WordPress

Want to know, how to install WordPress on WampServer? WordPress is an open framework for developing amazing and interactive websites. Anyone with or without the knowledge of programming namely PHP in this particular case can develop a professional looking website. However, it will definitely be an added advantage if you know a bit of PHP programming so that you can make direct changes to the code and customize your website to make it exactly as per your specifications. Today we are going to see how to install wordpress on your computer (localhost). In this tutorial we will be using Windows 10 32-bit as the operating system. There is a prerequisite before you start with wordpress installation. You need to have a WampServer installed on your computer. For downloading and installing WampServer on your computer please visit their website. Also, if you want to take your WordPress live your require a website. What Is WampServer? WampServer is a web development platform, which is installed on Windows Operating System. The server allows you to create dynamic web applications with PHP as the main language and MySQL as the database along with Apache2 and MariaDB. In simpler words, it gives you an environment with default settings which you need to develop web applications. It’s available for free (under GPML license) in both 32 and 64 bit versions. For this tutorial, I am going to install WampServer on Windows 10 (32-bit) operating system. If you want to take your wordpress website from WampServer to the World Wide Web, you need but a hosting & start a blog. Why Should You Install WordPress On WampServer WampServer creates a hosting environment for installing WordPress locally on your Windows Operating System. When you are creating a new website in WordPress, you need to do a lot of changes before you take it live. And for that, you might be required to try out various permutations & combinations. If you are a newbie, then you should install WordPress on WampServer first & learn everything about it properly. But, if you are a pro & are interested in developing your own plugins or themes, this is the right environment for development. How To Install WampServer On Windows 1). Go to the WampServer website and click the DOWNLOAD tab. After you click on the tab, the page will scroll down. 2). Check whether your windows operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit and accordingly download the Set Up for WampServer and save it on your computer. 3). You can download the Set Up anywhere on the computer, but, I would recommend that you download it on the desktop, so that it is easy to find. You can change the download path and set it to desktop in the settings from your browser settings. 4). To open the set up, double click on it or right click on the set up and then click on the Run As Administrator option. By selecting the “Run As Administrator” option you will get all the admin rights for installation. 5). Select your Set Up Language and click on OK. By default it is English. 6). Select “I accept the agreement” and click Next. 7). On the next screen, check for the pre-requisites that are mentioned in the box & if all the pre-requisites are successfully applied then click on Next. 8). From the below screen select the path you want for the WampServer to install by clicking the Browse button. I would recommend that you keep the default path i.e. c:\wamp as it is and click on Next. 9). On the next screen Setup will create shortcuts in the following Start Menu folder. Keep the default values and click Next. 10). Again, on the next screen just click on Install. 11). The installation will take around 5-10 minutes depending on the speed of your computer. Have patience and let the installation complete. 12). On the next screen select the default browser you want to use with WampServer. I would recommend Mozilla Firefox over any other browser. 13). Now, click on Open. 14). The next screen will give you an option to select an editor, by default it is notepad. Keep the default values as it is and click on No. 15). Again on the next screen keep the default values and click on Open. 16). On the next screen choose if you want to keep the access Private of Public by selecting the check boxes on the next screen. I would recommend that you Uncheck the Public Networks check box and Check the Private Network Check Box and click on Allow Access. 17). Now, you are almost there. The installation is in the final stage now. Click on Next. 18). On the below screen click on Finish. The step will finish installing WampServer on your computer (localhost). 19). After the installation is complete, double click on the WampServer icon on the desktop to start it and then click on Start All Services from the icon on the task bar. After all the services start the icon on the task bar will turn green. Also, you will find a folder named wamp being created in the C drive of your computer. Projects are stored at C:\wamp\www which is the root directory. 20). Finally to check whether everything is in place and the installation is successful, open Mozilla Firefox, type localhost in the address bar and hit enter. If you get the screen below the you are all set and ready to go. You are all set & done installing WampServer on you Windows OS. How To Install WordPress On WampServer 1). Go to the WordPress Website and click on the Get WordPress button or to go to the download page directly click here. 2). After you are on the download page you will find the Download WordPress button highlighted in red. Click on that button to download the latest version of WordPress. 