Do you want to learn how to track third-party domain requests in WordPress?
If your website is slow, then visitors may leave before it even has a chance to load. However, even if you’ve optimized every part of your website, third-party domain requests can still have a big impact on your page loading times.
In this article, we will show you how to track third-party domain requests in WordPress.
Why Track Third-Party Domain Requests in WordPress?
By reducing your page load times, you can improve the user experience, get more visitors, and boost your WordPress SEO. There are lots of ways to speed up your website, including optimizing your images and choosing the best WordPress hosting.
However, third-party domain requests can also affect your site’s performance even with the best hosting and optimization.
A third-party domain request loads content or resources from a location outside of your domain. Some common examples include content from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, advertising networks including Google AdSense, and even some WordPress comment plugins.
A large number of third-party domain requests can slow down your website. However, sometimes even a single third-party request can block the rest of the page from loading. When this happens, WordPress will connect to the third-party URL and download all the required content, before loading the rest of your page.
With that being said, let’s see how you can speed up your website by tracking and optimizing third-party domain requests in WordPress.
How to Identify Third-Party Domain Requests in WordPress
The first step is identifying all the third-party domain requests your site is making, using Pingdom. Pingdom is a popular performance monitoring tool that allows you to monitor your WordPress server uptime. It can also show all your site’s third-party domain requests.
First, you need to visit the Pingdom website and paste your domain name into the ‘URL’ field. Then, click on ‘Start Test.’
After a few moments, Pingdom will show a breakdown of your site’s performance. To see all the third-party domain requests, scroll to the ‘File Requests’ section.
Here, you’ll see the content type, URL, and size of each request.
To find the third-party requests, simply look for any items that don’t begin with your site’s domain name.
If you want to learn more about a request, then simply hover your mouse over its bar in the waterfall chart.
Here, you’ll see all the steps that WordPress takes to get content from this third-party domain including making a DNS lookup, SSL handshake, and downloading data from that domain.
Pingdom also shows how long each step takes, so you can identify the domain requests that make the biggest impact on your site’s performance.
If you don’t recognize a third-party service, then just paste its URL into a search engine such as Google. Often, this will bring up links to documentation, pages, and forums where you can learn more about the domain.
How to Optimize Third-Party Domain Requests
Once you’ve identified the third-party domain requests that are hurting your website’s performance, there are a few different ways to optimize those requests and boost your WordPress speed.
The method that works best for you may vary depending on how your WordPress website is set up, the requests it makes, and other factors. With that in mind, simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to learn more about.
This isn’t a good option for all WordPress blogs, but removing one or more third-party requests can have a huge impact on your page loading times.
You may have added a domain request by accident, or you might have changed direction so a particular third-party request no longer works well for your business.
For example, you may have originally added Google AdSense but now make more money selling WooCommerce products on your online store. By removing Google AdSense, you might improve your store’s performance to a point where you get lots more sales, and make far more money compared to showing online ads.
Here, there’s no easy solution that will work for all websites. With that in mind, you may want to try removing different services and content from your site, and then tracking the impact this has on important metrics such as your conversion rates.
If you do decide to remove feature and plugins that make third-party domain requests, then it’s smart to back up your WordPress website. This allows you to quickly restore your website if you encounter any errors, or simply realize you made a mistake.
You may also want to put your site into maintenance mode while making this change, just in case it breaks your website.
The steps for removing third-party domain requests will vary depending on the request.
However, you can often find detailed step-by-step guides in the documentation for the related service, plugin, or software, or by typing your search query into Google. For more on this topic, please see our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support and get it.
Method 2. Remove Unnecessary WordPress Plugins
Plugins are a huge reason why WordPress is so popular. With the right plugins, you can add missing features, extend the built-in functionality, and turn your WordPress blog into any kind of website.
However, some WordPress plugins make a lot of third-party requests and may even slow down your website. You might be completely unaware that these requests are even happening.
With that in mind, it’s a good idea to go to Plugins » Installed Plugins in the WordPress dashboard, and remove any plugins that you no longer need.
You can even try replacing multiple smaller plugins with a single WordPress plugin. For example, there are countless SEO plugins and tools on the market, but AIOSEO is a complete SEO toolkit that performs a long list of important SEO tasks.
Method 3. Preconnect to Important Third-Party Domains
Another option is to connect to the external domain right at the beginning of the page loading process. When a browser preconnects to an external domain first, it can often download the third-party content much faster.
Just be aware that preconnecting to an external URL takes resources away from loading the rest of your page. If the external resource isn’t crucial, then prioritizing it in this way may hurt the user experience by delaying the rest of your content.
To use the preconnect method, you’ll need a list of all your third-party domain requests. If you haven’t already, then you can get this information using Pingdom, and by following the process described above.
WPCode is the best code snippets plugin that allows you to add custom CSS, PHP, HTML, and more without putting your site at risk. You can also enable and disable your code snippets with the click of a button.
First, you will need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For more information, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once the plugin is activated, go to Code Snippets » Add Snippet.
Here, you will see all the ready-made WPCode snippets you can add to your site. These include a snippet that allows you to completely disable comments, upload file types that WordPress doesn’t usually support, disable attachment pages, and much more.
Simply hover your mouse over the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option and click the ‘Use snippet’ button when it appears.
On the next screen, you need to type in a title for the code snippet. This is just for your reference, so you can use anything you want.
Then, open the ‘Code Type’ dropdown and choose ‘JavaScript Snippet.’
With that done, you’re ready to add each domain that WordPress should preconnect to.
For example, in the following code snippet we’re preconnecting to Google Fonts.
In the code editor, simply add each external URL that you want to use.
With that done, go ahead and scroll to the ‘Insertion’ settings. Here, select ‘Auto Insert’ if it isn’t already selected.
You can then open the ‘Location’ dropdown and choose ‘Site Wide Header.’
When you’re ready to make the code snippet live, scroll to the top of the page and click on the ‘Inactive’ toggle so it changes to ‘Active.
Then, click on the ‘Save Snippet’ button.
Method 4. Implement DNS Prefetching
DNS prefetching allows you to perform a DNS lookup in the background before the visitor needs the linked content or resource. This is particularly useful for third-party resources that are used across your website, such as Google Analytics, Google Fonts, or your WordPress Content Delivery Network (CDN) service.
To use DNS prefetching, simply create a new JavaScript snippet using WPCode, and by following the same process described above.
With that done, add each domain name that you want to prefetch using the following format:
After entering this information, add the code to your site-wide header by following the steps described in Method 3, and then publish the code snippet.
Method 5. Host Resources Locally
When used correctly, preconnecting and prefetching allow you to make third-party domain requests without impacting the visitor experience. However, where ever possible you should try to host resources and content locally.
Retrieving content from a local server is typically much faster, and it’s easier to improve that content’s performance. For example, you might use a caching plugin, or set up a CDN.
There are lots of different WordPress plugins and services that can help you host content locally. For example, if you want to use custom typography then you can host local fonts in WordPress rather than loading them from a third-party such as Google Fonts.
If you’re using Google Ads, Google Analytics, Campaign Manager, or other popular free Google products, then you can host the gtag.js script locally on your own server using MonsterInsights with the Performance Addon.
By replacing external domain requests with local resources, you can often improve your website’s performance without compromising on its features and content.
Method 6. Use Lazy Loading
Instead of loading all your content at once, lazy loading downloads only the content visible on the user’s screen. It will then load more content as the user scrolls down the screen. This can make it seem like the page is loading faster.
WordPress will lazy load images by default, but depending on their location it may help to lazy load externally hosted content too. For example, if you want to embed YouTube videos in WordPress blog posts, then you can choose a plugin that has lazy loading built-in.
Other plugins such as Smash Balloon YouTube Feed come with built-in caching and delayed loading for the video player. This can improve the perceived page load times, even when you’re showing content from third-party websites.
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Recently, one of our readers asked if it was possible to send SMS messages to their subscribers along with email newsletters.
The answer is yes. You can easily send text messages to your website users by using one of the many SMS plugins and services for WordPress.
In this article, we will show you how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users.
Why Send SMS Messages to Your Users?
Sending SMS messages can be highly effective in bringing back customers to your WordPress website. For the best results, you can combine SMS messages with other marketing tools like an email newsletter, push notifications, and search traffic.
Text messages have a fantastic open rate. Some studies suggest that SMS open rates are as high as 98%.
Compare that with a typical open rate of just 20% for emails, and you can see why SMS messages are becoming a preferred marketing medium.
People also check text messages much more quickly than they check emails. It takes an average of 90 seconds for someone to respond to a text and 90 minutes to respond to an email.
Of course, you don’t want to overdo it. Even when they have opted in, most users won’t want daily texts from you. Even weekly might be too much.
Important: Make sure that you obey the law. Different countries have different legal requirements for text messages, particularly marketing messages.
You might also want to use SMS messages to send receipts or order updates from your WooCommerce store. We will cover how to do that later in this tutorial.
For the sake of this tutorial, we will be using the Brevo platform. However, you can also use other email marketing solutions like Omnisend, HubSpot, and more.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how to send SMS messages using Brevo.
To get started, you will need to set up an account with Brevo if you haven’t already got one. On the Brevo website, just click the ‘Sign Up Free’ button to start creating your account.
You can get started creating an account by typing in your email address and password. After that, you will need to click the ‘Create an account’ button.
Alternatively, you can use the buttons to sign up using your Google or Apple credentials.
This will bring you to a screen where you can complete your user profile. Simply fill in the form and then click the ‘Next’ button. There will be several pages to fill in.
During this process, an activation code will be sent to your phone in an SMS message to confirm the number is actually yours.
After that, you will be able to choose one of Brevo’s plans, including a free plan. The different plans include sending emails, starting at 300 emails per day. However, you will need to purchase credits to send SMS messages.
Once you have finished the account setup process, you will see your Brevo dashboard.
Before you can start sending messages, you will need to contact the support team. Go to the Brevo contact page and write a message that includes:
A note that you will be sending marketing messages
Once your account has been approved, you will get an email from Brevo. Note that this can take up to 24 hours.
Buying SMS Credits for Your Brevo Account
While you are waiting for your account to be approved, you can continue setting up your Brevo account. The first thing you need to do is activate the SMS app in Brevo.
From the Campaigns dashboard, click the ‘Create a campaign’ button.
You will see the different types of campaigns you can create. Notice that email campaigns are active while the other types of campaigns are not.
You just need to click ‘Activate’ next to SMS.
After a few seconds, you will see a message that the app was enabled successfully, and there will be a tick mark next to ‘SMS’.
You can now close the popup by clicking the ‘X’ icon at the top right.
Now that the SMS app is active, you can purchase some SMS credits.
To do that, you need to click ‘Usage and plan’ at the top of the page. This will show you how many emails and SMS credits you have to use in your campaigns.
Your current SMS balance is 0, so you will need to click the ‘Get more credits’ link.
Brevo defaults to selling you 100 messages at a time. If you like, you can purchase more credits by typing a larger number under ‘Number of messages’.
