues in one-click with Bulk Update. You can ban, allowlist, or delete just by checking the boxes individually or by the dropdown to take care of them all.

Take care of things in bulk with the bulk update.
Take care of things in bulk with the bulk update.

You can also get more detailed information by clicking on the arrow dropdown next to the issue. There, you’ll also have an option to allowlist or blocklist.

And just like that, all of your lockouts are now taken care of.

Setting Up a Lockout Firewall Can’t Get Any Easier

Unwanted guests won’t get far with Defender’s custom IP address lockout.

And it’s more than just customized IP address lockout — there’s custom messages, location banning, logs, and much more with Defender.

To learn more tips on using Defender, check out our article about finding & deleting suspicious code and all about how to stop hackers in their tracks.

For more information, check out Defender’s documentation page.

Posted on

Page Parenting Guide: How To Set Up An Index of WordPress Child Pages

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Creating child pages in WordPress is simple to do. The only problem is, creating a child page doesn’t do anything for the front end of your blog and your viewers. You can’t just easily check a box or two and display child pages automatically on the parent page. This leaves your homepage, well… childless. Read on for the simple solution.

Parental Guidance Recommended

This article is rated PG, meaning that — like a parent — I’ll be offering some guidance on how you can better index your child pages with the help of some free WordPress plugins.

More specifically, showing you how to get a list of Child Pages to appear both on a Parent Page, and also in your sidebar.

By the time you read this article, you’ll have a nice idea of several options to set up your WordPress site and child pages.

From there you’ll be able to make a grown-up decision on what works best.

Having an option to showcase your child pages on your website is important if you have some vital information that you want prominently displayed.

Why?

If you don’t, many viewers might not realize a lot of what you want them to see is accessible.

If child pages are in the future for you, your life, er — website — is about to change.

Dev Man and Child Page for WordPress.
Is a super child (page) in Dev Man’s future?

Good Parenting Means Good Plugins

Like a good parent, a good plugin can raise your child pages to be well-displayed.

Not only that, but they can also simplify the process, assist with customization, and – as you’ll see – much more.

These free child page plugins each have various features and benefits. I’ll be going over all of them in detail.

Plus, I have a “bonus” plugin that I’ll mention that deals with a child of a different magnitude.

  • CC Child Pages

    CC Child Pages by Caterham Computing is a simple plugin that can display child pages on your homepage with a shortcode.

    It’s so easy to use, even a child can add child pages to their WordPress website.

    Everything is achieved by using a shortcode. The shortcode is relatively simple and can be used wherever you’d like the child pages to appear (e.g. the homepage).

    Child pages code.
    Example of child pages shortcode.

    The child pages are displayed in responsive boxes, which include a page title, excerpt, and even a “Read more…” link.

    I like how you can choose your layout with this plugin. It can be 1, 2, 3 or 4 columns.

    If you choose to go with a three or four-column layout, it will resize to two columns on mobile devices, which makes them easy to read when viewing on the go.

    CC Child pages one column example.
    Example of a one-column layout.

    You can also choose the depth of pages to be displayed. All of this can be configured as a widget in the Sidebar area.

    CC Child Pages sidebar.
    As you can see, there are a lot of options. This is where you can add the shortcode, exclude pages, show siblings pages, and choose the depth.

    Once you have edited it how you’d like, it’s ready to go! You just paste the shortcode wherever you want to display it on your site.

    CC Child Pages example.
    Another example of what it can look like on your website.

    Though there’s not a ton of customization options, the simplicity of this plugin makes it efficient and does the job.

    With over 10,000 downloads and a solid 5-star review, this plugin has what it takes to add your child pages to your WordPress site.

    Interested in CC Child Pages?

    Details

  • Advanced Sidebar Menu

    Advanced Sidebar Menu by OnPoint Plugins is another basic and easy to use free plugin for child pages on your site.

    It uses the parent and child relationship of your WordPress pages or categories and generates menus in specific areas.

    You just assign a page or category to a parent and the plugin does the rest for you.

    This plugin has solid reviews along with good support.

    Let’s check it out!

    To set it up, it’s all located in the widgets area from your dashboard.

    Advanced Sidebar categories.
    Advanced categories menu.

    Here you can add a title, display the highest level parent category, display menu, and use built-in styling.

    Everything is located here and there are no additional places to customize.

    Once you have configured it the way you want, it’s ready to go.

    Advanced Sidebar example.
    Example of what the child pages on your website can look like.

    It is as simple as that.

    There’s not much when it comes to additional customization, but like our previous plugin, it might not be necessary to suit your needs.

    They have an option to Go Pro, which features advanced styling, priority support, custom link text, excluding pages, and more.