3). You will get a prompt which will ask you start the download as shown in the below screen. Just click on the OK button and WordPress will be downloaded to your computer at the default location, you have set for downloads on your computer. My default location is desktop and I would suggest that you set your default download location to desktop in your browser so that you can find the downloads easily. Below screen showing downloaded WordPress file saved on the desktop. 4). Extract the WordPress folder to the C:\wamp\www i.e. the root directory for WampServer. 5). Rename the WordPress folder to whatever name you

Interested in Email Subscribers And Newsletters WordPress Plugin Review? You have come to the right place. Sending out Emails And Newsletters, is one of the most important aspects of blogging. This can be achieved with Email Subscribers And Newsletters Plugin. You should definitely use this plugin, if you are starting a blog. When you write good content, you want that content to reach the audience, who would read & appreciate it. And, how to get that content to the audience? The answer is simple, by sending out Emails And Newsletters. Now, an Email & a Newsletter are almost the same, but with a basic difference between them. Sometimes, they are also referred by a single word “Email Newsletter” Let us first understand, what an Email & a Newsletter is. By knowing what an email and newsletter is, you will also understand, what the basic difference between them is. Email : An Email is a piece of information, which is used to provide updates about a new article or a post, that your company or blog has published. For example, if you are blogger and you have written a new article, then email is an effective way to let all your subscribers know about the article, so that they can go to your blog and read that article. The frequency of an email is much higher than a newsletters Newsletter : A newsletter, is a piece of information, which is also used to provide news, but the news is more or less related to, the company or blog itself. For example, if you are a blogger and you are merging your blog with another blog, the you can send this “news” in the form of a newsletter, to all the subscribers of both the blogs, letting them know about the merger. The frequency of a newsletter is relatively lower, than that of an Email. Introduction Email Subscribers & Newsletters is a simple and effective email marketing WordPress plugin developed by Icegram. When you are using WordPress for blogging, you will find many plugins that are available in the market for free as well as paid. Email Subscribers & Newsletters is no exception. This plugin is available in both, free and paid. Features The free version of this plugin has got basic features and the paid or pro version of this plugin has got more advanced featured. All the features are given below, in detail. Free Version Includes Storing unlimited contacts Sending unlimited broadcasts Creating unlimited post notifications Using unlimited email templates Creating unlimited lists Creating unlimited forms Checking for spams and domain blacklists GDPR ready Workflows Seamless integration with WordPress users Single And Double Opt-In plus privacy checkbox for EU laws compliance Compatible with every SMTP plugin: WP Mail SMTP, Post SMTP (aka Postman), Easy WP SMTP, Easy SMTP Mail, WP Mail Bank Sending Post Notifications to contacts, when new posts are published Collect customer emails by adding a subscription box using Widget, Form Shortcode or PHP code Email notification to admin when user signs up Automatic welcome email to contacts Ability to Import/Export contacts HTML editor to create broadcasts and post notifications. Email Open/ Viewed status Support localization or internationalization Can Send Post Notifications based on specific Post Categories Easy Integration with Popups, Welcome Bar and Opt-ins Pro Version Includes Creating Unlimited Auto-responder Sequences. Creating Unlimited Post Digest Scheduling email sending Protecting your Email List from bot attacks Email List cleanup Elegant newsletter templates Offer & promotional email templates Advance campaign reports Link tracking UTM tracking Automatic spam score checking Creating Workflows to automatically add people to your mailing list whenever someone posts a comment on your website Integrate with WooCommerce, EDD – Easy Digital Downloads, Give, Contact Form 7, Ninja Forms, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Forminator Redirecting subscribers to a specific page after unsubscribing Use Of Email Subscribers & Newsletters Email Subscribers & Newsletter plugin, lets you collect leads, send automated new blog post notification emails, create & send broadcasts and also manage them all in one single place. It is also a fully-featured subscription plugin, specially created keeping in mind all the needs and requirements of a regular blogger, website owner, marketer and developers. It helps you achieve all the things