Note: It costs 1 credit to send a text message in the US, but you will need to pay more than 1 credit per message in other countries.
Once you have selected the number of credits, go ahead and complete your purchase.
Once you have bought your credits, you may need to wait up to 48 hours for them to appear in your account. You might also get an email from Brevo asking you for more details about what type of SMS marketing you plan to do.
This is to help you stay in compliance with SMS laws.
You will need to reply to them with answers to their questions before your credits can be added to your account.
Creating Your SMS Marketing List
In order to send out SMS messages, you will need to import your contact list.
You can get started by clicking the ‘Contacts’ tab on the left. Or if you are still looking at the Campaigns Dashboard, then you can click the ‘>’ arrow next to ‘Total contacts’.
This will display a list of all your contacts. Right now, you will be the only contact on the list.
Now you can click the ‘Import contacts’ button at the top of the page.
This will take you to the ‘Import options’ page. You will be given two options for importing your contacts.
You can either upload a .csv file from your computer or you can copy and paste contacts line by line. Whichever option you choose, Brevo will offer examples to help you.
Important: Your users need to have opted in for SMS marketing messages. You can collect website visitors’ phone numbers and consent using a WordPress form plugin like WPForms or a marketing popup plugin like OptinMonster.
Sending Your First SMS Campaign
Once your credits show up, you can start sending messages.
It’s a good idea to send a test message first so that you know that everything is working correctly. The phone number you use for the test message needs to belong to a contact in your list.
You can use the number you added when you first signed up. Or, if you want to use a different phone number for your test, then you will need to add a test contact in Brevo.
Simply go to the Contacts section in your dashboard and click the ‘Create a contact’ button.
A panel will pop up on the right of the screen where you can create a contact.
You need to fill in your details, including your mobile phone number.
After that, you need to add your test contact to a list.
You can use an existing list or add a new one.
Once you have done that, you need to click the ‘Create’ button at the bottom of the page. You should see a message telling you that the subscriber has been successfully added.
Now you can try sending a test SMS.
First, go to the Campaigns » SMS tab in your Brevo dashboard. Next, click either the ‘Create an SMS campaign’ or ‘Create my first SMS campaign’ button.
You can enter whatever you want for your Campaign Name. This isn’t seen by the recipients but should make sense to you when you look at your campaigns in the future.
You should also enter an SMS Sender. This will display for users in certain countries.
If you will be sending SMS messages to customers in the United States, then you must enable the ‘Manage compliance for the United States’ toggle.
This is important because it will help you follow United States laws for text messages.
This will give you two more options to fill in: an organization prefix so that your customers will recognize who the message is from, and unsubscribe instructions.
If customers in the United States or Canada will be receiving this SMS message, then you will also need to click the ‘this form’ link in the orange box to register for a toll-free number and comply with regulations.
Next, enter your SMS message. Beneath the message box, you can see how many characters you have used and how many SMS messages will be sent.
If you use more than 160 characters, then the message will be counted as 2 SMS messages.
At the bottom of the screen, click the ‘Send a test’ button when you are ready.
This will pop up the ‘Send a test’ box.
There is just one field where you should enter your mobile number, which you included when you added yourself as a contact earlier. After that, you need to click the paper airplane button to send the SMS.
You should see a message telling you that your test message has been sent successfully.
Now, check your phone to see if the text has come through. Here’s ours:
If your text hasn’t arrived, wait a minute or two, and it should appear. If not, double-check that you are using the right mobile number.
Once you know that everything’s working, you can continue setting up your campaign. Click the ‘X’ button to close the ‘Send a test’ window, and then click the ‘Next Step’ button in the top right corner of the screen.
Now, you will need to choose the contact list you want the message to go to. If you like, you can select multiple lists.
Just check all the lists you want to use, then click the ‘Next Step’ button.
Your SMS campaign is now ready to send.
You can review the details and change them if you want to, using the ‘Return to this step’ links. Once you are happy, simply click ‘Schedule’ in the top right.
You can either schedule your campaign so that your texts are sent out at a specific time, or you can send the messages immediately.
Just make sure you avoid sending the campaign early in the morning or late at night. Be mindful of time zones, too. Not everyone will remember to turn on Do Not Disturb mode overnight.
Sending SMS Messages to Your WooCommerce Customers
What if you want to send your customers notifications about their orders?
If you have decided to start an online store, then you might want to send text updates as well as emails to your customers.
Sending WooCommerce SMS Notifications Using YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications
The easiest way to do this is with a plugin like YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications. This plugin lets you use an SMS gateway, such as Twilio, to send SMS messages to your customers. They receive these texts when their order status changes, such as when it’s dispatched.
You can set up YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications so that it’s enabled for all customers, or you can let customers opt-in at the checkout.
Also, you can use it to get your own SMS notifications about new orders. This makes it easy to stay on top of things if you are away from your computer.
Sending WooCommerce SMS Notifications Using FunnelKit Automations
If you are looking for an alternative, then you can use FunnelKit Automations to send SMS messages to your WooCommerce customers.
FunnelKit Automations is one of the best marketing automation tools for WooCommerce sites. It allows you to easily set up automated SMS and email campaigns right from your WordPress dashboard.
It comes with pre-built automations for new customers, first orders, post-purchase sequences, shipment tracking notifications, abandoned cart reminders, anniversary coupons, and more. Or, you can create your own workflows using the visual automation builder.
Sending WooCommerce SMS Notifications Using Uncanny Automator
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Do you want to convert your WordPress categories into custom taxonomies?
Categories are one of the two default taxonomies that help you sort your content. WordPress also allows you to create and use custom taxonomies.
In this article, we will show you how to easily convert WordPress categories to custom taxonomies.
Why and When Do You Need to Convert Categories into Custom Taxonomies?
A taxonomy allows you to organize groups of posts and custom post types on your WordPress website. By default, WordPress comes with two pre-made taxonomies: categories and tags.
However, you can also create custom taxonomies with WordPress, which can be used with existing or custom post types.
As your WordPress blog grows, you might need to convert your categories into a custom taxonomy because it can be overwhelming to file and keep track of each post in a category with different subcategories.
Using custom taxonomies for tagging allows for more accurate and detailed classifications and better content organization.
For example, if you have a recipe website, then creating categories for cuisine type, dietary restrictions, and meal type can be a bit confusing.
However, by creating a custom taxonomy for each of these topics, you can make content organization easier.
Custom taxonomies can also help improve your SEO rankings by giving you the flexibility to use more specific and targeted taxonomy terms.
Having said that, let’s take a look at how you can easily convert categories into custom taxonomies.
How to Convert WordPress Categories to Custom Taxonomies
Upon activation, head over to the Tools » Taxonomy Switcher page from the WordPress admin sidebar to convert categories to custom taxonomies.
Once you are there, you need to select the ‘Categories’ option from the ‘Taxonomy to switch from’ dropdown menu.
This means that we will be converting a category into a custom taxonomy.
Next, select the custom taxonomy that you want the categories to turn into from the ‘Taxonomy to switch to’ dropdown menu.
For example, if you have a category for dietary restrictions and you want to switch to a taxonomy of the same name, then you can select the ‘Dietary Restrictions’ option from the dropdown menu.
If you want to convert all the categories on your WordPress site into this specific custom taxonomy, then simply click the ‘Switch Taxonomies’ button.
However, if you just want to convert singular or multiple categories into this taxonomy, then you will need to add the IDs of those categories into the ‘Comma separated list of term ids to switch’ field.
To find a category id, you will need to visit the Posts » Categories page from the WordPress dashboard and hover your mouse over the category of your choice.
The category edit URL will now appear in a popup box at the bottom left corner of your screen.
From here, you can easily find your category ID, as it is the number that comes after ‘category&tag_ID=’ and before ‘&post_type’ in the URL.
Once you have found the IDs for categories, head back to the ‘Taxonomy Switcher’ page.
Next, simply add the IDs for all the categories that you want to convert into a specific taxonomy. Keep in mind that if you add more than one category ID, then you will have to separate them using commas.
Some of the categories in WordPress also have subcategories (child categories).
However, if you want to skip the child categories, then you can type the parent category next to the ‘Limit taxonomy switch for child terms of a specific parent’ option. This way, only the parent category will be switched to a taxonomy.
Finally, click the ‘Switch Taxonomy’ button to convert your WordPress category to a custom taxonomy.
You will now see the taxonomy that you have created along with the default taxonomies in the Posts menu tab in the WordPress sidebar.
Upon clicking on the custom taxonomy, you will be taken to a new page, where you can easily add terms for the taxonomy by typing in a name and slug.
Once you have done that, just click the ‘Add New’ button at the bottom to create a new taxonomy term.
Now visit your WordPress block editor by opening up a new or existing post/page.
Here, you will notice that the category you switched to taxonomy is now displayed in the block panel on the right corner of the screen. From here, you can now easily add new terms or use existing ones for your WordPress blog post.
How to Set Up Redirects From Category to Custom Taxonomy
After you turn one of your categories into a custom taxonomy, the category archive page will now show a 404 error. This is nothing to be worried about if your website is not live yet.
However, if your website is live, then search engines may have already crawled your category pages and indexed them. This means that those pages can appear in search results, and users coming from search engines will see a 404 error page.
To fix this, you need to redirect users to the new taxonomy page for each category.
AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market. It comes with a powerful redirection manager addon that makes it very easy to find broken links and fix them using 301 redirections.
Note: AIOSEO also has a free version. However, you will need the pro version for this tutorial to unlock the 301 redirection feature.
Upon activation, you will need to configure AIOSEO for your website. For more detailed instructions, please refer to our guide on how to set up All in One SEO correctly.
Once you have done that, head over to the All in One SEO » Redirects page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Here, you will see a prompt asking you to activate the redirection manager. Go ahead and click the ‘Activate Redirects’ button.
The Redirects page will now be displayed on your screen.
From here, simply add /category/.* into the ‘Source URL’ field.
Once you do that, click the gear icon in the field to open some additional settings for the source URL. From here, check the ‘Regex’ option.
After that, enter your custom taxonomy slug, e.g. /dietary_restrictions/1 into the ‘Target URL’ field.
Next, make sure that ‘301 Moved Permanently’ is chosen as the redirect option from the dropdown menu.
Finally, click the ‘Add Redirect’ button in the right corner.
Upon creation, the redirect you created will be displayed at the bottom of the page.
From here, you can always toggle the switch to ‘Inactive’ if you want to disable it.
This redirect will now send all your category archive traffic to your custom taxonomy.
However, we recommend using this method only if you don’t want to use categories at all.
If you want to redirect individual categories to a custom taxonomy page, then you may want to see our beginner’s guide on setting up redirects in WordPress.
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Do you want to send automated birthday and anniversary emails in WooCommerce?
Birthdays and purchase anniversaries are great opportunities to get in touch with your customers. By marking these special dates, you can make customers feel valued, boost engagement, and even get more sales by offering incentives like personalized coupon codes and discounts.
