How to Create a Custom Home Page in WordPress

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Do you want to create a custom homepage in WordPress?

By default, WordPress shows your latest blog posts on the homepage. However, you can often create a better first impression by designing a custom homepage that highlights your site’s most popular content, products, services, and more.

In this article, we will show you how to easily create a custom homepage in WordPress.

What is a Homepage?

A homepage is the first page visitors see when they type in your domain name. For many people, this homepage is their introduction to your business, blog, or website.

A good homepage will make visitors want to learn more about your WordPress website. It will also provide easy access to the links, search bars, menus, and anything else that can help visitors find interesting content.

By default, WordPress shows your latest blog posts on the homepage.

This may be a good fit for personal blogs or hobby bloggers. However, many WordPress blogs and websites can benefit by replacing the standard homepage with a custom homepage.

The good news is that WordPress makes it easy to show a custom page as your homepage, rather than the default list of recent posts.

Selecting a Custom Page to be Used as Homepage in WordPress

In this guide, we’ll show you a few different ways to create a custom homepage. However, afterward, you’ll need to let WordPress know that it should use this page as the homepage.

To do that, simply go to Settings » Reading in the WordPress dashboard.

Here, scroll to ‘Your homepage settings’ and select ‘A static page.’

You can now open the ‘Homepage’ dropdown and choose the page that you want to use as the new homepage.

Then, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’ You can now visit your site to see the new custom homepage live.

If you have a blog, then make sure you create a separate blog page to display your posts. If you don’t, then visitors will struggle to find your latest blogs.

With that being said, let’s see how you can design a custom homepage in WordPress. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.

Method 1. Create a Custom Homepage Template Using the Block EditorMethod 2. Create a Custom Homepage in WordPress using a Page Builder (Recommended)Method 3. Manually Create a Custom Homepage in WordPress (Coding Required)Tips on Making an Effective Custom Homepage in WordPress

Method 1. Create a Custom Homepage Template Using the Block Editor

If you’re using a block theme, then you can design a custom homepage template using the full site editor.

This method doesn’t work with every theme, so if you’re not using a block-based WordPress theme then we recommend using a page builder like SeedProd or Beaver Builder instead.

To start, simply create a new page or open an existing page that you want to use as the homepage. Then, click on the ‘Page’ tab in the right-hand menu and click to expand the ‘Template’ section, if it isn’t already open.

WordPress will now show which template this page is currently using.

To create a custom homepage template, just click on the ‘New’ link.

In the popup, give your template a name. The name is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

After that, go ahead and click on ‘Create’ to launch the full site editor.

 The template editor works similarly to the standard WordPress block editor.

To add blocks to your custom homepage, just click on the blue ‘+’ button. You can then drag and drop any block onto your layout.

Since we’re creating a custom homepage, you’ll typically want to start by adding a big hero image such as your website’s logo or banner.

To do this, simply find the ‘Image’ block in the left-hand menu and then add it to your layout using drag and drop.

You can now either choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a new file from your computer.

To get more engagement, you may want to show recent comments on your homepage by adding a ‘Latest Comments’ block.

For more information, please see our guide on how to show comments on the homepage of your WordPress theme.

A good homepage helps visitors find interesting content. With that being said, it’s a good idea to add a ‘Navigation’ block to your custom homepage.

To learn more, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add custom navigation menus in WordPress themes.

After adding a block, make sure you click to select it in your layout. You can then configure the block using the settings in the right-hand menu and the buttons in the mini toolbar.

To build your custom homepage, simply keep adding more blocks and then configure them using the full site editor settings.

For example, you may want to add blocks such as Latest Posts, Search, Social Icons, Cloud Tag, and more.

When you’re happy with how the template looks, click on the ‘Publish’ button.

The page you created earlier will now be using the new homepage template. You can now tell WordPress to use this page as your homepage by following the process described above.

Method 2. Create a Custom Homepage in WordPress using a Page Builder (Recommended)

The WordPress block-based editor allows you to create a custom homepage using the tools you’re already familiar with. However, it doesn’t work with all themes and is limited in flexibility and features.

If you want to create a completely custom homepage that works with any WordPress theme, then you’ll need a page builder plugin.

For this method, we’ll be using SeedProd. It is the best page builder plugin on the market and allows you to create a custom homepage using a simple drag-and-drop editor.

It also comes with lots of professionally-designed templates and ready-made blocks that you can use on your homepage.

Note: There is a free version of SeedProd on available on WordPress.org but we’ll be using the Pro version since it has more templates, blocks, and features.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to enter your license key.

You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website. After entering the license key, go ahead and click the ‘Verify Key’ button.

Next, you need to visit SeedProd » Pages and click on the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.

After that, it’s time to choose a template for your custom homepage. SeedProd has lots of professionally-designed templates that you can customize according to your website’s needs.

To select a template, simply hover your mouse over it and then click the ‘Checkmark’ icon.

We’re using the ‘Juicy Sales Page’ template in all our images, but you can use any design.

Next, go ahead and type in a name for the custom homepage. SeedProd will automatically create a URL based on the page’s title, but you can change this URL to anything you want.

When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button.

Next, you’ll be taken to the SeedProd drag-and-drop page builder, where you can customize your template.

