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Features

Both are best WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping plugins, offer basic Australia Post shipping features. And both plugins fetch the shipping rates from Australia Post and calculate the shipping orders. And they require your shop to be located in Australia and use the Australian dollar as currency. These are the basic common features of these two plugins.

As we have discussed, the WooCommerce Australia Post plugin offers the basic Australia Post shipping features such as displaying Australia Post rates, the option to choose the packing method and adjusting tax rates. But when it comes to ELEX WooCommerce Australia Shipping Plugin with Print Label & Tracking, it is rich in advanced features. You can maybe replace one or more shipping plugins that you use with this single plugin. That is because, with the help of this plugin, you can display Australia Post service rates, choose packaging, print labels, offer tracking details, etc..

Now, let us go through the features one by one,

Shipping Services
Weight Based Packing
Print Shipping Labels
Shipment Tracking
Australia Post StarTrack Services
Updates

Shipping Service

ELEX WooCommerce Australia Shipping Plugin with Print Label & Tracking helps to list live shipping rates of Australia Post shipping services based on the weight, dimension and delivery location of the package. Compared to the WooCommerce Australia Post shipping plugin, the ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post plugin offers more shipping services of Australia Post.

These are the domestic & international services provided by ELEX WooCommerce Australia Shipping Plugin with Print Label & Tracking plugin. Have a look!

Domestic Services

Regular / Parcel Post: In this, product delivery is based on normal business days for prepaid satchels and parcels. You can enable the required Satchels in this service. They are,
- Regular Satchel 500G
- Regular Satchel 1KG
- Regular Satchel 3KG
- Regular Satchel 5KG
- Regular Letter Small
- Regular Letter Medium
- Regular Letter Large
- Regular Letter Large 125
- Regular Letter Large 250
- Regular Letter Large 500
Express Post: It is a cost-effective shipping method, which delivers the product on the next business day. In addition to that, it is available in 7 satchels. They are,
- Express Satchel 500G
- Express Satchel 1KG
- Express Satchel 3KG
- Express Satchel 5KG
- Express Letter Small
- Express Letter Medium
- Express Letter Large

Courier Post
EXPRESS POST
PARCEL POST W/SIGNATURE
EXPRESS POST W/SIGNATURE
PARCEL POST + SIGNATURE
EXPRESS POST + SIGNATURE
NATIONAL FULL RATE
EXPRESS NATIONAL FULL RATE

International Services

PACK & TRACK INT’L 8
International Post Courier
International Post Express
International Post Standard
International Post Economy Air
International Letter Courier
International Letter Express
International Letter Registered Post DL
International Letter Registered Post B4
International Letter Economy Air
REGISTERED POST INT’L 8
EXPRESS COURIER INT’L MERCH 8Z
INTERNATIONAL AIRMAIL 8Z
EXPRESS COURIER INT’L DOC 8

WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method offers 3 domestic and 7 international Australia Post shipping services. They are,

Domestic

Regular/ Parcel Post
Express Post
Courier Post

International

Express Post International
Express Courier International Platinum
Express Courier International
Registered Post International
Pack and Track International
Air Mail
Sea Mail

Weight Based Packing

In both WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method and ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post plugins, it takes the total weight of all items in the cart. You can add the maximum weight, and if the weight is too high the package will be split. There are three options for packing. The default packing method is packing items individually. The next one is, pack into boxes with weights and dimensions. If you choose this, there will be a number of predefined boxes. You can enable which are required for your product shipping. Have a look.

ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Plugin Packing

You can add new boxes and set custom boxes and dimensions. The units are in ‘kg’ and ‘cm’.

If you choose packing based on total weight, you have to enter the maximum weight. The features of packing are the same in both plugins.

Print Shipping Labels

WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method does not offer label printing options. If you want to print shipping labels while using this plugin, you can install additional label printing plugins. But if you need a complete package of shipping and label printing, you can go for ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin.

You can enable ‘Direct Download’ to download the shipping label and order summary in the Label & Tracking page. If you want to save the label into the wp-content folder for future reference, you can enable ‘Save shipping labels’. You can also generate bulk shipment labels using this feature of ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin. You can choose the label layout for different shipping services such as Parcel Layout, Express Post and Australia Post International.

ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Label Printing

You can use Australia Post Bulk Label Printing Add-On to generate bulk labels and print them into one single PDF file. In addition to that, if you want to automate the label generation much more smoothly and fast, you can use ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Auto-Generate & Email Labels Add-On. This Add-on will automate the process of shipment creation, label and generation and sending email notification with a shipping label to you and your customers.

Shipment Tracking

WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method plugin does not offer the shipment tracking option. But ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping plugin offers an option to track the shipment. If you enable the ‘Email Tracking’ option, the Australia Post Shipping API will return the label to you after the order placement. Using the tracking ID returned by Australia Post, you can track the shipment of your products.

If you are a contracted account holder of Australia Post, it will automatically pay the postage on these labels using your Australia Post account and it will print shipping labels with a tracking barcode for eParcel.

When it comes to international eParcel shipping, it will contain four labels such as labels attached to the product, Australia Post copy, Customs copy and the label for the sender. And you can create an Order Summary/ Shipping Manifest for particular orders. The advantage in this is that you can generate a single manifest of a group of shipments that happened on a single day.

Australia Post StarTrack Services

StarTrack is an Australia based shipping and logistics company owned by Australia Post. It mainly deals with domestic shipping services in Australia. ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post plugin incorporates StarTrack service to offer an on-demand courier service. If you are a contracted account holder, and you have a StarTrack account also, you can enable and add the credentials in the general settings.

ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Plugin StarTrack Account

It is an on-demand courier service, which offers fast delivery of your products ranging from immediate to 3 hours. You will get 3 StarTrack services when you enable this option. They are,

PREMIUM
1,3 & 5KG FIXED PRICE PREMIUM
EXPRESS

It offers real-time tracking and offers electronic proof of delivery. While using this, you can simply relax without worrying about whether your shipment will reach the right place at the right time. And you can also generate StarTrack Shipping Labels with barcodes using this plugin.

This service is not available in WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method.

Updates

ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping plugin frequently updates its features in accordance with the changing trends and requirements of WooCommerce shipping. And also it assures the compatibility with upgrading the WordPress-WooCommerce-platform. It always adds new features according to the rising requirements of WooCommerce customers.

WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method also keeps updating its features as it is a part of WooCommerce.

Now, let us wrap up.

Conclusion

Both are best WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping plugins that are highly efficient in offering the basic features of Australia post shipping services. But still, ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin with Print Label & Tracking offers more additional and advanced features compared to WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method. As we have discussed, the ELEX Australia Post plugin offers eParcel and StarTrack services of Australia Post, which is not currently available in the WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Method. And ELEX Australia Post plugin offers label printing and shipment tracking options.

If you want a single Australia Post shipping plugin with additional features rather than using a number of plugins for each feature, ELEX WooCommerce Australia Post Shipping Plugin with Print Label & Tracking plugin is the right option. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on Top Free WooCommerce Role-Based Pricing Plugins!

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12 Best Elementor Addons for WordPress or ClassicPress

Posted on February 10, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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Ever since its introduction in 2016, Elementor has completely taken over the WordPress industry. Its 1 Million Active Users speak volume for itself. If you are not familiar with it, let us give you a brief on it. Elementor is the WordPress Page Builder plugin which offers users a unique web designing experience. Anyone can just Drag & Drop cool elements and create an amazing website in just a few minutes.

In addition, Elementor Page Builder provides Ready-Made Templates for users to instantly apply on the website & get started. It gives you the freedom to personalize all the features with its styling capability. Therefore, you are able to show off your creativity and come up with your own unique ideas.

Thanks to Elementor, you don’t have to worry about hiring developers anymore as you can do it yourself without any prior programming experience or knowledge.

Why You Might Want to Use Elementor Addons?

It’s never easy to satisfy everyone’s requirements to the fullest. So, despite Elementor offering 80+ Fantastic Elements, it is very possible that you may want something even more advanced & unique. This is exactly why third-party developers have decided to expand the Elementor functionalities & develop their own Elementor Addons.

Right now, there are 131 Elementor addons available in the marketplace. So, you definitely have tons of options to choose from and start using the right extension for your website.

These addons give you the opportunity to strengthen your website design with its amazing features & layouts. Besides, you can create a special vibe by using the Elementor extensions.

By the end of this article, you will no longer be in a doubt on where to get started with the Elementor Extensions. Because we are going to discuss the best addons you need to have a look at to enhance your page building experience with ease.

Disclaimer: WPExplorer is an affiliate for one or more products listed below. If you click a link and complete a purchase we could make a commission.

1. Elementor Pro

Before looking for an alternative solution, you should definitely give Elementor Pro a shot. Despite the free version offering 29 basic elements, the premium one will enrich the numbers even by a large scale. For instance, it offers more advanced widgets such as Posts, WooCommerce, Forms, Social Media & many more.

Elementor Pro offers Theme Builder flexibility to help you easily design your themes as well. This outstanding feature gives you the capability to make changes to your Header, Footer, WooCommerce, Blogs & all the other Dynamic pages which aren’t possible through the basic version.

Moreover, you can instantly build a landing page using its huge collection of ready-made Templates. You can then personalize it as per your preference quite easily. On top of that, if you are into coding, then you can even add custom CSS from the Elementor dashboard itself. As a result, you are able to check all the changes you have made in real time.

To save your time, Elementor Pro comes with the ‘Global Widget’ feature. Just save a template & you will be able to use this in any of your future pages through the ‘Drag & Drop’ capability.

Basically, to capitalize the absolute best from the Elementor Page Builder, you must use its Premium version.

2. The Plus Addons

When it comes to Elementor addons you likely won’t find one with more options than The Plus. Packed with over 8,000+ customizations it’s an all-in-one extension for the popular page builder.

This plugin is an easy way to build and customize your Elementor powered site fast. The Plus Addons includes more than 300+ UI blocks to really speed up the creation process. And they’re really though of just about everything. Quickly add icon box grids, pricing tables, hero sections, feature lists, map sections, forms and more. These blocks have been designed and styled for you, so you can simply add in your content. Or us the built-in options to further customize colors, backgrounds, icons and more.

Curious as to what else is included? 50+ unique widgets (tables, charts, info box, countdown, headings, animated text, flipbox, timeline, parallax, Google maps, tabs, etc.), a powerful listings builder, SEO and translation ready code (use the POT file to translate) – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The plugin also includes top notch support and you can even purchase an extended license if you’re a developer who wants to use The Plus on all of your clients sites (and why wouldn’t you?).

As a bonus, there is also a Plus Addons Lite you can grab for free from WordPress.org. Think of it as a trial for the premium version. With 20+ widgets and 4 custom post types it’s a great way to test The Plus Addons before you upgrade.

3. Essential Addons for Elementor

If you talk about any third party addons after Elementor Pro, then you need to check the Essential Addons for Elementor first. It has recently achieved the milestone of being the first Elementor Addon to reach 100K+ active installations. Besides, Essential Addons has the highest number of active users among all the third-party extensions in the market as well.

Essential Addons offer both free & premium version which you can use to design attractive websites with ease. From the Free version, you will be able to use 30+ outstanding elements such as Form Stylers, Post, Social Media and many more. It fulfills all the basic needs the users so that you can pull of an amazing looking site.

Aside from this, Essential Addons for Elementor is very light-weight & doesn’t slow down your site because of its ‘Modular Control’ capability to enable or disable any elements at any time.

