Friday, October 30, 2020

9 Best Knowledge Base Plugins for WordPress (Compared)

Are you looking for a knowledge base plugin for WordPress?

A knowledge base plugin allows you to easily publish documentation, tutorials, and how-to articles. You can organize these resources efficiently while keeping them apart from your blog and landing pages.

In this article, we’ll show you the best knowledge base plugins for WordPress that you can use.

Comparing the best WordPress knowledge base plugins

What to Look for in a Knowledge Base WordPress Plugin?

Whether you run an online store or sell services on your WordPress website, having a knowledge base section allows you to help your customers without opening a support ticket or live chat window.

This boosts customer satisfaction while reducing customer support requests. Customer happiness helps you bring more business and sell more products.

Normally, you can publish your support guides as individual pages in WordPress. You can also publish them as posts and organize them with categories and tags.

However, this makes it difficult to keep support pages separate from sales pages or blog posts.

A knowledge base plugin allows you to keep your how-to resources separate and organize them more efficiently.

That being said, let’s take a look at the best knowledge base plugins for WordPress.

1. Heroic KB Plugin

HeroicKB WordPress Plugin

Heroic KB plugin is an easy to use WordPress knowledge base plugin that’s extremely powerful and fully-featured.

It allows you to add searchable knowledge base to your existing site, so your visitors can easily find answers to their questions. It comes with lightning fast AJAX search feature which adds real-time answers.

You get all the features you’d expect from a powerful knowledge base plugin such as content categorization, drag & drop content ordering, article attachments, display widgets, and more.

The best part about the plugin is their built-in analytics and user feedback feature that lets you collect insights to improve your existing documentation, so you can reduce support, save time, and grow sales.

We used this plugin to build our developer docs on WPForms website. Although our team has since customized it much further, this is still the best solution in the market.

2. BetterDocs

BetterDocs

BetterDocs is a powerful WordPress knowledge base plugin that is both easy to use and comprehensive.

It comes with ready to use knowledge base templates for WordPress. It also includes support for page builders with widgets. You can also use shortcodes to create your own layouts and insert knowledge base articles anywhere.

It includes a powerful search, floating table of contents, a knowledge base bot that automatically tries to find answers to reduce support requests. The plugin also includes user role-based control and insights to view what users are looking for.

3. Echo Knowledge Base

Echo Knowledge Base

Echo Knowledge Base is one of the best knowledge base plugins for WordPress. It comes with an easy set up wizard that walks you through plugin settings. You also get multiple layouts to choose from with options to customize every aspect.

You can choose from Basic, Tabs, or Category focused layouts. Each layout has a fast search bar on the top, which helps users quickly find answers. You can further organize articles in categories and tags.

The plugin also comes with 500+ icons that you can use. It also includes shortcodes and templates to create FAQs section and display knowledge base articles across your website.

4. weDocs

weDocs

weDocs is another excellent WordPress knowledge base and documentation plugin. It is easy to use and allows you to sort your documentation pages into sections, hierarchical docs, and tags.

It has a simpler interface to manage all your docs from one screen. The plugin does not include additional templates but works well with all popular WordPress themes.

The knowledge base layout is simple but efficient with sidebar navigation and bread crumbs menu.

5. Encyclopedia / Glossary / Wiki

Encyclopedia / Glossary / Wiki

Encyclopedia / Glossary / Wiki plugin is a flexible WordPress knowledge base plugin that allows you to organize your documents in a glossary format. You can organize your docs and articles alphabetically or by category and tags.

It includes a simple template to list all glossary items. You can add a search widget, enable comments for individual articles, and add a filter index to sort items by alphabet.

The plugin provides an excellent option if you want to organize your support pages in a glossary or encyclopedia style. It supports WPML and can be used on multilingual websites.

6. WP Knowledgebase

WP Knowledgebase

WP Knowledgebase is another great option to create a knowledge base section in WordPress. The plugin comes with an easy to use set up with simpler settings.

