Category: WordPress

The Best 10 Popular WordPress Themes for 2020

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People ask us what WordPress theme will be the best in 2020. So sit back get some coffee and read through our findings. With more than 10.000 WordPress themes it can be tedious to select the best free theme that you need and we have researched through hundreds to create this blog article. It will help you to pick the best free WordPress theme.

WordPress is used by both experienced administrators as well as people that have little knowledge about coding. Why you would ask? Well, it gives you numerous options to choose from without the extensive need for coding. The WordPress platform has a lot of available plug-ins, themes and customization options that can be time-saving. WordPress is adaptable, organized and is easily configurable.

Without further a due here is our list of the Best, Free and most Popular WordPress Themes for 2020.

1. Astra 

A WordPress theme that we also use.

Currently, Astra is the most widely used WordPress theme out there due to the variety of options it offers. There are a lot of reasons why. We’ll mention the most important ones.

Pro’s

·        Amazing customizability from easy to complex web pages

·        Great for when you know little about coding, due to a lot of free tutorials

·        Beautiful design, responsive, lightweight and blazing fast

Con’s

·        A lot of pop-up notifications for reviews

2. Ocean WP 

The second most popular theme on WordPress and the best competitor of Astra for its easy usage.

This theme is lightweight and extendable and can be used by anyone.

Ocean WP WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Unique eCommerce features

·        Simple and complete

·        Large community

Con’s

·        Lacking good support for the premium version and unprofessional licensing system

3. Sydney 

A business theme with a lot of customization and flexibility.

If you want something more unique, then the Sydney WordPress theme is the one to pick.

Sydney WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Highly customizable with multiple fonts and design options

·        Outstanding support

·        Fast set-up

Con’s

·        Lacking some common features such as customizable menus that are available in other free theme’s

·        Responsiveness of the theme could be further integrated into the theme

4. Ultra 

A theme with Elegance and Ease of use for even those who are new to WordPress.

The theme to pick went you want that fast plug and play WordPress website for 2020.

Ultra WordPress website

Pro’s

·        Elegant and clean design that will get you going in no time

·        Good support

·        Highly responsive

Con’s

·        Some items are not as customizable as with other themes

·        Responsiveness can be further developed

5. Hestia 

An easy setup theme for your eCommerce business and very light.

When you want to set up an easy eCommerce business without too much coding but still with a lot of customization options.

Hestia WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Amazing UI experience

·        Lightweight, fast and easy

·        Good support

Con’s

·        Some bugs reported in the free version, especially with the safari browser

·        No support for Multilanguage

6. Neve 

The fast theme that is optimized for SEO.

If you want to be on top in Google without too much hassle with plug-ins you should pick this theme.

Neve WordPress Theme

Pro’s

·        Blazing fast

·        Optimized for SEO findings that will get you to the top

·        Still pretty customizable

Con’s

·        Can crash when installing

·        More optimization required for the mobile UI

7. Uncode Lite 

The theme for our minimalists.

This theme offers a beautiful minimalist design that will suit those who want a designers page or similar.

Uncode Lite WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Elegance at your reach

·        Requires very little coding

Con’s

·        Small community (only 9.000 installs)

·        Customer support can be improved

8. Poseidon 

A WordPress theme where WordPress was made for.

The theme for our travellers and other bloggers that want a simple set-up and simple layout.

Poseidon WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Beautiful theme

·        Easy UI

Con’s

·        A little heavier than other themes

·        Responsiveness can be improved

9. Lovecraft 

A theme for more text.

Love craft is our pick for those multi-column websites that contain a lot of text, but still, want to look beautiful.

Lovecraft WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Beautiful minimalistic design

·        Simple and elegant UI

Con’s

·        Not for everyone, due to its specific fonts and layout options

10. Elementor 

A plain-vanilla & lightweight theme for the Elementor page builder.

The theme that comes with Elementor has a lot of options and is simply put very good.

Elementor WordPress theme

Pro’s

·        Strong integration with the most widely used Elementor page builder

·        Nice design, simple and fast

Con’s

·        To really enjoy this theme you’ll need Elementor Pro

·         There are no link styles available

Conclusion:

All the above-mentioned WordPress themes are great, however, you are the one who will decide which theme suits your business requires the best.