To get your hands on more advanced & extraordinary features, you can also try out Essential Addons Pro. The great thing is you will get access to overall 59+ fantastic elements with this plugin. You will be able to show off your creativity and make your website jaw-dropping with its premium widgets such as Off-Canvas, Lightbox & Modal, advanced Post & Gallery widgets, Parallax effects, Form Stylers and many others.

Moreover, the Premium version of Essential Addons offers 100+ Ready Blocks. You can easily import these templates on your pages and start customizing & get your desired result in an instant.

4. Crocoblock – JetPlugins Elementor Extension

Crocoblock contains all the Jet plugins as a package and offers a great collection of pre-made templates. Besides, Crocoblock bundle lets you add top quality designs to your website. You can personalize your site with its elements such as Post, WooCommerce, Popup & more.

However, since Crocoblock includes Jet Widgets as separate plugins you may want to give it a try on a localhost first. The more plugin you use the greater chance there is for conflicts – so just be sure sure to check before installing on your live site.

5. JetElements Addon for Elementor

JetElements is a premium plugin which comes with 40+ fantastic elements. It gives you the flexibility to easily use all the elements with customization options on your website.

You can design amazing blog and image layouts by using its high-quality Post & Gallery elements. Besides, JetElements offers a nice collection of pre-made templates. You can instantly use them on your sites to get a top-notch layout on your website.

6. Ultimate Addons for Elementor

Ultimate Addons for Elementor is another highly rated Elementor extension that you can’t miss out. It provides 21+ widgets which comes with advanced & unique features.

You can use its Modular Control to keep your site fast. On top of that, Ultimate Addons offers the WooCommerce & Post widgets to nicely display all your products/contents on your website.

Despite its impressive widgets, the amount of widgets Ultimate Addons is offering is pretty limited. Since it doesn’t have any free version for you to try out, you need to purchase the premium version to get the live experience.

7. JetBlocks Addon for Elementor

JetBlocks is very narrow and specific. This bundle includes elements that will help you build beautiful Headers and Footers.

You may ask what is the need for a dedicated addon that includes elements for beautifying the Header and Footer? Well, the need arises from the fact that every Business Website serves very specific customers and belongs to certain niche markets.

But then again as a Business, concerned about your Online Presence, you should ask yourself this question, should I buy an addon that has very narrow usability or buys an addon that combines different types of elements thus giving me the flexibility to use it for different purposes which may seem insignificant now?

8. Element Pack

Elementor Pack is another cool addon library for Elementor, there are enough elements in the pack for building amazing top-notch elements. It has a beautiful collection of both top-notch and most commonly used widgets for Website Building. Although the collection of elements gives this addon a fair edge, its downside is it does not have a Free Version.

9. Elementor PowerPack

PowerPack contains a bunch of Creative elements. There are a total of 42 elements in this bundle which is very moderate compared to what other bundles are offering. However, PowerPack for Elementor bundle also does not have a Free version which could be a big turn down if you are looking for free options.

10. JetTricks Addon for Elementor

The name JetTricks gives fair hints to what this bundle includes. Jet tricks got some elements that are eye-catching and will appeal to your readers.

Here is what you should be asking yourself, can only animations increase your traffic? If yes, then are you interested to buy an addon that only includes such elements or go for the ones that are versatile and contains elements for each and every one of your needs? If animation is more important for you, then you can decide to go with this addon. However, it also does not have a Free Version.

11. Envato Elements Free Template Kits

Envato Elements includes several Template Kits. A Template Kit is a collection of beautiful templates specially designed to help you create a website for a specific niche industry, with the help of a page builder, which in this case is Elementor.

Although this addon doesn’t yet have dedicated elements for Gutenberg, the team behind this addon is working on it.

12. All in One Widgets for Elementor

All In One Widgets helps you to add Expand Grid, Image Hotspot with Tooltip, Flip Box, Card Slider, Before & After, iHover, Timeline, Float Block etc in Elementor Page Builder. In total there are Eight Elements in the bundle. The team working behind this addon is hopeful that they will be adding more widgets to the bundle in the future. Unfortunately, there is no free version to this addon.

Wrapping up the Best Elementor Addons

So, have you decided which addon you are going to use for your next project? Don’t feel bad if you are still confused about which one to pick. Of course, you are dedicated to your work that’s why you are reading this blog, all with the purpose of finding the ideal Elementor addon for your needs. But remember there are a handful of great addons for Elementor out there. So, which one should you pick?

Here is a quick trick for you. In today’s world, everything is consumer-centric. And this is true for WordPress plugins as well. Every customer has the option of posting a review and rating. If an Elementor addon is not great, it’s reviews and ratings will speak for itself. On the other hand, the number of active users shows the credibility of the product too. In that case, Essential Addons for Elementor is the top of the leaderboard.

Get Elementor Pro

Of course, to use all these you are going to need the Elementor Plugin, and the pro version is the best version to get, so do that first then take a look at all the others! If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article onTop Wordpress or ClassicPresss Gaming themes!

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Filed under: eCommerce, WordpressTagged with: elementor add ons, elementor plugins

5 Top WordPress or ClassicPress Gaming Themes

Posted on February 9, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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Games have become an integral part of our daily lives. They are no longer something we relate to as our childhood memories, but have rather become a lucrative business that is getting more popular by day. Anyhow, whether you’re into developing games themselves, or you are a passionate gamer who likes to share their playing techniques, create communities or spread the novelties in the gaming world with fellow gamers, you’ll always need a place on the Internet to showcase your work. And what a better way to do so than by creating a website that will reflect what you do in a proper manner. So, in order to help you get started, I have selected the top 5 gaming WordPress themes I found on the web and thought would do an amazing job. Scroll down and let’s see the list I have put together for you.

So let’s take a look at some of these awesome themes!

1. Entropia – Gaming and eSports Theme

Can you already feel this theme buzzing? Entropia is a real game changer among gaming WordPress themes. Apart from its super modern design that will leave any gamer with their mouth wide open, this theme can also take pride in the functionalities that it’s packed with as well. With a wide collection of home and inner pages and custom shortcodes, you’ll be able to play with all of these elements until you create a website that will look and function exactly like the one you pictured in your head. What is also great about Entropia is that it is retina ready so you won’t have to worry how it is going to look on different devices. And lastly, if you are a fan of social media and you use them as a tool to promote your activities, Entropia will help you incorporate that content into your website in a blink of an eye, ‘cause it is also equipped with social share functionality. Pretty amazing one, right?

Features that make Entropia the best WordPress gaming theme:

Easy-to-Use Powerful Admin Interface
Large Collection of Custom Shortcodes
Video Button Shortcode
Integrated Search
Variable Grid Size

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2. Godlike – Game Theme for WordPress

Yes, you will be a gaming God with this theme, no kidding. Let’s start from what your followers will see first – the visual aspect. No doubt many of your website’s visitors will remain in awe, ‘cause this theme’s design is nothing but mesmerizing! Godlike is packed with smooth animations and parallax, and on top of that, it allows you to change your website’s color to whichever one you desire. All you have to do is choose, and the options are limitless. Furthermore, this gaming theme alsocomes with an option to enable the age checker, so that way your pages and posts can be visible only to those age groups that your content is meant for. And, as if all of this weren’t enough, Godlike supports BuddyPressthat will help you create a forum and organize online teams and groups that you, as a gamer, are most certainly in need of. Lastly, if you are planning on promoting yourself, this theme comes with Mailchimp integration, so your online marketing will be taken care of as well.

Features that make Godlike the best WordPress gaming theme:

Clean & Professional Code
Automatic Theme Updates
Smooth Animations and Parallax
20+ Header Variations

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3. PlayerX – A High-powered Theme for Gaming and eSports

Well this one definitely has the X factor! PlayerX is a theme designed to provide you with everything you might need in the gaming world. With a powerful admin interface, a single click demo site import, and many shortcodes included in this gaming theme, you’ll have plenty of time and energy to dedicate to what you do best – gaming! In addition to this, PlayerX is equipped with Twich, YouTube and Mixer integration, match list, stream box and dozens of portfolio layouts, so you can announce your streams or display a list of your matches without any problems. However, if you have already made a brand out of your gaming style and you’d like to sell gadgets, T-shirts and other stuff, you’re in the right place ‘cause this theme is compatible with the WooCommerce plugin that will make your online store easy to set up.

Anchor Functionality for One Page Sites
Social Share Functionality
Responsive Design
Stream Box Shortcode
Fullscreen Menu

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4. Game Addict – Clan War Gaming Theme

This premium gaming WordPress theme is recognizable by its dominant red and black colors. However, this is not the only aspect that makes Game Addict memorable. With its many outstanding functionalities you’ll have everything you desire in order to create your perfect website. If creating clans and scheduling your online matches is what you consider essential for a gaming website, you won’t have to go further, ‘cause this theme will provide you with both. This marvelous theme includes BuddyPress support, a rating system widget as well as the clan war system. Moreover, it is equipped withWPBakery plugin that will allow you to build your website in a blink of an eye. This theme will also allow you to upload a background image of your own choice and therefore create a website you’ve always wanted. Lastly Game Addict is translation ready, so your website will be understandable to all of your fellow gamers around the globe.

Features that make Game Addict the best WordPress gaming theme:

Animated Images and Icons
LayerSlider Parallax Slider Included
Isotope Gallery Included
SEO Ready

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5. Eldritch – Epic Theme for Gaming and eSports

Eldritch is the one that will definitely make you bring your A game. This astonishing theme contains easily customizable homepage layouts, allowing you to present your esports matches, blogs and streaming videos the way you want to. Other than its impeccable design, this gaming theme is also empowered by numerous features that will allow your website to function with ease. Moreover, you will find that many popular plugins such as WooCommerce and Slider Revolution are included in the price so we can say with certainty that this one is more than a good bargain. On the other hand, if you are worried that your website won’t look the same on mobile phones, we can tell you that you can forget all about those worries. Eldritch has the option of separate styles for mobile header, and a completely responsive, retina ready design that will always leave a good impression regardless of the device your followers are opening it on.

Features that make Eldritch the best WordPress gaming theme:

Horizontally Scrolling Portfolio List Shortcode
Framed Banner Shortcode
Separate Styles for Mobile Header
Content Entry Animations
Translation Ready

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Conclusion

So, to wrap it all up, if you are looking to start your gaming career or just take it to the next level one of these 5 gaming WordPress themes will definitely help you achieve your goals. Want to form clans, schedule your matches, and create a whole community of gamers? No problem! Each and every one of these themes will let you do that and make you stand out from the crowd. No need to wait any longer, grab your perfect theme straight away!

I hope this post was helpful. If you liked it why not check out this article on the 14 Best Wordpress or ClassicPress plugins for Self Builders!

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Filed under: Development, WordpressTagged with: gaming themes

How to Password Protect Downloads in WordPress or ClassicPress

Posted on February 9, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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Downloadable items including e-books, how-to guides, checklist, or even training videos serve a key role in almost all websites. You can sell digital products directly on WordPress or offer these files as free giveaways to engage visitors and increase your email subscriber list. Due to the rise of digital piracy, it’s necessary to pay more attention to your download protection. Take software piracy as an example. Pirated software makes up more than one-third of all active software around the world, costing the industry billions of dollars yearly.

In this post, we’re going to discuss the most popular method to secure just your WordPress downloads (rather than password protect your entire WordPress site). We will then show you how to use Simple Download Monitor and Password Protect WordPress Pro plugins to password protect your files.

