How to Fix Login Page Refresh & Redirect Problem in WordPress

How to fix WordPress Login Refresh & Redirect Loop Issue

There are several types of login issues that can occur with a WordPress site. One type of error is when your login page keeps refreshing and redirecting you back to the login screen. It can be quite annoying and frustrating. In this troubleshooting tutorial I’ll show you how to fix this type of error.

Try clearing your browser’s cookies

The first step is to see if it’s your web browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari) or your WordPress site which is causing the issue.

Most websites store cookies which help manage login information. Sometimes issues arise with these cookies and you need to clear them in order to start fresh.

What are Cookies?

Cookies are simple text files that a website can store on your browser. They are mainly used to “identify” a user and can be used for many things like keeping a user logged in, store the shopping cart items, etc.

Clearing (or deleting) these cookies and starting fresh can often clear up these issues. Here’s how to do that with the most popular browsers.

Clear your cookies in Firefox

  1. Click the three horizontal lines in the top right of your browser
  2. Click on the Options section in the menu
  3. Click on Privacy & Security on the left
  4. Scroll down to Cookies and Site data and click “clear data”

Clear your cookies in Chrome

  1. Click the three dots in the top right corner of your browser
  2. Click on the settings menu
  3. Scroll down to “clear browsing data” and hit the “clear data” button

Refresh your website and try to log in. If you’re still unable to log in, let’s proceed to the next step of our troubleshooting guide.

Does your webhost have backups available?

Some hosting plans come with free backups, if yours does then you may be able to restore your site from a recent backup.

Of course, not everyone will have this option available, but it’s worth a try. If not, things will get a little more complicated and you’ll need to get comfortable with the file system.

What happens if I can’t log in to my WordPress site?

If clearing your cookies did not help and you can’t get into your WordPress site then you might have to continue troubleshooting using the file system for your installation. This sounds scary, but it’s not as difficult as you may think.

However, it’s always a best practice to create a backup of your site before proceeding, if you don’t have one already. This way, even if you do manage to mess something up you can just restore the files.

Download an FTP client like Filezilla

In some cases, you may be able to edit your WordPress installation files directly from your host’s control panel, but if not you’ll need an FTP program. This software allows you to connect and browse the files sort of like how they’re set up on your computer.

Locate your login credentials in your web hosting control panel

Every web host should have FTP credentials available somewhere for you that allows you to connect through the software. If you’re not sure where these are, then try contacting support for help.

To log in using FTP, you’ll need your hostname (usually your domain name), a username and a password provided by your host. Make sure to download all of your files before you touch anything.

Test your plugins

Plugins are part of what makes WordPress so great, but unfortunately, they sometimes don’t play nice with each other. Even plugins you’ve been using for a long time may release an update which could conflict with another plugin.

The only way to know for sure is to test each plugin and see if they are causing the problem. Often, the best course of action is to deactivate all plugins.

Now, refresh your website and see if the problem is gone. If so, then congratulations! You’ve figured out what’s causing the problem with your site.

You can simply reactive your plugins one by one until the issue returns, then you’ll know which plugin is the culprit, and find a replacement.

How to deactivate plugins with FTP

Using your preferred FTP client, go to the plugins folder, for example:

/wp-content/plugins/

and rename it to something else. For example:

/wp-content/plugins-backup/

All the plugins will cease to function.

Test your theme

Sometimes themes don’t play nice with WordPress after an update. If you revert back to the default Twenty Nineteen theme, your login page issues may disappear.

It’s not always the fault of the theme creator, things may have worked perfectly up until the latest WordPress update. If this is the case and you don’t want to use a different theme, contact the theme developer to help debug the issue.

However, the quickest course of action is to use another theme.

How to deactivate your WordPress theme with FTP

Using your preferred FTP client, go to your themes folder, for example:

/wp-content/themes/

and rename it to something else. For example:

/wp-content/themes-backup/

WordPress will fail to find your current theme and use the default theme instead.

Delete your .htaccess file

This file can perform a lot of useful functions, but sometimes it can get overwritten and cause problems. Delete it this file and see if you can log in. If you’re able to successfully log in, you’ll need to regenerate the .htaccess file.

In your Admin Dashboard go to Settings > Permalinks and click the save button at the bottom to generate a new .htaccess file.

Update your site’s URL

If you’ve recently installed an SSL ceritifcate or changed your site’s URL this can sometimes cause issues. Changing and updating it manually may help with login page problems. Start by logging into your webhost with FTP.

Manually add the following lines (with your site’s URL in place of example.com) to your wp-config.php file, save and see if the issue is fixed.

define(‘WP_HOME’,’http://example.com’);

define(‘WP_SITEURL’,’http://example.com‘);

Hopefully, you’ve found this article useful and managed to solve the problem. We welcome you to submit your comments and questions using the comment form below.

4 free directory listing wordpress themes

4 Free Directory Listing WordPress Themes

Directory, or listing sites are a great way to locate online business, local retail stores, as well as services or professionals like dentists or doctors.

They’re usually very easy to use, and by simply filling out one or more fields in an online form you will receive the results that you are looking for in seconds. As the owner of a business, it makes good business sense to be registered with as many online directories within your niche as possible, the more places your details are available the more traffic that will end up at your site.

So, if you want to start your own online directory or listing site to generate revenue, WordPress has tons of plugins and themes which allow you to do that quite economically.

In this weeks collection we’ve rounded up a list of free WordPress themes to start your own online directory or listing website.

Directory Starter

Directory Starter By Paolo

Directory Starter By Paolo

Directory Starter is a starter theme for the GeoDirectory plugin, perfect to be edited directly or to create your own child themes. Directory Starter is a fully responsive Directory Theme that has been methodically coded to be lightweight and customizable, we have used all the latest WordPress Customizer options allowing you to customise the look and feel of your site with no coding knowledge.