 In case you have any quest regarding WordPress please feel free to drop us a line and our WordPress experts would be delighted to help you out

Latest Gutenberg’s WordPress Guide On How To Use Block Editor

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Planning on updating your WordPress with the latest Gutenberg block editor? Before you go about doing that the best course of action would be for you to know everything about the Gutenberg editor. Now the good news is our Gutenberg WordPress guide will not just tell the difference between the old & new version, but also how to use the block editor.

The Gutenberg block editor brings with it fully styled method content creation in the form of blocks. And we are going to tell you exactly how you’re going to use blocks along with some of the new editor’s other features, to curate content at your WordPress site.

What makes the Gutenberg block editor better than the classic version?

The latest block editor offers an easy way to add a variety of content to the posts and pages of your website. For instance, previously if you wished to add a table in your content, then it required a separate table plugin.

Gutenberg block editor

With the Gutenberg block editor, you can simply add a table block, select the columns and rows, and start adding your content in the webpage. You can even shuffle content elements and edit them as individual blocks easily to create media-rich content.

And most importantly, the new block editor is very easy to use and learn. This gives a huge advantage to all WordPress newbies who have just started working on their first blog or building a DIY website.

What are the “Blocks” in Block editor?

The Gutenberg block editor is all set to replace the single edit field mode of the classic WordPress TinyMCE editor using a variety of “blocks”. These blocks will enable you to build more complex and creative designs than those allowed in the old classic WordPress editor.

Gutenberg WordPress Guide

And the great news is that you will be able to create your very own third-party blocks that can be accessed via plugins for extra flexibility. Each block on its own is a separate entity that you can modify an individual basis.

Not only that, the Gutenberg block editor is geared up to eliminate the need for page builders for most of the “standard” content, and create a singular unified method for creating more-complex layouts in WordPress.

Let’s have a look at the interface

We have highlighted some of the key aspects of the editor. So let’s Jump down below the image for more details on each individual section.

The Gutenberg interface is comprised of three main areas:

1.EDITING TOOLBAR:  TOPMOST OF SCREEN

Gutenberg WordPress Guide

2.CONTENT AREA: LARGE SECTION ON THE LEFT SIDE

3.ADVANCED SETTINGS SECTION: RIGHT SIDEBAR

These sections of the Guttenberg block editor allows you to do the following:

Gutenberg WordPress Guide advanced
  • Add a new block within the content area
  • Undo/Redo changes
  • Review the content’s structure (no. of words, blocks, paragraphs, headings, and tables)
  • Save your changes that have been auto-saved with confirmation
  • Preview pages & posts
  • Modify settings, such as post visibility & publish time & date
  • Additional settings include:
    • Switching between & code & visual editors
    • Copying all content

How to add new blocks?

As discussed above, you’ll have to combine multiple individual “blocks” to build your layouts with the editor.

To add a new block, all you need to do is simply click the +Plus icon and select the content type you want to add:

Gutenberg block editor actually includes a ton of different blocks, divided into many sections as per the use such as Common Blocks, Formatting, Layout Elements, Widgets, and Embeds:

You will also see sections for

  • Inline Elements – only contains a single block for the inline-image.
  • Common Blocks – Basic building blocks like images, paragraphs (regular text), quotes, etc.
  • Formatting – Used for adding formatted content like pull tables, quotes, or even the classic WordPress text editor
  • Layout Elements– Enables splitting of text into two columns, including buttons, separators, or tags
  • Widgets – Used for adding shortcodes, latest posts, or categories.
  • Reusable- Use the templates that you have applied previously again (this option only becomes active once you have used a couple of templates)

Customizing individual blocks

Since the Gutenberg block editor includes tons of different blocks, we can’t demonstrate how to use each and every individual block. But we can show you the general framework that is applicable to all blocks.

customizing Gutenberg WordPress Guide

Basically, you can control your content in the actual body of the Gutenberg block editor:

For styling and alignment of basic text, you can use the menu bar that appears while hovering over a block:

You’ll have to style the block in the Block settings tab, for more advanced styling.

In order to access that tab, select the block you need to edit and browse over to the Block tab:

Is Gutenberg block editor the future of WordPress?

While the Gutenberg has its limitation as of now. It has become an official component of the WordPress core team thanks to the release of WordPress 5.0.

For many casual users, it will bring a tremendously flexible content creation experience. After some growing pains at its initial stage.

Although it’s limited to content creation. For now, it is expected to enable the developers to build entire webpages with ease.