you need to build a list and keep them engaged within a single plugin. Email Subscribers And Newsletters WordPress Plugin Review Let’s now review the plugin thoroughly, but let’s first see how to install & activate the plugin. Install And Activate Email Subscribers & Newsletters There are 2 methods of installing and activating Email Subscribers & Newsletters. Method 1 Go to the Email Subscribers And Newsletters page on the WordPress Plugin Directory. Download “Emails Subscribers & Newsletter” Plugin by clicking the Download button and save in on your computer. On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Plugins => Add New. Now, click on Upload Plugin button. Browse to the downloaded “Emails Subscribers & Newsletter” Plugin, which is saved on your computer by clicking on the Browse button and then Install it. Go to Plugins => Installed Plugins and activate “Emails Subscribers & Newsletter” by clicking the Activate link. “Email Subscribers & Newsletters” Plugin will be installed and activated successfully. Method 2 On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Plugins => Add New. On the next page, enter “Email Subscribers & Newsletters” in the Search Box and hit Enter. Then, Click on Install Now Button for the Plugin. After installing the Plugin, activate it, by clicking the Activate Button. Email Subscribers & Newsletters” Plugin will be installed and Activated successfully. Configuring Email Subscribers And Newsletters After installing and activating Email Subscribers & Newsletters, you can set up the plugin with their Set Up Guide, which will guide you through the process. After you are done with the set up, you will be redirected to the Dashboard of Email Subscribers & Newsletters plugin. Alternatively, you can also set up & configure the plugin by going to on Email Subscribers tab on your WordPress Dashboard. After clicking on Email Subscribers, you will get a variety of options which are given below, Dashboard – In

In this article, you will know about the 9 free WordPress themes that are awesome. Around the world over 60 million websites use WordPress comprising over 30% of all websites globally. In today’s article we are going to see what wordpress is and best possible theme you can use for your website. WordPress is a software designed for everyone, emphasizing accessibility, performance, security, and ease of use. The basic WordPress software is simple and predictable so you can easily get started. It also offers powerful features for growth and success. There are 4553 active free themes in the theme directory of WordPress as of today and I have tried quite a few of them. 9 Free WordPress Themes That Are Awesome Today, I am going to list a few random themes which I personally liked and felt that they are a good option for bloggers. Tortuga Tortuga is a highly flexible and adventurous WordPress theme for your blog or any news related website. It supports three different post layouts and a Magazine Homepage template. Tortuga features a fully responsive and mobile-ready layout which works great on any device and screen size. Your visitors get a splendid website, whether they use a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. The theme supports a featured post slider to showcase your most important posts. The Slider can be configured easily in the Customizer and allows you to choose a slider category, number of slider posts and the slider animation. Tortuga supports three different layouts for post archives: One Column Two Columns Three Columns without Sidebar The Magazine Homepage template let you create a magazine-styled homepage in seconds. The template is built with widgets and therefore both flexible and easy to use. You can use the custom Magazine Posts widgets to display the latest posts from the categories of your choice. By default Tortuga supports three different Magazine Posts widgets (Boxed, Columns, Grid) to choose from. BoxWP This theme is 100% mobile friendly that allows for easy viewing on desktops and mobiles devices like iPhones, iPads or tablets. You can easily modify many aspects of this theme, adjusting to your needs using WordPress Theme Customizer. This theme is using valid HTML5 and CSS3 coding. There are no unnecessary junk HTML or CSS codes. You can get some exclusive widgets that allow you to display featured posts, popular posts, recent posts and random posts with thumbnails in the sidebar. Page templates are a specific type of template file that can be applied to a specific page or groups of pages. Translate this theme into any language with the prepared .po translation file located in the theme’s languages folder. BoxWP PRO has secured & clean PHP codes without encrypted links on footer. BoxWP PRO has over 110 popular Google fonts specifically chosen for you to look your site great. Change fonts easily with only a few clicks in the theme customizer. Fully compatible with WooCommerce plugin. Just install the plugin and turn your site into a full featured online shop and start selling products. BoxWP PRO is SEO friendly and has been coded with keeping SEO best practices in mind to create a solid fundamental for good rankings. You can add widgets very easily to many places (header, left and right sidebars, footer) in this theme. Coldbox You can change the appearance