Category: WordPress

5 Authorize.Net WordPress Plugins – AWPLIFE Blog

Are you searching for the 5 best Authorize.net plugin for WordPress?

Authorize.net is a successful payment gateway that lets you to easily accept credit card payments on your website.

In this article, we will analyze the best 5 Authorize.Net WordPress plugins that you can use to accept online payments on your site.

Why Use Authorize.Net WordPress Plugins to Earn Payments?

Authorize.Net lets you easily receive payments on your website. It’s a seamless method for your customers because they can pay through credit or debit cards directly on your WordPress site.

Since Authorize.Net works with your regular merchant bank account, it often has lower charges compared with popular online payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal.

Let’s have a look at the best Authorize.Net plugins for WordPress that allows you quickly accept online payments.

1. WPForms


WPForms is the most reliable WordPress form builder on the market. It comes with a simple to use drag and drop interface with pre-made form templates to quickly make any type of form including payment forms.

You’ll need their Elite plan to access the Authorize.net addon. This also gives you access to WP-Forms’s all other addons including PayPal and Stripe payment gateways.

Quietly build an online payment form and install the WPForms ‘Authorize.Net’ addon.

WPForms lets you simply configure your form to send an email notification to more than one person. For example, you could send a receipt to the customer and send order details to your company members.

You can use WPForms for all kinds of forms, like contact forms and even surveys & polls.

2. MemberPress

MemberPress is the most useful WordPress membership plugin out there. It allows you to easily create a membership website and restrict any content to paid members and subscribers.

If you require, you can even protect just part of a post or page by using a shortcode. This can be a great way to present an introduction or teaser for your content, before encouraging your website’s visitors to subscribe.

With MemberPress, you can credit a one-off fee or set up a recurring subscription. Plus, you can set up a low-cost or free trial period to encourage new users to join.

MemberPress also provides you content dripping features. These let you check content, so it’s only shown once someone has been a member for a specific period of time. This makes MemberPress an excellent tool for running online courses.

With the Developer plan, you can apply Authorize.Net as your payment gateway for MemberPress. This is a great choice if you process a lot of credit card activities.

3. WooCommerce


WooCommerce is a popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress that lets you create a complete online store.

Along with PayPal and Stripe, WooCommerce also has payment gateway integrations for Authorize.Net and various other payment gateway solutions.

To accept payments on your online market using Authorize.Net, you will need to use an extension like WooCcommerce or YITH’s WooCommerce Authorize.Net.

If you are looking to build a complete e-Commerce online store with all the great features like shipping, taxes, inventory management, etc, then we recommend using WooCommerce.

For easy order forms or payment forms, WPForms is the most suitable option.

4. GiveWP


GiveWP is the best contribution plugin for foundations and nonprofits who want to raise money online. It’s really simple to use and has lots of powerful features to support you reach your fundraising goals.

With GiveWP, you can pinch every aspect of the donation process. You can receive multi-level donations, set campaign level donation goals, offer various currency options, provide tax-deductible donation receipts, and many more.

Get full reports in GiveWP, where you can see how your different campaigns are working. You can quickly see who your top donors are and you can also add notes about them for internal use by your team.

GiveWP unites with Authorize.Net, even on the Basic plan. This presents it really affordable for you to accept credit and debit cards directly from your site.

5. Restrict Content Pro

Restrict Content Pro is a different great option if you want to create members-only content on your website. It works really great with the WordPress interface, and newcomers find it easy to get started with.

You can quickly send welcome emails to your members, create different subscription packages with various levels, offer discount codes, and many more. Restrict Content Pro is a fully-featured plugin that makes you do everything you need to run a group site.

It’s got built-in integration with Secure Digital Downloads, too, making it a great option if you are already using that. You can also disappear content within a post or page using shortcodes, as with MemberPress.

You can use Authorize.Net with Restrict Content cheapest Personal license as the Authorize.Net addon itself is free. This gives it a good choice to MemberPress if you are on a tight budget.

We hope this article helped you find the 5 best Authorize.Net WordPress plugins.

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6 WordPress Download Manager Plugins Compared

Do you want to edit and control file downloads in WordPress Website? Perhaps you would like to keep a record of how many times a file is downloaded. Or maybe you want to protect content so only registered users or clients can access it.

In this article, we’ll analyze some of the best WordPress download manager plugins to track and manage file downloads.

What to Look For in a Download Manager Plugin

There are various different reasons why you want to use a WordPress download manager plugin. You may need to do all of the following:

  • Lock a file so only listed users with a specific role can access it
  • Lock a file so only paying clients can access it
  • Rearrange and tag files in WordPress
  • Prevent spammers from repeatedly downloading your files
  • Track how many times a particular file is downloaded
  • Track how many times a group of files is downloaded
  • Provide downloadable data as part of a more general product.

It’s difficult to find a single plugin that can do everything above, but depending on the usage case, you may not need all these settings.

We’ve picked the most useful WordPress download manager plugins to cover all the various summaries and use-cases.

1. MemberPress


MemberPress is the most beneficial WordPress membership plugin on the market. It lets you quickly sell digital downloads. You can also use it to sell subscriptions, secure content on your site so that only members can access it, and many more.

The MemberPress Downloads addon gives you advanced download control capabilities. It lets you upload many files, tag or categorize them, and record them using a shortcode.