You can organize your knowledge base articles by categories and tags. The plugin uses a simple template with a powerful instant search feature on the top. It automatically creates a knowledgebase page upon activation which you can edit and change its title or URL slug.

It also includes widgets for search, categories, and tags which allow you to easily display knowledge base items across your website. You can turn on comments on each article and rearrange their display order with simple drag and drop.

7. BasePress

BasePress

BasePress is a useful WordPress knowledge base and documentation management plugin. It allows you to easily build support pages and documents section for your products or services.

It comes with three templates to choose from with an advanced instant search bar that helps users quickly find the answers. You can organize articles in sections, categories, and tags with an easy drag and drop interface to reorder articles.

You can add an image and description for each section which creates a very neat index page for users to browse. The plugin also provides easy customization options to control the appearance of your article pages.

8. KB Support

KB Support

KB Support is WordPress support and knowledge base plugin that is easy to use and extend. The plugin comes with a ticket management system and knowledge base platform to offer a complete support system that runs on your WordPress website.

You can easily add articles to your knowledge base section and sort them into categories and tags. After that, there is a simple shortcode that you can add to a WordPress page to display your knowledge base articles.

Customers can then submit a ticket when they are unable to find an answer. This ticket appears on your WordPress dashboard and you can reply to the user directly. There are paid add-ons to extend the plugin’s functionality like the ability to send emails, WooCommerce integration, canned replies, and more.

9. Very Simple Knowledge Base

Very Simple Knowledge Bas

Very Simple Knowledge Base is a very simple and minimalist knowledge base plugin for WordPress.

It basically allows you to use your existing posts for knowledge base articles and then display them with a shortcode. It then displays the items sorted by categories and you can choose multi-column layouts to show more categories and articles.

The plugin works with any custom post type including products or events. It offers flexibility but does not include any of the features you may find in other knowledge base plugins on this list. The plugin also does not offer an option to easily keep your regular blog posts separate from knowledge base articles.

Bonus Solutions

Customers may not always find the answer to their question in your knowledge base articles. For instance, they may have some pre-sale questions, a bug report, or they may simply need a more personal response.

The following tools allow you to take support beyond knowledge base articles and boost customer satisfaction.

10. WPForms

WPForms

WPForms is the best WordPress form builder plugin on the market. It allows you to easily create any type of form in WordPress including a support request form.

As a small business, you may not be able to justify the cost of a full-fledged customer support platform. WPForms allows you to add a customer support form to your website and then answer customer queries via email.

It has a built-in entry management system that allows you to keep a record of all customer requests. You can even export this data and use it in CRM software to manage all possible leads.

11. LiveChat

LiveChat is the best live chat support software for small businesses. It allows you to add a live chat to your WordPress website and help customers instantly reach out for help.

Adding LiveChat helps you convert more visitors into customers. You can display a live chat popup across your website with targeted messaging. Users browsing the knowledge base will always have the option to get more help without leaving your website.

12. ChatBot

The ChatBot website

A lot of companies these days are choosing to use ChatBot as an alternative to LiveChat, and sometimes as a pre-live chat solution because it’s more cost effective.

ChatBot.com uses a smart algorithm to help you better serve your customers while growing sales. It’s the best chatbot software for small businesses, and we’re in the process of using it on our sites as well.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress knowledge base plugin for your website. You may also want to see our comparison of the best business phone services for small businesses, and our step by step guide on how to add web push notifications in WordPress to increase your traffic.

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.

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Thursday, October 29, 2020

10 Great Copywriting Examples (+ Takeaways for Copywriters)

How useful would it be to have a handy list of great copywriting examples bookmarked for inspiration?

A swipe copy of high-quality examples that inspire you to write engaging website copy, perky popups, and emails that zing with persuasion.

Best of all, how wonderful would it be to understand why those copywriting examples are so effective and what techniques you can steal to improve your own writing?

That’s what you’ll find here. Hot tips, tangible advice, and resources to take your adverts, taglines and other sales copy from meh to mind-blowing.

Let’s dive in.

Great Copywriting Examples (+ Takeaways for Copywriters)

What Makes These Copywriting Examples Good Enough for Our Swipe File?