In this article, we will show you how you can send birthday reminders and purchase anniversary emails in WooCommerce.
Why Send Automated Birthday & Anniversary Emails?
If you run an online store, then an email list allows you to promote your products and services to people who have already shown an interest in your business.
After building an email list, it’s important to keep subscribers engaged and interested in what you have to say. One option is to send automated birthday and anniversary emails.
Immediately, this makes customers feel more valued and appreciated, which can boost brand loyalty. However, you can often get even more engagement and sales by offering rewards such as discounts, coupon codes, and free gifts.
These email campaigns are often very popular with customers. In fact, according to Omnisend, birthday emails have a 45% open rate, a 12% click-through rate, and a 3% conversion rate, which is much higher than the national average.
With that being said, let’s see how you can send automated birthday and anniversary emails in WooCommerce.
How to Send Automated Birthday & Anniversary Emails
The easiest way to send automated birthday and anniversary emails in WooCommerce is by using FunnelKit Automations Pro. FunnelKit is the best automation tool for WooCommerce websites. It allows you to customize your WooCommerce emails using a drag-and-drop builder, and create automated email and SMS campaigns.
First, you will need to install and activate the FunnelKit Automations Pro plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Now, you’re ready to create automated birthday and anniversary reminder emails. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the email campaign you want to create.
How to Send Automated Birthday Emails in WooCommerce
Personalized birthday messages can help you build a stronger relationship with your customers, while also encouraging brand loyalty.
Even better, you can add a gift to your birthday messages, such as a personalized coupon code, a free upgrade, or a complimentary digital download such as an ebook. These gifts can boost engagement, get customers to visit your website, and even get you more sales.
With that being said, let’s see how you can send automated birthday emails using the FunnelKit Automations plugin.
Step 1. Get the Customer’s Date of Birth
Before you can send automated birthday emails, you’ll need to know the customer’s date of birth. You can collect this information on WooCommerce’s checkout page, My Account page, or thank you page.
To get started, go to FunnelKit Automations » Settings in the WordPress dashboard.
In the left-hand menu, select ‘Birthday Reminders.’
You can now choose where to add the date of birth field.
The first option is to collect this information on the checkout page.
By making this field part of the checkout process, you’re guaranteed to get the information. However, this does add an extra step to the purchasing process, which may increase your cart abandonment rates.
To add a field to the WooCommerce checkout page, simply check the box next to: ‘Enable Date of Birth field on WooCommerce checkout.’
By default, FunnelKit will use a ‘Date of Birth’ label but you can replace this with your own custom phrasing like ‘Birthday’ by typing into ‘Field Label.’
You can also change where the field appears on the WooCommerce checkout page by opening the ‘Field Position’ dropdown.
Then, choose between After Billing Details, Before Order Notes, or After Order Notes.
Another option is adding the field to the ‘Account details’ section of WooCommerce’s My Account page.
This allows you to collect the date of birth without adding friction to the purchasing process. However, there’s no guarantee that every customer will visit the My Account page and enter their date of birth.
To add this field to the My Account page, just check the box next to the ‘Enable Date of Birth field on My Account’ option.
To change the label, simply type your custom messaging into ‘Field Label.’
Finally, you can add the birthday field to the thank you page using a shortcode.
In this way, you can collect the date of birth without adding more steps to the checkout process. The customer will also see the thank you page every time they make a purchase, so they’ll get multiple chances to enter their date of birth.
To create a shortcode, check the box labeled ‘Enable Date of Birth collection form shortcode on the Thank you page.’
By default, FunnelKit will show the following message when a customer enters their date of birth: Thank you for submitting your Birthdate!
To replace this with your own messaging, simply type into the ‘Success Message’ field.
After that, FunnelKit will create the shortcode.
Simply click on the ‘Copy’ button to copy the code to your computer’s clipboard.
In the popup that appears, click on ‘Birthday Reminder.’
Then, select ‘Done’ to add the trigger to your workflow.
The next step is configuring the trigger, so go ahead and click on ‘Birthday Reminder.’
In the popup that appears, you can choose whether to run the automation on the contact’s birthday, or before the contact’s birthday.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to create follow-up emails. For example, you might send the customer a personalized coupon code 7 days before their birthday, and then a follow-up email warning that their coupon is about to expire.
With that in mind, you may want to select ‘Before contact’s birthday’ and then type in the number of days.
Another option is to select ‘On contact’s birthday.’
This is a good choice if you’re simply wishing the customer a happy birthday, or you’re sending them a free gift coupon that doesn’t expire.
With that done, you need to tell FunnelKit when to send the birthday email. Typically, you’ll want to use the time when your customers are most likely to be online.
That said, it helps to know as much about your customers as possible. If you haven’t already, then we recommend installing Google Analytics in WordPress. This will help you learn more about your customers, including their location and time zone.
By continuously monitoring and fine-tuning all your custom WooCommerce emails, you should be able to improve your open rates and conversion rates.
To send the automated birthday email at a specific time, simply type into the fields that show ‘HH’ (hour) and ‘MM’ (minute) by default.
It is possible for a customer to be in the same workflow multiple times, simultaneously.
This may be a good idea for some automated workflows, such as upselling or cross-selling automations where multiple campaigns may be running at once. However, this doesn’t make sense for an automated birthday campaign, so make sure you select ‘Once.’
When you are happy with how the trigger is set up, simply click on the ‘Save’ button.
Step 3. Create a Personalized Birthday Coupon (Optional)
Many businesses send their customers a coupon code on their birthday. This can make customers feel valued, while also getting you more engagement and sales.
With that in mind, you may want to create a personalized coupon that you’ll add to the birthday email. To do this, click on the ‘+’ and then select ‘Action.’
In the popup that appears, click on the ‘WooCommerce’ tab.
Then, select ‘Create Coupon.’
Finally, click ‘Done’ to add the action to your workflow.
Back in the main FunnelKit editor, click on the action you just added. This opens a popup where you can customize the ‘Create Coupon’ action.
To start, type a name for the coupon into the ‘Coupon Title’ field. This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.
After that, choose the type of coupon that you want to create, using the ‘Discount Type’ dropdown menu.
After making a decision, you’ll need to type the discount amount into the ‘Amount’ field.
FunnelKit automatically creates a unique coupon code for each contact. However, you can add a prefix to the start of the coupon, which can either be plain text or dynamic merge tags.
FunnelKit will replace merge tags with real text every time it creates a code, so this is a great way to create personalized coupons.
Since you’re creating a birthday email, it’s a good idea to include the customer’s name in the coupon. This can catch their attention and also makes your code easier to remember.
You can add the customer’s name using a merge tag, so click on the ‘{{.}}’ icon.
Note: Some products use other names for merge tags. WPForms, for instance, calls them smart tags.
This opens a popup where you can look through all the available merge tags.
When you find a tag you want to use, you might see either a ‘Copy’ or ‘Settings’ icon. If you see the ‘Copy’ symbol, then simply click to copy the merge tag.
With that done, you can go ahead and paste the tag into the ‘Coupon Code Prefix’ field.
As you can see in the following image, you can use a mix of plain text and tags.
When looking through the tags, you may see a ‘Settings’ icon instead of a ‘Copy’ icon.
For example, the following image shows a ‘Settings’ icon next to the Contact First Name merge tag.
This icon allows you to set a fallback, which FunnelKit will use if it doesn’t have access to the real value.
If you see a ‘Settings’ icon, then give it a click and type some text into the ‘Fallback’ field.
After creating a fallback, click on ‘Copy.’ With that done, simply paste the merge tag into the ‘Coupon Code Prefix’ field.
By default, the coupon will never expire. A sense of urgency and FOMO can encourage customers to use the coupon, so you may want to select the button next to either ‘Expire after Specific Days’ or ‘Expire on Specific Date.’
Customers love free shipping, so you may want to consider selecting the ‘Yes’ radio button under ‘Allow Free Shipping.’
When you’re happy with how the coupon is set up, make sure to copy the code under the ‘Coupon Title.’
You’ll need to add this code to the birthday email, so store it somewhere safe.
With that done, click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.
Step 4: Design the WooCommerce Automated Birthday Email
Now, it’s time to create the WooCommerce email that you‘ll send to customers.
To get started, click on the ‘+’ button and then select ‘Action.’
In the popup that appears, choose ‘Send Email.’
Then, click on ‘Done.’
You can now create an email by typing in a subject and previewing it.
You can use a mix of plain text and merge tags. To add a merge tag, just click on the ‘{{.}}’ icon next to the field where you want to use the tag.
You can then add merge tags by following the same process described above.
When you’re happy with the subject and preview, scroll to the small text editor.
Here, you can create the email body text by typing into the editor. You can also add dynamic tags by selecting ‘Merge Tags’ and then following the process described above.
To add your coupon code, simply paste or type in the {{wc_dynamic_coupon id='6'}} code you copied in the previous step. Double-check the ID number for the discount you’re sending the user.
The text editor has all the standard text formatting options, so you can add links, change the text size, change the font, and more.
To see how the email will look to customers, simply click the ‘Show Preview’ button.
When you’re happy with how the birthday email is set up, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save & Close’ button.
Step 5: Add Follow-up Emails to the Birthday Campaign
At this point, you might want to add one or more follow-up emails to the campaign. For example, you might send the customer’s birthday coupon in advance, followed by a simple greeting on their birthday.
When creating follow-up emails, it’s important to add a delay so the customer doesn’t get all the messages at the same time.
To do this, click on the ‘+’ icon and then select ‘Delay.’
On this screen, open the dropdown that shows ‘Minutes’ by default and choose a value from the list. When creating a birthday email sequence you’ll typically want to select either ‘Days’ or ‘Weeks.’
After that, type in the value you want to use, such as 1 Week or 3 Days.
With that done, you can set the time when FunnelKit will send the follow-up email.
It’s usually a good idea to send emails at a time when the customer is most likely to be online, or when you typically get the highest open rates.
To do this, just check the following box: ‘Delay until a specific time of day’.
You can now set a time using the new settings that appear.
By default, FunnelKit will use the timezone in your WordPress settings. However, you may want to schedule the message based on the customer’s timezone, by checking the ‘In Contact Timezone’ box.
When you’re happy with how the delay is set up, click on ‘Save.’
With that done, it’s time to create the follow-up email. Go ahead and click on the ‘+’ icon and then select ‘Action’.
In the popup that appears, select ‘Send Email.’
After that, click ‘Done.’
This opens a popup where you can create a subject and preview, and type in body text by following the same process described above.
When you are happy with the follow-up email, don’t forget to click on ‘Save & Close.’
To add more delays and follow-ups, simply repeat these steps.
When you are ready to make the automation live on your WordPress website, click on the ‘Inactive’ slider so that it turns to ‘Active.’
That’s it. FunnelKit will now send automated birthday emails to your customers.
How to Send Automated Anniversary Emails in WooCommerce
Purchase anniversaries are an opportunity to get in touch with customers, and remind them about your online store.