You can use MemberPress to protect files as well as posts & pages. You can secure files so that only users with the right level of access can view them.

One great feature is that you can protect files by category and tag, too. You can set up a rule to protect all files that you’ve assigned to a specific category or tag. This makes it easy to restrict files based on the user’s subscription level.

You can also list your files by their category and tag, using MemberPress’ shortcodes system. If you’re offering a lot of different downloads, then this makes it really easy to organize them for your users.

MemberPress gives you plenty of flexibility, too. It even integrates with email marketing services like Constant Contact, ConvertKit, and AWeber.

2. LearnDash


LearnDash is a very popular LMS (learning management system) plugin for WordPress. It’s easy to use and comes with many powerful features.

LearnDash lets you charge a one-time fee for your product or set up a recurring subscription. You can easily insert video and audio files into your course, making it a great way to sell these types of files.

Aside from using LearnDash to lock the content on your site, you can use it to accept payments, create online courses, make assignments and quizzes, and more. There are also dynamic forums built into LearnDash where your users can interact with one another.

LearnDash works well on its own for taking payments and offering protected content. You can also integrate it with several of the other tools on this list, including MemberPress, WordPress Download Manager, and WooCommerce.

3. MonsterInsights


MonsterInsights, the beneficial Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It’s the best choice if you want to track which files on your site are being downloaded the most. This is necessary if you offer a lot of free downloads and need to know which ones are proving popular with your users.

You can choose which types of files to track, such as images, zip files, PDFs, and so on.

You can also label your different files so MonsterInsights can show which categories are being downloaded the most. For instance, you could track “Free Reports” separately from “Printable Worksheets” in MonsterInsights.

You can view the file downloads report in your WordPress dashboard along with Monster-Insight’s other user analytics report.

MonsterInsights seamlessly integrates with all the plugins mentioned in this list, and we recommend installing it alongside any file download manager plugin that you use. The free version of MonsterInsights also comes with file tracking, but you can upgrade to the Pro version to unlock other powerful features.

Alternatively, you can use MonsterInsights by itself too. Simply upload your files in the WordPress media library, embed the link to the files anywhere in your posts, pages, menus, etc.

4. WooCommerce


WooCommerce is a famous eCommerce plugin for WordPress. You can use it to sell digitals and physical products.

If you want to sell digital downloads, you can simply designate your download as a product in WooCommerce, so the customer only receives access after paying for it.

You can also use WooCommerce plugins to add more features to your online store. For instance, you can use smart coupons features to run sales and promotions more easily.

It offers many different download methods and types of protection for your files. You can choose which suits your site best. Just like regular WooCommerce products, your downloads can have variations, too.

You can also use WooCommerce to create a product that has both a physical component and downloadable. For instance, you might provide an online video course that comes with a physical workbook.

5. Easy Digital Downloads

As the name suggests, Easy Digital Downloads makes it simple for you to sell digital products on your site. You can also use it to provide and track free downloads.

Your files will be automatically protected by the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. You can track the date and IP address of all purchases and free downloads.

You can restrict how many times a customer can download their files. You can also set the download link to expire after a certain period of time. These are both good ways to prevent customers from sharing their files with others.

You can integrate Easy Digital Downloads with lots of other services, including email marketing services like ConvertKit and AWeber. You can even integrate it with AffiliateWP to create a referral program.

Easy Digital Downloads has a built-in shopping cart system that lets customers buy several digital products at once. You can easily create a customer account page where logged-in customers can see a list of everything they’ve purchased.

6. File Manager


File Manager is a really useful FTP like a file manager. You can use it to edit files through your WordPress dashboard, rather than using FTP to move them between locations.

We always advise using an FTP client or your hosting file manager where possible. However, there may be times when you want to quickly manage files through your WordPress dashboard.

File Manager lets you place your files into the media library, too. It creates thumbnails for all types of image files. It also has search functionality, making it easy to find your files.

With the Pro Edition of File Manager, you can also create private folders. You can set these so specific user roles or even specific users have access.

You can also use the Pro Edition to control what types of files can be uploaded and downloaded. You can even set up email notifications so that you get an email whenever a file is downloaded.

We hope this article guide you to learn about the best download manager plugins for WordPress.

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Top 5 Learning Blog Sites For WordPress User

As we all know that WordPress is rapidly taking over the web. Now it powers over 35% of the entire web and increases. There are thousands of developers who prefer to use WordPress for their website development. The thing is that WordPress equips you with almost everything to develop your own blog site, shop site, or your company website. If you go deep enough you will know that you don’t need anything else. Secondly, WordPress is very is easy to install and use. So it makes it more efficient.

When it comes to learning WordPress there are many websites and blogs available for you to give brief information about the working of WordPress. These sites help you out on how to set up your business or how to create your own blog site. Lots of websites mean lots of confusing minds because we don’t know which is the best one to rely on. For that, we have created a list of the learning blog sites that will help you with your WordPress free of cost.

1. WPBeginner

This blog site provides you with basic knowledge of WordPress. If you just began to use WordPress then I must say this is the best blog site to go through. This blog will help you to learn a few basic things like adding an image to a post or creating custom menus. In other words, this blog is very popular because it actually helps everyone to learn WordPress.