You know those ads on Google and Facebook? What about all that stuff in your mailbox you forgot you subscribed to? Those are examples of copywriting.

But are they great copywriting examples? Probably not.

Great copywriting is when the words compel you to sit up, take notice, and do something.

You see, killer copywriting triggers an emotional reaction so deeply rooted in our psychology, we’re unable to control it. Emotions like greed, compassion, envy, the need to belong, or the fear of missing out.

Good copywriting says, ‘trust me, I have the solution. You can stop looking.’ And that’s what our examples do.

It can be as simple as writing copy that tempts us with something free. Or convincing us to spend up big because it increases our self-esteem and social worth.

Like this 1958 classic from the “Father of Advertising”, David Ogilvy:

Copywriting examples David Ogilvy

Ogilvy knew what made his target audience tick. His headline put them in the driver’s seat. They could smell the plush leather and hear the purring of the engine under the assured ticking of the clock.

Best of all, they could feel the envious stares of other drivers, clattering past in their clunkers and rattletraps, wishing they too could join the exclusive Rolls-Royce owners club.

It was the longest running and most successful Rolls-Royce ad, resulting in a 50% increase in sales in its first year, and it formed the go-to template used by many copywriters. No list of great copywriting examples would be complete without it.

Now let’s look at 10 more copywriting examples that target a range of psychological triggers and compel us to say, ‘Yes please! Where’s the Buy Now button?’

Copywriting Example #1: The Empathetic Homepage

One second. Maybe two. That’s all the time you’ve got to persuade people to keep reading your web copy.

So, you have to draw them in immediately. Like this homepage from Marie Forleo:

Copywriting examples Marie Forleo Website

Marie provides online training and resources, and her purpose is to inspire you to build your dreams.

Why It’s Effective

You need to visit the site to get the full effect, but here’s why it’s a great piece of copywriting:

Firstly, the focus is on you. Her opening statement is warm, encouraging, and empathetic. Like a big hug from your Mom.

Scroll down and the empathy continues with phrases like, “You don’t have to get it perfect, you just have to get it going.”

There’s no hard sell, no credit card required. She draws you in with free resources and big, bold call-to-action (CTA) buttons.

Then she convinces you with testimonials from happy customers and impressive endorsements from Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson.

Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Empathy: Picture your audience. What are their pain points? Use ‘you’ rather than ‘me’ or ‘I’. Tell them a story that creates a bond to make them feel understood and valued.
  • Social proof and authority: This is a trust building technique. Use customer testimonials, and showcase relevant experience, skills, or qualifications.
  • Call to Action: Move visitors through the site with helpful CTA buttons like Maria’s: ‘Download’, ‘Watch Now’, and ‘Get Inspired’.

Copywriting Example #2: The Shock-Effect Billboard

Billboards are usually targeted at motorists. They need to grab attention and leave a lasting impression, as the cars whizz by.

This is a perfect example:

Copywriting examples billboard copy

Why It’s Effective

This billboard sells a serious message with great impact. Literally.

The message is instant. It slams into our brain using 4 words and 1 image. And it’s even more powerful because they crumpled the actual billboard at the point of impact.

Great copy isn’t just about words. The context, layout, and relationship of the words and images are just as important.

Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Triggering shock: Negative emotions like shock and fear work as well as positive ones. What emotions can you associate with the product you’re writing about? What power words might trigger those emotions?
  • Tone: Always use an appropriate tone of voice for the audience and message. This billboard is perfect — serious, but simple.
  • Brevity. If you can say it in 4 words, don’t use more. One of the best ways to achieve brevity is to cut out unnecessary adjectives and superlatives like ‘very’.

Copywriting Example #3: The Funny Popup

Popups. We all hate them, but everyone uses them.

But sometimes a perky little popup begs forgiveness. Like this one from Really Good Emails:

Copywriting examples popup

Why It’s Effective

It’s apologetic. It knows it’s annoying, so it uses cheeky charm to win you over.

This whimsy continues in the ‘name’ field where it uses a silly name to show where you need to enter your details.