You can also use anniversary emails to get more conversions. For example, if you sell physical products, then you might encourage customers to reorder the item by offering them a buy one get one free coupon or free shipping.
If you sell subscriptions using a plugin such as WooCommerce Subscriptions, then you can encourage the customer to renew their annual subscription by offering them a complimentary upgrade.
Even better, you can present these coupons and special offers as an exclusive reward for being a loyal customer. This can make customers feel valued and encourages them to take advantage of their reward.
Step 1. Create an Anniversary Email Automation For WooCommerce
To start, you’ll need to create a new WooCommerce automation by going to FunnelKit Automations » Automations (Next Gen).
Here, select Add New Automation.
Now, you’ll see all the ready-made automation templates you can use.
To create an anniversary email, click on ‘Start from Scratch’.
You can now type in a name for the automation. This is just for your reference, so you can use anything you want.
With that done, click on ‘Create.’
Step 2. Add an Order Created Trigger
The first step is adding the workflow trigger, so click on ‘Select Trigger.’
In the popup that appears, select the ‘WooCommerce’ tab.
Then, click on ‘Order Created.’
Next, click ‘Done’ to add the trigger to your workflow.
The next step is configuring the trigger, so go ahead and click on ‘Order Created.’
You can now choose the order status that you’ll use in the trigger.
Since you’re sending a purchase anniversary email, you’ll typically want to check the box next to ‘Completed.’
However, you may want to select ‘Draft’ or ‘Processing’ if incoming orders take a while to complete. For example, if you approve orders manually, then it may make sense to use the date when the order was created, rather than the completion date.
By default, FunnelKit will run this automation workflow for every product the customer buys. This is a good choice if your online marketplace only has a few products, or you sell more expensive and luxurious items.
However, if your customers often buy lots of small products, then running this workflow for every single purchase may create lots of anniversary emails. This can quickly become annoying and frustrating for the customer.
With that being said, you may want to run the automated anniversary workflow for specific products only. To do this, select the ‘Specific Products’ radio button and then type each product into the ‘Search by name’ field.
Next, you can choose whether the customer can be in this workflow multiple times, simultaneously. The default setting is ‘Once,’ so let’s look at how this might work on your WordPress website.
If a customer buys Item 1, then FunnelKit will add them to the anniversary automation for Item 1. However, if the shopper then purchases Item 2, they won’t be added to the anniversary workflow for Item 2, since they’re already in the workflow.
This can stop FunnelKit from sending lots of anniversary emails to the same customer, in a short space of time.
Another option is adding the customer to the workflow every single time they buy an item. This is a good choice if you sell more expensive or luxury items. For example, if you run an online boutique shop then it may make sense to celebrate every single purchase anniversary.
To make this change, select the button next to ‘Multiple Times.’ Then, click the following toggle: Allow currently active contacts in this automation to re-enter again.
When you’re happy with how the trigger is set up, click on ‘Save.’
Step 3. Add a Delay
Now, you need to set a delay. This is how long the automation will wait before sending the anniversary email to customers.
To get started, click on ‘+’ and then select ‘Delay.’
In the popup, open the dropdown that shows ‘Minutes’ by default and choose a value from the list. When creating an anniversary email you’ll typically want to select ‘Months’ or ‘Days.’
After that, type in the value you want to use. For example, if you want to mark the customer’s 1 year purchase anniversary, then you’ll need to set the delay to 12 months or 365 days.
It typically makes sense to send the anniversary email when the customer is online.
With that in mind, you may want to type a time into ‘Delay until a specific time of day.’
By default, FunnelKit will use the timezone in your WordPress settings.
However, you may want to use the customer’s timezone instead, by checking the ‘In Contact Timezone’ box.
With that done, click on ‘Save’ to store your settings.
Step 4. Create a Personalized Coupon Code (Optional)
You may want to encourage customer loyalty by sending a personalized coupon code.
This is a particularly good option if a customer’s subscription is due to expire. Instead of simply reminding the customer about the expiry date, you can congratulate them on being a loyal subscriber and offer them a discount if they renew their subscription in WooCommerce.
To create a personalized coupon code, click on the ‘+’ icon in the FunnelKit editor. Then, select ‘Action.’
In the popup that appears, select the ‘WooCommerce’ tab.
Then, click on ‘Create Coupon.’
Finally, click ‘Done’ to add the action to the workflow.
You can now click on the ‘Create Coupon’ action.
This opens a popup where you can create the coupon, and personalize it by adding FunnelKit merge tags.
For step-by-step instructions, simply follow the same process described above.
When you’re happy with how the coupon is set up, copy the small pieces of code under the ‘Coupon Title.’
In the next step, you’ll add this code to the anniversary email, so store it somewhere safe.
When you’re finished, click on ‘Save’ to add the coupon code to your workflow.
Step 5. Design the WooCommerce Anniversary Email
Now, it’s time to create the email that FunnelKit will send to customers on their anniversary, by clicking the ‘+’ button.
Then, select ‘Action.’
In the popup that appears, choose ‘Send Email.’
Then, click on ‘Done.’
You can now create an email by typing in a subject, preview, and body text.
You can also personalize the email by adding merge tags. For example, you might include the customer’s name, your store name, and other important information.
For step-by-step instructions on how to use merge tags, simply follow the same process described above.
If you’ve created an anniversary coupon, then you can add it using the code you copied in the previous step.
When you’re happy with the anniversary email, just click on ‘Save & Close.’
Step 6. Add Follow-Up Emails to the Anniversary Email Workflow
At this point, you might want to add one or more follow-up emails to the campaign. For example, you might remind customers when their anniversary coupon is due to expire.
When creating follow-up emails, it’s important to add a delay so customers don’t get all your messages at the same time.
To create a schedule, click on the ‘+’ icon and then select ‘Delay.’
In the popup that appears, set the delay by following the same process described above. When you’re happy with the delay, click on ‘Save.’
With that done, it’s time to create the follow-up email. Simply add a ‘Send Email’ action to your workflow by repeating the same steps described above.
You can now type in the subject line, preview, and body text.
When you’re happy with the follow-up email, just click on the ‘Save & Close’ button.
Simply repeat the exact same steps to add more delays and follow-up emails.
Step 7. Publish Your Anniversary Emails in WooCommerce
When you’re finally ready to make the automation live on your WordPress website, click on the ‘Inactive’ slider so it shows ‘Active’ instead.
FunnelKit will now send anniversary emails to all your customers and subscribers.
OptinMonster is one of the best email capture plugins for WordPress used by over 1.2 million websites. It has everything you need to turn visitors into email subscribers.
OptinMonster allows you to create eye-catching email signup forms including popups, floating bars, full-screen welcome mats, slide-in scroll boxes, inline personalized lead forms, gamified spin-to-win optins, and more.
OptinMonater comes with over 400 professionally-designed templates that you can customize using the drag-and-drop builder.
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Often, you will find custom fields mentioned in various WordPress tutorials around the web. Still, you will likely not see the custom fields option on your site, especially if you recently started your WordPress blog.
In the past, custom fields were visible by default on the post editing screen of all WordPress sites.
However, the WordPress core development team decided to hide it by default for all new users since it is an advanced feature.
They also made it easy for anyone to make the custom fields visible with just a few clicks from within the post editing screen.
Simply create or edit an existing post/page, then click on the three-dot menu in the top right corner of the screen.
At the bottom of the menu, click on the ‘Preferences’ option.
This will bring up the block editor ‘Preferences’ popup. From here, you need to switch to the ‘Panels’ tab and switch the toggle next to the ‘Custom Fields’ option.
Note: If you don’t see the Custom Fields option on your site, then please scroll to the troubleshooting section below in this article.
WordPress will then tell you that a page reload is required to enable Custom Fields.
Simply click on the ‘Enable & Reload’ button to continue.
The editor screen will then reload, after which you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and find the ‘Custom Fields’ box there.
WordPress remembers your display choice and will continue to display the custom fields box whenever you edit posts or pages on your WordPress website.
You can now use the Custom Fields box to add, edit, and delete custom fields and their values.
What Are Custom Fields? What Can You Do With Them?
By default, when you write a new post, page, or any content type, WordPress saves it into two different areas. The first part is the body of your content that you add using the block editor.
The second part is the information about that particular content. For example, title, author name, date/time, and more. This post information is called metadata.
Apart from the default post metadata, WordPress also allows you to save custom metadata by using custom fields.
WordPress developers use custom fields to store custom post metadata for your posts. For example, the All in One SEO plugin uses custom fields to store SEO settings for your posts.
However, plugin developers usually create custom meta boxes instead of using the default custom fields box. This makes it easier for users to input information.
If you want to create a custom meta box to easily input custom metadata, then see our guide on adding custom meta boxes in WordPress.
Troubleshooting Custom Fields in WordPress
Recently one of our readers came to us with a problem where the Custom Fields option was missing from the block editor preferences. After some investigation, we were able to find the cause of the issue.
If your WordPress site is missing the Custom Fields option under the ‘Preferences’ menu, then you need to check if you have the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin installed and activated on your website.
In ACF version 5.5.13, they added a setting to remove the default WordPress custom field meta box. This speeds up the load times on the post editing page. The idea is that you shouldn’t need the default meta box since you are using ACF.
However, if you want to enable the default WordPress custom field meta box, then you need to add the following code to your WordPress theme using the functions.php file or WPCode:
We hope this article helped you fix the custom fields not showing issue on your WordPress site. You may also want to see our ultimate list of the most useful WordPress tips, tricks, and hacks and our expert picks for the must have WordPress plugins to grow your website.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to add an affiliate disclosure for each blog post automatically?
Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money online. However, if you don’t disclose your affiliate links then you could end up in legal trouble.
In this article, we will show you how you can add an affiliate disclosure to all your WordPress blog posts.
Why Add an Affiliate Disclosure to Each WordPress Blog Post?
With affiliate marketing, you earn a commission every time someone clicks a referral link and makes a purchase. It’s a great way to make money online blogging with WordPress.
However, you must make it clear that your links are paid advertisements by adding an affiliate disclaimer. That just means posting a short notice explaining what affiliate marketing is, and that you get money from talking about the product or service.
Many countries have laws about failing to disclose paid endorsements. For example in the United States, you might get a fine from the Federal Trade Commission. You may even end up banned from reputable networks such as Amazon affiliates.
Even if you don’t get into legal trouble, customers who click on undisclosed affiliate links may feel tricked and stop visiting your WordPress website.
How to Add an Affiliate Disclosure to Each WordPress Blog Post
One option is to publish the affiliate disclaimer on its own page, as we do on WPBeginner.
You can then add a link to every page that features an affiliate URL. This may be a good choice if you have a longer disclosure and don’t want to distract from the post’s content.
If yours is short, then you can often add the full text of the disclaimer to every post.
No matter which option you choose, you can save time and effort by adding the affiliate disclosure automatically. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
Pretty Links comes with an advanced auto-linking feature that allows you to enter the keywords or phrases that you want to turn into affiliate URLs.
