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7 Best WordPress Podcasting Plugins You Must Know

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This is a guest post by Sunny Chawla. If you’d like to contribute to our blog, feel free to get in touch with us.

best-wp-podcasting-plugin Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past couple of years, you must’ve noticed an out of the ordinary rise in the popularity of podcasting. You should know that in 2013, the number of podcast subscribers exceeded a record one billion, which means 1 out of 7 people are subscribed to one podcast or another. If you’re serious about growing your business, you should surely be ready to wade into the popularity and grab the chance that to host your own podcasts. As an active WordPress user and owner, you’d be glad to know that podcasting and WordPress go hand in hand. To save you the effort of hosting podcasts on your WordPress website or blog, we’ve rounded up 7 most popular podcasting plugins to consider. By the end of this blog post, you will surely get to know the solution that suits your needs. But before we go deep into the list, here’s a bit of history!

A Brief Introduction of Podcasting

The history of podcasting goes back further than blogging. Albeit, its roots lie in the year of 1980, the contemporary format become popular in the year 2004 through platforms like Odeo. Developers, as well as radio enthusiasts, were on the lookout for a particular way to quickly and easily stream their programs to devices. Along with this Apple’s 2005 dominant integration of podcasts in iTunes created a wave in the podcasting space. Since then, podcasts have been built by each and every conceivable media outlet, to metaphorically give a voice to many people. Including your podcast on a WordPress website is a smart way of promoting as well as sharing your voice, opinion or services. Let’s move on now to look at some of the most dependable WordPress plugins for podcasting.

1. Libsyn Podcast Plugin

lisbyn-podcasting-plugin This is one of the best plugins for WordPress podcasting, which enables you to post the latest podcast episodes to your Libsyn account, directly from WordPress. Your RSS feed on WordPress would automatically up-to-date as well as post your files to the Libsyn servers along with your website. This plugin is ideal for podcasters using Libsyn looking to extend to other audience through WordPress.

2. PowerPress by Blubrry

blubrry-podcasting-plugin This plugin not only helps you generate the podcast feed needed to subscribe but also generates RSS2, iTunes, ATOM as well as Bit Torrent RSS versions at the same time. It is a multi-dimensional plugin, that is to say, it supports many platforms. This plugin hence proves to be a major time saver. You can also integrate the HTML5 Media Player, which not only allows listeners to enjoy your episodes directly but also from your WordPress website at the same time. The differentiating factor for this plugin is the SEO fields that are included, to help make your podcasts search ready.

3. Seriously Simple Podcasting

seriously-simple-podcasting-plugin For people, who are not comfortable managing advanced podcast settings or just need basic features and functions, this plugin is the way to go. It’s perfect for beginners and offers simple settings. The setup is short and quick, and the interface is simple to understand.

4. Smart Podcast Player

Smart Podcast Player aka SPP is a premium solution, rather the best premium solution, when it comes to podcasting plugins on WordPress. This plugin is suitable for large and professional podcasts. It gives you an amazing full-featured player that is good to display on your WordPress website sans much effort and time. The highlight of this plugin is the premium features included – library display settings, playback slowing, direct downloads, and more. Also, the numerous design customization options give it a boost above the rest.

5. Podlove

Along with the really good plugins we’ve mentioned above or the ones you must’ve explored on your own, Podlove is one of the best no doubt. It offers a simple solution to add each and every podcast episode to your WordPress blog as well. A differentiating factor Podlove offers is detailed customization. You can access every piece of code related to your podcast data, and modify it as needed.

6. Cincopa

cincopa-podcasting-plugin This plugin is a best for enterprises or bloggers with occasional audio and or video posts. It equips your website with a subscription RSS feed for your visitors without being a hindrance, and without the need to manage additional features. Cincopa is not merely a podcasting plugin, it also allows for the creation of videos, slideshows, images, which gives it an added advantage over other plugins.

7. Simple Podcast Press

Simple Podcast Press is a simple to configure podcasting plugin. It’s quick to setup, offering you sync with iTunes or SoundCloud URL. The plugin creates a unique page for each episode you create. What’s even better is that it adds a mobile-friendly player on to your WordPress website.

To Conclude

In the world of WordPress, specifically WordPress plugins, you’re spoilt for choice. But don’t be overwhelmed; we hope we’ve simplified your search a bit using our top 7 list. For you, the difficult part should be creating engaging episodes for your listeners. So, what’re you waiting for- pick a plugin and record away! The stage – albeit virtual – is yours! 🙂

About the Author

Sunny Chawla is a Marketing Manager at AIS Technolabs– a web-design and development company that helps global businesses grow online. In his free time, Sunny likes to share thoughts on WordPress development  and digital marketing.

How to Track a WordPress Form Lead with Google Tag Manager

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This is a guest post by Jon Zimmerman. If you’d like to contribute to our blog, feel free to get in touch with us.

For many businesses, your website serves as your storefront, sales rep, and cashier – all-in-one. Tracking sales from your website can be a complex task, but many e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce can make this a bit easier with built-in integrations. For B2B websites that don’t leverage their website for e-commerce, it is still very important to know how customers are interacting with your site and where your leads are ultimately coming from. With the help of Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, you can integrate contact form tracking to know which customers are completing the lead form.

Install Tag Manager and Analytics

These free Google products are simple to install and can work together seamlessly, but first let’s understand what they do. Google Analytics (GA) is a free analytics platform that tracks your web traffic and allows you to splice, dice, and analyze it using any number of built-in and custom reporting tools. Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tag management tool that allows users to deploy scripts on a website by adding only a one-time single snippet of JavaScript to the code. Once you add the GTM script to your site, you can fire almost any other tags through it without adding any additional bulky code to the site. To add both GA and GTM to your site, first, add the GTM script to every page of the site. Then you can deploy the GA script within the Google Tag Manager container. If this sounds Greek to you, here is some additional information from Google on how this works.

Event Tracking with Google Tag Manager

There are many features of GTM, but for now, we are going to focus on auto event tracking. This will allow us to define an event that we want to track, and then send data to Google Analytics when that event is completed by a user. To do this we are taking a three-step approach:
  1. Define what we want to track, in this case, we want to track when a user completes a contact form.
  2. Configure the Event tracking in Google Tag Manager
  3. Configure the Goal to be tracked in Google Analytics

Step 1: Define what we want to track

For contact forms there are three main ways to trigger an event when a user submits a contact form:
  • Count the Event when they click the submit button
  • Count the Event when the form is submitted
  • Count an event when the user hits a “thank you page”
We will focus on thank you page event tracking for now, as this is the most straightforward method, but all three methods of tracking can be set up in GTM. To configure this thank you page tracking, you will need to know the URL of your thank you page, i.e. “www.domain.com/thank-you” or something similar.

Step 2: Configure the Event Tracking in Google Tag Manager

Now for the tricky part. Tag Manager uses tags, triggers, and variables to define how you want to deploy tags on your site. For now, we will work with tags and triggers. A tag is where you define the information that you want to be sent to Google Analytics. A trigger is where you define the user interaction that will “trigger” the tag information to be sent.

First, let’s create the tag:

Image 1_tag manager example Tag Type: Universal Analytics Since our ultimate goal is to send event data to Google Analytics, the first thing we are going to do is choose “Universal Analytics” as our tag type. Track Type: Event Event Tracking Parameters – use the category, action, and label fields to name the event data that is sent to Google Analytics. Here we have defined ‘category’ as “Form Submission” and ‘action’ as “Form Submit Thank You Page,” but you can name these anything you want as long as it is unique and recognizable to you. Tracking ID: place your Google Analytics property ID here. This is how GTM knows which analytics property to send the data to.

Now, you will create the trigger that will define what user interaction will fire the tag.

Image 2_tag manager example Trigger Type: Page View. When a user views the “thank you” page, we want our tag to fire. This trigger fires on: Some Page Views. Since our GTM script is on every page of our site, we have to narrow down the specific page that we want to trigger our tag. In this case, we only want the tag to fire when a user views the thank you page. Conditions: Page URL: equals: http://www.domain.com/thank-you Now publish the trigger and tag you just created by clicking the “Submit” button in the top right corner of the GTM interface.

Step 3: Create a Goal in Google Analytics

With your published tag, GTM will now send event data to GA every time a user completes a contact form and hits the “thank you” page. The final step is to create a goal in Google Analytics that will count and record each time the Form Submission event data is sent to GA. To begin, navigate to the admin section in GA and select Goals under the correct analytics view you want to use. Now we will use the event data that GTM is sending to GA to create a goal. Image 3_analytics example Goal Setup: Custom Goal Name: Form Submission Goal Type: Event Goal Details: set the Category, Action, and Label fields to match exactly how you defined your tag in GTM. Event Value: select “yes” if you want one goal completion to record one goal. Otherwise, you can define a custom value for each goal completion.

Tracking with Contact Form 7

Many WordPress users utilize the Contact Form 7 plugin and there is a specific GTM trick to track these form submissions. Instead of tracking when a user hits the “thank you” page, we can leverage an integration that tracks the actual form submission action. In the contact form’s edit screen, select Additional Settings, and add the below script to the field: on_sent_ok: “dataLayer.push({‘event’: ‘gtm4wp.contactForm7Submitted’});” Image 4_Contact Form 7 This will push an event into the dataLayer once a form is successfully submitted. You will then need to configure a custom event in GTM to listen for this dataLayer variable and send event completion data to Google Analytics.