easily without any coding. It has been designed meticulously & is compatible with any devices. It has got a modern Layout & is laid out with the Flexbox module, which is really flexible. This will definitely make your website load quicker. You also get an option to show your social profiles so visitors can find your social profiles directly & the share buttons increases your social engagement efficiently. The theme supports the AMP, which is the fastest HTML format recommended by Google. You’ll never lost visitors due to loading speed. Moreover, its completely free & you can use full features and functions without any restrictions and money. There are many add-ons available as well. Iconic One Iconic One is a premium quality WordPress theme with pixel perfect typography that is pleasing to the eyes. It offers a great combo of presentation and functionality in a neat package. The theme implements proper SEO so that your content will rank high and is compatible with AIOSEO and Yoast SEO. It uses H1 tags for posts and page titles and doesn’t use headings in sidebar so that you can creatively use headings in your articles. It utilizes latest HTML 5, CSS3 for creating the awesomeness that looks great on every browser & adapts to screen size on different devices be it mobile, tablets or desktop and is future ready. Check out the demo on different devices to get the feel of it. Use the Live Customizer  to change the logo image, social bookmarks, background color, footer copyright etc., you don’t have to touch any code or login to ftp for the most needed customizations. Sidebar is Widget ready for easy configuration. Built to be exceptionally fast with PageSpeed score of 95+, the audience will be able to enjoy your content without waiting. Wellington Wellington is a clean and simple Magazine WordPress theme with beautiful typography and subtle colors. The theme includes two different post layouts and a featured post slider. The responsive layout ensures that your website looks great on all screens. You can quickly customize the theme to your needs with easy to use theme settings. The theme is fully localized and can be translated easily into your language. You can also create a flexible magazine-styled homepage in just a few minutes. The custom widgets gives you the flexibility that you need to built your website. Get different page layouts and features with our custom page templates. The code of theme is structured with search engines in mind & so the theme is fully SEO Optimized. The theme is created with clean HTML5 and CSS3, which is optimized for speed & is compatible will all the browsers. Envo eCommerce Envo eCommerce is the perfect free

Want to know all about categories and tags in WordPress? Anybody who uses wordpress, must have heard of or used, categories and tags. We will discuss categories and tags, in detail. We will also discuss, the difference between categories and tags. Categories And Tags In WordPress So let’s dive right in to the topic of categories & tags and how to create them. What Are Categories And How To Create Them Category is a default taxonomy in WordPress. In other words, it is the most common method of grouping the content, on your blog. You can use categories, to group your blog posts, in different sections. Categories helps audience, to determine the topics of your website so that they can navigate easily. Consider a blog named ConveyArena. The blog has different topics such as Technology, Internet, Blogging, Tutorials, How To, Softwares, Ebooks, Mobiles. The topics are being converted into categories. So, in other words, each topic, in the blog is either a category or a sub category. You can easily create or add categories in wordpress and you can do it with 2 different methods Method 1 Log in to the Dashboard of you WordPress website. Hover your mouse over the Posts tab, you will get an extended list of items. Click on Categories. Fill in the Category Name, select Parent Category (if any), fill in the Category Description Click on Add New Category Method 2 Go to the Post => Categories section on your blog post & click on the Add New Category link. Type in Category Name & Select Parent Category (if any). Now, click on Add New Category button. What Are Tags And How To Create Them Tags are also taxonomy in wordpress. They are similar to Categories and are used to group content, on your blog post. You can use Tags, to group your content, in a single post. Tags help the audience, to discover the topics of your post. You can easily create or add tags in wordpress and you can do it with 2 different methods Method 1 Log in to the Dashboard of you wordpress website Hover your mouse over the Posts section, you will get an extended list of items Click on Tags Fill in the Tag Name & the Description. Click on Add New Tag. Method 2 Go to the Post => Tags section on your blog post. Type in Tag Name & hit Enter. Difference Between Categories And Tags Categories Tags They are generalized in nature They are specific in nature Usually used to group content for entire website Usually used to group content for a single post Conclusion Categories And Tags In WordPress is a blessing in disguise for blogger as they can categorize their niche effortlessly. You may also like, How To Install And Activate A WordPress Plugin