    However, for just the basics, the free version does the trick.

    Though there are not many advanced options, if you have some CSS knowledge, you can customize as much as you’d like in your theme’s style sheet.

    This plugin is great when it comes to including a clean and usable menu for child pages.

    It’s nice to be able to feature only what you want and have full control over your options. Plus, the ease of use makes for a quick fix when adjusting your website.

    Interested in Advanced Sidebar Menu?

    Details

  • Content Views - Post Grid & List for Wordpress

    The Content Views – Post Grid & List for WordPress by Content Views is a fantastic option for anyone looking for an extremely easy fix for adding child pages or grids for posts.

    It’s a well-updated plugin that’s 100% responsive and mobile-friendly. I love how you can customize almost every Aspect of the pages; including arranging by keyword, images, recent pages, and more.

    The layout of this plugin in your dashboard is a breeze to figure out.

    It gives you an option for either a page or post right in the dashboard under Content Type.

    Everything is clearly labeled and you can quickly set up your child pages however you’d like.

    From the dashboard, you can choose what to include, exclude, and limit. There are also more advanced options for sorting and display.

    Content View new child page.
    The dashboard for adding a new view for a child page or post.

    The Display Settings has all the options you need for setting it up the way you want it to look.

    You have options for layout, format, and field settings. It also goes as far as allowing you to set up excerpts, HTML tags, pagination, opening child pages in the current tab or a new tab, and more.

    Content View display settings.
    The display settings area.

    Once you have your child pages display all set up — you’re all set!

    There’s a simple shortcode to embed it into your website. You can use it in a widget or for a theme file. They give you both options.

    Content View options.
    Code options.

    When you save your new view, it’s listed on the dashboard. You can easily retrieve the code from there, too.

    Content Views shortcode.
    Views from the dashboard.

    Want to see it in action? Here is a quick set up I created from a basic WordPress website.

    Content Views preview.
    The child pages featured below the parent page.

    Like a lot of the other plugins, there is a Pro option. If you upgrade, you can get advanced customization options, more layouts, and options for Google Adsense.

    I found the free version suitable as-is. The clean layout, design, and ease of functionality make this a pretty amazing free plugin for child pages.

    Interested in Content Views - Post Grid & List for Wordpress?

    Details

  • Child Theme Configurator

    I told you I had a “bonus” — and this is it.

    The Child Theme Configurator by Lilaea Media is something else to consider. It goes beyond just pages and tackles child themes.

    I think it’s worth including because sometimes users want to edit a child theme. Or, you might not even be aware that this is an option for your WordPress site.

    And since we’re talking about child stuff, well…why not include it?

    Let’s dive in and take a look.

    Once uploaded into your dashboard, you have four options to choose from:

    • Creating a new child theme.
    • Configuring an existing child theme.
    • Duplicating an existing child theme.
    • Resetting an existing child theme.
    Child Theme configure dashboard.
    The child theme configurator.

    One great quality of this plugin is how it’s step-by-step. There’s no overly complicated language or confusion, making configuring very simple.

    Child Theme tab two.
    The next step is setting up a theme.

    You can customize however you’d like.

    Child Theme 4-5.

    This includes where to save the stylesheet, ensuring plugins work with specific themes, and verifying the theme directory.

    Child Theme section.
    Selecting parent theme stylesheet handling.

    This plugin has a lot to offer and it’s worth exploring for yourself if you’re interested in child themes.

    Child Theme example.
    The child theme example I set up.

    There is an upgrade option that includes customizable plugin stylesheets, quick preview, color palettes, new styles, adding child theme files, and tutorials.

    Depending on your skill level, it might be worth the upgrade. The free version is quite impressive as is.

    Interested in Child Theme Configurator?

    Details

Prefer To Take The Coding Route?

Now even though we’re mostly talking plugins in this article, with a little bit of coding knowledge, you don’t need a plugin to create child pages that are displayed on your homepage.

An example of this is adding the below code to your theme’s sidebar.php file.

Code for setting up child pages.

From there, you can edit accordingly by resizing, adding fonts, colors, etc.

Of course, if this is a bit too complicated and CSS isn’t your thing (by the way, we can help you with that), a plugin is the easiest way to go.

Plus, a plugin can give you more options for functionality, displays, and features.

(No) Problem Child

To avoid problems with your site’s viewers seeing your content, a great child page plugin will do the trick. As you can see, you have a lot of options.

Each plugin is uniquely different, but they all make setting up child pages on a parent page much easier than, let’s say, parenting.

And if you need babysitting, we have 24/7 support, hosting, and security to keep your WordPress site and child plugins in good hands.