We hope to find our guide on the Gutenberg block editor useful and in case you have any queries regarding the editor. Simply drop us a line in the comment section and our experts will get in touch with you in no time.

How To Make Money With A WordPress Blog

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A blog is a valuable resource to own, a place where you can pen down what you think freely, without inhibitions and external influence. It is a true reservoir for the inner workings and musings of your mind. But are you satisfied? Maybe you are.

But, how about earning from what you really like doing? Now, the question you might be having is “How to make money?” with your WordPress blog. Let us help you understand how you can maneuver and manipulate this leading CMS according to your will to make the most returns out of the same.

One can use WordPress in either of the two forms offered:

  • WordPress.com: An Open platform where one can start blogging.
  • WordPress.org: A Self-hosted platform having one’s own server.

You may be surprised to know that many people are making a living by running a blog on WordPress. Have you ever wondered how you can do the same? Well, there can be many ways by which you can make money using WordPress. Listed below are few of the easiest and most popular ways:

USING WORD ADS

One of the easiest ways to generate decent revenue from your WordPress blog is by using WordAds. It is the advertising solution for WordPress.com which can be used by anyone. However, one of the prerequisites, in this case, is that you need to apply for it and wait until your request for WordAds gets accepted.

Some of the things that one should keep in mind while using WordAds are:

  • You can monitor your earnings from WordAds very easily by tracking the same from the dashboard.
  • The payment you receive from WordAds is based on impressions and not clicks. Thus, higher traffic leads to more earnings.
  • It works better when the web traffic is from North American and European countries.
  • Minimum denomination to receive payment is USD 100.0 and payment is made through Paypal account.

“Tip” of the Digital Iceberg: Note that you cannot use Google Adsense on a WordPress.com blog. However, if you are using an enterprise version of WordPress.com, you can definitely apply for AdSense.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

Another lucrative and intriguing way of earning through your WordPress blog is through the use of affiliate links. Now, what is affiliate marketing you might ask? Simply put, it is promoting other web pages on your blogs and helping them generate revenue. But, how? You help your affiliate site by generating higher web traffic and channelling the same to their blog or website, thus increasing the probability of higher sales. One of the best ways to go about affiliate marketing would be to use backlinks or hyperlinks in your article to link your content with your affiliate partners. However, an image with a backlink to an affiliate partner is not a lucrative option. Through affiliate marketing, you also gain a share of the returns that you help your affiliate partners produce. This method can generate quite a substantial amount of revenue in a very short duration.

THE BEAUTY OF AFFILIATE MARKETING IS THAT YOU DON’T HAVE TO INVEST THE TIME AND EFFORT TO CREATE A PRODUCT TO SELL. YOU CAN BEGIN SELLING SOMETHING AS AN AFFILIATE AS SOON AS YOU HAVE A PLATFORM TO SELL IT ON. @patflynn

SPONSORED POSTS

This is another method for generating money. However, this works better in the case of established blogs. One of the best ways of garnering a sponsored blog would be to write a review on some other blog with the consent or mutual agreement or writing or posting sponsored content related to similar interests, products, services or more.

Few important things to consider in this case are as follows:

  • It is advisable to use self-hosted WordPress platform, especially in case one wants to run a third-party advertising program.
  • You can get yourself suspended if you are caught violating WordPress.com advertising guidelines.

CREATING AND SELLING PLUGINS

WordPress blogs are mostly run by using one or several plugins. Thus, you must have realized the importance of plugins. There are thousands of plugins available for WordPress – some of them are absolutely free and the remaining are premium ones. Well, if you manage to create your own plugin, be sure to generate revenue from it by properly advertising the same.

You can sell your plugins at CodeCanyon or similar sites, or, you can also sell them from your own website. You can also opt to do freelance projects for developing plugins, on some of the major freelancing sites out there, such as Freelancer, Elance, Odesk, etc.

“Tip” of the Digital Iceberg: If you are thinking of making money by selling WordPress plugins, make sure to create them by focusing on a specific need, especially one which is faced by almost all bloggers but is still unsatisfied to a large extent.

DEVELOP WORDPRESS THEMES

You can also make money by developing WordPress Themes. You can do this by going solo or by joining a team. After developing a theme, you may sell it to websites such as Themeforest, Creative Market, Mojo Themes and more. These themes can also be put up for sale on your own website

OFFER WORDPRESS CONSULTING SERVICES

Another revenue-generating stream would be to offer consulting services for bloggers who are lost in the virtual realm. It can be related to anything from creating custom designs for clients or creating and teaching WordPress tutorials to beginners or even advanced users.