Create a Custom Event trigger in GTM

In GTM, create a custom event trigger. This will allow GTM to listen for this specific event in the dataLayer, and when it occurs, we can use this trigger to fire our tag to send data to GA. Trigger type: Custom Event Event Name: gtm4wp.contactForm7Submitted Trigger Fires on: “All Custom Events” Image 5_Contact Form 7 GTM

Create Your Form Completion Tag in GTM

Next, we will create a new tag utilizing the trigger we just created. Tag Type: Universal Analytics Track Type: Event Category, Action, Label: define these as you see fit Tracking ID: place your Google Analytics property ID here. Select the Custom Event trigger you created, as the firing trigger for this tag.

Test Conversion

You can utilize Tag Manager preview mode to run a test conversion to be sure that the tag and trigger you created is working properly.
  1. In the GTM interface, choose “Preview” in the top right corner.
  2. In the same browser, open a new tab and load your website URL. You should now see a GTM preview window at the bottom of the screen showing which tags are firing and which are not.
  3. Submit a contact form and you should see “gtm4wp.contactForm7Submitted” populate on the left side of the preview window. You should simultaneously see your GTM tag appear under “Tags Fired On This Event” in the main preview window.
Congratulations, you are now tracking form completions in Google Analytics! You are on your way to better understanding your web traffic. I highly recommend spending some time poking around Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to uncover all of the capabilities of these robust platforms. There is a ton of additional free training on these platforms if you just look for it.

About the Author

Jon Zimmerman is the Director of Marketing for WorkWise, the provider of OnContact CRM Software and has over 25 years of experience in customer relationship management.

6 Ways to Improve the Search Experience on Your WordPress Website

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This is a guest post by Subhankar Sarkar. If you’d like to contribute to our blog, feel free to get in touch with us.

Search-WordPress-Websites

“Search” is one of the primary options a visitor employs to discover content on your website.

It’s important to make searching on your website as intuitive as possible, to let users reach the content they are looking for easily. This will drastically increase your chances of conversion by helping users connect with a product or service they are most inclined to purchase.

But what happens, more often than not (unfortunately), is that a lot of thought isn’t spent making the search option user-friendly.

But worry not, there are several options which you could undertake or tweak to improve the search experience on your site.

So, without further ado, let’s discuss!

#1 Clear Placement

Your layout and design come into play here.

The most obvious position for the search option to be placed is in the primary menu. Why is that? Well, it’s quite simple. The primary navigation menu is the first place of interest for a user looking for content on your site. What happens when he doesn’t find what he’s looking for? The next option is obviously to search for the page. Since he is already looking at the primary menu, a search option right there would be the most convenient spot possible. However, if you have a different layout, or have a mobile-first design, the top three locations for the search widget are:
  1. Header (Top or Primary Navigation Menu)
  2. The first widget in the sidebar
  3. Footer

Since ‘search’ is available as a widget in WordPress, it can be easily placed in any of these locations.

#2 Proper Search Input Field

This is an important criterion to consider when designing your website.

It’s quite often observed that when a user has a pretty long query, only a part of the search query is visible in the search field because the field is not wide enough. But this could lead to poor search experience.

You see, not every user can search with a proper keyword or know how to frame a search query. As a ground rule, the length of the search bar should be at least 27 characters or higher. This covers the average query length.

Alternatively, you could look towards creating a more flexible search field (like you can find here on the WisdmLabs website).

#3 Tag Based Searching

Quite a few advanced search options include category or tag based searching. For example, the search field on Amazon. You can first filter by category and then enter a search query to view relevant results.

This helps give users a more clear idea of what he is going to get and how. Alternatively, it could also make users aware of what all your site has to offer.

Of course, to implement such a search technique, you need a complimentary content structure. Suggested Reading: An Advanced Profile Search Functionality for BuddyPress

#4 Sticky Query

Well, “sticky query” might not be the technical term – but let’s go with it!

When a user enters a query, the query should remain in the search field and should not disappear. (Yes, some sites miss out this point)

What happens at times is that a user enters a query and hits enter/clicks search…. and *poof* the search query disappears. The user then has no idea what he had entered – which is okay if he finds what he’s looking for. But what happens when he doesn’t? He might be left guessing. If he has the search query in sight, it’ll be just a matter of tweaking it to get the desired result; he does not need to retype the whole query.

#5 Autosuggest or Autocomplete Queries

Here’s the Google way of searching….. “Did you mean….?” Quite often than not, a user might misspell or mistype a word, or might be in the midst of entering a search query and might not know how exactly to frame it. Here’s when autosuggest or autocomplete options come into play.

Autosuggest or autocomplete options could help users articulate a query in the best way possible or use the most accurate keyword to get the desired result.

#6 Offering Advanced Search Options

With recent advancement in technology, users are often looking for more. It’s time you get on board.

Advanced search options include creating a more personalized search experience, or employing mobile-friendly search techniques like voice search.

Suggested Reading: Customizing WP Jobs Manager: Personalized Search Options

Wrapping Up

Improving the user experience when searching on your website is a part of improving the overall user experience of your site. Surely the WordPress default search option does not suffice. You need to integrate an advanced search plugin, or hire professional help, to make the search personalized for your needs.

Do remember, a website is a virtual representation of your brand – you’d want to leave users feeling positive.

About the Author

Subhankar Sarkar a.k.a. Subha is a passionate blogger and a freelancer.

9 Essential Tips to Give Your WordPress Website that Extra Edge

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This is a guest post by Catherrine Garcia. If you’d like to contribute to our blog, feel free to get in touch with us.

SEO-Ecommerce The WordPress platform is so huge that everybody seems to be fascinated by the way it functions and delivers online results. The popularity is such that almost 74.6 Million websites are built on WordPress. This also means that the competition is mammoth and you, as a site owner or administrator, need to be on your toes for the upkeep and maintenance of the site. If you need that extra edge to stand above your competition, you should be all set to make improvements that take your WordPress site to the next level. These few tips would help give your site a fresh look, or that competitive advantage that’ll keep your visitors engaged. Read on.

#1 Create Visually Powerful Content

When you decide to publish any content on your website, try and include high-quality images and videos along with it. You could even try and include a detailed infographic in order to explain complicated things. This would not only help readers understand things in a better way, but would also add that little extra flair to your blog posts. Videos and Images make things interesting by providing visual stimulation and hence, engage the readers in a much better way.

#2 Make Audience your Priority

To ensure that you have a constant group of visitors who like to read your content, you need to become more interactive. You can do this by replying to their comments on your content, or by engaging with them on social media or via email. By doing so, you’ll be able to create a positive impression by valuing their opinions and appreciating their inputs. You, of course, do not need to reply as soon as a comment is posted but do make an effort and reply to them within a day or two. Sending out the occasional email and personalized messages to a set of the audience will work wonders for you if you have a medium-scale or a large-scale website.

#3 Invest in SEO

Most people don’t really understand the importance of Search Engine Optimization for their site. Best SEO practices would definitely work to take your website to the next level. By optimizing your content and your site for search engines, you can rest assured that your site wouldn’t only get noticed but would also be a huge success. The first best SEO practice is to indulge in thorough keyword research and use the most relevant ones for your content. The other ones would be to link externally to the authoritative sources, link internally to other relevant and quality content present on your site and much more. Your focus should be on producing quality content that would be of use to your readers and include best SEO practices when doing the same.

#4 Choose an Apt Theme

At times, all that your website will need is a fresh look. With web design evolving so quickly, your site can begin to look out-dated before you even realize it. You can consider some free themes if you want but, you need to remember that a premium theme can offer you more options and a better chance to manage your site. Choose a theme that goes with your business idea and compatible with the latest WordPress version.

#5 Follow Email Marketing Best Practices

list-building An email is considered as the best and the most effective way of establishing a personal relationship with your readers as part of your marketing activity. Apart from this, it also helps in capture leads in case you have any plans for monetizing your blog. Services like MailChimp are quite popular and are being used are several people all around the world to manage email campaigns. If you are just getting started, this can serve as a great tool that would help you in creating your own email list by collecting email addresses of potential customers.

#6 Place Hard-Hitting CTAs

It is quite evident that if you have a website, you must also have certain goals in mind. It could be anything from establishing yourself as a blogger to growing your mailing list of followers. It is essential that you make the audience aware of your goals. This can be done with a ‘Call to Action’ button. You can place it in several places on your site to make it more effective.

#7 Set Up Google Analytics

In case you are worried about your site’s traffic, Google Analytics might just be the answer to all your worries. It not only helps monitor a website’s traffic but also helps in identifying the most popular and visited content and the devices that the visitors most commonly use to access your site. This would help you in making the necessary changes if required.

#8 Create an Engaging ‘About’ Page

The About Page of your site is what lets the audience know more about you and our site. Therefore, it is essential that you focus on your About Page and make it more about the audience than yourself. Make sure that the readers, by reading your ‘About’ Page can set their expectations. This means that they would be able to analyze what all they can expect from your site. Your ‘About’ page should be able to convey as to how your content can prove to be valuable for your reader and how it can help them in solving their issues.

#9 Enable Social Sharing

One of the easiest ways to increase the reach of your website is to include a sharing button on your site. The social media sharing buttons make it easy for the readers to share the content of their choice on their social media profiles. This would not only help more and more people aware of your offering but would also work towards increasing your followers.

Bonus Tips:

  • Secure your site; get an SSL certificate for your website so that users who interact with your site can build their trust
  • Prepare your social media channels well and keep posting regularly so that users can engage with you.
  • Most importantly, manage and maintain your WordPress site to keep it functioning well.
  • Use a great web hosting service so that your website loads quickly and experiences least instances of downtime.

Summing Up

Let’s say you have a WordPress site which has some great quality content that’s enough to draw potential readers and engage them. You, of course, have an excellent collection of blog posts and regular visitors who love your content. You might feel like that the things are going well. But somewhere or the other, there’s some room for improvement to make your content even better than what it already is. Follow the above tips to amplify your numerous efforts to emerge as a total website leader and provide an extra edge to your amazing WordPress site.

