Blog Ninja

If you are looking to create the perfect under construction page for your new website or blog, UnderConstructionPage is a WordPress plugin with simple beginner-friendly navigation and a self-explanatory name. It is advertised as a tool that allows any WordPress user to easily create one of these pages in quite a short time. Its reviews on WordPress plugin store certainly speak in favour of these claims, as it has a firm five-star rating.

Additionally, its popularity is quite high according to the number of active installations which goes beyond 400,000. One of the first obvious proofs of the plugin’s quality are the frequent updates, and this diligence in updating is another reason to believe the advertised responsiveness of the support team.

A bit more on the technicalities – UnderConstructionPage is compatible with WordPress versions 4.0 and later. Also, when it comes to PHP, it will work with versions 5.2 or higher. This Under Construction Page option is quite similar to that of a coming soon page as well.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the options this plugin offers.

As its commands are divided into six tabs, we will give an overview of each of these sections separately.

Main Section

The central place in this section takes up the chart we have pictured above. It shows all views, sessions, and conversions once you start receiving traffic. This feature is immensely useful, especially as you get the report on stats for each date. 

This way, if you keep track of your promotional activities, you’ll have a clear picture of which tactic work the best for your brand, market, and audience. Besides, you’ll be able to test your conclusions easily, also by looking into your stats.

Additionally, there is a reset option for this chart, but it’s located under the Settings tab, i.e. its subsection titled Tools. Admittedly, it is a bit unintuitive to separate these two features, but adding the stats reset option was nonetheless a great decision.

Other two handy settings are Automatic Start Date & Time and Automatic End Date & Time. Although the names pretty much say everything there is to know about these settings, it’s worth mentioning that they don’t automatically activate the under construction mode itself. You’ll have to enable it manually while these two sub-settings just help you fine-tune dates and timing of the launch and cancellation of the page.

Appearance Section

UnderConstructionPage offers heaps of different templates, or to be more precise, over 220 of them. As you can see in the snippet above, the selection covers a wide range of areas. So, whatever your niche is, you will probably find just the perfect template. 

There are takeaway-themed templates, those for dentists, and also items more leaning towards creative professions such as blogging, music, and photography. We were stunned by the available collection that UCP offers. On top of this, you can import the templates from external sources through commands available under the other Appearance subsection titled Your Pages.

Additionally, personalising your under-construction page even further is possible by adding some of the 1 million free images available through the plugin. You can also play with the fonts and its colours. Adjust the notifications on your page so that the most important ones pop and those of secondary priority can slightly blend in with the background. And the navigation through all of these many adjustments is intuitive and simple so that even WP beginners can easily find their way.

So, if visual appearance is among your priorities, look no further.

However, UCP isn’t just about superficial beauty. It also offers elements that will make your under-construction page functional. UCP builder is mostly based on drag-and-drop principle, so you can add and edit elements smoothly. Include countdown to launch to create the dynamics and the sense of progress. Also, you can feature contact forms or newsletter sign-up boxes. This way, you’ll be collecting leads even while your website is inactive.

All in all, when it comes to the final appearance of your under-construction page and many of its user-facing functionalities, UCP has you covered.

Access Section

This section is especially useful in case you are working in a team on your website. Let’s say you are a site owner who wants to upgrade the site, and you hire a developer to do this for you. So, you’ll only give access to the actual site content to the developer, while everyone else will see the under-construction page. The first way to do this is to type in your and the developer’s IP addresses in the Whitelisted IP Addresses box. 

The second way is to tick the roles which will see the full site. Thus, depending on the role that the logged-in user has, they will either see the regular content or just the coming soon page. The third way to select who sees the website while it’s being edited is to list user by user who is allowed to follow the editing progress. This option might be a bit tiresome if there are a lot of people who you’re planning to whitelist. 

UCP also allows you to show only some pages of your website while keeping others under restricted view. URL Based Rules section gives you the option to list either the pages you want always to be visible, or the ones you want never to be visible when under construction mode is on. So, depending on your plans and desires, choose the option from the drop-down menu in the first box, and then list URL by URL in the second. This is a great half-way solution for those owners who can’t afford to completely hide some website pages, either for the sake of profit, information, or some other reasons.

All these options are quite useful for developers as well. When you are building or updating a website, you’ll want constant feedback from your client. Choosing some of these options is a great way to maintain high-quality collaboration while working remotely. However, in cases where the only people who will be able to see the site actual content are you – the developer – and the client, maybe the best option is to simply create a direct access link. UCP team thought about this as well, and you can find this option under the second tab in the Access section.

All in all, the access options are fully covered, and we can only say…Well done!

Settings Section

The Settings section is the broadest and has five subsections.

External Services

The first tab holds a MailChimp connection set-up, Zapier Webhook connection set-up, and set-up for universal autoresponder in case you have opted for other mailing services. When it comes to MailChimp, you’ll even be able to create user lists provided you disable the double opt-in option. This is a great way to continue properly personalised management of your communication with the audience.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous subsection offers two on-off options. The first one allows you to control Google Analytics tracking for your website. When turned on, it automatically gives you a field where you put in your Google Analytics ID and that’s it – you have your GA tracker activated. Smooth and easy. The other option allows you to apply a Discourage Search Engines from indexing your website while it’s in under construction mode. Although it depends on the engine whether it will follow your directive or not, it’s still a handy feature.