Why Password Protect WordPress Downloads

There are various solutions to protect your downloads, from direct file access restriction to search engine indexing prevention. The most common way is to require users to login before downloading. However, it could be inconvenient for many users as they have to register, log in and remember their accounts as well.

Another popular option is just setting password protection. You can lock your files with passwords to effectively secure your downloads. WordPress even offers a built-in feature to support content password protection. However, this feature doesn’t help shield files embedded or attached to those private pages or posts. So how can you password protect your downloads?

Simply install third-party plugins to secure your downloadable items with a password. The 2 popular plugins Simple Download Monitor and Password Protect WordPress Pro are worth your consideration.

Use the Simple Download Monitor Plugin

Simple Download Monitor (SDM) helps manage and track your digital downloads. It offers a feature to password protect your downloadable files and documents as well. Only those with the correct password can access the private files.

Follow these simple steps to install the plugin and start password protecting your files.

Step 1: Install the plugin

Go to Plugin > Add New in your WordPress admin dashboard
Type “Simple Download Monitor” in the keyword box
Install and activate the plugin

Step 2: Password protect your files

Click Add New under Downloads in your left-hand navigation menu
Enter the file details such as the title, description, and thumbnail
Click Edit next to Visibility in the Publish area
Select the Password protected option and enter your password
Publish the page

Step 3: Insert shortcode into content

Navigate to the bottom of the page where you can see the Shortcodes section.

Simple Download Monitor: Shortcode

Simply copy this shortcode and paste to the page or post in which you want to show your protected file. It’s used to display the Download Now button for the file. Here is what visitors see when accessing the page containing the shortcode:

Simple Download Monitor: Frontend

SDM free version restricts users to a few features. To expand the plugin functionality, you can purchase some paid add-ons such as hide download button or send a notification email to admin once user has downloaded an item.

Similar to WordPress built-in feature, SDM allows you to set one password to each download only. It doesn’t save cookie to store these passwords either. If you protect more than 2 files in the same content with one password, your users have to enter passwords individually for each download.

Besides, you have to remember the file ids and passwords. As a consequence, it will become a nightmare if you have to protect many files.

In case you want to set multiple passwords to protect a download files, or allow your users to enter a password once to access all protected files and content, you should consider PPWP Pro. This plugin not only helps you password protect sections of content but also restricts access to protected files embedded in content.

Add Prevent Direct Access to Password Protect WordPress

Prevent Direct Access

To make the file password protection feature work properly, you’re required to install Prevent Direct Access (PDA) Gold plugin together with Password Protect WordPress (PPWP). While PDA Gold supports protecting direct file access against search engine indexing and unauthorized users, PPWP Pro provides a simple way to access these files without creating a member account.

Unlike SDM requiring you to create a shortcode for each individual download file, PPWP Pro enables you to create one shortcode to protect all these files.

To make the password protection process more user-friendly with non-tech savvy, PPWP Pro integrates seamlessly with top WordPress page builders like Elementor or Beaver Builder. This allows you to select and protect files directly while editing content using a UI block. Here’s how to get started if using Elementor:

Find the Password Protection (PPWP) element under Elementor “Search Widget” field
Drop the block to where the protected file will be displayed
Enter your passwords
Set the whitelisted roles if necessary
Select Add Media under Protected Content area
Hit the Protect this file checkbox in the file’s Attachment Details section and copy the file’s link too
Insert your protected file URL with format: Your file name under Text view

Whenever visitors access the page containing the protected download, they won’t be able to download it directly. A file description and password form will be shown instead. They can access protected files only when entering the right password.

PPWP File

You can even create multiple download sections per page. If they are protected with the same password, users will be able to enter the password once to access all these files.

Instead of securing individual downloads, you can also protect the entire page with a password. All files embedded on the protected content will be automatically restricted to one time download. As a result, both the page content and files are protected at the same time.

Whitelisted user roles can view and download your files without having to enter passwords though.

When it comes to password form customization, you can change the form description as well as updating the file headline by modifying the shortcode attributes. An easier solution is editing the built-in options under PPWP element in the page builder editor.

PPWP Editor

Advanced Password Protection Options

When integrating with PDA Gold, PPWP Pro comes with 2 advanced options:

Customize default cookies
It’s possible for you to set cookies expiration time using PPWP Pro. Users don’t have to re-enter that password during this period of time

Set download limit
PDA Gold helps protect file URLs by creating expiring download links. You’re able to expire the download links after a number of clicks. This prevents users from sharing download links with others. On top of that, your files won’t be indexed and displayed on any search engine results pages.

Ready to Password Protect Your Downloads?

There are different ways to password protect your files. You can use either Simple Download Monitor with its premium addons or PPWP Pro along with PDA Gold plugins. They come with their own benefits as well as shortcomings that affect how you manage and protect your WordPress file downloads.

You must create new attachment pages for your downloads and protect these pages when using Simple Download Monitor. PPWP Pro plugin allows you to directly secure your files while editing your post or page content. It’s also easier to set more than one password to protect file downloads with PPWP Pro.

In short, if you’re looking for free and robust solution to secure WordPress downloads, go with Simple Download Monitor. Otherwise, install PPWP Pro in case you prefer a simpler protection process and more advanced features.

So which plugin would you choose to password protect your downloads? Let me know in the comment section below and if you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on How to Set Your WordPress or ClassicPress Homepage!

Filed under: WordpressTagged with: password protect downloads

Top WordPress WooCommerce Facebook Groups to Join

Posted on February 9, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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If you are intending to improve your knowledge about WordPress or even proposing to share a few on, what you know, then blogs are not just the only option you have. You can find a plethora of massive groups in social media circles like Facebook groups, LinkedIn, etc. But as you see, there are plenty out there. Let me make it much easier for you. Here, I am listing out the top best WordPress WooCommerce Facebook groups that you can join. These groups are specifically meant to knowledge share and discuss the various upcoming and currently trending topics on WordPress WooCommerce.

Let us take a look at the popular WordPress WooCommerce Facebook groups to join :

Members : 25,538 +

Rules: No spamming or Promotions.

This Facebook group is ideal for WordPress developers, store owners, and even WooCommerce Enthusiastic. The groups have everything you need to know about WordPress WooCommerce. The group answers to anyone who comes up with a query on WooCommerce.

Members: 19.249+

Rules: Use very descriptive language in questions with proper links and screenshots.
Paid and private support.

The Facebook group is meant for discussing all WordPress WooCommerce. The major topics covered are WordPress, WooCommerce, WordPress Themes, and Plugins recommendations and troubleshooting support.

Members: 29,311+

Rules: Group allows commercial posts and self-promotion only on the plugin related topics.

This Facebook group was created by Stephen B. Henry for WordPress enthusiasts to discuss all WordPress WooCommerce. The group offers excellent support in terms of getting a better understanding of plugins.

Members: 30,102+

Rules: No promotions.

You can easily share anything related to products and offerings related to WooCommerce. The group is meant for asking questions and clearing your doubts on WordPress WooCommerce. The group offers a healthy platform for discussion.

Members: 17,817+

Rules: Focus on questions to help in discussing WordPress WooCommerce plugins suggestions only.

Ideally, this Facebook group is meant to support WordPress WooCommerce users or store owners to gain helpful insights related to WordPress plugins. If you are looking for just learning about WordPress Plugins, then the group is perfect.

Members: 4953 +

Rules: No Commercial Posts and self-promotion

Again, yet another group by Stephen B. Henry on WordPress eCommerce. Here the group allows posts only related to eCommerce directly. The group contains an unparalleled discussion on WordPress eCommerce

Members: 65

Rules: Anything related to WordPress WooCommerce can be posted,

An emerging Facebook group to assist any WordPress developer enthusiasts or even businesses who are into developing and maintaining a WooCommerce website. Any eCommerce related queries will be addressed in the group.

Members: 2477+

Rules: The group gives you an open platform to discuss all WordPress WooCommerce.

This Facebook group just has all those passionate about WordPress WooCommerce. It provides a unique platform to post about WordPress WooCommerce and solve any ambiguity regarding the same.

Members: 2316 +

Rules: Strictly only WordPress related contents.

This Facebook group aims to build a WordPress empire through positive knowledge sharing and also promoting WordPress WooCommerce among businesses.

Members: 1448

Rules: Only WordPress related posts allowed,

This is a private group for promoting WordPress. A group of enthusiasts who will answer your queries as well as address various needs on WordPress knowledge sharing and even jobs too.

Conclusion

So, above is a list of cool Facebook WordPress WooCommerce groups. This includes already established ones as well as emerging ones that should satisfy your knowledge on WordPress WooCommerce. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on the 83 Top WooCommerce Extensions!

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Filed under: eCommerce, WordpressTagged with: wordpress facebook groups

Top Free WooCommerce Role-Based Pricing Plugins

Posted on February 8, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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Offering a special price for your customers is common in conventional business. You can also offer these special prices to your online customers using free WooCommerce Role-Based pricing plugins in your online store. There are many role-based pricing plugins available for your WooCommerce store, you can choose the best suitable one for your store based on your requirements.

What Is The Relevance Of Role-Based Pricing In Your e-Commerce Business

As a shop owner, you will be having a large number of customers. Some customers may be regular shoppers, or some may be new to your online store. Based on the purchase history of your customers, you can offer special prices to them using these role-based pricing plugins.

You may want to offer your products at different prices to different customers as well as based on certain standards like the total number of previous purchases etc. These plugins also help you to create new customer-roles and assign them pricing rules. And you can set impressive discounts and markup prices for your customers, which will improve the loyalty of your customers as well as help you gain traffic to your site. This will invite new users to your online store naturally.

Each plugin has its own features and properties along with the fundamental role-based pricing feature. For instance, options like remove the ‘Add to Cart’ button for a particular group of users. Here, in this article let us analyze the features of 3 free WooCommerce role-based pricing plugins. That will help you to choose the best suitable one for your e-commerce store.

ELEX WooCommerce Role Based Pricing

ELEX role-based pricing plugin is one of the best free WooCommerce role-based pricing plugins with a number of additional features you can choose for your online store. If you want to assign different price scales, discount and markup prices for different categories of users for different products, ELEX WooCommerce role-based pricing plugin is the right choice. In addition to this basic feature, it offers an option to replace the ‘Add to Cart’ button with a custom call to action text. You can make these changes on the buttons to only a specific group of users using this plugin. And you can set different pricing for guest users and registered users as well.

If you want more features like shifting your WooCommerce store to Catalog mode, you can go for its premium version ELEX WooCommerce Catalog Mode, Wholesale and Role-Based Pricing Plugin.

Now let us check its features,

User Interface

The simple user interface of this plugin will help you to set all the features you want for each user role without any confusion. You can find the ‘Role-based Pricing’ option which comes under WooCommerce. There you can set the features for each user role. If you want to add new user roles and assign price rules for them, it is also possible. You can go to the ‘Users’ option and add a new user role to your e-commerce store. And then, go to ‘Manage User role’ in ELEX Role-based pricing plugin, and add the new user there.

You can set features for unregistered users such as to remove and customize Add to Cart button, hide price and regular price and, hide cart and checkout page by enabling them.

When it comes to registered users, you can set more role-based and pricing options. You can select the user roles from a dropdown menu to apply the features, remove and customize Add to Cart button, hide price and regular price, hide cart and checkout page and, individual product adjustment for them. It’s very easy!