About the Author

Catherrine Garcia is a passionate blogger and a freelance Web Developer currently working for WPCodingDev. She along with her group of freelance developers are experts of creating Websites on WordPress.

Top 7 Directory WordPress Plugins You Didn’t Know About

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This is a guest post by Jason Daszkewicz. If you’d like to feature your content here, write to us at [email protected] along with your content and we’ll be happy to voice your words!

There was a time when WordPress was just a blogging system. Today it has become the most popular and most preferred CMS around the globe. It certainly has come a long way. The internationalization of the WordPress versions has made it possible to build any type of website with it. And creating is a directory WordPress website is no exception.

WordPress offers plenty of advanced directory plugins that can be installed and configured to convert your existing WordPress website into a directory site without having to write a single line of code or making huge changes in the WordPress core.

Thus, in today’s post, we are going to share best directory plugins to let you create and maintain a directory website successfully.

#1 Business Directory Plugin

  business-directory-plugin

Business Directory is one of the most popular free WordPress directory plugins that lets you seamlessly build a business directory. It actually comes in two different version i.e. free and premium version. While the free version has many useful features, the premium version offers an array of advanced features and add-ons. With 20,000+ active installs, the plugin provides everything you may need to set up your own business directory.

Additional features of Business Directory Plugin

  • Offers free listings in your business directory and allows you to accept listing payments
  • Supports PayFast Gateway and Stripe for accepting payments.
  • Is 100% fully responsive
  • Provide complete support for recurring payments.
  • Comes with inbuilt CSV import and export.
  • Supports reCAPTCHA.
 

#2 GeoDirectory Plugin

  geodirectory-plugin

GeoDirectory, as the name suggests, is a located based WordPress business directory plugin developed and maintained by GeoTheme. In fact, the GDF theme framework is developed particularly for the plugin to help users who are looking for the most suitable theme for using the GeoDirectory plugin. However, the plugin also works virtually with any WordPress theme available out there.

Additional features of GeoDirectory Plugin

  • Is 100% fully responsive.
  • Equipped with a Google Analytics widget.
  • Integrated with an inbuilt review system.
  • Is fully compatible with WordPress Multisite.
  • Offers more than 12 widget areas and 15+ widgets
  • Lets you export, import and re-import data via CSV files.
  • Has a user-friendly front end interface for submitting entries
 

#3 Simple Directory Plugin

  Simple Directory Plugin

Simple Directory is yet another free WordPress directory plugin that enables you to build a personal or business directory within minutes. The plugin is packed with two different templates for archive listing and single listing page. If you are familiar with the working of WordPress theme templates, you would find it difficult to customize and configure this plugin. It also recommends installing Category Image plugin and Piklist plugin for better performance.

Additional features of Simple Directory Plugin

  • Displays a complete listing version including Name, Address, Contact info, etc.
  • Offers a variety of Custom Templates.
  • Lets you display the listing in a mentioned category.
 

#4 Web 2.0 Directory

  web-20-directory-plugin

Web 2.0 Directory is a fully responsive, feature packed and high-quality WordPress directory plugin that lets you create a variety type of directory websites including wedding sites, real estate portal, pets, vehicles dealers site, boats, bikes and cars site, classified ad listing website and more. The plugin is built on Twitter Bootstrap which makes it completely compatible with the devices and screen sizes.

Additional features of Web 2.0 Directory

  • Has featured and sticky listings options
  • Integrated with a Frontend dashboard for regular users
  • Also, comes with an invoices management
  • Lets you restrict ads by listings levels
  • Integrated with order directory listings and Google Maps
  • Comes with inbuilt CSV import
 

#5 Directory

  directory-plugin

Directory is a premium WordPress directory plugin developed and maintained by WPMU, a well-recognized website in the theme and plugin industry. The plugin allows you to create both front and back end business directories such as yelp, yellow pages and more. It also supports rating and review to display the popularity of any listings on your website.

Additional features of Directory

  • Comes equipped with customizable Directory theme
  • Is WordPress Multisite ready
  • Allows you to seamlessly accept payments for listings
  • Offers custom tags and categories
  • Packed with a variety of shortcodes
  • Has Listing rating system and user reviews
  • Lets you create custom user permissions
 

#6. Connections Business Directory

  connections-business-directory In the simplest words, “Connections Business Directory” is one of the best directory plugin WordPress user could ever have. It is very simple in design and many advanced functions make it the most loving directory plugin. It consists of a vast array of unique features and flexibility which motivates the users to stick with this awesome WordPress plugin. With this plugin, you can easily make an address book, maintain staff details and run a business directory. It is highly configurable in order to provide you maximum features that suit your business needs. Let’s have a look at the features of this incredibly handy WordPress plugin.
  • The admin dashboard lets you have a glance on the particular day’s anniversary or birthdays of the members in your directory.
  • It caters various entry types from which you can use the entry types such as individual, organizational and family. For Connections, Family entry type is unique.
  • It also caters repeatable fields for phone numbers, emails, Social media, and dates.
  • The directories are highly scalable and easy to manage with hundreds of thousands of entries.
  • It is extensible and very developer friendly.
 

#7. BePro Listings Plugin

  bepro-listings With BePro Listing plugin, you can easily create and submit your listing from the front end. You can set this plugin up in seconds and you’ll be ready to capture various user types such as contact, cost, images, and addresses. After creating the list, a user can easily search and filter through the listing. With this plugin in your hand, you can do that in various search results layouts and optional Google maps. This plugin has proven its worth by adapting to almost every kind of websites such as Business Directory, Product Catalogue, Real Estate, Classified and portfolios. Let’s have a look at the features this incredible plugin has for you to offer,
  • A very robust and strong front end submission.
  • It is very easy to search and filter the listings.
  • Highly compatible with all the gallery plugins.
  • Works incredibly well with all the SEO plugins.
  • Also, caters you a shortcode builder.
Going through the above-mentioned list, you won’t find it difficult to choose the most suitable directory plugin for your website. Also, if you have any other relevant plugin in your mind, share it with us in the comments below.

Author Bio:

Jason is an expert WordPress developer having years of experience in working with various web development technologies. Currently, he is working for WordSuccor Ltd. providing WordPress plugin development service to global clients. He is always trying to share his intangible knowledge with others on the web.

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7 Best Subscription Plugins for WordPress

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Subscriptions have been an integral part of the product marketing strategy for a long time now. Despite being overshadowed in the last few years by the newer, shinier versions of email marketing, sales analytics teams have tracked a resurgent growth in sales due to subscriptions. Given their usability in marketing, WordPress has several different types of subscription plugins that can be used to increase conversions on the website. Let us explore these in greater detail.

Types of Subscriptions for WordPress

#1 Product Subscriptions Subscription plugins for products include recurring orders, such as for subscription boxes, and are used to deliver orders at fixed intervals. #2 Membership Subscriptions In membership subscription plugins, the product is the membership purchased, which has to be renewed at regular intervals. These subscriptions are generally for longer periods of time, such as for a quarter, six months, a year, or so on. #3 Email Subscriptions Email subscriptions are used to avail of the newsletters sent out at regular intervals by the company. These can be chargeable or free and are generally spaced as every day, week, or fortnight. Membership and product subscriptions for WordPress use an ecommerce platform for functioning. In case of physical products this can be WooCommerce, while for digital products, one can opt for Easy Digital Downloads. We shall discuss the plugins in context to physical products here. Hence, the platform of choice is WooCommerce and the subscriptions discussed are product subscriptions.

Product Subscription plugins for WooCommerce

Product subscription plugins entail addition of recurring payments while sending out product boxes. Here, the recurring physical product is bundled and delivered to every subscriber at the specified interval. Product subscription plugins help the administrator set up the delivery and billing schedule and keep track of all products delivered to subscribers. Subscription product boxes like Birchbox, Ipsy, Dollar Shave Club and more are based on this very concept and deliver assorted goods as per their respective themes. The various product subscription plugins that can be used to this end are mentioned as follows:

YITH WooCommerce Subscriptions

The YITH WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin lets you control your sales volume by regulating the delivery of all physical and virtual products. Subscriptions for various levels of memberships can be created and a fixed, monthly recurring schedule can be set up for content distribution. The administrator can allow trial periods, easy-switching of plans, and set up a one-time sign-up fee for new registrants. In addition, there are several optional subscription discounts built into the plugin that can be offered to recurring customers to ensure customer loyalty. The comprehensive back panel includes the subscription list at a glance, quick settings for subscription management and easy activation/deactivation of subscriptions. The YITH WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin is priced at $91 for a single site license, $149 for 6 sites, and $249 for 30 sites. There is also a free, trial version that can be downloaded from the plugin website.

WooCommerce Subscriptions

WooCommerce Subscriptions is WooCommerce’s very own plugin for adding product subscriptions. The plugin adds a comprehensive functionality set to your WooStore, including periodic billing schedules, automatic invoice generator, front-end subscription management, drip content setup, free trials, multiple subscriptions setup, in-built email notifications, flexible billing schedules, and more. The plugin is a premium add-on for WooCommerce, and can be purchased for a yearly license of $199.

Subscriptio – WooCommerce Subscriptions

The third popular plugin for subscriptions for WooCommerce is Subscriptio – WooCommerce Subscriptions. Compatible with the latest versions of WordPress and WooCommerce, the plugin has a clear and distinct process delineating the flow of subscription processing, right from the moment a user registers on the website. It features all the necessary functionalities, such as automatic renewals, simple and variable product subscription support, combined checkout of subscription-based and non-subscription based products, and multiple, flexible billing cycles. The Subscriptio – WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin is available on Envato and is priced at $49 for a Regular License and at $249 for an Extended License.