The SeedProd editor shows a live preview of your design to the right and some block settings on the left.

The left-hand menu also has blocks that you can drag onto your layout.

For example, you can drag and drop standard blocks like buttons and images or use advanced blocks such as the countdown, contact form, social sharing buttons, and more.

To customize any block, simply click to select it in your layout.

The left-hand menu will now show all the settings you can use to configure that block. You can also change background colors, add background images, or change the color scheme and fonts to better match your brand.

To start, you’ll want to replace any placeholder images with your own photos or custom logo. To do this, simply click to select any Image block in the live preview.

In the left-hand menu, click on the ‘Select Image’ button.

You can now either choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a new file from your computer.

SeedProd also comes with ‘Sections,’ which are collections of blocks that are often used together. For example, SeedProd has a header, hero image, call to action, testimonials, contact form, FAQs, features, footer sections, and more. These can help you create a custom homepage, fast.

To look through the different sections, simply click on the ‘Sections’ tab. To preview any section, just hover your mouse over it and then click on the magnifying glass icon.

To add the section to your design, simply click on ‘Choose This Section.’

This will add the section to the bottom of your homepage.

You can move sections and blocks around your layout using drag and drop.

When you’re happy with how the homepage looks, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.

SeedProd makes it super easy to connect your homepage to popular email marketing services like Constant Contact or Mailchimp.

To do this, simply click on the ‘Connect’ tab and then select your email service provider.

SeedProd will now show you how to integrate the homepage with your email provider.

If your provider isn’t listed, then don’t worry. SeedProd works with Zapier which acts as a bridge between SeedProd and more than 3000+ other apps.

Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to publish your custom homepage. Simply click on the ‘Page Settings’ tab.

There are more options under the Page Settings tab that you may want to look at. For example, you can change the SEO settings, edit the page title, and connect a custom domain.

When you’re happy with how the page is set up, go ahead and select the ‘General’ tab.

You can now click on the ‘Page Status’ toggle to change it from ‘Draft’ to ‘Publish.’

Now, you simply need to head over to Settings » Reading and set this page as your new custom homepage.

Method 3. Manually Create a Custom Homepage in WordPress (Coding Required)

You can also create a custom homepage using code. However, this method is complicated and coding mistakes can cause all kinds of common WordPress errors.

That being said, we don’t recommend this method for beginners.

Your WordPress theme is made up of many different files. Some of these files are called templates and they control how different areas of your website look. For more information, please see our WordPress template hierarchy cheat sheet.

One of these templates is called front-page.php.

If your theme has this template, then WordPress will automatically use it to show your homepage. This means you can create a custom homepage by editing this file or replacing it with a new file.

To get started, you’ll need an FTP client such as FileZilla, or you can use the file manager supplied by your WordPress hosting provider.

If this is your first time using FTP, then you can see our complete guide on how to connect to your site using FTP.

After connecting to the server, go to /wp-content/themes/ and then open the folder for your current WordPress theme.

If this folder already has a front-page.php file, then you can go ahead and open that file in any text editor, such as Notepad. You can then make any changes you want by editing the code.

If your theme doesn’t have a front-page.php file, then you can create a new file with the name front-page.php.

After that, you just need to upload front-page.php to your current theme’s folder on your WordPress hosting account.

As soon as you upload this file, WordPress will start using it to display your homepage. However, since the file is completely empty, you will see a blank page as your homepage.

To fix this, just open the file in a text editor app and start adding HTML code.

If you’re starting with an empty file, then you can save yourself some time by using the existing code and templates in your WordPress theme.

For example, it usually makes sense to include the theme’s header and footer.

In the following sample code, we’ve removed the content and sidebars while fetching the header and navigation templates from the theme.

<?php /*
This page is used to display the static frontpage.
*/

// Fetch theme header template
get_header(); ?>
<div id=”primary” <?php astra_primary_class(); ?>>

<div class=”custom-homepage-container”>

You custom homepage code goes here

</div>

</div><!– #primary –>
//Fetch the theme footer template
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Tips on Making an Effective Custom Homepage in WordPress

The homepage is your site’s most important page. People will visit this page to learn more about your business, products, and services.

To help visitors find what they’re looking for, we recommend keeping your homepage design as simple as possible and avoiding any clutter.

It’s also a good idea to place your most important content at the top of the page so it’s the first thing visitors see.

Before designing your page, it may help to write down the goals you want to achieve. You can then design every part of the homepage to help you reach this clear target.

Many businesses and blogs want to convert visitors into customers. To achieve this, we recommend adding OptinMonster to your custom homepage.

OptinMonster is the best WordPress popup plugin and lead generation software. It allows you to create all kinds of popups, floating bars, full-screen welcome mats, slide-in scroll boxes, inline personalized lead forms, gamified spin to win optins, and more.

Next, you’ll want to track how your custom homepage is performing. You can then use this insight to fine-tune the page design and get even more conversions.

MonsterInsights is the best plugin for Google Analytics. It allows you to easily install Google analytics in WordPress and shows you helpful reports directly in the WordPress dashboard.

The best part about using MonsterInsights is that you can add the Google Analytics tracking code without editing code or hiring a developer. Plus, it has a Dual Tracking feature, which makes it super easy to switch to Google Analytics 4.

