This is the first in a series, Member Success Stories, where we ask WPMU DEV-ers who are killing it in the WordPress web dev business to share key contributors of their success with us – and you.
Today we welcome Phil, the owner of Capital Web Design, a Canadian web services agency based in Ottawa.
WPMU DEV: Congrats on your professional success, Phil. Please tell us straight away, how did you grow your business so fast?
Phil: I wouldn’t say the business itself grew that fast. I’ve been building websites in some way or another since the early 2000s. Either static sites coded by hand (HTML + CSS + Javascript), using frameworks (VueJS), or with WordPress.
I started my freelance web design company in 2014, after being approached to do a replacement build for what was a costly, difficult to maintain website – and that became my first client. From there I found small and medium businesses in my hometown that had old, unsupported and unmaintained websites, or who had no website at all.
As I continued my efforts, my business ethos emerged: help companies, nonprofits and individuals in my city build a web presence they can be proud of. I focused on creating bespoke WordPress web design based on well-supported multipurpose themes, WPMU DEV and other dependable plugins, and fully managed white-glove web hosting.
Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of working with 20+ clients, and have built 60 websites targeting a multitude of industries and commercial sectors.
WPMU DEV: That’s awesome. Did you know about WPMU DEV at that time?
Phil: I had known about WPMU DEV since around 2016-18, back when you offered dozens of plugins for all sorts of functionality. I couldn’t justify the cost of a membership then, but I popped in every so often to check and see what progress was being made.
In 2019, Hosting was added as a WPMU DEV service – and this really caught my attention. During the Black Friday promotion that November (lifetime reduced membership cost!), I joined as a member, and I can’t see myself ever leaving.
It was a perfect storm: high-quality plugins + managed hosting + 24/7 support + highly reduced cost.
WPMU DEV: So as you were building your clientele, you were putting together your professional tool box. Can you give us a peek inside?
Phil: The tools and services from WPMU DEV have been invaluable to me.
Plugins have provided me with consistency and reliability for all of the most important aspects of WordPress websites.
Knowing that I can count on Hummingbird and Smush for performance optimization allowed me to stop using other freemium plugins such as W3 Total Cache, Autoptimize, WP Super Cache and EWWW Image Optimization. I found these plugins were all good at some things, but had a lot of paywalled features that Hummingbird and Smush offered out of the box, for free.
Defender has been a great peace-of-mind addition to my repertoire, as the one-click recommended fixes are super straightforward and quite effective.
Forminator forms may be difficult at times to style with CSS, but that’s more than made up for in functionality. The drag-and-drop UI makes it much easier to build forms compared to Contact Form 7, and the amount of extras that are baked in (calculation, email routing, etc) blow other (often paid) form builders out of the water.
WPMU DEV: Aside from plugins, you mentioned our services have made a huge impact as well. Can you expand on that?
Phil: When it comes to services, it’s hard to put into words just how much The Hub and the associated Hosting have helped me throughout the last few years.
I have worked with hosting providers like 1and1, DreamHost, Media Temple, Digital Ocean VPS, and Bluehost. Each had their advantages, but in the end it always became a chore to use their services. It was clear that the quality of their offerings reflected the low cost they positioned themselves at. They were in a perpetual fight to undercut their competitors on price, at the cost of quality of service and support.
WPMU DEV Hosting came in late in the game, but out of the gate addressed two of the major concerns I experienced at other hosts: lack of support, and lack of trust in the infrastructure.
By having dedicated resources (versus shared), the web servers were consistently fast, reliable, and offered premium features such as staging, backups and WAF.
WPMU DEV: Walk us through a typical work day; what you reach for the most, and your usual workflow.
Phil: I keep The Hub open in a tab at all times, refreshing it every once in a while to keep track of ongoing community discussions, website maintenance statuses, and plugin updates.
I subscribe to key email notifications to receive alerts of technical issues on my managed sites, as well as member discussions in the WPMU DEV member forums, blogs and newsletter.
When a technical issue occurs, I’m able to troubleshoot it quickly. If I’m unable to resolve it on my own, the LiveChat support is always there to help me right away.
WPMU DEV has allowed me to optimize my workflows across the board, in areas like:
Faster site creation with one-click managed WordPress server provisioning from The Hub.
WPMU DEV: Outside of your own talent and determination, what would you say has contributed most significantly to your growth?
Phil: WPMU DEV has reduced my server build-out time from 30 minutes to 3 minutes (90% reduction). Over the past few years I’ve stood up well over 75 servers, so this has saved me many hours of effort.
At the time of joining, The Hub allowed me to manage about a dozen sites from a central location as opposed to manually logging in to each separate site. This was a reduction of biweekly maintenance effort from approximately 60 minutes to 2 minutes.
Client billing and streamlined invoice creation allowed me to save approximately 20-30 minutes per invoice creation, which throughout the past few years I estimate has saved me over 30 hours of work.
All of these time and effort savings have allowed me to comfortably take on more projects and clients.
Since joining WPMU DEV, my completed projects count has grown approximately 416% – with each project being more efficient to produce than the last.
WPMU DEV: As a self-proclaimed diehard fan, you know we’re constantly upping our game and adding new features and services to our offerings. What’s a newer release that you’re really getting into?
Phil: Reseller focus. I look forward to adding WPMU DEV automated site provisioning via the reseller offerings, as well as domains and email reselling.
WPMU DEV: One last question; let’s close it out with a fun one. If you could talk to yourself at the start of your career, what would you say?
Phil: At the start of my career, I often looked up to senior staff who seemed wise beyond their years. I was afraid of making mistakes or breaking something, for fear that those-who-never-broke-anything would look down on me.
I would try to explain to a younger me that wisdom comes with experience, and experience comes from doing things, failing, and working through the failure.
The more things you work on, the more you get exposed to what works and what doesn’t. Failing or breaking something isn’t strictly negative, because every failure is a learning opportunity: troubleshoot what went wrong, understand how to fix it, and implement a solution.
Do this cycle enough times and you start to pre-emptively detect patterns, plan for success, and you get faster at fixing problems. Don’t be afraid of failure because the more you fail, the more you learn and the wiser you will become.
That wraps up this premiere episode of our Member Success Stories. Thanks to Phil for his candid, insightful answers in our interview.
Phil is one of WPMU DEV’s Agency Partners, and uses his 20 years of web design experience to achieve one goal: give back to his hometown by building modern websites for businesses and nonprofits in the Canadian capital.
Compliance on websites isn’t a fringe component. It’s a serious, legal matter, which can seriously affect your business.
Legal fees can be expensive, and add up quickly. Also, law is complicated, and can vary based on where you live and do business from. How does one accomplish compliance without getting their own law degree? (Or having a best friend who passed the bar exam?)
There is a way you can dot your I’s and cross your T’s, get all your ducks in a row, check all the boxes, cover your bases (this IS a post about full compliance, so one expression didn’t seem like enough ) – without draining your bank account, or losing your sanity.
Because WordPress is far and above the leading CMS, there are a good number of options when it comes to compliance regulation companion products.
We looked into the pool of offerings, picked the ones we thought were smart, solid, and sound, and are presenting them to you here.
Privacy is a major factor in today’s world, and personal information is protected by a fast-growing assortment of legal rights.
Throughout the first three-quarters of the 20th century, collected data was relatively minimal, there were few ways to store it, and demand for its collective use wasn’t really a thing.
However, from the ’70s through today, as the inherent value of data grew – along with improved methods to collect, store, use, and profit from it – so has the need for legislation to protect it.
Living in the era of Big Data, where the sheer volume of data has increased to previously unimaginable amounts, a true premium has been put on an individual’s rights to protect it.
Non-compliance with the legal safeguards comes with steep fines and other serious penalties.
A Timeline of Enacted Privacy Protections
While data protections may have started slowly, they will continue to pick up speed as the by-product of ethical examination and pivotal litigations surrounding privacy.
Let’s take a peek at the landmark protections in the history of privacy legislation.
The Privacy Act of 1974 established the Code of Fair Information Practice on the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information from US federal agencies.
The Data Protection Directive was adopted by The European Union in 1995. The principles set forth were aimed at the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms in the processing of personal data. This was superseded by the GDPR in 2018.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was established in 1996 to protect Personally Identifiable Information maintained by the healthcare and health insurance industries from theft and fraud, safeguarding people’s medical information from being used without their consent.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was enacted by Congress in 1998 and requires the Federal Trade Commission to issue and enforce regulations concerning children’s online privacy. The amended Rule became effective on July 1, 2013.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data protection and privacy became law in 2018 in the European Union (EU).
The GDPR applies to the transfer of personal data outside of the EU and EEA (the European Economic Area is the countries of Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein), and replaced the Data Protection Directive from 1995.
Shortly thereafter, State Privacy Legislations in the US started…
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) – signed into law 2018; effective 2020
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) – also known as CCPA 2.0, enacted in 2020
Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) – legislated in 2021; effective January 1, 2023
Colorado’s Privacy Act – will be effective July 1, 2023
Connecticut’s Personal Data Privacy and Online Monitoring Act – will be effective July 1, 2023
Utah’s Consumer Privacy Act – will be effective December 31, 2023
While the US does not have a single, comprehensive, internet privacy law, one is currently being proposed by federal privacy legislation: the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA). If passed into law, it will supersede all state privacy laws. Until then, it’s up to individual states to pass legislation that protects customer data.
Which Components Do You Need?
At this point you may be wondering, with so many already existing and soon-to-be-effective legal stipulations on data, which ones are you required to adhere to as a website or app owner?
That’s what we’ll lay out now in…
Compliance Requirements
To best meet overall compliance, websites should minimally have:
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
… and …
Consent (Record of Consent)
Let’s put a pin in Consent for a bit, and come back to it after we look at the policies.
A Privacy Policy addresses all the different ways your website or app might collect, process, and store data from users, both online and off.
A Cookie Policy specifically addresses how you use cookies and third-party services.
Because of the overlap, websites sometimes include a cookie policy in their privacy policy, as part of the overall data collection.
However, cookie policies need to be regularly updated (as cookies are dynamic and often change upon successive visits), whereas policy policies tend to be static.
More importantly, if you fall under the scope of the GDPR, your Cookie Policy must be separate from your Privacy Policy.
You can still incorporate a short Cookie Clause in your Privacy Policy, or cross-reference the agreements (for example, link your Cookie Policy to your Privacy Policy), but you shouldn’t combine the agreements into one.
Even if you don’t fall under the scope of GDPR, it’s safer and smarter to create a separate Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, instead of merging them into one.
Let’s dive a little deeper into both of these important policies.
Privacy Policies
Most laws around the world require a privacy policy.
Privacy policies are legally required agreements when collecting any personal data from users (e.g. payment details, address and phone number, cookie data), regardless of the platform used (e.g. website, mobile app, desktop app, etc).
You may need a privacy policy to use third-party APIs and services (e.g. Instagram, Google Analytics, or Google Adsense), or to list your app in a commercial marketplace such as the Apple App or Google Play stores.
Without a privacy policy, you risk your business getting hit with hefty fines and/or having your website taken down, especially if you’re found to be in breach of privacy laws.
Key privacy policies or agencies, by country of origin are:
Europe/European Union – GDPR (businesses in or operating with EU/EEA)
United States – by state (CCPA, CPRA, CalOPPA, VCDPA)
Canada – PIPEDA
Australia – The Privacy Act 1988
Germany – BDSG, and DSGVO (German name for the GDPR)
France – CNIL (the commission overseeing privacy policies)
South Africa – The POPI Act (POPIA)
Brazil – LGPD (broadly aligns with the GDPR)
Lesser-known privacy laws exist around the world as well; the above is not to be considered an exhaustive list.
While privacy policies are generally referred to by location of origin, they can extend to any region that does business with them. Meaning, don’t assume that if you reside outside of Europe that the GDPR doesn’t apply to you.
The EU’s GDPR and US state laws (#1 and #2) are the most broadly reaching and widely followed privacy policies. But that’s not to say that the others don’t matter; it’s important to research any that might apply to your business.
Cookie Policies
Cookie policies are legally binding documents that inform website or app users how a company engages in data tracking and online privacy.
Cookie identifiers are considered to be personal data by the GDPR, so its rules apply to cookie usage as well. Also, any personal data collected by cookies falls under the GDPR’s jurisdiction.
The ePrivacy Directive (ePD) of the EU – nicknamed the “Cookie Law” – requires security measures be put in place to protect personal data. This regulates cookie usage, email marketing, data minimization, and other aspects of data privacy, and is largely responsible for the cookie consent forms that you encounter on most websites today. (Sidebar: This doesn’t replace the Cookie Law I grew up with; “Don’t ever serve chocolate chippers without milk.”)
The ePrivacy Regulation (ePR), the details of which are currently being hammered out by legislators, will replace the ePD once it’s passed into law.
Consent / Record of Consent
Taking out that pin that we placed earlier, it’s time to look at Consent.
The important distinction between Policy and Consent is this: Policy discloses details regarding the use of cookies, while Consent informs and records the allowances from users regarding usage.
Make sure you incorporate consent into your Privacy/Cookie policies. Full GDPR compliance means storing proof of Consent, and being able to demonstrate or retrieve details should they be requested.
I can’t stress this enough: having Privacy/Cookie policies without consent could cause major problems for you.
Additional Legal Protections
While protecting user data is of paramount importance, privacy isn’t the only concern for someone managing websites.
There are other important, legal considerations when it comes to engaging the public online.
We’ll take a look at them now.
Terms & Conditions
Unlike Privacy Policies, there are no laws that require you to have a Terms & Conditions agreement, though it is highly suggested to have one.
Without a T&C, it’s much more difficult to enforce your rules and community guidelines, copyright protection, or other issues that could arise from the misuse of your website/app content.
The majority of the public will act courteously, but that’s not who you’re protecting yourself from. It’s the small percentage of outliers who can sometimes do the most damage. Having explicitly stated Terms & Conditions can offer basic protections for you and your business, limiting your liability and declaring your rights over the content you create, in case anyone engages in abuse, intellectual property theft, or unlawful behavior.
The most common reasons for Terms & Conditions are to:
Prevent abuses
Protect your creative content
Terminate accounts
Limit your legal liability
Set your governing law
If you’ve ever seen a clause in a T&C stating where (geographic region) any dispute resolution must take place, that falls under governing law, and is quite useful if you don’t want to litigate legal matters in a country outside of your own.
Disclaimers
Disclaimers can be used to offset liability from a business to a client in ambiguous or gray legal areas, or where they are required by law.
Without them, you are opening yourself up to legal liability or the possible endangerment of others, especially on sites that share advice, DIYs, or promote/sell products (most of which come with claims).
Websites and eCommerce stores benefit from disclaimers in that they:
Let users/customers know that the content is not legally binding advice, nor should it be solely relied on
Limit the liability of the website/store in the event someone has an unsatisfactory result from its advice or products
Some of the most common disclaimer types are:
Copyright
Fair Use
No Responsibility
Views Expressed
Offensive Content
Past Performance
Errors and Omissions
Affiliates / Affiliate Links
While we’re on the subject, here’s an example in actual use:
Disclaimer: WPMU DEV is not a legal entity, nor does it claim to be an authority on the laws of any region, country, or the internet. While this post contains well-researched content from respected sources, it is for informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for professional legal advice. As such, we cannot be held liable for any omissions or errors contained within.
That said, let’s get to the tools and services of the compliance trade, with…
Our Top 5 Picks for Compliance Companions
Some of these are actual WordPress plugins, while others are content generated directly in the company’s website.
Regardless of how you access them, all offer plenty of bang for the buck, and value for the venue (I’m coining this phrase to mean free products and their providers ).
GDPR Cookie Consent and Cookie Yes (by WebToffee)
WebToffee has a sisterhood of plugins, with versions available on two separate websites: CookieYes and WebToffee, plus the free version on the WordPress repository.
CookieYes is one of the most used WordPress GDPR cookie compliance plugins, with 1 million+ active installations and 5 out of 5 stars.
Starting with the free WP.org plugin version, you get a goodly amount of features, including:
a cookie consent banner with Accept/Reject options
single click automatic scanning and categorization of cookies
display list of cookies on your cookie policy page by using a shortcode
adds a cookie banner to your WordPress website to show compliance with GDPR
fully customize the cookie notice so it blends with your existing website (change colors, fonts, styles, position on page; even how it behaves when you click “Accept All”)
has a Cookie List module so you can easily show what cookies your site uses and display them neatly in a table on your Privacy & Cookies Policy page
can be configured to have a CCPA/CPRA ‘Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information’ control to the cookie notice
The free version also includes a connection (also free) with the CookieYes web app to access advanced features (cookie scan, consent log, etc) and manage all settings from the web app account. Note: You can still use most of the features from within the WP dashboard, without connecting to the web app.
The CookieYes dashboard gives you a nice snapshot of information.
One of the advantages here is the dashboard, which includes a Consent section. You can view or access details on user consent should you ever be audited and need to show this information. It even allows you to download this consent data in CSV format.
From the WP plugin dashboard, there’s a lot you can do:
Check banner status (active, inactive), regulation type (GDPR), last cookie scan, language
Customize banner
Maintain cookie list, add new cookies
Change/edit default banner language
Generate a Privacy or Cookie policy for your site
Add the user guide provided for setup, along with a video walkthrough, and you can see why this plugin is so well loved.
CookieYes banner and consent customizations.
If you want to go for a CookieYes paid plan, you have three tier options, payable per domain, monthly or annually. Each tier adds more pages per scan (600, 4K, 8K) and pageviews (100K, 300K, unlimited), plus a couple of additional features – like custom branding, and geo-targeted cookie banners.
As a third option here, we have the paid, premium version of GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin (CCPA Ready) – available from WebToffee’s website.
The final offering in the WebToffee family of compliance options, GDPR Cookie Consent remains in the territory of fastest-growing WP consent plugins, verifiable by a mass of happy users.
GDPR Cookie Consent offers a variety of notices, all with customization.
As far as features, most are available and common to both the GDPR Cookie Consent and the CookieYes paid plans. However, the GDPR Cookie Consent plans do not have:
Auto-translation
Global privacy control
Do not track
Monthly scheduled scan
Privacy policy generator
GDPR Cookie Consent pricing has three tiers, based on the number of sites (1, 5, 25) you want to use it on. Each includes one year of updates and support, and a 30-day, money-back guarantee.
The primary difference between The GDPR Cookie Consent and CookieYes paid plans is the technology they rely on. The CookieYes web app is a SaaS that requires huge cloud computing, storage, and security facilities. (This is also why the CookieYes paid plans are based on scans and pageviews.)
Bonus points for their support: I reached out as a free user to clarify a few points in this section and got a detailed response in less than half a day. (High five to Mark!)
iubenda
Iubenda has been quickly rising in the ranks of compliance with their all-in-one solution, currently sitting at 100K+ active installs and a 5/5 star rating on WP.
If you’re looking for that extra layer of comfort, iubenda has it, with attorney-level compliance solutions, all of which are fully WCAG Level AAA Compliant.
The free version of iubenda compliance solutions support the GDPR, LGPD, and US State Laws (CCPA/CPRA and VCDPA).
Content is auto-updated when laws change, so it’s always up-to-date. (Their built-in site scanner runs periodic scans on your site and alerts you if it detects something that should be added to your compliance documents.)
The free version comes with the following features:
Privacy and Cookie Policy Generator
a single policy, on one site, in one language
up to 4 (non-Pro) service clauses
does not include Cookie Policy
Privacy Controls and Cookie Solution
up to 25K page views/month (for compliance with GDPR, LGPD & ePrivacy and US state laws)
iubenda privacy controls and cookie solution settings.
The majority of iubenda’s standout features are found in their paid/pro versions, trusted by over 90,000 clients in more than 100 countries. These allow for multiple policies, sites, and languages, as well as Privacy Control & Cookie Solutions, a Terms & Conditions generator, a Consent Database, and more.
Privacy Control & Cookie Solutions helps you meet complex legal requirements at the click of a button, as well as create a fully customizable cookie banner.