Business Directory

Business Directory by inkthemescom

Business Directory by inkthemescom

Business Directory for WordPress is one of the easiest themes to build your Web Presence in 10 Minutes. Just with in 5 Simple Steps. The Theme is highly customizable and with the presence of several background patterns and Theme Options, You can have your own branded new Website for your Business or Personal Use in Minutes. Features Templates for Blogs, Gallery, Fullwidth Page without sidebar and Contact Us Page.

Robolist Lite

Robolist Lite Theme by Code Themes

Robolist Lite Theme by Code Themes

Robolist Lite is modern, feature rich and free WordPress theme for listing and directory sites. It is integrated with the well built WP Job Manager Plugin, which enables you to add a list of any professions. Such as business agencies, corporate sites, hotels, real estate and so on. The core objective of this theme is to give the information to the visitors as much as it can. Robolist Lite is loaded with the all the necessary extension which means tons of possibilities. The complete out of the box BootStrap Framework has made Robolist Lite fully responsive theme. Its clean and pixel perfect design is powerful enough to grab the attention of the visitors. Launch your directory website with this awesome WordPress listing theme, Robolist Lite.

Robojob Lite

Robojob Lite Theme by Code Themes

Robojob Lite Theme by Code Themes

RoboJob Lite is the new best WordPress Job theme. Running a job site or a listing site becomes a lot more easier. It is a WP Job Manager powered WordPress theme for job sites. Since this is powered by a powerful and actively maintained WP Job Manager Plugin, there are a lot of extensions available, which mean a lot of possibilites.

 

How Much it Costs to Build & Host a WordPress Website in 2019

How Much it Costs to Build & Host a WordPress Website in 2019

Building a website in 2019 is very affordable, especially when comparing with the cost of starting a bricks and mortar business. Whether it’s to promote a business, build a portfolio, or to start a personal blog, it’s become an essential component of branding in the 21st century.

WordPress has been around for years and remains one of the most popular content management & blogging platforms in the world.

According to data from web technology survey firm W3Techs, WordPress powers over 30% of the Internet!

It’s perfect for beginners with limited knowledge of web design & development. It’s extremely user-friendly, flexible and customizable with thousands of themes & plugins.

The WordPress software itself is free, but there’s a few additional components you need in order to get it running.

  1. Domain name – This is the address where you website will reside. Example: www.yourwebsite.com.
  2. Web Hosting Plan – Websites are hosted on servers, where the files of your website will reside.
  3. Free or Premium WordPress Theme – This will be the face (or design) of your website.

To give you the quick and short answer; starting a WordPress site in 2019 will cost you between US$33 to US$132 for the first year. But it depends on which hosting plan, domain name and WordPress theme you decide to use. So in this article we cover each of the components and break down the costs associated with each.

Choosing a Web Hosting Plan

There’s tons of affordable hosting services, but I suggest you check to see which features are included with each plan. Take note of the cost breakdowns, the services they come with, and reviews.

If you’re only looking to host a single website, most basic hosting plans will be enough.

Here’s a breakdown of a few popular hosting plans, along with pricing and key services:

  • Bluehost Starting at $3.95 a month for their basic package, it includes a free domain, 1-click WordPress installation, 5 email accounts, and 50GB of website storage.
  • HostGator – Starting at $2.75 a month for their basic package, it includes a free domain, 1-click WordPress installation, and unlimited website storage.
  • SiteGround – Starting at $3.95 a month for their basic package, it includes a free email account and 10GB of website storage.
  • A2 Hosting – Starting at $5.21 a month for their basic package, it includes free site transfers and unlimited website storage.

All the options mentioned above include a free SSL certificate and extremely reliable up-time guarantees. If any issues occur, they offer 24/7 customer service support.

When choosing a hosting plan, it’s important to consider exactly what you’re looking for. Some offer free domain names, while others have unlimited website storage.

The prices listed are often just for the first year and increase the following year, which is why I highly recommend purchasing a hosting package for the longest duration to lock in the best pricing!

HostingFacts.com reviewed 31 web hosting companies and assigned a 0 to 10 rating based on various factors: services, hidden fees, payment methods, terms of agreement, customer support, total activation time & site performance.

HostingFacts.com Rewiew of 31 Web Hosting Companies

HostingFacts.com Rewiew of 31 Web Hosting Companies

Purchasing a Domain Name

On a basic level, domain names are important because the Internet’s addressing scheme is not very effective without them.

Each computer on the Internet has an Internet protocol (IP) address: a unique string of four numbers separated by periods, such as 165.166.0.2. Since remembering the IP addresses of all of your favorite Web sites would be nearly impossible, a group of computer scientists created the domain name system to assign a unique name to each numeric IP address.

But domain names are much more than just a technical shortcut. A short, memorable domain name can make the difference between creating a successful web presence and getting lost in cyberspace.

Most hosting companies will include a free domain name if you purchase a 1 year hosting plan. If not, you can always purchase a domain name from a registrar.

A few popular places to purchase domains from are:

While you may be inclined to go for the cheapest domain, always check to see how much it will cost the following years. These companies often offer a very low price for the first year to entice customers.

Free WordPress Themes

A theme is a collection of templates and stylesheets used to define the appearance and display of a WordPress powered website.

WordPress has a directory with thousands of free themes to choose from, which is perfect for anyone with a smaller budget. Many of these themes can be customized and modified to your specific use.

Themes can be changed, managed, and added from the WordPress admin area under Appearance » Themes.

Install a free wordpress theme from the WordPress.org directory

Install a free wordpress theme from the WordPress.org directory

Premium WordPress Themes

If you’re looking for a more professional, refined design for your WordPress site, then I suggest purchasing a premium WordPress theme.

