7 Best Free WordPress Backup Plugins in 2016

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Backing up your website is the best way to prevent a disaster from ruining your website. When you administer an active website, it’s only a matter of time before you run into trouble. Creating regular backups for WordPress can give you the peace of mind knowing everything is there in case your site gets hacked or another problem arises.

You should always run your own backup even if this service is provided by your hosting provider. Most of the time your web host will provide limited backups of your database but you shouldn’t rely on them. There are numerous plugins for WordPress to help you automate your backups. Read more →

Comparing WordPress Sitemap Generators

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In today’s post I am going to take a look at two of the most popular plugins for creating a sitemap in WordPress: Google XML Sitemaps by Arne Brachold’s and Yoast SEO. Using a plugin to generate a sitemap is hands down the easiest way to manage this task, especially if you have to do it multiple times a day for multiple sites.

We will go over what these plugins can do and how you can use them to keep your sitemap up to date. It should be mentioned that Yoast SEO has much more functionality than Google XML Sitemaps. An average WordPress user with Yoast SEO probably won’t need to install Google XML Sitemaps. Read more →

Migrating a WordPress Website to a New Host

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Using a test server to develop your WordPress website is the best way to make changes to a site. There are a few important advantages doing things this way instead of on a live site. Once you have tested everything on your local machine or remote server, then and only then should you publish your site to a live domain.

This post is part 3 in a 3 part series on creating a local test server. Previously we showed you how to install WordPress locally with XAMPP and how to copy your live site to a localhost on your machine

After you have created a test server by installing your site locally and you have copied your live site to your localhost — the next step is to move your test site back to your live host. This post will show you how to migrate your site to a live host. This means you are moving your database and site files (themes, plugins, posts, WordPress core etc.). Read more →

Adding Social Proof to Your WordPress Website

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Social interaction is a dominant force that drives behavior. Many people look to others to help them make daily choices like who to vote for, what hygiene products to use, which websites to visit, what to wear etc. Trends, memes, fads and movements all shift based on popular opinion.

Using other peoples’ preferences to determine which course of action to take is known as social proof. This phenomenon has led to the adoption of widespread cultural movements as well as short-lived one hit wonders such as bagel head or breading cats.

Recorded history contains many other tales of popularity driven by social proof rather than actual proof. This includes everything from harmless, regional fashion trends like backwards overalls to catastrophic economic bubbles involving the price of goods. Let’s not forget alchemy, manifest destiny, phrenology, low carb diets and of course, 4 loko. Read more →

How to Monetize Your WordPress Website

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Making money online isn’t easy at first. It can be difficult but once you find your bearings it can be very fruitful. One of the most attractive things about generating revenue online is that the costs involved are fewer than doing it offline. The main things you need are time, effort and patience. The hidden cost of earning money online is hours of time spent developing your strategy.

As a WordPress blogger, there are a couple ways you can make money off your self-hosted blog. There are many plugins that can help you manage your advertisements and get them seen.

The first thing you need to do is prime your site. You want to optimize it so you can receive the highest amount of traffic that you can get. This involves search engine optimization and social media networking. There are other techniques, but these two cost virtually nothing if you do it on your own. If you need help you can hire and SEO expert or social media wiz to get things started. Read more →

The Best WordPress Business Themes of 2015

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Having a website is now a necessary requirement for most businesses. It’s a powerful marketing tool that you can use to promote your business. WordPress gives you an affordable and versatile solution for creating your website. Building an impressive, professional website has never been this easy. A good theme can help you organize your data, market your business and increase brand awareness.

Running a business is definitely a challenge. It requires the owner to understand each facet of operation including marketing, administration, HR, management and IT. This forces you to learn more than you thought possible to be successful and keep things organized.

A large percentage of business websites around the world are powered by WordPress. Starting a website or blog on WordPress gives you the option experiment with many designs and strategies. There are tons themes for business sites, both free and premium. In my opinion a WordPress website is the only way to go.  Read more →

Jupiter — Multi-Purpose Drag and Drop WordPress Theme Review

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Jupiter is a premium multi-purpose theme appropriate for building a wide variety of websites. It’s flexible and powerful. This mega theme has enough functions and features to make your head spin. Fortunately it’s easy for any level WordPress user to navigate. Jupiter is suitable for enthusiasts or professional web designers. Editing is easy, you can drag and drop any element into a page or post section with Visual Composer.

It’s a great tool for those looking to build contemporary websites. You can quickly get your site up and running by using one of the developers pre-made templates. Currently their catalog includes over 50 templates for eCommerce, business, photography, portfolios, community, creative, food, health, entertainment, online stores, fashion and technology.

Using Jupiter is an easy way to make elaborate and stylish sites with all the bells and whistles. The documentation for this theme is very well written and easy to follow. There are also official tutorial videos available that show you how to do everything like install your site, migrate to a new server or add content.

Read more →

Top Plugins for Building an Email List in WordPress

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Email is the most direct way to contact your fans and subscribers. Having a healthy email list can be one of your most valuable assets as a small business owner. If you want to sell or advertise something, the list will often be your main source of revenue.

Another good thing about compiling an email list is that you can take it with you wherever you go. If you decide to stop blogging on one site, you can take a large number of your followers with you if you decide to pick up again. Without a list, you would have to start over from the beginning. This can take quite a long time to get back to where you were, especially if you have built your audience over the course of a few years. Read more →

Best Premium WordPress Plugins of January 2016

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It’s the first month into the New Year and WordPress is as awesome as ever. This month we saw a new WordPress security release (4.4.1) and a new batch of new plugins to review. We are back again with our monthly roundup of the best top selling plugins on Codecanyon. This collection has a mix of useful tools for WordPress users.

The following plugin list has a lot of variety, so you will be more likely to find at least one that you like. Included are plugins for page building, forms, web site analytics, file hosting, social networking, accounting, project management and more. Read more →

Install WordPress Locally With XAMPP

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XAMPP (cross-platform, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl) is an open source web hosting solution stack on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris operating systems. You can install it to provide a similar environment as your web host’s server to use WordPress on your computer (locally). This allows you to run WordPress core and display in your browser without being online.

There are some helpful features that a local host can offer for web designers and developers. This tutorial will cover using an all-in-one program. We are going to show you how to quickly setup a local host to run WordPress offline in around 10 minutes with XAMPP. It’s completely free and easy. The WordPress Codex has more information on Installing WordPress if you are interested in learning more. If you liked this tutorial, check out our post on Copying a Live WordPress Website to Your Local Host, which can help you move a live site offline.  Read more →