This article will give you, Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin detailed review. This WordPress Plugin is used to create contact forms for blogs & websites. I have used this plugin for quite a while. Contact Form 7 WordPress Plugin Detailed Review So, without further ado let’s dive right into it. Introduction Contact Form 7 is one of the best plugins, I have used on my website. It is extremely easy to install and use. For people who want to start a blog, this is one of the best available options in the market, if you want to include a contact form for your website or blog. You can create multiple forms with Contact Form 7 and also customize it easily. The form supports the integration of CAPTCHA validation and Akismet (plugin for filtering out spam). This makes it secure from spam attacks, that any website usually experiences. Since spam protection is a critical aspect for any web form, Contact Form 7 plugin provides several types of spam protection modules to effectively block any submission by spammers. That gives you an advantage over others since you don’t have to waste your time on deleting spam messages and you can concentrate on content creation. Having said that, if you activate certain features of Contact Form 7, the audience’s personal data, including their IP address, may be sent to the service provider. Thus, confirming the provider’s privacy policy is recommended. These features include: reCAPTCHA (Google) Akismet (Automattic) Constant Contact (Endurance International Group) As far as Contact Form 7 is concerned, its relatively safe for use since, Users are not tracked. Records of the any information are not being kept in their database. Data is not being sent to external servers. Cookies are not used for tracking. Its recommended, that you use 2 more plugins, with Contact Form 7, which will help you enhance the functionality of your forms. Both these plugins are created by same person Takayuki Miyoshi, who also created Contact Form 7. Flamingo – With Flamingo Plugin, you can save submitted messages via contact forms directly in to the database. Bogo – With Bogo Plugin, you get an option to add a multiple languages for the use of your audience who want to contact you. Use Of Contact Form 7 Use of Contact Form 7 is simple. It acts as a bridge between the owner of the website and the audience. It simply means that, with Contact Form 7, your audience or subscribers can contact you directly, through the form. This will not only strengthen your bond with your audience but keep them engaged with you blog, in-turn generating revenue for you. As mentioned in the introduction, Contact Form 7 supports CAPTCHA validation and Akismet spam filtering which ensures that your website’s not hacked and is safe for your audience to contact you. It also does not track the audience or keep a record of them anywhere, ensuring that their data is safe. If the audience feels safe they will be more willing to engage with you, contact you, suggest you, appreciate you. Contact form 7 helps create a long lasting bond between you and your audience and it also gives the audience an opportunity, to directly get in touch with you. Install And Activate Contact Form 7 There are 2 ways of installing Contact Form 7. We will have a look at both the methods. Method 1 : By Uploading Plugin Go to Contact Form 7 page, of the official WordPress Website, by clicking here. Click on the Download button to download the plugin and then save it on your computer. Go to your WordPress Dashboard, and then go to Plugins => Add New. Click on the Upload Plugins => Browse & Select The Plugin => Click on Install Now. Go to Plugins on your WordPress Dashboard and Activate Contact Form 7 plugin. Method 2 : By Searching WordPress Repository Go to your WordPress Dashboard, and then go to Plugins => Add New. Type Contact Form 7 in the Search Box. Install and Activate Contact Form 7. Configuring Contact Form 7 After you have successfully installed Contact Form 7 you will have to configure the plugin to use it. For configuring it, you will have to go to the Settings. Go to WordPress Dashboard => Plugins => Contact Form 7 => Settings On the next screen, Click on Edit link below Contact form 1. You will have multiple menus for editing the Contact Form 7. The menu items are as follows, Form Mail Message Additional Settings Form – In this menu item, you can edit the form template. To make the template as per your specifications, you will get options such as, text, email, URL, number, date, check boxes, radio buttons, file, submit button etc. which you can insert into the form, you will just have to drag and drop the options on the form. Similarly, if you don’t want any options which are already present on the form, then you can remove those items as well, by deleting their code from the form. Mail – In this menu item, you will see all the options for setting up your email, such as, To, From, Subject, Message Body, File Attachments etc. To is where you will receive all the messages sent via Contact Form 7 on the given email address, From is where sender’s email address goes (in almost all the cases its the same as To), Subject is where subject of the message goes, Message Body is where the actual message goes. Messages – In this menu item, pre-typed messages are stored. Whenever the audience or the subscriber sends a message, using this form, he or she will get a message back, stating whether the form was submitted correctly or not. For example, if the form is submitted without any errors, then the subscriber will get a message, “Thank you for your message. It has been sent.”. If there is a problem in submitting the form, then the subscriber will get a message. “There was an error trying to send your message. Please try again later.” Similarly, there are messages for all the eventualities, say, if you have not filled all the fields, or you have entered the wrong date format etc. You