Now, let’s move on to the pricing part. It is very simple to configure pricing for individual pricing for your wholesale e-commerce store. Have a look,

ELEX WooCommerce Role-Based Pricing UI

Here, you can set individual price adjustments by a fixed price or a fixed percentage to individual user roles for the selected product categories. And this price adjustment can be either discount price or markup price, which you can choose. And don’t forget to enable these features of individual users to whom you want to apply.

Product Price Adjustment

As we have discussed, you can add individual price adjustment as a discount or markup price for each user role and select the categories on which you want to apply that price adjustment. Let us see an example,

ELEX Role-Based Pricing Price Adjustment

Here, the administrator will get a 20% discount for the categories Clothing and Posters. Likewise, you can set pricing according to your requirements. Got it?

Now, let us move on to the next role-based pricing plugin.

WC Role Based Price For WooCommerce

WC Role Based Pricing plugin offers multi-currency and price level options for different user roles of your online store. In this plugin, you can choose the allowed category of users who are applicable to the special prices. And you can set the regular price and selling price for each product individually. And with this plugin, you have an option to add more extensions to your WooCommerce store.

WC Role Based Pricing plugin has no option to set discounts and markup prices for individual users and products like ELEX WooCommerce Role Based plugin. Instead of that, you have to set regular prices and selling prices for each product individually.

It is compatible with WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin) and also it offers currency switcher integration. And you can implement shortcodes to get product prices in your online store. If you want more features like scheduling selling price, you have to choose its premium version. Its premium version offers a number of impressive features like dynamic pricing, role-based product blocker, role-based payment gateway blocker and, bulk price updater integration, etc.

User Interface

WC Role Based Price plugin has a very simple user interface, that you can easily set pricing features for the customers and products of your e-commerce store.

WC Role Based Price UI

Here, you will be able to add the user roles to which you want to apply this pricing feature. And if you want to create new user roles, you can do it with the option in WordPress and add it to ‘Allowed User Roles’. If you want to customize the regular price and selling price labels, it has an option to do that. And then, you can save the changes.

Then you can go to the individual product page, and there you can set your selling price. So you can sell at different discount prices without any discount percentage to a particular category of product.

Product Price Adjustment

After setting user roles to role-based pricing using WC Role Based Prices plugin, you can choose the product to which you need to apply this selling price. And you can simply add the amount at which you want to sell that product. At the bottom of the product page, you can see this,

WC Role-Based Price Price Adjustment

Instead of setting a discount price to a particular category of products, you can set prices to each product using WC Role Based Price plugin.

Pricing Deals For WooCommerce

Pricing Deals for WooCommerce plugin offers discount pricing for your e-commerce store. Here, in this plugin, you can create ‘price rules’ for your online store. It also helps to implement dynamic cart pricing discounts and catalog pricing discounts for your products. One of the impressive features of this plugin is its BOGO (Buy One Get One) option. You can set this BOGO option to selected products using this plugin.

It offers different kinds of discount options like, fixed amount discount which applies to a particular group or individually on products, percent discounts, and package pricing. And you can give discounts to particular members, groups or brands according to your business nature. It also offers an option to display discounts on catalogs.

User Interface

Compared to other plugins’ user interfaces, you may find it a bit difficult to understand each feature on the user interface of the Pricing Deal setting that comes under this plugin. But still, you can set the pricing rules for discounts easily. Have a look,

Pricing Deals For WooCommerce UI

In this, you can choose which discount type you want, whether a purchase discount or store display discount. And you can choose the deal type such as BOGO, Bulk pricing, Simple discount or any other type of special pricing for your online store. And you can set the deal schedule, that is, how many days you are planning to offer a discount to these products.

Product Price Adjustment

Using the pricing deal setting, you can set the coupons and discounts you want to apply to products. In addition to that, you can go to Price Deals categories, you can create new custom pricing deal categories and apply it to your products. Its free version mainly focuses on discounts only. If you want additional features like applying discounts to a particular group of members, you can go for its premium version.

But if you own an e-commerce store that offers many discounts and season sales, you can choose Pricing Deals for WooCommerce plugin.

Let us conclude,

Conclusion

If you want to apply specific discounts or markup prices on individual products to individual user roles, then ELEX WooCommerce Role Based pricing plugin is the right option for your online store. If you want to simply offer a selling price to a particular group of user roles instead of giving a fixed discount rate, you can go for WC Role Based Price for WooCommerce plugin. If you need a plugin that offers different kinds of discounts, you can choose Pricing Deals for the WooCommerce plugin.

But ELEX WooCommece Role-Based plugin offers role-based pricing by discounts and markup prices with a simple user interface. And you can set a particular percentage of discount or a fixed markup price for product categories for user roles. So when it comes to the role-based plugin, ELEX WooCommerce Role Based pricing seems to be an obvious choice thanks to the advanced feature. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on the 7 Best WooCommerce Points and Rewards Plugins!

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Filed under: eCommerce, WordpressTagged with: role based pricing, woocommerce pricing

Guide on UPS Shipping Services for Woocommerce

Posted on February 8, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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Shipping is a way to impress your clients when you are into the eCommerce business. Enabling customers to track down information about the packages keeps them happier. Tracking your packages is quite important when you are into a retail business. Agility and scalability in your shipping solution are important when you are into an eCommerce business. Choosing the right and trustworthy shipping carrier like UPS for your business will keep your competitors on stake. Let me walkthrough on why UPS Shipping services is an ideal shipping carrier as well as how you can simply your WooCommerce UPS shipping with a WooCommerce shipping plugin like ELEX EasyPost plugin.

Why UPS Shipping?

UPS is one of the prominent shipping carriers offering their services across locations worldwide. It is one of the recognized and popular brand that offers impeccable services impressing clients world-wide. UPS is widely accepted for its prominent shipping services.

Advantages of UPS Shipping

Offers plenty of services to suit the need of the business from small to big size.
Various prompt and quick shipping options.
Feasible packaging options.
Low cost over shipping across international and domestic shipping.
Supports multiple marketplaces.
Internet services are stronger.
Suitable for low volume and high volume shipping.

When you consider WooCommerce , then UPS is compatible with WooCommerce as well as other popular eCommerce platforms.

Shipping by UPS

Connecting with people across locations and offering a commendable service is quite a crucial part in the industry especially in the retail one. UPS offers several tools that help to integrate with your retail store to keep all the necessary information on track and under a single entity.

UPS Internet Shipping for Low Volume or Occasional Shipping

When you want to ship individual packages, generate labels for your packages you can make use of UPS Internet Shipping. You can also create shipments easily as well as print labels using the same,

Advantages are :

1.Easy and quick access to frequently used shipping tasks. It also provides better insight about your shipment as well as make it rightly available at your fingertips. You can also create a batch file for shipments up to 250 shipments on the go.

2. No other software download is required as all the processes like shipment scheduled collection, returning the shipment, etc. are easily managed from the website itself.

3. It helps to improve the shipping capabilities with these efficient services.

Volume Shipping by UPS Shipping

In order to make the best use of UPS shipping, integrate the same with the marketplace or other bulk kinds of shipping services. Here are a few of them :

UPS CampusShip – Centralise all your shipping process and the cost of shipping using the UPS CampusShip.The shipping service is basically used by offices, multiple campuses who are spread across locations who want to deliver packages with prompt and accurate damage-free delivery. This is completely web-based and easy to use. It offers centralized online shipping interfaces as well as oversight and visibility eliminating minor problems like undelivered packages or damages etc.

WorldShip – Worldship is ideal for any business, where shipping is integral. It allows performing a multitude of things that are important for keeping your customers closer with your transparent service offering. It is also a windows-based application and offers plenty of integration to work with the data. It allows to :

Print labels for your packages
upload customs-related documents
to set up shipment alerts
Tracking the shipments
Export the shipment data or information
Run reports.

The application is window-ready, supports more than 20 languages and also integration ready.

UPS Marketplace Shipping

UPS is suitable for any marketplace. It helps to simplify eCommerce. With the UPS marketplace, the shipping options are simplified and saves your time. The UPS Marketplace helps to import the information of your eCommerce orders and then affix it with your orders on your marketplace for efficient tracking. It helps to reduce any kind of shipping errors. And moreover, it is free. It supports various marketplaces like Amazon, Allegro, eBay, Sears, Walmart, etc. It also is compatible with WooCommerce, Bigcommerce, Magento, 3DCart, Shopify, etc.

UPS Import Control

Trading across borders is not so easy, as you need to have legal documents to do the same. UPS makes importing shipments from any location work like magic with its smooth and organized the process. With UPS Import Control, it becomes easier to minimize delays on your shipments as well as reduce costs incurred.

Advantage :

Create own shipping labels and invoices even commercial ones.
Allows keeping confidential information out of third-parties.
It helps to synchronize and control imports from various suppliers.
Can easily reduce cost in shipping from worldwide suppliers.

International Courier Services

Keep your international clients happier by offering impeccable services offering international delivery.UPS offers, express on-time delivery as well as economical delivery options.

Freight and Multi-Shipping Carrier by UPS

Shipping also including shipping heavy loads. To get it done effortlessly, you need to have an efficient system in place. UPS offers excellent services for handling heavyweight packages. You can ship your heavyweight packages via air and ocean freight. With air freights you can ship your packages and make it reach faster to your customers. With air freight, it is easier to offer day-definite shipping. Ocean freight is basically processed by sending all the shipments via cargos to major ports from which these packages are then delivered to the concerned delivery locations.

ConnectShip

Integrate and automate your shipping process and accelerate your shipping services on your server or even a web-based one. It offers a centralized, scalable and customizable way to organize your shipping. It includes regional, international, as well as multi-carriers. The API ConnectShip ToolKit offers accuracy agility that will streamline all your shipping processes.

ConnectShip Warehouse is a shipping application that keeps the shipping information secured, customized, informed and convenient. It is easy to track all your shipping data here as well as improvise the return process.

Efficient Return Solutions using UPS Returns

Making returns effortlessly is important to keep your customer satisfaction level high. With UPS Parcel returns make returns easier and keep the competitive edge of your services higher. UPS offers various returns services like :

UPS Returns: Returns your parcels with the right labels and makes return easy and efficient with prompt tracking. It helps to minimize the errors in return shipments as well as helps to link the shipment information with the customer or the business to ensure transparency. It also helps to regulate the speed of inbound shipments.

UPS Return Plus: Return your high-valued items with extra security and control using the UPS Returns plus. The drivers from UPS come to your door to pick the delivery package for return providing a genuine label head for making returns much more effective. It offers 1-3 attempts of picking the return package.

UPS Return Technology: Get your return process much more automated. Especially when you are into eCommerce, it is important to automate the process of returns as most of your clients prefer to purchase online. With this, a customer can quickly place a return request on the order and also offer a pick-up location or even drop the packages at the reliable locations for return pick up.

Reverse Logistics and Post-Sales: Returns of certain items happen due to defects in products or sometimes when the product is no longer needed. While ensuring that your business is on a profitable path, make sure that your package returns do not lay stranded. UPS ensures delivering all the parts of returned objects are returned correctly.

Tracking UPS Shipping

UPS allows transparent services with regard to shipping. Any package sent via UPS is easily tracked and monitored using the efficient tracking system of UPS. The dedicated tracking number obtained from the UPS sites upon sending the package is used to track the information of the package in transit.

Upon providing the tracking number, you can easily track the package you are sending to various locations via UPS. The reliability and the scalability UPS provide in offering their services keep them one of the preferred shipping partners with WooCommerce locally, globally as well as internationally. Let us take a look at the various tracking options with UPS.