This is not it, WPBeginner as well keeps you updated with the latest stories, events, themes and plugins, and everything else that has to do with WordPress. Additionally, the blog is updated on a daily basis which makes it more efficient.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From WPBeginner

WPBeginner

2. WPMU DEV

WPMU DEV is the perfect blog if you are looking for expert recommendations and in-depth advice? It is one of the solid blogs for WordPressers out there. The Bloggers of this site cover each very eye-catching topics and somehow manage to make it more interesting. This blog is best for you if you are an advanced level developer.

Moreover, on this blog, you can find all the WordPress-related posts from multiple categories that include everything from the bottom to top. WPMU DEV will give you some of the best examples and tips in the community. That will help you achieve the best. There is much more if you go through the full blog.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From WPMU DEV

WPMU DEV

3. ElegantThemes

This is the company blog of Elegant Themes. But it is not just an ordinary blog it is much more than that. The blog on the website covers most of the important topics like how-tos on various WordPress topics, focusing on practical advice that anyone can apply. Moreover, the company also share their latest development and about their products and latest news. It is a very good place to start learning the working and secrets of WordPress.

The Elegant Themes also have their own theme named Divi. That you can install your WordPress to create an amazing website. There is more to it. You must check out the DIVI.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From ElegantThemes

ElegantThemes Blog

4. CodeinWP

One of the biggest blog that covers vast varieties of topic WordPress content, that includes WordPress usage to the company’s transparency reports to plugin lists, to top theme lists, to in-depth research posts. This is everything that a developer can imagine. Almost all the things in one place.

This blog gives you an overall knowledge of WordPress, and find out not only about the platform’s tech-related workings, but also the business side of things. Which helps you set up your own business.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From CodeinWP

CodeinWP Blog

5. Chris Lema

Chris Lema is a developer, writer, and speaker. He is also the owner of one of the best on-topic blogs about WordPress. The site offers you many different tutorials on focusing on the easiest method to solve the problem. The blog not only covers the WordPress tutorials but more than that like marketing, social media, theme development, plugins, hosting, and much more.

In other words, the site allows you to keep tabs on the latest WordPress discussion and hot topics of the week. More to it, you can check out about the latest plugins and themes as well.

Some Useful WordPress Guides From Chris Lema

Chris Lema Blog

WordPress vs Drupal: Explaining The Differences

Creating and managing a website has never been easier. Thanks to Content Management System (CMS) software, today anyone can easily build and manage a website with any CMS software. By doing this there is no more hard nut to crack. It takes no time to create a fully functional website with CMS and users do not need to have any coding knowledge. However, the availability of different types of CMS these days also raises the question of which website development services to choose. You can use a CMS to create a full range of websites such as blogs, business portals, e-commerce websites, social media platforms, and more.

WordPress and Drupal are the big brands in the CMS world today. The combined users for these two platforms constitute more than half of the total CMS users worldwide. There are many similarities between WordPress and Drupal such that they are both open-source, provide modules/plugins to increase functionality, have great community support for both. However, many disparities also exist between WordPress Vs Drupal which makes one of them the best choice compared to the other. We will note some differences between WordPress vs Drupal and check for apart them.

Which one is easier?

Drupal is considered as a more complex CMS due to its intimidating interface. Compared to WordPress, this is relatively difficult to deal with. However, it is easy to install Drupal on the host as the hosting services provide different options to install different CMS including Drupal. You may need to hire a Drupal developer to create a custom theme as it can be difficult to work with Drupal. WordPress makes it easy to develop a fully functional website even from scratch with minimal effort.

Which is more secure?

Drupal is a very secure platform and also has a lower user base than WordPress which is less vulnerable to cyber threats than WP. Of course, it is considered a more secure platform than WordPress. However, anything that is not 100% secure can have some vulnerabilities with a Drupal website that can be exploited. On the other hand, being the most popular CMS, WordPress is the main target of most hacking and malware attacks. WP Core is very secure and most of the risks originate from the user.

Which is easier to customize?

The ease of adaptability depends on the availability of resources to enhance the existing functionality of your site. Using modules and themes, you can customize a Drupal website but finding an appropriate theme or module is not easy. Due to the complexity of the Drupal platform, optimizing is a challenging task for a beginner. Also, fewer themes and modules are available for customization for Drupal users compared to WordPress. There is a huge range of plugins and website themes for WP users that can be used to customize the site. With the help of a WordPress developer.

Which one is faster?

For a delightful user experience as well as a good ranking on a search engine, a site needs fast loading speed, and it’s really important. It does not matter how beautiful and attractive your site is if visitors are taking ages to load they will leave the site and go for another one. Website speed is an essential consideration when choosing a CMS. Drupal is lighter than WordPress because it is not resource-intensive. So, Drupal development services are ideal for building a heavy website with hundreds or thousands of pages. When it comes to speed, WordPress is somewhat disappointing. However, WordPress websites can also be very fast, most of the time users fail to optimize their website properly, and also add useless plugins which makes the website speed relatively slow.

Which has greater community support?

Although it has been mentioned before, WordPress still has the largest platform of community support. WordPress is open-source software with a vast community of developers, experts, webmasters, learners, etc., who are either providing or seeking some solutions. Do you have problems with your WordPress website? You can easily find a solution for this that someone may have already provided. However, this is not the case with Drupal as there is less community support than WP. But it is evolving and more solutions are being prepared.