You should also make it easy for visitors and potential customers to contact you. For this, we recommend WPForms which is the best WordPress form plugin on the market.

Finally, it’s a good idea to look at your competitors and other popular sites in your industry or niche. While it’s never a good idea to copy, you can use them as inspiration or learn best practices that you can then apply to your own homepage layout.

We hope this article helped you easily create a custom homepage in WordPress. You may also want to see our proven tips to increase your blog traffic and our expert pick of the best social proof plugins for WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Custom Home Page in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Track WordPress Widget History (Easy Method)

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Do you want to track your WordPress widget history to monitor changes made to the widgets on your site?

Widgets are blocks of content that you can add to your website. They allow you to add different elements to your sidebars such as signup forms, images, recent posts, and more. Tracking widget history allows you to easily monitor changes and undo them as needed.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily track your WordPress widget history.

Why Should You Track WordPress Widget History?

By default, WordPress comes with a feature called revisions for content types like posts and pages. Revisions make it easier to what changes were made by which user, and allow you to easily undo those changes if needed.

However, there is no built-in revisions feature for WordPress widgets.

Tracking widget history will allow you to keep track of changes made to widgets on your WordPress website. You can see which user added, removed, or changed a widget, and then you can keep those changes or undo them by editing your widget.

Similarly, if something in a widget has stopped working, then you can pinpoint which changes caused the problem and fix them manually.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily track widget history in WordPress.

How to Easily Track WordPress Widget History

The easiest way to track WordPress widget history is by using the Simple History plugin.

First, you need to install and activate the Simple History plugin. For help, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Keep in mind that plugin will only track changes made after the plugin is activated.

After installing the plugin, let’s make a few changes to your WordPress widgets. Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and make some changes to your existing widgets.

Don’t forget to click on the Update button to save your widget changes.

After that, you can go to the Dashboard » Simple History page inside WordPress admin area.

You’ll see the changes you made to your widgets appear at the top.

Apart from widget changes, Simple History will also be able to track the following changes and user activity on your website:

theme updatesplugin installationsidebar widget historyComments historyuser loginsuser profiles

If you want to change the settings of the plugin, then you can simply head over to Settings » Simple History from the WordPress admin dashboard.

From here, you can modify the plugin settings according to your needs.

If you want to track the widget history of your WordPress site directly from the dashboard, then you can check the ‘On the dashboard’ option beside the ‘Show History’ option.

This will allow you to access Simple History by simply heading over to Dashboard » Simple History from the WordPress admin panel.

You can also select the number of items you want to show on your log page as well as your dashboard page.

Additionally, you can enable the RSS feed option by checking the box next to it if you want to receive daily log updates about your website.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes button at the bottom once you’re satisfied.

Next, you may want to switch to the Debug tab. From here, you can view all the log events displayed as Loggers.

Plus, you will also be able to see the names of tables that plugin has created in your WordPress database.

The plugin also allowss you to easily downoad the logs file to your computer.

Siply switch to the Export tab on the plugin’s settings page and choose which format you want to use for the export.

You can choose either JSON or CSV format. We recommend using the CSV option as you can open the CSV files in any spreadsheet software like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

After that, click on the Download Export File button and plugin will send a download file to your browser.

Here is how it would look when you open it in a spreadsheet software.

Final Thoughts

Having an activity log is very important as it helps you keep your website safe. Simple History does that for widgets and many other plugins.

Other plugins like WPForms have added revisions to WordPress form building, and WPCode has also added version control for custom code snippets.

Lastly, if you’re looking for a comprehensive activity log solution for WordPress security, then we recommend taking a look at WP Activity Log plugin.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to easily track your WordPress widget history. You may also want to check out our guide on how to start a podcast, and our top picks of the best WooCommerce plugins for your store.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Track WordPress Widget History (Easy Method) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Create a Net Promoter Score® (NPS) Survey in WordPress

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Do you want to create a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey in WordPress?

Net Promoter Score is a popular method to measure customer loyalty, so you can improve your brand image, find new product ideas, and provide better customer service.

In this article, we will show you how to easily create a Net Promoter Score® Survey in WordPress, and how to properly use it to improve your business.

What is Net Promoter Score?

Net Promoter Score is a management tool that helps businesses measure customer loyalty. The idea was first introduced in 2003, and since then more than two-thirds of Fortune 1000 companies have adopted it.

Here is how it works.

It is based on a single question, ‘How likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?’

The answer is provided on a scale of 0 to 10.

Customers who respond with a score of 9 or 10 are called ‘Promoters’. These are your brand’s most loyal customers and are highly likely to purchase again and recommend your business to others.

Users who answer with a score between 0-6 are considered ‘Detractors’. These are the customers who are unhappy with your business and are least likely to purchase or recommend your business.

Customers responding with a score of 7 or 8 are called ‘Passives’. They can be either promoters or detractors and are less likely to actively recommend your business and products to their friends or colleagues.

Your final NPS score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. The overall score ranges from -100 to 100.

A -100 score means all customers are detractors and a full 100 score means all customers that took part in the survey were promoters. Normally, a score of positive numbers (0-40) is considered good, and a score of 50 or above is considered excellent.