A Look at Membership Subscriptions

Choosing the appropriate subscription plugin depends on the scope of your subscriber list and your site scalability. As of now, these three are the reigning plugins for product subscriptions. In case of membership subscriptions, the way it works is that you create a membership site with the various different membership plugins available for WordPress and then sell those membership plans to your subscribers. It is necessary to understand that subscriptions are not the same as memberships. People often confuse one with the other, as their concepts seem similar. To clear up these concepts, here is a brief overview. A Membership is when a user creates an account on the website and becomes a part of the community. For instance, when a student enrolls in an e-learning course on the website, he becomes a part of the whole e-learning institution. He can participate in group discussions, add queries, interact with other course takers and more, without having to pay any additional fees. A Subscription is the recurring amount to be paid by a user to continue using the privileges given to the member. That is, after a user registers as a member on the website, he will have to pay a small monthly amount to continue being a member. However, it is not mandatory to become a member to start a subscription. For instance, whenever you subscribe to a magazine, or updates on Amazon, you do not interact with the other subscribers. The interaction is strictly between you and the company. As mentioned before, membership subscription plugins simply sell the membership as a subscription product as opposed to a physical object. As the object of our article is the analysis of the best subscription plugins, we shall not be studying membership plugins in detail. Nevertheless, here is a list of the best plugins for WordPress that can be used to create a marvelous memberships-based site.

Membership Plugins for WordPress

MemberPress

A comprehensive plugin that includes variable plans, restricted content access, automated billing, and of course subscription support, MemberPress is one of the best membership plugins for WordPress.

Paid Memberships Pro

In addition to comprising of all the necessary features of a membership plugin, Paid Memberships Pro also has dozens on integrations with notable email marketing, networking, and social integration plugin, that make it one of the best options for creating a membership site which offers subscriptions.

WooCommerce Memberships

WooCommerce Memberships incorporates substantial features that help transform your store into a complete membership system. These include flexible membership plans which can be upgraded and downgraded as per requirement, content restriction depending on membership level, multi-level discounts for various membership levels that are redeemed at the store, a notes area for documenting information about members, and more. The combination of WooCommerce Subscriptions and Memberships provides a dynamic duo that leverages the best functionalities of both the plugins.

Restrict Content Pro

Equipped with multi-level plans, exclusive access, variable subscription packages, assorted discount codes, and integrated site performance analytics, Restrict Content Pro is a great membership plugin. The plugin works well with both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. This concludes our list of product and membership subscription plugins. Each of these has robust technical support and plenty of customizable hooks for developers, to make their own characteristic additions. What other subscription plugins for WordPress would you suggest? Tell us your opinions in the comments section below!

The 10-Minute Tutorial to Build a Real Estate Listing Website with WordPress

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Real-Estate-Website-WordPressThe creation and management of a real estate listing website is no mean feat. There are a hundred and one things you need to pay attention to, right from adding listings to managing payments, featuring houses, creating descriptions, customizing search options and more. With this in mind, you need a strong website building platform that can support all these functionalities, and WordPress is one such CMS solution. The WordPress platform has tons of options that can be customized as per requirement, to design a real estate listing website that becomes uniquely yours. The multitude of plugins available need varying levels of technical expertise, which allows for significant freedom in experimentation. As always, we shall discuss two different approaches here, to create a real estate listing website on the WordPress platform. These are:
  1. WordPress + Real Estate Listing Website Plugin
  2. WordPress + Real Estate Listing Website Theme + Assorted Plugins for Functionalities
The first approach entails installing a comprehensive real estate listing website plugin that covers all the essentials for your website. No other themes or plugins need to be installed for the core functionalities. The second approach is wider in its scope, in the sense that you can start off with a real estate listing website theme and then pick and choose the various other plugins you need for adding various functionalities to your website. Here you have to take care of the various aspects of website design, such as integrating payment gateways, social networking options, backups, and optimization, by yourself. Each of these approaches offers different levels of flexibility in website building and have their own advantages and drawbacks. Let us analyze these in detail here.

Approach A: Using a Real Estate Listing Website Plugin

In this method, the approach is pretty straightforward. You download and install the real estate listing website plugin like any other plugin for WordPress and then start adding customizations as necessary. As the core of your website depends on the plugin you choose, some in-depth research is required before you finalize any. There are over 40 plugins available in the WordPress directory; here we take a look at five of the most dynamic real estate listing plugins.

WPL Real Estate

WPL Real Estate, which stands for WordPress Property Listing Real Estate is a comprehensive, end-to-end solution developed by Realtyna for managing listings on your website. The plugin features two different versions, the Basic and the Pro. A highly scalable plugin, it supports over 100,000+ listings on a regular server, which can be extended to more. Additionally, the property can be listed according to various customizable categories and the plugin has an easy-to-use-interface that allows for the quick addition of listings and properties. One of the biggest pros of the WPL Real Estate plugin is its strong customer support. The extensive documentation and quick resolution of customer queries make it one of the best plugins to build a full-fledged real estate listing website.

WP-Property – WordPress Powered Real Estate and Property Management

The WP-Property plugin features an independent theme called ‘Avalon’ available along with the plugin. The other functionalities of the plugin include multiple attribute fields, customizable sidebar widgets, pagination, Google Maps integration, and variable display templates. One of the strengths of the plugin is that it has a comprehensive Search system which includes very specific search options such as the number of bedrooms, location, price, features, and more. WP-Property strikes a snag in its customer support, which is merely passable. Also, there are some conflicts with the plugin registration and customer support validity, so make sure you read the ownership policy well before you install it. The features are satisfactory and the flexible search and smooth interface make it a good plugin for creating a real estate listing website.

IMPress Listings

Created by Agent Evolution, IMPress Listings was formerly known as WP Listings. The plugin allows for complete control over the addition, layout, and display of featured listings which can be added manually or imported from the computer. It also integrates several design templates for customizable displays. The plugin is responsive and compatible with most of the themes on WordPress. One strength of the IMPress Listings plugin is that it lets you build your network and showcase agent listings on each of their individual pages. The integration of commission plugins or affiliate network-building plugins can help you earn a hefty commission simply by showcasing the listings of other realtors on your website. The plugin has several support videos that provide a step-by-step guide to installing and working with the plugin.

Easy Property Listings

Easy Property listings is one of the lightest real estate listings plugins and provide all necessary functionalities without bloating your website. The plugin works in a freemium fashion, with premium add-ons available within the plugin to extend features. Some of the distinct elements of the plugin include an automatic open house list generator, dynamic listings display in sidebars and widgets, comprehensive search options that show listings based on all relevant keywords, and Google Maps integration. The Easy Property Listings plugin receives bonus points for its detailed documentation and customer support, which provide information about pretty much everything you can need in the real estate listings plugin.

Realia

Realia by Pragmatic Mates has an integrated front-end submission system that lets your users upload listings at the front end, while you charge a percentage commission for the same. It has multiple customization options as well. On the downside, the documentation is rather sketchy and the support is rather vague. Note that the Realia plugin is not to be confused with the Realia theme for building a real estate listings website on WordPress. This covers our list of the five most useful plugins to build a real estate listings website. We now move on to the next approach, where the theme takes central stage on the website.  

Approach B: Using A Real Estate Listing Website Theme + Assorted Plugins

In this approach, the focus is the theme you select for the website. Any other functionality required can be added with the help of plugins dedicated to providing those specific features. To make things clearer, let us list the various elements we need while designing and running the real estate listings website. The elements of the real estate listings website:

#1 Responsive real estate listings theme

The theme of the real estate listings website decides the kind of business your firm does. It creates the first impression of your website which is why it is important that the impression is a good one. The average user’s mindset is such that if the website does not catch his interest in the first five seconds and hold it for the next 20, the user will simply move on to another, better option. This makes having a great, responsive, and highly customizable theme an imperative factor in website design. There are over 100 different themes available for real estate listings, however, here is a short overview of some of the most popular ones from these.

AgentPress Pro

Available in a premium version, the AgentPress Pro theme is built on the Genesis framework and supports multiple listings, advanced search, responsive design, and SEO compatibility.

Realtor – Real Estate WordPress Theme

Realtor is a classic, clean theme designed for real estate websites, with an excellent user-interface, variable listing displays, Google Maps integration and more.

Home Quest

Home Quest by ThemeFuse features customizable backgrounds, detailed listings, a sliding picture gallery, icons for quick reference, and a robust admin interface.

Oikia

The Oikia theme has a drag-and-drop page builder that allows for easy customization of site display. Integrated search options help sift through properties for specific details with ease.

Estate Engine

Estate Engine is one of the themes that allows you to add guest listings apart from your own. It also integrates with multiple payment gateways for smooth transactions.

Landmark

Landmark boasts of a live search bar which populates listing results even as users search as per their requirements. It also has front-end property listings submission enabled.

DreamVilla

The DreamVilla theme is available for a single as well as multiple property listings. The responsive theme has a Visual Page Builder integrated, which lets you create and customize pages easily.

Listify

Listify by Astoundify is a directory theme for WordPress. As a result, it can be used to successfully create a real estate listings website. Extremely user-friendly, highly customizable, drag-and-drop enabled, and with an inbuilt geolocator for populating relevant search results, the theme is one of the best directory themes for WordPress.