Posted on

Catch Fire Before Launch Day With These Free WordPress Coming Soon Page And Under Construction Plugins

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Your site’s Coming Soon page is the perfect canvas to give visitors a sneak peek of what’s to come. The pre-launch or construction stage of a website is also great opportunity to drum up excitement and interest in advance. In this article we’re reviewing some of the best WordPress plugins that can help you do this.

Three, two, one… and we’re “go” for launch…

Soon!

As touched on above, today we’re introducing you to several free WordPress Coming Soon and Under Construction plugins.

All of these plugins can help you with a new pre-launch, or if you need to perform maintenance on your site. If used correctly, best believe they can help your site take off like a rocket (before it’s even live!).

We’ll also demonstrate how to set each plugin up, and introduce you to all of the main features.

The goal being to see what sets each one apart, and helping you decide which plugin will work best for you.

By the time we’re done, you’ll hopefully feel better about launching your site before it’s open, or after construction.

Doing it the right way is important, unlike, well…

Dev Man launching a WordPress website.
Dev Man about to launch a new website — into the air. It’s not recommended to do it this way (especially with a computer).

First, Make Sure Your Coming Soon Page Can Be ‘Counted On’…

As several of these plugins countdown for you, you need to count on them. There are some essential things your coming soon page needs to do.

For example, the page should:

  • Match your branding – Your coming soon content should be along the same lines of your overall offerings in terms of design. Also, it should highlight specific features you want to showcase.
  • Help capture leads – You’ll want to have prominent form displayed on your page to encourage visitors to sign up for launch notifications. A free plugin like Forminator is great for this.
  • Encourage social sharing – To help generate buzz about your launch, you’ll want easy to integrate options for people to share news of your site socially.

Grab a Hard Hat, Here’s What Else Your Under Construction Page Needs:

If your site is under construction, there are additional features that should be included:

  • Stay analytically friendly – If you need to do work on your site, ensure that you don’t get penalized by Google for being down. Keep your SEO in check.
  • Mention you’re under construction and will open soon – Nothing can upset a potential customer or visitor than a site that doesn’t function and doesn’t mention why.

It’s a fairly simple set of requirements, and the tools we’ll be discussing will help you execute all of them in style.

Let The [Plugin] Countdown Begin!

WAIT! Before we accelerate into examples of plugins, you may be interested in some background resources:

So now you have a good marketing plan, you have a URL, and your website’s being worked on. It’s time to get on the clock. Punch in and we’ll set up the ultimate coming soon page.

Down below you’ll find five free coming soon plugins for WordPress, as well as one of our own premium plugins (which we’d be silly not to mention).

Some function specifically for counting down, others are best for when you’re under construction.

Let’s get to work.

  • Colorlib Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode

    Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode by ColorLib allows you to create coming soon and maintenance pages that are one of a kind.

    While it’s operating, you can easily work on your website while the plugin collects your visitors’ emails.

    Let’s go ahead and activate this plugin.

    By the way… if you’d like to follow along with all of the demonstrations in this post, be sure to visit the plugin’s page and download it. (I know, it goes without saying. But still…)

    Once you have it installed, go to Settings and you’ll be taken to the block editor.

    ColorLib customization area.
    The settings area.

    All the settings are accessible by clicking the blue pencils, or you can edit them on the left-hand side of the screen.

    The General area is where it supports its main function — which is a countdown clock.

    You can quickly activate it so it’s displayed on your website by clicking the switch next to Activate Colorlib Coming Soon Page.

    Below that is an option for the timer. Simply flip the switch to activate it.

    All the features of this plugin are accessible without any advanced CSS needed. It’s easy to adjust the date and time, timezone, and you can even upload a new image in this area.

    ColorLib General tab.
    A look at the General tab.

    As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, social sharing is important.

    Folks need to share and get the word out about your launch. With that said, there is a tab you can utilize to help get visitors get in tune with your social accounts. You can also keep them posted on your progress.

    The ColorLib social media area.
    The social tabs.

    Also, for more advanced customizations, you can add custom CSS.

    ColorLib custom CSS.
    ColorLib custom CSS.

    As for getting visitors to sign up for updates and to get on your email list, there’s a form already available when this plugin is activated.

    ColorLib sign-up form.
    The customizable signup form.

    You can easily disable or activate it, like anything else on this plugin. If activated, you can integrate it with an email service (e.g. MailChimp).

    I like how the form remains hidden while editing the site. It’s only accessible once you’re logged out and you preview your site, or if you use a different browser.

    ColorLib live website.
    A live look at what the coming soon timer and opt-in form look like.

    It’s nice how there is currently no upgrade option, so all of the features are instantly available and free.