Wrapping up

Content management systems have emerged as real lifeboats as they provide a simple way to create and manage websites. Another benefit of using CMS is creating custom websites by converting Photoshop files for WordPress, Drupal, or other CMS. There are a lot of CMS to choose from Drupal, WordPress, Wix, Joomla, PrestaShop, etc. Drupal and WordPress are the major content management systems and have huge user bases around the world. There are many factors that are common in both platforms, yet there are many subtle differences that distinguish them. We hope that the differences we have discussed between these platforms will help you build a strong custom website development solution.

How to Manage a Large Document Library in WordPress

Many if not all WordPress sites use Document libraries to display some important documents or to provide a service, it could be a membership-based site where depending on the membership that you assign to your customers, they will have access to some files.

Other examples to use these documents libraries could be a school where you want to add some docs to share with your students or maybe just store some files to use it on the backend.

The trouble with these files is that could be a nightmare organize all of them and separate them of all your files used in your WordPress site but don’t worry as it won’t be a nightmare anymore, because WP File Downloads give you the solution to all these troubles with just one plugin.

WP File Downloads is a file manager that allows you to organize your files by using categories that will make your life easier as you are going to be able to separate your files, you will also be able to provide your files in the frontend in a really professional way.

Create a Document Library on WordPress in The Fastest Way


Now let’s take a look at the tools that WP File Downloads provide, first of all, the file manager dashboard, WP File Download has a separated dashboard where you are going to be able to upload all your files by dragging and dropping it or by selecting files to upload.

On this dashboard, you can do a lot of things like create categories or subcategories, add as files as you want or use the right-side panel to achieve things like select a theme, set the access to the category, and more.

First of all, when creating a new document library should be create categories with their subcategories, as an example, we are going to create some categories for 2 books and their images.

You just have to click on new and edit the name of the category, then drag and drop the sub categories a little to the right in order to convert them child categories.

The next step should be to upload the files and it is a dream as you can choose how to upload the files, selecting them by using another window, or just drag and drop all the files that you want to upload.

Now that we have added all the files to the categories, we have some options in the right panel where we can take a look, these are settings for each category, you will see options like the theme selection, access limitation and the layout for the category.

You have 4 themes to choose for displaying your categories to customers, you can select a default theme for all categories in the main settings or you can also select a theme for each category by enabling the option on the main settings.

Themes also include a preview button on the frontend that will allow your customers to check what they are downloading before download it.

Categories are:

Default

GGD

Table

Tree

You have all these themes with the main plugin and there are also some options to customize the layout and adapt the library to your WordPress theme.

Now that you have organized and set the document library, you can insert it into a post or page in order to serve it to your customers.

Good news! You are going to be able to use the Gutenberg editor for a better experience or also use the old editor with no troubles.

Gutenberg editor

Classic editor

As you can see this other advantage of using this plugin is that you are free to use the editor that you want to use.

Plus! Google Drive Integration to free up some storage space


Another useful tool from WP File Download is that you have the option to use an addon and you are going to be able to manage your document library from google drive with a two ways sync so all the changes that you are going to make on WordPress will be reflected on your Drive and all the changes that you make on your Drive are going to be reflected on WordPress.

Setting this up is really easy and there is full documentation to achieve the connection so you won’t need help from a developer 😉

Now you have the option to manage your large document libraries on Google Drive and also on your WordPress site and if you make a change on Google Drive and you have the category published on a post, then you are going to be able to see the changes on your post automatically with the automatic sync periodicity.

The Easiest way to Manage a Document Library on your WordPress Website


Definitely the best option to manage your libraries with a lot of tools that will allow you to have the most professional WordPress website, and we have shown only a few of these tools, there are other cloud options like OneDrive and Dropbox and also integration with Woocommerce in order to sell your files with good filters for your memberships so what are you waiting for? Go here and check this all.

7 Free Google Maps Plugins For WordPress

Are you looking for a way to add Google Maps on your WordPress website? There are lots of free Google Maps plugins available for WordPress which makes it difficult to know which is the best.

In this small article, we are sharing 7 best free Google Maps plugins for the WordPress website.

Adding Google Map plugins in WordPress

Before we consider the Google Maps plugin, it’s necessary to emphasize that Google Maps offer an embed code that you can edit and paste in your WordPress posts or pages without using any other plugins.

However, you will have to switch to the “text editor” to add it to your posts or pages.

Also, there are not various customization options available for the default embed code. You cannot add custom information and data to the map.

This is where Google Maps plugin comes in helpful. Using a plugin will enable you to add locations, directions, markers, routes, etc. Your map will be interactive and more beneficial to the users.

Here is our unique list of the 7 best free Google Maps plugins for the WordPress website.

1. MapPress Easy Google Maps

MapPress Easy Google Maps is one of the most common free Google maps plugin. It enables you to simply add a Google map to any WordPress page, post or custom post type by just typing the address.

You can embed the map automatically before & after a page or post. You can also use a shortcode to embed the map within the post.

2. Google Maps Builder

Maps Builder comes with a lovely map customization experience with lots of options. You can simply add locations, controls, choose map size, map types, and even select a map theme. All of this can be done in a simple visual customizer.

Adding a map to a post or page is easy. All you need to do is click a button on the post or page editor and select your map. Maps builder also allows you to add own custom markers, and you can even show nearby areas with Google places.