Just think: if Really Good Emails can make its popup worth reading, the rest of the site must be great.

Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Good headline: Make it funny, cheeky, controversial — anything but boring.
  • Humor: If you can raise a smile, you’re halfway to a conversion. Here’s how you do it well.
  • Honesty: Popups are like flies. You just want to swat them out of your way, so be honest about it and you may win a few hearts (and addresses for your email list).

Copywriting Example #4: The Engaging Email

How many emails do you delete without opening? And what makes you open the others?

Usually it’s because:

  1. You trust the sender and want to hear what they have to say, or
  2. You can’t resist the subject line.

No one knows this better than Laura Belgray from Talking Shrimp, the queen of email marketing whose conversion rates are through the roof.

Here’s a typical email from Laura, the second in her welcome sequence to new subscribers:

Copywriting examples email

Why It’s Effective

Laura has one of the strongest voices in the world of copywriting. She writes like your best friend would. She’s funny, irreverent, ballsy, and honest.

Her language is full intimacy and humor, but above all, she’s a skilled salesperson. She’s like a heat-seeking missile, on a mission to get you to click through (while charming the socks off you).

Email Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Subject line: If it sucks, it doesn’t get opened. Make it intriguing, arouse their curiosity, and avoid anything too salesy (unless it’s irresistible, like ‘free’ or ‘only 2 hours remaining’).
  • Know your audience: Write as though you know them — that the email is intended for their eyes only. Visualize the reader, know their needs, and make it conversational.
  • Tight Copy: Keep your writing tight and deliberate. Use active verbs, cut the flab, and make every word count.
  • Call to Action: Always include a call to action (CTA) and at least one PS — did you know people often skim down to the PS first?

Copywriting Example #5: The Irresistible Landing Page

When you click a CTA link, it often takes you to a landing page, which has a very specific task — to convert potential customers into buyers or subscribers.

Here’s a landing page from MasterClass, a website that streams video lessons from the world’s leading experts in their niche, like Gordon Ramsey.

Copywriting examples landing page

Why It’s Effective

MasterClass is like an online university where the professors are celebrities. Imagine Samuel L. Jackson teaching you about acting, or Anna Wintour tutoring you on leadership!

Apart from being beautifully designed, with high-quality images and videos, this landing page pulls out every sales and conversion trick in the book, such as:

  • A call to action button above the fold.
  • Minimal navigation distractions. It wants you to focus on Gordon Ramsay’s class.
  • In the video, Gordon promises, “Everything I’ve learned is laid bare in this MasterClass”. It’s a compelling value proposition.
  • Teasers, trailers, and samples so you can try-before-you-buy.
  • A sign-up form to join their email list.
  • A pricing breakdown of what you get for your money to reinforce the value proposition.
  • FAQs designed to erase the last trace of doubt.

Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Social proof: You may not have Gordon Ramsey as social proof, but use what you can, like customer testimonials, or your client’s awards and achievements.
  • Call to action: There are 3 subscription buttons on this page, plus one for a gift subscription, which is genius. Would this work for the online business you’re writing about?
  • Creating desire: The body copy reads, “You’re not just learning recipes, you’re learning how to take your cooking to the next level.” Irresistible benefits for a home-cook enthusiast. What would your audience find irresistible? Show them how the product can change their life for the better. Win their hearts and minds with a story. And don’t think this only applies to consumer products. Buyers of high-tech SaaS products also respond to emotional triggers in a landing page, case study, or any sales copy.

Copywriting Example #6: The Trustworthy FAQ Page

If you thought FAQs were created to answer questions, think again. Here are some of the reasons organizations include an FAQ page on their site:

  • It showcases your expertise, trustworthiness, and authority.
  • Draws people to your site by responding to their search criteria, which gives you lots of SEO opportunities.
  • It helps to overcome objections and move people towards a purchasing decision.
  • It’s a great way to tell people what you want them to know about your products without making it sound like a sales pitch.