Advanced

This subsection offers several settings allowing you to control interactions of your website with third parties. It is also where redirection command is located, which allows you to redirect the users to another URL instead of showing them an under-construction page. This is a great additional ability for an under-construction plugin, and can come in useful at times.

Tools

Besides the Reset Statistics, the Tools subcategory also offers the option to reset all settings. Templates, leads, and stats are the only things not affected by this reset, which is hugely convenient. 

There will probably be times when you’ll want to delete all direct access links and other access or affiliate settings. It is a smart decision of the team behind the plugin that this reset saves the basic template settings and valuable data such as leads and statistics. But, beware, there is no undo, so think twice before you reach for this button.

Affiliate Links

This tab shows you all affiliate links which are currently active. In addition to the main section statistics chart, this is an extremely valuable conversion tracker, as it allows you to observe one visitor and their actions on the website during the course of sixty days. 

It also shows from where they were directed to your website in the first place. This kind of knowledge is truly valuable. Also, maintaining the continuity in the collection of this type of data, even while your site is in under construction mode, contributes to the overall promotional process.

Leads Section

This is where all your leads are compiled. Everyone who has left you their email address or sent you a message through a contact form will be listed here. All leads will be timestamped, and you’ll be able to see the location from which they contacted you. 

All these data are a great basis for future marketing campaigns. But don’t worry about backing them up as UCP allows you to export your lead lists in several formats. Yet another plus.

Support Section

This segment has two subdivisions into the FAQ and Contact Support. The FAQ goes shortly through some of the potential problems you might face. So, in case these short explanations don’t help, you can easily send a direct message to the UCP team just by going to the next subsection. This integrated contact form is certainly a nice touch and leaves an impression of dedication and care about the users.

The Verdict

In summary, we can freely say that this plugin delivers what its adds promise. Its ease of use is a result of good planning of features and clear commands. This means almost any WordPress site owner should be able to use it without any help. 

The professionals will also find it to be a great time-saving tool. On the whole, we can recommend this plugin to anyone who has a site under construction or one in need of renovation. It will provide all the necessary features and you’ll have an under-construction page up in a smooth and timely fashion.

We’ve all been in working scenarios where leadership changes happened. Whether it’s because of a retirement or a merger, the difference in leadership can cause uncertainty among employees. The feeling of insecurity this can generate can be disastrous for projects, teams and the incoming leaders.

How management deals with the transfer is a critical element in how the rest of the company accepts the new leadership. By making the transition easier on employees, leaders help improve buy-in on new processes, as well as help team members feel that the company cares about them — something highly important to retention.

How Leadership Changes Effect Everyone

Any type of changes in leadership can effect everyone differently. Whether it’s on a sports team, in a business or even at home, it’s likely to have a different ‘daily tasks’ and ’emotional’ influence for everyone. The same holds true for how we look at influencer marketers and business owners in the world today. Once a new change comes into effect at any big company or organization, we are all quick to provide our own opinions on how it will play out.

With everyone always having their own thoughts and experiences, we thought it would be a great idea to ask the experts for their optinion. We hand selected entrepreneurs from YEC to share several techniques management can implement to ease a transition in leadership.

Here’s what they had to say.

1. Keep Employees in the Loop

The best approach management can use to make a transition period easier is to brief the employees about everything that is happening and how things will or will not change in the company. Employees like to be taken into account, and if things go well or not so well during the transition period, they will be happy that they were informed of everything and that their opinions were taken into account.

– Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME

2. Enable Gradual Change

Leadership changes can often cause confusion and stress within a company. If you want to make the process easier for your team, make your changes gradually. For example, if you plan on promoting from within the company, train in small increments so that employees and your new manager feel comfortable in their position.

– Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights

3. Open the Floor to Questions

When making any substantial change to your business, the last thing you want is for people to spread rumors. As soon as you can announce the transition in leadership, I recommend doing so and opening up the floor to questions from any employees. Clear communication like this will prevent any undue stress or unfounded gossip from spreading, which can be disastrous to company morale.

– Bryce Welker, The Big 4 Accounting Firms

4. Emphasize Unity

It can be overwhelming and even a little daunting to think about a shift in management, but it’s important to welcome the newcomer so they feel comfortable being the new leader. Talk to your team beforehand and let them know what’s going on before anyone else has the chance to. Emphasize welcoming new management and tell them what they can expect in the upcoming weeks or months.

– Jared Atchison, WPForms

5. Ensure Transparency

I’ve had a recent change in leadership at my company, and have found that transparency with the process has helped both the employees, as well as the incoming and outgoing leadership role. This has allowed everyone time to adjust and get comfortable with the changes, while asking questions and providing helpful input and feedback, making them feel involved and supported in the process.

– Rachel Beider, PRESS Modern Massage

6. Treat Everyone like a Person and Not a Number

I think one of the worst things that can happen when a new leader steps in, is for individuals and teams within the organization to start feeling like numbers and no longer part of the team. This often happens in much larger companies with hundreds of employees and staff, but it can still happen in smaller groups as well. No matter the size, this type of impression and treatment during a leadership change can quickly turn things sour.