By its most simple definition, a premium WordPress theme costs money. If it isn’t free, it is premium. There are no fixed standards or certification that designates a theme as being premium. Anyone can build a WordPress theme, brand it as premium, and offer it for sale.

But typically speaking, a premium theme will have been built by professional web designers, with the specific aim of catering to a market who is willing to pay more for a better product.

They can cost anywhere from $30 to upwards of $100. It all depends on the pricing set by the developer and the services or features bundled with the theme.

Here’s 3 of the most popular sites where you can purchase premium WordPress Themes:

  • ThemeForest – A very popular marketplace with ~11,000 WordPress themes, most cost between $20-70. If you do a bit of digging, you can find deals for $13!
  • Mojo Marketplace – Another great platform to browse for thousands of beautifully designed themes, most cost between $40-60.
  • Template Monster – With ~2131 WordPress themes, you’re always bound to find something! Most of their themes cost around $75.
ThemeForest WordPress Themes Marketplace

ThemeForest WordPress Themes Marketplace

In Conclusion

If you purchase the cheapest hosting plan that includes a free domain name, and utilize a free WordPress theme, then your only costs will be $2.75/month hosting fee (if you go with BlueHost), or $33 for the first year.  This is extremely affordable and perfect for anyone who’s just looking to get started on a small budget.

If you decide to go with a Premium WordPress theme and a more professional and refined design, your cost for the first year will be vary between $70-132.

Regardless of what you decide to do, hosting and building a WordPress website in 2019 is extremely affordable and there’s something for every budget level.

How to Update WordPress to the Latest Version

How to Update WordPress to the Latest Version

WordPress is a fantastic content management and blogging platform. It allows anyone to deploy and run a fully functional website with zero coding knowledge. This, of course, did not go unnoticed and WordPress exploded in popularity.

It’s so popular it’s estimated that WordPress now powers 30% of the internet. Unfortunately, this comes with some major pitfalls as well.

WordPress has become so popular that sites hosted on it are frequently the victims of cyber attacks. While the team behind the software constantly pushes out security updates, none of that will matter if you don’t keep your WordPress site updated!

Keeping your WordPress installation updated is important for a few very good reasons. Here are some things to think about.

Security

WordPress is Open Source, and that means anyone can study the code and make it better. That’s why WordPress has so many awesome themes and plugins available for you to use.

Unfortunately, it also means people can study it to find vulnerabilities that they can exploit for their own personal gain! Unsavory people spend a lot of time trying to find ways to inject malware into WordPress sites.

This means that if you’re using an outdated version of WordPress then you’re using software with known security exploits! This is very dangerous and if an attacker finds out you’ll be an easy target for them and your website could suffer for it.

Features

New WordPress updates also come with great features that you could be missing out on. These features might add new functionality to your blog or make your days managing your site just a little bit easier, but you’ll never find out if you don’t upgrade.

WordPress 5.0 included an awesome new content editor that helps bloggers to create better layouts for their blog posts.

Performance and bug fixes

WordPress developers tweak every release to give you speed and bug fixes that make WordPress better to use. Staying updated can make your website run smoother and it helps you to remain compatible with popular plugins.

How to update your WordPress site

There’s a couple of ways to update your WordPress site, and we’re going to quickly go over them to help you learn how to do it yourself. This could take you just a few seconds or a few minutes depending on which method you use.

STOP! Before you do anything it’s important to create a backup of your WordPress site. At the bare minimum, you should export your posts and media files using the exporter tool.

The best solution though is to use a full-featured backup plugin. These help you to make sure everything is backed up, and they often include one-click restoration features. Try something like UpDraft Plus for this purpose.

Method #1 – Update using the One-Click updater

The easiest method for updating your WordPress blog and the one you’ll likely be using is the one-click updater. If there are any WordPress updates available your dashboard will let you know up at the top.

If you click on that link it will direct you to the menu which has the update feature available. This is the easiest way to go because WordPress does everything for you.

How to Update WordPress to the Latest Version

Navigate to Dashboard > Updates and click the Update Now button

It disables your plugins for you, it downloads the update, it installs it, and it gets everything going again like nothing happened. You’ll be done in probably 30 seconds.

However, you will need to check your site carefully after the installation completes. Sometimes updates do cause plugins or themes to become incompatible. So take a moment to check everything out.

If something did get messed up it is possible to roll back the update until you find a solution. However, the best course of action is to just to find new plugins or themes which are compliant so you can take advantage of the security fixes that come with an updated WordPress installation.

Method #2 – Manually update WordPress using FTP or Cpanel

This method involves manually downloading the update from the WordPress website and then installing it directly to your site using cPanel or an FTP program.

Why would you want to do this when you have a perfectly good one-click installer? If your website has restrictive file permissions for security reasons then you may need to do manual upgrades of your core files, themes, and plugins.

Step 1 – Create a site back up and deactivate plugins

Create a backup of your site before you do anything else in case you mess something up. You’ll also need to deactivate your plugins before proceeding.

Step 2 – Download the update from WordPress.org

Go to WordPress.org and manually download the update. Unzip it somewhere on your desktop so you have easy access to the files.

Step 3 – Access your FTP or cPanel

Log in to your FTP account (Filezilla is good for this and it’s free to use.) or your cPanel for your host. In this step, you’ll be replacing some of the files and folders on your site with the ones in your newly updated file that you downloaded. Navigate to the root directory to get started.

Step 4 – Delete wp-admin and wp-includes

You can go ahead and delete these folders files from the root directory safely, but don’t touch anything else just yet.

Step 5 – Upload the new wp-admin and wp-includes files

Upload the new wp-admin and wp-includes files from the updated WordPress installation file to the same place where you removed the old ones.

Step 6 – Copy the new WordPress files

You won’t be deleting anything in this step. Instead, you simply want to copy the other WordPress files inside the folder to where they go in your WordPress installation.

These files should overwrite the existing ones. Be careful not to accidentally delete anything important.