Due to the popularity of NPS surveys among businesses, there are numerous very expensive survey tools that will charge you hundreds of dollars per month. These solutions are not very affordable for small businesses.

Luckily, you can use a WordPress survey plugin by WPForms which helps you create powerful NPS surveys at a fraction of the cost.

Let’s take a look at how to create a Net Promoter Score survey in WordPress.

Creating a Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

WPForms is a paid plugin, and you will need at least their Pro plan to access the surveys addon used in this tutorial.

Upon activation, you need to visit WPForms » Settings page from your WordPress to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account area on the WPForms website.

After entering your license key, you need to visit the WPForms » Addons page and locate the ‘Surveys and Polls Addon.’

Go ahead and click on the ‘Install Addon’ button. WPForms will now install and activate the addon.

You are now ready to create your first Net Promoter Score survey form.

Head over to WPForms » Add New from the WordPress admin panel to create a new form. First, you need to provide a title for your form, and then select a form template.

WPForms offers lots of prebuilt form templates. You can simply search for an NPS form template from the search bar on the left.

For this tutorial, we will use the ‘NPS Survey Simple Form’ template.

WPForms will now load the form builder interface with some typical survey form fields.

This is a drag-and-drop form builder where you can just point and click to edit any existing form fields or add new fields from the left column.

If you click on the existing fields in the form, then you’ll see more options for customization.

For instance, you can change the text for each question and make it a required field.

Your Net Promoter Score survey form is now almost ready. Simply getting the score is not very helpful because you don’t know why these customers are unhappy or happy.

Let’s add some smart conditional fields to the form to get more helpful feedback from users.

Adding Conditional Logic to Net Promoter Score Survey Form

WPForms comes with a smart conditional logic feature that allows you to show or hide form fields based on the user’s answers to previous form fields.

You can use that feature to ask users for more feedback based on their answers. For example, you can ask users who select a score between 0-6 to give you another chance to make things right. These customers are unhappy and asking them for an opportunity to make things right will help you improve your relationship with these customers.

Similarly, you can also ask users giving a score between 9-10 to leave a testimonial and ask for their permission to share it on your website. These are your most loyal customers, and their testimonials can help you add social proof to your website.

Let’s add these conditional fields to your NPS survey form.

First, select the question after the NPS scale. Next, switch to the ‘Smart Logic’ tab from the menu on your left and click the ‘Enable Conditional Logic’ toggle to enable the option.

We only want to show this field to users responding with a score between 0 and 6. To do that, we will add conditional logic to this form field.

WPForms will add the logic by default. However, you can edit the rating for which you’d like to show the survey question.

Similarly, you can set up conditional logic for the second question in the survey. By default, WPForms will set the condition for you and only show the field when the score is between 7 and 9.

You can edit these conditions according to your survey needs. However, if you’re just starting out, then we recommend using the default settings.

Now repeat the process for other questions in the form. Don’t forget to save your changes.

Adding Your Net Promoter Score Survey in WordPress

WPForms makes it super easy to add forms to any post or page on your website.

You can simply click the ‘Embed’ button inside the form builder to get started.

Next, you’ll see 2 options to embed the NPS survey. You can create a new page or select an existing page.

We’ll choose the ‘Create New Page’ option for this tutorial.

After that, a popup window will open.

Simply enter a name for your new page and click the ‘Let’s Go’ button.

Next, you should see your NPS survey form embedded in the content editor.

Alternatively, you can also use the WPForms block to add the NPS form anywhere on your website.

Simply click the ‘+’ button to add the WPForms block. After that, select your form from the dropdown menu.

You can now save your changes and visit your website to see the form in action.

Now, whenever a user selects a score between 0 to 6, they will see another form field asking for their feedback.

Viewing Your Net Promoter Score Results

After your form is live, WPForms will start calculating your Net Promoter Score based on survey results. You can send the NPS survey link to your customers using an email marketing service to encourage them to fill it out.

After a few users have filled out the form, you can go ahead and check your score.

To do that, head over to WPForms » All Forms from your WordPress dashboard and click on the ‘Survey Result’ link under your Net Promoter Survey form.

WPForms will now display your total Net Promoter Score along with the number of promoters, detractors, and passives. It will also break down the results into beautiful charts, bars, and graphs.

You can use the feedback from users to improve your product, add new features, as well as offer support to unhappy customers and turn them into loyal brand evangelists.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily create a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey in WordPress. You may also want to see our article on how to choose the best WordPress hosting and how to get free SSL certificate for your WordPress site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Net Promoter Score® (NPS) Survey in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Welcome Thrive Themes to the WPBeginner Family of Products

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Today, I’m extremely excited to share that Thrive Themes is joining Awesome Motive, and they’re now part of the WPBeginner family of products.

Thrive Themes is the company behind some of the most powerful growth tools for WordPress. Over 200,000+ smart website owners use the Thrive premium plugin suite to easily convert website visitors into email subscribers, paying customers, and raving fans.

Introduction to Thrive Themes – Quick Overview

Thrive Themes is a popular brand among business owners because their suite of tools give you everything needed to build and grow your online business at drag & drop speed.

Although the brand name is Thrive Themes, it’s actually an ecosystem of powerful conversion focused WordPress plugins that work seamlessly together to help you start and grow your online business. 