Every time you type this word or phrase, Pretty Links will turn it into an affiliate URL automatically. Even better, if you have created a disclosure notice page, Pretty Links can also add a link to it in the post.
For example, if you add “MacBook Pro†as a keyword and then use that phrase in a new post, then Pretty Links will automatically turn “MacBook Pro†into an affiliate URL and add a link to your disclosure notice page.
Note: Pretty Links won’t insert the disclosure link if you only add affiliate URLs manually. It only works when a post uses automatic keyword linking.
To get started, you’ll need to install and activate Pretty Links. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, go to Pretty Links » Activate. You can then add your license key to the following field: ‘Enter Your Pretty Links Pro License Key.’
After that, click on the ‘Pro’ tab. In the ‘Keywords’ field, type in each word or phrase where you want to automatically insert this affiliate URL.
Simply repeat this process for all your affiliate links.
Every time it adds this affiliate URL, Pretty Links will also add a link to your disclosure notice.
The next step is creating the disclosure notice page that Pretty Links will link to. Simply go to Pages » Add New. You can then type in your affiliate disclaimer and add any categories or tags that you want to use.
When you’re happy with your disclaimer, publish the page to make it live. It’s a good idea to make a note of the page’s URL, as you’ll need it in the next step.
Once you’ve done that, simply go to Pretty Links » Options. Then, click on the ‘Replacements’ tab.
Here, check the ‘Enable Replacements’ box if it isn’t already selected.
After that, check the ‘Link to Disclosures’ box. In the ‘URL’ box, go ahead and enter your affiliate disclosure URL.
By default, Pretty Links will use ‘Affiliate Link Disclosures’ as your link’s text. However, you can change this to anything you want by typing into the ‘Text’ field.
You can also change where Pretty Links adds the affiliate disclaimer link. By default, it shows the URL at the bottom of the post, so it doesn’t distract visitors from the post’s content.
Another option is to add the disclaimer to the top of the post. This is where we include it on WPBeginner.
This lets visitors know the post contains an affiliate link before they start reading, which is a good way to build trust with your audience. However, some people may see the disclaimer and decide not to stay on the page, which can increase your bounce rate.
You can also add the disclaimer to both the top and bottom of each post. This may be a good idea if you write very long posts, but most sites don’t need multiple disclosures per page.
To place the affiliate URL, simply open the ‘Position’ dropdown and choose Bottom, Top, or Top and Bottom.
Once you’ve done that, just scroll to the bottom of the page.
Then, click on the ‘Update’ button.
Now, Pretty Links will add an affiliate disclosure link every time it auto-inserts an affiliate URL to your posts, pages, or custom post types.
Method 2. Add Affiliate Disclosure Using WPCode (More Customizable)
Sometimes you may want to add the affiliate disclosure to different areas of every blog post. For example, you might show the disclosure after you mention each affiliate product for the first time.
In this case, you can create a shortcode that adds your affiliate disclaimer. This gives you complete control over where the disclosure appears, without you having to type the entire text every single time.
The easiest way to create a custom shortcode is using WPCode. This plugin lets you add code snippets to WordPress without editing your theme’s functions.php file.
WPCode also helps you avoid common errors by performing smart code snippet validation.
There are lots of ways to add an affiliate disclosure using WPCode. Besides the shortcode method, we’ll also share an easy way to automatically add the disclaimer to every post, page, or custom post type.
Upon activation, go to Code Snippets » Add Snippet.
This will bring you to the ‘Add Snippet’ page where you can see all the ready-made snippets that you can use on your site.
Since we want to add custom code in WordPress, hover your mouse over ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet).’ Then, click on ‘Use snippet’ when it appears.
To start, enter a title for the custom code snippet.
This could be anything that helps you identify the snippet in the WordPress admin area.
We’re going to add a PHP snippet, so open the ‘Code Type’ dropdown and choose the ‘PHP Snippet’ option.
You can then go ahead and paste the following code into the code box:
function disclosure() {
return "<p class='disclosure'>This site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links.</p>";
}
add_shortcode( 'disclosure', 'disclosure' );
You can use any text as your affiliate disclaimer, simply by editing the code above. For example, you might want to add a link in HTML to your affiliate disclosure page.
Once you’ve done that, scroll to the ‘Insertion’ section and make sure ‘Auto Insert’ is selected.
Then, open the ‘Location’ dropdown and choose ‘Frontend Only’ since we only want to use this code on our site’s frontend, which is what visitors see when they visit your site.
You can also organize your snippets by adding tags.
When you’re happy with how the snippet is set up, scroll to the top of the screen and click on ‘Save Snippet.’
After that, you can make the code snippet live by clicking the ‘Active’ toggle.
Finally, don’t forget to save the change by clicking on ‘Update.’
Now you can add the affiliate disclosure to any page, post, or custom post type using the [disclosure] shortcode. For more details on how to place the shortcode, you can see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.
How to Automatically Display the Affiliate Disclosure with WPCode
With WPCode, there are lots of different ways to add an affiliate disclosure to your WordPress website, including automatically adding it to every post.
This can save you a lot of time and effort, since you don’t need to add the shortcode manually. However, the disclosure will appear in the same location on every page.
To automatically add the disclaimer, simply create a new custom code snippet by following the same process described above. However, this time open the ‘Code Type’ dropdown and select ‘HTML Snippet.’
You can now add your disclaimer in the code editor, complete with the formatting that you want to use. For example, here we’re adding a simple disclaimer as a new paragraph:
<p>This site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links.</p>
Next, scroll to the ‘Insertion’ section and open the ‘Location’ dropdown.
You can now choose where this disclaimer should appear, such as ‘Insert After Post’ or ‘Insert Before Content.’
You can then go ahead and enable the snippet by following the same process described above. WPCode will now automatically show the disclaimer on every page, post, and custom post type, without you having to add the shortcode manually.
If you’re using a block-based theme like Hestia Pro, then you can add an affiliate disclosure to your theme’s blog post template.
This is a good choice if you want to show the exact same disclosure on every blog post. However, you won’t have the option to change the style or text on individual posts, so it’s not a good choice if you want to show different information on different pages.
To use this method, go to Themes » Editor in the WordPress dashboard.
By default, the full-site editor will show your theme’s home template, so you’ll typically want to select a new template.
If you want to show the affiliate disclosure across your entire website, then we recommend adding it to the footer template part.
However, if you just want to show the disclaimer on your blog posts, then click on Templates on the left-hand side of the screen in the Design section.
The editor will now show all the layouts that make up your WordPress theme.
Simply click go ahead and click on ‘Single.’
WordPress will now show a preview of the template.
To edit this template, go ahead and click on the small pencil icon.
With that done, click on the blue ‘+’ icon in the top left corner.
In the search bar that appears, type in ‘Paragraph’ to find the right block.
You can now drag and drop the block onto the area where you want to show the disclaimer.
Now, click on the block and type in your affiliate disclaimer.
You may also want to change how the disclaimer looks.
To change the font size, background color, and more, simply click to select the paragraph block. Then, select the ‘Block’ tab in the right-hand menu.
You can now change the background color and text color, or make the disclaimer bigger or smaller using the settings in the right-hand menu.
When you’re happy with how the disclaimer looks, click on the ‘Save’ button.
Now, if you visit any blog post on your affiliate website, you’ll see the disclaimer in action.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to greet each user with a custom welcome message in WordPress?
Greeting users with a welcome message can help boost engagement on your website, as it makes people feel welcomed and cared for. It’s a great way to keep in touch with your visitors, generate leads, and increase sales.
In this article, we will show you how to greet each user with a custom welcome message in WordPress.
Why and When You Should Greet Users With Welcome Messages in WordPress
Not all websites need to greet users with a custom welcome message. However, if you are running an online store, trying to generate leads, or boosting user engagement, then a welcome message can be very useful.
There are different types of welcome messages that you can use. The goal here is to offer users a lot of value with each message.
Here are some use cases for showing a welcome message on your WordPress site:
When customers arrive at your eCommerce store, you can show a welcome message greeting them with discount offers, the deal of the day, or assist them in the checkout process.
A welcome message helps provide live support to users who might not be familiar with your products and services. You can encourage them to ask questions and resolve any questions they might have.
Showing a welcome message to returning visitors can boost sales on your site. You can show a popup with popular products, discounts, and other incentives.
You can also create personalized welcome messages in different languages for your global audience. This helps boost engagement and makes users from around the world feel welcome.
On a WordPress blog, a welcome message can help you grow your email list. You can encourage users to download a free course, show them your best content, and more.
Creating a welcome message for a nonprofit website can help you get more donations. You can greet users and show top causes to support in the popup message.
That being said, let’s see how to easily greet each user with a custom welcome message in WordPress. We will cover 2 methods, so you can click the links below to jump to any section:
Method 1: Greet Users With a Custom Welcome Message Using OptinMonster
For this method, we will be using OptinMonster. It is the most popular lead generation software in the world that helps you convert website visitors into subscribers and customers.
First, you need to sign up for an OptinMonster account. Simply visit the website and click the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button to get started.
It is a free plugin that acts as a connector between your WordPress site and OptinMonster.
Upon activation, you will see the OptinMonster setup wizard and welcome screen. Go ahead and click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.
After that, a new window will now open.
You need to click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button to connect your WordPress website with OptinMonster.
You are now ready to create a new campaign for your website.
Simply head to OptinMonster » Campaigns from the WordPress admin panel and click the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ option.
Next, you need to choose a campaign type and a template. OptinMonster comes with different campaign types, and you can use any of them to greet users with a welcome message in WordPress.
For this tutorial, we will be using the slide-in campaign type with the Flatland template.
Next, you will be asked to give your campaign a name.
Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Start Building’ button.
OptinMonster will now launch the drag-and-drop editor, where you can simply add any element and edit it.
You can add different blocks like columns, text, video, buttons, sign-up fields, and more.
You can also change the text in the welcome message popup.
OptinMonster also integrates with your email marketing services. Simply switch to the ‘Integrations’ tab at the top.
After that, you will need to click the ‘Add a New Integration’ button from the menu on your left.
Go ahead and select the email marketing tool you would like to integrate and click the ‘Connect’ link. You can then follow the onscreen instructions to log in to your preferred service.
Next, you need to switch to the ‘Display Rules’ tab to select when you want to display the greeting.
OptinMonster comes with a bunch of options that you can use to create less intrusive and highly engaging welcome messages.
Displaying Welcome Message Using Time on Page Rule
By default, OptinMonster will use the time-on-page display rule to show your welcome message campaign.
Let’s say a user arrives at your eCommerce store and spends 5 seconds on the homepage. You can then show a popup message welcoming the user and show recent sales, popular products, or other incentives.
Similarly, if you have a WordPress blog, you can display popular articles, the latest announcements, or information about new products or services to users in the welcome message.
Simply select the ‘Time on Page’ display rule to get started and set the time to 5 seconds.
If you want to show the campaign on all the pages on your website, then you will need to use the ‘current URL path’ and ‘is any page’ rules.
However, you can change these settings and increase the time or select a particular page to show your welcome message.