– Zac Johnson, ZacJohnson.com

7. Involve All Staff

Everyone working needs to know about the changes in leadership or development. Host regular meetings that involve all of your employees and staff to notify them. Then everyone hears the facts and will have answers to their potential questions. Also, they will appreciate that management treats them with respect and honesty about potential uncertainties. Respect goes a long way to ease any concerns.

– Patrick Barnhill, Specialist ID, Inc.

8. Give Time for Productivity to Resume

Leadership transitions can be difficult to manage. During such change, giving time for normal productivity to resume is important. This takes the pressure off your employees who are coping with new faces and roles. Once everyone is settled in, productivity should resume. If it takes longer than 90 days for things to settle, there may be something else that needs to be addressed.

– Blair Williams, MemberPress

9. Hold One-on-One Meetings

A new manager will flourish if they have a good idea of what they’re walking into. Many managers come in too strong when they start at a new company and this can be intimidating for many employees. By setting up some one-on-one time with each of the key team members and the new hire, the manager and the team will be able to get a better measure of each other. This will help quell any uncertainty.

– Ismael Wrixen, FE International

10. Include the New Leader Early on

If a new manager is coming on board, make them part of the work process as early as possible. Have them come in, shadow you and work alongside you until it’s officially their turn to take over. That way, they meet the team, familiarize themselves with the company, and feel more comfortable in that space.

– Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

11. Embrace Empathy and Storytelling

In times of change, you must take time to understand the impact of the transition. Seek out a diversity of stakeholder opinions and listen for what is needed to remove friction. Embrace storytelling as the most powerful tool for inspiring confidence and shaping action. It’s an opportunity to not just provide clarity, but to help the organization make sense of what is to come. – Ryan Stoner, Phenomenon

12. Introduce the New Exec Before the Transition

Productivity and commitment are at risk when employees are uncertain of a company’s leadership and future. If there is no business reason to keep the changes private, it’s better to introduce a new leader to employees as soon as possible. Help them understand that they’re in safe hands and what the changes mean for them and their role in the company.

– Chris Madden, Matchnode

13. Instill Confidence in the New Leadership

The best thing you can do is instill confidence in the new leadership right away. The handing over of the mantle is very important. Years of trust building can be saved and potential conflict avoided by having someone who is already respected enthusiastically support the new leadership without reservation.

– Reuben Yonatan, GetVoIP

14. Provide Extra Training

When there’s a transition in the workplace, some employees may have to learn new processes or skills. So, it’s important that you provide extra training to your team. By training or retraining them for the transition, you’ll give them all of the skills and resources they need to be successful with the change.

– David Henzel, LTVPlus

What Makes a Great Thought Leader Great?

When looking at different thought leaders and entrepreneurs in the world today, what makes some of them great, while others are just mediocre?

Often times, it’s more than just the success and business aspect of things. It’s also how they deal with situations on a daily basis, and how other people around them feel.

Infleuncer marketing can also be looked at in the same way. Why are some influencers more popular than others? Again, this all comes down to preference and who you want to follow.

Keeping all of these considerations in mind, whenever you come across a new business leader or change within your organization, don’t make a first impression based on what you heard–but instead the first impression that you actually experience.

Email marketing can be an excellent way of drawing in interest and engagement. Many companies invest in email marketing as a cost-effective outreach strategy to build rapport with clients. However, before you can start building that relationship, you first need to catch the attention of your potential consumer.

There are several methods for increasing the visibility and adoption rate of your sign-ups. One critical aspect to remember is that consumers that join email lists are looking for value from their subscription, so you need to communicate the value you intend to offer accurately to encourage them to sign up.

Expert Tips on How to Grow Your Mailing List Fast and Efficiently

When it comes to email marketing and growing a mailing list, everyone has their own case studies, findings and methods that work best. However, in order for us all to expand our own expertise and results, it’s best to learn from other industry experts as well.

With this in mind, we asked some of the leading thought leaders in the industry to share their best tips on how a business can get more sign-ups for its email list.

1. Optimize Sign-Ups

Every online user has a short attention span. You want to encourage them to sign up for your offer and to ensure that they opt-in and keep reading. Don’t require them to enter their full name, and reduce the time needed for them to confirm their sign up. Just use the “not a robot” check mark rather than asking them to identify trees and traffic lights in designated images. Less effort is more.

– Patrick Barnhill, Specialist ID, Inc.

2. Make It Easy to Subscribe

Making subscribing easy should be obvious, but you’d be surprised how often this simple tip is neglected. By featuring a simple call to action like “Subscribe here” or “Sign up for our mailing list” prominently on your website, newsletters and other marketing materials, you can dramatically improve your sign-up rate.

– Kelley Weaver, Melrose PR

3. Position It Differently

I’ve had a lot of success positioning our email lists as “VIP lists,” whether it’s for a marketing agency or a supplement company. It creates a sense of exclusivity that is incredibly inviting, and the engagement rates will also be much higher. Of course, you’ll also have to treat it more like a VIP list than a newsletter. Engage with people, start conversations and provide value.