Thrive Suite consists of four key areas to help you grow your online business: Build, Convert, Sell, and Engage.

Powerful WordPress Website Building Tools

They offer two powerful drag & drop WordPress design building tools called Thrive Architect and Thrive Theme Builder. They work together to help you build high-converting websites without any coding needed.

Thrive Architect is a visual drag & drop page builder for WordPress that helps you build custom landing pages and blog post designs faster than ever before. It comes with over 350+ conversion focused landing page templates and conversion elements that you can use to build high-converting websites. 

Thrive Theme Builder is a marketing centered custom WordPress theme builder that lets you visually build the conversion focused site of your dreams no matter your experience level (all drag & drop). Basically you can launch your site in under 15 minutes, update your brand everywhere in seconds, and everything is professionally designed with conversions in mind.

It comes with hundreds of design and site building elements to improve your workflow, and it integrates with just about every powerful business tool like WooCommerce, email marketing services, CRMs, and more to help save you time.

Don’t take my word, see what the users are saying.

WordPress Lead Generation & Conversion Tools

Thrive Suite is built by marketers for marketers which means there’s a big focus on creating advanced lead generation tools to help you get more email subscribers and grow your sales faster.

Their conversion tools for WordPress include Thrive Leads, Thrive Quiz Builder, Thrive Optimize, Thrive Ovation, and Thrive Ultimatum.

Thrive Leads is a drag and drop builder that allows you to create any type of lead generation form imaginable. It comes with a huge selection of opt-in form templates, or you can create your own custom one within minutes. 

You can use it to create popups, sticky ribbons, in-line forms, 2-step optin forms, slide-ins, screen filler overlay, content lock forms, scroll mat, yes / no or multiple choice forms, and more.

The best part is that you get advanced targeting features that lets you display relevant and hyper-targeted offers to visitors based on posts, categories, tags, and more. You also get A/B testing for opt-in forms as well as actionable reports.

Thrive leads integrates with all the popular email marketing services and CRMs.

Thrive Quiz Builder is a WordPress quiz plugin that lets you create highly engaging quizzes to help grow your email list, social shares, while giving you the data you need to grow your business.

It lets you build those viral social media quizzes with branching logic with zero coding. You can also use it to build personalized product recommendation quizzes to help users make a decision on which product they should pick on your website. 

The best part is that each answer helps you segment visitors based on their interests, so you can build a hyper-targeted email list and improve your email open rates.

You can also further improve your quiz conversions with A/B testing various quiz stages, and this is basically every marketers dream come true.

Thrive Optimize is a WordPress A/B testing tool that helps you launch tests faster, more often, and for crazy cheap prices compared to SaaS alternatives with no coding needed.

You can use it to create unlimited tests, unlimited variations, setup conversion goals, choose traffic distribution, and everything is done with visual editing (no code). Once the test is done, it automatically chooses your highest converting test as a winner.

Thrive Ovation is a set-and-forget testimonial plugin for WordPress. Studies show that testimonials can boost conversions by 34%, and this is the easiest way to start taking advantage of one of the most underestimated conversion boosters.

It lets you gather testimonials without a hassle where you can transform WordPress comments into testimonials in a single click. You can also automatically convert any social media comment into a beautiful testimonial card.

Lastly, it has a built-in auto-pilot testimonial gathering feature to help you collect more relevant and meaningful testimonials for your business.

Thrive Ultimatum is a powerful scarcity marketing tool for WordPress. You can use it to create both fixed and evergreen countdown timers on your website.

It comes with dozens of countdown timer designs that you can customize to match your style & brand with drag & drop ease. The targeting feature allows you to show the offer to the right audiences.

This is a must have tool for increasing product sales, building a buzz around your launch, and even boost established eCommerce sales. 

Sell Online Courses with Results Focused LMS Plugin

Thrive Apprentice lets you create pro-looking courses straight from your WordPress dashboard. It’s a WordPress membership and LMS plugin to build and grow your online business.

It comes with a drag & drop course builder that lets you create modules, chapters, lessons, and more in a well-organized manner. 

You get access to advanced drip functionality such as unlocking content at consistent intervals for each student or unlocking new content on specific weekday or day of the month. 

You have the option to unlock lessons based on the results of a quiz in Thrive Quiz builder, and you can even add custom tags to each user for personalized communication using Thrive Automator.

Thrive Apprentice lets you protect content based on the user’s membership level, award certificates to those who complete your courses, and so much more.

Last but not least, it gives you detailed insights about your students and courses, so you can get insights like where are students dropping in your course, how many lessons did a particular student complete, overall engagement reports, and so much more.

Boost Your WordPress Engagement with Smart Comments

Thrive Comments help you turn the most overlooked feature on your WordPress website into your most valuable asset. 

You can supercharge your WordPress comment area to spur engagement like Reddit and Facebook. It basically adds the most addictive elements of social media and community forms into your WordPress comments.

Users can get satisfaction by seeing likes / upvotes on their comments, unlock achievements through badges, get validation through being featured in comments, and get a chance to have their comments shared on social.

Basically Thrive Comments help you turn your comments into conversions. Based on what the user does, you can show selective actions such as redirecting first time comments to a welcome to community gfit page, or repeat commenters to a share modal, and more.