Display Welcome Message Based on Location
You can also show your display different messages to users from specific locations. You can even create multiple campaigns and greet users in their native languages.
All you need to do is select the ‘Physical Location’ display rule in OptinMonster.
Next, you can enter the country name in the display rule settings.
From here, you will need to click the ‘Validate’ button.
After setting up the display rules, you can switch to the ‘Publish’ tab at the top.
On the next screen, you will need to confirm the location that you entered.
Simply click on the location name to continue.
You can keep the setting for displaying the campaign on all the pages.
However, if you want, you can edit this and show your welcome message on a particular page, like the homepage.
There are many more display rules you can use in OptinMonster to show your welcome message. For instance, there are options to show the campaign based on a user’s device, when they click a link, when they visit a particular page, and more.
Publish Your Welcome Message Campaign
Once your welcome message is ready, go ahead and change the Publish Status to ‘Publish.’ Then, you can click the ‘Save’ button at the top and exit the campaign builder.
Next, you will see the WordPress output settings for your campaign.
To make sure your campaign is live, click the ‘Status’ dropdown menu on the right and select the ‘Published’ setting.
Don’t forget to save the settings after changing the status.
You can now visit your website to see your custom welcome message in action.
Method 2: Greet Users With a Custom Welcome Message Using LiveChat
LiveChat is the best live chat support software for WordPress websites. It allows you to create beautifully-designed live chat buttons and live chat support for your WordPress site.
You can customize the greeting message, display your own buttons, upload your logo, show agent profiles, and more.
First, you need to visit the LiveChat website and sign up for an account. Simply follow the onscreen instructions to set up your account.
After that, you will be taken to your LiveChat dashboard.
Next, you need to go to the ‘Settings’ tab from the left panel and head to the Chat widget » Customization page.
Here, you can customize your chat widget.
LiveChat lets edit widgets directly on your website. Simply enter your site’s URL into the ‘Customize widget on website’ option and click the blue arrow button.
You can now change the color of your chat widget, select dark or light mode, adjust the style, and change the alignment and spacing.
LiveChat also lets you edit the appearance of your live chat widget from the dashboard settings.
Besides that, you can also make additional tweaks to your chat widget.
For instance, there are options to show a logo or an agent’s photo, enable sound notifications, let customers rate agents, and more.
Next, you need to switch to the Engagement » Targeted messages section from the panel on your left.
By default, LiveChat enables a few targeted messages. However, you can create your own types of targeted messages, such as:
A welcome message to new customers
A welcome message to returning customers
Help on the pricing page
A discount on the checkout page
Product announcements
New feature releases
Time-sensitive deals and discount offers
You can click on the default messages to further customize them or add a new message.
For this tutorial, we will add a new welcome notification by clicking the ‘New targeted message’ button.
Next, a small window will open where you can choose the type of message you’d like to create. Go ahead and select the ‘Greeting’ option.
After that, you can edit the message that users will see as a greeting.
LiveChat also offers templates for your greeting message. For instance, you can show a product, announce a new feature, share knowledge, and more. We will use the default template for this tutorial.
There are also options to change the button text, add another button, and more.
Once you have edited the greeting message, simply click the ‘Next: set conditions’ button at the bottom.
Next, you will need to specify when the greeting message will appear. LiveChat shows 3 options, which include showing it to all visitors, first-time visitors, or returning visitors.
The live chat software also lets you choose the time a user spends on a page before showing the greeting message. After that, you will need to select a page where the message will appear.
When you have made the changes, simply click the ‘Save greeting’ button.
A new window will now open. Go ahead and enter a name for your greeting message and enable the ‘Set greeting live’ option. After that, click the ‘Save’ button.
Note that you can disable the default welcome message set by LiveChat if you have just created a new one.
Next, you need to select an eye-catcher. This is an image that is displayed when the LiveChat window is minimized.
LiveChat comes with several ready-made eye-catchers that you can use. You can also upload your images and use one of them.
Simply go to Engagement » Eye-catcher in the LiveChat settings and click the toggle to enable the eye-catcher. Don’t forget to click the ‘Save changes’ button when you are done.
Once you are happy with the design of your LiveChat window and custom greeting, you are ready to add it to your WordPress website.
Next, you can switch back to your WordPress admin area to install and activate the LiveChat plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled LiveChat to your WordPress admin sidebar. Plus, it will redirect you to a login screen, where you can select your LiveChat account and click the ‘Log in’ button.
You will now see a success message that you have successfully added LiveChat to WordPress.
Simply click the ‘Got it’ button to continue.
That’s it. You have successfully added a welcome greeting message through live chat on your website.
You can now visit your site in a new browser tab to see the LiveChat custom greeting in action.
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Are you looking to sell video downloads online? Maybe you are wondering whether you can sell videos using a WordPress website.
The answer is yes. Selling videos with WordPress is easy and gives you the most control over your content and earnings. You’ll be able to sell the same video files countless times.
In this article, we will show you how to start selling video files online with WordPress.
Why Sell Videos Online?
If you are into making videos, then there are a lot of ways to sell your work online.
Selling your video content online will let you make money while helping others.
You can sell video assets that other creatives can download and use in their own projects. These include stock footage, drone footage, motion graphics, logos, openers, and more.
Or you might want to sell your own finished videos, such as training videos, music videos, product reviews, or video gameplay.
One way to make money from your videos is to create a membership site like our own WordPress 101. Members pay a subscription or create free accounts to watch your content from your website.
Some are better suited to physical products than digital downloads like video files. Moving platforms in the future can be complicated and take a lot of time and effort.
WordPress is the best website builder on the market, used by over 43% of all websites.
Now, it’s important to know that there are two types of WordPress software, and you don’t want to choose the wrong one.
First, there is WordPress.com, which is a blog hosting platform. Then, there is WordPress.org, which is also known as self-hosted WordPress. For a detailed comparison, you can see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
You need to use the self-hosted WordPress.org platform because it gives you full control over your website. It provides complete freedom to sell any type of digital product using a plugin like Easy Digital Downloads.
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is the best WordPress eCommerce plugin for selling digital products and is built specifically with the features you need to promote, sell, and distribute video files online.
In this way, you don’t have to waste time configuring features that aren’t necessary for selling digital products, such as shipping and inventory management settings.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how you can easily sell video files in WordPress. You can use the quick links below to jump to different parts of the tutorial:
To start selling digital downloads with WordPress, you will need a domain name, web hosting, and an SSL certificate.
A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what visitors will type into their browsers to reach your website, such as ‘wpbeginner.com’.
Web hosting is a service that will store your website files and digital downloads. To help you out, we have hand-picked some of the best WordPress hosting that you can buy.
An SSL certificate creates a secure connection between your website and users so that you can safely accept online payments.
One of our top recommended hosting providers, SiteGround, offers managed WordPress hosting for Easy Digital Downloads. Their plans come with a free SSL certificate, EDD preinstalled, and optimization features. Plus, you get a huge 73% off!
Basically, you can create and run your website for less than $5 per month.
Let’s walk through how to purchase your domain, web hosting, and SSL certificate.
Go ahead and open the SiteGround website in a new tab so that you can follow along. The first thing you need to do is click on the ‘Get Plan’ button.
After that, SiteGround will ask you to enter a domain name for your website. If you don’t have a name in mind, then you can see our guide on how to choose the best domain name.
Finally, you will need to add your account information.
You will also be able to purchase some optional extras. You can always add these at a later date if you need them. If you are not sure, then we recommend skipping this step.
After entering your payment details, SiteGround will send you an email with instructions on how to log in to your hosting account. This is a web hosting control panel where you can manage your new website.
Simply log in to your SiteGround account, and you will see that SiteGround has already installed WordPress for you. It has also preinstalled Easy Digital Downloads.
You can then click on the ‘WordPress Admin’ button. This will take you to your WordPress site’s dashboard.
If you prefer not to use SiteGround for some reason, then you can install WordPress on other hosting companies like Bluehost, Hostinger, and WP Engine by following a similar process.
Step 2: Creating an Online Store With Easy Digital Downloads
By default, WordPress doesn’t include eCommerce functionality out of the box, so you will need a plugin to sell digital downloads.
Plugins for WordPress sites are like apps for your phone. They add all kinds of different features and functionality to your website.
If you claimed our SiteGround EDD hosting deal in the previous step, then Easy Digital Downloads is already installed on your website. You can move on to the ‘Entering Your Business and Location Information’ section below.
Note: For this tutorial, we will be using the free version of EDD. However, you may want to purchase Easy Digital Downloads Pro to access premium extensions like Dropbox File Store and Amazon S3, which are recommended for storing large files online.
Entering Your Business and Location Information
Upon activation, you need to visit the Downloads » Settings page in your WordPress admin area. This will start the Easy Digital Downloads setup wizard.
On the setup wizard’s first page, you will be asked to enter your business name and location.
You might wonder why your location is needed when you are selling online. This is because when a customer makes a purchase, Easy Digital Downloads will use the country and state information to auto-fill some fields. Also, your location may be used to calculate sales tax.
To add your location, open the ‘Business Country’ dropdown menu. You can now choose the country where your business is based.
Next, find the ‘Business Region’ field. Here you can type the state or province where your store operates from.
Depending on your location, you may also want to customize the currency used on your website. By default, Easy Digital Downloads shows all of your prices in US dollars. It also places the dollar sign before the price, so five dollars is shown as ‘$5’.
To change the default currency settings, scroll down to the Currency section and open the ‘Currency’ dropdown. You can now choose a new currency.
Just be aware that some payment gateways may not accept every currency. If you are not sure, then it’s a good idea to check the website for your chosen payment gateway. Most payment gateways have a list of the currencies that they support.
Once you are finished, you will need to click on the ‘Save & Continue’ button. This will bring you to the next page, where you can set up your payment methods.
Setting Up Your Payment Methods
Next, you need to set up a way to collect online payments.
Stripe is one of the top payment companies that does not require going through a long process to sign up for a merchant account. They allow anyone with a legitimate business to accept credit card payments online.
To quickly get started with Stripe, simply click on the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button.
If you need, you can add more payment gateways later. Simply take a look at the options on the Easy Digital Download extensions page, such as PayPal, Braintree, and Authorize.net.
When you are done, just click the ‘Save & Continue’ button at the bottom of the screen.
Configuring Your Receipts
Every time someone buys a video file, Easy Digital Downloads will send them an email.
This email has a link that the customer can use to download the file they just purchased.
You can change that email by adding your own text and branding. Strong branding can make your business look more professional and inspire customer loyalty.
To add a logo to your emails, click on the ‘Attach File’ button and upload or choose an existing image from your WordPress media library.
You can also add a ‘From Name’. This name will be shown in the customer’s inbox. You will want to use something that immediately lets customers know who you are, likes your website’s name.
You will also need to add a ‘From Email’. This email will act as the ‘from’ and ‘reply-to’ address. Since customers may reply to your messages, you will want to use a professional email address that you check frequently.