Don’t know the 4 basic differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org? Well, keep on reading to know more. WordPress is the easiest and the most efficient site builder, when it comes to hosting and designing a site. Amongst Bloggers and Digital Marketing Agencies, WordPress has achieved an irreplaceable position. With its responsive design and easy to use tools, it has become the first choice for people who aren’t tech-savvies. WordPress not only allows you to make blogging sites, it also has a large number of features to support an online store, membership sites and so on. While typing “WordPress” on Google, have you ever given a thought about WordPress.com, or did you feel it is same as WordPress.org? If you thought that both are same then let’s fill up your knowledge jar and clear your confusion with facts. WordPress.com & WordPress.org are NOT SAME– hosting, control of site, plans, everything differs though the internal working of both platforms are similar. To understand the 4 basic differences between WordPress.com & WordPress.org we will first have to look at what WordPress.com & WordPress.org is! What Is WordPress.com WordPress.com is a free, website building platform, where the entire control of your website is with WordPress. You cannot monetize it or use it for commercial purpose until you upgrade it to a paid plan. Benefits Of Using WordPress.com To get started with WordPress.com is easier since you just have to make an account on their site and you can get started for free. Free WordPress.com is a good choice when you just want to blog as hobby and don’t want to monetize it. You can use up to 3GB of space for free. To further extend the space, you need to buy one of their premium plans. WordPress.com takes care of the updates and backups, hence you do not have to periodically take backups. Premium plan of WordPress.com provides you with extensive range of themes and plugins. You can also monetize site and add payment gateway, once you upgrade to paid plan. The WordPress.com premium hosting service has following plans: Free – Very limited. Personal – $48 per year Premium – $96 per year Business – $300 per year eCommerce – $540 per year VIP – starting at $5000 per month What Is WordPress.org WordPress.org is an open-source software, for your site. It is free to use this software but you need to have a domain and a hosting, which might cost you some dollars. Benefits Of Using WordPress.org It is not a simple path to get started on WordPress.org. For using the software, you first need to buy a domain name and hosting (from Bluehost, HostGator, SiteGround etc.) then you need to install the WordPress software on your hosting. WordPress.org gives you full control of your website – You own your website, data and files. It is powered by your brand not WordPress. Using WordPress.org, you can place ads, which generates you a steady income. Allows you to add Google analytics and other tracking tools to your website. Provides you with e-commerce features and also allows you to integrate the payment gateways. It provides you with a huge repository of free and paid plugins and themes. 4 Basic Differences Between WordPress.com And WordPress.org The 4 Basic differences between WordPress.com & WordPress.org are as follows, Ease of use – WordPress.com is much more easy to use & manage than WordPress.org especially for a newbie. Cost effective – WordPress.org is cost effective than WordPress.com in the long term as you can buy hosting plans for WordPress.org starting from as low as $2.65, where as the WordPress.com paid hosting start plan is from $4. Freedom to monetize – When it comes to monetizing your website, WordPress.org gives you full freedom & control but with WordPress.com the freedom is limited to the paid plans. Installation of 3rd party plugins – There are thousands of 3rd party WordPress plugins available in the market, which WordPress.org allows you to install, where as WordPress.com allows you to install 3rd party plugins with their business & eCommerce plans only which again limits the scope for the blogger. These 4 basic differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org are of great relevance while selecting the platform. WordPress.com Vs WordPress.org – Which Is Better? As mentioned above the 4 basic differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org should be enough to make a decision as to which blogging platform to use. Having said that, it could be an endless debate but the efficacy of any platform depends on your needs. Technical tools come with different prices and benefits, what suits best is the one that complies with your needs and is feasible