    Overall, what I enjoyed most was the beautiful and responsive designs, the ability to work with all WordPress themes, and the easy setup.

    You don’t need much more than what is offered. With plenty of 5-star reviews, we’re down (countdown, that is) with this plugin.

    Interested in Colorlib Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode?

    Details

  • Countdown, Coming Soon -- Countdown & Clock

    The Countdown, Coming Soon — Countdown & Clock is another simple, easy to use timer and coming soon plugin. It comes with numerous countdown display options (e.g. digital, circle, etc.) and customizable coming soon settings.

    On that note, let’s check it out in WP.

    When you have the plugin installed, it’s nice that the two main features of it are prominent on your dashboard. You can easily pick between creating a Countdown & Clock or a Coming Soon display.

    Countdown and Coming Soon in dashboard.
    The dashboard.

    If you’d like to feature a countdown timer it’s quick and easy to do. There are several varieties to choose from when it comes to look and style.

    The Add New Countdown screen.
    The Add New Countdown screen.

    As you can see, immediately you have some options not available unless you upgrade, such as hiding on mobile devices, scheduling, and more.

    But that’s okay. For basic use of creating a timer, you don’t need the upgrade unless there are specific features you wish to include.

    You can add a title, date, timezone, and set your clock’s countdown time.

    With Countdown Types, you can specify what style of countdown clock you would like.

    Countdown and coming soon timers.
    Selection of timers.

    There are other options to add advanced CSS to the timers and more. However, if you want to keep it simple, none of that is necessary.

    Once you have it named and designed how you would like it – simply save the timer. It will then give you a shortcode.

    Countdown and coming soon enable clock.
    Where the shortcode is located.

    Paste the shortcode on a blog or webpage — and you’re all set.

    Countdown and coming soon pasted code.
    Where we’ll paste the code for this example.
    Countdown and coming soon published clock.
    The live timer.

    If you’d like to set the coming soon display up, it’s also very easy to do.

    Go to the dashboard and select Coming Soon.

    You’ll then want to make sure Enable is turned on. Here you can craft your Headline and Message that you would like displayed on your website.

    Countdown and coming soon message.
    Where you type your message.

    If all looks well, hit Save Changes and it will display on your website.

    Coming soon example.
    Example of what the coming soon message can look like.

    Again, this is a very simple plugin. It has the essential features needed for creating a countdown timer and coming soon message.

    It’s a bit limited on some of the other features (e.g. an opt-in form), but it’s functional, easy to set up, and works well.

    Interested in Countdown, Coming Soon -- Countdown & Clock?

    Details

  • JQuery T (-) Countdown

    The JQuery T (-) is a basic countdown sidebar widget that requires shortcodes for it to function. You’ll notice the theme of this plugin is all Star Wars based (for example, one of the Force Load CSS options is ‘Jedi’), which we find quite interesting (and out of this world).

    It’s not exactly user friendly for anyone looking to quickly set up a countdown timer. However, with a little CSS knowledge, it is easy to use. It’s also highly customizable and the result can look impressive.

    This doesn’t come with all of the bells and whistles as some of the other plugins. There’s no opt-in forms, upgrades, or social buttons.

    With all that being said, grab a lightsaber, and let’s check it out.

    There’s only one page of customization widget options once installed, which makes it nice to have everything in the same spot.

    JQuery T Widget options.
    The jQuery T (-) Countdown Widget options.

    Once here, this is where all of the coding and building of the countdown timer takes place.

    What if I don’t have any CSS knowledge? No problem. They’ve made it a breeze to find the shortcode that is needed for your purposes with a link to one of their CSS pages.

    jQuery custom CSS.
    You simply paste it into the Custom CSS area and build it up like the Death Star.

    Once you have the shortcode that you need, jQuery works as a widget. So, you can move it into the desired area in WordPress.

    jQuery widget.
    Where the widget is located when activated.

    When it’s added to your site, you can customize the widget even more, if you’d like.

    jQuery widget customization.
    You can see numerous options that require CSS coding.

    Here is our very basic widget that we just set up.

    jQuery live example.
    An example of the countdown timer live.

    You can get more advanced with this and have some fun customizing the CSS.

    jQuery advanced styling.
    Some advanced timers.

    They do have options to upgrade, like an advanced countdown control. All additional features require being purchased.

    Overall, it’s a nice free plugin/widget that’s fairly easy to set up and use.

    You might find it difficult using some of the CSS without much knowledge of it, however, we also see this as a good opportunity to learn about basic CSS and — like a good Jedi mind trick — you might be surprised with what you can do.

    Interested in JQuery T (-) Countdown?