– Karl Kangur, Above House

4. Give Site Visitors the Option to Email Themself Your Posts

When people visit your site, they will often see how they can share or save your post URL for future reference. This is often done through social media, but if you can add a call to action for “Send blog post as a PDF to email” option on your site, this is a great way to build up your mailing list. This is also considered a ‘content locker’ method as well, but can work both ways. In short, provide as many options as possible for users to consume your content, while also submitting their email to get on some type of list.

–  Zac Johnson, Blogging.org

5. Create Value Weekly

If you are promoting and offering something that is really valuable on a weekly basis, then people are going to want to sign up and read your articles and get your emails. That could be giving away discounted items, or book reviews or unique case studies that can inspire new ideas. Either way, try to keep it fresh and create value.

– Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting, Inc.

6. Offer to Solve Pain Points

Consumers are likely to sign up for an email list if they relate to the business. Research your target audience and learn their pain points. Once you have those people on your website, show them that you understand what they are going through and can offer them information that may help resolve their issue.

– Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights

7. Create the Feeling of Exclusivity

If the subscribers on your email list are getting something that other website visitors aren’t, it creates a feeling of exclusivity and can encourage people to sign up for your email list. For instance, instead of saying, “Sign up for my email list to get weekly tips,” say something like, “Sign up for my email list to get exclusive weekly tips you won’t find anywhere else” to encourage more sign-ups. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster

8. Run a Contest

Contests are fun and build buzz around your brand. If you create one that’s tailored to your target market, you can create rules that grow your email list for you. For example, to enter your contest, you can have users join your email list and count it as an entry. That way, you have a new subscriber and you can segment them to market more content to them in the future.

– Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms

9. Use Lead Magnets

People are extremely reluctant to give their emails because they want to avoid spam. And why not! People often receive emails from websites they never even visited! You can make users want to give you their email by using lead magnets. Lead magnets offer e-books and other content that users can access with their email. It’s an effective way to grow your email list and make customers happy.

– Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

10. Enable Early Access

Let people on your email list beta test new features and read content early. Make sure you let consumers that land on your website know that they will gain access to all of these features and emails once they sign up. This will encourage people who want to learn more about your business to actively participate.

– John Turner, SeedProd LLC

11. Offer Webinars and Content Upgrades

We grew our email newsletter to 100,000 by hosting weekly educational webinars (some were joint venture webinars and some were solo) and offering free content upgrades on every blog post. We went from zero to 100,000 in two years by using these two marketing tactics.

– Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC

12. Use Pop-Ups

If you only have a simple opt-in form for your email list at the bottom of the page, many website visitors won’t even notice it. So, use pop-up options to grab the attention of your website visitors and encourage them to sign up. For instance, a pop-up that displays when a user is about to exit the website will remind them to sign up for your email list before they go.

– David Henzel, LTVPlus

13. Create a Content Series

Breaking up your content makes it easier to consume. It’s also a way to make sure that visitors keep coming back for more. For educational content, you can break your course into smaller sub-topics. If you’re writing leadership and marketing content, discuss a different theme every week. Use calls to action so that users can opt in to get notified when you release your latest blog or article.

– Blair Williams, MemberPress

14. Create E-Books

E-books are one of the best ways to drive sign-ups to your email list, and can act as a marketing tool unto themselves. Almost any company can devise a topic that relates to their industry and offer it for free to anyone willing to part with their email address. Better still, the content can be printed and used at any offline events you have, creating some extra prestige for your business.

– Ismael Wrixen, FE International

15. Use Wheelio

I love this thing, I can’t believe I’m telling more people about it, but I’m here to help. Wheelio is an app on Shopify that gamifies the email collection experience with a wheel that customers can spin to win discounts, etc. It has a whooping 15% email conversion rate for us and also helps convert sales as customers will use the coupon codes. It has been a very effective email collection tool.

– Andy Karuza, FenSens

16. Offer an Incentive

Offering a discount, or freebie, in exchange for email addresses is a great way to encourage email sign-ups. Email is an extremely effective marketing tool and offering content over the long term via email will help create an engaged and profitable email list. Adding a pop-up on your website and a small incentive will drive up your email sign-ups and grow your list exponentially.

– Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure

Grow Your Mailing List through Content Creation and Marketing

With so many different options available for generating traffic and leads to your site and landing pages, the opportunities for email list growth is pretty much limitless.

However, it’s also important to make sure you are taking advantage of each option available. For example, if you are already using landing pages and paid marketing, you should also add content creation and SEO into the mix.

After all, the more content you have out there working for you, the more likely you are to see new visitors coming in daily.

Be sure to run through each of the expert tips above and see which might start working best for your mailing list growth efforts.

Creating sites with WordPress is not difficult at all, but still, there are some aspects that require a bit more maintenance and for that you need some additional tools. With the right set of tools, which are called plugins, you can immensely improve your site’s appearance, responsiveness, and efficiency, which will benefit yourself and your viewers, and will result in higher traffic numbers. 