Once you are happy with your email branding, you might like to edit the contents of the email receipt. Keep in mind that the default message will work well for most marketplaces.
Finally, make sure to click the ‘Save & Continue’ button.
Selecting Conversion and Optimization Tools
The setup wizard will now offer to install some free tools to help boost conversions and optimize your digital store.
These tools include:
Auto Register: An Easy Digital Downloads extension that optimizes the checkout experience by automatically creating user accounts for new customers.
We recommend keeping all of the boxes checked. However, you can uncheck the boxes of any tools you don’t want to install.
You will also find a toggle button where you can help improve Easy Digital Downloads by sharing anonymous usage data with the developers. You can learn more in our guide on giving permission for WordPress plugins to collect data.
Once you have made your selections, just click the ‘Save & Continue’ button at the bottom of the page.
Adding Your First Product
You are now on the last page of the Easy Digital Downloads setup wizard. Here you can add your first product to your website.
If you are ready to add a new product now, then you can enter its details into the form and then click the ‘Save & Continue’ button.
Otherwise, feel free to click the ‘Skip this step’ button to finish the Easy Digital Downloads setup wizard. We will show you how to add your videos to your online store in the next section.
Congratulations, you have now completed the initial setup of your online store.
Step 3: Adding Downloadable Video Products to Your Online Store
Once you’ve set up your online store, you are ready to start adding video files as products. Easy Digital Downloads refers to digital products as ‘downloads’.
To add a product to your store, you need to select Downloads from the WordPress admin menu. After that, just click the ‘Add New’ button to add a new video.
This will open a page where you can type a title, description, pricing, and other details for your video.
Adding a Title and Description
You can type a title and description using the WordPress content editor. If you are familiar with creating a new blog post, then this works the same way.
Make sure you give shoppers all the information they need to decide whether the product is right for them. For example, you might include licensing information, the video’s duration, resolution, file size, frame rate, and whether the video can be looped.
You might also want to display customer reviews and a star rating to show that other customers have benefited from buying the video.
Setting a Price or Variable Pricing
Under that, you will see the pricing options. If you will be charging a fixed amount for the video, then simply type the price of the video in the field. For free downloads, you can leave the amount at ‘0.00’.
Easy Digital Downloads also supports variable pricing. This allows you to charge more for a higher-resolution video, for example.
If you want to sell variations, then select the ‘Enable variable pricing’ checkbox. This adds a new section where you can start to build your variations.
You can type in an option name and price for each variation. You can add more variations by clicking the ‘Add New Price’ button.
With that done, you’ll need to set the default variation, which will be selected when the visitor first lands on the product page. Simply check the ‘Default’ radio button next to the variation you want to use.
Adding Categories and Tags
Categories and tags can help shoppers find what they are looking for more easily.
For example, you can use categories to organize the different types of videos in your store and tags to describe the locations, subject matter, and more, like an index.
A helpful thumbnail image will give your customers an accurate idea of what your video contains. It can also help increase sales.
You need to scroll down the page until you find the Download Image section on the right. Clicking on ‘Set Download Image’ launches the WordPress media library, where you can choose an image or upload a new file from your computer.
Uploading Your Video File or Files
You’re now ready to start uploading your video files. This is what your customers will receive after purchasing the product.
Before you upload the files, we recommend you zip them first. These compressed files will take up less storage, be faster to download, and work for individual videos or bundles.
To zip an individual video, simply right-click the file. Then, on Windows, you choose ‘Compress to ZIP file’, and on Mac, choose the ‘Compress’ option. To zip a video bundle, simply select all of the files in the bundle before right-clicking.
Once your zip files are ready to upload, you need to scroll down to the Download Files section at the bottom of the page.
If you are selling the product with a fixed price, then you need to click the link icon under File URL. This will open the WordPress Media Library, where you can upload your zip file or select it if you have already uploaded it.
The file name field is the clickable link text that will be used on the confirmation page and email. This will be filled in automatically with the file name, and you can update it with a more descriptive name if you like.
For example, you could type ‘Download my video’ or ‘Download the HD version’.
If you are using variable pricing, then the steps are similar, and you need to upload the file by clicking the link icon under File URL.
After that, you’ll also need to choose the correct pricing option under Price Assignment. In our example below, if you were uploading the high-def file, then you would choose the ‘Coba Pyramid High Def’ option.
You can click the ‘Add New File’ button to add more uploads as required.
There is also a Bundle option where you can select multiple files, but we recommend you compress multiple files into a single zip file and use the Single Product option instead.
After the purchase, the customer will get an auto-expiring link on their purchase confirmation page and the confirmation email. This link will also be protected from search bots and unauthorized users to help prevent piracy.
Creating a Refund Policy
Hopefully, everyone who buys your videos will be happy with their purchase. However, it’s still smart to think about how you’ll handle refunds.
If you scroll to the ‘Refunds’ section in the left-hand menu, then you’ll see that Easy Digital Downloads offers your customers a 30-day refund by default.
You can change the settings here to change the refund period to a different number of days or make the product non-refundable.
We recommend offering refunds wherever possible. It’s an important part of good customer service, and an easy refund process will encourage more people to buy.
Step 4: Testing Your Digital Download
It’s a good idea to test the digital download to see whether there are any problems or anything you want to change.
Enabling Test Purchases
To start, you’ll need to put Easy Digital Downloads into test mode so that you can buy products without having to enter any payment information.
In the WordPress dashboard, go to Downloads » Settings and then click on ‘Payments.’
On this screen, check the box next to ‘Test Mode’.
Next, select ‘Store Gateway’, as this allows you to make a purchase without typing in any credit or debit card information.
After that, click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.
Make a Test Purchase
Now you are in test mode, you need to go to Downloads » Downloads and hover your mouse over the product you want to test.
When it appears, click on the ‘View’ link.
This opens the item’s product page on your online store.
To go ahead and make a test purchase, click on the ‘Purchase’ button.
Easy Digital Downloads will now add this product to your shopping cart.
To keep going, click on the ‘Checkout’ button.
On the checkout page, you can type in your name and email address. Easy Digital Downloads will send the purchase receipt to this address, so you’ll need to use a real email address that you have access to.
Under ‘Select payment method’ make sure that ‘Store Gateway’ is selected. After that, just click on the ‘Purchase’ button at the bottom of the page.
After a few moments, you will see the purchase confirmation page and also get a purchase confirmation email. Both of these contain download links.
You should click the link to make sure the file downloads successfully.
If everything works as expected, then you can take Easy Digital Downloads out of test mode and start accepting payments from real customers.
You just need to go back to Downloads » Settings and select the ‘Payments’ tab. Here, uncheck the box next to ‘Test Mode’ and the box next to ‘Store Gateway’.
Step 5: Selecting and Customizing Your WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme controls the appearance of your online store, including its layout, typography, color, and other design elements.
You might like to use the Vendd theme for your digital goods marketplace because it is designed for digital downloads. This free theme works together with Easy Digital Downloads to give you a lot of options and features for your online marketplace.
If you purchased SiteGround EDD hosting as we recommended earlier, then Vendd was installed and activated automatically when you installed WordPress.
Otherwise, you will need to install and customize the theme yourself. For more information, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress theme.
However, there are thousands of other WordPress themes available. For example, both the Astra theme and the Coaching Pro theme are fully compatible with EDD.
Another option is to create your own custom theme from scratch. To create a custom theme, you can use SeedProd.
It is the best website builder plugin on the market and is used by over 1 million websites. You can use SeedProd to create beautiful website layouts that are professionally designed and optimized for conversions and sales.
SeedProd also comes with lots of ready-made templates. These include designs that are perfect for promoting digital downloads like eBooks or videos.
At this point, you have created one or more digital video products, but you still need to drive potential customers to your product pages so they can buy your videos.
Promotion can involve creating a sales page where you advertise your most recent video files, adding a particular product page to your website’s menu, or even highlighting your favorite video on a custom home page.
You could even write a WordPress blog where you talk about how other creatives can use your video products in their own projects.
No matter how you promote a product, you will need to know its URL.
To find this link, head over to Downloads » Downloads. You can then hover your mouse over a product and click on its ‘Edit’ link.
You will find the URL under ‘Summary’ in the right-hand menu.
You can now link to this product page from any area of your website simply by using its URL. To learn more, see our step-by-step guide on how to add a link in WordPress.
Easy Digital Downloads also creates a ‘Purchase’ button for each digital download. Visitors can click this button to add your video to their shopping cart.
You can add this button to any page, post, or widget-ready area. This allows visitors to start the purchasing process without visiting the product’s page.
To get the button’s shortcode, simply scroll to the product’s Download Settings section. You can then copy the text in the ‘Purchase Shortcode’ field.
Here are some great WordPress plugins that can help you get more visitors to your website and turn them into customers:
All in One SEO: The best WordPress SEO plugin that can help you optimize your website to get more search engine traffic.
MonsterInsights: The best WordPress analytics plugin. It helps you learn where your customers come from and what they do when they reach your website.
OptinMonster: This plugin allows you to create popups and optins to grow your email list and turn visitors into customers. It can also help you reduce shopping cart abandonment.
PushEngage: The best push notifications plugin. It allows you to reach visitors after they have left your website and encourage them to return to your online store.
TrustPulse: This social proof plugin can help you increase video sales by increasing customer trust.
FAQs About Selling Videos Online
In this guide, we showed you how to videos online using Easy Digital Downloads. If you still have questions, then these FAQs may help.
Where can I sell my videos online?
There are lots of platforms, stores, and digital marketplaces where you can upload your digital art and sell it. Some popular choices include Sellfy, Vimeo, and Uscreen.
Many of these platforms already have a large audience. By uploading your files to these sites, you can promote your work to an existing audience.
However, many of these marketplaces and websites take a percentage of every sale you make, and some even charge upfront fees. To boost your profits, we recommend creating your own website instead.
In this way, you will have complete control over your brand and get all the profits from each digital sale.
How much does it cost to create a website to sell my videos?
We always recommend a business model where you start small. That way, you can spend more money as you build your audience and start to sell more digital art and graphics.
The good news is that setting up a digital store is much easier and cheaper than opening a physical shop. You can start with SiteGround EDD Hosting for around $5 per month and use free plugins and themes to limit your costs.
By using Easy Digital Downloads to sell your artwork, you can avoid many of the upfront costs and middleman fees you can expect when selling via an online marketplace such as Sellfy. Instead, you just have to pay industry-standard credit card transaction fees.
Can I also sell physical products with Easy Digital Downloads?
At some point, you may want to sell physical products, such as DVDs or some other type of physical storage containing your video assets. Despite the name, you can also use Easy Digital Downloads to sell physical products.
There’s even a Simple Shipping addon that adds shipping features to the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. This allows you to ship your branded merchandise, framed prints, or other physical products to customers using the tools you are already familiar with.
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Is the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error stopping you from accessing a WordPress website?
This error is only seen when visiting a website that uses an SSL certificate. It is caused by out-of-date or misconfigured software on either the website or the user’s computer.