Terms & Conditions offers powerful features like plug-and-go integrations for popular platforms and legislation monitoring. It’s customizable from hundreds of combinations, available in 10 languages, and capable of handling even the most complex, individual scenarios. Optimized for eCommerce, marketplace, SaaS, apps and more.
The Consent Database activates with one click to track, store, and manage consent and privacy preferences for each of your users all in one place, allowing you to easily upload proofs of consent and legal notices in PDF format.
They also offer an Internal Privacy Management, which documents all the data processing activity within your organization. To comply with privacy laws (particularly the GDPR), companies must record how they store and use the data they collect from their users.
Additional features in the paid plans are:
More Compliance Laws, like DSGVO, RGPD, UK-GDPR, CalOPPA, PECR
Cookie consent analytics provided for high-traffic sites
Detects bots/spiders and serves them a clean page so that your SEO efforts are never compromised
Built-in compatibility with WordPress comment form, Contact Form 7, and WP Forms; can also be manually integrated with any type of web-form
Pricing is offered as bundles with 3 tiers, based on number of license slots, with paid add-ons – Terms & Conditions, and Consent Database – available as extras.
Or, you can go with their Custom plans, with 3 tiers, broken out by options for Privacy & Cookie Policy, Privacy Controls & Cookie Solution, and Terms & Conditions.
iubenda’s pricing models with inclusions listed.
Head over to iubenda’s website for a more in-depth read about their compliance offerings, or to purchase one of their plans.
TermsFeed
TermsFeed doesn’t have a plugin; everything is generated directly from their website. But in no way does that detract from their fantastic functions.
The TermsFeed website has an abundance of compliance offerings, most of which they charge nothing for.
Since 2012, TermsFeed’s all-in-one compliance software has helped businesses get (and stay) compliant with the law, and the multitude of glowing, five-star reviews corroborates that.
Popular free features include:
Privacy Policy Generator
Terms & Conditions Generator
Privacy Consent
Cookie Consent
EULA Generator – gives users the right to use a copy of your product after they acquire it, through a granted license (with or without limitations)
Disclaimer Generator
Return and Refund Policy Generator
Shipping Policy Template – no generator for this, but a detailed, helpful template to assist businesses in creating
They also offer these additional, not-as-common free tools:
CCPA Opt-out – Free tool to manage opt-outs for CCPA
I Agree Checkbox – Free tool to enforce your legal agreements and policies on web forms
Embed Consent – Free tool to block embeds (YouTube, Twitter, Google Maps) from loading until you’ve got user consent
The TermsFeed site has a ton of helpful, visually appealing infographics.
All of the generators operate in the same, simple three-step: 1) Create a free account. 2) Choose what you need. 3) Download and integrate.
You answer a few quick questions, and your custom policy is ready in minutes, available to download in multiple file formats – which you can link to, edit, or update.
Or, download their handy privacy policy template (available in a variety of formats: HTML, DOCX, Google Docs), and write your own.
And the output isn’t limited to just websites; you can use it to create for mobile apps, eCommerce stores, third-party tools, SaaS, and even a Facebook page.
The TermsFeed website is well organized and chock full of helpful information, making an easy task out of finding what you need.
The majority of compliance agreements and policies on the TermsFeed website are essentially free. However, they do offer some optional, premium agreements with additional clauses to protect your business interests.
Paid items are available in two ways:
Privacy Consent Solution, which gives you access to all features, payable month-to-month, or yearly (with a discount).
Per Policy/Agreement, which allows you to select any number of policies from their huge compliance toolbox, and pay a one-time fee, per item
Both payment structures come with a 7-day refund policy, and 100% money-back guarantee.
A summary recap of Privacy Policy blog articles in TermsFeed.
As far as videos, walk-through processes, and documentation go, out of all the sites I reviewed in this article, they had the most. On YouTube alone, I counted close to 200 explainer videos (on their content specifically, and policy terminology in general), plus dozens of tutorials for using on a myriad of website types (Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Webflow, Shopify, etc) in addition to WordPress.
My final thoughts: the TermsFeed website is an embarrassment of riches, with compliance offerings galore, and little to no limitations on their use. Even the premium, paid-for options won’t break the bank.
Visit the TermsFeed website for tools, tips, and custom provisions, or their YouTube channel for a ton of valuable, well-produced info.
Complianz
Complianz is another widely used compliance plugin, available for free on the WP repository: Cookie Consent – aka the Privacy Suite for WP. (They offer an additional one for Terms & Conditions as well.)
Active installations are at 600K (and climbing), and rated 5/5 stars.
Complianz is a GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent plugin that supports GDPR, ePrivacy, and more, with a conditional Cookie Notice and customized Cookie Policy, based on the results of their built-in Cookie Scan.
Free features include:
Cookie Notice configuration for your specific region (EU, UK, US, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada; or use one Cookie Notice worldwide)
Cookie Consent and Conditional Cookie Notice with custom CSS and customizable templates
Automatic configuration of your website based on wizard questions, WordPress scans, and dedicated service and plugin integrations
Proof of Consent for user registration (respects GDPR data minimization guideline)
Automatically detects if you need a Cookie Notice (aka Cookie Banner or popup)
Cookie policy generation through an easy wizard
Offers “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” (for CCPA/CPRA)
Complianz is one of the few WordPress native solutions, integrated with a wide variety of plugins and services. Once configured through the wizard, Complianz will work with most of your plugins and embedded content – right out of the box. Including our very own Forminator, Beehive, and the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin (where you can integrate Complianz to allow site visitors to reject dashboard analytics statistics cookies).
Like iubenda, their policies are drafted by an IT Law Firm, and are WCAG Level AA and ADA Compliant. They closely follow the latest developments in ePrivacy regulation, the proposed Cookie Law for the EU, and other legislation worldwide, so you can be sure the content is spot-on, legally speaking.
Complianz also has premium, paid offerings for compliance, available from their own website.
Their website has documentation, and as a premium user, you get dedicated support from privacy professionals and developers who (and I quote) “don’t quit until a solution is reached”.
Complianz offers a full privacy suite for WordPress.Legal docs and Consent Management offerings on Complianz, free vs paid.
Easily install the free Complianz Privacy Suite plugin from your WordPress dashboard. For the premium version, you’ll need to download from your account on Complianz.io, or use the link in your purchase confirmation, along with your license key.
In addition to the free version, paid plans are offered as 3 tiers, priced per number of sites (25, 5, 1). All include the full shebang of required legal documents, compliant in multiple regions, along with records of consent, data request processing, A/B testing and statistics, and detailed cookie descriptions.
Termly
While Termly does have a plugin on the WP.org repository, it’s outdated, and I don’t recommend using it. But that doesn’t make their compliance options any less capable or appealing.
Instead of the WP repo, head over to Termly’s website, where everything you need is easily accessible and kept fully up to date.
Compliance solution offerings from Termly.
The Termly website comes with a host of features, ranging from a single policy to a full suite of compliance solutions.
Here’s a breakdown of Termly’s top features:
Consent Management Platform
Manage consent on your website or app while providing a robust and flexible solution to compliment your business needs and regulatory requirements
Policy Generators
Choose from the ever-expanding list of legally vetted policies to protect your business and meet your compliance needs
Additional Legal Protection Generators
Easily create other Agreements and Notices to further protect your website (like: Terms & Conditions, Disclaimers, EULAs, Shipping Policies, Refund and Return Generators)
Termly’s all-in-one cookie consent solution.
Termly’s free plan provides you with one legal policy, four edits, and 10K/month banner visitors, as well as their basic compliance tools, which are:
Privacy Regulation Monitoring
Cookie Policy & Banner
Cookie Script Auto Blocker
HTML Embeddable Policies
Quarterly cookie scans
In addition to their free/basic plan, Termly offers 3 paid tiers, priced per website. The first two go by number of policies, policy edits, and banner visits, and are payable per month or annually. The third tier is a custom “contact us” option.
With 4.5 out of 5 star rating on Trustpilot, Termly is trusted and revered by thousands.
Better Compliance and Reliance with WPMU DEV
As you can see, responsible data management is not only good business practice, it’s also the law.
In today’s landscape where massive amounts of data, along with infinitely more ways to store and use it are the norm, diligence is required in its care and handling, especially if you operate an online business (your own, or as an Agency for clients).
Regardless of what kind of business it is, where it is located, or where your visitors reside, you are bound by certain legalities.
Ignorance is not a defense, so compliance can be the difference between being successfully safe or professionally sunk.
Beyond research and recommendations for meeting compliance requirements, WPMU DEV works hard to keep your websites and web development business operating at peak efficiency.
That includes our free products and services, and our premium membership offerings – a suite of pro plugins (protection, optimization, form creation, SEO, and more), five-star always-on support, and sleek all-in-one site management tool. Plus our fast, dedicated, best-value-in-the-biz Hosting.
Once your high quality logo is designed and ready to go, it should appear on all your branded material, including your WordPress website. Typically, there are three schools of thought as to where logos can go: in the top-left, top-middle, or top-right corners of a page. So this begs the question: which position is right for your logo?
If we’re going strictly based on UX logic, then your logo belongs in the top-left corner of your website. No questions asked. There are two reasons for this:
For those of us with a native language that reads from left to right, our eyes naturally look to the left first.
In the earlier years of web design, logos were always on the left, and that’s where most people assume they are located now.
Despite what logic says, there are some websites that have eschewed the norm for logo placements in the center or right corner of a website. Would a unique placement of your logo fit better with your brand identity?
Let’s take a closer look at what the studies show, and see if left really is right for your site.
Experts Weigh In: Where to Place Your Logo?
According to the Nielsen Norman Group, there are three purposes that logos serve on modern websites:
They remind visitors where they are. In other words, whose website am I on?
They allow for easy navigation to the home page since most websites no longer include a “Home” button in the navigation.
They aid in brand recognition as the logo always remains there at the top of the site, and sometimes even follows visitors as they scroll down a page.
The NNGroup performed two studies to find the ideal logo location. Here is what they found:
In the left-versus-right study, the NNGroup tested and observed the response of 128 users. Similar to an A/B test, each user was shown only one version of a website: either the original with the logo on the left or the one the NNGroup manipulated in order to place the logo and navigation on the right.
They gave the users a minute’s time to review their version of the website. They were then asked a series of questions and shown photos of 10 hotel websites. This test aimed to establish what sort of effect logo placement had on brand recall.
These were the results:
Left-aligned logos lead to greater brand recall. Specifically, the average brand recall for left-aligned logos was 39% as opposed to 21% for the right-aligned version.
Left-aligned logos are more likely to be labeled “unique.” Despite the traditional placement of a left-aligned logo, respondents were still more likely to label a left-aligned logo as “unique” and “stylish” than one that appeared on the right.
Left vs. Center
The Nielsen Norman Group conducted an additional study to discover what happens when users were exposed to a center-aligned logo. They conducted two different tests to determine the viability of a centered logo.
Unlike the A/B test conducted between left- and right-aligned logos, this first survey provided 50 users each with one retail website to interact with. Eight of those websites had a centered logo whereas six had a left-aligned logo. They were then asked to complete different tasks that would test their ease in using the navigation and return to the home page.
This was the result:
Left-aligned logos are better for navigation. In the study, only 4% of users failed to navigate home in a single click when the logo appeared on the left. When the logo was centered, however, 24% of users failed to get there in one click.
In the second of these tests, the NNGroup presented 128 users with five different hotel websites. Four of the logos showed variations of a logo on either the left or in the center, while the fifth site included a right-aligned logo. Users were then asked a series of questions to determine brand recall.
This was the result:
Brand recall is unaffected by the difference between left or centered logos. Despite presenting users with variations of the same logo in different spots, brand recall was inconsistent in this comparison between left-aligned and centered logos.
The Winner Is…
After reviewing the results from the logo placement studies, it appears that logic does prevail:
Left is best.
Here’s why:
Many people don’t think about looking in the right-hand corner of a website for a logo, and so brand recall can be severely compromised as a result.
Many people are conditioned to look for a navigation in one of the top corners of a site, so placing a logo and/or navigation in the center confuses the process of getting around a website.
In summary, left-aligned logos are ideal as they are located exactly where the eye is naturally drawn.
Just remember that web design’s primary concern should always be with the user experience. While a centered logo may look sleek, it probably isn’t ideal if you have more than one page on your website (and you expect people to visit those other pages). The same goes for a right-aligned logo. It may seem like you’re giving your site a unique edge, but you may hurt your brand’s recall in the process.
It’s also important to keep in mind that it’s not just logo placement that matters. Logos should be exported in a high-quality file format, created using a legible font face, and positioned on top of white space so that background imagery, shadows, and colors can’t distract from it.
Earlier this week we posted a detailed breakdown on how we’ve been performance testing WPMU DEV managed WordPress hosting against our primary competition.
In this post we’re going to share with you exactly how each host did.
And usually, whoever does these comparisons, wins them, right?
Well, not this time (ooooo!)……….
Here’s a quick recap of the hosting testing methodology we used, that you can replicate, for free, at home.
Made an account with each host at their entry level (base) managed WordPress plan (apart from Cloudways as they don’t do managed WP) and created the same exact test website on each platform.
Ran each host through a rigorous load test (to see how many users they can handle at the same time) using the awesome and freely available Loader.io – you can go run your own tests right now to see how you do.
Put each hosts speed and Time To First Byte (TTFB) to the test with the equally free KeyCDN’s performance testing tool – again, go check it out and test your own host.
Established how many parallel clients (read: users visiting the site at the same time) each host could take.
Worked out TTFB in what we think is the fairest way (as they can vary dramatically based on server location): TTFB Average (Geo-Optimized), TTFB Average (All Locations).
Did all this without implementing caching of CDNs, so you get to test the actual server in real dynamic conditions (much more on that decision in our methodology post, tl;dr you can put any host behind a great CDN and serve static pages like a gun, but WP isn’t about that… although we are open to adding that as a test too.)
Alright, now you’re all caught up, let’s not delay any further.
Dev Man might be in for a surprise with these results.
Here’s how our base plan fared against some of the most popular managed WordPress hosting providers on the web:
The raw results:
*As of September 2020. Based on starting plans for each platform.
How each host ranked in each category:
Max Parallel Clients (how many users the host can handle at once)
When it came to the maximum number of parallel clients each server handled during the load test, Kinsta came out on top with 170 concurrent users – followed closely by us with 140.
As we touched on in our methodology post, these hosts are the ones (metaphorically) letting the most people into the bar at the same time thanks to their higher parallel client numbers.
So that’s great work by Kinsta, being able to cope with that many users visiting your site on your base plan is pretty impressive, although we’re pretty chuffed about our second place.
In terms of speed, Kinsta also took out the TTFB (Geo-Optimized) category with the speediest TTFB time (35.15ms) of them all… we’re betting that KeyCDN and their servers are not all that far apart.
And lastly, the TTFB Average (All Locations) crown went to GoDaddy, with an average TTFB time of 332ms over the 10 locations that KeyCDN accounted for. Nice work to the big GD!
We came 3rd and 4th respectively in both TTFB categories, which we’re pretty happy about.
Of course, we do offer a selection of geolocation options on our base plan. So if you value speed in, say, the US East Coast ,or the UK, or Germany the most – we should hopefully win that for you with our geolocated servers.
Taking price into consideration…
If cost wasn’t an issue and we had to pick an overall winner from the testing, it would have to be Kinsta, as they took home first place in two of the three hosting performance categories. Nice work Kinsta!
But, of course, if we’re comparing apples with apples we have to also look at pricing. Which, handily, we include below:
All prices are in USD and retrieved via US VPN in incognito.
We’re only listing renewal prices (no initial discounts or multi-year lock-ins) but we are including annual discounts.
We’ve rounded up .99 (GoDaddy & BlueHost) and .95 (HostGator).
Cloudways is not a managed WP platform but is included due to our members usage, so site limits don’t apply, we’re choosing Digital Ocean with them.
So… how does WPMU DEV hosting rate now?
Considering the cost, we’d like to think that we offer the best value for money in terms of performance and load.
While Kinsta is obviously great choice for high performance on their base plan, you’d have to realistically test them against our silver or gold plans ($18.75 and $37.50 respectively) if you’re looking at a fair comparison.
GoDaddy is clearly fast (their CDN is great too btw) but we reckon we’ve given them a good run for their money.
But probably, after all this, we’d say that the host that’s most comparable with us is Cloudways because, well, we use the same partner (Digital Ocean) and as you can see we rank very similarly.
A big advantage for some users for Cloudways would be that you can install as many applications as you like on a Digital Ocean platform, whereas with us you just get the 1 WordPress site. However, that has enabled us to build a stack that vastly outperforms them when it comes to load testing.
Overall though, we’d say that either our hosting or Cloudways is probably your best bet based on these tests… although you could do a lot worse than using Kinsta or GoDaddy.
Our take on how WPMU DEV Hosting did.
Even though WPMU DEV didn’t come out on top in terms of performance, we’re still wrapped with the results.
Overall, we were really pleased with how WPMU DEV Hosting fared against the competition.
But that doesn’t mean that we can’t do better. In fact it’s energized us to try harder and get you better results.
Specifically we’d like to improve:
Our pricing… we’re working to offer you an even more affordable plan that delivers similar results (and better than our competitors).
Our TTFB… we’re adding new locations as I type this (Australia we’re coming for ya soon) that should improve our overall speed.
Our overall offering… in addition to all of the above, we’re hoping to provide you, by the end of the year, a managed WP platform for free on top of this.
As amazing as it would have been to take out first place and rule everything, in the grand scheme of things, we’re still new to hosting (just over a year old in fact!), and to already be up there with the best in the biz feels great, and we’re excited about doing better.
Some other key takeaways from this host performance testing experience:
We feel like a lot of hosts rely too heavily on caching or CDN mechanisms to save them, but that they give you an unrealistic feel for the capacity of your hosting in a genuine and dynamic sense… anyone can serve a static html page to a bazillion visitors.
TTFB is hard to measure fairly, it’d be great if more hosts let us know *where* they were hosting you for their base plan.
We reckon the number of clients your server can handle is MORE important than the speed at which you’re serving them. Back to our bar analogy: Would you rather server 140 people in a timely manner? Or serve 40 at a slightly faster pace before 41 enters, and you’re forced to close and deny more potential customers?
Check out the full comparisons of each host vs. WPMU DEV Hosting.
Our comparison page gives you a full view of WPMU DEV vs. a range of other hosting options.
As touched on earlier, when comparing hosts it’s important to take EVERYTHING into account, not just performance.
So at the same time as running these performance tests, we also put together some insightful hosting comparison pages which square DEV hosting off against all the hosts mentioned above.
What’s great about these pages is that as well as the performance results, we’ve also included up to date feature and cost comparison tables you can use as reference.
That way you get a well-rounded idea of what host is going to suit you or your business best. So definitely check them out if you get a chance.
Let’s do this more often…
And that’s all there is to it.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this inside look at how we tested WPMU DEV Hosting.
Our team has taken a lot of valuable insights from this experience, and we hope you did too.
Anything you’d have us do differently? Were there some big hosting players we left off the list?
Let us know below.
The whole point of this process has been to be completely fair and transparent with all of our processes and findings. And if you think there’s a better (or fairer) way we could have tested, please let us know, we’re open to discussing anything and everything in the comments!
But in fact, you really don’t even have to take our word for it…
See how WPMU DEV Hosting performs for yourself.
If our findings have piqued your interest, feel free to run your own tests following our methodology (or any other you prefer).
Take a behind the scenes look at how we performance-tested our hosting against some of the biggest WordPress hosts on the web.
What started as a simple in-house exercise to see how our hosting measured up, quickly turned into a fascinating journey of self-discovery.
A journey we’ve decided to share with you, dear blog readers.
After all, we pride ourselves on honesty and integrity round these parts. And once we decided we’d bring you along for the ride – one of the main goals (apart from kicking a**!) was to be completely open and transparent. Both with the results published, and our testing methods.
That way you can trust everything is legit and nothing has been swayed in our favor (which benefits no one BTW).
So that’s what you’re getting in this article.
An inside look into how one of our in-house experts tested WPMU DEV hosting against some of the most popular platforms in the biz.