Right-Sized Tracking Solutions by UPS

Be it anything, that is shipped, if it doesn’t arrive right on time, there is no point is shipping it. UPS offers the right kind of methods in shipping items across the globe. Be it medicine or toys, when shipped in the right way using the right boxes with a preferred shipping service offering to deliver the package right on it time, makes the shipping effective. UPS offers a range of tracking tools that will help to share accurate information about the delivery of packages via its channels.

Low Volume or the Occasional Tracking

Here the tracking is done on the basis of various smaller information that will keep the customer informed about any unexpected delays, current status, ultimate delivery date, etc.

Track by Reference: If you want to track any package, you can assign any purchase order number or any other reference customer number, that will easily distinguish your order from the other.

Tracking History: UPS allows to track down your package from the history of your account page. The tracking history helps to search up to 75 shipments that were most recently tracked. Almost 50 tracking numbers can easily be managed from history. The history can also store information or descriptions to understand at a glance.

Greater Visibility for Supply Chain Management using Volume Tracking in UPS

Manage all your supply chain details using the efficient UPS tracking be it any local shipment or even a global one.

Flex Global View

The tracking service is ideal to track al your supply chain management which helps to track hundreds and thousands of your freight shipping. With Flex Global it becomes easier to track any shipment across locally and globally over multiple modes of transportation adapted for your shipment.

Total Tracking – You just need to enter the tracking data, and all the information regarding the package appears.

Supplier management – It is easy to manage the supplier details and the shipments belonging to them via Flex Global View

Inventory Tracking – It helps to keep track of the already shipped ones as well as promised ones on the list.

UPS Quantum View Manage

The UPS Quantum View Manage proactively supports consolidated visibility of your packages as well as freight shipments with customized monitoring and notifications via powerful reporting tools. This is mainly meant for small-to-mid-size companies that have lightweight domestic and international shipping.

UPS My Choice

This tracking system helps in providing up-to-date delivery alerts and also track multiple packages for prompt delivery. The service is meant for home-based business or even people who occasionally send packages. When you are choosing UPS my choice, you can opt for delivery notifications and even delivery planner to reschedule and redirect your packages if needed

UPS Mobile

With technology so advanced, everyone wants information on fingertips. Using UPS Mobile, get all your package tracking information on your mobile to constantly get to know where your package is heading to. There are various applications supporting various devices like Android, iOs as well as SMS alerts to supplement the same.

Signature Tracking for UPS

Proof of delivery is important when you are shipping-certain packages.It is important to reassure that the shipment is received by the receiver right on time and Signature Tracking is proven to be the right choice. In this way you can easily streamline your shipments and also offer transparent services.

Understanding UPS Shipping Boxes

UPS offers various packaging options while shipping, Let us take a look at the different types of UPS shipping boxes.

UPS Express Box

The Express box is a versatile option to ship items with 2nd Day Air and even UPS Next Day as well as International services. Basically, shipping large boxes is basically taken care of at a staffed location.

The following are the item numbers :

Large-010195106
Medium-01019510605
Small-01019510603Item size
Large-18in. x 13in. x 3in
Medium-16in. x 11in. x 3in.
Small- 13in. x 11in. x 2in.

The weight limit is close to 30lbs for large boxes and small and medium boxes have no special limit mentioned.

UPS Express Tube

This UPS box is majorly used for items that are easy to roll or even folded such as charts, drawings, maps, etc. It is suited for all kinds of services.

Item Number – 010195107

Item Size – 38in. x 6in. x 6in

Size – N/A

UPS World Ease Document Box

You can use this box to pack slips or any kind of internal documents. The item is shipped via any UPS shipping methods and accepted at any UPS drop box locations.

Item Number-010196002

Item Size- 17.5in. x 12.5in. x 3in.

Weight Limit- N/A

Additional options with UPS shipping are :

UPS Express Envelope
UPS Legal Express Reusable Envelope
UPS Legal Window Envelope
UPS Window Envelope
UPS Express Reusable Envelope

The above-listed ones , help in sending various kinds of documents via UPS.

UPS PAK is yet another option to send heavier documents. You can also consider padding the package to make it secure and watertight for regulated and sensitive items.

Freight options are basically meant for sending heavier items which are weighing more than 150lbs. The package can also contain each item weighing more than 150lbs. You can send packages via air, water or land. UPS also allows shipping via own containers.

Configuring WooCommerce Shipping

In order to set up WooCommerce Shipping, on a WooCommerce store, you can simply set up the shipping in the WooCommerce settings. WooCommerce allows us to include shipping options in the basic settings.

In the WooCommerce shipping options, you can provide shipping details like the Shipping Zones, Shipping options, and Shipping Classes. The shipping zones give you the option to choose which zones you want to include shipping in your WooCommerce store.

You can easily select zones and the shipping methods that suit your shipping needs. Basically, WooCommerce supports three types of Shipping methods – Flat rate, Local Pickup and Free Shipping.

WooCommerce shipping with Free Shipping Method

When you select the WooCommerce shipping method as Free Shipping for your store. Any zone you select for your store in the WooCommerce Shipping will get the packages without any shipping charges.

On selecting the free shipping option you get free shipping on your cart for your selected products in the selected zones.

Falt-rate Shipping with WooCommerce Shipping

WooCommerce also offers flat-rate shipping by default. In order to obtain a flat-rate shipping option, you can easily select the flat-rate from the shipping options and then customize it for any WooCommerce shipping zones required.

Upon selecting flat-rate, you get flat-rate on your cart.

WooCommerce Shipping with Local Pickup Shipping Method

When you are in and around regions where the customer can easily opt for local- pick up, then you can also opt for the same.

Upon selecting for local pick up, you can easily schedule a local pick-up for your customers for selected products in specific zones.

Why Choose WooCommerce UPS Shipping?

Even though WooCommerce has inhouse certain shipping options to get your shipping done, it is ideal to use external shipping plugins which can provide a variety of options to perform shipping as well as obtain real-time rates.

UPS is a widely accepted shipping carrier in WooCommerce and is easily integrated with WooCommerce Shipping plugins like ELEX EasyPost (FedEx, UPS & USPS) Shipping & Label Printing Plugin for WooCommerce. The plugin effortlessly allows integrating with UPS shipping service and even obtain the real-time shipping rates in your store.

With the EasyPost Shipping plugin, the UPS Shipping Services becomes much more effective. You can improve the customer experience with this effective UPS Shipping plugin. UPS is ideal for companies with varied sizes. With the integration of UPS on your store, you can offer shipping history, tracking details and even email notifications to the customers without much hassle. As well as the plugin helps to automate the shipping process on your WooCommerce store. Also, you can provide estimated delivery dates and UPS rates for your shipping.

Here are the advantages of using the EasyPost Shipping for your WooCommerce store:

You can provide a centralized location for all your shipping services needs.
It is easier to incorporate several kinds of services.
You can also integrate market place shipping with the EasyPost plugin.
Also, multiple payment options can also be integrated with your store.
Moreover, live shipping rates (UPS, FedEx, and USPS ) gets displayed.

Integrating ELEX EasyPost( FedEx, UPS & USPS ) Shipping & Label Printing Plugin for WooCommerce on your WooCommerce store

Using the ELEX EasyPost plugin, you can opt to integrate UPS Shipping in a jiffy. Firstly you need to download the plugin from Elextensions.

Once the plugin is installed you can see the EasyPost option on your WooCommerce Shipping settings.

With the EasyPost, you can now configure the shipping options easily provider greater options to work on.

You can opt for obtaining the real-time rates for your WooCommerce store and then offer to ship effectively to your customers. You also need an API key provided by the EasyPost.

Here you can set the estimated delivery settings, like the days, cut-off time, etc. In the Carrier and Rate settings, you can specify which EasyPost Service you want to avail. Here you can opt for UPS, FedEx or USPS. When you chose UPS as your carrier, then you get the list of supported services to choose from.

In here UPS offers services like :

Ground
3DSelect
2ndDayAirAM
2ndDayAir
NextDayAirSaver
NextDayAirEarlyAM
NextDayAir
Express
Expedited
ExpressPlus
UPSSaver
UPSStandard

Upon selecting the shipping service, you also have an option to provide price adjustments to specific shipping service. The price adjustments let you configure the handling charges for each kind of shipping service you opt for. You can provide a positive value results in the markup and a negative value results display in the discounts. Here you can also choose the shipping rates type from residential, Commercial and Retail.

Label Generation using EasyPost for UPS

EasyPost Plugin also gives you the option to print labels for your packages. You can provide the print format, insurance preferences, etc.

Packaging Options on EasyPost with UPS Shipping

Since EasyPost provides various shipping options, it is easy to make use of it in a marketplace. With EasyPost you can provide packaging options like :

Pack the items individually
Pack into boxes with proper dimensions and weight.
Also, Pack items on the basis of weight.

You can choose the packaging based on your requirements.

EasyPost UPS Shipping options on your Cart Page

Once you configure your EasyPost UPS settings then you can find the UPS shipping services listed with the estimated delivery date and time on your cart page.

When you get the various options on Shipping carriers displayed, you can easily choose from it.

Tracking UPS shipment on your WooCommerce

Tracking your package on a real-time basis is rather a great advantage. Make use of the UPS Tracking id on your WooCommerce website to track the information. When your customer places an order on your WooCommerce website, an order id is generated for the order processed. WIth the EasyPost plugin, it becomes easier to generate a shipment for the same and also a label for your package. Once the shipment is generated, you also get a UPS tracking id. With the tracking-id, you can quickly track the information of your package in transit.

Conclusion

Hence from the above data, you can easily understand why UPS services stand out among its competitors as well as how you can quickly and effortlessly integrate your UPS shipping services with your WooCommerce store using WooCommerce UPS Shipping plugin like ELEX EasyPost Shipping plugin. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on the 7 Best WooCommerce Points and Rewards Plugins!

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Filed under: eCommerce, WordpressTagged with: woo ups shipping

7 Best WooCommerce Points and Rewards Plugins

Posted on February 8, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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There is an old saying among retailers. advertisers and sales people, that it is much easier to make an existing customer purchase from you than acquiring a new one. And hence, it is important to keep customers loyal to your business. You should be able to provide a consistently good user experience and keep customers interested in your products. A good strategy to build long term relationships with customers will be to offer a points and rewards system on your store. In this article, I will discuss some of the best WooCommerce points and rewards plugins you can use on your store.

WooCommerce Points and Rewards

This plugin helps you reward your customers for purchases as well as other actions that you want them to take on your store. You can set up a systematic approach to grant points based on different criteria relevant to your store. While using this plugin, you will have complete control over the reward system by setting limits to the allocation of points and associated discounts. You can allot points globally across your entire product range, or only to the purchase of specific products or categories.

It gives you great scope to set up conversion rates for reward points. For example, you can set a rate that defines a specific number of reward points will be converted to discounts during a purchase. More importantly, you can set limits that determine how many points can be availed for a single purchase. Customers will be able to view and manage their points balance from their My Account page. The plugin also offers extensive customization options to personalize your reward system, and also to communicate with customers.

Features

Easily create a reward system by defining points for purchases and actions, and assign discount values for point redemption.
Encourage customers to sign up for your newsletters or to leave product reviews by assigning points for these actions.
Set limits to the maximum discount value at product, category or cart levels.
Simple settings for customers to manage their points balance.
Store owners can easily access the points changes made by individual customers.

A single site subscription of this plugin will cost you $129.