    Details

  • Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode -- Coming Soon Page

    For a free plugin, the Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode — Coming Soon Page offers a ton of options to ensure your visitors will be excited to visit your website when it’s ready for launch. And you can get it up and running in a matter of minutes.

    It doesn’t include a countdown timer, but it’s one of the most customizable options for everything else.

    This plugin even has its own themes that can work well with the maintenance mode. However, you don’t necessarily need to use theirs, because it’s also compatible with any other theme in WordPress.

    It’s a great choice for simplicity, ease of use (no CSS or coding required), and functionality.

    After downloading the plugin, it’s effortless to get moving. Everything is on the page and organized by the following menu tabs:

    • Basic
    • SEO
    • Themes
    • Design
    • Email
    • Advanced
    • Support

    There is also a tab to upgrade to the PRO version, which offers a lot more options for themes, SEO, design, email, and more.

    Starting with the Basic tab.

    Minimal coming soon setup.
    The Basic menu.

    Here you can enable Maintenance Mode, add Header Text, and Content.

    You can set everything up accordingly and include whatever message is best for your viewers. It does come with default text as well, if you’re not sure what to include.

    Minimal Coming Soon SEO options.
    The SEO section.

    This is an area where you can add keywords, a meta description, enable search engines, and more. It’s nice that they’ve also included an area to enable Google Analytics Tracking ID.

    Minimal Coming Soon themes.
    The themes area.

    It’s impressive how this plugin has its own themes available.

    There are free and PRO themes to choose from. As mentioned, you don’t need to include one of their themes to get this plugin to function, however, these themes were designed to function with the plugin so it’s aesthetically pleasing.

    Minimal Coming Soon images.
    Design options.

    When designing your page, they make it easy to upload a background and foreground image. You can upload your design or use theirs.

    Minimal Coming Soon email settings.
    Email settings.

    The email settings are available with everything else. It’s also extremely simple to incorporate MailChimp or another email service.

    Once added, you can include an opt-in form so that your visitors can be contacted with updates.

    Minimal Coming Soon opt in.
    The form area.

    Your opt-in form can be edited specifically to your liking. And as you can see, you’re given plenty of options to choose from.

    You can also get into more advanced settings, which include adding custom CSS and more.

    However, we chose to keep it simple.

    As you can see below, we added our very own Dev Man and used their default background. This is just a simple example of what you can do with this plugin.

    Minimal Coming Soon live preview.
    Dev Man, mountains, a nice looking coming soon site…What more do you need?

    This plugin has a 5-star rating from well over a hundred users, so don’t just take our word for it that this is a nice and easy coming soon option.

    Despite missing a timer option, this plugin has everything else you’d want to support your website before you’re up and running.

    Interested in Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode -- Coming Soon Page?

    Details

  • Under Construction

    The Under Construction plugin by WebFactory LTD is another free amazing and simple to use under construction plugin that takes just minutes to install.

    We love the fun designs and illustrations they include that can be used for your website while it’s getting ready for take off.

    All of the features are bundled in one area, and can all be simply accessed. It has most of the essentials you need for your page, as you’ll soon see.

    First, start under Settings to access the main panel.

    Since we’re going to be going under construction, the first step is to flip the Under Construction Mode switch to On.

    This will ensure visitors will see that it’s being worked on.

    In this tab, you can also prevent search engines from indexing the temporary site, automatically set up an end date and time, enable Google Analytics tracking, and reset settings.

    Under Construction main tab.
    The main panel where you have plenty of options.

    To design your under construction page, click over to the Design tab.

    Under Construction design page.
    The Design area.

    This is where you’ll discover a lot of fun, unique, and effective page designs.

    Some of them are premium features, which you can get if you upgrade. However, even without upgrading, they have a lot of great options to choose from.

    Once you find a design you like, click Activate and you’re in business.

    Of course, you’ll want to edit your message. You can do all of that in the Content area.

    Under Construction content area.
    The content area.

    Here you can edit more than just text. There are shortcode options, multilingual support, and also an area to include your social links and email.

    Under Construction social links.

    In the Access area, you can include things like whitelisted IP addresses and other URL based options.

    Under Construction access area.
    The Access area.

    And just like that, you can have a custom under construction page up for your visitors.

    Under Construction live example.
    A preview of our just created under construction page. Purr-fect.

    Though it’s functional, one thing it lacks is opt-in options for your visitors.

    You can include your social links and email — which is good. However, it’s always recommended to include an area for visitors to sign up, too. This can be created with some custom CSS.

    Here’s a bit more about using Under Construction in the video below.

    Interested in Under Construction?

    Details

  • Branda Pro

    Now we couldn’t let this post come to an end without giving our very own Branda Pro a cheeky mention…

    Branda image.
    “Hey there.”