Follow along and feel free to recreate our methodology for yourself.
*BTW, all of the tools mentioned in this article are completely free!
Here’s how it all went down…
Dev Man has his work cut out for him in this battle of the hosts.
The first step was to obviously create accounts with the hosting providers we wanted to pit WPMU DEV against.
Speaking of, here are the brave hosting providers DEV battled in this comparison (you’ll recognize ALL of them, no host dodging here):
To make the testing as fair as possible, we compared the base level plans of each hosting provider.
We also used the same basic test website and added it to each hosting plan.
Here’s a peek at the test site we used (dog lovers prepare to “awwww”):
We tested every host with this simple (and darn cute!) pet website.
Time to get [host] testing!
Now for the fun part.
Once we’d established the basic (and fair) comparison points, it was time to start the testing process.
We wanted to see how each hosting server performed under pressure. After all, the last thing you want is your server to fail if you have a sudden influx of visitors.
We also wanted to test the speed of each host, as it’s important to serve your clients in a timely manner or they might get frustrated and click away.
So we ran two primary performance tests on each host:
A hosting load test.
A speed (TTFB) test.
Here’s how both tests unfolded, starting with the hosting load test:
Testing how many parallel users each hosting server could handle.
For this load test we used “https://loader.io/” a free load testing service that allows you to stress test your web-apps and APIs with thousands of concurrent connections.
Loader.io is the place to visit if you want to see what your host is really made of.
1.”Clients per test” – You specify the total number of clients to connect over the duration of the test.
2.”Clients per second” – Similar to “Clients per test”, but instead of specifying the total, you specify the number of clients to start each second.
3.”Maintain client load” – This test allows you to specify a from and a to value for clients.
Since we were aiming to test how each hosting server coped under user pressure – we chose to run the “Maintain client load” test.
As mentioned, this test works by allowing you to specify a from and a to value.
What this means is that if you specify “0” and “2000” for example, the test will start with 0 clients and increase up to 2,000 simultaneous clients by the end.
Setting the client load test boundaries.
When running each load test, we set a max limit of 5000 clients. We found this to be an appropriate limit – as most hosts didn’t end up reaching 1000 clients anyway.
All of the tests ran for 5 minutes and the error failure was set to 1% as soon as errors started to appear. These errors include timeouts, 400/500, and network errors (all accumulating to 1%).
We chose 1% as the lowest possible value so the test would stop immediately and give the most accurate reading of max parallel clients.
This is important because if we had the fail setting at 50% for example, parallel client numbers would be a lot higher, but only because more users are being allowed (due to the higher error setting).
When in reality they shouldn’t count, as they would’ve got an error response – meaning they were essentially lost visitors.
The measurements we took into account.
With this particular test, we were most concerned with the “Response Count,” and “Parallel Client” metrics.
Response Count shows you the overall success/failed responses:
Parallel Clients measures the amount of users the server can handle at one time before maxing out:
Why is the number of parallel clients a server can handle important?
Before we continue let’s break down this idea of “parallel clients” a little further…
In simple terms, max parallel clients is the number of people who can send the first HTTP request to your site at exactly the same time.
For example, let’s say your max number of parallel clients was 50. This means 50 people can access the site at the exact same time before the server crashes.
So if 60 people try to access at the same time, the server will restart and show an internal server error for the next few minutes while it gets back up and running – meaning you will lose visitors
Here’s a good analogy we like to use:
“If you prefer to have a bar serving beer to 10 clients and then closing it down because the 11th started a fire, fine by us.”
“We’d prefer a bar that serves 140 people in a timely manner. Even if it is a tad slower.”
Basically, it’s worth having a host with a higher parallel client number (even if the response time is a little slower) because having less parallel client capability puts you at more risk of your server failing and losing visitors.
Watch a simulation of one of the load tests.
Another cool thing about Loader.io is it lets you watch a simulation of each test and how it all went down.
In a nutshell, the tool tests and measures the performance of any URL from 10 different locations from around the world.
There isn’t a lot to the test itself, simply paste in the URL you want to test and hit the button. Remember it’s also free, so you can use it for your own testing.
KeyCDN’s performance testing tool provided a simple way to test each host’s TTFB.
The results you get back then give a breakdown of the loading times and HTTP response headers. As below:
A nice breakdown of your host’s speed and performance by location.
Looking at the table above, the metric we were most interested in for this test was “TTFB.”
The only problem is, TTFB (or the speed of a host in general) isn’t so straightforward to compare. This is because the speed will vary depending on the location of the hosts server in relation to the user.
With WPMU DEV hosting for example, our server is located in The Netherlands, which means the TTFB reading from Amsterdam is always going to be the strongest.
So in order to be fair to all the hosts involved, we chose to present the TTFB readings in two different ways:
”Average TTFB” (Geo optimized) – This was the lowest (A.K.A best) TTFB reading out of all the locations tested.
”Average TTFB” (Across all locations) – The average TTFB time across all the tested locations.
Levelling the playing field even further.
Another important aspect about our testing is the fact all tests were run WITHOUT taking caching into consideration.
Basically this means we tested the hosting servers themselves, not factoring in any caching or CDN implementations each host may have. This was done by forcing WP to be logged-in so everything is by-passed.
Why we think it’s better to test without caching (or a CDN) enabled.
Sorry Dev Man, no caching allowed with these tests.
In our opinion, comparing full page cache performance is not a good idea in a situation like this.
We believe this to be true for a couple of reasons:
Bypassing cache allows you to test the performance of the hosting servers themselves. This is important as it means you don’t have to rely on caching mechanisms (more on why this is important below).
Testing with cache doesn’t take “dynamic” website actions into account.
Any hosting platform can put a CDN in front of their site, tell it to cache everything, and then claim to give you insanely fast and scalable sites.
The problem is, this is not usually practical in the real world as WordPress, and many of its plugins are meant to be dynamic.
For example, caching is a great way to speed up simple sites or pages. Like an “About Page” – which seldom changes and for the most part wouldn’t have much live or dynamic action happening.
Compare this with a full-blown eCommerce store that’s constantly performing dynamic actions (live checkout process etc.) which bypass cache and hit your server directly.
That’s why you’ll often hear of (or experience) eCommerce stores having issues during big sales or promotions. Their servers aren’t prepared (or haven’t been stress tested!) and can’t handle all the simultaneous dynamic action happening.
Basically, your friend Mr. Cache isn’t always going to be there to save you, so it’s better to view it as an added benefit, and to still ensure your server is going to be able to cope on its own.
So how did WPMU DEV fare against some of most popular WordPress hosts on the web?
Tune in to part 2 of this article to find out!
Yep sorry, we chose to be like all your fav Netflix shows and leave you with a good ol’ cliffhanger (it’s a brilliant little trick really).
Later in the week we’ll have the full results of our testing for you.
Email marketing is tough. What to include? When do you send them out? How do you come across as non-Spammy McSpam? With so much to think about, often design and functionality are overlooked. Luckily, with the help of an email marketing plugin, you can get assistance with automation, visuals, organization, and much more.
Before we get started, you should know that all of these email marketing plugins have terrific reviews, thousands of users (sometimes millions), and are up-to-date.
By the end of this article you’ll hopefully be able to identify the subtle differences between them all, and know which will work best for your list.
Plus, I’ll be going over what to look for in a good email marketing plugin, and various email service providers.
It will then be up to you, fellow email marketer, to decide which plugin to try.
Soon, you’ll be delivering your email more efficiently than your local postal service (if they ever delivered mail digitally, that is).
Not the best way to deliver mail on your computer.
What All Good Email Marketing Plugins Should Address
Some plugins can send a newsletter directly within WordPress, others have very attractive opt-in forms, and some offer easy customization.
So… what do you look for when deciding?
A few questions you can ask yourself are:
Will this work for the purpose I want it to?
Is this something I can set up on my own, or will I need someone else to do it for me?
Will the free version work? If not, how much of a budget do I have for an email marketing plugin?
Also, look at the reviews — both positive and negative. All of the plugins featured in this post have a 4.5-star or above-average reviews, which is great!
But still, dig around a bit more at some of the negative remarks. You can also ask questions on each plugin’s method of communication, whether that be with support, a public forum, or live chat.
Plus, considering these are all free, test them out first. You will discover your likes and dislikes — ultimately leading to a comfortable decision when deciding on what plugin to use.
From there, you may feel more inclined to upgrade to any pro options, if needed.
Time to Deliver
Here are nine amazing free email marketing plugins. Even though they’re all free, all offer upgrade options for advanced features. Included is a price range of the premium costs. Depending on your use, an upgrade may, or may not, be needed.
Luckily, none of these require any postage.
HubSpot
The HubSpot all-in-one marketing plugin includes all of the essentials. Everything from the striking responsive newsletters, automation, pop-ups, and more makes this plugin a distinctive choice compared to many others. This plugin is perfectly tailored to grow businesses. Plus, it has over 100K users and a 4.5 average star rating. Spot-on!
Key Features:
Easily create responsive newsletters to distribute to your contact database with their drag and drop email builder. You can build your own or select from over 20 pre-designed templates.
You can send automated emails when a visitor to your WordPress site fills out a form or sends you a live chat message. Beyond that, all emails are automatically logged in your CRM and keep track of open and click rates.
Feature attractive forms & popups on your site with their drag and drop builder. Or, you can integrate with other WordPress forms and popup builders.
The analytics are built-in to make it easy to understand which sales and marketing actions are successful and which ones require some more work.
Premium Price Range:
The email plugin is free to download and use for up to 2,000 email sends per month. Upgrades are available starting at $50 and up to $3200 per month when billed annually.
Hustle
Hustle by WPMU DEV is our free email, social share, popup, and opt-in marketing plugin. Hustle allows you to quickly grow your email lists with popups, slide-ins, widgets, and shortcodes.
This is a perfect plugin for individuals, growing businesses, or any company that wants to dance their way to having effective email marketing. It’s groovin’ to over 80K downloads and a 4.5 average user review.
Key Features:
Simply integrates with all of the popular email services when you connect your account. You can then create automated email campaigns, welcome messages, or add to a specific list when a user opts-in.
A groovy smart exit-intent that detects when visitors are about to leave your site. It will then display a pop-up or slide-in to grab their attention.
It can breakdance around the block. Your pop-ups and slide-ins will still work around ad blockers.
You can easily measure performance and results with three metrics that help you make better marketing decisions; including stats on form displays, forms submitted, and conversion rates.
Premium Price Range:
You can get advanced features with Hustle Pro. It includes 24/7 support and other premium plugins with a WPMU DEV membership. Try it FREE for 7 days. After that, membership is only $49/m for everything (including hosting)!
Sendinblue
Sendinblue Subscribe Form and WP SMTP is another all-in-one email marketing plugin.
Everything is easy to use, clear, and organized. You can get a nice email newsletter set up in just minutes.
It has advanced capabilities to handle small, midsize, and big businesses looking to enhance their email marketing efforts. Plus, they offer support and are regularly updated.
It can’t be blue considering it has over 50K users and 4.5-star average reviews.
Key Features:
Subscription forms that allow you to customize accordingly and integrate them into your pages, posts, or sidebars.
You can manage your contact lists with segmentation, which will enhance your campaign performance.
Email marketing campaigns are delivered with beautiful newsletters. They’re all mobile-friendly and are created with a drag and drop builder with your own customization or their template library.
Automation enabling in WordPress that will auto-install the script on your website.
Premium Price Range:
This plugin does use Sendinblue’s API to synchronize contacts, send emails, and get stats. The free plan is for up 300 emails per day, otherwise, you’ll need to upgrade. Various plans start at $25 to $66+ per month.
Their attractive opt-in forms integrate with any existing form on your WordPress site; specifically your comment, contact, or checkout form.
If you’re currently using MailChimp for your email lists, it’s a great option that’s catered to their service. This chimp comes in with a solid 5-star review and over a million downloads!
Key Features:
Install attractive signup forms that are quick and easy to set up and use with your MailChimp account. It takes less than a minute to sync your MailChimp account and get up and running.
You can integrate with numerous other plugins, such as Ninja Form 7, BuddyPress, WPForms, MemberPress, Events Manager, and WooCommerce.
It’s developer-friendly for adding additional code snippets and customizing.
Premium Price Range:
You’ll need a MailChimp account, which is also free for a list of up to 2000 subscribers. There is an upgrade option with this plugin that features multiple forms, advanced e-commerce integration for WooCommerce, email notifications, and more. The price range for upgrading begins at $59 to $149 per year.
Once you have it installed, it’s practically ready to go. The main feature is the drag and drop builder. You can easily arrange your newsletters with this feature and provide attractive results.
With over 300K downloads and average 4.5-star reviews, it makes this plugin news(letter) worthy.
Key Features:
You can have unlimited subscribers without having to resort to email service (e.g. MailChimp). They’re all updated directly in your WordPress dashboard.
There is an unlimited amount of newsletters you can send that include tracking.
There’s customization with the opt-in feature. You can choose single, double opt-in, and even a privacy checkbox for EU laws compliance.
It is compatible with every SMTP plugin.
Premium Price Range:
There are premium options that include one-to-one support, WooCommerce integration, reports, and more. The costs for premium starts at $65 to $249 per year.
MailPoet
MailPoet is a marketing plugin that provides sign up forms for newsletters, subscriptions, and emails.
What’s nice about this plugin is that you can schedule your newsletters, send them right away, or automate it to send notifications whenever there’s a new blog post.
The plugin was developed in 2011 and trusted by over 100K poets and has a 4.5-star average review.
Key Features:
The newsletter subscription options are nice to have when you’re looking for ease and automation.
Everything is based on WordPress and can be synced with a 3rd party email provider.
Includes a free WooCommerce email customizer.
You can view audience engagement and more. Stats provide open rates, unsubscribes, and all the vital information for your email campaigns.
Premium Price Range:
Free for the first 1000 subscribers. After that, you can upgrade for as low as $13 to $292+ per month (depending on the number of emails).
Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms by Saturday Drive delivers a knockout plugin for email marketing. It coins itself as the most user-friendly WordPress contact form builder — and it might be right.
The easy to use drag and drop fields make creative a complex looking form quick to create. It’s an extremely up-to-date plugin and packs a punch with over a million downloads and a 4.5-star average rating.
Key Features:
The drag and drop form builder is easy to use and perfect for someone with not much knowledge on using WordPress.
There are over 27 different field types for forms, which makes creating them to suit your needs very obtainable.
Unlimited forms and form submissions.
You can export and import forms as needed.
Premium Price Range:
You can upgrade as needed with a ton of options that start as low as $29 to $499 per year. Some of the upgrades include the ability to accept payments, user management login, advanced analytics, and more.
SendPress
SendPress is another easy to set up email marketing plugin that’s extremely customizable. You can arrange the subscription widget, page, or custom form exactly how you would like.
It’s perfect for anyone wanting to grow their email lists and has the essentials; such as single and double opt-in, analytics, and newsletter templates.
Though it has fewer downloads so far than the rest (8k), it’s updated regularly and is a great option to press-out your email marketing.
Key Features:
You can have unlimited subscribers and unlimited responsive newsletters with tracking.
Everything is code free. It has a simple editor to make editing a breeze.
Allows for single and double opt-in.
Tracking is included. You can track clicks, opens, unsubscribes, and more.
Premium Price Range:
You can always go PRO. Some of the pro features include API sending, custom HTML templates, spam score, and one year of updates. It starts at $39 to $399 per year.
Email Subscribers & Newsletters
Email Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram does a ton as a free plugin. It was specifically created to suit the needs of regular bloggers, website owners, marketers, and developers.
In a nutshell, it has everything you need to build email lists and market out to them. Plus, you can subscribe to the fact that they have over 100K installations and a 4.5-star average review.
Key Features:
You can create unlimited broadcasts, post notifications, email templates, and form.
There is a subscription spam check with domain blacklists. A good feature to keep your email lists in good standings.
The choice between single or double opt-in plus a privacy checkbox.
There is an HTML editor to create broadcasts and post notifications
Price Range:
They have pro options that have extras; such as premium email, high security, autoresponders, and more. If you want to upgrade, their pro version is quite affordable. It starts at $9 to $10.75 per month.
Getting Good Email Service Is Not a Disservice
At this point, you’ve now seen some plugins that can work and you’ve either started or are about to start an email marketing campaign for your site. However, how do you go about picking the best email marketing software? Hmm…
There are lots of decisions when it comes to picking an email company to work with. You want to feel at ease knowing your email lists are in good hands.
Some good reputable companies, such as MailChimp, AWeber, and Constant Contact, all have the essentials. However, there are also many other options out there.
There are a few key things to look for in email software:
Automation: Make sure that the automation provided will work for your needs.
Campaigns: There should be options to support a wide variety of email types. That includes newsletters, autoresponders, and A/B tests.
Editing: You want to be able to edit your email templates easily, so a good drag and drop visual editor is best for this. Anything that eliminates coding and makes it simple.
Support: Make sure the support they offer is effective. Check for support like live chat, phone, and email and learn of their options.
Integration: Ensure that you can integrate with whatever plugin you decide works best for your WordPress site.
Having an email software provider is nice to have beyond just using the WordPress dashboard. It’s a way to ensure your lists are stored in a safe place and can be organized more efficiently.
Signed, Sealed, Dev-livered
When developing your email marketing strategy, there is a lot to consider. Hopefully, these options presented to you today will help narrow down some specific plugins that will work well for your needs. Also, I hope you have some good ideas for an email marketing company that will work well, too.
To deliver the goods, consider signing up for our 7-day free premium trial and get access to all of our plugins (including our email marketer, Hustle), 24/7 support, security, blazing-fast hosting, and tons more.
It’s vital to have a WordPress email marketing plugin to help increase and update subscribers. Once subscribed, keep them from opting out by delivering great content, attractive newsletters, quality emails, and — yeah — not being a Spammy McSpam.
Soon, your email marketing will be tough to beat and earn a stamp of approval.
The time is approaching. Soon, you’ll be launching something special and you need to tell the world about it. Installing a “Coming Soon” WordPress theme can do the trick. They’re a great tool for building audience anticipation before you officially hit that launch button. Today we’re reviewing some of our favorites.
The bad news is… most themes of this nature come at a cost. :(
The good news is… after scouring through the WordPress theme directory, we’ve uncovered a bunch of great free options you can use for your coming soon or launch page. :D
In each mini review we cover what’s good about each one, their specific options/features, and which one might work best for you.
Then, when you do launch — BOOM! — the sky’s the limit.
Plugin vs. Theme: Which One Launches You Higher?
Before we continue, I recently published an in-depth article that provides useful insights on using coming soon plugins.
Inside I explain why coming soon pages are important and test several plugins. It’s worth reading as it goes hand in hand with the article you’re reading now.
In general, there are much more WordPress coming soon plugins than there are themes out there – all with varying specific features.
And as you’ll see, many of these themes do require additional help with their suggested plugins. Still, these coming soon themes have a standalone purpose.
After all, a theme might be the better way to go if you’re looking for the complete layout of your website to be geared towards launching.
Plus, a theme can work well if you’re after a simple coming soon/launch landing page – meaning you don’t necessarily have to install a whole bunch of plugin add-ons.
Use Both Coming Soon Themes and Plugins For Best Results
In my experience, both work best in unison together.
A standalone coming soon or launch theme can also be enhanced with a great plugin. Likewise, practically any theme can benefit from having a coming soon plugin.
It’s what suits your purpose the most efficiently.
What’s For Launch?
By the way, launching goes way beyond just websites.
A coming soon theme can also be a great tool to promote events like: A wedding, a new restaurant, book launch, online course, and much more!
Point is, no matter what type of site you plan to launch, a coming soon theme (like the ones below) can help you.
I’ve downloaded and tested all of the following free coming soon and launch themes. You won’t find any ‘fake’ reviews that are based solely off the theme website or description.
Let’s go through these and help you pick one that’ll put your next event/website into orbit.
Event Press
Event Press by Nayra Themes is a free announcement and counting down until the “big day” theme. What’s impressive is all of the essentials are set up for you.