YITH WooCommerce Points and Rewards

A loyalty program on your eCommerce store will be a great option to retain customers and build long term relationships with them. With the help of this plugin, your customers will be able to amass points when they make a purchase on your store. They can collect a certain number of points to redeem it for coupons or discount on your store during future purchases. This will be a great way to encourage customers to purchase regularly from your store.

WooCommerce Points and Rewards Plugins — This plugin offers a lot of options to personalize your points and rewards system.

It even helps you set up instant rewards when a customer makes the first purchase as well. Moreover, the plugin offers a great interface to help both customers and store owners to manage the points system.

Features

Create a point system to reward loyal customers for their purchases.
Limit the reward system to only a group of customers using user roles.
Set up unique point system for specific products or categories.
Shop managers will be able to modify the points balance of customers manually.
Supports all WooCommerce products including variable products.
Specify a specific order status to be attained to award points.
Set expiry dates for points so that customers will be encouraged to purchase more from you.
Send notifications to customers for points redemption, expiry, etc.
Assign points for specific actions on your store such as registration, adding a review, reaching a milestone, birthdays, etc.
Display point information (such as how many points will be earned) on product, cart and checkout pages.
Option to redeem points for free shipping offer.
Simple interface for customers to view and manage their points.
Support for multiple currencies.

A single site subscription of this plugin will cost you $89.99.

Sumo Reward Points – WooCommerce Reward System

This is a comprehensive option to set up a reward and loyalty program on your store. You will be able to include and encourage customers to be part of your business growth with the help of this plugin. Basically, you will be able to assign reward points to customers for purchases, writing reviews, sharing your products in social media, referrals and even to sign up on your store. Customers will be able to redeem the reward points they earn for discounts in future purchases.

The plugin supports different product types including subscription points. Moreover, it offers a simple user interface that will let you set up conversion rates for earning as well as redeeming points. You can also set higher limits for points redemption so that the reward program will not affect your profitability.

Features

Helps to create an efficient reward system on your WooCommerce store to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Assign points for different scenarios like product purchase, reviews, referrals, social promotion, etc.
Set reward points for all products in your catalog, or only for specific ones or categories.
Allow customers to redeem points for cash, or transfer to other customers.
Set minimum and maximum limits for points redemption.

The regular license of this plugin is available at $49.

WooCommerce Ultimate Points and Rewards

This is another interesting option to create a loyalty program on your store. You can assign points to customers for purchases and they will be able to redeem the points as coupons or discounts. With its unique settings it will help you retain existing customers while attracting new customers. The plugin even allows you to create multi-tiered membership levels that will let you create different discount rates for points redemption.

Features

Offer points to customers for different actions on your store such as product purchase, writing reviews, referring friends, etc.
Reward customers for commenting and sharing your referral links in social media as well.
Customers will be able to redeem points by using them for partial payments for future orders.
Set an expiry date for points, and notify customers when their points are nearing expiry.
Easy configuration options to set conversion rate for points allotment and redemption.
Supports variable products so that you can assign points for the purchase of individual variations as well.
Customers will be able to share their points with other customers.

The plugin costs $39 for a regular license.

WooRewards

WooRewards is a feature-rich plugin that will help you create an extensive rewards and loyalty program on your online store. It has an intuitive interface that will help you configure the reward points system effortlessly. Moreover, there are several shortcodes and widgets to help you personalize the rewards system on your store. And, regular feature updates will help you take the benefits of the latest trends of marketing.

Features

Helps you create diverse loyalty systems, which will help you set up more than 15 methods for customers to earn points.
Let customers redeem their points in the form of discounts or free products.
Wizard to help you generate loyalty programs automatically.
Layered reward system where customers will be able to unlock more rewards as they progress.
Create temporary rewards system for celebrating holidays or customers’ birthdays.
Shortcodes and widgets to help you display relevant information to customers.
Extensive customization options.
Complete integration with WooCommerce.

The Pro license of this plugin will cost you $70.

Gratisfaction

Gratisfaction is a comprehensive platform that will help you with loyalty marketing, referrals, gamification and other marketing campaigns. You can download the Gratisfaction plugin for WooCommerce to integrate it to your store. It allows you to reward customers for different actions such as purchase, reviews, signups, referrals, social shares and more. Moreover, there is flexibility in redeeming reward points as well, as customers will be able to convert points to discounts or for free gifts. You will be able to increase your conversions as well as customer loyalty using this plugin.

myCred

myCred is a flexible points management system that you can use on your WooCommerce store. It lets you reward your customers in three ways – through points, ranks and badges. The plugin offers automatic point allocation when customers perform specific actions on your store. You can reward customers for simple actions like logging in to your site or for leaving a comment. The plugin lets you create limits to redeeming points so that it will be in the expected range. Moreover, there are several add-ons available with the plugin to simplify complex tasks associates with the plugin.

Best WooCommerce Points and Rewards plugins — myCred helps you with an adaptive reward management system to try out creative marketing ideas on your WooCommerce store.

Hopefully, this post, which covers some of the main extensions or plugins available will help you pick the best from the best WooCommerce points and rewards plugins. Please leave us a comment below with your thoughts. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on 83 Top WooCommerce Extensions!

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Filed under: eCommerce, WordpressTagged with: points and rewards, rewards plugins

WordPress or ClassicPress Pingbacks & Trackbacks Guide

Posted on February 7, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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WordPress or ClassicPress trackbacks and pingbacks can be confusing for beginners, especially with the connotations of spam surrounding them. Both features have been around since the early days of blogging. Still, many WordPress users don’t know they exist or how to use them effectively. Usually, many users start learning about pingbacks/trackbacks after a ton of spammy links appear in their comments.

In this post, I cover all there is about WordPress pingbacks and trackbacks. Firstly, I help you to understand the difference between the two. Secondly, I cover the pros and cons of using pingbacks and trackbacks. Thirdly, I show you how to enable/disable trackbacks and pingbacks. Fourthly, I help you to decide whether to use them on your WordPress website.

Somewhere in the article, I cover a couple of pingback/trackback best practices. That’s not all; if you choose not to use pingbacks/trackbacks, I cover a couple of alternative methods to build natural links and offer your readers more content. To top it all, I throw in a couple of useful plugins for good measure! So:

What Are Pingbacks and Trackbacks? Plus, Why They’re Important

A WordPress trackback allows Jane to inform John that she linked to his content in one of her articles. A pingback is an automatic version of the trackback. Call it an upgrade with a few differences.

In most WordPress themes, trackbacks and pingbacks appear in the comment section – in a separate section or alongside other comments. It’s a way of Jane letting John know, “Hey, I have your back,” or “Here’s something you might be interested in.”

What Are Trackbacks?

The trackback protocol was first released in August 2002, by Six Apart Ltd, the guys behind the Movable Type CMS. It’s was designed to provide a means of notification between websites. The feature was first implemented in Moveable Type 2.2, but today, all major blogging tools such as WordPress, B2, and Blogger support trackback.

According to the WordPress Glossary:

A trackback helps you to notify another author that you wrote something related to what he had written on his blog, even if you don’t have an explicit link to his article.

This improves the chances of the other author sitting up and noticing that you gave him credit for something, or that you improved upon something he wrote, or something similar.

Think of them as the references at the end of an academic paper or a chapter in a textbook. To use trackback, you must have a trackback URL. How do you get a trackback URL?

Well, that’s extremely easy.

Firstly, go to the post on the other person’s blog and find the trackback URL. If they use WordPress, add /trackback/ at the end of the post’s permalink to create the trackback URL.

Next, write your post, paste the trackback URL in the Send Trackback section, and publish your article.

The Send Trackbacks section below the WordPress Classic Editor

As soon as you publish your article, WordPress will create an excerpt with a link back to your post and send it to the recipient website. The trackback will appear in the comment moderation screen, where the other person can post, spam, or trash it.

Notes:

The other person must have pingbacks and trackbacks enabled on their website to receive your trackbacks
At the time of writing, you must use the Classic Editor to see the Send Trackbacks section. I couldn’t find the part in Gutenberg, but that’s alright since WordPress supports automatic pingbacks if you’re linking to other WordPress-based sites.

Note: The Wordpress fork ClassicPress, uses the Classic Editor as default, and comes with zero plugins.

Now that you know what trackbacks are, what, then, are pingbacks?

What Are Pingbacks?

You can think of the pingback as an improved version of the trackback protocol. Whereas the trackback involves a lot of manual work, the pingback is automatic. It’s a comment that’s automatically created when you link to another article where pingbacks are enabled.

In other words, you simply need to link to the other person’s blog post to create a pingback that the other guy can – again – spam, post, or trash. If they approve your pingback, it’s is displayed in the comments area.

Unlike what many “gurus” say, a pingback includes an excerpt just like the trackback, but most themes (including default WordPress themes) don’t display these excerpts. Meh ? So, the trackback will appear with an excerpt, but pingbacks will look like links.

The pingback specification is authored and maintained by Ian Hickson and Stuart Langridge. It’s harder to fake than trackback, and fully automatic provided both sites have the pingback feature enabled. As such, many users prefer pingbacks to trackbacks.

Side Note:

Pingbacks and trackbacks used to be popular because both were great ways of sharing and continuing the conversation. They were great when starting, and real people were linking back to your content, but once you became famous, things became hectic thanks to spammers.
The only difference between pingbacks and trackbacks is the communication technology each protocol uses

That being said, let us explore the pros and cons of pingbacks/trackbacks, so you can decide whether to enable or disable them.

Pros of Pingbacks/Trackbacks

It’s easy to see why many people loved both technologies. The potential benefits of pingbacks and trackbacks include:

Providing related content on your website, increasing the value of the content you offer to your users.
Building authority and clout. If an influential blogger or website links to your content via pingbacks or trackbacks, it can help you create authority around your content by displaying the pingbacks in your comment section.
Increasing traffic via backlinks. If a popular website publishes your pingbacks and trackbacks in their comment section, it can result in more traffic for your website.
Since pingbacks and trackbacks are essentially backlinks, they help you to improve SEO, provided you’re linking to authoritative (as opposed to spammy) sites.
Since a pingback or trackback shows the other person your willingness to share their content, they might end up sharing your content as well, which is great for traffic and brand outreach.

Cons of Pingbacks/Trackbacks

Pingbacks and trackbacks would have remained beautiful ways to connect, were it not for overzealous spammers armed with nasty splogs. Now, pingbacks and trackbacks are notorious for:

Spam, spam, and more spam. Spammers use trackbacks and pingbacks to send tons of spam. In fact, trackback spam is one of the five most common types of spam, according to CognitiveSEO. You can, however, combat trackback spam with a robust anti-spam plugin. Still, your spam folder will grow like crazy.
Poor SEO. If you leave pingbacks and trackbacks unmonitored, spammers can easily create trackbacks that make it look like you’re the one linking to them.
Tarningshing brand reputation. Nasty links on your site leading to porn, viagra or splog websites will destroy your brand reputation for sure.
Time-consuming. The major challenge with pingbacks and trackbacks is spam and a lot of it, for that matter. Moderating pingbacks and trackbacks takes away a massive chunk of your time, time that you can put to better use. Most websites don’t use pingbacks and trackbacks anymore, meaning you might end up wasting time sending trackbacks manually.
Self-pingbacks. If you link to other posts on your blog, WordPress will create pingbacks automatically, which can become annoying over time, especially if you’re creating a lot of internal links constantly. You can overcome self-pings using the No Self Pings WordPress plugin by Michael D. Adams.