with your budget. If you have long-term plans in the digital world, like setting up a store, developing a membership site, become big name among bloggers, want to earn doing blogging, become an affiliate marketer, develop learning management system, the best choice is to go with WordPress.org. But if you just want a site to post your articles or blogs, with no intention of earning or fame, going with WordPress.com will be the best choice. Their upgrade plan is also not too expensive, so you can keep your hobbies on open web with minimum prices. Conclusion In my opinion, WordPress.org wins over WordPress.com any day since the 4 basic differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org can determine the success that you will get in blogging. If you want complete freedom & autonomy for your website then, go for WordPress.org platform. You May Also Like, Top 20 Blogging Niches For The Year 2022

Don’t know, how to install and activate a WordPress plugin? Continue reading to know more. A plugin is the lifeline of any WordPress website. In this article, you will learn how to install a WordPress plugin on your website, in 2 different ways. Let’s first know what a WordPress plugin is & why is it needed. What Is A WordPress Plugin? A WordPress plugin is nothing but a software with a set of functions, that can be added to your website. It enhances the functionality of your WordPress website tremendously. You don’t have to write any code. You can simply install & activate the WordPress plugin & start using it, after setting it up. There are literally hundreds of thousands of free and paid WordPress plugins available in the market. They can be used to add a contact form, subscriber form, social media icons & many more. Why Is A WordPress Plugin Needed? A WordPress website comes with a basic & limited functionality, where you can just create posts, pages, categories, tags & write articles, comments etc. Say, you want to allow people to subscribe to your blog or contact you. A WordPress website alone cannot do these things for you. What you require is an enhanced functionality in terms of a WordPress plugin. If you don’t have a WordPress plugin, then you will have to write a code for every single functionality that you want. That would not only require special skills, but it will be extremely time consuming. To avoid all these problems, a WordPress plugin is needed. How To Install And Activate A WordPress Plugin So without further ado, let’s see how to install a WordPress plugin for your website. In this article, your will learn 2 different ways to install a WordPress plugin for your website. Before proceeding further, remember one important thing, a WordPress plugin can only be installed on a self hosted wordpress.org website & not on a wordpress.com hosted website, unless of course you get their business plan. Install WordPress Plugin With Search Plugins Field WordPress Plugin Directory is a repository of all the available WordPress plugins. Inside every WordPress website there is a Search Plugins field, through which you can easily search for any plugin present in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Log In to your WordPress website & from the Dashboard, go to Plugins => Add New. Now, in the Search Plugins search box type the plugin name that you want to install. For the sake of this article we will install Contact Form 7, one of the best contact forms. After typing Contact Form 7 in the search box, you will get the results. Now, click on Install Now button in front of the contact form. Once you have installed the plugin, click on Activate button. This will activate the plugin for you. Once you have activated it, you can see the plugin in the Plugins => Installed Plugins list. Install WordPress Plugin By Uploading WordPress itself has another way of installing a plugin & that is by uploading. We can very easily upload, install & activate a WordPress plugin to the website. For the sake of this article we will install Contact Form 7, which is one of the best contact forms in the market. You can download the plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory. Log In to your WordPress website. From the Dashboard go to Plugins => Add New & click on Upload Plugin button. On the plugin upload form, click on Browse & select the Contact Form 7 plugin zip file that is saved on your computer. After you have selected the plugin zip file from your computer, click on Install Now button. Now, you will need to activate the plugin. Simply click on Activate button. The WordPress plugin is installed & activated successfully now. You can check it in the Plugins => Installed Plugins list. Conclusion WordPress is a blessing in disguise for any blogger, especially a new one. It relatively easy to install & activate any plugin from it’s repository, to extend the functionality of website. Any blogger can take his or her website to it’s full potential by using these plugins. You May Also Like, Things To Do Before And After Changing A WordPress Theme