#2 Dynamic Photo Gallery

Ordinarily, the photo gallery is a part of the theme you install on your WordPress site. However, in the case of extended functionalities of image compression, optimization, and loading, some external plugins can be used to create an optimized photo gallery for the listings website. These include:
  • Envira Gallery – Gallery Plugin
  • Photo Gallery by WD – Gallery Plugin by Web Dorado
  • Upfront – Gallery Plugin by WPMUDEV
  • EWWW Image Optimizer – Image optimization plugin
  • WP Smush – Image size reduction and optimization plugin
  • BJ Lazy Load – Lazy loading of images for page optimization

#3 Contact forms

Contact forms are the means by which your users can ask any queries they might have regarding the listings and properties available. Some of the most versatile contact from plugins include:
  • Pirate Forms
  • Gravity Forms
  • Ninja Forms
  • WP Forms
  • Formidable Pro

#4 Extensive search options

Every real estate listings website needs extensive search options to successfully reach the intended audience, in the clearest and concise manner possible. Searches are expected to be quick and relevant, populating results that can turn visitors into clients. To this end, here are a few examples of dynamic search plugins that have been known to increase leads significantly.
  • SearchWP
  • WP Google Search
  • Swiftype Search
  • Category-Wise Search
  • Highlight Search Terms
The website is expected to have other necessary functionalities, such as a website analyzer, integrated discounts and coupons, memberships, localization options, email marketing, and reviews and ratings, built into the core. However, as these plugins attend to a more general aspect of the website and are not real estate listings-specific, we shall not be discussing them here.

The Final Word

This is a brief description of the two methods of building a real estate listings website. Each of these individual methods has their advantages and drawbacks, and hence need to be chosen accordingly. When a real estate website plugin is used, a lot of the core functionalities are obtained inbuilt, without the additional hassle of checking, verifying, and updating every single plugin on the website. However, the site gets limited to the features offered by the plugin, where customization can be difficult for non-technical developers. On the other side of the coin, using a theme and individual plugins does offer greater flexibility, but increases the bloat on the website core as well. In addition, the plugins have to be mutually compatible, else the site is liable to frequent crashes and breakdowns, which can severely damage the reputation of your firm. Given the positives and negatives of each, the approach you choose depends on the priorities of your website, and your own inclination towards its maintenance. If a ready-to-use website is what you require and you are happy with control over basic customization, the plugin option is a good one. If on the other hand, you intend to experiment with the website and add several custom functionalities, the second approach is your cup of tea! Do you have any other suggestions for plugins or themes that can be used while creating a real estate listings website? Let us know in the comments section below!

How to Run Your Own CRM using WordPress

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If you’re not running a CRM or are using a CRM solution like salesforce then now is the time to consider using WordPress to host your own CRM.

What is a ‘CRM’..

CRM is customer (or client) relationship management. Using a CRM system lets you manage your list of customers and use insights on them to improve sales and business insights WordPress is great to use as a CRM since you can:
  • Add as many WordPress ‘CRM’ users as you like (at no extra cost)
  • Manage as many leads and customers as you like (no limits here)
  • Self host your own data and be in control of it
Sounds Great? But which software should you use? When it comes to choosing a CRM solution, searching on WordPress.org gives you over 20 pages of results. Don’t worry! We’ve done the work for you and filtered through these and have found the best CRM to use for WordPress.

Introducing Zero BS CRM

Zero BS CRM is, in our opinion, the easiest and best CRM for WordPress. One thing we particularly love about the CRM is the ability to Sync it with WooCommerce. There’s so much that this CRM can do (included in the free version) that means you should definitely give it a go. Out of the box, Zero BS CRM lets you:
  • Generate new leads using the lead generation forms
  • Import leads and customers from CSV
  • Manage a central list of leads and customers
  • Tag your customers (for easy location)
  • Search your customers (based on tag or their name)
  • Make notes of any activity against a customer (new call, tweet, email)
  • Manage and send quotes to customers
  • Manage and send invoices to customers
  • Give customers and clients access to their own ‘portal’ to see their invoices
  • Log transactions against customers (and see customer total value)
  • Add ‘CRM’ users to your team to help you manage customers
All that, unlimited, and for free. The Zero BS CRM doesn’t stop there though. Check out all the features here. When compared to other CRMs available for WordPress, Zero BS CRM really shines. It’s so simple to use and easy to start adding your customers and managing your leads and customers to improve your business. But it doesn’t stop there…

Zero BS CRM is Extendable

The CRM is great out of the box, but with the extensions it gets even better. Part way down the version 2.0 launch page there’s a ‘what type of business are you’. zero-crm-1 This lets you see recommended extensions for your business type and is a super simple way to know which extensions to pick. Taking an eCommerce view the recommended extensions are:
  • WooCommerce Sync – brings in your order history adding customers and assigning transactions to them. Keeps your CRM up to date with new orders coming in.
  • Sales Dashboard – see revenue reports, customer growth and average revenue per customer, queryable over any period
  • Mail Campaigns – send targeted emails to customers who have purchased particular products or have spent certain amounts with you

Bundles, Bundles, Bundles

The recommended extensions are great and give you an idea of which ones you may want to purchase individually. However there are three great bundles available and with the launch week offer these are discounted by 50%. zero-crm-4 What caught our attention was the Entrepreneur’s Bundle. This bundle gives access to everything. All extensions and all future extensions. All for only $199 a year.

Simple to use

Zero BS CRM is easy to use. When clicking install and activate you are presented with a super easy install wizard. This guides you through the process, asks you what type of business you are, and pre-configures the CRM for you. zero-crm-2 Following the initial setup, the CRM is then presented as a number of extensions (free) which helps you to customise and turn on / off any of the core features. zero-crm-3 This makes it super easy for you to control what’s available to you (and hides anything you don’t want to be using).

Why Switch from something like SalesForce

Salesforce is great, it’s a large company and they do a lot of good things. However in our opinion the features they offer can often be too much for users. The cost of the software (since it’s a pay monthly, per user cost) can soon mount up as your business grows. If you’ve got a sales team of 10, then you’re looking at prices in the hundreds, maybe even thousands a month. Some of this for features you never use. When looking at ZBS CRM in comparison you can have access to all the extensions and all the future extensions for just $397 a year. This is an optional renewal too. If you find you don’t want to keep paying, you can keep using the software plus it’s extensions. Unlike salesforce where the software will get cut off for you.

Special Launch Offer

Zero BS CRM is almost a year old, so it’s been on the market a while now. In the year since it’s been launched it’s gone through a lot of amazing updates and has grown into a really solid CRM solution. Version 2.0 (an even bigger update, bringing with it an API) really catapults this CRM into the next layer of the atmosphere. With this addition the CRM can be connected to thousands of apps and you can do things like:
  • On addition of a new lead or customer, add them to a MailChimp list
  • Create customers programmatically
  • Connect thousands of apps using Zapier
The addition of the API in version 2.0 means there’s so much more coming from the ZBS CRM team. We would highly recommend people to take advantage of the special launch week offers which give access to all the extensions. If you’re not running a CRM now is the time to consider using one for your business. You don’t need to just be an eCommerce store, all business types can benefit from using a CRM.

How to Build a Spa and Salon Website on WordPress

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spa-website A complete spa and salon website needs some critical features built into its foundation. If you intend to create a simple, informative website for your brick and mortar salon, it can be as easy as installing a theme on a CMS platform and adding a few related pages and blog articles. If, however, you intend to build a full-fledged website, with appointment bookings, a visual gallery, personalization, and an associated hair treatment and wellness blog, you need a solid base to start working on. Today let’s take a detailed look at how one can build a spa and salon website with WordPress. There are two primary reasons for selecting WordPress as the CMS platform:
  • It is one of the most flexible content management systems, used to build hundreds of different types of websites. In fact, over 30% of the world’s websites use WordPress as the CMS platform, due to the clear user interface and myriad functionalities it offers.
  • While building a spa and salon website, we shall have to incorporate various features like reservations and bookings, social media integration, picture galleries and more. WordPress has an array of numerous plugins for extending the functionalities of the core plugin which can be fused easily with the website.
The versatility of WordPress as a website development platform makes it the best choice for building a spa and salon website. Let us see the various options for building the core of the spa and salon website. Before that, however, let us quickly make a list of the functionalities we shall need in the website; it’ll be a great help in shortlisting themes and plugins later.

Core Features of a Spa and Salon Website

  • A Sleek Display
  • Customizable Layouts
  • A Picture Gallery/ Highlights Showcase
  • E-Commerce Support
  • Appointments and Bookings Management
  • A Comprehensive Blog
  • Social Media Integration
  • Payment Gateways
  • Site Analytics Tools
  • Contact Forms
Inferring from these requirements, we now have a skeletal structure of the website ready at hand. Now starts the 7-step process of building the website.

Step 1: Choosing the Theme

The theme of the website is its skin; the foundation that creates the first impression when users visit your site. Choosing the appropriate theme is not as easy as simply picking a card out of a deck, it needs considerable thought and cogent reasoning. To select the right theme, you have to first decide the priorities of your website’s display. Is it image-centric? Or do you want to highlight your services more? Is the location of your salon/spa your selling point? Or are there any current offers that will be appealing to your customers? Once you have your priorities in order, you can move on to choosing the theme that best suits your requirements. For better or worse, WordPress has thousands of themes for almost every application. To select one from these dozens, first ensure that it is well-documented and has consistent updates and support till the current WordPress version. Broken and spam themes are the bane of any website’s existence; a stringent screening process is a must. Even after screening these, you will have about 100 themes left to choose from. It is practically not feasible to research all of these or try them out. So, we have here a list of the top 3 themes based on features, supported extensions, and popularity to help you along.

Lemon

A completely responsive theme, with integrated WooCommerce support, Lemon is a highly customizable premium spa and salon theme. The Revolution Slider plugin is included in the theme cost, as is the Visual Page Builder plugin. The smooth interface and multiple colour customization options make it one of the best choices for a spa and salon website.