It’s suited for webinars, seminars, the launch of your website, and much more.
Living up to its name, this theme can especially be beneficial for events. It has all the essentials to make your celebration go off without a hitch.
Grab some punch and an hors d’oeuvre and let’s check out this event – er, EventPress.
After activating it, all the customization options are immediately available to you. However, they recommend that you install the Evento plugin that works well with this theme.
Evento is great for customizing your landing page for specific holidays and more.
Ugly Christmas sweater, anybody?
Now, let’s get this party started and check it out.
The layout is great on this theme to get ready for an announcement of any kind. You’re immediately able to add a relevant header image and text.
Directly below that is where you can add your organizer or other relevant information.
What’s convenient is you don’t need to have a separate contact form plugin or anything else with this theme. It’s already set up for you in their system.
That way if anyone has any questions or comments, they can quickly contact you. As you can see, even if it’s a website dedicated to sending well wishes for, let’s say a wedding, hey — that’s fine, too!
The EventPress contact form.
And, of course, if you’re counting down; whether it be for an event, website launch, or anything else — their countdown timer is easy to configure and set up.
Maybe you have a fundraising event and you need to raise some dough. You can include a donations section on your landing page and make it happen.
This feature is included in their PRO version, so you would have to upgrade to include.
Example of a contribution page.
The Pro version includes some additional features and support. However, for the basics, the free version might do the trick. It has all the elements of a great coming soon theme.
I like its easy to use layout, default options, and its overall functionality and design.
This theme can kickstart your upcoming event, build your email lists, countdown, and works great as an all-in-one theme.
With a name like that, it has to be good, right? The Launcher by Access Keys might be the coming soon theme you need to propel your website up to new heights.
This theme was created specifically for launching…anything. And it lives up to its name. You have options of different vibrant themes to choose from once activated (a theme within a theme within a theme).
It’s great to have the variety, and you can customize however you’d like.
Several of the themes to choose from.
All of them look nice and are effective. It’s worth sampling a few of them with a demo to see which one works best for you.
The theme packs a punch with the assistance of the Access Demo Importer plugin. It has an option to install and activate it immediately.
A countdown timer is a feature that’s always beneficial to any coming soon website. It lets your audience know exactly how long they will have to wait until “it” happens and helps build anticipation.
This theme makes it extremely easy to set up a countdown timer on the sidebar.
Configuring the countdown timer area.
Other than that, there are lots of customization options. You can change the background images, add a video, adjust the fonts, and plenty more options to play with.
Example of the timer I set up. 93 weeks is a long wait…
It works best as a landing page. Adding any additional bells and whistles beyond the essentials (e.g. a contact form, timer, etc.) takes the focus off its main purpose: launching.
Landing Pagency by ThemeEverest is a simple theme that’s recommended if you’re a creative agency, consulting business, or startup.
There’s not a ton of customization features (e.g. contact forms, countdown timer, etc.), but all the essentials can be accomplished with plugins.
It comes with the blog prominent on the landing page. You can adjust everything to fit your needs for a coming soon page, product promo, or event.
Its simplistic look might be exactly what you’re looking for and customization is simple.
The customization screen.
This theme has no recommended plugins to accompany it. For a pop-up, we recommend using our Hustle plugin.
And for additional forms, our very own Forminator can work well here as well.
This theme also makes for a great opportunity to put your CSS knowledge into play. Like most themes, you can tweak it as you’d like.
The nice empty canvas on this theme can provide anyone with CSS skills a chance to add a personal touch. Maybe a happy little cloud?
Where you can add additional CSS.
There is an upgrade option as well. Here’s a comparison of the FREE vs PREMIUM versions:
A comparison list of FREE vs PREMIUM version of Landing Pagency.
A lot of the premium options can be accomplished with a variety of plugins, good hosting, image SEO, and more. However, it may be worth the cost to upgrade if it has all the essentials you’re looking for.
For a simple coming soon option, I was impressed with its quick editing options, default layout, and design. Sure, it doesn’t have a ton of features, but sometimes that’s perfect.
Be sure to view their demo to see if it’s a great match for your purpose.
What Goes Up, Must Come Down
After you launched and your event is over — what next? Does the website come down?
That depends.
Something to keep in mind is themes are more of a permanent* option, so if you don’t have repeat events or promotions, it might make more sense to use a coming soon plugin instead (since they’re easily deactivated).
However, if you have reasons for keeping a coming soon theme (e.g. recurring events), then it’ll be nice to have a more stable website layout.
Coming in For a Landing (Page)
As you can see, most of these themes work best as a landing page. Are you ready to land on one?
They’re also all a little bit different.
For free options, there are slim pickings. However, there are a lot of options out there available for purchase.
The main thing is that your coming soon theme for WordPress is engaging and effective.
Or, instead of your campaign taking off, your visitors might takeoff… to another website.
Contact forms are far from the most exciting element of your WordPress site, but if you want your users to be able to reach out to you, they’re essential. An ideal form is simple to create, straightforward to use – and being easy on the eye doesn’t hurt either.
To get a working contact form on your website, it’s probably a good idea to use a plugin. However, with so many to choose from, how do you know which one is best for you?
Luckily, we’ve rounded up five of the best freebies and given you a little overview of each to help you choose the best WordPress contact form plugin for your site:
I’ve heard it’s pretty good. (OK, this one’s ours, but I’ll try not to be biased).
If you want to create a form, select it from the dashboard and then choose a template.
Not many templates, but luckily it’s super easy to create your own form.
I chose the Contact Form and was taken to the form builder.
Another nice and simple interface.
Just click on “Insert Fields” and you can easily add everything you need.
Adding new fields is super simple…and the best part? They’re all free.
This is the only free plugin I’ve seen that offers such a wide range of fields (24) – you can even take payments through this form! It really is a premium plugin, minus the price tag.
Once you click to add a field, you can change the label and choose some further settings.
You can easily leave these options as they are, or add a bit of personality into them.
It’s really simple to add a label and placeholder and if you click on Multiple, you can easily add “bonus” name fields.
If you want to be thorough, the tools are there.
When you have all the fields you need, you can move onto the Appearance tab.
From here, you can really personalize your form.
You can style the fields.
Decide how you want your fields to be outlined.
Choose the font for every piece of text.
There are tons of fonts to choose from.Try not to stray away from your brand though.
And select the color of each element.
So many options, but try not to get carried away!
Even if you don’t want to customize your form, the standard form is pretty easy on the eyes.
Looking good!
Overall, Forminator offers everything you need to create custom forms.
And with features like Integrations with popular payment portals, conditional logic, calculations, and the ability to customize every aspect of your forms – it’s hard to believe it’s free!
Something that’s also super important (especially for our European friends) is staying compliant with GDPR. Forminator’s advanced features can help you do this, there’s even a field for a GDPR checkbox.
Forminator makes complying to GDPR standards a breeze.
*Want to stay GDPR compliant without Forminator? Our friends at Complianz have you covered.
I’m one of the small minority of people who use WordPress but have never tried this plugin…so let’s dive right in and see how I get on.
The first hurdle I hit was that I couldn’t find where the plugin had installed.
The menu is simply labeled “Contact” – I overlooked it multiple times because it looked like it’d always been there.
It blends in far too well…
When you do find the tab and click on it, you are met with this screen:
It might not be the most glamorous of interfaces, but it’s the interface loved by more than 5 million people worldwide.
The default form comes with fields for the user’s name, email, subject, and message.
You can easily add more fields with the buttons at the top.
If you wanted to add a telephone number field, for example, this is the screen you’ll see:
Simple enough; but it’s no drag and drop.
You can check the box if you want the telephone number to be a required field and you can also add a placeholder.
If you’re going to want any form of custom formatting, it would be wise to add a class or ID attribute at this stage.
Once you press “Insert Tag’, the new field will appear on your form.
It seems to be missing something…
Unless you’re happy with an empty field with no label, you’ll need to add a label using HTML.
It’s actually quite simple to do and you can follow the pattern of the default fields that were already present.
It’s really not as scary as it looks.
Now it’s time to insert the shortcode into your web page and voila – a simple contact form.
A nice, sleek form!
There are a few more things you can customize before you launch your form – we have only explored the first tab after all.
One down, three to go…
The Mail tab will allow you to select which email address the contact forms go to as well as tweak a few more options regarding the layout of the email.
The Messages tab gives you a long list of fields where you can change the standard text for a variety of scenarios.
This isn’t even half of the list!
The last tab gives you space to add your own code snippets.
This is the only way to style your form – too bad if you don’t code.
And that’s all there is to it!
Pretty simple to use but it would be easier if you could bypass having to add any form of code (maybe someday it will enter the drag and drop era), however, it is a pillar of the WordPress contact form community and with over 5 million active downloads, who am I to judge?
Everest Forms by WPEverest
Everest Forms boasts over 100,000 active installs and a 5-star rating.
The first cool thing about this plugin is that when you go to create a new contact form, you can select from a number of templates.
Most are free, but there are a couple of Pro ones too. If none of them are suitable, you can also start from scratch.
Some very nice templates!
I selected the Simple Contact Form.
One look at the interface and you just know it’s going to be super easy to use.
The fields are arranged into four categories: General, Advanced, Payment, and Survey.
You get tons of fields with the free version, including name, email, telephone, URL, and date and time. If the field you select has further options, it’s super easy to fill them in.
If you select the Choices field, you can even upload photos.
Now this is more like it!
So far so good, but what about personalization?
You’ll be pleased to know it’s soooo simple. Literally click on the field and it will allow you to tweak a few things including the label, whether it’s a required field, and the placeholder text.
We love a simple menu.
You can even edit the required field message text.
You can be as sensible or as creative as you like.
One of the best things about this plugin is that you don’t even need to change a single thing to get a clean, working form.
The standard template has everything you need to launch a simple contact form straight to your site. All of your received submissions can even be stored within the plugin – you can literally just copy the shortcode without making any changes and BOOM, you have a form.
Not bad for thirty seconds of work.
The Pro version costs $99 for a five site license and comes with more templates and a ton of extra fields, including uploading files and images, credit card details, signature, and address.
All in all, this is a simple but powerful free form builder for WordPress with a cheerful interface, useful templates and basically everything you need to create a contact form for your site, without spending a cent.
Formidable by Strategy 11
It’s time to find out if Formidable is as, ahem, formidable, as its name suggests.
More than 300,000 active installs and a 4.5-star rating means they’re obviously doing something right.
When you activate this plugin, you’ll find there’s already a default form you can use.
I clicked straight onto it and selected Build from the tabs along the top.
This took me to the form builder, which had a nice and simple layout.
All the fields are on the left and you can simply drag them into the form on the right.
There are also a ton of premium fields that you can add but prices vary between $99 and $599:
Some pretty handy features, but you gotta pay the price.
One cool thing that Pro offers is the report function, where you can create graphs and charts based on the data your form collects and display them on your site.
So…back to creating a contact form.
A nice little feature with Formidable is that you can add a description to your form – this doesn’t actually seem to be a common feature with form builders.
This is good if you want to give your customers an idea of a timescale.
The rest of the Formidable experience is pretty similar to many other WordPress form builders. You can easily add new fields and change the labels.
Another sleek form.
It also has the facility to view the submissions within the plugin as well as sending an email to an address of your choice.
Overall, it is a decent plugin that does what it says on the tin. It may not be the best free WordPress form builder, however, if you just want a simple contact form – it’ll do the job.
Ninja Forms by Saturday Drive
Ninja Forms is another plugin with a fantastic 4 and a half star rating, and with over a million active installs, there’s no doubt it belongs on this list.
I was pleasantly surprised by the number of templates available when you first click to create a new form.
Unfortunately, it turns out only the ones with an outline are free. Still a decent selection though!
Unsurprisingly, any methods of taking payment are a premium feature, however some of the free ones are actually pretty useful – the job application one is a nice addition.
I selected the Contact Us form, which took me to the creation screen and presented me with the template.
If all you want is a simple form, you’re already good to go!
You get a fully immersive experience with this plugin – the dashboard disappears and you feel like you’ve left WordPress altogether.
If you need to edit a field, you can just click on it and change the values.
You get a limited number of options until you go into the plugin’s settings and enable Developer Mode.
If you enable Developer Mode, a few more options become available.
You can enable Developer Mode by going into the plugin settings from the dashboard or clicking the link on the field options screen.
This allows you to add things such as custom classes, as well as change the label position, and maximum character input.
So far so good – it all seems pretty simple to get started with a template and start editing the fields.
If you want to add a new field, you click the plus sign in the bottom right corner and it opens up a new menu.
I found the use of color pretty strange – the gray text and backgrounds makes it look as though these are “grayed out” options, i.e. not available to select.
Not the best color choice…
They are actually all free to add – one click and they appear on your form on the left.
You can drag the fields around and rearrange them once they are placed into the form.
Once your form is built, there are extra options to choose such as recipient’s email, error messages etc.
Preview changes also looks like it’s grayed out, but luckily you can click on it.
I added a couple of extra fields (so simple!) and published the form to my site.
Voila!
Overall, a pretty good plugin. Simple to use and the only drawback in my opinion is that the interface isn’t as simple as it could be – PRO features could definitely be highlighted better and there could have been a better color choice for the extra fields.
Have You Formed An Opinion?
Now that we’ve taken a look at some of the best, hopefully you now have an idea of which plugin will fulfill your contact form needs.
They’re all pretty similar in terms of use, with the main difference being the type of field you can add.
Which one would suit you depends on the purpose of your form.
With a simple form plugin, you can create basic things like a contact form or newsletter signup, whereas a more powerful form builder like Forminator becomes a data collection powerhouse that you can use to sell products, onboard clients, automate your workflows, or build apps.
Let’s say you’re running a blog about fishing and you decided to release a book or a DVD. A contact form with a payment option might be perfect for you.
However, if you’re running a store selling a variety of things, your payments would be better managed with an eCommerce plugin.
If you just need a simple contact form to allow users to send you an email, you’re really spoilt for choice. It’s only when you start requiring features like payment processing and document uploading that your choice starts to narrow.
There are some heavy hitters when it comes to WordPress email plugins that can help build your contact lists, send automated HTML emails, newsletters, and more. Which ones deliver the knockout punch and reign supreme as champions? Stay tuned, because we’re going to let these plugins duke it out and see who wins the title for your WordPress website.
“In this corner, weighing in on the digital scale at 16 GB of RAM is…”
We’ll be featuring some competitive email plugins that are HTML ready (to rumble). We’ll size them up and show you some specific features of each one.
By the time you get through this match, er – article – you’ll have a good idea of what will work best for you.
Good email is worth fighting for.
Punching-out Good HTML Emails.
By default, WordPress does not send out HTML emails but sends them out as plain text. HTML emails work more consistently for your email subscribers in terms of looks and functionality.
So it’s important to have a plugin to help if you’re wanting to send your readers information via emails or newsletters that look more professional (e.g. including a logo in the signature).
Of course, to get them to opt in in the first place, they need a compelling reason why. A well-crafted message, attractive form, and specific placement on your website can do the trick.
You can schedule the newsletter daily or weekly. It has 10 default templates available, or if you have the itch to create your own, it’s possible using their visual editor.
It’s a nice “set it and forget it” plugin. Once you have it running, you won’t have to worry about scheduling your email. This automates all of that for you.
I started by checking out their live subscription demo, entered my email, grabbed some popcorn and had ringside seats to see what it looked like when it arrived in my inbox.
Sure enough, an email popped up shortly after hitting ‘submit’. Once I verified it, I received their welcome email.
Nice.
It got me excited, so let’s activate this bad boy (or girl) and check it out.
The plugin comes up as Email Posts in the dashboard. From here, you can dig into everything it has to offer; including the General Settings, Confirmation Email, Welcome Email, and more.
The main settings area.
When viewing the subscribers’ area, it’s a very simple way of checking out all of your email subscribers’ information.
You can create groups and organize your subscribers. It’s also nice to be able to import and export them here.
That way, if you ever wanted to add your list to an email service like MailChimp, or add your list to your WordPress campaign, it’s very simple to do.
Of course, to get subscribers in the first place, you need to have a way of doing that. You can manually add them into their system, or provide an opt-in box.
The box is then added to your sidebar in the Widgets area.
The Email Posts to Subscribers widget. You can add as much detailed information as you’d like here.
I made just a very simple opt-in for the sake of this demo.
If you don’t want to add the opt-in as a widget, you also have the option of adding a shortcode to a post or page.
And with that, we’re ready to start collecting emails!
Now, let’s get into setting up email campaigns and more.
When setting up your emails, there’s a list of nine pre-made templates you can choose from.
All available email templates.An example of one of their pre-made templates I put together.
You can create your own, too.
An example of our own.
In the Mail Configuration area, you can schedule your posts or newsletters to go out specifically how you would like. The Status shows you what you have set up.
You can specify exactly how you’d like to have your posts sent.
Assigning roles can simply be done in the Roles and Capabilities area.
Once you have an email or campaign sent, they have reports worth viewing to see how they did based on open rates, status, last run, and more.
Our test campaign went out okay and we received a report back saying that it was successful.
For a free plugin, this one blew me away on all of the options and more that could give a major email provider a run for its money. Any automation is good, and there are even options for Google reCAPTCHA, a throttling mechanism to protect against spam submissions, and plenty more features that you’ll have to try for yourself.
Email Subscribers & Newsletters -- Simple and Effective Newsletter System
A welcome message stating “80% done!” and a big thumbs up appears. They’ve done a lot of the work already for you to get your email subscription in shape.
All the essentials are included in this free plugin. If you want to take it to the next level and add a few premium options, you can upgrade and Go Pro.
They make it simple to get started (again, they already had a lot of the legwork done) and I hopped right in.
Everything is accessible from your dashboard under Email Subscribers.
The first section shows your audience. It provides all of the emails, subscriptions, unsubscribes, and opens.
Here is also where you can upload/download your contacts, create lists, sync (which will automatically subscribe a person to a specific list when opting in), and manage lists.
Area of the Audience section.
It’s very simplistic and easy to manage contacts in this area. I love how accessible it is and the straightforward information on where everything is at.
To get contacts, we need a form for our visitors to sign up on.
The… you guessed it – Forms section – is where you’ll go for this.
This is the brains of the form building operations, where you can easily name, describe, adjust form fields, and more.
The Edit Forms area.
It’s a very simplistic opt-in as is. With some CSS knowledge, it can be edited accordingly with colors, style, etc.
When you have a form completed, it will give you a shortcode that can be used on any page or blog. You can also use the Widget and place it on your page that way.
The test form example I set up.
To automate emailing your newsletter and blogs, that’s another very simple feature.
When you publish a new post, it will be emailed out automatically. It’s not quite as advanced as having weekly emails with all your posts or content sent.
Still, it is nice to just publish a blog and know that it will go out on its own in full HTML glory.
The Campaign area where you’ll edit post notifications.
I set up a test email to myself and received exactly what I put down for what I wanted to include: Dev Man, of course.
My test email.
There are plenty of other functions that can be tweaked and adjusted to ensure your email marketing is flawless in the Settings area.
A snapshot of the Settings area.
Here, you can set up a welcome email, confirmation email, security, and more.
In general, this is an awesome plugin that works well with any WordPress theme. Its simplicity sets it apart (in a good way), making it as easy as ever to get an email list growing and automate your blog posts to be delivered to your readers.
It’s great for list building and you can create, send, and track HTML emails. Once activated, it packs a punch.
When you activate, you’re welcomed by a lavish dashboard, animations, and illustrations demonstrating all of its features. It’s a nice addition and shows that they’re not some “dull and ordinary” plugin.
Beyond visually being nice, it has all of the essential features for subscriptions to your email and/or newsletter.
The easy to use drag and drop composer makes building newsletters simple. And with the capability of having unlimited subscribers, unlimited newsletters, advanced targeting and more, this is worth a try.
Just having an endless amount of contacts at no cost is an advantage over professional email services that charge you based on the number of subscribers.
Let’s check this out!
Everything is accessible and clearly labeled right from the dashboard.
The Newsletter dashboard.