    She’s a plugin that boasts WordPress white label branding, maintenance mode and coming soon landing pages, custom admin bars, and much more.

    Branda Pro features.
    More Branda Pro features.

    There’s a TON you can do with customization. And what’s especially great about Branda is that it makes it easy to match your website’s theme or topic.

    For this example, we’ll just be looking at the coming soon and under construction features she has on offer.

    Once installed, you can quickly access Branda on your dashboard. To start maintenance or coming soon mode, navigate to the Utilities area under Website Mode.

    Utilities in Branda for WordPress.
    The Utilities area in the WordPress dashboard for Branda.
    Branda coming soon area.

    Once here, you can pick Coming Soon, Maintenance, or Off.

    The content can all be edited directly below. Even the option for adding all of your social accounts.

    Branda social features.
    The social linking area in Branda.

    Adjusting colors and adding your own custom CSS is also a breeze.

    Branda color and CSS section.
    Branda color and CSS section.

    And here’s a look at a finished countdown timer.

    Branda timer example.
    And the Branda Pro countdown begins!

    Branda Pro is a simple, easy to use plugin that can definitely get the job done when coming soon and maintenance mode is needed for your website.

    For WPMU DEV members, she is available now to create maintenance pages, countdowns, and much more. If you are not a member, sign up for a free 30-day trial.

    Soon though, there will also be a free option available.

    You can check here to keep tabs on what she’s up to, and any updates on when it will be released.

Time is On Your [Web]Side.

Hopefully, you have some ideas on what works best for your website on your next pre-launch or maintenance.

You can have peace of mind knowing your visitors won’t be turned off by an ugly construction or a 404 error.

Fun Fact: Being Under Construction Can Be Beneficial

It shows your visitors that the website is evolving, up to date, and gives them a chance to connect with you on your social accounts or email.

And with that, when the maintenance is done and the website is open — job well done.

Feel free to punch the clock and take some time to yourself.

Posted on

Installing A Free WordPress Calculator Plugin

Wp Plugins

Whether you’re looking to create sophisticated calculations for your visitors, or simply work out the cost of an order – a calculator plugin can be worth its weight in gold. In this post, we’re putting some of WP’s best number crunchers to the test.

If your website needs to provide calculations, you can bet there’s a free WordPress plugin out there to help you do it.

Many calculation plugins can also be used in combination with third-party apps, giving you access to thousands of extra features and options.

All adding up to… (adding machine noises)… an amazing website!

Today I’m showing you several free calculator plugins and how they can all help in different circumstances.

By the end of this article, you should hopefully have enough data to crunch the numbers for yourself and work out what’s best for you.

Just please be gentle when punching the numbers in (unlike Dev Man below).

Dev Man with a calculator, about to punch it, because of WordPress Calculator Plugin.
This calculator’s numbers might be up.

We’ll look at:

  • Do you need a calculator plugin?
  • Several specific options (and their uses)
  • Using Forminator for calculations

Speaking of Forminator, it’s our own form plugin (with calculations) here at WPMU DEV and later on in the article we’ll take you through a complete tutorial, showing you how to set up basic calculations for your site-forms.

Would it make a nice addition (or subtraction) to my website?

It depends on what users want to calculate on your website. You can solve this problem by factoring in your market needs.

Chances are you’ll need one, or could benefit from one if you have a website for any of these categories:

  • Mortgages
  • Financial loans
  • Debt Reduction
  • Student Loans
  • Weight-loss
  • Math
  • Travel
  • Statistics

Even websites for a Zodiac, love calculator, or – if you’re a doomsday prepper — countdown clock until the end of the world (yikes!), could all benefit from having a calculation plugin.

Adding Up Your Options

WordPress has some very specific plugins for various calculations.

For example, if you have a mortgage company, and your visitors need to calculate a mortgage payment, a good option is the Responsive Mortgage Calculator.

Responsive Mortgage Calculator.
Need to allow visitors to calculate their mortgage payments? This calculator plugin is a great choice.

It’s a free jQuery widget and shortcode that’s made to easily fit into any theme, on any device, at any size. It’s made for any real estate agent that is constantly on the move showing properties.

The plugin relies on www.mlcalc.com service to show the calculation results and you must agree to its terms of use.

Some of the features that are included in this are:

  • Price of the home
  • Interest rate (fixed rate)
  • Selectable payment period
  • Amortization period
Example of responsive mortgage calculator wordpress plugin.
An example of the mortgage calculator.

You can also select the interest rate compounding period for your region, set a fixed payment period, and add your CSS classes.