How to Enable/Disable Pingbacks & Trackbacks

Pingbacks and trackbacks are enabled by default in WordPress. If you’re tired of spammy pingbacks, disabling pingbacks and trackbacks on your WordPress site is as easy as A, B, C. In your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to Settings > Discussion as shown below.

Next, uncheck “Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks) on new posts,” as we highlight in the image below.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button.

To enable pingbacks again, simply tick the checkbox and save your changes.

Note that you can enable pingbacks and trackbacks on a per-post basis. In your post editor, find the Discussion section. Next, check the “Allow trackbacks and pingbacks on this page” and update/publish your post:

Aside: If you don’t see the Discussion section (or even the Send Trackbacks section we mentioned earlier), click Screen Options at the top of the page and tick the respective checkboxes, as detailed below.

Disabling pingbacks and trackbacks, as we just learned, will only work for future posts. Previous posts will continue receiving pingbacks and trackbacks. So, how do we disable both for existing posts?

How to Disable Pingbacks & Trackbacks on Existing Posts

Navigate to Posts > All Posts, as seen below.

Next, click Screen Options at the top of the screen, enter 999 in the Number of items per page field and hit the Apply button:

The screen will reload to show up to 999 posts on the same page, which is excellent if you have hundreds of existing posts.

Next, tick the Title checkbox to select all posts:

After that, click the Bulk Actions drop-down, choose Edit and click the Apply button:

After that, select “Do not allow” under Pings and click the Update button, as seen below.

If you have more than 999 posts, you will need to go to the next page and repeat the process. Doing so disables pingbacks and trackbacks on selected posts. However, you will need to manually delete unwanted pingbacks and trackbacks on a per-post basis, or via the comment moderation screen.

That out of the way, let us look at some WordPress best practices that will finally help you decide whether to use pingbacks and trackbacks.

WordPress Pingback/Trackback Best Practices

If you end up using pingback and trackbacks on your site, it’s essential to do it right from the start. This will help you to reap the benefits of both technologies without spamming others at the same time. If your main objective is to drive more traffic via pingbacks, the following tips will come in handy.

Notify the other person via social media or email. At times, your pingback or trackback might not reach the recipient for several reasons. When you link to another blog post, let them know via social media or email. On top of letting them know about the pingback, it can potentially expose your content to their social media followers.
Always link to a blog post, not the homepage. If you link to a homepage, no WordPress trackback will be sent. Even if you only want to mention their blog, link to a post instead of the homepage.
Do not publish self-trackbacks. It dilutes your valuable links on any given page.
Never use pingbacks and trackbacks to distribute spam knowingly.
Be extra vigilant with your pingbacks and trackbacks (or disable the features completely).

So, Should You Use Pingbacks/Trackbacks?

It’s entirely up to you and what you want to achieve. If done right, you can drive traffic and enjoy the other benefits. If left unmonitored, pingbacks and trackbacks can leave you with a lot of spam.

In my experience, 99% of pingbacks and trackbacks came from spammers, so I disabled the feature altogether. I choose to focus my time and energy on other effective methods. Some of the alternative methods I use include:

If spammers didn’t ruin the fun for everybody, I think pingbacks and trackbacks would outshine many methods of building backlinks. Nowadays, both technologies are not as popular as they used to be, and we have spammers to thank for that. Besides, many websites are employing newer methods of link building and traffic generation.

If you can hack it though, take a jab at pingbacks and see if it’s your cup of tea. Just get a useful anti-spam plugin from the start, or you will have a hard time dealing with endless strings of useless spam, especially when you become famous, and if you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on How to Set Your WordPress or ClassicPress Homepage!

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Filed under: eCommerce, WordpressTagged with: pingbacks, trackbacks

How to Set Your WordPress or ClassicPress Homepage

Posted on February 7, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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If you’ve ever bought a WordPress theme, installed it, then wondered why it doesn’t look exactly the way you saw it in the preview. you’ll know what it feels like to be a little bamboozled. What about a situation where you’d like to completely remove the blog portion of your website from the homepage? Website homepages mean a lot when it comes to conversions. This goes for email newsletter signups, sales and client leads. Yet, configuring your homepage on WordPress takes a little elbow grease to make perfect. But don’t worry, setting up and editing your WordPress homepage is just about one of the easiest tasks you’ll encounter. Then, after you know the routine you’ll have no problem completing the same task over and over with future websites.

When Would You Need to Set & Edit Your WordPress Homepage?

Seeing as how this is WordPress, a blogging platform, your blog shows up by default for a new WordPress installation. This means that all of your most recent posts show up on the first page that everyone lands on. For some websites, this is perfectly fine. For others, it doesn’t make sense from a marketing standpoint. Since WordPress has evolved into a well-rounded website builder, companies are looking for static homepages, where they can present information on products, services and the people working at the company.

For these companies, a blog is more of a secondary section that customers can navigate to if they want, or when they land on one of the blog posts from a search engine.

So, that begs the question, when would you want to set and edit your WordPress homepage?

Well, the main time is when you don’t want your blog out front. This happens when you have some of the following goals:

Increase email subscribers
Get more leads
Generate more sales
More of a focus on your services
When you don’t plan on having a blog at all (like a landing page)
In a situation where you’re not quite ready to start a blog

Editing the homepage is an entirely different story. Unless you’re entirely satisfied with the theme and default configuration of that theme, chances are you’ll want to edit some aspects of your website. For example, you might want to achieve some of the following:

One or multiple sidebars
Show widgets
Have a different navigational menu setup
New colors, logos or other design aspects

In short, most WordPress users make at least a few adjustments to their homepages. One of the most popular ones is adding a static page instead of the blog, while others are keen on keeping the blog but still adding all of their favorite widgets.

Now that we’ve understood the “why” behind setting and editing your WordPress homepage, let’s explore how to complete the process.

How to Set a Static Homepage in WordPress

As discussed you have the option to leave your blog on the homepage. But if you’re more inclined to make more of a landing page or add a slider or product gallery, changing your homepage to a static homepage is required. In fact, the vast majority of premium themes you purchase are going to ask you to immediately switch to a static homepage.

Start by opening up your WordPress dashboard and going to Settings > Reading. Select the Reading tab to open up several settings for your homepage.

Find the Your Homepage Displays section to see what exactly your website is currently showing on the homepage. Chances are it’s on the Latest Posts option by default. To choose a different page click on the Static Page radio button to select and set your new homepage.

Upon selection, WordPress reveals two more choices for you to make. One of them asks you which page you’d like to show as your Front Page and the other is for your Posts Page. If you already have a bunch of pages made on your website (sometimes themes generate core pages for you, or perhaps you’ve already gone through and made your pages) just scroll down to find the pages you want.

Note: You need to have already created and published your pages to be able to select them.

For example, a standard setup would be to choose the Homepage or Front Page as your Front Page. Keep in mind, this all depends on the names you give your pages, so it could be completely different for you.

For the Posts Page, you might select a page called Blog or Posts or whatever else you decided on.

Hit the Save Changes button, then navigate to the frontend of your website to see how that static page has become your homepage.

How to Make Your Blog the Homepage

Some folks only want to show their blog. It’s most common with, you guessed it, blogs! A general business website probably won’t have a blog as its front page, but a website dedicated solely to written content is more likely to want those articles on the homepage.

Therefore, go to Settings > Reading, then check to make sure that you have Your Latest Posts marked. You don’t have to adjust the selection for the Front Page or Posts Page. Those will be blanked out.

However, a few edits can be made depending on how you’d like your blog to show up. First is the Blog Pages Show at Most count – this is how many posts are displayed per page. You might want to have only five or ten of your most recent blog posts on the homepage. Some larger publications keep hundreds of posts on the front page, while many blogs limit then number. But no matter what you choose if you have more posts than the number you want displayed your blog will create additional pages for the posts (this is called pagination). So if you have 25 posts and choose to show 10 posts per page, your blog will have 3 pages created to display your posts (you can see WPExplorer has 75 pages

Next is the the Syndication Feeds Show the Most Recent count. This is used for RSS feeds and can be the same number as your blog pages, but it’s entirely up to you.

Finally, you also have a big decision to make regarding how those posts are going to appear. Your choices are Full Text and Summary. The summary gives users a chance to see more posts in a few scrolls of the mouse, and is what we use on WPExplorer. The full text, however, reveals every single word and image from every post. Therefore, a visitor must scroll all the way through the first post to get to the second. I’d recommend the Summary option, but lots of websites have the full text.

How to Create a WordPress Menu

Your WordPress theme probably isn’t automatically going to implement a clean menu. In fact, you might not see one at all.

Therefore you’ll need to go to Appearance > Menus.

Either select a menu to edit by choosing it from the dropdown or click on the Create a New Menu link. While your theme may include a few default menus in the sample data, creating a new menu will allow you to make one from scratch.

Regardless, once you create your menu or find the one you like, you can bring it up to alter the structure. Choose from pages, posts, categories, tags and custom post types to add to your menu. Or you can add a custom link as a menu item. Maybe you’d like to move your Blog tab a little closer to the front of the menu, allowing people to see it easier. You can click and drag menu items to reorder or nest them, and use the option in the left hand column to add new pages, posts, categories and custom links.

After your menu is organized be sure to select your Display location and save. Or you can go to the Manage Locations tab. All themes have different menu locations, but the most common are usually a Main Menu and a Footer Menu.

All you have to do is use the dropdown to select a menu you’ve created for each location. For instance, I want my Main menu to be placed in the Primary location.

Note: You can use the same menu in multiple locations.

How to Create a Menu in the Live Customizer

Another option is to set and edit your homepage from the WordPress live Customizer. To do this you’ll want to navigate to Appearance > Customize first.

From here select the Menu option.

Then either choose an exiting menu to edit or click to Create New Menu.

From here you can Use the +Add Items button to choose from the same pages, posts, categories, tags, custom post types and custom link options available from Appearance > Menus.

Just be sure to select your Menu Locations and Publish your menu when done.

Note: Any menus you create and save under Appearance > Menus will also be available from Appearance > Customizer, and vice versa.

Additional Homepage Editing Thoughts

From moving around widgets to customizing your homepage background, the majority of these homepage tools reside in the Appearance tab. In addition, the Customize tab (under Appearance) reveals a visual builder that’s great for uploading a logo, changing fonts and choosing your colors.

Want to Create a Custom Homepage?

If you want a custom (or customized) homepage but your theme doesn’t offer any added options to change colors, fonts, layouts etc you can always install a plugin.

If you simply want to tweak the elements that are already on your homepage (like change a font size, or edit paddings) then install a WordPress CSS Live Editor plugin.
If you want to build a completely custom homepage from scratch, then you should have a look at a WordPress page builder plugin that includes tons of easy drag & drop elements for you to design your own layout (or a new theme like Total that already includes a drag & drop builder)

After all of that, your homepage is ready to go!

Conclusion

Sometimes you feel like your website is broken or you’re doing something wrong, but you’ll often find that a quick adjustment with the front page display does the trick. Hopefully, you’ve found this helpful for setting and editing your WordPress homepage. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions. If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on the 5 Best Wordpress or ClassicPress Security Check Tools!

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Filed under: Development, eCommerce, WordpressTagged with: homepage settings, wordpress homepage

Fix the Most Common SEO Issues on Your Site Using 301 Redirects

Posted on February 7, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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Whenever you see a commercial or an article talking about creating websites, or you hear someone talking about starting one, the emphasis is always on “I was surprised at how quickly I have created my website, it only took me a couple of days!”. It makes you feel like creating an online presence, and earning a living online is a mere piece of cake that takes two days tops. Still, the ugly truth behind it is that there is no “set it up & leave it” aspect to having an online presence that puts the bread on the table. Maintaining your website is constant work, additionally, sites are rarely completed in a couple of days.