Step 7 – Check to make sure your site works

At this point, you can visit your site and see if it’s working properly. If everything looks okay you can activate all your plugins again and you’re good to go. Congratulations! You’ve manually updated your WordPress site!

10 Free One-page Business WordPress Themes 2018

10 Free One-page Business WordPress Themes 2018

One-page websites are a great way to display all your content on a single page. People’s attention spans and shrinking so by condensing and focusing your content on one page in an elegant, easy-to-ready manner, you’re making it easier for your clients and readers to learn about your company, product or service.

In this weeks collection we’ve rounded up 10 free one-page themes found on the WordPress.org directory which you can use for your business or professional career.

All have been updated and maintained in the last 3 months, have positive reviews and a minimum user rating of three out of five (3/5) stars.

Integral

Integral WordPress theme by Themely

Integral WordPress theme by Themely

Build a professional website with Integral one page business theme. Its strength lies in displaying content on a single page in a simple and elegant manner. It’s super easy to customize and allows you to create a stunning website in minutes. It boasts a rich color scheme with light and dark sections and a clean, minimal, modern design with smooth parallax effect. Integral is built with Bootstrap, is responsive and integrates with popular plugins like Contact Form 7, Woocommerce. Integral is now compatible with Elementor & Beaver Builder page-builders. Perfect for professionals, agencies, small business, corporate business, startup, freelancer, development company, personal, portfolio, blog, real estate, lawyer, travel and photography websites.

Parallel

Parallel WordPress theme by Themely

Parallel WordPress theme by Themely

Build a professional website with Parallel one page theme for startups, businesses and professionals. It’s strength lies in displaying all your content on the homepage in a simple and elegant manner. It’s super easy to customize and allows you to establish your online presence in minutes. It boasts a rich color scheme with light and grey sections and a clean, minimal, modern design with smooth parallax effect. Parallel is built with Bootstrap, is responsive and integrates with popular plugins like Contact Form 7, Mailchimp for WordPress & Woocommerce. Parallel is perfect for freelancer, business, design firm, freelancer, development agency, corporate, personal, portfolio, blog, real estate, lawyer, travel and photography websites.

Optimal

Optimal WordPress child theme by Themely

Optimal WordPress child theme by Themely

Build a stunning website with Optimal One-page theme for small businesses and professionals. Designed to display all your content on a single page in an elegant manner; it’s extremely easy to setup & customize. Build yourself a stunning website for your professional carreer or small business. Optimal is a child theme for the Integral WordPress theme developed by Themely. It’s perfect for startups, freelancers, agencies, small business, corporate business, design firm, education, freelancer, development company, personal, portfolio, blog, real estate, lawyer, travel and photography websites.

OnePress

OnePress WordPress theme by FameThemes

OnePress WordPress theme by FameThemes

OnePress is an outstanding creative and flexible WordPress one page theme well suited for business website, portfolio, digital agency, product showcase, freelancers and everyone else who appreciate good design. The theme overall is an elegant and classic one, a fine example of Bootstrap 4 WordPress theme which compatibility with latest version of WooCommerce.

One Page Express

One Page Express By Extend Themes

One Page Express By Extend Themes

One Page Express is a beautiful WordPress Theme that can be used to create a one page website in minutes by drag and drop. In comes with a predesigned home page and over 30 ready to use content sections that you can easily customize. It also has lots of customization options (video background, slideshow background, header content types, etc) that will help you create a beautiful, unique one page website in no time. One Page Express is responsive so it works on mobile devices out of the box.

OnePage Parallax

OnePage Parallax By Adnan

OnePage Parallax By Adnan

OnePage Parallax is a single-page theme that displays all the essential features of your website on the home page. It makes easy for the users to get all the required information within a single page. OnePage Parallax is a professional and outstanding responsive business WordPress Theme. OnePage Parallax was built keeping the simplicity of design in mind.

Zerif Lite

Zerif Lite By Themeisle

Zerif Lite By Themeisle

Zerif LITE is a free one page WordPress theme. It’s perfect for web agency business,corporate business,personal and parallax business portfolio, photography sites and freelancer.Is built on BootStrap with parallax support, is responsive, clean, modern, flat and minimal. Zerif Lite is ecommerce (WooCommerce) Compatible, WPML, RTL, Retina-Ready, SEO Friendly and with parallax, full screen image is one of the best business themes.

OneEngine

OneEngine WordPress theme by Engine Themes

OneEngine WordPress theme by Engine Themes

Enhance the simplicity with this Multi-Purpose One Page WordPress Theme with Layout builder included, easy-to-use backend options, plus glorious design.

West

West WordPress theme by AThemes

West WordPress theme by AThemes

West is a responsive business theme that aims to provide everything you need in order to help you create an awesome website for your company. Some of the features you will find in West are: Live Composer integration, fonts and colors controls, blog options, custom header option and much more.

Sydney

Sydney WordPress theme by aThemes

Sydney WordPress theme by aThemes

Sydney is a powerful business theme that provides a fast way for companies or freelancers to create an awesome online presence. Sydney brings plenty of customization possibilities like access to all Google Fonts, full color control, layout control, logo upload, full screen slider, header image, sticky navigation and much more. Also, Sydney provides all the construction blocks you need to rapidly create an engaging front page.

Top 10 Most Useful Free WordPress Plugins

Top 10 Most Useful WordPress Plugins

One of the most significant advantages about building a website on WordPress is the access to the thousands of plugins that allow for endless customization. These plugins can add new functionality and design to the WordPress site with the click of a button. They’re great because you don’t need a technical background to use these plugins.

WordPress comes equipped with both free and premium plugins, but I will be highlighting 10 of the most useful plugins that I’ve used over the years to build hundreds of WordPress sites. All of these plugins are free, regularly maintained by their developers, and are backed up with high numbers of positive reviews.

Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 plugin by Takayuki Miyoshi

Contact Form 7 plugin by Takayuki Miyoshi

With over 5+ million activations on WordPress, Contact Form 7 is one of the most popular and oldest plugins for creating easy-to-integrate lead generating forms. This plugin allows me to create, manage, and customize multiple contact forms!

Contact Form 7 supports reCAPTCHA and Akismet spam filtering to protect my website from spam and abuse so that I only receive relevant messages to my inbox. It has everything that I need in a contact form without the need for intensive coding.

Jetpack

Jetpack plugin by Automattic

Jetpack plugin by Automattic

Jetpack is one of my favorite plugins because it allows me to create and customize my sites from start to finish. Just like Contact Form 7, it boasts over 5+ million activations on WordPress, and I can see why.

With this plugin, I can measure, promote, and earn money from my site by utilizing the analytics, scheduling, payment, SEO, and advertising tools. The security features offer added protection, spam filtering, downtime monitoring, and real-time backups of my entire site. To top it off, it has hundreds of professional themes and customization tools to design my website.

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO plugin by Team Yoast

Yoast SEO plugin by Team Yoast

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for optimizing websites and improving their search engine rankings. I highly recommend Yoast SEO to anyone who wants to improve their ranking on Google.

Yoast SEO has been around for years and is a favorite for millions of users. With this plugin, I have full control over the site breadcrumbs, title, meta description, keywords and more. It works to optimize my site as I continue to create great content that deserves to be seen!

Duplicator

Duplicator – WordPress Migration Plugin by Snap Creek

Duplicator – WordPress Migration Plugin by Snap Creek

If I ever need to migrate, copy, move or clone a site from one location to another, then Duplicator will get the job done. Duplicator can perform a full WordPress migration without having to deal with importing and exporting SQL scripts, all with zero downtime.

Duplicator also serves as a great backup utility tool. It can manually backup an entire WordPress site by creating a package that bundles all the site’s plugins, themes, content, database, and WordPress files into a simple ZIP file.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce plugin by Automattic

WooCommerce plugin by Automattic

This plugin is a must-have for building an eCommerce website. WooCommerce powers 30% of all online stores, more than any other platform! With its endless flexibility and access to hundreds of WordPress extensions, it allows me to sell anything without any hassle. I can customize WooCommerce to fit my business needs and operations.

Security is one of WooCommerce’s main priorities. WooCommerce undergoes regular updates to ensure top-notch security between each transaction. I don’t have to worry about a thing!

Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads plugin by Easy Digital Downloads

For selling digital products on WordPress, such as software, documents, photos, eBooks, or whatever it may be, I install Easy Digital Downloads. As the name says it, it is a complete eCommerce solution for effortlessly selling my digital products.

With this free plugin, I can sell my product to anyone and anywhere. It integrates beautifully with most common merchant processors such as PayPal and Amazon payments. With additional add-on extensions, I can completely transform my online store however I wish!

WordPress Importer

WordPress Importer plugin by wordpressdotorg

WordPress Importer plugin by wordpressdotorg

To go hand-in-hand with Duplicator, the WordPress Importer plugin allows me to import content from a WordPress export file seamlessly. This includes posts, pages, comments, custom fields and post meta, categories, tags, terms, and authors. There is no need for downtime or having to spend hours manually transfer data from one WordPress site to another.

Not only is this tool perfect for migrating content from one WordPress site to another, but it is often suggested by WordPress theme developers to install demo content when purchasing a premium theme.

Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA)

Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) plugin by BestWebSoft

Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) plugin by BestWebSoft

With any website, I want to ensure that it is fully secure from possible online threats. Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) is essential for every WordPress website. It is an effective security solution that allows me to protect my forms from spam entries, while still allowing real humans to pass through with ease. It merely requests users to confirm that they are not a robot before each submission.

It is also used for securing login, registration, password recovery, and comments. It gives both me and my audience a peace of mind.

W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache plugin by Frederick Townes

W3 Total Cache plugin by Frederick Townes

There’s nothing more frustrating than a poor performing website. Installing W3 Total Cache improves my SEO and user experience by increasing website performance and reducing load times with features like content delivery network integration.

When the plugin is fully configured, users see at least 10x improvement in overall site performance. This leads to higher conversion rates, optimized progressive render, and improved web server performance. Users may even see up to 80% bandwidth savings with its compression tool! Such a simple, yet extremely powerful tool.

Regenerate Thumbnails

Regenerate Thumbnails plugin by Alex Mills

Regenerate Thumbnails plugin by Alex Mills

Instead of having to edit each of my photos one by one manually, Regenerate Thumbnail does the trick with a simple click of a button. It allows me to regenerate all thumbnail sizes for images in my media library.

This plugin is useful for updating the thumbnail size of past uploads or instantly changing the dimensions of existing thumbnail size. It also has the ability to delete unused thumbnails to free up server space. It will save a ton of time (and headache)!

There is really no need for spending money on premium plugins when there are a ton of free plugins that can do the same job. Be sure to give these free plugins a try as they can significantly improve the functionality and design of any WordPress site!

 

How to Install ProProfs Live Chat on Your WordPress Website

ProProfs Chat is an efficient and popular live chat Plugin for WordPress. It’s free, quick, easy-to-use and effective in building a connection with new and existing clients. By adding ProProfs Chat to your WordPress website, you will be able to crank the personal touch up a notch and reap the reward of higher conversion rates.

This chat tool will empower you to provide exceptional customer service by resolving customer problems instantly, respond to sales queries in real-time, curtail buyer friction, offer a reassuring human presence and much more. Also, it will add a personal touch to your WordPress website.

This chat software combines multiple features into one seamless interface. You can view site visitors in real-time on your WordPress website, collect their feedback, capture leads, save chat transcripts and much more. This chat system is cloud-based, offers smart chat routing, allows chatting from multiple browser windows, unlimited simultaneous live chats through an easy-to-use interface and much more.