There are over 55,000 WordPress plugins, but obviously it is impossible to try them all, so I’ve created a list of worthy plugins that will transform your site without much effort on your side. Web developers know that WordPress sites require maintenance, especially when sites are starting and do not have all of the pages correctly filled out and/or listed. Launching a site is the easy part, but the process of keeping it working and updating the content can be troublesome if not addressed properly. 

Must Have WordPress Plugins When Starting a New Blog

To save some valuable time, web developers use plugins, which grant them access to additional features for further tweaking the site’s settings to improve its ratings. With the right toolset (plugins) and some skills, you can make your site look and do whatever you want. Plugins can do a lot of work for you, and all you need to do is to install, active and set them up to your liking. 

For example, let’s say you’ve messed up your whole site and you would like to revert the site to its original installation values. If so, you can install a “reset plugin”, which when set up, can reset the site to your desired specifications. You can choose which theme you want to it load, or whether you want certain plugins to be activated after the restoration. 

Each plugin is different and has its purpose. The best thing about plugins is that they are simple to use and don’t require any additional coding skills to use them. Many experts agree that the key to knowing how to start a WordPress blog is using plugins to do the heavy-lifting for you, while you attend to other more important work. Plugins make web development much easier and not using them will only slow you and your site down.

Let’s see these plugins, shall we?

“Coming Soon” & “Maintenance Mode” Pages?

“Coming soon” pages notify visitors about the type of content which will be posted on the said page. The goal is to inform your visitors about your site’s progress and what content will be there after the launch. “Coming Soon” pages are very important when starting a site, as you need your viewers to know what is going on for them to come back, when your site is done. “Maintenance Mode” pages are useful when your site is scheduled for maintenance, as they display an “under maintenance” or “under construction” status, which is informative for your visitors.

Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Pages for WordPress Sites

 If you are just starting your page and you are in the need of a “Coming Soon” or a “Maintenance Mode” page, then you’ve come to the right place as this (paid for) WordPress plugin is designed for that exact purpose. It won’t waste your time, and it has various useful features. “Coming Soon” is simple to use and has lots of different themes, no matter the type of your business. It is first in its class, as it comes highly rated and recommended by various web developers around the globe. 

Features

• 1 Million+ Free Images – high-quality images with Instagram filters
• 120+ Remarkable Themes –fully customizable themes for all business
• Best-in-class SEO Setup – built-in tests help you rank higher in search results 
• Easy Access for Clients – Secret Access Link feature grants clients access to view their site while it is “under construction”.
• SEO Snippet Preview – a real-time preview of how the site will appear in search results
• SEO Analysis – over 20 tests on different aspects of SEO with advice 
• Google Analytics Tracking ID – check your site’s stats and track it with Google Analytics

Themes

You can preview and activate themes from the plugin’s settings, and there is no need for any additional downloads – Themes list

Design – Layout

Try out various designs from 47 introductory animations 

Design – Background

Use a static image background or an animated video background from over 400,000 images, or upload your own. You can set any background color instead of using images, if you want to.

YouTube videos will be played, muted and looped once you add them. These types of plugins will also come in handy if you are looking to start a Shopify store and don’t have any products ready for sale yet. Instead of having potential customers visit a dead page, they can see a ‘coming soon’ page.

Design – Logo

Choose from logos in the Media Library, or use your own. Easily change the logo size and customize to your own liking. 

Easily Revert Your Site To its Default Settings by Resetting WordPress 

It is easy to start a blog or a site, but once you add a lot of content and some additional features, your site can lose its functionality or some pages can report errors, which in return requires additional maintenance on your part.

Most Common Reasons for Resetting WordPress Sites

1. Rebuilding or repurposing the site
2. Restoring the site to the default installation values
3. Cleaning the installation and or leftover files from the database

These reset plugins come quite handy when you need to do some testing or debugging on your site. Also, they allow you to easily restore your site’s default settings, while saving you time and in some cases money as well. Many web owners and or developers use these plugins to switch between multiple site settings, or simply refresh or reset the site with just a few clicks.

WP Reset – The Most Advanced WordPress Reset Tool

WP Reset is an open-source plugin, which means it is free to use, and it has been installed over 100,000 times. More importantly, it is highly rated, 4.9 stars to be exact, and I think that the rating speaks for itself. This plugin constantly receives updates and is compatible with WordPress version 4 or higher, so no need to worry about compatibility as it supports most modern versions.

It makes resetting WordPress sites a walk in the park, as it is designed to quickly reset the whole database (if needed), and/or you can remove leftover files, themes, logos, etc. Your files are safe with this plugin, as it has multiple fail-safe mechanisms.

The plugin can also be used for various testing and debugging purposes. For example, you can switch between different designs and if needed, revert any changes by simply resetting the site trough the plugin with a few clicks, while also saving time.

WPC Webhooks plugin is integrated into WP Reset, and it securely connects WP to 3rd party systems.

WP-CLI is supported, and by default, you have to confirm the commands. You can use “–yes” to skip the confirmation part. Make sure to back up your files before resetting your WordPress site, just to be on the safe side.

Officially Supported WP-CLI Commands:

• “wp reset reset”
• “wp reset version”
• “wp reset delete”
• “wp reset snapshots”

One of the handy features allows you to take database snapshots, and you can use this to revert the site’s settings to any taken snapshot. 