START YOUR OWN BLOG

You can use these tips to launch yourself into the world of blogging and emerge as a professional in your field of choice. So, what are you waiting for?

Are you making money through WordPress blog? Please share your experience and your methodology and help others join the bandwagon.

Building Quality Into WordPress Projects: A Practical Example

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If you find that your website does not get traction as you expected, there might be problems with the quality of the website. Today WordPress is probably the best content management system around. There are various codes and plugins that can enhance the quality of your WordPress website thus attracting more visitors. WordPress tutorials for beginners available on the internet that depicts the use of WordPress development tools like plugins, themes, widgets, etc. There are some simple hacks by which you can optimize the quality, look and performance of a WordPress website.

Let’s take a look at them one by one to build Quality Into WordPress Projects.

Velocity page

Velocity page is a premium service that allows you to edit the page in real-time in a simple drag and drop way. There is no need to worry if you don’t have any coding or technical skills. Velocity page comes with WordPress plugins which allow you to effortlessly create spectacular web pages. It comes with various modules that allow you to create multimedia-rich pages.

Wordpress-Velocity-page

ThemeForest

WordPress comes with thousands of ready-made designs that can be installed on your website page. Themeforest allows you to buy themes and templates for customer management services (CMS) platforms like WordPress and Joomla. You can upgrade the quality of the website by choosing a simple yet effective WordPress theme and thus avoiding any complicated design with lots of unnecessary features. Themeforest provides premium paid themes as well as free themes. But if you are building a professional website for your business, then be ready to shell out some bucks. Quality comes at an expense.

Themeforest

Change compression of your WordPress image

WordPress comes with preloaded features that automatically compress the images for better performances. If you want to showcase high-resolution pictures in your website then you can disable image compression.

This can be done adding the below given code in the selected theme’s function.php file or installed plugin

add_filter(‘jpeg_quality’, function($arg){return 100;});

By inserting the above code, the quality of your image is set to highest. The difference in the quality of the image is visible.

Similarly, you can increase the compression of the image by adding the following code.

add_filter(‘jpeg_quality’, function($arg){return 75;});

Here {return75;}code reduces the size of the image from 100 to 75. This would reduce the image size thus loading your website more quickly. 

Boosting the speed of the website by W3 Total Cache

Long loading time for your WordPress website could be a huge turnoff for a visitor. W3 Total Cache is a very useful plugin that boosts up the speed of your website by reducing the load on your web server. This plugin would clear the cache in static and dynamic content, thus loading your page faster. The decreased webpage load time would obviously improve the user experience.

Wordpress-W3-Total-Cache

BJ Lazy Load

This is another great plugin that would improve the quality of your website by loading the content as and when the user scrolls down the webpage. The speed of the webpage is boosted as the server doesn’t have to load all the content at once.

Avoid installing too many plugins

WordPress provides hundreds of plugins for each and every requirement you need. But some of the plugins are not scripted well and thus can cause hindrance in the performance. Before installing a plugin, you should Google search the review of that specific plugin to check if other users faced any problems with it. My best advice would be to uninstall the plugin if it does not offer any significant enhancement in the performance of your website.

Avoid the use of Java Scripted social share buttons

Everybody wants to insert a social share button on the webpage. But inserting too many buttons (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.) would increase the loading time of the website.

Both Facebook and Twitter can share the website through a web link, thus avoiding the use of javascript buttons. Now, the links can be shared by twitter using the shortened URL of twitter. Below are the coding examples of the short social share URL.

<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://twitter.com/home?status=Reading:%20<?php echo urlencode(get_the_title()); ?>%20&<?php the_permalink();?>” target=”_blank”>Share on Twitter</a>

<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?<?php the_permalink();?>&<?php echo urlencode(get_the_title()); ?>” target=”_blank”>Share on Facebok</a>

Avoid-Java-Scripted-social-share-buttons

Yoast SEO

This option will make search engine optimization for your WordPress very easy. This is a boon, especially for WordPress Blogs. It will help your website get ranked higher on the internet. Improved ranking would lead to more subscribers to your page, and thus making your business grow faster.

Wordpress Yoast SEO