3. WP Google Maps

WP Google Maps is another easy and free Google maps plugin. You can quickly create maps by entering an address, set markers, get directions, etc.

It comes with a map widget that you can attach to your WordPress website’s sidebar or any widget area. Your users can also shift to street-view without leaving your site.

4. WP Google Map Plugin

Another excellent option for extremely interactive Google maps is WP Google Map Plugin. It comes with a large set of features allowing you to build beautiful maps with lots of custom information.

You can add information windows, colorful markers, redirect users when they click on a map, and simply embed maps with the shortcode. You can save various locations and then create a map showing these locations with the use of custom markers.

5. Google Maps Widget

Want to instantly display a map in a sidebar widget? Google Maps Widget provides you to easily add a Google Map in your sidebars or any other widget areas. Clicking on a map will open the map in a lightbox popup with a wider view. You can also choose pin colors and also use your own image as a pin.

6. Basic Google Maps Placemarks

Want to add a Google map to your website with your individual custom placemarks? Basic Google Maps Placemarks provides you to add placemarks with address, assign them categories, add custom marker if you want.

You can produce as many placemarks as you need and then display them all together on a map using plugin shortcodes. You can also make categories to create different maps displaying different locations and placemarks.

7. CP Google Maps

CP Google Maps plugin provides you to quickly associate geolocation data to a post and display map with your custom images. You can choose a custom pin or marker to be placed on the map for a location. Most of the plugin’s other excellent features are locked and require the premium version of the plugin.

Final Thoughts

I did not find that one particular Google Maps WordPress plugin was ‘the most beneficial’, so it surely does come down to what your requirements are, as most maximum solutions offer some features that are not found elsewhere.

You should, therefore, analyze as many solutions as you can to see which one fits you and your website.

With more than 400,000+ active installations, WP Google Maps is a good starting point to see what’s possible with Google Maps.

However, if you are not looking for superior features, you should surely give basic solutions such as Simple Google Maps Shortcode and Google Maps Widget a try.

We hope this article helped you find the best free Google Maps plugin for your WordPress website.

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6 WordPress Business Directory Plugins 2020

Are you searching for the Simple and best WordPress Business Directory plugins 2020?

A business directory support users to discover service providers in a particular category. At the same time, it helps those businesses find opportunities and customers.

As a site owner, you can even gain money online by trading paid listings on your business directory.

Why Plugins For Business Directory?

A good business directory plugin allows you to quickly create lists of businesses organized by place, category, and other parameters.

Business directories help users find unique vendors while helping businesses connect with customers and other markets.

Unlike Google search, a business directory is made up of curated listings with descriptions, reviews, discussion, and photos. This makes them more useful for users viewing for specific businesses.

You will be looking for a business directory plugin that provides you to do all that. We will also highlight business directory plugins that allow your users to present listings, and integrate advanced submissions, and search options.

In this article, we have picked some of the best WordPress business directory plugins to assist you to save some time and money.

Now let’s take a look at the best WordPress business directory plugins that you can use on your site.

1. Formidable Form

Formidable Forms is one of the biggest WordPress form builder plugins on the business market. It enables you to build advanced forms and add them to your site.

Using the real listings template, you can build a form that users will use to submit their records into your directory. Then, you can display the business directory listings on your site page.

Also, you can divide complex forms into easily managed multi-page forms that autosave on a page turn.

It also allows users to edit custom form submissions & posts without noticing the back-end of your website.

It comes with various premium add-ons to add more extra features and functionality to your WordPress business directory. Formidable Forms fully supports MailChimp, WPML, PayPal, and WooCommerce.

2. Business Directory Plugin

Business Directory Plugin is a simple & free WordPress plugin to build a simple business directory. It comes with primary features required to run a website directory like customizable form fields, accepting fees for listings, etc.

It allows you to sort records into tags and categories, create featured entries, and customize entry forms.

If you want to access more features and add-ons, then it has a premium version as well.

The premium features include various modules, Google Maps help, user ratings, zip code search, file upload, and many more.

you can also see video tutorials (screencasts) on various business directory topics for easy use.

3. Connections Business Directory

Connections is a leading business directory plugin for WordPress. It comes with a set of form fields that can be used to build almost any kind of website directory. In the privacy settings, your users can set the privacy levels for several custom fields like business phone numbers or inner messages.

Displaying your directory on the front-end is quite easy. You need to add an easy shortcode to your web directory page. It provides custom shortcodes with simple general options to customize the appearance of your WordPress business directory.

Connections plugin also comes with pre-build template support.

So that you can easily pick a layout for your listings from business directory templates.

4. HivePress

HivePress is a free business directory and classified ads WordPress plugin. Basically, it’s a swiss knife for building listing websites of any type, like directories, classifieds, job boards, service marketplaces, booking platforms, etc.

The plugin comes with all the necessary features for building a directory website right out of the box. Some of the features include:

  • Front-end Listing Submission – anyone can register on your website and add listings;
  • Private Messages – users can communicate with each other and send attachments via private messages;
  • Rating & Reviews – customers can leave reviews about listings and rate them;
  • Geolocation – users can search for listings using the location-based search;
  • Favorites – any registered user can keep a list of favorite listings.

HivePress is also a crazy customizable plugin since it has no hardcoded fields and allows users to add listing & vendor categories, create custom fields & search filters, customize layouts with blocks and so on.