This save developers and designers a lot of time, and it speeds up the whole development process. The plugin can configure the site’s environment to your desired settings, meaning you skip the step of manually reactivating all of your plugins and themes (if selected) each time.

Easily create a list of desired WordPress themes and plugins, and upon selecting the list, the installation will start automatically. 

What Are 301 Redirects?

Are you currently using some of the most important redirection tools and commands on your site? If not, you should be.

For example, 301 redirects are often used for managing various web content such as articles, websites, backlinks, etc. When the original URL is down, a redirect transfers (redirects) the user’s request to a working URL. This ensures that the user’s request is successfully executed. Upon redirecting a page, make sure to update your backlinks, so that they transfer the request to the working URL.

Simply put, they transfer users to a new working URL instead of them seeing 404 errors, due to the original URL being down as the content has been moved to another location.  

301 redirects are often needed, because if you don’t maintain your content, it will negatively impact your SEO. No need to worry, as WP 301 Redirects can solve all your redirection problems in almost no time, and with as little effort as possible.

WP 301 Redirects – Manage Redirections & Fix 404 Errors

This WordPress plugin is more than capable of managing all your redirects and in return will improve your SEO, SER and overall site performance. With the help of this plugin, you can instantly take control over redirects & regain traffic in almost no time. 

Easily fix the two most overlooked SEO issues, which are 404 Errors & Redirections.  If some content expires, or you need to redirect your backlinks, simply redirect users to a working URL (link). This plugin is used to safely redirect traffic to desired pages, posts, and even other websites. Redirects increase traffic numbers and greatly improve the site’s user experience. Furthermore, you can also redirect your whole site if you wish to. It is, by far, the safest way to relocate any web content, while also improving SEO & SER along the way. 

By posting empty pages or broken links, your SEO along with traffic numbers will suffer, and it will also negatively affect how search engines and their algorithms see your WordPress site. This is where WP 301 Redirects comes in handy, as it allows you to easily fix these annoying errors. Instead of users seeing 404 pages, it redirects them to the page they intended to see. If you are looking for a free version (though with less features), you can use 301 Redirects – Easy Redirect Manager.

WP Rocket – Make WordPress Load Fast in Just a Few Clicks

WP Rocket is one the best (paid for) WordPress caching plugins. It can improve your WordPress site’s performance with no additional technical skills required.

It supports gzip compression, page cache, and cache pre-loading. Also, it has optional features such as lazy loading images, CDN support, DNS pre-fetching, etc., which further improve the site’s load times and responsiveness.

The best thing is that WP Rocket doesn’t wait for someone to request a page to save it in the cache, whereas it automatically crawls and builds your site’s cache, resulting in instant performance gains.

The point of “Caching” is to enable ultra-fast load times, which are crucial for improving SEO and overall site performance. According to many WordPress experts, WP Rocket is recognized as the most powerful caching plugin. If you are looking for a free caching plugin, you can go for W3 Total Cache, or any other caching plugin out there.

Maintenance – By WP Maintenance

This (free) WordPress plugin allows the administrator to access the site for maintenance purposes. The administrator can put the site in maintenance mode by enabling the “503 Service temporarily unavailable” page, and/or by making a page with authorization, which can be configured in the plugin settings. Design your WordPress site by customizing the site’s appearance by adding a logo and/or background images, which is supported on all devices.

Collecting leads and subscribers through opt-in boxes and popups.

 You get the MailOptin plugin free of charge, as it comes integrated into “Maintenance”, which can connect to desired autoresponder services.

With Amelia, a free events & appointments booking calendar, which adds events and bookings calendar to your maintenance page, you can start taking appointments immediately.

Features

• Retina ready HTML/CSS layout
• Supports full-screen backgrounds 
• Blur effect for chosen backgrounds
• Show your logo
• Customize headlines, colors, fonts, backgrounds, etc.
• User login (frontend)
• 503 Error – on/off
• Google Analytics 

Exclusions for selected pages when in the “Maintenance mode”

WordPress Social Sharing Plugin – Sassy Social Share

With billions of users now spread across all of the major social networking platforms, it’s simply one of the best ways to get new audiences back to your site. However, once they get to your site, you are also going to want them to start sharing your best content as well.

An easy way to accomplish this, is through the use of the Sassy Social Share plugin for WordPress. With a quick install of the plugin, site owners and bloggers can add Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn (and more) social sharing buttons right to their site and at the top and bottom of all posts. Visitors to your site then need to just click a button and the content will be pre-populated for them to start sharing on their preferred social platform.

The Sassy Social Share plugin include the following features:

• GDPR Compliant
• Compatible with Gutenberg editor
• Compatible with myCRED (append myCRED referral ID at the end of the url being shared)
• Around 100 Social Sharing/Bookmarking services
• Social Media follow icons (Redirect website visitors to your Social Media pages)
• Share counts are supported for Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Buffer, Reddit, Pinterest, Odnoklassniki, Fintel and Vkontakte
• FREE Icon Customization options
• Options to specify sharing icon shape – Square, Round and Rectangular
• Options to specify sharing icon size – minimum 16 pixels, no upper limit

Make Your New Site Better with these Top WP Plugins

Starting or creating a site is the easy part, but managing and further developing it is the hard part. However, with the right toolset (plugins), you can cut your worktime in half by letting them do the hard work for you. These plugins are guaranteed to improve all different aspects of your site, and will definitely benefit its development in the long run.