Step-by-Step Installation Instructions

Step 1

Login to your ProProfs Account or sign up for a free account. The ProProfs free plan is good for up to 100 chats per month on one domain.

Step 2

Navigate to Settings and then click on Installation and copy the chat installation code.

Copy the ProProfs chat installation code

Step 3

Login to your website’s WordPress Admin Dashboard.

Step 4

Navigate to “Appearance”, then click on “Widgets” option.

Navigate to Appearance > Widgets

Navigate to Appearance > Widgets

Step 5

Navigate to “Text” widget under available widgets.

Step 6

Drag & Drop the Text widget into any of your active widgets section (preferably a Footer section, if available) .

Step 7

Paste the chat code in the “Content” section and click on “Save”.

ProProfs Chat Code

ProProfs Chat Code

ProProfs Chat is now embedded on your WordPress website.

10 Free Small Business WordPress Themes

10 Free Small Business WordPress Themes

WordPress is a great platform to build a website for your small business, freelance services or professional career.

Most small businesses are bootstrapped so there isn’t a large budget to build a website. Fortunately, by using WordPress and installing a theme, you can build a very professional looking website for almost nothing.

In this weeks collection we’re going to list 10 free WordPress themes small businesses can use to build a website. We’ve picked themes which have been updated in the last 3 months and have a minimum three out of five star rating.

  1. Integral
Integral WordPress theme by Themely

Integral WordPress theme by Themely

Build a professional website with Integral One-page business theme. Its strength lies in displaying content on a single page in a simple and elegant manner. It’s super easy to customize and allows you to create a stunning website in minutes. It boasts a rich color scheme with light and dark sections and a clean, minimal, modern design with smooth parallax effect. Integral is built with Bootstrap, is responsive and integrates with popular plugins like Contact Form 7, Woocommerce. Integral is now compatible with Elementor & Beaver Builder page-builders.

2. Business Idea

Business Idea WordPress Theme by webdzier

Business Idea WordPress Theme by webdzier

Business Idea is a responsive WordPress theme. It is fast, fully customizable & beautiful theme suitable for all type business. It has great portfolio design, page builder compatible and WooCommerce support for online business store. Perfect for personal, lifestyle, health & fitness, food, cooking, bakery, travel, beauty, fashion, wedding, photography, news, quotes blog, auto blog, small business website and any other kind of business purpose. The theme comes with a clean look, but it also provides subtle hover animations. Business Idea offers mailchimp newsletter integration, a flexible feaures via Live Customizer option panel, a footer widget, Elementor and Beaver Builder supported theme template. It has full width home page slider feaures, and even more functionality based on the latest control settings. The theme is lightweight and SEO-friendly.

3. Pacific

Pacific WordPress theme by elevate360

Pacific WordPress theme by elevate360

The Pacific Theme is built for small businesses looking to stand out. Pacific combines fluid design and user-based functionality to form something that is truly seaworthy. A theme that blasts all difficulty out of the water, it has all the building blocks necessary to establish your online presence. A certain level of customisation is also available to make sure your business feel uniquely yours. Create an engaging, bold and sleek looking website design using Pacific.

4. Sirius Lite

Siruis Lite WordPress Theme by lyrathemes

Siruis Lite WordPress Theme by lyrathemes

Sirius is a clean, simple, material design business theme. This multipurpose theme is built on the Bootstrap framework, making it fully responsive and mobile friendly. It has a special front page template that can be used to set up a one page website. With featured pages (with images and icons), two call to action sections, and two open content sections, Sirius is extremely flexible and easy to set up and use. It has a top navigation with an option to show social media icons and a smaller navigation. Sirius is a perfect choice to set up a small business website, landing page, business portfolio, or a creative agency website. You can set the background color for each front page section, and control the filter/overlay color for the CTA sections. This simple theme gives you complete control and flexibility to create any kind of website. Backed by awesome one-on-one support, Sirius is an excellent choice for your next project.

5. Rara Business

Rara Business WordPress Theme by Rara Theme

Rara Business WordPress Theme by Rara Theme

Rara Business is a free WordPress theme for business and corporate websites. You can use it to build small business (restaurants/cafe, travel, education, hotel, construction, events, wedding planners, fitness, affiliate, fashion, lawyer, consulting, sport/medical shops, spa/temas, political), portfolio, church, online agencies and firms, charity, ecommerce (WooCommerce), and freelancers websites. Rara Business is widgetized, visually appealing and clean. It is responsive, Schema.org compatible, SEO friendly, RTL compatible, speed optimized, and translation ready.

6. Optimizer

Optimizer WordPress Theme by OptimizerWP

Optimizer WordPress Theme by OptimizerWP

The Optimizer, an easy to customize multi-purpose theme with lots of powerful features. This theme lets you customize each element Live without you having to touch any code. The theme comes with 2 site layout: Full width & boxed, Beautiful image slider, easy Logo upload, 600+ Fonts, powerful theme options, Custom CSS Field & lots of Color options. The optimizer is 100% responsive built with HTML5 & CSS3, it’s SEO friendly, mobile optimized & retina ready. Its translation ready, ready for WooCommerce, bbPress, Mailchimp, Contact Form 7. The theme is rigorously tested and optimized for speed and faster page load time and has secure and clean code. It’s perfect for any types of website – Landing Pages, small business, portfolio, photography, corporate, personal & eCommerce websites.

7. Food Express

Food Express WordPress Theme by Tom De Smedt

Owing to the modern and clean look Food Express WordPress Food Theme is an ideal choice for small food based businesses. Spectacular custom homepage, supporting Polylang translation plugin that displays effectively both eye-catching images and detailed information to promote you and your services. The theme is integrated with WordPress customizer, offers custom color options and gives you all possibilities to change its look without any coding.