Additionally, if you are going to monetize your website, HivePress allows you to do that in a few different ways. For example, selling listing packages, charging a fee for featured listings, charging a fee for claiming listings, etc.

Bear in mind that HivePress is a no-code solution, so you can use it without writing a single line of code. You can just plug and play.

5. GeoDirectory

As the name hints, GeoDirectory allows you to build a location-based business directory like TripAdvisor, Yelp, Yellow-Pages, etc. Using an easy interface, your users can present listings to the directory. These listings or entries are pointed on the map, and your users can search for locations, neighborhoods, businesses, etc.

this plugin is easily customized listings, searches and single listings look, add or edit any element using plugin shortcodes, blocks or widgets.

You can monetize your site by trading the directory listings. GeoDirectory also allows you to present event listings, create multi-location catalogs, and add payment gateways.

6. Name Directory

Name Directory is a different WordPress directory plugin. It allows you to design a business or private directory quickly. Using the configuration options, you can select a design and customize plugin settings.

It helps shortcodes to display directory records on a WordPress post or page. You can sort the records to show new listings on top of the page, allowing those entries to gain more publicity.

Into this plugin When you go to the plugin general settings, you can enable WordPress site search compatibility.
This feature will combine the pages who have a matching entry of Name Directory in the searching results. You can build various different directories with the use of this plugin.

We hope this article helps you find the 6 best WordPress directory plugins for your website.

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Do You Need CSS Knowledge To Manage A WordPress Blog?

WordPress has done a fantastic job of streamlining the site-building process for the mainstream. And that’s not to say WordPress is a host for amateurs, because WP hosts a ton of big-name brands. According to statistical data, approximately 35% of sites are powered by WordPress. But one of the main appeals of WordPress is that any person with a little average know-how can set up a reasonably decent looking website, it all depends on how much time you’re willing to invest.

Should you learn CSS to manage a WordPress blog?

That should be the real question of this article. You don’t need CSS knowledge to manage a WordPress blog, not at all. But due to the nature of website building, and how prone to creep scope website projects can be, you’ll probably end up learning CSS of your own volition along the way.

What I mean by “creep scope” is that as you build your own WordPress blog, you’ll eventually experience the desire to customize and enhance it beyond what the easily clickable tools can offer. So you start learning a little bit of WordPress custom CSS to do what you want, and it keeps going from there, and so just by starting a WordPress site you’ve stumbled into the proverbial CSS rabbit-hole.

Another thing is that because WordPress is such a popular mainstream host, it’s very easy to spot the generic “made in WordPress” layout that you really can’t escape without buying custom themes, and even then you’ll want to know a bit of CSS to tailor it for your website.

Having an obviously generic “made in WordPress” theme can kind of hurt you, depending on your industry. There are certainly some making-ends-meet Podcasters and ebook sellers skating by on generic WordPress layouts, but that’s niche content stuff.

In this article, we’re going to go over some basic tasks in WordPress that site owners will invariably perform at some time or another, and whether or not they require any CSS knowledge. After reading this article, you can check out some CSS courses for a deeper understanding of how all this works.

Tasks that don’t require CSS knowledge

In WordPress, you can do all of the following tasks without any CSS knowledge whatsoever:

Adding posts and images: WordPress has a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) post editor, which makes creating blog entries as easy as updating your Facebook status, with additional buttons of inserting images, changing the font, etc.

Modify your site’s layout and theme: WordPress has a lot of 1-click install themes to change the layout and outlook of your website. It’s also easy to change simple things like your site banner and menu layout.

Create a store: With various plugins such as the free WooCommerce, it’s really easy to set up a store page and start selling online.

Tasks that may require some CSS knowledge

These tasks won’t require any significant CSS knowledge, but you may need to learn a thing or two.

Customizing small aspects of your site theme: For simple, sitewide theme changes such as changing all Header 2 text to orange, you just need a few very basic CSS codes. You could copy-paste them from CSS tutorial websites, like this:

h2 { color: #e38b19; }

And you can do it directly in the WordPress Customizer, without installing any additional plugins.

Using a simple CSS plugin: For adding more CSS without needing to go into WordPress stylesheets, you could install a streamlined CSS editor. Something like Simple CSS does the job for most people, as it offers a real-time preview of your CSS code.

Alternatively, you could install a front-end CSS editor like Visual CSS Style Editor, which gives you buttons and sliders to change CSS code without any actual coding necessary.

Tasks that require CSS knowledge

These tasks require perhaps not only CSS knowledge but a more thorough understanding of WordPress back end. For this type of tasks, you might need to hire a professional development from companies like Soshace.

Creating or massively editing themes: You only need to copy-paste some CSS code to change your header colors, as we mentioned previously. However, for creating themes from the ground-up, or doing significant changes to a downloaded theme such as adding customized menus and grid layouts, you absolutely require CSS knowledge.

This is because you’ll be working inside WordPress style.css file which controls the nitty-gritty details of your site’s theme. And if the .css file extension didn’t give it away, the style.css file is written entirely in CSS (imagine that).

In any case, CSS is used to create those really sleek, professional-looking sites that capture everyone’s attention. Surely you want that?

How To Create Coming Soon Page With HTML And Bootstrap

If you are familiar with websites and apps you probably know about coming soon pages. It creates a brand value for your website when your website is not ready for launch. Coming soon pages also help to Keep users aware of your existence and let them know exactly when you go live. With an awesome countdown timer you can create a stunning coming soon or under construction template on your website.