As you continue to create new content and pages for your site, you will also learn more about your design and different ways to tweak it. Try and make the most of the plugins and features we listed above, but also make sure you don’t clutter and mess too much with the end-user experience.

For best results, be sure to visit any of the top websites and blogs online in your industry and compare your site design to what they have in place. This is always a good way to measure what’s working best and how big name brands are catering to their user’s needs.

Every internet marketer knows you need to make use of the best tools to get the best results. The best rarely comes cheaply, though. You need to pay good money for it. 

This is one of the reasons why online discount coupons got popular very fast. It also got quite difficult to find good valid deals too. There is a new platform that has solved that problem. It is im.deals! Their offer of thousands of dollars worth of internet marketing coupons on their website is mind-blowing. 

This genius idea was started by Oliver Kenyon, the same guy that founded AffliateFix. He just closed a seven-figure deal for AffliateFix by the way. This guy is known for his hustle and commitment to great projects. 

One thing peculiar to his projects is their problem solving and need meeting tendencies. This shows in the design of im.deals. So, Internet Marketers get comfy and start saving more money with this discount coupon platform.

How Real Is Im.deals?

Very Real! Im.deals is verifiable authentic, and all their deals are hand-picked evergreen deals. You will not be charged for anything on the site. They get their commission from the affiliate companies. This simply means no cost on you. 

Im.deals gives you access to exclusive deals that you won’t get anywhere else. Also, there are no time limits on their deals. You don’t need to be afraid of losing out on a deal because you don’t yet have the money or you’re not using the tool just yet. It’s claimable anytime.

The user interface is also straightforward to navigate. Using the quick search or the alphabetically arranged categories, you can find any deal you are looking for without a problem. 

If you have an exclusive coupon and you want them to display, it is as simple as filling a short form on their page and waiting to get their response in no time.  

With im.deals, you can save up to tens of thousands of dollars. 

What Kind Of Deals Do I Get on Im.deals?

As mentioned earlier, im.deals offers exclusive discounts on a wide range of internet marketing tools. The internet marketing coupons and deals on this site are grouped into seventeen categories.

The deals on im.deals are categorized according to the use of the tool. The categories are: Affiliate, Domains and Hosting, Landing Pages, Social, Blogging, eCommerce, Messaging, Social Proof, Customer Support, Webinar, SEO, CRM, Emails, Optimization, Intelligence, Traffic, and Tracking. 

Let’s have a sneak peek into some of the deals in these categories:

• Rankedy: This marketing tool is fantastic for Search Engine Optimization. You can get 10% off Rankedy Pro plans on im.deals. 
• LINKCheetah: You can monitor all your backlinks with this tool. And im.deals gives you 10% off ALL LINKCheetah’s plans. 
• RankTracker: This is the SEO tool for a professional internet marketer. Track ranks, analysis, and reporting all with this tool. Im.deals gives you a 10% discount off RankTracker Pro plan. .
• Mail250: Email marketing tool for the technical-conscious. Get 30% off all Mail250 plans on im.deals. 

• Reply: This is an email marketing tool that connects you with not just your external customers but also your team. Get 15% off Reply on im.deals.
• SendX: Another email marketing software that has all the needed features for a successful email marketing campaign. You can get 30% off SendX monthly plans on im.deals. 
• Funnel CRM: Great tool to ensure that your deals are getting closed and your customers are properly followed. Get 70% off Funnel CRM on im.deals
• Pixelfy: This software allows you to shorten your URL and track it. It is a great tool for sellers on Amazon. Im.deals offer 15% off all Pixelfy plans. 

Also, bloggers are not left out!  The blogging category has a 15% off all themes deal on Themify. You can claim this deal to make your blog look better. 

Conclusion 

Now is the time to start! Internet Marketers have started laying hold of their deals. Over 500 deals (and still counting) has been claimed. Do not miss out yourself. There are presently not less than 48 deals on im.deals.

You can use any of the latest deals, also check out their recommended deals for great discounts on tools you may need for your business. 

Im.deals is overall an excellent resource for internet marketers to save a lot of money and make more profits. You can start your smart savings journey by checking out im.deals. 

Infographics used to be something that people think will be helpful but it has slowly started to gain popularity over the years. Right now, people know that a lot of business owners use this to help their organizations grow and improve.

What is an infographic anyway? This is a clear and realistic way of showing information without making the audience feel bored about what they are going to see. There are a lot of people who are going through so many things at the same time. Their fast-paced life means that they would like to get the information that they want easily and immediately. Some people would need a lot of data but they do not have the patience to get all the data that they need.

You can see a perfect example of how important visuals are in this article. Without seeing the people and faces behind each of the success stories featured, it just wouldn’t have the same effect. Not matter what industry you are working in, or what you are talking about — visuals are so important!

It will be difficult for anyone to go through a lot of statistics and numbers especially if they are not particularly interested. The best thing that you can do is to design the right infographics that people would love to check.