You can see that the upper tabs have all of the ingredients you’ll need to include a subscription block and get your marketing in motion.
From the dashboard, all the main tabs are on top.
There are a lot of capabilities here. Going over every detail that is included in this plugin would lead to a rather long article (and not entirely necessary considering how self-explanatory this plugin is), so to keep things simple, I’ll break down just a few essentials.
Let’s start with the Subscription Configuration. Like everything else, it’s very clear what the functions are and where they’re at.
For example, if I want to edit the opt-in feature, I click the List Building tab, Subscription Configuration, and then all the features are right here.
Where you can choose how visitors opt in, manage repeat subscriptions, override opt in, and edit notifications.
I can see why this plugin is called Newsletter, because it truly lives up to its name as the highlight of the features — creating amazing newsletters.
The drag and drop feature streamlines the creation process, making it incredibly easy and efficient.
You can start by choosing a preset template. There’s everything from a simple call to action, invitation, or a big announcement.
Or, you can create your own with some coding knowledge.
The newsletter area.
I’m going to just create a simple call to action newsletter.
I dragged the header block over and an image block, uploaded my own Dev Man.jpeg, and — in less than a minute — I had a newsletter ready to be delivered (possibly by Dev Man himself).
As you can see, you can also preview what it will look like. Here’s an example newsletter with a mobile preview on the right.
When you have your newsletter ready to go, it’s a matter of sending it. You can specify quite a bit in regards to how you want to compose the email.
Pick from lists, select language, and plenty more.
You can preview everything right here. It’s a simple click back to edit if you notice a change you need to make.
To sum it all up, this is a pretty amazing plugin for the going rate of — free! There is a Premium option starting $65, which includes support, more detailed reports, and more.
However, if you’re looking to save some money, the free version gets two thumbs (or knuckles) up from us.
Hustle
Cue the music. And let’s get our groove on!
Hustle is our very own free plugin that we created here at WPMU DEV and it can help your email marketing campaign boogie to success.
Sure, he can dance well, but he can also pack a punch by creating pop-ups, slide-ins, ads, and sidebar widgets for your WordPress website.
Once visitors opt in, he can then integrate with your favorite email company, where you can then create automated HTML emails, newsletters, or whatever is your favorite move.
Not to be biased, but the simplicity of this plugin makes it probably the easiest out of all of the other examples to set up an opt-in form, widget, or slide-in for collecting emails and then reaching out.
When you first get started, there’s a complete walkthrough on how to get moving.
Hustle greets you immediately and helps you get started.
From this point, you can choose what kind of form you want to create: Pop-up, Slide-in, Embed, or Social Share.
The Create Module.
For this example, we’ll use a pop-up.
I can now pick and choose various options to include in the Edit Pop-up section. You have a TON of options here to suit your needs.
This is where you design, add what information you’d like to collect from users, integrate your favorite email provider, edit the visibility, and much more.
All the major email services provide HTML emails, so you’ll be all set in that department. They all have customizable templates, too.
When connecting to other apps for integration, there are 1000’s to choose from.
Where you can connect your favorite apps.
You can specify advanced features, such as animated effects on entrance and exits, delays, AdBlock, and more.
Example of the Behavior settings page.
And the forms look as shiny as a disco ball. Here is an example of the pop-up I just created.
Example pop-up.
With over 80,000 installations, 4.5-star review, and ease of use, all we can say is that if you’re looking to start an amazing email marketing campaign — Hustle makes it a party.
For more information, check out his funky video below.
And the Winner Is…
That will be for you to decide. Each one of these unique plugins can be a great match for your website.
Just remember that plain text is a lightweight to HTML when it comes to quality. A great HTML email comes across as more professional, they’re more adjustable, and the best way to showcase your message.
These customized WordPress email plugins are all prizefighters in our eyes and any one of them can be a champion for your website.
Most pop-ups ignite a rage fire within us that makes us click that back button before we’ve even had time to blink. In a world full of unwelcome interruptions to our browsing, you need to put the work in if your pop-ups are going to pay off.
Pop-ups that are easy on the eye, yield great results and don’t scare your visitors off may be few and far between – but that doesn’t mean the tools aren’t out there.
There are tons of plugins to help make your pop-up related dreams come true – and if you aren’t willing to cough up some cash, you may have to embark upon a bit of trial and error to find one which fulfills your needs.
The good news is that I’ve done a bit of the legwork for you and reviewed five of the most popular free plugins on the WordPress plugin directory.
Please note that this beaver is not related to any other well-known WordPress beavers.
The first on our list is Pop-Up Builder. With 100,000+ active installs and a bold claim right at the top of its WordPress.org listing, I had to check it out.
There are five free modules to choose from, with the option of adding a gazillion more by going Pro.
Love the colorful and modern icons!
I took a look at the image option first. I found that whilst it does indeed allow you to make a pop-up using an image, there isn’t a way to add text.
This is no good if you have a message you want to convey to your visitors. You could always upload an image that has text already on it, however, a lot of times including important text in an image isn’t a good idea. You can only really get away with it if you add perfect alt tags.
You can design a pop-up to fit your exact requirements using the HTML option, which takes you to the classic editor.
The styling options included in this pop-up are very limited, therefore the only way to really make your pop-up fit your brand is with code. Not ideal if your coding knowledge isn’t up to scratch.
I had a dabble using the classic editor and a bit of custom CSS and was able to produce this classy little gem within a couple of minutes.
Since you can add the content and design elements in code, the only limit is your imagination.
You get the freedom to design the pop-up yourself, with the advantage of being able to use the plugin’s back-end features.
It would be convenient if there were some built-in tools to help you add color and style, but I’m reluctant to moan too much about something that didn’t cost a penny.
The free version does come with a lot of limitations though unfortunately.
There are a lot of worthwhile features here – but you have to pay up first!
Any form of advanced targeting is an added extra that you have to pay for – this includes selecting which device you want to display the pop-up on. This is bad news if you only want to display it on one type of device.
Interestingly, another thing you can pay extra for is the ability to prevent your visitors from being able to close your pop-ups. I found this “forced interaction” function to be one of the most common premium features across the plugins.
WHY?! When is this ever a good idea?
If you’re serious about pop-ups, then Pop-Up Builder may be worth coughing up the $48 a year for, as the full version comes with tons of features.
So many pretty colors!
If you’re just dabbling, the free version might meet your needs – or another plugin may be more suitable.
Pop-up Maker has one of the highest number of active installs by far – and you can see why.
It has a sleek, easy to navigate menu and best of all; all the features you need to create the perfect pop-up are absolutely free.
Everything you need is packed into this little menu.
This is what I produced without changing any design settings.
Not half bad for a minute or two’s work.
The design capabilities of this plugin are actually pretty impressive. You choose a theme for each plugin, and then you can customize each theme easily with no code required.
We love a nice clean menu.
There are a lot of different settings you can tweak and it’s so simple to use – I clicked a few buttons and within literally a minute, I was able to give my pop-up a bit of life.
Okay, not the prettiest of ads, but you get the picture.
It’s so easy to customize the design of your pop-up using this plugin, so you should have no problems channeling your brand.
Once you have a fresh pop-up design, you need to select triggers and targeting.
The list of potential triggers and targeting options is definitely a decent length and you also get to choose the position of the pop-up and any animations you want to use.
I think the only criticism I have of this pop-up is that whilst more or less everything is included within the free version, one thing is missing. And it’s one of the main functions that website owners would want to use in their pop-ups.
This, of course, is exit intent.
It’s a powerful feature – but is it worth $35 a year?
It costs $35 a year just to unlock this one feature, however, if you think about everything you get from the plugin as a whole, it ain’t all that bad.
Other premium features include analytics, scroll-triggered pop-ups, and MailChimp integration, but you do have to pay to unlock each feature – unless you pay the $192 for the whole works.
There is also an advanced theme editor to help you make your pop-ups even more unique.
Their slogan is ‘Create any popup imaginable’ – definitely possible if you ask me.
Boxzilla’s active installs stand at a modest 20k – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a contender.
I’m a massive fan of this one from the get-go because it has a name that doesn’t include the words ‘pop-up’… it can get confusing when reviewing so many plugins with similar names.
You’re met with the classic editor to create your pop-up, however, there is a nifty little menu where you can select your colors and border if you’re not confident using code.
Nice and simple – you can’t go wrong.
I put together a quick pop-up using these options – it was so easy.
Another plugin, another squeaky toy sale pop-up…Yet another simple and clean menu – we’ve been spoilt!
Once the pop-up is to your taste, you need to decide who will see it and when.
You have a nice list of options, however, exit intent is again missing as it’s premium only. You can still make some pretty decent pop-ups with the options available on the free version, and it didn’t take me long at all to get my first one up and running.
My one criticism about this plugin is that there is no facility to preview your creation – you have to click publish and hope for the best. Not ideal if you’re doing this on a live site!
It’s a simple little plugin – no bells and whistles, but you can easily create something practical with the tools available on the free version.
Popup by Supsystic is full of surprises. For starters, it’s the only pop-up builder I tested that comes packed with templates, allowing you to create some cool designs without needing to tap into your left brain.
Once you’ve dove in and chosen a template, the first menu you are greeted with is a bit harsh on the eyes.
These aren’t even all the options on the first page!
So many options and another ton of tabs to click on…but don’t let this scare you off.
Most of the options are free, but some of the PRO ones include triggering after a visitor comments, after purchase, or upon exit intent.
I just changed the delay to keep it simple and then moved onto the next tab.
The design section then hits you with a ton more options – this plugin is nothing if not thorough!
My favorite feature of this plugin is that whilst you are editing the colors and content, there’s a live preview of your design at the bottom of your screen.
This is the only time I have seen this on a free pop-up plugin and is very handy indeed!
You can also choose to animate your pop-up, and when you hover over each of the options, it demonstrates the animation.
So many options, especially for a free plugin!
The closing button comes in a variety of styles too, which is pretty cool.
So many flavors of closing button.
There are lots of things about this plugin, with next on the list being the ability to directly edit the full HTML and CSS, rather than just being able to add your content in code.
Dive in there and make that pop-up perfect.
This really does allow you to make your pop-up to your specific requirements, however with the amount of options you get built-in, you may never need to touch it!
I managed to maneuver my way through the options and create this little pop-up without code.
Almost done with the squeaky toy pop-ups, I promise.
Once you have figured out how to navigate the many, many options, you realize that this is indeed an awesome pop-up plugin and the potential is endless.
It has so many cool little features that you won’t find anywhere else – I can’t think of anything else you’d need from a pop-up plugin.
The only catch is that some of the triggers you might want to use are only available with the pro version.
However, it is only $39 a year (if you only have one site) and this unlocks everything. A plugin that goes above and beyond and showers you with extra features is surely worth that.
Of course, we couldn’t finish this article without mentioning our own Hustle pop-up plugin.
Upon arrival you’re greeted by a lovely sleek dashboard and Hustle is the only plugin I found that has free analytical tools.
The dashboard shows you your active modules and conversions at a glance. You can either create a pop-up, slide-in, standard embed or social media embed.
Hustle knows what he’s doing.
Just wait for those conversions to start rolling in.
Creating a regular pop-up is so easy, it’s almost too good to be true. (It isn’t though – Hustle has everything you need, completely free of charge.)
One of the coolest things about this pop-up is the extent to which you can customize the design without touching a single line of code.
You can use one of the default color palettes if you’re not too fussed about the color scheme, but you can also build your own custom color palette.
Just call me Van Gogh.
You can customize the color of everything right down to the hover on your call-to-action button.
Once you’ve designed yourself a tidy little pop-up, it’s time to explore the Visibility tab.
There are lots of conditions to choose from.
Quite an impressive list, if I do say so myself.
If you want to keep it simple and just show it on one page, that’s absolutely fine, but you have the freedom to tailor it to appear exactly when you want it to and in front of only your target audience.
You’ll also need to decide how your pop-up is triggered. You have lots of options, but the icing on the cake is that Hustle is the only free pop-up plugin I’ve found that has exit intent FREE of charge.
You now hold the power to stop those deserters in their tracks!
Be sure to put your finger on the right trigger.
You can choose animations for your pop-ups, closing behaviors, and whether or not visitors will be able to click a link which prevents them from seeing it again.
With Hustle, you get to create three modules of each type, i.e. 3 pop-ups, 3 embeds, etc. If you find yourself needing a few more, you can always upgrade to Pro for unlimited.
Yes, it may be hard to believe that I’m not biased since Hustle is, of course, one of our own plugins.
However, you really need to try it for yourself to really understand how much you actually get for the extremely low price of zero!
Also, if you want to know more about Hustle, and for a few more handy pop-up tips, check out our other blog on how to create an effective pop-up.
Choose Your Own ‘Top Of The Pops’
Five pop-ups, five different ways of doing things… but also five plugins that could potentially help you to grow your sales and subscribers.
Finding a free plugin that does everything you need isn’t actually that ambitious – it’s actually pretty surprising how much is offered on the free versions.
But if you find yourself missing something, it might be that you have to bite the bullet and pay for premium…or you could be cheeky and use more than one!
Between the bunch, they really do offer a full suite of features for the keen marketer.
So you have the tools, now it’s down to you to utilize them wisely.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 social tabs.
Also, for more advanced customizations, you can add 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Where the shortcode is located.
Paste the shortcode on a blog or webpage — and you’re all set.
Where we’ll paste the code for this example.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.
Where you type your message.
If all looks well, hit Save Changes and it will display on your website.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You can see numerous options that require CSS coding.
Here is our very basic widget that we just set up.
An example of the countdown timer live.
You can get more advanced with this and have some fun customizing the CSS.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The main panel where you have plenty of options.
To design your under construction page, click over to the Design tab.
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.
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.
In the Access area, you can include things like whitelisted IP addresses and other URL based options.
The Access area.
And just like that, you can have a custom under construction page up for your visitors.
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.
Branda Pro
Now we couldn’t let this post come to an end without giving our very own Branda Pro a cheeky mention…
“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.
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.
The Utilities area in the WordPress dashboard for Branda.
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.
The social linking area in Branda.
Adjusting colors and adding your own custom CSS is also a breeze.
Branda color and CSS section.
And here’s a look at a finished countdown timer.
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.
Post formats premiered in WordPress back in 2011, allowing you to inject some life into your blog section. Sadly, a lot of themes no longer support them. But with a pinch of Gutenberg and a sprinkle of code, you can still mold your blog section into the masterpiece it should be.
Post formats were last featured in WordPress’ Twenty Seventeen and are no longer supported in the more recent WP themes.
So the question is, with fewer themes supporting them, should they still be used at all? If so, how? And if not, is there another way to format your posts?
It’s WordPress, my dear friends, of course there are other ways!
(*Hint: one big way starts with “Guten” and ends with “berg” ;)).
And if you’re REALLY keen for a 2011 throwback, you can still add post formatting to themes with code.
But before we get to your array of post formatting options, let’s start simple and look at what WordPress post formats are and how they can be used.
What is a WordPress Post Format?
If you want your blog page to be more than a never-ending wall of text, post formats can help jazz things up with a simple click.
They let you change the way your theme displays content – whether that be allowing you to add videos, images or simply displaying things like quotes in a snazzier way.
All themes style their formats slightly differently (we’ll take a look at a few examples shortly), and with some not supporting them at all, it can be hard trying to get the right look for your blog section.
How To Use Post Formats
If your theme does support post formats, you will see this little drop-down when you go to create a new post:
You can change the format of your post using the menu on the right-hand side.
If not, you can select a new theme which supports post formats.
It’s also one of the main reasons post formats aren’t supported by the latest WP themes. Many of Gutenberg’s blocks essentially give users the same functionality as the various format options.
For example, take a look at this inspirational quote I posted using the Quote Gutenberg block on the Twenty Nineteen theme:
Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.
Does exactly what it needs to, and all it takes is one simple click.
Unfortunately, this isn’t true for all themes.
Here’s what happens when you add just an image block into some themes, with this example from Colibri:
If only every theme would support post formats.
With some themes, Gutenberg will only get you so far.
You can use it to spice up your posts, however, some themes will only display ‘continue reading’ on your main blog page if you have used anything other than plain text in your post.
Using the classic post formats, on the other hand, ensures your blog page is full of all your images and videos at first glance.
And on that note…
Let’s Take a Look At Some Examples Of Post Formats in Action
There are ten main formats, and as every theme styles each type of format in its own way, I have compared two below: Origami and Arcanum.
Standard
Probably the format you’re trying to escape from.
Standard posts are the bricks and mortar of most blogs – but you have hundreds of them, and no one blames you for wanting something a little different.
Origami:
Standard post using the Origami theme.
Arcanum:
Standard post using the Arcanum theme.
Aside
An aside can be used when you have a quick note you want to display – typically something that wouldn’t warrant its own full post.
Most themes style them without titles, so pretty similar to the Status format. Arcanum went all fancy and put theirs in a box.
Left: Origami, Right: Arcanum
Audio
Pretty self-explanatory – you can use the audio format if you want to embed an audio clip.
An audio post using the theme Arcanum.
One thing I’ve noticed is that some themes don’t allow captions on audio posts.
Captions are definitely handy if you need to credit the artist, but it’s also useful to add a description (most people would be hesitant to click ‘play’ on something if they have no idea what it is – myself included!)
Origami doesn’t support the audio post format, however, this is a good time to take a look at the difference that formats actually make.
I changed the post format type on the audio clip I posted above using Arcanum to Standard, and this happened:
Whoops, not ideal!
When you click ‘read more’ the audio clip is present and correct, however, without setting the post format to audio, you can’t actually see it on the blog page.
Seems Gutenberg has some catching up to do.
Chat
The Chat format is used for displaying chat transcripts.
Origami’s efforts were disappointing.
Arcanum, on the other hand, changed the font to something typewriter-y.
Small victories.
Left: Origami, Right: Arcanum.
Image
Now, this is where this starts to look kinda useful.
You can always add an image using the block editor, however, it won’t always show on the main blog page – it depends entirely on the theme.
Using the image post format is a sure-fire way to ensure that your photo is featured on your blog page in all its glory. See exhibits A and B from Arcanum below:
Exhibit A – using the image post format
Easy-peasy.
Exhibit B – using the standard post format
Uh ohhh, this isn’t what we want
Of course, when you click ‘read more’, your image will be there.
However, if you want your blog page itself to be more than a wall of text, you should really use the image post format.
Told you they might actually come in handy.
Gallery
The difference between the Gallery and Image post formats on the themes that I’ve tested are very subtle.
For example, here’s how images and image galleries look on posts with the formats set to either ‘Image’ or ‘Gallery’ using the Arcanum theme:
Not much of a difference, huh? But wait, there’s more… (Theme: Arcanum)
While the posts may not show obvious differences when switching between different post formats like ‘Image’ or ‘Gallery,’ other sections of the theme may treat these post formats differently, and apply different styles or formatting.
For example, as I pointed out in the Image post format section, and please allow me to quote myself:
“Using the image post format is a sure-fire way to ensure that your photo is featured on your blog page in all its glory.”
With a theme like Carton, for example, the blog page treats posts differently depending on their post format. And it will display the first image of a post using post format = Image (in this example, it’s an image gallery) but not if the post format is set to ‘Gallery’.
Choose the Gallery post format if you want to draw your reader’s attention to the background color of this theme’s blog page.
The point is… although the differences using post formats like Image or Gallery may be slight in the post itself, it’s important to keep in mind that your theme can affect how your posts behave in other parts of your site.
Moving on…
Link
There wasn’t a difference between using the standard post format or the link one in Origami – both produce your standard blue hyperlink.
Arcanum have been a bit more creative:
Left: Origami, Right: Arcanum
Quote
Some themes need to take heed of the below quote, as their attempts at catering for different post formats are very half-hearted.
Gutenberg actually saves the day on this one.
If you post using the quote post format in the Origami theme, it doesn’t add any formatting.
If you post a quote using the Gutenberg quote block, it doesn’t matter whether you use the standard or post format, it still actually adds some formatting.
Nothing fancy, but does the job.
There are a few variations using Arcanum.