Why Do You Need a Coming Soon Page?

  1. You can convert your visitors into subscribers with a subscription form on coming soon page.
  2. You can promote your social links
  3. You can increase site ranking by choosing specific keywords

Coming soon pages notify people when you will go live with your websites and you will get more time to focus on your website launch.

Creating Coming Soon Page with HTML CSS and JavaScript

Create an Html file Ex: (commingsoon.html) 

<div class="bgimg">
  <div class="topleft">
    <p>Logo</p>
  </div>
  <div class="middle">
    <h1>COMING SOON</h1>
    <hr>
    <p>35 days</p>
  </div>
  <div class="bottomleft">
    <p>Some text</p>
  </div>

Add CSS

Note: If you want to use CSS with same HTML file then you have to use CSS code in <Style> tag or if you are using external css file then you need to name with .css extension like comingsoonpages.css

<style> /* code goes here */ </style>
/* Set height to 100% for body and html to enable the background image to cover the whole page: */
body, html {
  height: 100%
}

.bgimg {
  /* Background image */
  background-image: url('/w3images/forestbridge.jpg');
  /* Full-screen */
  height: 100%;
  /* Center the background image */
  background-position: center;
  /* Scale and zoom in the image */
  background-size: cover;
  /* Add position: relative to enable absolutely positioned elements inside the image (place text) */
  position: relative;
  /* Add a white text color to all elements inside the .bgimg container */
  color: white;
  /* Add a font */
  font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;
  /* Set the font-size to 25 pixels */
  font-size: 25px;
}

/* Position text in the top-left corner */
.topleft {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 16px;
}

/* Position text in the bottom-left corner */
.bottomleft {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 16px;
}

/* Position text in the middle */
.middle {
  position: absolute;
  top: 50%;
  left: 50%;
  transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
  text-align: center;
}

/* Style the <hr> element */
hr {
  margin: auto;
  width: 40%;
}

Add JavaScript

Note: If you want to use below Javascript with same HTML file then you have to use Javascript code in <script> tag or if you are using external JavaScript file then you need to name with .js extension like comingsoonpages.js

<script> // code goes here </script>
// Set the date we're counting down to
var countDownDate = new Date("Jan 5, 2021 15:37:25").getTime();

// Update the count down every 1 second
var x = setInterval(function() {

  // Get todays date and time
  var now = new Date().getTime();

  // Get the distance between now an the count down date
  var distance = countDownDate - now;

  // Calculations of time for days, hours, minutes and seconds
  var days = Math.floor(distance / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24));
  var hours = Math.floor((distance % (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24)) / (1000 * 60 * 60));
  var minutes = Math.floor((distance % (1000 * 60 * 60)) / (1000 * 60));
  var seconds = Math.floor((distance % (1000 * 60)) / 1000);

  // Display the result in an element (demo) with id="demo"
  document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = days + "d " + hours + "h "
  + minutes + "m " + seconds + "s ";

  // If the count down is finished, show some text
  if (distance < 0) {
    clearInterval(x);
    document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = "EXPIRED";
  }
}, 1000);

We are thankful to w3schools for a great tutorial for coming soon page you can check out if you want to test live this tutorial on W3schools

Ready to use pre-made HTML templates

If you don’t want to create your own template or you have don’t any coding skills then you would love to choose ready to use HTML templates.

Here are some stunning and totally free HTML templates for coming soon page

1. Soon – Free HTML5 Bootstrap Coming Soon Template

Soon is a free template for Coming Soon page based on bootstrap. This template is given a great look at your site when before launch. It has a countdown timer where you can specify notify the visitor about the launch date of your site and it comes with a subscription form you can collect the visitor’s email to notify them.

Info | Demo

2. Imminent 3D Parallax Coming Soon Template

Imminent is a 3D Parallax bootstrap free coming soon template created with HTML5 and CSS3. Great looking minimal and creative design, you will not find any free coming soon template available with Parallax 3D effect in!  A premium looking template but it is available for free!

Info | Demo

3.    Coming Soon Template by Colorlib V05

The version five template is designed something as a flash sale type that you may see in e-commerce website templates. At the top of the page, you get a countdown. This template uses gradient as the background. You can use this as an app launching page, modern app landing pages, a business or commercial websites. You also have the option of a subscription form. The subscription form button has hover effects. The form fields also support field validation.

Info | Demo | WordPress Version

If you are using WordPress then you can use WordPress plugin for coming soon and maintenance mode.

Coming Soon Page and Under Construction & Maintenance Mode design by SeedProd

BENEFITS, FEATURES AND OPTIONS:

  • Works with any WordPress Theme
  • Responsive
  • Customize the Look and Feel
  • Easily add Custom CSS and HTML
  • Uses HTML5 & CSS3
  • Translation Ready, i18n Support
  • Multisite Support
  • BuddyPress Support
  • Uses WordPress Best Practices

Free WordPress Plugin For Comming Soon

4. Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode – Coming Soon Page

Minimal Coming Soon plugin is minimal but elegant with great features and works with any WordPress theme. You’ll have full control over the frontend of the website and can modify almost every aspect of the template as your needs. Easily connect with MailChimp and collect emails from visitors. A perfect Coming Soon Page done in minutes!