X

The X theme has four integrated layouts (called Stacks here) that can be used as the skins for multiple websites. In addition, there are over 25 extensions available with the theme that integrate functionalities like email marketing, Google Analytics, gallery plugins, grid displays and more into the website. The incredible amount of features the theme boasts makes it worth every penny you spend.

Aqua

The Aqua theme integrates HTML5 and CSS3 animations that make the website visually engaging, creating a great impression on the front-end user. The minimalistic approach enhances this further making it a great choice for all spa, salon, and wellness-related websites. Note that these are just brief overviews of the theme’s features. For further details, you can visit their source websites. The themes listed above are all compatible with WooCommerce, which is an essential requirement for us, as we build the spa and salon website. Another aspect you need to consider while choosing the theme is whether or not it is responsive. There has been an unprecedented growth in mobile bookings since the advent of smartphones and hence it is imperative that your site be responsive, i.e. compatible across all screen sizes such as desktops, mobile phones, tablets, etc. The best way to do that is to select a responsive theme from the very beginning, instead of spending a ton of money on software customization later. The themes listed above are all responsive. If you need to check out more themes and comparisons, you can always go through some of the comprehensive lists of spa and salon themes.

Step 2: Integrating eCommerce

WordPress has its very own eCommerce platform, WooCommerce. Available as a plugin for WordPress, WooCommerce is a robust, customizable solution for selling goods online. This is evident from the fact that it powers nearly 40% of the world’s e-commerce websites. WooCommerce essentially helps you build an online shop for selling your goods, both physical and digital. In addition to its set of core functionalities, it has thousands of extensions and supported plugins that can extend its functionality. Speaking with respect to the spa and salon website we are building, WooCommerce is necessary for the appointment and booking plugins we shall be incorporating next and the payment gateways required for the website. Hence, the need for the WooCommerce plugin. Pro Tip: Apart from serving as the base platform for the bookings system, you can also consider setting up an online store for selling your spa and salon products (if any), with WooCommerce. In addition, the plugin has inbuilt discounts and coupons options that can be set up to sell special offers online.

Step 3: Adding Appointments

Similar to a real spa or salon, the entire spa and salon website runs on appointments. The process remains the same; the user books an appointment according to his preference, confirms the date and time, pays for the same, collects a ticket, and then turns up at the scheduled hour for his haircut/massage. The only difference here is, the entire process goes online. Users can book and appointment from their homes, collect their e-tickets after payment, and then directly show up on the scheduled service date. They can even use discount codes and redeem points on purchases on the website itself, without any hassles whatsoever! And all this within minutes. WordPress has several appointment and bookings plugins created by third-party developers. Here we shall see the three best plugins that convert your regular website into a full-fledged appointments and reservations management system.

Appointments by WPMU DEV

A powerful bookings and reservations management plugin, Appointments is perfect for spas and salons. The plugin integrates features such as intuitive front-end date and time picking systems for clients to choose their appointments, as far as a year in advance! The integrated Google Calendar makes it even easier to keep track of service listings. At the back end, your employees and guest service providers can also choose their availability and create black-out dates and times. Integration with BuddyPress and Gravatar lets you create User and Employee profiles that are displayed on the website, so your user knows exactly who will be providing the service. The plugin also integrates with the PayPal payment gateway which facilitates prompt processing and transactions. The email autoresponder setup lets you inform clients about the details of the appointment they have booked and send reminders as the scheduled date draws near. The Appointments plugin is available for free download in the WordPress plugins directory. The Premium Appointments+ plugin has to be purchased as a part of the WPMUDEV membership, which includes several other plugins and extensions.

Appointment Booking Calendar – BirchPress Scheduler

The BirchPress Scheduler is full-fledged appointments and bookings system, optimized to adapt to responsive themes. A highly localization-ready plugin, BirchPress incorporates region-specific payments gateways and multiple currencies, facilitating quicker transactions. The booking form can be added to any page on the website, which lets you add several calls to action and thereby increase conversion rates. The Admin panel consists of a comprehensive Dashboard for managing user and staff appointments, and keeping track of the schedule. BirchPress Scheduler integrates with all Calendars, including iCal, Google, Android, Outlook, and iPhone, which makes blocking dates extremely easy. The entire booking list can be imported or exported to and from your computer, saving you from hours of entries in Excel sheets! BirchPress scheduler is a Freemium plugin, with the free version available in the WordPress directory and the Premium from the source website.

WooCommerce Bookings

WooCommerce Bookings is WooCommerce’s very own bookings and appointments management plugin (surprise surprise!). The plugin does have some distinct advantages though, as it is built by the developers of WooCommerce itself. For one, it lets you create buffer periods between two appointments, that can last from minutes to days. This gives you employees some breathing room and your cleaning crews time reset the salon/spa for the next client. The plugin also adds cool features like special rates for weekends/holidays, pre-defined working times on specific dates, and variable extra add-ons for each booking. These various functionalities let you create and sell service packages online, where you can offer varying prices for combo deals. Another feature in WooCommerce Bookings is that though the front-end user books an appointment, it does not get confirmed until the Administrator approves it. This lets you be in control of the number of spa/salon appointments you book per day, based on the availability of your staff. The WooCommerce Bookings plugin is a premium plugin, available for purchase at the WooCommerce Bookings website. You can choose from their different pricing plans to see what suits you best.

Step 4: Marketing with Social Media

As the influence of social media increases by leaps and bounds every day, entrepreneurs across the world are taking advantage of the global exposure of these websites to use them as marketing platforms. Integrating social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and more, presents a broader range of target customers. The distinct advantage of the spa and salon wellness industry is that business is perennial. Social media integration is generally offered by most of the themes available for building a spa and salon website. If not, the bookings plugin you select should do the trick.

Step 5: Writing the Blog

Although this is not a strictly mandatory requirement, statistics show that having a blog for your website significantly boosts the conversion rate. The whys to this statement are easily answered. Having a website-related blog, where you add articles and user experiences assures people of your expertise in the field. For a salon website for instance, adding articles such as tips for maintaining hair, recommended shampoos and conditioners for the different types of hair, and so on, will ensure that you know your business well. Even more importantly, this creates a bond between the seller and the customer, as your clients realize that this is more than just a regular salon. The advantage of having your website on WordPress is that WordPress is second to none when it comes to creating blogs and adding articles. The back-end interface is extremely user-friendly and you have tons of SEO and visual editing options to prune down and optimize your content. As you will have astutely realized, these SEO optimized blogs will drive more traffic to your website, as people come across them in organic search, thereby ultimately increasing the conversion rate.

Step 6: Connecting with your Customers

A good business knows its customers, a great business interacts with them! To take your business to the next level, communicating with your customers is a must. To those who have booked an appointment with you, sending regular emails with respect to the details of the appointments and reminders as the appointment draws closer is imperative. Similarly, sending email newsletters and updates to your past customers, informing them about any new services you offer, the discounts they are entitled to as recurring clients, their feedback and experience as a client etc. can be some of the many ways you can keep reminding them of your presence. WordPress has several email newsletter plugins and email marketing plugins that you can integrate with your website. You can check out a comparative list of email marketing plugins for WordPress to help you decide further. Another way of connecting with your customers is by adding a contact form to your website. A contact form helps your customers get in touch with you easily and quickly, addressing any queries they have with respect to the appointment or your enterprise. To this end, here are some contact form plugins you can use to create beautiful forms:
  • Gravity Forms
  • WPForms
  • Ninja Forms
  • Contact Form 7
  • Pirate Forms
  • Jetpack by WordPress.com
These forms can be used to conduct surveys and collect user feedback too.

Step 7: Analysing the Website

This is the final, yet the most important step while building your spa and salon website. It so often happens that we get completely caught up in the flow of website creation and maintenance, but forget to analyse it to see how it is actually doing. Spotting errors is difficult when you are the developer, so it is necessary to get feedback from third-party observers, who have had absolutely nothing to do with the process. WordPress has integrations with analytics tools like Google Analytics, KISSmetrics, Crazy Egg, etc. which analyse the site bit by bit and tell you exactly what is working for you and what isn’t. User feedback, A/B testing, link tracking, traffic maps, and more can help you get a clear picture of site performance based on which you can extrapolate the areas you need to improve and draw up an action plan accordingly.

A Throwback

This concludes the 7-step process of creating a spa and salon website using WordPress. We have discussed here the generalized structure of the website, you can however add a lot more functionalities to while creating your own unique website. For instance, how about adding a membership plugin so that users can subscribe/register to avail better offers? Or perhaps creating an Event, say a day of fitness training, using an event management plugin? Sounds fun, doesn’t it?! WordPress lets you experiment with a multitude of options with the ultimate aim of creating a site that is uniquely yours! What are your thoughts? Any other features you would recommend for the spa and salon website? Let us know!

How to Create a Micro-Job Marketplace like Fiverr on WordPress

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fiverr-website A micro-job marketplace is a great way of buying and selling short-term projects at a minimal cost. Here, the sellers are generally freelancers or part-time workers who offer services in their field of expertise, charging on a per-assignment basis. People who require such services can get in touch with the respective service provider, explain their requirement, and get the work done. Some of the most popular micro-job marketplaces prevalent today include Fiverr, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Zeerk, GigBucks, SEOClerks, etc. Each of these websites offers services ranging from as low as $2 to as high as $5000, depending on the service and customization you ask for. Fiverr was one of the first companies to introduce the micro-lancing concept, back in around 2010. Although it did not really take off from the very beginning, the micro-job giant is taking the world by storm today, implementing this concept across various spheres such as music, digital marketing, business, programming and technology, and more. Due to this resounding success, there has lately been an eruption of Fiverr-clone websites across the internet that are riding on the popularity of Fiverr. However, merely imitating Fiverr’s website design, or adding a Fiverr-like site name are temporary hacks and of little use in the long run. It is a better idea to identify the features of the website that make it so popular and build a similar micro-job marketplace incorporating those, but which is unique in its own right.