First, you need to work on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to actually get some visitors to your site. Then you have to work on their user experience (UX) to keep them there and help them make the decision to leave their money with you.

While setting up your website is no brain surgery nowadays with WordPress’ Gutenberg, for example, getting on the first page of Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP) so that your visitors will find you, almost is as difficult as open-heart surgery. Keeping your visitors on your site and having them spend their money with you is a result of a good user experience. The catch here is that there is no such thing as rules when it comes to UX, with everything being mere guidelines. UX takes a lot of testing and implementing feedback for the results to show.

Luckily, there is a technique that will help you make your customers happy, and that can help with both SEO and UX. It is called 301 redirections. What are 301 redirects, and in what instances would you use 301 redirects to help? Let’s check it out.

What are 301 redirects, and why should I use them?

301 redirects are a technique that you can implement to guide your traffic from one URL to another. They state that something that was on URL1 has moved permanently to URL2, directing traffic to URL2 without them realizing it.

It comes quite handy in numerous instances and plays a huge role in keeping your visitors happy and coming back, which is the key to making a living online. Here are some scenarios when you would find this technique useful.

Moving from one domain to another

Many people, when creating their new site, tend to overlook the importance of a proper domain name, especially when they are trying to get their online presence up and running in no time. This can prove to be a costly mistake later, as having a proper domain name can help immensely with your SEO score.

However, even if that’s the case with your site, not everything is lost. You can always move to another domain. This is where 301 redirects come handy, as they can help you ensure that your visitors will be moving to the new site as well, without going to the old one.

Taking care of 404’s on your site

Those pesky 404’s tend to creep into every site every now and then and are usually no reason to worry. However, if left unattended, they can do some serious damage to your website’s UX. Just think about how you feel when you are trying to find something online, you click on a link, and you get “Nothing found here” error.

In frustration, you probably click back and head on to the next result. Your visitors do the same. So, it is quite important to set up a 301 redirect, and have your visitors land somewhere else instead of on the 404 page in the first place, no matter how nicely you designed it.

Making sure your content is updated at all times

On the same note, if you are searching online for “the best SEO practices,” and you click on the first result only to find that that result goes way back to 2016, you might feel rather disappointed. This is another situation where 301 redirects can help with your user experience.

What you should do is create a new article “the best SEO practices in 2020”, and set up a redirect for the older article to take the visitors to the new one. Not only are you providing your visitors with relevant and useful information, but you are also helping the new article rank higher in SERP, meaning more visitors!

Google will take notice that your visitors are actually reading the article instead of hitting back – which is what Search Engine Optimization is all about.

The Cocktail Technique

Speaking of helping the article rank higher using redirects, “The Cocktail Technique,” coined by ahref, which is a technique of merging two pieces of content into one. This helps immensely with page or post’s authority, as now a single piece of content has the authority of the two combined, meaning that it gets more credit from Google, too. Ultimately, the new piece will have a better result in SERP!

Stting up 301 Redirects on a WordPress site

You might have figured out the importance of setting up 301 redirects before but kept postponing it or trying to avoid it because messing up with .htaccess file is really not your thing.

That’s okay – not everyone is comfortable with writing code. It is probably why you are running your site on the WordPress platform, too.

However, every WordPress-er knows that when it comes to WordPress solutions, all you should do is find a proper plugin to help you out. With over fifty-thousand plugins in the official WordPress repository, it is quite impossible not to find the one to help you out with any kind of problem you might have.

The same goes for setting up 301 redirects on your site. The good news is that you don’t have to dig deep. There is a plugin called “301 redirects” which can help you with setting them up in no time.

Set redirects up with 301 Redirects plugin

301 Redirects plugin is by far the simplest way to set up your 301 redirects and win the battle with any of the instances mentioned above. Not only will this plugin help you set up your redirects in no time, but it is also very safe to use.

It doesn’t come with any unnecessary code that would slow down your site, or collide with other plugins.

Let’s check the few, carefully selected features this plugin comes with.

Effortlessly set up 301 redirects

With this plugin, setting up redirects is as simple as a copy and paste. No complicated editing, trying to figure out code, or anything of the kind. All you should be aware of is the URL of the page you want to redirect from, and the URL of the page you want to redirect to.

Once you figure that out, the location of your 404 page, for example, all you have to do is to copy and paste the URL in the “redirect from” provided field and copy and paste the new URL into “redirect to” field. The plugin will do the rest.

Managing the redirects on your site can be done in another way – using the provided dropdown menu, which makes the process even simpler. Instead of pasting the “redirect to,” you can effortlessly choose the destination from the dropdown menu, which includes Custom, Post, Page, Media, and also Term Archive for you to select from.

Simple preview of all existing redirects and number of times they were used

As soon as you create a redirect, it will be neatly listed under the redirect rules feature. From there, you can effortlessly edit them, remove them, or, overall, modify them to fit your needs. Apart from being able to preview them, you will also be able to see how many times a specific redirect was used – thanks to the hits tab. This way, you can monitor the effectiveness of the redirects you set up.

Import or Export redirects in Bulk

You might have prepared an Excel file containing all the redirects you need to set up, and are now frustrated about the amount of copy-paste you need to do. Everybody hates repetitive, manual work, which is why the Import/Export feature is a true nerve-saver.

Thanks to this feature, you can simply export your table as a CSV file, and then upload your CSV file into the plugin. The plugin will take it from there, turn those values into redirects, while you sit back and relax.

On the same note, you can take advantage of the Export feature, and export all the existing redirects into a CSV file. It’s perfect if you are looking to share them, or store them outside WordPress.

Conclusion

All in all, gaining new visitors and keeping them happy with fresh and relevant content is what SEO and UX are all about. It is mandatory that you provide them with what the information they were searching for instead of a 404 page or outdated piece of content, which is why redirects are an important aspect of every online presence.

With 301 Redirects plugin, setting them up is a piece of cake, even if you have never done it before. Just a couple of ctrl+v’s, and you are good to go. Overall, if you need to handle those UX and SEO mistakes, this is the plugin to keep in your arsenal! If you enjoyed this post, why not check out this article on 5 Best Wordpress or ClassicPress Security Check Tools!

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Filed under: Development, eCommerce, WordpressTagged with: 301 redirects, seo

Efficiently Manage LearnDash In Wordpress Or ClassicPress

Posted on February 7, 2020
By Paul Anthony McGowan
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Managing courses, students along with handling administration responsibilities can be tedious. And although this is what you have to do on a day-to-day basis, you wonder if there are other efficient ways to handle all of this? Is it possible to delegate course management responsibilities to co-authors? Is there a better, student-friendly way to update your courses – through feedback maybe? How about a faster way to create new courses in Wordpress or ClassicPress? Here I’ve rounded up a few tips to help manage your LearnDash website effectively.

Bulk Enrollment Hack: Efficiently handle student enrollment in groups

Student enrollment takes time. Entering student details, the whole communication, can be a long-winding process. To scale up, you’d have to offload some responsibilities to group leaders and empower them to enroll students.

The plugin for the job: WISDM Group Registration

Manage LearnDash LMS Using this extension you can effortlessly handle student enrollment in groups and assign Group Leaders. As the ‘Admin’ you have control over groups and those who get added. But group leaders can purchase the course on behalf of multiple students and them to it, manage members and analyze reports, taking this task off of your shoulders. This is also a great way to open up your courses to schools or corporations where students get enrolled in bulk or batches.

Course Management Hack: Empower teachers to undertake course creation and updation

Of all the things you have to do, course creation and management might just be the thing that impacts your business in the most positive way. But when you’ve got other tasks, creating and managing courses can be difficult at times. Your option? To hand this over to fellow instructors.

LearnDash extension to use: WISDM Instructor Role

Manage LearnDash LMS

Instructors or course creators can help you add new courses, increase your offering, and manage the ones you already have. They can assist with student evaluation too. The Instructor Role plugin also offers instructors a custom dashboard to make it easy to work with WordPress.

Student Experience Hack: Improve trust with reviews

Course credibility is directly linked to student trust, and hence, enrolment. Reviews, ratings, and feedback help increase this trust and get students to believe in your offering.

Feedback is also a great way to improve your course content and meet students’ needs.

The plugins for the job – LearnDash Student Voice or WISDM Ratings, Reviews, and Feedback

Student Experience Hack: Provide a classroom-like note-taking experience

LearnDash Notes is the perfect tool to boost engagement and learning. You can enable a new level of learner involvement within your LearnDash courses. By configuring various notifications to be sent out automatically based on learner actions, the plugin offers a richer learning experience.

Student Experience Hack: Improved course layouts and branding

Nothing appeals better to students than an attractive user interface. While there’s nothing to take away from LearnDash in terms of functionality, the interface can be improved and brought in line with your branding using a professional designing tool like the Design Upgrade Pro or Quiz Customizer.

Custom designs can not only improve the look of your website but can make it appear more professional, giving you an opportunity to increase your prices and appeal to a wider set of students.

Student Experience Hack: Gallery-view of courses for easy browsing

An overload of courses can overwhelm students. They might lose on finding a course that’s relevant to them or simply get lost in the plethora of your offerings.

A LearnDash extension like Course Grid or WP Grid Builder lets you create a better course library that’s responsive and can be added on any page of your LearnDash website. Users can filter courses by category for easy search.

Course Cloning Hack: Simple Course Content duplication

Many-a-times you end up creating similar course hierarchies. That’s when you’ve figured out the best course structure that suits the learning process. In LearnDash, although you have the drag-and-drop course builder, course creation can still take time.

With the LearnDash Content Cloner, you can create new courses with the same hierarchy in one-click. Right from lesson, topics, to quizzes a duplicate course is created. You can rename the course and edit the titles to publish a new course in no time.

Manage LearnDash LMS

Student Evaluation Hack: Make grade tracking simple

LearnDash Gradebook is the perfect tool if you are using LearnDash in a traditional classroom setting or wish to have a blended learning program.

With the Gradebook add-on, you can manage your students’ grades and track their online progress all from a centralized location. You don’t need additional tools or platforms making grade keeping a cake-walk.

Student Enrollment Hack: Create a course calendar

To manage student enrolments and make the course schedule more predictable, you can use the Course Scheduler for LearnDash.

You can simply drag courses on a calendar to let students know their availability and start dates so that learning can be better planned.

Student Evaluation Hack: Easy quiz report analysis

Student evaluations take up a lot of teacher time. They have to be prompt and done carefully to ensure timely progress. When it comes to quizzes, you need a better way of sifting through results for speedier analysis.

The LearnDash plugin to your rescue is WISDM Quiz Reporting

With this extension, you can export reports for the quizzes attempted by students in your courses and manage time easily. You can choose to export quiz reports for a single user or for all users for a particular quiz making it easy to analyze responses.

Conclusion

As your business grows and more students come on board, you’ll need some assistance and helpful tools to be able to seamlessly manage your LMS. The above tools such as Instructor Role, Content Cloner, Gradebook help you progress with ease. Are there any specific hacks you’d like to share with us? Do you have questions about what I’ve discussed? Leave a comment below, and if you enjoyed this mpost, why not check out this article on WordPress Building Trends For 2020!

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Filed under: Development, eCommerce, WordpressTagged with: learndash, learndash lms