8. Tar

Tar WordPress Theme by Asphalt Themes

Tar WordPress Theme by Asphalt Themes

Tar is a lightweight, bloat-free, simple, multipurpose WordPress theme. You definitely wouldn’t be able to do everything with Tar but free version is more than enough to kick start your own website within mintues. Lets you customize most of the element Live with very little code touch. The theme comes with Full width layout, easy Logo upload, powerful theme options, Custom CSS Field & lots of Color options. Tar is 100% responsive built with HTML5 & CSS3, it’s SEO friendly, mobile optimized & retina ready, translation ready, ready for WooCommerce. Tar is a Free lightweight fast loading WordPress theme and has been thoroughly tested by WordPress coding standard and Gutenberg ready. It’s clean and bloat free and has fast loading time Perfect for – Landing Pages, small business, portfolio, corporate, personal websites.

9. Parallel

Parallel WordPress Theme by Themely

Parallel WordPress Theme by Themely

Build a professional website with Parallel One-page theme for startups, businesses and professionals. It’s strength lies in displaying all your content on the homepage in a simple and elegant manner. It’s super easy to customize and allows you to establish your online presence in minutes. It boasts a rich color scheme with light and grey sections and a clean, minimal, modern design with smooth parallax effect. Parallel is built with Bootstrap, is responsive and integrates with popular plugins like Contact Form 7, Mailchimp for WordPress & Woocommerce.

10. Featuredlite

Featuredlite WordPress Theme by ThemeHunk

Featuredlite WordPress Theme by ThemeHunk

Featured lite theme is specially designed for corporate/business websites. Theme is user friendly and its instant set up process help you to create professional website for Business (Agency, Interior, Florist, Transport, Construction etc), Shop / eCommerce, Personal, Blog, Photography. This responsive theme comes with live customizer, Full body background slider and background image option, Translation ready, Header layouts (Default, Center and Split), Widget based home page sections with unlimited items capability, Unlimited color option, Advance Section styling, Professionally designed sections (Ribbon, Services, About Us, Call to action, Team, Shop (WooCommerce), Testimonial, Latest News, Contact Us (With call to, Mail to, Address and Map). Theme contain seven widget area (Four for footer, Two for sidebar (default pages) and one for shop page). Theme is compatible with WooCommerce, bbPress, Lead form builder, Contactform7 and with many other WP plugin.

Stack Overflow

How to use the WordPress Support Forum & Stack Overflow to troubleshoot WordPress problems

Everyone who owns a WordPress site will experience an error or problem some point. It’s not question of if, but when. WordPress is probably the best blogging and content management system in the world, it’s definitely the most popular, but it isn’t without its problems from time to time.

With each plugin or theme you install, you increase the complexity and chances of encountering an error which will break your site. For those of you who are beginners to WordPress this can be daunting and cause a lot of frustration.

There are tons of troubleshooting & how-to guides online which explain how to solve specific issues. But what is really important, is knowing where & how to find them, and applying the knowledge to your specific WordPress problem.

Two of the biggest & best resources I’ve used for 8+ years working with WordPress is the WordPress.org Support Forum and a site called Stack Overflow. I’ve used both countless times over the years and I’ve always managed to find a solution to my problem.

These resources are also great for beginners who may not be trying to troubleshoot an error, but are simply new to WordPress and have general questions about it’s use and functionality.

In this tutorial I’ll explain what they are, how to use them and the method to getting answers to your questions. Essentially what I am doing is empowering you to find solutions, instead of relying on others. If you can master this skill, you’ll save yourself money, time and headache.

WordPress.org Support Forum

WordPress.org Support Forums

WordPress.org Support Forums

The good news is that you’re probably not the first person to have encountered the problem you are experiencing. And because WordPress has such a strong community, most plugin and theme developers have profiles here, so you may be able to get answers from the developers who can give you the best answers.

First, start by creating an account if you haven’t already by clicking the Register link at the top of the page. Otherwise, log in to your WordPress.org account.

Create a WordPres.org Account

Create a WordPress.org Account

Once you’ve completed the registration process, log into your account and navigate to the WordPress.org Support Forum. Now, you’re ready to start debugging.

But, let’s step back for a moment. If I’m to show you how to debug errors, we’re going to need a good example to use.

Let’s use the example of an error most WordPress site owners will experience at some point. The 500 Internal server error.

Usually this will occur when you’re trying to view your website after making a change or installing a new plugin or theme. It will look like this.

HTTP 500 Internal Server Error

HTTP 500 Internal Server Error

 

Start by doing a search

Learning how to search correctly is important as it will present you with varied results. In this case I am going to simply use the name of the error as the keywords for my search. So i’ll enter following keywords in the search field.

internal server error

 

Search for the keywords Integral Server Error

Search for the keywords Internal Server Error

This search returned a total of 32,800 results. Don’t be alarmed, you won’t have to read them all 😉.

InternaL Server Error Search Results

Internal Server Error Search Results

The results display the most relevant responses. The good news is that you’re definitely not the first person to encounter this error.

Start by clicking the first several results and read the replies. You can then attempt to apply the solutions suggested by other users. If a solution doesn’t work, simply click to the next response and attempt those solutions. And on, and on, until you resolve the problem.

You have no idea how many times I’ve done this over the years. I have learned most of what I know today by using this exact method.

It may be that none of the solutions you’ve tried work, in which case you can ask for help.

Ask for help

Asking for help from WordPress.org community can be quite helpful, since you can explain in detail the problems you’re experiencing, and get a tailored response.

Make sure you’re logged in and navigate to the Fixing WordPress Forum.

Ask a question in the Fixing WordPress Forum

Ask a question in the Fixing WordPress Forum

Click on the Create Topic button to ask a question. You’ll be presented with a few steps and instructions to get you started in the right direction.