And unlike third-party comment systems like Disqus, there is no lock-in, and definitely no intrusive ads. This is your comment area and you get to customize it the way you want.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketer, I highly recommend adding Thrive Suite to your WordPress toolkit.

Get Started with Thrive Suite → 

And now that you know all about Thrive Themes, I think you’ll find the background story of this acquisition even more interesting.

Background Story – Why Thrive Themes? 

In 2009, when I started WPBeginner, I spent hours every day learning and writing about new WordPress plugins, themes, and tools to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys.

In the process, I came across Shane and Paul’s work when they created Hybrid Connect back in 2012. It was a WordPress popup plugin that I tried before I ended up building OptinMonster in 2013.

Ever since then I have closely followed their journey as they launched multiple products and eventually rebranded everything under the Thrive Themes brand.

Over the last 8 years, we have been friendly competitors working on the same mission: helping small businesses grow & compete with the big guys.

What a lot of beginners don’t often see is that WordPress is an open source platform. Unlike other industries, the competition is fair and friendly. Most of us WordPress product owners have great relationships with each other, and we even collaborate at times. This type of competition is known as co-opetition. We have learned from Thrive, and I’m sure Thrive has learnt from our brands.

While there are similarities in few of our existing products, there are also unique differences in our offerings. For example, Thrive has a powerful quiz builder for WordPress, an engaging comments plugin, and a proper A/B testing solution. Whereas the WPBeginner family of brands offered solutions like AIOSEO, WPForms, and MonsterInsights. Between us, we had a lot of mutual customers.

That’s why the brands will continue to operate independently and serve our respective customers (of course with deeper integration with each other).

Last year, Shane reached out to me through the WPBeginner Growth Fund page because he was looking to move on to the next chapter of his life. But he only wanted to sell the business to someone who will carry his legacy forward while taking care of customers and protecting the team, and they chose us because of our reputation and values.

I was extremely familiar with Thrive Suite and have a lot of respect for what Shane and Paul had built, so it was a no brainer for us.

We worked through the logistics, and outside of the two co-founders, the entire team will be joining Awesome Motive. The team will be led by Brad Stevens, the current General Manager of Thrive Themes.

I will be working closely with him, and I’m super excited about bringing you more powerful solutions to help grow your website.

Note: Want to join our remote team to work on something awesome & make an impact? We’re hiring. Come work alongside me and help shape the future of the web.

What’s Coming Next? 

Our work is just starting.

While I have some ideas and features I’d like to add in certain Thrive suite plugins, there is already an amazing feature roadmap in place based on existing customer feedback. 

My goal is to do everything I can to help make those features become a reality, as quickly as possible.

I’m really looking forward to doing a deeper dive in some of the conversion tools, especially quizzes because I know they can be a game changer when used properly.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketer, I think you will want to choose Thrive Suite to grow your business faster.

If you have suggestions on features you’d like to see in the various Thrive plugins, then please let us know by sending us a message via WPBeginner contact form.

As always, I want to thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner. 

Every time I share an announcement like this, I realize that I’m only able to do what I love every day because of you, our amazing readers, and I’m extremely grateful for your support throughout the years.

WPBeginner and Awesome Motive would not be here without YOU, and I just want to say how much I appreciate all of you.

And I look forward to continuing serving you, and the larger WordPress / web ecosystem for years to come.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

The post Welcome Thrive Themes to the WPBeginner Family of Products first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Create an Etsy-Like Store with WordPress (Step by Step)

~ Web Administrator ~ Leave a comment

Do you want to build an Etsy-like store with WordPress?

Etsy is an online marketplace for creative folks who want to sell handmade goods, artwork, and other unique items. However, Etsy can be a bit limited in terms of what you can do with your store.

In this article, we will show you how to create an Etsy-like store with WordPress, and how to properly move an existing Etsy store to WordPress.

Etsy vs WordPress – Which one is better?

Etsy is an online marketplace for creative folks. Usually, people use Etsy to sell handicrafts, custom designs, jewelry, clothing, and more. It has become a niche marketplace for such unique items.

However, as an eCommerce platform, Etsy is quite limited in terms of functionality. Plus, it also takes a significant portion of your earnings which reduces the profitability and long-term growth of your business.

On the other hand, WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder. It allows you to create almost any kind of website imaginable, including full-fledged eCommerce stores.

Using WooCommerce on your WordPress website you can sell anything online including handicrafts and other unique handmade items.

You can sell physical goods (that need shipping), as well as digital downloads (spreadsheets, software, music, worksheets, online courses, and memberships).

More importantly, WordPress doesn’t charge you a listing fee or a transaction fee on each item you sell.

Note that there are two different types of WordPress platforms.

WordPress.com which is a hosted platform and WordPress.org which is also called self-hosted WordPress. See the difference in our WordPress.com vs WordPress.org comparison.

Throughout this article, when we say WordPress, we are talking about the more popular, self-hosted WordPress.org platform. We recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you access to all WordPress features out of the box.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily create an Etsy-like store in WordPress. Here is a quick overview of the topics we’ll cover in this article.