The Features of Fiverr

Clean Website Design

A clear, well-defined structure makes it extremely easy for buyers to find the gigs required and contact the respective seller.

Easy Navigation

Fiverr incorporates breadcrumb trails on the website, which lets people move freely within the website, without getting lost or confused.

Novelty ‘Gigs’ for a mere $5

A micro-job marketplace like Fiverr has numerous novelty Gigs, from singing birthday songs in Welsh, to conventional ones such as website transfer from one hosting provider to another, all starting from $5 and increasing as per the customization required.

Multiple Gigs to Choose from

Fiverr literally has thousands of sellers offering similar services at approximately the same cost. This lets buyers pick and choose gigs as per specific requirements.

An Active Support Forum

The Fiverr community is extremely supportive and open to diverse topics of discussion, including sharing of helpful tips, personal experiences, sales strategies, and Fiverr news updates.

Secure Payment Gateways

Given the manifold transactions taking place via Fiverr (the company says they sell a Gig every 5 seconds!), fast and secure payment gateways are mandatory. The site charges 20% commission over each successful gig, and the payment is processed to the seller’s account once the gig is delivered completely to the buyer.

Social Media Integration

Social media platforms are a great way of promoting small-scale businesses. Fiverr integrates with all the major social media platforms, Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram, to let users instantaneously post their feedback and reviews to these websites.

Localization Ready

Fiverr has considerable global exposure and supports several complete translatable versions of the website, thereby catering to a vast audience. Localization lets sellers capitalize on the requirements of their local markets and provide the requisite services to a niche sector.

Review and Rating System

There is an extensive review and rating system on Fiverr. Sellers can add a limited number of Gigs, based on their Level status (1, 2, and Top Rated). Buyers can post reviews about Seller performance, quality of the product, and the overall experience, once the Gig is complete. These ratings are taken into account by the website Editors while assigning higher Level statuses to the Sellers.
It is evident from these features that a micro-job marketplace like Fiverr needs several support systems, apart from the core, ecommerce marketplace functionality, to keep running. Let us now look at how we can build a similar website using WordPress as the CMS platform.

Creating a Micro-Job Website like Fiverr using WordPress

To create a micro-job marketplace website using WordPress, two methods can be primarily used; the first is adding a Fiverr-clone theme to the WordPress install for the marketplace interface and adding all other peripherals such as subscriptions, social integrations, commissions, contact forms, and more separately. The second is to install a multi-vendor marketplace plugin on top of an e-commerce solution like WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads and managing Vendor and Buyer transactions through the plugin. Let us discuss each of these in detail. Both these methods are discussed assuming that you already have a hosting plan and an active WordPress install setup. If not, you can read a detailed review of how to choose a hosting plan that best suits your requirements. Moving on.

Option #1 The Fiverr-Clone Theme Approach

There are multiple Fiverr-clone scripts available for WordPress that replicate the design, layout, and functionalities of Fiverr to a more or less similar extent. Beware though, not all the themes available are trustworthy; some of these scam-scripts charge inordinately high prices while providing substandard service or broken code. To help you shortlist the theme you require more easily, here is a list of the four most reliable and well-equipped themes for creating a micro-job website on WordPress.

Pricerr by SiteMile

One of the best themes that mimics Fiverr almost exactly, Pricerr is a strong option for a micro-job marketplace theme. The theme has literally the same design, look, and feel of the original Fiverr website. In terms of functionalities, Pricerr supports Gig listings, Facebook/Twitter/Google integration, email notifications, multiple payment gateways with several currency options, and a private messaging system. Blogs can be posted via the native WordPress interface. However, if you wish to integrate discounts or subscriptions for your users, you shall need to integrate the required plugins separately. Pricerr is a premium theme, starting at $69 for a yearly license.

Taskerr by AppThemes

The Taskerr micro-jobs theme is a relatively newer one on the block. Nevertheless, it covers the majority of Fiverr features, and has a robust, responsive framework. The theme has five customizable color schemes, supports multiple pricing plans for job listings, and an Add to Favorite option. taskerr-theme However, it currently only allows the administrator to charge a fixed cut from sellers for listing their services on the website. Percentage commissions for each gig cannot yet be charged. Sellers have substantial control over editing and posting their gigs, and a review system allows buyers to add their feedback and experience about the gig. Taskerr is priced at $69 for a lifetime license and 12-monthly support.

MicrojobEngine by Engine Themes

One of the advantages of the MicrojobEngine theme is that it has the same functionalities as Fiverr, but a slightly different user interface. In a world of Fiverr replicas, this can sometimes work to its advantage, as people want customizable designs that set their website apart. MicrojobEngine allows customizable order uploads where Sellers can charge extra money for further customization in the Gig (or MJob, as it is called here). There are integrated PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout gateways, an optional setup for enabling Buyers to log in through their social media accounts, and multiple templates for user notification emails. The backend interface is pretty sleek and incorporated within the native WordPress interface, so navigation is easy if you are familiar with the regular WordPress setup. MicrojobEngine supports over 30 languages and lets administrators add their own at the backend. There are two versions of the theme currently available, the Basic package for $89 and the Plus for $139.

WordPress Micro Jobs Theme by PremiumPress

The WordPress Micro Jobs Theme is a standard solution, which includes all the basic features you would expect for a micro-job website. There are multiple layouts available, designed as child themes of the original. Both the front-end and back-end user interfaces are straightforward, which makes navigation considerably easy. The theme also supports add-ons for further extension of functionalities. There are integrated Seller Profile creation options and a notification panel to keep track of Order status. One of the advantages of the theme is that it has an in-built newsletter widget that can be used to send mass email to subscribers. Priced at $79 for a lifetime license, the Micro Jobs theme is a decent option if you intend on creating a simple, regular micro-job marketplace website. All the themes above offer extensive options for creating a Fiverr-like website. However, to add features like regular backups, newsletters, subscriptions setup, discounts, SEO optimization tools, etc. integration of external plugins becomes necessary. Nevertheless, merely using these themes can provide you with a working setup to launch your micro-job website within a short period of time.

Option #2 The Service Marketplace Plugin Approach

As the name implies, here we intend to create a multi-vendor marketplace that is primarily service-based, instead of selling physical goods. The marketplace plugin provides the administrator with the tools necessary to add multiple Sellers and effectively sell their services. However, the bone of contention here is the digital product formats supported by the plugin. There is a wide range of services to be catered to on a micro-job website; audio, video, documents, PDFs, zip files, software files, you get the idea. Which is why, selecting an e-commerce platform and a marketplace plugin that is compatible with all these product formats is important. Here we will see three e-commerce platform-marketplace plugin combinations that can be used to create a micro-job marketplace website.

WooCommerce + Dokan Multivendor Marketplace Plugin

WooCommerce is WordPress’ darling e-commerce platform. However, WooCommerce can be used to set up only a single seller store. The Dokan Multivendor Marketplace plugin extends this functionality to multi-sellers who can each create and sell their services independently, on your website. The significant advantage of this marketplace plugin is that each Seller is now effectively a mini-store owner and can be charged for each service listing he/she uploads. dokan-woocommerce Dokan incorporates comprehensive sales analytics for each seller and all the orders covered, a flexible commissions setup for variable commission rates per seller, a complete review and feedback system, and a discounts and coupons management system. The Administrator can create variable subscription plans that limit the number of services offered by a Seller at any given point of time. The Dokan Multivendor Marketplace plugin has three pricing plans starting from $199 for a yearly, single site license. The Lite version is available for free download and the premium plugin has a 14-day trial period.

WooCommerce + WC Marketplace Plugin

The WC Marketplace plugin is another multi-vendor marketplace solution built on WooCommerce. The plugin lets vendors create multiple digital and physical services that are sold on the multi-vendor store. Administrators can control the activities of all the Sellers from a centralized dashboard that can be used to send notifications to all vendors in one go. The variable vendor commissions setup can be transferred via payment gateways as well as direct bank transfers. User roles can be assigned to all Vendors, limiting their back-end access. The plugin has several add-ons that let Vendors manage their individual stores from the front-end, generate PDF invoices and autoresponders every time a service is purchased, and get analytics reports at the front-end. The plugin is available for free download, with premium add-ons.

EDD Marketplace Extension + Marketify Theme

When it comes to selling only digital products on WordPress, the Easy Digital Downloads platform is unbeatable. This makes it near-perfect for the service-based micro-job solution we are looking for. EDD’s Digital Marketplace bundle transforms the regular EDD store into a full-fledged digital marketplace. The functionalities included in this extension are social integration, wish list creation, commissions, front-end submissions, recommendations, and more. This settles the digital goods part; to create the complete marketplace, you can incorporate the Marketify theme and start adding Vendors right away. When it comes to pricing, this combination is towards the higher end of the spectrum. The core EDD plugin is free, but the Digital Marketplace bundle is priced at $499. The Marketify theme further costs $69.

The Last Word

WordPress is one of the most flexible platforms for building a micro-job marketplace website. Each of the approaches seen above has its own advantages and drawbacks when it comes to website development. The theme-based approach is useful if you want to set up shop and start selling right away. The plugin-based approach is from a long-term perspective, where you gradually build your service store. The former requires peripherals to extend its functionalities, the latter can be developed intrinsically. Either way, both the methods can successfully help create a beautiful, functioning micro-job marketplace website. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below!

Debugging WordPress Websites: Best Tools and Techniques

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This is a guest post by Ajeet Singh. If you’d like to feature your content here, feel free to get in touch with us.

debugging-wordpress

Image Courtesy Google

WordPress is a great website builder that’s incredibly simple to use, and is a preferred CMS for millions of people.