Get the Responsive Mortgage Calculator here.

Doing some (number) crunches?

Are you a personal trainer? Have a weight-loss service? Well, a BMI calculator might be a perfect inclusion on your website to do the heavy lifting.

A simple, free option is the BMI Calculator Plugin.

BMI calculator homepage.
The BMI Calculator plugin helps with all of your heavy (number) crunching.

It was created so you can include a body mass index calculator to your blog by using [bmi] shortcode.

It has three built-in styles:

  1. Material Design
  2. Bootstrap
  3. Default (your own theme’s style)
BMI calculator example.
Example of the BMI calculator.

Overall, it’s simple to implement/ install, and enables BMI calculations as advertised.

Get the BMI Calculator Plugin here.

And then there’s also the CC BMI Calculator.

CC BMI Calculator homepage.
CC BMI Calculator homepage.

This free plugin can calculate in imperial or metric units.

The calculator itself is also highly customizable. There are options to change the color of the background, borders, and text. This is nice so that you can adjust accordingly to match your website’s theme.

Example of the CC BMI Calculator wordpress plugin.
Example of the CC BMI Calculator.

It can be placed on the sidebar as a widget or incorporated into any post or page with its shortcode.

Get the CC BMI Calculator Plugin here.

Because I’m Free. Free Formin’

Another great option for a free calculator plugin is our very own four-eyed friend, Forminator.

Forminator image.
“Hi.”

We have to talk about him, because a lot of calculations, forms, checkout processes, and more can be all achieved with his help, all in one place. And he’s an all-around nice guy, too.

What exactly is Forminator (and what does it have to do with a WordPress calculator)?

It’s a completely expandable form builder plugin. You can create service estimators, registration forms, and it comes with payment options for customers, such as PayPal and Stripe.

Forminator also makes it easy by including drag and drop blocks. You can rearrange and adjust however you’d like by simply moving the blocks around in Forminator’s dashboard.

What’s really great is integration. You can integrate your calculator, and form, with 1000-plus apps, such as Zapier, Trello, MailChimp, Hubspot, Google Sheets, Slack, and more.

He can get the calculations done.

There are thousands of combinations for adding value to your site with Forminator. For example, you can:

  • Sell a tee shirt with size, color, prices, and tax variations
  • Add a BMI and/or calorie intake calculator
  • Create a loan calculator and embed it on your site
  • Include a quote or service
  • Add registration forms

Computing Whether To Use Or Not?

To help you decide Forminator is the way to go for your calculator plugin. Here’s a small step-by-step example of what he can do…

Let’s say you want to sell a new comic book. It’s an action-packed comic that features all of our superheroes here on WPMU DEV.

First off, as avid superhero fans, we love that idea! Second of all, you need to have a calculation of the different books.

There’s the regular one that is priced at $3.99, the deluxe edition, priced at $5.99, and then the autographed version (signed by Dev Man himself), priced at $10.99.

The first step is to install Forminator for free.

Landing page for Forminator.
The Forminator dashboard.

Once you have it installed and activated, go to the Forminator dashboard. You’ll notice that you have three options:

  1. Forms
  2. Polls
  3. Quizzes
Forminator dashboard.
The Forminator dashboard.

Since you need a calculating form for sales, you’d want to go with a regular form. Go to Forms and hit ‘Create’.

This will then take you to a template option. You’ll create one from scratch, so hit the ‘Blank’ option. From there, hit ‘Continue’.

Choose a template.
Some temp(late)ting choices.

Next, you’ll be prompted to name the form.

Enter a name in Forminator.
A fitting name for this.

After hitting ‘Create’, you’ll be in the Edit Form dashboard.

Edit form in Forminator.
The Edit Form dashboard.

This is where you can add all the information needed and create a form for anyone that would love to order a comic book.

Say you’re going to charge them on the spot and ship it to them. If that’s the case, you’ll need:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Email
  • Phone number
  • Comic book options
  • Payment

A great thing about Forminator is you can choose to have the customer purchase right there on the spot with PayPal or Stripe at no cost. (When we mentioned this was a free plugin, that means for everything.)

Click the ‘Insert Fields’ to get all of the information in one place.

Insert fields area in Forminator.
Click the purple button.

You’ll see that most of the field types are already ready to go!

Pick and choose the options by clicking on them. Once you do, they’ll turn blue and have a little checkmark on the upper-right hand side of them. You can click several at once.

Insert fields options in Forminator.
All of the boxes in blue are the selected ones.

Now, click ‘Insert Fields’ and then you’ll see that it’s all compiled for you under the WPMU DEV Comic Book.