In this article, we will show you how to fix the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error in WordPress.
What Is the ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH Error?
We recommend that everyone with a WordPress website install an SSL certificate. This can help keep your website data secure.
An SSL certificate is required if you want to accept payments in your online store, and it also protects your users in other ways.
SSL stands for ‘Secure Sockets Layer’, and TLS stands for ‘Transport Layer Security’ protocol. These protocols rely on certificates that tell the user the identity of the website they are communicating with.
When visiting a secure website, your browser will automatically check for an SSL certificate to see if it is valid and up to date. It also checks the version of the protocols being used.
If there’s an issue, then you’ll see an SSL error like ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH.
This error message appears when your browser doesn’t recognize the version of the SSL protocol being used or when the SSL certificate is not configured correctly.
This can happen when the user is using an out-of-date web browser that doesn’t recognize the latest TLS protocols. It can also be caused if the website’s SSL certificate or software is out of date or mismatched.
With that being said, let’s take a look at some steps you can take to fix the ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH error in WordPress:
The first thing you need to do is scan your WordPress website for SSL errors. This will help you identify problems that can cause the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error.
The easiest way to check is by using an online tool like the Qualys SSL Labs SSL Server Test. Simply type in the website’s domain name and then click the ‘Submit’ button.
This will perform a thorough test on the website that takes a few minutes to finish. After that, you will see a very detailed report about the site’s SSL certificate.
In the screenshot below, you will find the results of a scan on wpbeginner.com. You can see that the WPBeginner SSL certificate is valid and trusted and supports the latest TLS protocol, which is TLS 1.3. This is an example of a great SSL test result.
You can scroll down to the Configuration section of the report.
This will show you which versions of the TLS protocol are supported. In this case, both currently used versions are supported, which are TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3.
It’s also important that the other protocols are not being used because they have known security issues.
If your test result looks similar to this, then the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error is not being caused by the website. You can scroll down to the last section of this tutorial to learn how to troubleshoot the software on your computer.
On the other hand, here is a screenshot from a scan that found SSL errors. The errors are summarized at the top of the report, and more details are given below.
You can go to a page with detailed notes about an error by clicking the ‘MORE INFO »’ link.
If the SSL test report for your website lists some SSL errors, then you can follow these guidelines to fix them.
Your Site Uses Outdated TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, or RC4 Cipher Suite
Old TLS protocols like TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 should never be run because they have security issues, and modern web browsers have stopped supporting them.
The same goes for the RC4 cipher suite. A cipher suite is a set of algorithms used to secure your website with TLS. However, the RC4 version has been found to be insecure and should never be used.
Reputable WordPress hosting companies never use insecure versions of the TLS protocol or cipher suite.
However, if your website is using any of these outdated versions, then you should contact your hosting provider and get them to enable TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3. You will also need to switch to AEAD cipher suites (AES-GCM).
Because an SSL certificate proves that your website is what it claims to be, the domain name on your certificate must match your site’s domain name. When they are not the same, this is called an ‘SSL certificate name mismatch’.
When you see this error in your SSL report, it will list the potential reasons:
The website does not use SSL but shares an IP address with some other site that does.
The website no longer exists, yet the domain name still points to the old IP address, where some other site is now hosted.
The website uses a content delivery network (CDN) that does not support SSL.
The domain name is an alias for a website whose main name is different, but the alias was not included in the certificate by mistake.
This error is likely caused by a problem with your SSL setup.
In particular, make sure you have set up your SSL certificate to work with all of the variations (or aliases) of your domain name that will be used, including www and non-www URLs.
Another solution is to redirect your website visitors to the correct variation of your domain name.
For example, if your SSL certificate has the URL ‘https://www.example.com’, then you can redirect ‘https://example.com’ to that address. See our article on how to set up redirects in WordPress for more details.
This error could also appear if you have recently moved your website to a new domain name or server. You will need to update your SSL certificate with the new details.
If you are using a CDN service, then you should also make sure that it supports SSL. If you need to upgrade, then you can see our expert picks of the best WordPress CDN services for recommendations.
If you need help with any of these issues, then don’t hesitate to reach out to your hosting provider’s technical support team.
When the Website Is Not the Problem
If the website is not the problem, then the error is caused by software on your computer. Most likely, you have an out-of-date web browser, or your antivirus software is causing the error.
You can follow these steps to troubleshoot the problem.
Update Your Web Browser to the Latest Version
If you are using an outdated web browser such as Internet Explorer or an old version of a modern web browser, then you may see this error. This happens because the old software was written before the latest versions of the TLS protocols and doesn’t recognize them.
In that case, all you need to do is switch to the latest version of a modern web browser like Google Chrome.
If, for some reason, you can’t update to a later version of your browser, like if you are stuck using Microsoft Windows XP, then you may be able to enable a later version of TLS in your browser.
For example, on Google Chrome, you can type chrome://flags in the address bar, search for ‘TLS 1.3’ and enable the option.
Or if you are using Firefox, then you should type about:config in the address bar, search for TLS, and then set the security.tls.version.max value to 4.
Clear Your Browser Cache and SSL Cache
If you still see the error message after doing this, then there are a few more troubleshooting steps you can take. The first thing is to delete your browser cache and cookies.
On Windows, you can also clear the SSL cache. This may be storing out-of-date SSL information about the website you are trying to access.
You can open ‘Internet Options’ by searching for it in the Start menu. Now switch to the Content tab and click on the ‘Clear SSL state’ button.
Temporarily Disable Your Antivirus Software
Finally, it’s possible that your antivirus software or firewall software may be configured incorrectly. This can sometimes cause the ‘ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH’ error to appear when it shouldn’t.
If your software has an automatic SSL scanning feature, then you can try turning it off. Otherwise, you will need to temporarily disable your antivirus software. Once you have done that, you can try accessing the website again.
If you can access the software with your antivirus software disabled, then you can contact the antivirus company’s technical support team about the error or switch to a more reputable application.
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Are you looking for a way to translate a WordPress plugin into your language?
By translating a WordPress plugin into another language, you will make it accessible to a broader audience. This allows users from different countries to use the plugin in their native languages.
In this article, we will show you how to easily translate a WordPress plugin into your language.
Similarly, most of the top WordPress plugins are also translation-ready. All you have to do is ask the plugin author if you can help by contributing translations in other languages.
By translating the plugin, you can increase its reach and create a larger user base. This can lead to more installs, feedback, and exposure for the plugin.
It can also help you establish yourself in the WordPress community and provide you with new networking opportunities with other developers, translators, and businesses in the industry.
You can even add the translation to your portfolio and demonstrate your skills and contributions to the WordPress community.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily translate WordPress plugins in your language. We will cover a few different methods in this post, and you can use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use:
Method 1: Translate a WordPress Plugin Into Your Language for Everyone
If you want to translate a WordPress plugin in a way that helps other people use the plugin in their languages, then this method is for you.
WordPress.org currently hosts a web-based translation tool that allows anyone to contribute translations for plugins within the WordPress repository.
First, you will need to visit a plugin’s page on the WordPress.org website. Once you are there, just switch to the ‘Development’ tab at the top.
Here, you will see a link asking you to help translate the plugin into your language.
You can simply click on it to start contributing to the plugin translation.
However, if the link isn’t available, then you can visit the Translating WordPress website.
Once there, you will see a list of languages on the screen. From here, find your language and simply click the ‘Contribute Translation’ button under it.
This will take you to a new screen, where you need to switch to the ‘Plugins’ tab.
After that, search for the plugin you want to translate using the search field and then click the ‘Translate Project’ button under it.
This will direct you to the plugin translation page, where you must select the ‘Stable (latest release)’ sub-project from the left column.
If you want to translate the plugin’s development or readme files, then you can choose those sub-projects from the list instead.
Finally, you will be taken to a new page where you will see the original strings in one column and the translations in another.
Keep in mind that you will need to be logged in to your WordPress.org account to contribute translations.
From here, just click on the ‘Details’ link in the right column to open up the string you want to translate.
Once you have done that, a text field will open where you can add a translation for the original string.
Once you are done, simply click the ‘Save’ button to submit your translations.
Method 2: Translate a WordPress Plugin for Your Own Website
If you only want to translate a WordPress plugin for your own website, then this method is for you.
Upon activation, head over to the Loco Translate » Plugins page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Here, you will see a list of plugins that are currently installed on your website. Just click on the plugin you want to translate.
This will take you to a new screen, where you will see a list of languages available for the plugin, along with the translation progress status for each language.
If the language you want to translate the plugin into is listed there, then simply click on the ‘Edit’ link under it.
If not, then you need to click the ‘New language’ button at the top.
This will direct you to a new page where you can start by selecting a language.
From here, you can pick the ‘WordPress language’ option and then choose your language from the dropdown menu under it.
This option will automatically start using the language file if a user sets the WordPress admin area in this language.
If you don’t want to use a WordPress language, then you can select the ‘Custom Language’ option.
Next, you have to choose where you want to store the translation files. By default, Loco Translate will recommend saving the translation files in its own folder.
However, you can easily change that to save the files in WordPress languages or the plugin’s own languages folder.
Once you have done that, just click the ‘Start translating’ button to continue.
This will take you to a new screen, where you will see a text source section along with a translation field.
You can now start by adding a translation for the source string and then select the next string to translate.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your settings.
Method 3: Translate a WordPress Plugin on Your Computer
If you want to translate a WordPress plugin on your computer using gettext translation apps, then this method is for you.
Keep in mind that you can also submit these translations to plugin authors so that they can include them in their plugins.
First, you need to download the plugin you want to translate on your computer. Next, double-click the plugin zip file to extract it.
Once you have done that, you need to open the plugin’s folder and then find and click on the ‘languages’ folder.
You should find a .pot file inside this folder. This is the translation template file that you will need to translate the plugin.
If the plugin doesn’t have a .pot file or a languages folder, then it is most likely not translation-ready.
In that case, you can contact the plugin author and ask if they have any plans for their plugin translation. For more details, please see our guide on how to ask for WordPress support and get it.
Once you have the .pot file, you are ready to translate the plugin into any language.
Next, you need to download and install the Poedit app on your computer, which is a free translation app for Mac and Windows.
After you have the app installed, go ahead and open it up. This will launch the Poedit home screen, where you must click the ‘Create New’ option.
You will now be directed to your computer’s file manager. From here, simply find and select the .pot file for the plugin that you want to translate.
Once you have done that, Poedit will ask you to choose a language for translation from the dropdown menu.
After that, click the ‘OK’ button to continue forward.
Poedit will now show the translation interface, where you will see the list of strings available.
All you have to do is click on a string to select it and provide a translation in the ‘Translation’ field.
Once you are done translating the plugin, go to File » Save from the menu bar at the top and name your file after the language name and country code.
For example, if you are saving a French translation for the plugin, then you should save the file as ‘fr_FR’ for French and France.
Poedit will save your translation as .po and .mo files.
Now, all you need to do is place these files in your plugin’s languages folder to start using the translated plugin on your website.
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