Its interface and functionality is designed especially for people without any prior experience in web development.

From selecting a theme -> through uploading content -> to marketing, all the features are quite easy to use.

Debugging a website is also not an exception.

WordPress has made debugging or troubleshooting quite easy for all its users just like using any other features. Only with some specific lines of code added or removed, debugging can be enabled in the native manner.

If you write custom codes, modify your WordPress themes or functionality, you may probably be well versed with its basic troubleshooting techniques and are easily dealing with common theme/plugin errors.

But there are still those non-technical webmasters who take help from other developers to troubleshoot errors. And some of these webmasters may even give up on WordPress due to having difficulties with basic functionalities.

Today, we will take a look at some of the most common errors that many webmasters are experiencing, and list the best tools and techniques required to overcome these errors.

Types of Common PHP Errors

  1. Notice: Least important error message which does not necessarily mean something is wrong, but it points out the possible improvement needed.
  2. Warning: A more severe error compared with Notice. However it does not cause script termination.
  3. Fatal error: Most serious of all, this error indicates something going completely wrong, and the script terminated.

Best Debugging Tools and Techniques

#1 Debugging in WordPress

WP_DEBUG is a PHP constant to specify the needed level of debugging throughout a WordPress site. Enabling WP_DEBUG causes all PHP errors, notices and warnings to be displayed instantly on the screen.

It also gives notices about deprecated functions and arguments within WordPress that are being used on your site and indicates the new functions that should be used instead.

Using WP_DEBUG tool on a live site may possibly hinder with your browsing experience by giving multiple notices, continuously. Hence, WP_DEBUG along with its two other variants WP_DEUBG_DISPLAY, and WP_DEBUG_LOG are not meant to be used on live site. These are designed to help in local testing and staging installs.

It is not mandatory to enable WP_DEBUG, but is highly recommended that you use WP_DEBUG mode while modifying codes or functionality of theme or plugin before you launch any website publicly.

  • WP_DEBUG_LOG – It works in combination with WP_DEBUG to save all errors at debug.log log file inside the /wp-content/directory. This is very useful if you wish to review all notices at some other time or need to see the notices generated off-screen.
  • WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY – This also works with WP_DEBUG to control whether debug messages are shown inside the HTML of pages or not. The default is ‘true’ which displays notices as they are generated. But setting this to false will hide all errors to be reviewed later.

#2 Debugging Plugins

Here are some of the highly recommended debugging plugins for WordPress that show detailed information about the internal errors, for any specific component or in general.

  • Query Monitor – This debugging plugin is suitable for anyone developing with WordPress. It has some advanced features that are not available in other alternative debugging plugins, like debugging of AJAX calls, REST API requests, and redirects.
  • Debug Bar – It is a very handy tool for getting useful information about each page of your website. Once installed, you will see a new Debug button, which can be clicked to review an analysis of the queries, templates, PHP installation, along with other useful information.
  • Log Deprecated Notices – This plugin logs the usage of deprecated files, functions, and function arguments. It also identifies which functionality is deprecated and therefore offers the suitable alternatives wherever possible.

#3 Firebug Browser Add On

Firebug is a sophisticated debugging add-on that analyzes your websites for possible errors, network problems, design flaws, and function interaction between languages. It is also known for its logging feature that lets you log all errors in one place to be analyzed and fixed later. It is mainly an add-on of Mozilla Firefox browser, but a lite version is also available for other browsers.

While working on Firebug add-on, you may need to disable your browser cache, because if you are working on your JavaScript code, which is not updating, or updating slowly and showing new errors, then cached files may interrupt in your work – causing delay.

Summing Up

For internal debugging analysis, Debug Bar proves most effective, whereas Firebug looks at the peripherals of the website and reviews how external scripts and plugins affect the website performance and appearance.

Keeping default WP_DEBUG mode should also be enough to fully understand and list the website errors and to understand what should be done about them. Further, external plugins can also be helpful in fixing errors faster.

Author Bio:

Ajeet is a freelance content writer for American Webmasters Association. He is a graduate of Delhi University, India with a major in journalism. He is responsible for creating news posts for the company covering various topics related to web development. His work has been published on popular sites like Entrepreneur, Gamasutra, PicktheBrain, MyCustomers and TechWorm.

Interview with Frank Bültge

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Frank Bueltge

Frank Bültge – Business Partner at Inpsyde

For those of you from Germany involved with WordPress or WooCommerce, Inpsyde and Frank Bültge, must be familiar names.

Frank, a software developer, WordCamp speaker, translation contributor, is a business partner with Inpsyde GmbH and Carl Zeiss AG. 

WordPress has been his companion for years now. Apart from that he also engages himself with SAP Business software. He has built popular plugins like WooCommerce German Market, BackWPup pro, MultilingualPress, etc.

Apart from being a great WordPress developer, Frank is also a sport enthusiast. He loves mountaineering and cycling, which he does on a regular basis, when not spending time with his family. It’s surprising how he manages to make such good use of his time with so much on his plate 🙂

Frank Bültge was kind enough to spare some time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions for us. So let’s see what has to say about his jouney!

(Note: Here’s the original version in German)

Tell us about Frank when you take WordPress out of the equation? How do you like to spend time when you’re not managing Inpsyde.

My name is Frank Bültge and I work both as a co-founder and shareholder of Inpsyde GmbH as well as the head of the SAP PLM Environment at Carl Zeiss AG. Both companies are completely different, and have different goals. At times I tend to follow others’ goals apart from mine. But what’s most important to me is working with people, specially in big teams, which is my prime responsibility.

I spend a lot of my time on the computer. However, working on products is secondary as opposed to solving problems between people and their expectations of results. Also, thoughts, visions and priorities for the future are very important to me in my daily life.

Work is important, but family comes first. I also dedicate my time to my family. Here, there’s much to give, and to receive. Finally, I use some time for sport. I love freedom and hence I’m fascinated with mountain sports, which requires adequate preparation. Apart from that, cycling is something, that always fascinates me. Mountain climbing helps me clear my head.

What is your typical workday like?

I usually start at around 8, before which I workout and spend time with my family. I then proceed to complete particularly intensive tasks, which include reading mails, collaborating with people, etc. Over the day, there are meetings with different people on different topics. Generally I get time after 5, to attend calls and go through posts. If I get more time, I engage myself with tasks like new development or coding.

That’s the end of my first job i.e till 6 or 7. A cycle ride again after that and solving small or big family problems and spending time with them really helps. After 8 starts my 2nd job, where plugins are to be supported, corrected and further developed. That’s how my day goes and at the end I just hope to have had a ‘productive day’ and be satisfied.

What’s Inpsyde’s unique selling proposition (USP)? What distinguishes the company from its competition?

The USP of Inpsyde

I believe that the quality and connection to open source and how we think about it makes a big difference. Customers benefit from the fact that their free products are well maintained. We take care of them, without being dependent on service requests.

At the same time, I appreciate the know-how in the team, I find the quality of the code extraordinary and very thoughtful. Often this does not matter to the customer, but over time one learns to appreciate quality and maintenance. What I really appreciate and the USP of Inpsyde is the reliability and dedication of every single member of the team.

You’ve developed a number of plugins. What thought process is involved in converting an idea into a plugin?

I can only speak for myself, since I do not come from a typical developer background. I’ve learnt how to program using the “Trial and Error” method. Basically, understanding the problem is enough to think of a solution. I often need this thought in my everyday life, whether a plugin or a complex process, there are problems and there are goals. The road between them is to solve the problem to achieve the goal.

In order to create a solid solution, a solution that I am satisfied with, personal development is very important. A solution that might be old, might be still effective.

WooCommerce German Market, BackWPup Pro und MultilingualPress – Which was the most challenging plugins to build and why?

I was primarily involved with MultilingualPress. The product was an idea, which I implemented in WordPress long back with a partner. We always thought that standard WordPress was not flexible. That’s why we often used this solution for various customers. But we never had a standard, because the requirements were totally different. The primary idea still remained the same however- basic WordPress multisite and linking of objects.

MultilingualPress still supports its standalone standard and maintainability, but it has completely changed in general. The free product can be used and extended in many ways. The team has achieved a very different level of quality in the code. The solution has become more stable and flexible, new ideas are on the waiting list.

MultilingualPress has always been a love of mine so far. For me the idea is right, but complicated only because multisite in the core is always somewhat neglected. The tickets concern less users, less developers are interested and the complexity is higher.

According to you, what factors make a plugin successful?

Maintainability, extensibility

This can be seen from my point of view as – Need. I know too many poorly built plugins that are very successful. That is why factors such as maintainability, extensibility, cost, quality are great and important to me; but they are secondary to usability.

What would Frank Bültge advice be for all those who provide WordPress services?

Important Factor

An important factor is passion and patience. Working on and with free products attracts many users, but also many ungrateful users. One himself/herself must be happy and satisfied. In the end, you are the one who can be successful, not the software.

What are 3 things you like best about being involved in WordCamps?

People, people, people.

Without them, the other aspects that arise at these meetings are secondary. The emergence of friendships, exchanges, ideas, learning, comes with and through the people. WordCamps ensure this. It’s the people and not just the code that is the focus.

If you weren’t involved with WordPress, what career path would you have chosen?

I like working with my hands, craftsmanship is a passion of mine- whether at home, in the forest, in the workshop, in the garden. Managing something on my own gives me more satisfaction. Incidentally this is also a reason why I always liked to work with WordPress. The achievement was usually widespread and recognized.

Thank you Frank for your precious time. You definitely set an example for our readers on how to manage time and be an all-rounder. All the best for your further journey. For those who want to know more about Frank can follow him on Twitter @bueltge or visit his website.

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