And that takes some copywriting know-how. Just ask McDonalds:

Copywriting examples FAQs

Why It’s Effective

McDonalds is a content marketing juggernaut, as this FAQ page demonstrates.

Firstly, the questions are highly optimized to respond to keywords and phrases used in Google such as ‘Do any of the McDonald’s stores sell curly fries?’ As it happens, they don’t, but why miss the opportunity to capture the attention of people who ask.

McDonalds is cheap and convenient, but its food isn’t famous for its health benefits. Rather than avoid the elephant in the room, the FAQ page asks, and then side-steps the stickier questions, like this:

Copywriting examples McDonalds FAQs

Most of the links in the answers direct people to other pages and content in the site, which helps retain visitors and boost their SEO. And with a highly visible search function at the top of the page, it’s like a directory for the whole site.

Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Building trust: With every answer McDonalds is saying: You can trust us to listen to you, and deliver what you want. It uses phrases like “it’s something we know our customers want” and “It’s time for All Day Breakfast. Why? Because of you!” Think about the ways you can respond to customers’ concerns and feedback to build trust in the FAQs you’re writing.
  • Conversational tone: Use a friendly, conversational tone, but make sure it suits the audience you’re writing for. McDonalds uses phrases like “Great question,” and “Makes you wish you had one right now, doesn’t it?

Copywriting Example #7: The Persuasive Social Media Ads

We all know that classic line from Ernest Hemingway:

For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.

It’s possibly the greatest ad copy of all time because it conjures up an entire story in just 6 words, each one dripping with emotion.

There’s no Tweet, LinkedIn, or Facebook post that quite matches Hemmingway’s flair, but the principles of writing social media ads are the same. You need to be brief and relevant, while packing a persuasive punch.

L’Oréal Paris comes close with this ad:

Copywriting examples social media ad

The ad — a 6-second video featuring actress, Eva Longoria — is targeted at women who want to get rid of their grey roots instantly.

Why It’s Effective

The text above the video gets right to the point: “Instant coverage for gray roots?” It conjures up the problem and the target market in 5 words.

In the video, Eva Longoria demonstrates the product, squeals in delight, and says “I don’t know what it’s made of but it’s magic.”

Who cares what it’s made of! If it works for Eva Longoria, it’s going to work for every other woman who wants to look like Eva Longoria.

And that’s why the ad is so effective.

Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Relevancy: The advantage of social media is that you can select your target audience by gender, age, interests, or down to a pin-prick on a map. Make sure your message is just as targeted and relevant to their needs, delivering a message they will understand, instantly.
  • Benefits over features: Forget the features, focus on the benefits. How is your product going to solve their problem or improve their life?
  • Product demonstration: If you can demonstrate how your product or service works, do it. It’s one of the most effective sales techniques.

Copywriting Example #8: The ‘Buy Me Now’ Product Descriptions

How many times have you clicked through to product details on an ecommerce site, only to find a lackluster description that leaves you cold?

But if you’ve ever visited Method’s website and read the dreamy descriptions of their cleaning products, you’ll know how hard it is to resist hitting the ‘buy now’ button.

Copywriting examples product descriptions

Why It’s Effective

Let’s face it, dish soap and gel hand wash are not the sexiest products. But Method uses dynamic language and metaphors to conjure up images of fashionistas (“on-trend colors”)… international travel (“a sun-drenched hillside in Tuscany”)… and enviable lifestyles (“a relaxing hour in a spa”).

Why would you want to buy any other brand of soap?

Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Benefits over features: Method tells you their dish soap will whisk you away to Tuscany. What are the benefits of the product for your audience?
  • Sensory Language: Every one of Method’s descriptions is a mini experience, sparking the reader’s imagination, like “the crisp scent of freshly cut basil wafting in the breeze”. What story can you weave about your products that will capture a mood or an emotion? What luscious language can you use to make them feel, taste, smell, or experience the benefits of the product?
  • Humor: Method’s products descriptions are whimsical and funny. They brighten up a drab day and make you happy to be buying mundane soap. Can you add the same sense of fantasy and fun to your ecommerce product descriptions?