There are a few important things to do before and after changing a WordPress theme. There are thousands of WordPress themes available. In case you don’t know how to change a WordPress theme, check out our post. So let’s understand, why would one wants to change their WordPress theme. Why Would You Want To Change Your WordPress Theme? A theme is an integral part of any WordPress website. It is what gives your website an appealing graphical user interface (GUI). But not every theme will be as per your specification i.e. the way you want it to be. The default theme that WordPress installs in every website is actually quite plain for many people’s liking. It means that everyone who own’s a WordPress website gets the same default theme. Just imagine how boring it would be if each & every WordPress website looks the same. Also, one important part of any theme is it’s features. Different themes have different features. You may not find the features in your default WordPress theme, that you are looking for. In such a scenario, you should find a WordPress theme, which has all the features that you want. Things To Do Before And After Changing A WordPress Theme We will have a look at the things to do before and after changing a WordPress theme. But first, let’s have a look at things to do before changing a WordPress theme. Things To Do Before Changing A WordPress Theme Important things to do before changing a WordPress theme are given below, Take A Back Up Of You WordPress Website Taking back up of your current website is the first & the most important thing that you should do before doing anything else. Changing the theme might cause problems in the functionality of your WordPress website. This might result in your website not working properly. To correct the problem caused, you will have to spend time & energy on it & there is no guarantee that the problem will get solved. So, its better to take a back up of the current version of your WordPress website before you make any changes to it. Make A Note Of Any Theme Customizations You might have made a few customizations to your current theme. Take a note of all such customizations that you made. When you install a new theme you can re-apply all those customizations. Say for example, you have removed the website url field from your WordPress comment form. For removing this field you must have installed a plugin or added some code. If you have installed a plugin then write down the name of that plugin & make a note of all the settings. If you have added a code then make a note of that code. By doing this, you will be able to re-install the plugin & re-apply all the settings or simply paste the same code back in your newly installed WordPress theme. Make A Note Of All The Tracking Codes Say, you are using Google Analytics in your WordPress website to track your website’s traffic. To use Google Analytics, you must have pasted a piece of code given by Google in the header.php file of your WordPress website. Make a note of that code because once you have installed a new theme, that code will be over written & you won’t be able to track your website’s traffic any longer. In fact, make a note of all such codes that you use for tracking purposes, so that you can paste those codes back in your website after you have installed a new theme. Make A Note of Your Sidebar Widgets As you may know that you have different widgets such as a “search functionality”, a “subscription form” or latest comments on the sidebar of your WordPress website. Make a note of such widgets because once you install a new theme few of those widgets might get removed from the sidebar. If you have a list of the widgets, you can very easily add those back on the sidebar. Keep Your WordPress Website In Maintenance Mode When making changes to your WordPress site, it’s always a good practice to put your website into maintenance mode. By doing so, your audience will know that the website is temporarily under maintenance & will be live soon. This will prevent your audience from being put off by a website under construction. Once you have your website in maintenance mode, install a new theme. Also check out, how to make your 404 page more appealing. If you are looking for free themes check out, 9 Free WordPress Themes That Are Awesome. Things To Do After Changing A WordPress Theme We will now look at a few things to do after changing a WordPress theme. Check The Functioning Of Your Website After you have changed your theme, the first thing that you should do is to check whether your website is functioning properly. Sometime changing a theme can break your website. And, that’s why we mentioned earlier that you should keep a back up of your website. Check, if the website is visible & loading properly. Also check whether all the installed plugins are working correctly. And don’t forget to check if the new theme is working properly across all the browsers such as Chrome, Firefox etc. & devices such as Android smartphones, iPhones etc. Customize Your WordPress Theme After Changing It Once you have checked the functioning of your website & plugins, you can now customize the theme as per your specifications. You can get these customizations from the notes that you made before changing the theme. Simply follow all the instructions from the notes & re-apply the customizations to you new theme. You can customize your theme by clicking on the Customize Your Site button from your WordPress Dashboard. Add The Tracking Codes To Your Website As discussed earlier, you must have made a note of all the tracking codes that you use on