Designing Infographics Effectively

How can you correctly design infographics? You may want to check out some of these tips so that you will come up with something that people would genuinely want to see and read:

• Keep things simple. You need to condense the data and information about your company and make sure that you will come up with the right visual representation so that it can be interpreted properly. They should look at the design and not become confused with all the data that you will place. Do not make it too colorful or it may end up being confusing. Just like in life, the more simple things are, the less frustation and distractions you will have to personally deal with.
• Make things universal so that it can be appreciated by anyone. This means that you need to use images and other icons that people will generally understand. Since a lot of people are online, they will probably be more familiar with the different icons that you will use.
• Do not imitate something that you have seen. You may be impressed with an infographic that you have seen before but imitating will not do anything good for your company.
• Once you’ve mastered the article of creating infographics, you may find yourself introduced into the world of video and animation as well. With some time and research, you will find that the process needed to create an infographic is quite similar to that of when you create an explainer video. Even better, if you have the source files to your infographics, you can use them for your explainer videos as well.

When creating any type of infographic, it’s important to make sure the content pops off the page and that they represent your brand well. The last thing you want is for your infographic to get a lot of exposure, but then no one knows who created or what the brand messaging or identity is. You can see a nice selection of high quality infographic here.

What if You Are Not a Graphic Designer?

What if you are not a graphic designer? What are you supposed to do? There are certain applications and programs that you can download on your device that will allow you to create catchy and very appealing infographics on your own. Authority sites like Blogging Tips recommends their favorite graphic design solution, Canva, which is a popular free tool for creating images and infographics online. You can research the different programs that are available as the details will surely help.

Other freelance marketplaces like LogoMyWay, Fiverr, 99Designs or FreelanceMyWay are all great for finding high-quality designers. It might take some time to test and order projects from different designers before you find a clear winning. However, once you find a good one, you can keep going back to that same designer time and time again.

Creating Infographics and Whiteboard Explainer Videos

No that we’ve discussed the many different ways you can start using infographics to relate with new audiences and increase social activity, we should also touch on the importance of video content creation as well. Just like how infographics work extremely well because of their visual content, video works even better!

The main problem with video is that most people aren’t sure how to get started. Anyone can use Canva to quickly create an infographic, but video content creation and marketing is a little different. The options are there to outsource the process, hire a video design team, or find an online solution that can do the work for you.

Personally, we are big fans of finding a video content creation tool that can do the work for us. mySimpleShow is a perfect example of a drag and drop solution that makes the process of online video quite simple. Anyone can create an account, pick and choose the visuals they want to add, then add in some text and they are ready to go!

In the short video above, you can see how simple it is to create an explainer video through the tool. If you already have all of the data collected for your infographic, why not just create a quick video with it as well. Best of all, once you post the infographic to your site, you can include the video right below it as well. This way, your audience can view the same great content in their preferred visual format.

Reasons Why Infographic is Useful to Your Content

Do you want to have the ability to get the attention of your target market effectively? This is definitely something that you can do with the use of the right infographics. You would like to make sure that people will be able to digest the infographics that you can show them so that the details that they will get will be memorable for them.

These are some of the reasons why it is important to use infographics:

1. You need to make sure that the infographics will help grab people’s attention. A lot of people are very visual. When you show graphics that are very appealing, people cannot help but look at it and get all of the information that you have placed.
2. The use of demographics and other data will allow you to show people that you are an expert in your own company. You know that infographics will be composed not only of data and numbers but also some charts and graphs. The more that you can show your expertise, the more that people will trust you and your company. This is always an important thing. The more that your customers trust you, the more that they would like to become loyal to you.
3. You will definitely make complicated information become easier to understand. You know that people need to understand the details and this is only possible if you would show them effective infographics. According to simpleshow, storytelling and visual content is on the rise and using infographics and whiteboard explainer videos are some of the most effective ways to engage with new audiences. When doing this, it’s also important to follow these five simple steps:
   1. Choose your main character wisely
   2. Give them a supporting cast
   3. Ensure there is a clear beginning, middle and end
   4. Keep it short and sweet
   5. Don’t do lists (unless it’s a list about not doing lists…)
   
4. This can probably improve the overall value of your brand. The right infographics will allow people to know more about you and what you are trying to promote which is your brand. This can make the details about your brand more meaningful. People will begin to understand why your company is important.
5. The right infographics can actually be very helpful in making sure that your content will become viral. The more that people will view it, the more that your brand will become easily recognizable. Is this something that you want? Of course, you do. You want your brand to become one of the most sought after in your current industry.

Do remember that in designing infographics, make sure that you will also include a bit of SEO. Having an infographic on your site is great, but if no one can find it — then it’s just another lost piece of content on the internet. This will help your infographics become easier to understand, and be found when people are looking for similar topics in search results or through social media.

If you are going to post your infographics on your site, also be sure to include an embed form/code, so other sites can easily post it onto their sites as well. This will make the process of getting new backlinks and social shares back to your site a whole lot easier.

With all of this now in mind, why not start with the process of creating an infographic for your own site! If you don’t already have a website or blog, click here to follow our quick and easy tutorial on how to get started.