Copywriting Example #9: The Awe-Inspiring Topical Ad

A topical ad is when the advertiser takes something that’s in the news and spins it to their advantage. Like this advert by international money transfer service, TransferWise:

Copywriting examples topical ad

The ad appeared in the Australian Financial Review newspaper following a government enquiry into the banking sector. The Deputy Chair of the enquiry criticized the four major Australian retail banks for their hidden currency exchange fees and said:

“It’s very, very simple. TransferWise does it… They just tell you how much you pay to transfer money. This isn’t complicated… You just need to come clean with people.”

Why It’s Effective

TransferWise was handed a silver bullet on a golden platter, and they didn’t let it go to waste:

  • They acted immediately, while the topic was newsworthy, and the public was interested.
  • They capitalized on the issue while staying true to their own messaging: Be radically transparent. Charge as little as possible. As a brand awareness ad, it couldn’t have been stronger.
  • They ran the full-page ad in Australia’s most elite newspaper aimed at a business audience. But they used the language of their customers — individuals who live and work around the world — to emphasize the snootiness and arrogance of the banks.
  • They brazenly took on their major competitors (‘Dear Banks’), pitching themselves as the little guy in a David and Goliath saga, and won.

Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Humor: With their tongue firmly in their cheek, TransferWise used satirical humor to put the knife into their competitors and give it a good twist. Warning: Be very cautious when using this form of humor as it can backfire.
  • Controversy: If you’re going to do something controversial like naming and shaming your competitors, you need to take a stand and believe in your own convictions. This is a perfect, awe-inspiring example.
  • Tone of Voice: The ad remained true to TransferWise’s down-to-earth tone of voice, even throwing in a bit of Aussie slang (‘fair dinkum’) in an otherwise high-brow setting. Think about the audience you’re writing for and the tone of voice that would best resonate with them.

Copywriting Example #10: The Timeless Tagline

The job of a tagline is to sum up a key value proposition in a few succinct words. A great tagline is memorable (Nike: Just do it) and sets a brand apart from its competitors (Apple: Think different).

It can be heart-warming (Disneyland: The Happiest Place on Earth), or self-effacing (Volkswagen: Think Small).

A tagline is usually the last thing people see or hear at the end of any marketing copy, and its job is to keep the brand top of mind for future buying decisions.

Here’s arguably the all-time best copywriting example of a tagline:

Copywriting examples tagline

Why It’s Effective

Ad copywriter, Frances Gerety, came up with the famous tagline for De Beers in the 1940s, when only the rich and famous bought diamonds.

It’s effective because it directly connected diamonds with eternal love (instead of wealth) and — virtually overnight — diamond engagement rings became the symbol of that sentiment. By 1951, 80% of brides in the United States wore a diamond ring, a tradition which continues to this day.

So great was the tagline, it has been used in every De Beers ads for engagement rings since 1948. In 1956, it inspired the title of a James Bond novel, and in 1971 the Shirley Bassey song of the same name.

In 1999, it was named ‘The Slogan of the Century’ by Advertising Age.

Copywriting Techniques You Can Steal

  • Value proposition: De Beers value proposition is: if you buy this ring, your love will never end. What is the core value proposition of the brand you are writing about? Will it make people smarter, faster, happier, richer?
  • Brevity: The best taglines are short sentences that only a few words long, yet still pack a punch. Write the core value proposition as succinctly and clearly as possible, then start trimming back the words and adding pizzazz.

Which of These Great Copywriting Examples is Your Favorite?

Becoming a great copywriter isn’t about being a creative genius.

It’s about borrowing the very best ideas from the creative geniuses who came before you, studying their techniques, and applying them to your own writing — whether that be for SEO, a case study, or blogging.

That’s why you need to bookmark these copywriting examples and continue to build your own swipe file as you build your skills.

But in the meantime, we’d love to hear from you.

Which of these copywriting examples is your favorite? Is there a great example we missed?

Let us know in a comment below.

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How to Easily Import and Export WordPress Users

Do you want to import and export WordPress users from one website to another?