Pros and Cons of Setting up an Etsy ShopPros and Cons of Using WordPressRequirements for Creating an Etsy-like Store with WordPress?Getting Started with Your Etsy-Like Shop in WordPressInstalling WooCommerce on Your WebsiteAdding Items to Sell in WooCommerceImporting an existing Etsy Store to WordPressChoosing an Etsy-like WordPress Theme for Your StoreExtending Your Store with WordPress PluginsMastering WordPress Skills

Etsy and WordPress both enable you to sell products online but which one you should choose? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both platforms.

Pros and Cons of Setting up an Etsy Shop

Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of using Etsy to sell your products online.

Pros of Using Etsy

Ease of Use – Setting up an Etsy store is very easy and does not require any technical skills. Simply upload your product listings, add your payment information, and you are good to go.Targeted Audience – Etsy has a large customer base of users interested in unique handmade products, gift items, artistic and creative products, and more. Opening up a shop on Etsy gives you access to a marketplace with interested buyers.Security and Trust – Etsy takes care of payments and ensures product delivery. This has helped them build trust among both buyers and sellers.

Cons of Using Etsy

Higher Fees – Etsy charges $0.20 per listing (renews every four months) and a 6.5% transaction fee on the sale price (not including shipping costs). If you are using PayPal, then there is also a payment processing fee.Lack of Control – You have no control over the platform, and how your products are featured. Etsy can remove a seller if they feel that the seller’s products don’t meet their policies or the seller fails to satisfy a customer.Limited Growth Options – As your business grows, you will be paying a lot more to Etsy with limited options to grow your own brand and business.

Pros and Cons of Using WordPress

WordPress is the best platform to build any kind of website. However, it has its own pros and cons that you would want to consider.

Pros of Using WordPress

Complete Control – You have complete ownership and full control of your website.Unlimited Features – You can add any feature to your website by installing extensions. There are more than 55,000 free WordPress plugins that you can install.Unlimited Listings – You can add as many items to your shop as you want. There are no listing fees because you own and manage the platform yourself.Low Costs – There is no commission and no transaction fee on each sale. You will only pay a small fee to your payment gateway.

Cons of Using WordPress

Website Management – You are responsible for managing updates and making backups. There are plugins that help you automate those tasks.Learning Curve – WordPress is fairly easy to use. However, from time to time you may need some help. There are plenty of WordPress resources to help you out.

To learn more about WordPress, see our complete WordPress review with detailed pros and cons of the platform.

That being said let’s take a look at how to create an Etsy-like store with WordPress.

Requirements for Creating an Etsy-like Store with WordPress?

You’ll need the following things to build your own Etsy-like store with WordPress.

A domain name (This will be your shop’s address on the internet i.e wpbeginner.com)A website hosting account (This will be the shop’s home and where all your files will be stored)SSL Certificate (You need this to accept payments)Your undivided attention for 30 minutes.

Ready? let’s get started.

Getting Started with Your Etsy-Like Shop in WordPress

Normally, a domain name will cost you $14.99 per year, website hosting $7.99 per month, and an SSL certificate around $69.99 per year.

This is a lot of money if you are just getting started.

Thankfully, the folks at Bluehost have agreed to offer WPBeginner users a free domain name + free SSL certificate, and a 60% discount on hosting.

They are also an officially recommended WordPress and WooCommerce hosting provider, and one of the largest hosting companies in the world.

Basically, you can get started for $2.75 / month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Let’s go ahead and purchase your domain + hosting + SSL.

First, you need to visit the Bluehost website and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.

On the next screen, select the plan that you need (basic and plus plans are the most popular among WPBeginner users).

After that, you will be asked to enter the domain name for your website.

Need help choosing a domain name? See our beginner’s guide on how to choose the perfect domain name for your website.

Lastly, you will need to add account information and finalize the package info to complete the process.

On this screen, you will see optional extras that you can purchase.

We don’t recommend purchasing these items because they will increase your hosting bill. You can always add them later if you think these are needed.

You can now go ahead and enter your payment information to complete the purchase.

After that, you will receive an email with instructions to log into your hosting control panel.

Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you, and you will be able to log in to your WordPress site directly from the hosting dashboard.

Once logged in, you will see the WordPress admin area. This is where you will manage your online shop, change settings, and add new items.

Installing WooCommerce on Your Website

Now that you have purchased hosting and installed WordPress, the next step is to turn your website into an online store like Etsy.

To do this, you need to install and activate the WooCommerce plugin on your website. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, click on ‘Run the setup wizard’ button to quickly set up your WooCommerce store.

The setup wizard will guide you through the basic setup.

During step 4, you need to switch to the ‘Free features’ tab and uncheck ‘Add recommended business features to my site’ feature.

This option installs additional plugins. You can always install these plugins later if needed.

Click on the continue button to select a theme and then finish the setup. Don’t worry, we’ll talk more about theme and store design options later in this article.

Adding Items to Sell in WooCommerce

After setting up WooCommerce, let’s add a few items to sell on your online store.

Simply go to Products » Add New page to add your first item.

First, provide a title for your product and then a detailed description.

On the right-hand column, you can add product categories, tags, and images.

Below the description area, you will see the ‘Product Data’ box.

From here you can set product price, inventory, shipping, and other attributes.