Below is what you get if you just set the post format to Quote but don’t add the quote block.
You said it, Yoda.
Makes it stand out (slightly) from a regular post, however there is no room to add a citation.
If you use the quote Gutenberg block but leave the post format as standard, this is the result.
Not again…
You only see the styling for the quote once you click ‘read more’.
Fine I guess, if you don’t mind your main blog page being bland.
The real magic happens when you combine the two.
Set the post format to Quote and add the quote Gutenberg block and voila!
Phew, got there in the end!
A fancy little quote that appears on your main blog page.
Status
You literally had one job. A status post is supposed to be a line or two of text with no title. At least one of them got it right.
Left: Origami, Right: Arcanum
Video
If you want to display a video on your post, both themes will easily allow you to do this using either the Video or Standard formats. It’s nice when stuff works.
Top: Origami, Bottom: Arcanum
Manually Add Support For WordPress Post Formats
So you like the idea of post formats, but you have your heart set on a theme that doesn’t support them?
Have no fear; you can add them manually!
So let’s start with the theme Twenty Nineteen – it doesn’t come with post formatting, so when you create a new post, you won’t get the option to select a format.
The post creation menu suddenly looks so bare…
We would, of course, recommend using a child theme for this sort of stuff. However, if you’re feeling brave, you just need to add the below into your theme’s functions.php file.
Hurrah – you can now see the post formats drop-down box.
You don’t have to add all the formats into the array – feel free to just add the ones you’re actually going to use.
It would be nice if this was all you had to do, however all we’ve done is told the theme that other post formats exist.
The theme still has no clue how to style them. We must put it out of its misery.
Using CSS To Style Your Own Post Formats
Fancy your links on a colored background? Want your quotes in a huge, bold font?
The posts page is now your oyster – so get styling.
Let’s start with something simple.
You want to remove the title from your status posts, right? All you need to do is edit your style sheet using the class .format-(post-format-type), as below:
.format-status .entry-title {
display:none;
}
I used the theme Twenty Nineteen for this, so you would need to check which class your post title comes under on your own theme.
It’s a status though; it needs to be bold. Why not make it big and green?
.format-status.entry .entry-content p {
color:green;
font-size:72px;
}
Beautiful.
Let’s say you run a blog featuring dogs doing human things. It’s very modern and contemporary, and you’ve been thinking that black and white images with a bold border are exactly what your site needs.
All it takes is a couple of lines of CSS and you can apply this to all images you post, as long as you select the image post format.
Add all the custom styling you want to your posts using this method and it will help you make the important stuff stand out, the images and videos easily accessible, and basically inject some life into your blog section.
Add WordPress Post Formats Using A Child Theme
A child theme is always a good option – especially if you’re trying something new.
The code you need to add to your child theme’s functions file is right here:
You can then crack on with making your different formats look pretty by styling them in the child theme’s stylesheet.
Throwback? Or No Going Back?
Should WordPress post formats remain a thing of the past?
It really depends on your personal preference, and how you interpret this question.
With many major themes not supporting them, and the introduction of Gutenberg, it doesn’t look good for the future of this throwback feature.
However, although theme support for post formats may be dropping, you’re free to help continue their legacy.
By enabling the post format support in your theme and styling them yourself, you aren’t limiting your theme choices. It isn’t difficult and it gives you a much better level of control over how they look.
If your only focus is making sure that the post itself looks great, then Gutenberg may tick all your boxes. There’s no question the block editor is the future, and its various blocks can help you format posts to suit your specific needs.
On the other hand, if you want a blog page full of color and personality, you can stick with post formats a while longer, as Gutenberg doesn’t cover all the bases just yet.
Are you keeping up with the latest web design trends in the WordPress World? Looking ahead, we aim to show you some of the important design and technical features that are coming up.
So, as you know, web design is continually evolving as more businesses compete to establish their brand online and stand out from a growing crowd of template-based websites.
In recent years, we’ve seen — and written about — many web design trends that have captured the collective imagination of web designers and brand-conscious businesses. Suddenly, every website you click through seems to be influenced by web design styles like brutalism, minimalism, modern retro, material, modular, or security-focused design.
While some web design trends focus on helping sites stand out from the crowd, other trends are borne out of functional or economic necessity, or even compliance. For example, think of mobile-based design or inclusive web design. It’s hard to imagine building sites today without mobile-friendly designs or taking accessibility into account.
Website owners want great-looking sites that will deliver results. It should be no surprise, then, that the trends listed below incorporate aesthetic design with essential functionality.
WordPress Web Design Trends For 2020
Let’s start with the trend that I believe will dominate the world of WordPress web design not only in 2020 but for many years to come.
The Best WordPress Design Starts Out Of The Blocks
Without a doubt, WordPress Gutenberg block-based web design is the most important WordPress design trend you’ll need to pay attention to in 2020 and beyond.
During the latest State of The Word address delivered in November 2019 at the WordPress Camp US (WCUS) in St. Louis, Missouri, Matt Mullenweg (WordPress co-founder) made it clear that Gutenberg is the future of WordPress web design and web development.
Matt Mullenweg is telling us that all WordPress roads will lead to Gutenberg. (‘State Of The Word’ address at WCUS St. Louis, Missouri, November 2019.)
To appreciate the significance of Matt’s speech, you need to know that Gutenberg is the biggest change WordPress has made in its 16-year history.
Since the release of WordPress 5.0 on December 6, 2018, Gutenberg has had 20 new releases, the number of contributors has grown significantly (from 200 to over 480 in one year), and the adoption of the Gutenberg editor on WordPress sites has almost tripled.
Anyone designing or building WordPress sites today simply cannot afford to ignore just how serious WordPress is about its adoption push for Gutenberg.
WP 5.3 shows that WordPress is serious about Gutenberg.
In the past year, Gutenberg developers have made significant enhancements to the editor (I cover some of these below) and decreased Gutenberg’s average time to load and average time to type. While not everyone has moved away from the WordPress Classic editor yet, more users are responding to the increase in Gutenberg’s post-loading speed by switching to the new editor. Matt announced during his address that over 270,000 posts per day are now being published using Gutenberg.
You can watch Matt’s full address in the video below:
(Matt’s entire presentation above was created and delivered using Gutenberg.)
So, how is Gutenberg going to affect WordPress web design in 2020?
For a start, Gutenberg will allow more users to start customizing their own sites.
Many of Gutenberg’s new features are already available with WordPress version 5.3. These features include user enhancements like:
Smoother block movements as you drag elements on the page with motion settings for improved accessibility.
A ‘typewriter’ mode that keeps your vertical place as you type for a more pleasant writing experience.
Block previews that let users see what blocks will look like before selecting them.
Support for uploading large images such as high-resolution pics from your smartphone. (Shameless plug: use an image compression plugin like Smush when uploading large images to your site and you will never have a problem).
Faster block navigation mode for improved usability and accessibility (users can navigate through block menus using their keyboard).
The ability to customize navigation menus with elements like background and text colors using an inline navigation menu block.
Gutenberg’s new customization blocks give users the ability to design their own navigation menus.
Gutenberg also features new blocks that let you group blocks together (Group block), add white space between blocks (Spacer block), and use custom gradients and multi-buttons on pages and posts.
Hello, custom gradients and buttons!
During his address, Matt also mentioned that one of the most sought after features users wanted from Gutenberg blocks was the ability to add social icons. Gutenberg’s Social Icons block will let users add social icons and buttons anywhere on their posts and pages. I expect different types of social media blocks will be made available for users to choose from.
The Social Icon block is one of the most requested features of Gutenberg.
As more contributors and developers are now focusing on Gutenberg as the way forward, WordPress also announced that it will launch a Block Directory that will allow users to search for and install blocks into their sites using an inline block directory. This includes blocks that will add entire collections to your site, like pattern libraries, for example.
You will be able to design pages on the fly using the Gutenberg block directory.
With Gutenberg’s block directory, users will be able to design pages on the fly. This leads to our next WordPress web design trend for 2020.
One Theme To Rule Them All
WordPress theme developers take note: Gutenberg’s block-based capabilities will give users more freedom to design and customize their own posts and pages. Rather than focusing on developing purpose-specific themes (e.g. an eCommerce or blog-focused theme) that merely accommodate Gutenberg blocks, WordPress theme developers should rethink how to support this new freedom with multi-purpose themes that offer features for building all kinds of websites.
With Gutenberg, you'll be able to create any website you want.
As Matt Mullenweg (WordPress co-founder) recently stated in the State of The Word WCUS,
“What we’re really trying to enable with these fundamental building blocks is that you can look at any website in the world and build that inside WordPress in just a few clicks.”
This represents both a challenge and an opportunity for WordPress theme designers. How do you build themes that users can transform into anything they want?
Let’s take a look at some theme designs that are attempting to do just that:
Neve is a fast-loading, highly customizable, multi-purpose theme that can be used for all kinds of website projects. Although this theme has a minimalist design, it is highly extensible and works perfectly with Gutenberg as well as most page builders.
In addition to being WooCommerce ready, responsive, RTL enabled, and translation ready, this lightweight theme is also fully AMP optimized (see the next web design trend below to learn why this is important).
Breakthrough Pro is a WordPress theme built with the Genesis framework by StudioPress.
Genesis Framework developed by StudioPress (now part of WP Engine) aims to move beyond being merely Gutenberg-ready by releasing a number of themes enhanced to be specially optimized for Gutenberg.
Themes like Breakthrough Pro, for example, incorporate Gutenberg theme support for things like block color palettes, font sizes, editor width, and image sizes, custom styling and default Gutenberg block styles that work with the full range of available editor widths, and easy WYSIWYG editing that lets you build pages and posts using Gutenberg blocks with matching front end and admin styles.
Make Fast Sites Faster
Sites not only need to look good, but they also need to load faster. Especially on mobile sites.
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) are essentially stripped-down HTML versions of your existing webpages designed for faster-loading speeds. Google caches and serves AMP content to make pages load instantaneously to users in its search results.
Themes like Neve, which I discussed earlier are AMP optimized, so no special configurations are required.
This website was built using Neve – an AMP optimized WordPress theme.
PWA plugins for WordPress allow users to return to your site back to your website by launching the app from their home screen and interact with your website through an app-like interface.
Converting your WordPress website into a Progressive Web App allows users to return to your site by launching an app from their mobile phones and interact with your website through an app-like interface.
Use a plugin like Super PWA to turn your WordPress site into an app.
In a world where milliseconds can make a huge difference to whether visitors choose your site or click through to someone else’s and a one-second delay can decrease conversion rates by as much as 7%, WordPress sites that can load even faster than its competitors will keep attracting users’ eyeballs and winning clicks.
WordPress theme designers and web developers can stay ahead of this trend by developing mobile-friendly WordPress themes that won’t require the need of AMP at all and converting sites into PWAs.
Make Sites You Can Talk To
More users are searching online using their mobile devices and using voice search features. According to a voice search study by Backlinko, page speed plays a significant role in voice search SEO, where the average voice search result page loads in 4.6 seconds (52% faster than the average page).
You can add voice search capabilities to WordPress sites using plugins.
WP Fastest Site Search plugin lets you add voice search to WordPress.
WP Fastest Site Search not only lets you add voice search capabilities to WordPress sites, but it also replaces the standard WordPress search widget and adds other search enhancement features like autocomplete, spell correct, PDF search, and image search in addition to search filters and search results pages.
Adding voice search plugins to WordPress, however, is not enough. You will also need to learn how to optimize your WordPress site for voice search. Voice search optimization helps users find what they are looking for faster and this requires fast-loading, mobile-optimized sites. Also, it’s important to focus on areas like content readability to make sure that the site can answer readers’ questions. WPAstra has written a great article on voice search SEO.
Make Sites That Talk Back
Users not only expect to find and get what they are looking for faster online, but they also expect to get instant replies to their queries.
Just think about how ‘waiting’ has evolved for users online We have gone from drumming our fingers nervously on the table as we wait for email replies, to watching anxiously as animated dots on mobile screens tell us that someone is replying to our text messages. Technology has conditioned users to expect instant gratification and now we have to deliver.
Live chat integrated with AI technologies allows businesses to respond and engage immediately with customers who land on their website. If someone is not available to respond live, AI scripts can take over to direct users appropriately and provide a feeling of instant support. Sometimes, all users need is to feel they’re loved, even if only by a caring bot.
Integrating motion UI features such as animated elements and transitions into your web design can help grab your visitors’ attention as they enter or leave your site. The key here is to strike the right balance between grabbing their attention and then directing them to whatever it is they are searching for.
If you don’t know how to start adding motion to your website, start where most WordPress users start… with a plugin!
Add animations to your content and grab your visitor’s attention.
Animate it! lets you add CSS3 animations to content on posts widgets and pages when visitors enter, exit, scroll, or click on elements on your site.
Video Backgrounds
Video backgrounds are another way to add motion to your WordPress site. You can use the Gutenberg Cover Block to add a video background to your pages.
Cover blocks let you easily add video animation to WordPress
When adding videos and animations, just make sure that your site still loads fast. Install our Smush and Hummingbird plugins to help you with this.
Say Hello From Ahlo To Zialo
While businesses aim to expand globally in areas like eCommerce and the internet keeps making the world a smaller place, more cultures around the world are trying to preserve their uniqueness.
In 2020 and beyond, multilingual WordPress sites that allow users to view content in their own language are going to become more popular.
While WordPress itself currently does not support bilingual or multilingual sites out-of-the-box, it does support WordPress being translated into all languages. Also, there are plugins that will allow you to easily create a multilingual site.
WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin) lets you translate WordPress sites into many different languages and integrates with WooCommerce, allowing sites to interact with users in over 100 countries and languages. Other popular language translation plugins include Polylang, Weglot, and TranslatePress.
It’s important to note that for years, WordPress has been supporting developers that help improve its multilingual capabilities. WordPress is not looking to replace translation plugins or make multilingual WordPress a core offering.
WordPress supports plugins that improve its multilingual capabilities.
Everyone’s Got An Opinion And Something To Say
Imagine being able to design and develop WordPress sites using real-time collaboration. Different departments would be able to give valuable input into specific areas of the site as it is being developed, resulting in better sites for users and development teams.
Although real-time collaboration in WordPress is not quite there yet, it is on its way. Leonardo Losovitz has written a great article on how Gutenberg is reinventing the experience of creating, editing, and managing content in WordPress and helping web designers assist users.
Gutenberg will soon make it possible to collaborate with other WordPress in real-time.
Gutenberg is here to stay and will soon help WordPress users build sites collaboratively. Image source: GitHub
Start Designing Tomorrow’s WordPress Sites Today
As you can see from the above, Gutenberg is the most significant development to affect WordPress and will influence all future WordPress web design trends and developments. Ignore this at your own peril.
WordPress web design from 2020 will focus on sites that integrate design and functionality, load extremely fast, and cater to a growing mobile user base worldwide. Knowing this should help you build better sites.
We’ve covered many web design trends in the past and we’ll keep predicting trends in the future. We’ll even show you where to get web design inspiration from, so if you’re a web designer or a web developer, make sure to subscribe to receive our latest updates and stay on-trend.
Is the Internet’s skyrocketing carbon footprint (yep, it exists) a cause for concern? Can a simple image optimization plugin really help reduce carbon emissions? All is unveiled below.
Truth be told, I was terrified to write and publish this post.
In fact, most of the blog team wanted nothing to do with it.
Why?
Because part of the article touches on the topic of…
(I’m scared to even write the words!).
Climate Change.
But don’t let those two controversial words deter you from reading any further. This is NOT an attempt to push agendas or get overly political up in here.
And please resist the temptation to jump straight to the comments to see all the arguments that are probably unfolding as we speak.
(It’s like a car crash, you can’t help but look!)
In all seriousness, the point of this article is simply to inform you of an incredible fact we recently learned about one of our WordPress plugins. One that we’re all pretty chuffed about here at WPMU DEV.
Because as the title of this article suggests, it proves that our plugins can be more than just superheroes for your websites.
They can also be legitimate superheroes in real life.
More On How Smush Helps Save The World Soon, But First…
Let’s get the global warming chat out of the way.
I won’t spout too much on the subject. It’s not our forte, and we don’t claim to be authorities on the matter.
Website development, the Internet, and WordPress plugins… That’s our bread and butter, and what we’ll be sticking to.
Besides, if you’re desperate to learn more about climate change, NASA explains it much better.
Instead, let’s talk about a little-known fact about the Internet. One you might not expect from our invisible digital friend.
Yes, The Internet Has A Carbon Footprint… And It’s Bigger Than You Think
Although you wouldn’t think the Internet has any effect on climate change – you might be surprised at how large its carbon footprint really is.
(Cue the mind blowing stats):
According to climatecare.org the Internet currently accounts for around 2% of all global CO2 emissions. Equalling the aviation industry (we’re talking emissions from huge airliners, jets, etc.).
The amount of CO2 the Internet is responsible for (300 million tons per year) also matches the amount of coal, oil, and gas burned in Turkey and Poland – and over half of the fossil fuels burned in the United Kingdom.
But wait, it gets better:
It’s Estimated The Internet Could Account For 3.5% Of Global Carbon Emissions In The Next 10 Years
Yet it still walks around largely unnoticed, as it’s not something you’d normally associate with damaging the environment.
I mean, it’s not like a visible cloud of smoke flies up into the atmosphere every time you open your laptop (*if yours does you should really get that checked out).
The question then begs:
How Does The Digital Internet Produce CO2?
The quick and dirty answer is: Electricity.
The Internet requires electricity… which for the most part is still generated at power plants by electromechanical generators… which are driven by gigantic heat engines utilizing fossil fuels…
The energy consumption of the Internet can be narrowed down to three main offenders.
Devices
Networks
Data Centers
Image: climatecare.org
Let’s quickly summarize each:
Devices are fairly straightforward, you’re using electricity to power them, whether it be a laptop or phone. Then there’s the manufacturing of these devices and the factories they’re produced in.
Data Centers are the giant tech farms where all of the Internet’s data lives. As well as needing power to operate, the millions of servers worldwide also require air conditioning systems to prevent overheating.
One of Facebook’s data centers in Lulea, Sweden. Image: www.independent.co.uk
Finally, communication networks are what deliver the data from the centers to our devices. These are all interconnected through endless miles of cables, switches, and routers – which again – all require a mountain of energy to run.
In a nutshell… the more we can reduce the load and stress put on devices, networks, and data centers – the less electricity required, and the less carbon emitted into our poor old atmosphere.
Phew! I know, it’s a lot to take in.
So What Does All Of This Have To Do With Websites And Images?
According to the HTTP Archive, the average web page clocks in at over two megabytes.
Why is this important?
Because bloated websites lead to slower load times, frustrated users, and a whole lot of wasted energy.
One of the best ways to make your website more efficient is to reduce the amount of data transfer. Stripping it of as much unnecessary data as possible.
The Musk Foundation’s website is as minimalist as it gets.
Yep, that’s literally the entire website…
Of course, this type of approach isn’t going to work for most websites. And the reality is, you don’t have to be that drastic to significantly reduce your website’s use of energy.
After it was brought to our attention that optimizing images can help reduce a website’s carbon footprint, we knew we had to put Smush to the test.
If you’re new around here… Smush is the number one image optimization plugin on WordPress, with over one million installs. She’s also WPMU DEV’s oldest and we’re all proud parents.
Here’s How The Carbon Emission Test Went Down:
For this test we used: www.websitecarbon.com – a handy website that calculates the carbon footprint of your website (be sure to run yours through the test!).
It does this by taking into account five key pieces of data:
Data transfer over the wire
Energy intensity of web data
Energy source used by the data center
Carbon intensity of electricity
Website traffic
The screenshot below sums up the test, but here’s a quick rundown of what we did:
First we compared the CO2 savings of both a Smush and “Smush-less” website.
Next we worked out the average views a typical website gets (based on our analytics service, and 12,000 of our customer’s sites) per day and per month.
This then gave us a reading on how much CO2 the plugin saves per website per month.
Times this number by the amount of sites that have Smush active and boom! You have the amount of CO2 it’s saving.