This could be really helpful when you are merging multiple sites and want to automatically shift all users to the new site.

In this article, we will show you how to easily import and export users in WordPress. We’ll also show you how to import export WooCommerce customers as well.

Importing and exporting WordPress users and WooCommerce customers

Why or When You May Need to Import and Export Users in WordPress?

While there are several use-cases for importing and exporting WordPress users, the most common scenarios when you need to import and export users are:

  • When you purchase a website and want to merge the content and user base.
  • When you want to consolidate two sites and merge their content and user base.
  • When you want to import customer information into an email list or your CRM.

If you run a membership website or WooCommerce store, then you may also want to keep all your customer data and allow your customers a seamless login experience on the new site aswell.

Let’s take a look at how you can easily import and export users from one WordPress site to another, or move WooCommerce customers from one store to another.

Exporting Users in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Import and Export Users and Customers plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Tools » Import and export users and customers page in WordPress admin area and switch to the Export tab.

Export WordPress users and WooCommerce customers

From here, you can choose which users you want to export. For instance, you can select by user role and choose to export WooCommerce customers, customers from your membership plugin, or all users.

You can also filter users by date. For instance, you can select users that were created between a specific period.

You can leave the rest of the options to their default values and click on the Download button. The plugin will prepare and download a CSV file to your computer.

CSV or ‘Comma Separated Values’ is a file format which allows you to store data with fields separated by commas. You can open these files in any spreadsheet software like Google Spreadsheets or Microsoft Excel.

Importing WordPress Users

The plugin also makes it easy to import the users back to the same website or a different website.

If you are importing the users to a different WordPress website, then you’ll need to install the plugin on that website as well.

After that, you can go to the Tools » Import and export users and customers page and switch to the ‘Import’ tab.

Import WordPress users / WooCommerce customers

From here, click on the ‘Choose File’ button to select the CSV file you downloaded earlier.

Below that, you can configure plugin settings to your own requirements. For instance, you can import only users with specific user roles, choose what to do with empty data fields, send emails to users with login link and their credentials, and more.

After reviewing the options, go ahead and click on the ‘Start Importing’ button.

The plugin will start importing WordPress users and will show you a list of users imported.

Imported users in WordPress

You can now go to Users » All Users page to see the imported users.

Sending Email to imported users

Now, if you are moving user accounts, then you may want to let them know about the change by sending them an email. The plugin can do that for you during the import but you may want to change the email with your own message.

Simply head over to the Tools » Import and export users and customers page and switch to the Mail Options tab.

Send user email

By default, the plugin sends the login details to the users in the email. You can add your own message here offering users more details about why they are seeing this email.

Tip: Make sure your WordPress site is able to send email notifications. If you have a lot of users/customers then the plugin may not be able to send notifications. We recommend using the WP Mail SMTP plugin to ensure maximum deliverability. For details, see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issues.

We hope this article helped you easily import and export WordPress users and WooCommerce customers. You may also want to see our guide on how to monitor user activity in WordPress and our ultimate WordPress security guide to keep your website safe.

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.

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Wednesday, October 28, 2020

How to Prevent Text Selection and Copy/Paste in WordPress (Easy)

Recently, one of our readers asked us how they can prevent text selection and copy/paste in WordPress?

Many publishers who want to stop people from stealing their content may want to apply this. This basically just makes it a bit harder for people to copy text from your website.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily prevent text selection and copy/paste in WordPress.

Preventing text selection and copying & pasting in WordPress

Why Prevent Text Selection and Copy/Paste on Your WordPress Site?

Many bloggers find that their content gets stolen and used without permission.

This can happen through automated content scraping. It can also happen if someone manually copies part or all of your content.

One way to make this more difficult is to prevent people from copying and pasting your text. You can do this by making it harder for them to select the text on your website.

Remember, tech savvy users can still view the source code or use the Inspect tool to copy anything they want. These techniques will also not stop people who are using auto-blogging tools to fetch the content using RSS.

Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at a few ways to prevent text selection and copying in WordPress.