You can rearrange these blocks however you’d like. It’s a simple drag-and-drop method. For this example, we’ll have it as:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone
  • Email Address
  • Select
  • Credit/Debit Card
Showing all fields in Forminator.
You can see all of your preferences on this screen. You can drag-and-drop here and arrange any way you want.

What you’ll do now is edit the ‘Select’ box. You can see that, if you wanted to, you could duplicate or delete it here, too.

Edit field in Forminator.
The drop-down occurs when clicking on the block.

Click ‘Edit Field’.

Once here, you’ll choose what type you’ll want for this form, Single or Multiple. Go with Single. We’ll also add a label, description, and then below that, you’ll see Options.

Option area in Forminator.
The Options area.

There are only two options by default. We need three (remember, we have that amazing signed edition that will be available).

Just click the ‘Add Option’ button below and it will add a 3rd option.

You’ll notice a Calculations tab. Here is where, if you’d like, you can add calculations to each option.

Calculations value page for Forminator.
You can specify the exact calculations needed here.

The calculations must be a numeric value only.

Calculations field in Forminator.
An example of adding numeric values to the calculations.

To get the calculations to function, add Calculations to your form.

Calculations tab in Forminator.
The Calculations option.

Then, you can go into it and add formulas for specific needs. In this example, we’ll add one for a sum. You can also use – / * etc.

Sum formula example.
Example of a sum formula.

The calculations will then work with your Fields.

Calculations can be adjusted accordingly to your use. You can add sales tax, discounts, and more.

You can also adjust the Settings, Styling, and Visibility.

Once you have everything set up the way you want, you’ll need to connect a payment option with Forminator, since something is being sold. Let’s go with Stripe. If you don’t have a Stripe account, it’s easy to set up and you can here.

You do this in the Settings area.

Settings area for Stripe and PayPal in Forminator.
Settings option for Stripe and PayPal.
Not connected to Stripe settings screen.
It will tell you if you’re connected to Stripe or not.

You’ll simply log in to Stripe, and copy and paste your Publishable Key and Secret Key into Forminator.

Stripe Publisher Key.
The Stripe Publisher key inside Stripe. You’ll copy and paste this into Forminator.

Stripe has a Test and a Live mode. When you are setting this up, it’s best to stay in Test. In Test mode, no purchases can be made. When it’s published on your website, you’ll switch it to Live and will be able to start taking customers’ orders.

Now, you’re all set to go! You can always hit ‘Save Draft’ if you don’t want to have it published yet. Also, be sure to preview it.

Preview of the Forminator form.
Preview of the form.

In the preview, you can see that the dropdown has options for the comic book in it.

Forminator dropdown with comic books.
The different comic book options.

If you’re happy with everything, hit ‘Publish’ and you’ll be good to go!

Just don’t forget to go back to your Stripe settings and change it from Test to Live.

Forminator keeps track of all of your forms in one spot, so it’s easy to get back to at any time. Not only that, you can keep track of your stats for it, edit, and more.

When you’d like to add the form to a page or post, simply copy the shortcode for it.

Copy the shortcode from Forminator.

Here’s a look at what it will look like if pasted in the middle of a random post on WordPress.

Forminator shortcode pasted.
What the Forminator code that you’ll paste into WordPress pages or posts will look like.

And here’s the form in action.

Live preview of Forminator.
What the form looks like live.

You can do a TON of customization on it, so get as creative as you’d like.

For example, you can:

  • Change fonts
  • Add sales tax
  • Change colors
  • Add images
  • Resize
  • Create bold boxes

And lots more…

Forminator, again, is a great go-to option for creating calculations. Any calculation can probably be created with this plugin and tweaked however you wish. This comic book example is one of many, many options.

If you’d like to watch a demo of setting up an ordering form, be sure to check out the video below.

We all at WPMU DEV love it not just because we’re biased. The fact that it’s so customizable, easy to use, and FREE, you can’t go wrong. Plus, if you want to use the Pro version, it comes with 24/7 support if you do have any questions or need help.

It’s All a Numbers Game

When it comes down to it, a calculator plugin is either…

Mandatory for your site (for example, you need to know the amount of something with tax).

Or a useful feature that adds value to a website, but not mandatory (e.g. a loan calculator to give potential customers estimates before reaching out).

There are many options when it comes to adding a calculator plugin. With a little bit of searching, you can find one that’s perfect for your website.

As you can see, calculator plugins can be beneficial as a lead magnet, sales page, estimator, and more. As long as the numbers work in your favor.

Keep in mind, if you’d like to give our recommended Forminator a try, we have a free 30-day trial that comes with support, and additional plugins for your site.

With all that being said, I hope this added-up into providing you with a calculated decision on your next plugin for WordPress.