Which came to a total of 1,690 Metric Tons of CO2 per month.
But if you’re anything like me, you have no idea 1,690 Metric Tons means, or how much that really is…
So to give you a better idea of how much CO2 Smush is helping to save, I converted Smush’s monthly savings into yearly savings – which works out to be 20,280 Metric Tons.
The Amount Of CO2 Smush Saves Is Equivalent To The Yearly Emissions Of 4,409 Cars
No matter your views on climate change, you have to admit that’s an incredible feat for a simple WordPress plugin.
4 More Bonus Tips For Reducing Your Website’s Carbon Footprint
While we were all pleasantly surprised by the power of Smush, optimizing the images on your site is just one of many ways to reduce your website’s carbon footprint.
Reducing energy consumption by employing better SEO tactics is simple. The goal of SEO is to help users find what they’re searching for as quickly and easily as possible.
Therefore, less time spent on your website, as well as less time spent landing on irrelevant website’s = less energy usage.
2. Reduce Video Screen Time If Practical
Video has already taken over much of the Internet and accounts for 80% of all transferred data online. 60% of this is via streaming services like NetFlix, YouTube and Vimeo.
Of course, since video is so effective it only makes brands want to produce more. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But if you want to reduce your website’s energy usage, doing something as simple as removing the “auto-play” function of your videos can go a long way. You can also keep your video content short and sweet, which is a solid tactic nowadays anyway (with the attention spans of audiences growing shorter).
3. Clean Up Your Code
Writing clean and streamlined code should be a no-brainer, whether you’re trying to make your website more energy efficient or not.
This doesn’t just apply to the code you write yourself, but also instances where you borrow code. You also want to make sure any WordPress plugins aren’t adding any unnecessary weight to your website with their code.
4. Use A ‘Green Host’
A lot of hosting providers use standard grid electricity and have no say or involvement in where their energy comes from.
But there are a whole bunch of “green hosting” companies out there that ensure their data centers are run by renewable energy.
Our friends over at GreenGeeks are a great example. They also have an initiative ensuring 300% of your account’s energy usage is offset by renewable energy credits.
You can usually identify a green hosting company by their “Green Website” badges and certifications.
The company are one of the leaders in this area, and set out to achieve 100% renewable energy globally – which they successfully did back in 2017.
These days Google delivers more than 3.5 times the computing power it did five years ago – using the same amount of electrical energy.
On average their data centers also use 50% less energy, and in 2016 their operational carbon emissions were a big fat ZERO.
We Won’t Be Mean If You’re Not Down To Be Green
Like I said at the beginning of this article, this is not about pushing agendas, we just thought it was pretty awesome that our Smush is doing its part to save the planet.
What you choose to do with this information is entirely up to you.
BTW, if you haven’t yet installed Smush, and you’re looking for an easy way to help the environment – install the plugin on your website right away.
(Sorry, had to do it).
When it comes to reducing the Internet’s role in climate change it’s definitely the little things that count.
Things like limiting your device time, optimizing your website’s performance, and choosing a green host can all go a long way.
But If You’d Rather Not, That’s Cool Too
Heck, if all else fails, you can always offset your CO2 emissions by planting some trees.
It’s a sure-fire way to feel better about all that YouTube bingeing.
Google AdSense is ‘THE’ advertising tool for monetizing your WordPress blog. But what if your account gets suspended, banned, or you can’t access it? Even worse, what if you’re not a fan of the Googs?
There has to be an alternative to Google AdSense – and lucky for you, we’ve found 13 of them.
But First…
When did the Google AdSense platform start, and why/how did it get so popular?
Because let’s face it, before you can choose a solid alternative to AdSense, you need to study the originator first.
What Is Google AdSense and How Does It Work?
AdSense is an online advertising program launched by Google back in 2003.
Initially there were some doubts about the platform, and in 2004 poor results and complaints forced Google to allow advertisers to opt out of the AdSense network.
But that’s where the trouble ended.
And in the years since, it has become the go-to advertising platform for bloggers and website owners looking to monetize their websites.
How Does AdSense Work?
Here’s the simplified version:
You start by creating a Google AdSense account, selecting the type of ads you want to show on your site, and then pasting the HTML code where you’d like the ads to be shown.
Google does the rest, and automatically shows ads that are deemed relevant to the content of your website or blog.
From this point on, visitors to your website will see ads, and every time someone takes action (click, conversion, etc) you get a cut of the advertising revenue.
Straight From AdSense’s Mouth
I don’t think we could explain it any better than this:
First on our list is one of Adsense’s biggest direct competitors.
Media.net lets you to ride the wave of the Yahoo! Bing Network – one of the largest marketplaces for keyword targeted advertisers.
The company boasts one of the most advanced portfolios of advertising technology. Offering users a number of on-site ad solutions including search, display, native, video, and more.
Implementation is easy. All you have to do is drop a short snippet of code on your website or blog. Activating and running contextual, video, and native ads can also be done without extra code or integration work.
Because Media.net is a contextual ad network, the advertisements displayed on your website or blog are always relevant to your content.
So if your blog is all about cats… yep, your visitors are getting slapped with more cat ads than they can handle.
Without it feeling spammy of course.
Their customer support is also top notch. For example, once your website or blog has been approved, you’re immediately given a customer representative to help optimize your site’s ads.
Infolinks is the third largest publisher marketplace in the world, generating income for over 100,000 website and blog publishers across 128 countries.
The company also works with several big name brands including: Nike, Virgin Airlines, Target, and Netflix.
Infolinks lets you monetize your site without having to overhaul its look and style. Their ads blend in perfectly with your content and can be customized to increase engagement.
The ad types you can choose from include: InFold, InText, InArticle, and more. These ads and who they’re shown to are also supported by an intelligent algorithm. This helps the ads displayed on your website to be as relevant as possible.
Integrating Infolinks ads into your website is simple. Once your application has been approved you’ll receive a unique script you can add to your sites HTML. Paste the code anywhere on your website and you’re ready to start earning dollars.
Also, if you use Google Analytics or other JavaScript tools, the Infolinks JavaScript can be inserted right before their code.
Even better, they can be made to fit seamlessly with your content and all the products shown are highly relevant and appropriate.
The ad units Amazon offers fall into three different types:
1.Recommendation ads – These ads show recommended Amazon products at the bottom of your content. Of course, the products will be relevant and based on the pages content and it’s visitors. All of these units are also mobile responsive and will adapt based on the container.
2.Search ads – This ad unit allows your visitors to view search results from Amazon directly on your website. This includes recommended Amazon products based on search phrases and keywords.
3.Custom ads – Hand pick specific Amazon products you’d like to promote to your visitors. These units are highly flexible and can be personalised to feel more natural. E.g. “My favorite headphones to use in 2019.”
More than 150,000 publishers use PropellerAds and the company has over eight years of market expertise and experience.
If you’re worried about your site showing annoying or spammy ads… the good news is, all their ads are moderated 24/7.
This ensures no viruses or inappropriate content gets through, and you’re showing clean and relevant ads only.
The ad units can also bypass ad blocking software. Even though this might seem a tad sneaky, getting passed ad blockers has been shown to increase ad revenue by 20%.
I mean, it’s sneaky of the visitor to be blocking ads in the first place, right?
To set up Propeller ads, simply register for an account, and then wait to hear your website has been checked and approved.
Once this is done, all you have to do is paste the shortcode of Propeller’s ad units on any page of your website.
The types of ad units you can display on your website include: push notifications, on-click ads, widgets, interstitials, and smart links.
The platform also offers decent payment terms. Giving users weekly payouts every Thursday, and a minimum withdrawal amount of $5.
(AdSense has a threshold of $100 for reference).
You can add a “plug n play” payment integration to your account to help you keep track of your earnings.
Propeller Ads also play well with other ad networks, so you can diversify and add more income streams if you wish.
Revcontent specializes in “native” editorial content, which means the ads shown on your website will be relevant articles and blogs – as opposed to product or service ads.
As the name suggests, the idea behind these kinds of ads is they blend in with your content and are made to feel more natural.
In most cases, this means higher engagement rates as native ads tend not to interrupt the UX as much (as pop ups for example).
Another thing that sets Revcontent apart is their specialized ad system – which uses highly responsive widgets, gallery implementations, infinite scroll, and unlimited API customizations.
You also have a nice range of ad types to choose from including media, technology, and entertainment widgets.
However, one thing to be aware of is Revcontent has a minimum traffic requirement of 50,000 visits per month. Therefore it may not be suited to smaller blogs and websites.
When it comes to payment, Revcontent pays on Net 30 terms (the full amount is payable within 30 days). Their minimum payout threshold is $50 and can be paid via PayPal, wire, or ACH transfer.
Evadav is an advertising network that offers you a number of different ad units – including video sliders, banners, native content, and more.
However, their speciality is push notifications.
Yep, we’ve all seen them… the automatic notifications that appear as small pop-up windows on your device screen – whether it’s your PC, tablet, or mobile phone.
Netflix for example, often uses push notifications to let users about newly released shows or films they might be interested in.
Visitors who agree to receive push notifications from your website will continually make you money every time they interact with an Evadav ad.
Another great thing about Evadav is it connects you with a global advertising exchange. Which means you can reach visitors all around the world.
The advertisements that appear on your site are also all verified and come from the Evadav’s own domain.
In terms of payments, they pay weekly, with a $25 minimum payout. You can also choose between CPM, CPA, and RevShare models.
Set up easy and you’re provided with a handy tutorial video to help you get started.
Adsterra is a fast-growing advertising network for publishers that specializes in “popunder” ads.
After all, why be “okay” at everything when you can be awesome at one thing?
However, if you really need they do offer: video ads, direct links, push notifications, banners, pre-roll videos, and more. Ads can be run over both mobile and desktop devices.
You also don’t have to worry about showing your visitors spammy ads that send site visitors packing. Adsterra offer protection against malware and inappropriate ads through a third-party fraud detection system.
If you need assistance the team has your back ASAP. They have a ticket system and you’ll usually hear back from them within a day. If it’s urgent you can also get in touch with someone instantly through Skype.
In terms of how and when you’re paid…
You get a pay out every two weeks (NET15), but they do require a $100 minimum to be eligible. The payment integration options include: Bitcoin, PayPal, ePayments, and more.
As expected, the set up process is also super easy: Register – get approval – place code on site – start monetizing.
With a name like PopAds it wouldn’t be a wild guess to say the ad types they specialize in probably include the word “pop” in them.
And if you guessed this you’d be right!
PopAds are an advertising network that specialise in “popunder” ads for publishers and advertisers.
As well as their love for popunders, they also offer popups, tab ups, tab unders, and more (yep, all the under and ups).
Something unique about PopAds (that you often don’t get from other platforms), is they can pay you daily providing you earn more than $5 each day. This means you don’t need a ton of traffic to meet their minimum payout limit.
Your ads can reach an audience spanning more than 50 countries using the PopAds network, and you can adjust their frequency if you want to give your visitors a break.
You can contact the support team anytime via email or instant messenger. If you’re not a fan of NET30, NET60 payment terms, you’ll also enjoy the fact you can request to withdraw your PopAds earnings at anytime.
ylliX advertising network serves up a hassle-free registration process and ultra-low payment thresholds for publishers looking to monetize their blogs or websites.
But first the all important ad unit selections… we’re talking: popunder ads, layer ads, full page ads, and more.
And yes, they also run across both desktop and mobile devices.
If patience isn’t your strong point, you’ll be pleased to know that your account will be activated immediately after you register. No waiting days for your website to be approved.
Once you’re signed up and ready to go, ylliX gives you direct access to a self-serve platform you have 100% control over when running your campaigns.
Another great thing about this platform is they offer daily payments along with a super small $1 minimum payout threshold (remember AdSense’s is $100).
They also operate using a RevShare (revenue share) model. So the more you earn, the more they earn (everybody wins!).
If you’re planning on spending a couple of hours a week monetizing your website or blog, BuySellAds probably isn’t the platform for you.
They focus exclusively on English-language ads for high-volume sites with 100,000+ engaged audiences.
(Yep, they ain’t messing around).
However, if you’re comfortably hitting that number, you may have found your AdSense alternative.
Also, since the (view) cost of entry is higher, you’ll also receive bigger payouts. Expect around 75 cents per every dollar earned by the ads on your site.
When it comes to actual product, BuySellAds offers everything you’d want from this type of platform – non-intrusive, relevant, and brand-safe ad placements. The ad units you can choose from include: display, native, emails, and sponsored content.
They also specialise in niche developer, designer, and tech audiences. So you’re in luck if your blog targets any of those niches.
Their native ads in particular are optimized for user experience and come in many different forms including: “Image + text,” “fancy bar,” “flex bar,” and “sticky box.”
PopCash offers popunder advertising with a helpful UX twist.
The setup isn’t anything new… but it sure happens fast! Websites can be approved in just one hour on business days, and up to 12 hours on weekends.
Once your domain is approved, individual visitors are then shown a popunder ad once every 24 hours.
You might think limiting ad time limits revenue opportunities, but on the flipside it provides a better user experience, and ensures visitors don’t always have ads in their face.
If you want, you can use PopCash alongside other advertising platforms to diversify and bring in added income.
The platform also comes with a low minimum withdrawal limit ($10), and you can request to be paid through PayPal, Paxum, wire transfer, and more.
Transfers usually take around 24 to 48 hours. You also get to keep 80% of the revenue you earn from advertisers.
If you’re in need of assistance, staff are always on hand to offer fast support via email or Skype.
Bidvertiser offers website and blog owners an easy set up process, along with a unique payment model.
However, it does present users with a slight dilemma…
When you register for this platform you’ll be approved instantly so long as your website doesn’t breach any basic website standards (explicit, misleading, and spammy content etc.).
There is some bad news sadly, another reason it’s so easy to get approved is because the ads shown on your website won’t necessarily be related to your content.
Buuut, hold on, all is not lost.
Although the ads shown might not be relevant, they will be some of the top performing ads the platform has access to. So it’ll be largely up to you to decide whether it’s worth showing high performing ads that aren’t related to your website.
If you do choose to stick with Bidvertiser… something unique about the platform is the fact they mix CPM and CPA payments, along with the traditional CPC model.
This basically means you have the opportunity to earn, not only for per click, but per conversion as well.
The ad units you have access to include banners, popups, sliders, and more.
You can also easily integrate with payment providers like PayPal and Bitcoin, and the platform’s withdraw limit is a low $10.
The ads are also scanned 24/7 by a compliance team, as well as internal and third party tools. So you know your website is safe from Malware and inappropriate content.
OIO Publisher offers a PHP ad management script and a WordPress plugin to monetize your blog through ads.
Although, there are a couple of details you should be aware of when it comes to this plugin:
First, it does come with a small set up cost and isn’t free like the other AdSense alternatives on this list.
Second, to get the most out of OIO, you’ll need to be proactive in finding the best advertisers and deals yourself.
But aside from that, once everything is in motion this plugin is one of the most cost-effective AdSense alternatives.
Why?
Because with this plugin there are no middle people involved, and you keep 100% of the revenue.
As well as this, you’ll get paid up front and you won’t have to wait for payouts. You also don’t risk being banned or losing your earnings.
Once you’ve installed the plugin (you’ll find plenty of documentation on how to do this), you can search the OIO marketplace and begin reaching out to advertisers.
There’s Plenty Of Life Beyond AdSense
If you’ve been thinking about monetizing your blog or website, the best thing you can do is survey all of the options available to you.
Although AdSense is the top player in this department… any one of the platforms mentioned in this article would make a great alternative.
You could even argue that some may be better than AdSense depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
While the platform has been sitting at the top hill for some years, others have been quietly carving out their own niches and catering to specific customer needs.
For example, if you want to specifically run push notifications you might use a specialist platform like Evadav. Or if you want to only show native editorial content you might go with Revcontent.
What you choose will largely come down to the type of blog you’re trying to monetize and the content you’re publishing.
New eCommerce trends emerge at a staggering space. It’s hard to keep up-to-date with them all, so we’ve researched and collected the hottest eCommerce trends of 2019 in this post.
eCommerce sales will account for 10% of money spent by shoppers this year. If you run or manage an eCommerce store, it’ll help you a great deal knowing the latest trends in your industry. After all, knowing is half the battle won!
While you don’t have to follow all the trends listed here, the knowledge can help you identify areas in your online store where you can improve.
Let’s go!
Get Chatty
They’re almost everywhere now. The global takeover of chatbots is imminent. Over the last year, Chatbots recorded a massive 24.3% growth (CAGR). In a end-user survey, 45% of users preferred chatbots as their first choice for raising customer service requests.
With the rise of messenger apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, chatbots are slowly invading users’ mobiles too. And for a good reason.
Chatbots help you reach your customers in a fun and meaningful way. And it happens with the least friction possible. There’s nothing to download or install, no registration or login page. It’s right there for the users to jump in right away.
Think Inside The Box
Everyone uses email—to keep in touch with friends, family, and their favorite brands. There’s a new use for emails now: email checkouts. It’s a way for consumers to complete their purchase directly from an email.
Interactive emails allow subscribers to take quizzes, review products they’ve purchased, and even checkout abandoned carts, all within the body of the email itself.
For instance, Old Navy used it to let customers view photos of a product, choose its color & size, add it to their cart, and then finish the purchase.
Here’s a cool interactive email from Harry’s that suggests a product based on your choices (this ties into the personalization trend too).
Despite the rise of other communications channels, emails are still the most used medium. It makes sense then that brands will maximize its potential by letting customers buy directly from their inboxes. Its scope is so huge, that it just may give rise to a new eCommerce category—emailCommerce.
To win at personalization, you need to cover your customer’s journey from start to finish. A majority of shoppers do research before committing to a purchase, so help them with that. Build personalized content and search features to attract your target audience.
Reward your customers for sharing their personal information. You can then use this data to personalize their shopping experience. And later, you can customize your customer loyalty schemes too.
Guide your customers throughout their online shopping journey.
For instance, Victoria’s Secret guides you with a sports bra selector interface. The North Face helps you find the perfect jacket. Bodybuilding.com helps you find the right supplement in just three easy steps. IKEA’s planner tool helps you plan your dream home.
Know your customers’ secrets to serve them better!
Personalizing the consumers’ shopping experience helps simplify purchasing decisions by helping them find exactly what they’re looking for.
Brands that learn how to do this will have better chances of winning against their competition.
Keep Your Users Hooked
Instagram’s ad revenue more than doubled in 2018 and generated 9 billion dollars. This growth is mostly due to its new eCommerce push, and is expected to continue through 2019.
Currently, Instagram is the No.2 social media platform with 768 million monthly active users (MAU), right behind its parent company Facebook. By 2023, it’s expected to reach more than 1 billion MAU.
Yet another Insta-hit in the making. (Source: Instagram)
Early this year, they announced the Checkout on Instagram feature (still in beta), which allows shoppers to buy products they see on Instagram without leaving the app. Nike, Adidas, H&M, Prada, and Burberry are some of the top brands testing it out right now.
All Hail The Supreme Leader Of Marketing
If content is king (or queen), videos are the supreme leader.
Another area to pay attention to is Live Video Streaming. According to Social Media Today, live videos drive 300% more engagement than regular videos. It’s slated to be the next big trend in video marketing for driving engagement and conversions.
Be there for your customers on all major devices and platforms.
Hence, it’s important to have your eCommerce store present on all devices. This is called an omni-device eCommerce strategy. It helps customers switch shopping easily between their various devices.
Even inside a physical store, 80% of shoppers used a smartphone to look up product reviews or compare prices. They usually visit social media pages, YouTube, and review sites to feel confident about their intended purchase.
Thus, it becomes crucial for brands to have a presence on all platforms. Even if they’re majorly a retail brand. This is called a omni-channel strategy.
An omni-platform and omni-device strategy puts your customers at the center of your marketing efforts, rather than your brand. It aids them in their shopping journey, no matter which device or platform they’re on.
If you already have an eCommerce store, it’s worth checking out the benefits of Progress Web Apps (PWA). PWAs are websites that work pretty much like apps, but they’re platform independent. So, they work on almost all devices. They’re heralded to be the future of mobile apps.