Info| Demo

Hope you like our post please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section. Thank you!

Elementor Addons For WordPress 2020

Elementor is a page builder plugin that works with the WordPress website building platform.

It provides you with a drag and drop interface that can be used by anyone to create amazing websites. Furthermore, the page builder comes with Ready-Made Templates for users to jumpstart their website. Moreover, the page builder lets you customize all the features. Show off your creativity and come up with your own unique ideas.

Now lets come to the addons. So instead of Elementor offering 80+ Fantastic Elements, it is possible to get more. So, developers started to create their own new addons. 131 add-ons are already available in the marketplace.

So to clear up the confusion we have created a list of plugins. That comes in handy while using the Elementor plugin.

1. Elementor Pro

Elementor Pro is the advanced version of the Elementor that you should give it try before getting into anything. This version provides far better features than free. For example, it offers more widgets such as Posts, WooCommerce, Forms, Social Media & many more.

In addition, it offers the theme builder flexibility to help you easily design your themes as well. This feature gives you the ability to make changes to your Header, Footer, WooCommerce, Blogs.

Furthermore, ready-made website templates make it easy to instantly build a landing page. Above all that you can even add custom CSS from the Elementor dashboard itself.

You can even save your custom template to use it later by using the Global Widget feature.

Features

  • Pixel Perfect Design
  • Get More Traffic, Leads & Conversions
  • Developer-Friendly
  • Amazing WordPress Popups​
  • 80 Design Elements

Visit Now | Buy Now

2. The Plus Addons

The Plus is like the library of addons for Elementor. It is packed with over 8,000+ customizations options. The Plus is the easy way to build and customize your Elementor powered site fast. This plugin also includes more than 300+ UI blocks to speed up the development process. You can easily add UI boxes icon box grids, pricing tables, hero sections, feature lists, map sections by using drag and drop features. These UI blocks are specially designed and styled for the user to easily implement them on their websites. These features can save a lot of time.

More to it, there are 50+ widgets like tables, charts, infobox, countdown, headings, animated text, flip box, timeline, parallax, Google maps, tabs, etc. Other than that, the plugin includes high-quality support and if you are a developer and you want more you can even buy the extended license.

Features

  • 80+ Elementor Widgets
  • 300+ Ready to use Blocks
  • 18+ Website Templates
  • Priority Customer Support
  • Unlimited Addons Forever

Visit Now | Buy Now

3. Essential Addons

The Essential Addons is the most famous library of addons after the Elementor Pro. It is one of the first Elementor Addon that completes its milestone of reaching 100K+ active installations. One of the good things is that it offers both free and premium versions so that you can try it out first then opt-out for premium. Little about the free version, it gives you access to the 30+ outstanding elements such as Form Stylers, Post, Social Media and many more. On the other hand, the premium version gives you access to the 60+ amazing elements and 5+ extensions.

All these features allow you to show off your creativity and build something amazing jaw-dropping with its premium widgets such as Off-Canvas, Lightbox & Modal, advanced Post & Gallery widgets, Parallax effects, Form Stylers and many others.

Features

  • 60+ Widgets
  • 5+ Extensions
  • Unlimited Activation
  • Lifetime Support & Updates

Visit Now | Buy Now

4. Crocoblock

Crocoblock brings you all the jet plugins as a package and offers a great collection of pre-made templates. Besides, the Crocoblock package allows you to add top-quality designs to your site. Use its elements like Post, WooCommerce, Popup & more to personalize your website.

Crocoblock contains Jet Widgets as separate plugins so I suggest you should first try it out on the localhost. Doing so will save you from any mess happen to your live site. Although this the top-notch toolkit for building websites with Elementor.

Moreover, you can add custom post types, options pages, forms, and dynamic page templates with a collection of widgets, without any knowledge coding skills.

Features

  • Web pages design
  • Popups
  • Jet Widgets
  • WooCommerce
  • E-commerce websites
  • Pre-designed Templates

Visit Now | Buy Now

5. Ultimate Addons

Another top-notch Elementor extension that you can’t miss out. Ultimate Addons is all about providing you with the best ever experience. The plugins give you access to the 21+ widgets which come with unique features. Modular control doesn’t let your site slow down. The plugins also offer the WooCommerce as well as Post widgets so you can showcase all your products/items on your website.

Thing is that they don’t offer any free version for you guys to test it out which is very sad. You have to purchase the premium to get the live experience.

Features

  • Unique Designs
  • Innovative Widgets
  • Lightweight
  • Faster
  • 21+ Widgets
  • Modular Control

Visit Now | Buy Now

6. Stratum

Stratum Elementor Widgets is not the biggest collection of elements – only 20+ most essential widget with a strong focus on satisfying the necessities of business product/service promotion by creating amazing visuals and structuring data in one place. Just like many other addons, Stratum comes both free and premium; however, compared to one’s competitors, there is no separation between “free” and “paid” widgets. All of them are free, meanwhile only a few functionality comes premium for each widget.

Features

  • All 20+ widgets are free;
  • 6 analog widgets to paid Elementor PRO ones;
  • Modules inherit visual styling of your current theme;
  • Advanced design toolchain for each widget;
  • Supports the Elementor template library integration;
  • Fully compatible with other Elementor addons.

Download | Stratum Demo