When posting a new topic, follow these steps

When posting a new topic, follow these steps

Fill out the form fields and provide as much information as possible. Often, users will only provide 1 or 2 sentences describing their problem without any context.

You have to provide as much information as possible so users can understand, and replicate your problem. More information is better than not enough.

Once you’re satisfied, click the Submit button.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow

StackOverflow.com

Stack Overflow is a massive online question and answer community for professional and enthusiast programmers. It’s built and run by users from around the world working together to build a library of detailed answers to every question about programming.

Stack Overflow is very similar to the WordPress.org Support Forums, as in you can search for answers and ask questions from fellow users. However, when searching you need to include the [wordpress] tag, which will return solutions specifically for WordPress.

For our example, it will look like this.

[wordpress] internal server error
Stack Overflow Search Keywords

Stack Overflow Search Keywords

This search returned 500 results.

Stack Overflow Search Results

Stack Overflow Search Results

One of the major advantages of Stack Overflow and main difference with the WordPress Support Forum, is its voting system.

Voting is central to their model of providing quality questions and answers. It’s how good content rises to the top, incorrect content falls to the bottom and users who consistently provide useful answers accrue reputation and are granted more privileges on the site.

So, their entire platform is built to help you find the best, most useful answers to your questions. It’s incredibly powerful.

Similar to the method used in the WordPress.org Support Forum, click the first several results and read the answers. Try to apply the solutions suggested by other users. If a solution doesn’t work, simply click to the next response and attempt those solutions.

Ask a Question

Again, you have the option of asking a question if you’re unable to get help. Start by signing up if you don’t have an account, or log in.

Once logged into your account, click the Ask Question button.

Ask a question on Stack Overflow

Ask a question on Stack Overflow

When filling in the form to submit your question, be sure to select the WordPress tag.

Select WordPress tag when asking a question on Stack Overflow

Select WordPress tag when asking a question on Stack Overflow

Make sure to provide as much information as possible to help fellow users respond to your question. The more information and context you provide, the better.

And there you have it. Two great resources and an invaluable skill which will empower you to troubleshoot errors and find solutions to almost any WordPress problem.

I hope you found this tutorial useful and I invite you to share your comments and questions below 👇

 

 

How to fix image upload issues in WordPress

You’ve got yourself a brand new website on WordPress, and it’s all going well. Until one day, when things suddenly go crazy.

You upload a new image and it comes up broken. All you see is this:

How to fix image upload issues in WordPress 1

Don’t panic. Things may not be as bad as they seem.

Test other areas of the website. If the rest of your website is working fine, you may be able to fix this issue quite easily.

The most common cause of errors in uploading or displaying images or other media files is a change in file permissions of the ‘uploads’ folder. This is the folder where all the media files you upload to the website are stored.

As the site owner, you should have full access rights to this folder. This means you should be allowed to view, add and delete content from this folder.

You can verify the permissions on a folder by using either an FTP client or the Control Panel on your server.

Manage File Permissions or Attributes via FTP Client

If you’re using an FTP client, connect to your hosting server using the client. Then, within your home directory, browse down to the ‘uploads’ directory. You can find it inside the ‘wp-content’ folder. Right click on ‘uploads’ and choose the option ‘File Attributes’ or ‘File Permissions’.

How to fix image upload issues in WordPress 2

This will open up a new dialog box for file permissions.

How to fix image upload issues in WordPress 3

Have a look at the ‘Owner Permissions’ section. You’ll see three boxes: Read, Write and Execute. Make sure all three are ticked.

You’ll see a box labeled ‘Numeric Value’. This value is also represents file permissions for this directory. The numeric value for the correct permissions is 705. You can choose to directly update the number to 705. That works just as well.

The next step is to tick the box next to the option: ‘Recurse into subdirectories’. This tells the system to apply the same set of permissions to all the sub-directories of ‘uploads’. This is important as WordPress stores images and other media files into separate folders for the month and year in which they were uploaded.

There’s one final point to consider before you are ready to go. Make sure that you select the option: ‘Apply to files only’. Selecting this option grants you permission to add or delete only the files within the folders. This is a level of security which prevents you from accidentally deleting an entire folder.

And that’s about it. Go ahead and click the ‘Ok’ button to save the changes you have made and log out of the server.

Manage File Permissions or Attributes via Control Panel

If you’re more comfortable using the Control Panel, here’s what you can do. All service providers have slightly different user interfaces. But, barring minor differences, you should be able to use this as a rough guide.

Login to your Control Panel and go to the ‘File Manager’.

How to fix image upload issues in WordPress 4

Go to the root directory of your website.

How to fix image upload issues in WordPress 5

Find your ‘uploads’ directory within wp-content and select it.

How to fix image upload issues in WordPress 6

You’ll see the ‘Permissions’ option right at the top appears in bold.

How to fix image upload issues in WordPress 7

Click on this option to open up a dialog box where you can update the file permissions. Give Read, Write and Execute permissions to User and save the changes by clicking on ‘Update Permissions’.

How to fix image upload issues in WordPress 8

That’s it!

And you’re back on track. Go back to your WordPress admin area and try uploading the file again. Remember, it may take a bit of time for the permissions to take effect. So, don’t worry if you find the file is still not uploading successfully. Wait for a bit and try again.

Why did this happen?

Are you wondering why the permissions changed all of a sudden? Well, it could be any one of several reasons. It is possible that your web hosting provider upgraded some software on the server which changed the file permissions. Perhaps you added a new plugin or theme to your site and the script changed the permissions.

It is also likely that scripts executed by some other user affected your permissions. This is possible on poorly configured shared hosting.

An alarming possibility is, these changes were purposely made by someone trying to hack into your site.

If the problem persists, contact your service provider for support.

We hope you found this useful. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to use the form below. We’d love to hear from you!

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