Virtual Reality gives customers an experience that’s equivalent to traditional shopping. Well, almost. Plus, there’s no hassle of traveling and being physically present at the store. If you’re wondering how, here’s a cool in-store VR demo by inVRsion.
Converse’s AR app lets you try their styles virtually.
As the VR space picks up pace, eCommerce brands will need to create better experiences for their consumers. It’s definitely a trend to keep an eye on (pun intended).
Voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa are growing popular day-by-day. They can be used hands free while doing other things, and also help you get answers and results faster.
And buy me a bag of chips while you’re at it!
Naturally, using them for purchasing things is just a matter of time. More than 62% of households that own smart speakers have used voice assistants to buy groceries. And 35% of them have used the same to buy retail items.
As the tech matures, eCommerce businesses are eager to leverage this new platform to create dynamic shopping experiences for their users.
EMarketer predicts that smart speakers market in the US will grow to 76.5 million by 2020. This combined with consumers’ preference for smart assistants would mean that voice-commerce will play a significant role in the growth of eCommerce industry.
Move Fast And Don’t Break Things
On the internet, slow speed kills. First, it kills businesses by damaging their conversion rates. And then, it kills them by damaging the site’s reputation.
That was a major reason behind Google’s Speed Update to their search algorithm last year. With all things being constant, the faster your site loads, the higher it’ll rank in Google’s search results.
Get your eCommerce store a partner that makes it fly!
Online shoppers are looking for speed and performance. Just make it happen!
Let’s Go (Social) Shopping
More people today shop online, buy items on social network platforms, become brand ambassadors and contribute to other users’ purchases through User-Generated Content (UGC) and buying recommendations.
Instagram, for example, let’s you set up a mobile shopfront, tag products in photos, videos, and stories, and turn posts into opportunities for millions of users to buy from your store. You can display your Instagram shop and products on other social platforms like Facebook and on your WordPress eCommerce store.
With a little creative thinking, you can launch UGC initiatives like competitions asking customers to share photos and stories of themselves consuming, wearing, or engaging with your products and services. Users can share products they want with their social network and get feedback and suggestions on purchases from their friends.
User-Generated Content marketing campaigns are a growing social eCommerce trend.
Did You Just Propose To Me?
How do you tell customers that both they and your business are special and deserve to be together? Successful eCommerce businesses are finding ways to do this by combining their Unique Selling Proposition (USP) with personalized user experiences.
Focusing on micro-markets, building a community, and holding in-depth conversations with potential and existing customers are just some of the ways businesses are accessing better user data to figure out what customers are looking for, deliver them a unique and special experience, and create the perfect match.
In a recent BazaarVoice survey, 70% of retailers listed personalization as a top priority [PDF]. With trends like dropshipping, vendors can craft a unique selling proposition, set up online stores focused on micro selling, and use personalization tools to improve customer engagement on their website.
Customers want to buy special things from special places that make them feel, well… special!
Sell Once, Get Paid Forever
Frictionless shopping is all about making the buying process faster, simpler, less stressful, and more enjoyable to consumers. Subscription-based eCommerce is a perfect example of this.
Whether customers buy online to avoid running to the shops all the time or to save themselves the embarrassment of asking for personal products over the counter, more companies are offering auto-shipped products, allowing users to subscribe and get anything and everything home delivered.
With subscription services, you never have to run out again and inconvenience yourself.
If It Looks Like A Duck And Thinks Like A Duck…
New eCommerce experiences are combining artificial intelligence (AI) with augmented reality (AR), particularly in areas like mobile commerce.
AI and AR are separate but complementary technologies. AI-based predictive technologies can learn and identify users’ buying patterns and behaviors to tailor-make customized shopping experiences and generate timely offers, and 3D-based modeling with AR tools can be used to let users visualize, ‘test out’ and ‘try’ things like homeware products and clothing apparel or accessories before they buy.
By 2022, BusinessWire predicts that global retailer spending on AI will reach $7.3 billion per annum by 2022 (up from around $2B in 2018), and PR Newswire estimates that over 120,000 online stores will use AR to offer their customers a richer buying experience and that by 2020, 3% of all eCommerce revenue with be generated by AR experiences.
Augmented reality lets you couch things in different material perceptions and try before you buy. Source: augment.com
One eCommerce Channel To Rule Them All
How can you target your ideal customers online when there are so many places they can be found? Businesses today need to have an online presence everywhere and be able to deliver an exceptional level of personal service that will make customers feel special and want to return and buy again and again.
The key is to be very targeted in your marketing efforts and concentrate on building your business using a multichannel (omnichannel) approach that provides customers with a seamless, consistent, and personalized shopping experience no matter where they are located or how they interact with you.
So… if you want to get somewhere with them, be everywhere and be there for them!
Wherever they are, be there and be ready to serve them!
Something Old And Something New
If you believe that the growth of eCommerce will lead to the demise of brick and mortar stores, think again. Retailers are embracing eCommerce and finding new ways to augment the online experience with physical stores.
Many brands are profiting from ‘brick and click’ stores that combine retail and eCommerce, require less physical footprint areas and employees to operate, and offer a more personalized and interactive in-store visit. Amazon’s “4-Star” stores, for example, let customers interact with top-selling devices and products in person.
Digital kiosks allow users to engage directly with the store. Pop-up shops, trade shows, and mobile field reps are embracing flexible technologies like POS-enabled tablets, mobile card readers, on-site/on-demand printing, and flexible space leasing arrangements.
Customers today can order meals in restaurants through interactive menus, and fashion retailers are placing tablets inside change rooms, so shoppers can request more clothing items to try on. Some retailers are even integrating virtual shopping experiences of their physical stores and showrooms using AR technologies.
Buying groceries from virtual stores underground is a totally ‘off the wall’ experience.
We Know What You’re Searching For
Remember the good ole’ days when you spent hours online researching gaming laptops to find one that fits your budget and used keywords like “Alienware 13 Gaming Laptop PC i7–5500U GeForce 960M” to search for it in your favorite computer store website?
Well, you no longer have to. Typing long keywords to search for products is so 2018! Intelligent search algorithms and filters are getting better at learning what customers are looking for, even if they misspell the words or just search for things like “gaming laptop under 2000”.
Smart technologies like dynamic filters allow customers to quickly sort and find what they want on sites with huge product catalogs and many variations like prices, size, color, budget, brands, makes, models, and more.
We’re not quite at the “Think It – Found It” stage yet of product search, but we’re definitely getting closer…
Smarter search technologies know what you need… probably better than you do.
eCommerce Security: No Blankie Solutions
With eCommerce, success ultimately depends on customers feeling confident, safe, and secure when buying online. It’s estimated that retailers will lose around $130 billion in digital CNP (Card-not-Present) fraud between 2018 and 2023.
There are no blanket solutions that can address all online security concerns, but eCommerce security methods and standards are evolving.
More businesses are now implementing multilayered fraud management strategies to reduce risk, improve data security, and increase consumer trust and confidence. This includes choosing eCommerce platforms with secure shopping cart software that meets PCI security standards, sensitive data encryption, multiple firewalls, and no credit card data being stored on sites.
This website is PCI compliant? Then shut up and take my money already!
Has eCommerce Lost Its Head?
eCommerce began as a way to order and buy products online through desktop computers and web browsers. When people began making digital purchases using mobile phones and wearable technologies to ‘tap and pay’ for purchases, companies realized they had to rethink their approach to eCommerce.
The solution? Headless commerce. This is where the frontend and backend use different services and platforms to handle eCommerce processes. Customers interact with the frontend like a browsing a website, mobile app, or scanning a QR code label on the back of a wine bottle, and a separate platform handles backend areas like managing and tracking inventory, processing transactional data, payments, shipping and fulfillment, invoicing, and other functions using various web services and Application Programming Interface (API) calls.
The benefits of headless commerce for web developers means spending less time putting together an entire eCommerce solution for clients, focusing on creating a better experience for their users instead, and then easily joining the frontend and backend together to get projects done faster.
Headless commerce lets you grow your eCommerce business without getting a head.
Next Steps… A Roadmap To eCommerce Success
The eCommerce trends listed above have a common thread. It’s all about making the customer’s online shopping experience safer, more convenient, and more personalized.
While the idea of using innovative technologies like chatbots, AI, AR, virtual reality, and voice search to engage customers in your online store may seem a little daunting, the basics of business haven’t changed. It’s still all about delivering on the promises you make.
If your eCommerce store runs on WordPress, we can help you. We are the all-in-one WordPress platform that can provide everything your business needs to run an online store on WordPress, from super-powered hosting to technical support, site management, and award-winning plugins. Just ask some of the tens of thousands of members who choose our services for WordPress security, performance, SEO, marketing, and more!
Is WordPress, and the internet as we know it, going to be cast out to the firmament at the expense of closed, network enabled, Facebookland? Are the early gods on the way out?
Note to regular readers: Let’s bring back some opinion to this blog :) Not #wpdrama (honestly, I mean that!) but a weekly opportunity to really get into the meat of what’s going down in WP land. So, without further ado… here’s an edited version of a piece I published in The MasterWP newsletter in July.
In case you’re not familiar with SF writer Neil Stephenson, you could probably not do much worse than getting yourself a copy of his 1992 (1992!!!) novel Snow Crash and reflecting on how much of that has (and is still likely to) come to pass. The guy’s a visionary and will generally feature on most of your ‘Tech Billionaire’s Reading Lists’, which is why he’s always worth reading both for the enjoyment of his novels (Seveneves is a cracking read too, if a bit silly towards the end) and also because, well, he’s often as much of a futurist as you’ll find in the digital space.
Anyway – fanboy stuff over – his latest novel, Fall, or Dodge in Hell, is as much a romp through a futuristic landscape as a fantasy novel that deals with the question of what might happen should we be able to develop, post-death, a fully accurate scan of your connectome alongside sufficiently powerful neural computing capacity to bring you digitally back to ‘life’.
Awesome read, especially for you scifi-fantasy double nerds
And here’s where the actually-relevant-to-wp-land stuff kicks in, because Dodge (reborn Egdod) finds himself, and then others, in a haphazard, chaotic, open world of endless possibilities and infinite opportunities for shaping and reshaping. Read, for us, the internet and the chaos of a world yet to be formed that gave us html sites, Dreamweaver, GeoCities, Movable Type, open-source-CMSs-galore and finally, has settled, on yours and my favorite of them all, WordPress.
Which has turned out pretty cool yeh? I’m running a WP-based business as, I imagine, are most of you in some form or another. The medium I am posting this mindump of a post in is, itself, a WP business. Many families are fed and many lives are led as part of this dominant ecosystem. Hallelujah!
But, what if that were to change. What if we & WP were to be flung out. What if that was actually the most likely outcome. What could be The Fall?
Well, I’m very much on the record as arguing, and trying to counter the fact that it would be via the much more easy-to-use, well funded and end-consumer driven third party competition, think Squarespace, Shopify, Wix etc. But I was wrong. Again, lol.
For any number of reasons (capacity, community, cost… to name a few) alongside Gutenberg being the great leap forward (pun intended) we needed to bridge that gap. Yay! WP lives long & prospers!
Or, does it?
Because there are dark clouds not just on the horizon, but already here. Clouds that I think can be fairly neatly grouped into corporate and government threats. Threats that come with their own hosts (I can’t help myself) of support and that would seek to dominate and, even better, displace the web as we know it and, with it, WP.
For purposes commercial I don’t think we really need to look much further than what – to me at least – comes across as a hugely ironic scream into the abyss, also known as ‘A meditation on the open web’. Which, upon watching, as opposed to taking a deep breath you might as well flee screaming down the street shouting “They are coming to take us all arggggggghhhh!!! Faaaaaaaarrrrkkk!!!”.
By which I mean Facebook (and associated entities), and any number of other terrifying, network-effect-enabled, gazillion dollar funded and closed publishing platforms.
And as for Google being, as the entry point (because who, apart from most of us, still actually uses an RSS reader) the gateway and protector of the ‘open web’ what chance do we realistically have when Maps is basically becoming an advertising soaked (if not simply fake) shitshow and, in one of my favourite graphics about WordPress hosting put together by WPShout, basically lies driven by affiliates and advertisers. Thanks Google, great job.
And that’s before we even get into a far more existential threat, the state. In case you missed it Australia – also thanks home! – recently secured broad G20 support for the effective criminalisation of social media publishing, which might not seem like a problem for your lil’ old WP site until you wonder what chance we’ll have when the behemoths that want to eat us all are running scared.
Because if you want a reality check on what that’s going to look like then go no further than China which should do plenty to ritually disabuse you of the notion that the ‘open web’, or (to go back to the book) a Utopian and free chaos has any chance whatsoever of surviving when it comes down to guys and gals with guns. You don’t even need to read that far into (the excellent) We Have Been Harmonised: Life in China’s Surveillance State by Kai Strittmatter to grasp the fundamental fact that what many of us almost universally thought of as being a new dawn, a cause for optimism and a terror for tyrants is in fact the opposite, hard.
Have we already fallen? Have the gods of the early internet been cast down? Maybe, and certainly if you happen to live your life through WeChat (I’d love to see a meditation on that!)
Has WordPress (by which I mean .org, not .com) got much chance of surviving in a state beyond an underground ‘zine of the 80s, and indie record label, a farmstead (sigh) or a series of pamphlets greeted by a ‘no junk mail’ down the road?
I think we all hope it has but in order to make that happen, in addition to simply saying it should we need to do a lot more than hope… dare I say even resist?
Millennia ago, a cool compassionate dude took a few loaves of bread and fish and multiplied them to feed thousands of hungry folks. Or so the myth/belief goes, depending on how you view it.
Almost 2 thousand years later, humans would invent technology that would pretty much allow the same: Code.
So, “what does this have to do with WordPress?” you may wonder.
Note: If all you want to do is try WordPress out, just to experiment or learn, you can do it without spending any money by installing WordPress locally on your PC.
But Why is WordPress Free?
This is easier to grasp by reading the license.txt file included with every WordPress download.
“This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.”
What Exactly Does “Free Software” Mean Though?
To understand this, we have to go back in history and take a look at the origin of free software movement (FSM). It’s a social movement with a goal to guarantee certain freedoms to software makers and users alike.
It’s inspired heavily by the traditions and philosophies of the 1970s hacker and academia culture, which encouraged sharing knowledge and DIY.
FSM was founded in 1983 by Richard Stallman by launching the GNU Project at MIT. It was (and still is) a mass-collaboration, free-software movement, the likes of which humanity had never seen before.
Its turning point came in 1985 when Stallman established the Free Software Foundation (FSF) to support FSM. A few years later, in 1989, Stallman wrote the GNU General Public License (GPL or GNU GPL) for use with programs released under the GNU Project.
But Why Free?
Code isn’t like tangible goods. For instance, if you have an apple, and I take it from you, I now have an apple and you don’t have one. However, if you have software and you share it with me, we both have the software now.
In a way, code is an intangible thing like knowledge or ideas. You don’t lose your knowledge or ideas if you share them with others. On the contrary, it only makes them even more widespread. Free software is meant to do the same.
Another ethical argument put forward by FOSS advocates is that since the software can be copied and distributed at scale with minimal resources, the super high profit margins make it unjustifiable beyond a certain point.
Most of the richest companies in the world today are software companies. Many of them use FOSS tools in their daily work, while still keeping their core software locked. And they keep getting richer and richer.
These two arguments are essentially the main reason why FSM activists want code to be free.
On GPL and Free Software
GPL has gone undergone two major revisions since its inception in 1989 (v2 in 1991 and v3 in 2007). But its core philosophy has remained the same. It’s defined by its adherence to 4 Fundamental Freedoms that are considered essential to any “free software”:
Freedom 0: Run the software for any purpose.
Freedom 1: Study how the software works through open access to its source code, and change it to do what you want.
Freedom 2: Redistribute copies of the software to anyone without any restrictions.
Freedom 3: Modify the software, and redistribute the modified software to anyone.
WordPress.org lists these freedoms as their philosophy too.
One core tenet of GPLv2 license is that if you make any modifications to the software licensed under it, the modified code MUST also be licensed under GPLv2, and released along with build & install instructions.
Note: As per FSF’s definition, not all open-source software is “free software” (free as in freedom, not free as in beer). But all “free software” is by definition open source.
Some prominent software licensed under the GPL include:
Linux Kernel — powers the Linux OS, which in turn powers most web servers
MediaWiki — the wiki software on which Wikipedia runs
Android OS (major parts of it) — the most used mobile OS in the world, uses the Linux kernel
WordPress — powers more than 33% of all the websites
With these stats, I’m not exaggerating when I say that free, open-source software has changed the world.
WordPress as a Free Software
WordPress was born out of the same philosophy as FSM. It was created in 2003 by Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg.
They started it by forking a popular-but-abandoned blogging platform called b2/cafelog.
You may find this hard to believe, but the most popular blogging platform today was itself conceived in a blog post by Matt, and its co-founder Mike, was the first one to comment in support of it.
"Fortunately, b2/cafelog is GPL, which means that I could use the existing codebase to create a fork, integrating all the cool stuff that Michel would be working on right now if only he was around. The work would never be lost, as if I fell of the face of the planet a year from now, whatever code I made would be free to the world, and if someone else wanted to pick it up they could. I’ve decided that this the course of action I’d like to go in, now all I need is a name. What should it do? Well, it would be nice to have the flexibility of MovableType, the parsing of TextPattern, the hackability of b2, and the ease of setup of Blogger. Someday, right?"
"Matt,
If you’re serious about forking b2 I would be interested in contributing. I’m sure there are one or two others in the community who would be too. Perhaps a post to the B2 forum, suggesting a fork would be a good starting point."
They could fork b2/cafelog because it was released under the GPLv2 license, so anyone was free to do with it as they wished. As such, WordPress was also released under the same GPLv2 license (and still is to this day).
The WordPress founders established The WordPress Foundation in 2010 as a charitable organization to further the mission of open source, GPL software.
It’s also a way to distance themselves from it to avoid conflicts of interest since they also have a commercial service running in parallel called WordPress.com.
As per GPLv2 license, all derivative works, such as plugins or themes of WordPress, should inherit the license too.
Drupal (another popular CMS platform), which uses the same GPL license as WordPress, has a well-drafted Licensing FAQs page that explains what a “derivate work” means clearly.
However, in practice, this is much harder to enforce. There’s some legal gray area when it comes to what’s derivative work or not. According to WordPress.org’s licensing page: “we feel strongly that plugins and themes are derivative work and thus inherit the GPL license.”
How Do People Who Make WordPress Make Money Then?
This is a question that has been troubling many FOSS developers for decades.
How does one make money while providing the code they work on for free?
The simple answer is that you don’t make money by selling the code alone. There are many other ways to do so.
WordPress contributors and developers can follow any of the business models of open-source software. They can use their knowledge and expertise to serve as consultants and/or provide support. Or perhaps, they can build custom applications on top of WordPress for clients ready to pay for their professional services.
Some WordPress developers also make money by creating valuable themes and plugins. These can be completely free (supported by voluntary donations or crowdfunding), free with restricted features (paid premium add-ons), or totally pay-to-use.
A few of these developers have gone on to found successful multi-million dollar enterprises. Some even offer hosting solutions optimized for WordPress.
Automattic Inc., a company started by WordPress founder Matt, is the perfect example of this. It’s notable for its WordPress.com platform, which provides an easy way for everyone to build a website without worrying about hosting and other tech-heavy stuff.
WPMU DEV, the company whose blog you’re currently reading, is another example of a successful business built around WordPress. If you’re looking for more inspirations, here’s a list of some of the most successful WordPress businesses.
Hello, WordPress!
WordPress marches on as the most popular platform to build websites. Whether you want to build a simple personal blog or a complex website selling thousands of products, WordPress can do it all with ease.
his 20 years of web design experience to achieve one goal: give back to his hometown by building modern websites for businesses and nonprofits in the Canadian capital.
) – without draining your bank account, or losing your sanity.
).
Yet another Insta-hit in the making. (Source: 
Have you 