Once you are satisfied with all the product information you have added, you can click on the ‘Publish’ button to make it live on your website.

Repeat the process to add more products as needed.

Importing an existing Etsy Store to WordPress

Do you already have an Etsy store that you want to move to WordPress? In this section, we will show you how to easily import your Etsy shop to WordPress.

First, you need to do is install and activate the Easy Esty Importer plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled ‘Etsy Importer’ to your WordPress admin sidebar. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s settings page.

You will be asked to provide your license key. You can find this information under your account on the plugin’s website.

After activation, the settings page will ask you to provide the following information.

Etsy API KeyEtsy Secret KeyYour Etsy Shop Name

To get these API keys, you need to visit the Etsy Developers ‘Apps You’ve Made‘ website.

Once there, click on the ‘Create a new app’ link.

This will bring you to a new page where you will be asked to provide a name for your app.

You need to select that you are creating the app for yourself, and it will not be used for commercial purposes.

After that, click on ‘Read terms and create app’ button.

You will now see your app information page. From here you need to copy the ‘Keystring’ and ‘Shared Secret’ keys.

Now, switch back to the Easy Etsy Importer plugin’s settings page. After entering your API keys, click on the ‘Save & Verify’ button to continue.

This will take you to the Etsy website where you will be asked to allow access to the app. Click on the ‘Allow’ button to continue.

The plugin will now try to connect to your Etsy shop.

Once connected, it will show a success message.

Next, you need to switch to the settings tab.

The default settings will work for most websites, but you can still review and change them as needed.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

Now you can move to the ‘Import’ tab. The plugin provides you options to selectively import items or import all listings.

The default settings will work for most websites, so you can just go ahead and click on the ‘Import’ button.

The plugin will now start importing your Etsy listings to WooCommerce. Once finished, you will see a success message, and you will be able to see the imported products under Products » All Products page.

Next, you can switch to the reviews tab to import your Etsy reviews to WooCommerce.

Congratulations, you have successfully imported your Etsy store listings to your WooCommerce website.

Choosing an Etsy-like WordPress Theme for Your Store

WordPress gives you access to thousands of free and paid website designs that you can use. These designs are called WordPress themes.

Each WordPress theme contains various template files to give your website a beautiful design.

You don’t need any coding or programming skills to use a theme, and each of them comes with different options that you can use to customize the design to your liking.

Due to such a large variety of WordPress themes available, often users feel overwhelmed by the choices. To make it easier, we have hand-picked the best WooCommerce WordPress themes that you can use on your website.

The list contains both free and paid WordPress themes and all of them are mobile-ready.

You may not find a theme that looks exactly like the Etsy website. However you can find a theme with the same design qualities and then use the theme’s settings to make it look more similar.

Need more help? See our beginner’s guide on how to choose the perfect WordPress theme for your website.

If you want to create a custom WordPress theme with drag & drop builder, then we recommend using the SeedProd plugin. We also have a detailed tutorial on how to create a custom WordPress theme with no code.

Extending Your Store with WordPress Plugins

Unlike Etsy, you have full control of your WordPress store. You can modify it in any way you want with the help of thousands of WordPress plugins.

Plugins are like apps for your WordPress website. You can install them to add new features to your website like contact forms, Google Analytics, and more.

With more than 55,000 plugins, you can easily find a plugin for almost anything.

Here are some of the plugins that we use on all our websites.

WPForms Lite – Add contact forms to your WordPress siteAll in One SEO Lite – Improve your WordPress SEO and get more traffic from GoogleMonsterInsights (Free) – Helps you track visitor stats using Google AnalyticsOptinMonster Lite – Allows you to create popups in WordPress to increase sales and conversions. UpdraftPlus – Free WordPress backup pluginSucuri – Free website malware scanner. FunnelKit – Easily create sales funnels, add cart upsells, marketing automation, and more in WooCommerce.

There are also tons of plugins made specifically for WooCommerce. See our list of the best free WooCommerce plugins. You can also use drag & drop page builder plugins to further customize your website’s look and feel.

Mastering WordPress Skills

Now that you have a WordPress powered online store, you may want to expand your website by adding new features and growing your business.

WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site in the world. We have tons of articles, videos, and step by step tutorials to help you take your website to the next level.

Here are some of the handy resources you will find on WPBeginner, all of them are completely free.

WPBeginner Blog – This is where we publish our WordPress tutorials, how-tos, and step by step guides.WPBeginner Videos – These step-by-step videos will help you learn WordPress FAST.WPBeginner on YouTube – Need more video instructions? Subscribe to our YouTube channel with more than 283,000 subscribers and 40 Million+ views.WPBeginner Engage – Our Facebook community with more than 90,000 users. Helps you quickly ask questions and get help from users like yourself. WPBeginner Glossary – The best place for beginners to start and familiarize themselves with the WordPress terms and lingo.WPBeginner Deals – Exclusive discounts on WordPress products and services for WPBeginner users.

You can also use Google to find tutorials on WPBeginner. Simply add ‘wpbeginner’ next to your search term, and you will find answers to all your WordPress questions.

We hope this article helped you move away from Etsy and create an Etsy-like store with WordPress. You may also want to checkout our list of the must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create an Etsy-Like Store with WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.