Method #1: Preventing Text Selection Using CSS

This method is simpler, and you’ll just need to add some custom CSS code to your WordPress theme. If you haven’t done this before, then take a look at our guide on adding custom CSS to your site before you begin.

First, you need to visit the Appearance » Customize page in WordPress admin area to launch the theme customizer.

Opening the theme customizer to add custom CSS

In theme customizer, you need to click on the Custom CSS tab from the left column.

Now, you will see a box to add custom CSS to your WordPress theme. Simply copy and paste the following CSS code into that box.

* {
  -webkit-touch-callout: none; /* iOS Safari */
  -webkit-user-select: none; /* Safari */
  -khtml-user-select: none; /* Konqueror HTML */
  -moz-user-select: none; /* Old versions of Firefox */
  -ms-user-select: none; /* Internet Explorer/Edge */
   user-select: none; /* Non-prefixed version, currently supported by Chrome, Opera and Firefox */
}

(Code source)

This is how the code will look when added.

Adding the CSS code to prevent text selection and copy/paste

Now, go ahead and try to select some of the text on your page in the live customizer. You will find that you cannot select it.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Publish’ button at the top of the screen to put your changes live for everyone.

Method #2: Preventing Text Selection Using a Plugin

For this method, we will be using a WordPress plugin that disables text selection and right-click. This would also protect images from being downloaded and reused.

First, you need to install and activate the WP Content Copy Protection plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will work straight out of the box. Users will no longer be able to copy and paste text from your site. They also will not be able to right click or print your content.

If you want to change the plugin’s settings, it’s easy to do so. Simply go to the Copy Protection page in your WordPress admin. Here, you can choose to enable or disable protection for specific types of content.

The settings for the WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click plugin

Make sure you click the Save Settings button after making any changes.

You can also change the message that will appear if someone tries to print your content. The message will display like this in the print preview and on the printout itself.

The default message that users will see if they try to print a protected page/post

Is it a Good Idea to Prevent Text Selection in WordPress?

While many new website owners want to stop people from copy/pasting content from their site, these techniques do not really prevent content theft.

Any slightly tech savvy user can easily open your website code source to copy any content that they want.

Also not everyone copying your text will be a content thief. For instance, some people may want to copy the title to share your post on social media.

This is why it’s not best practice to prevent text selection. We recommend you only use this method if you feel it’s truly needed for your site.

In most cases, it’s better to look for an alternative way to prevent content theft. If a site is re-publishing your content without permission, then you could find out who is hosting the website and send a DMCA takedown notice.

We hope this article helped you learn how to prevent text selection and copy/paste in WordPress. You might also want to see our guide on how to create a membership site with protected content, and our comparison of the best email marketing services for subscriber only content.

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 Prevent Text Selection and Copy/Paste in WordPress (Easy) appeared first on WPBeginner.



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Tuesday, October 27, 2020

How to Add Email Subscriptions to Your WordPress Blog

Do you want to make it easy for readers to subscribe to your WordPress blog?

Many businesses miss out on the benefits of having a direct connection with their audience through email. By having people subscribe to your email list, you can increase traffic, make more sales, and build a relationship with your audience.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add email subscriptions to your WordPress blog and start building your email list.

Adding email subscription to your WordPress blog

Why Should You Add Subscribe via Email Option to Your Site?

While social media is one way to connect with your audience, email is still the most reliable form of communication.

It gives you a direct connection to your readers because you can email subscribers whenever you want. Plus, you have control over email, whereas you have very little control over social media platforms.

For instance, you could post on Facebook or Instagram to thousands of followers, but only a portion of them may see your content due to algorithms that determine your reach.

For more on this topic, see our article on why you should start building your email list (right away).

You might think it’s difficult to add an email subscription option to your website, but it’s not.

With all of the email marketing software available today, it’s become quite easy, and you can get started in just a few clicks.

Since there are dozens of email software to choose from, we’re going to share with you a few solutions we believe work best.

How to Add Email Subscription to Your WordPress Site

First, you’re going to need an email marketing service.

We recommend using Constant Contact because it is the most beginner friendly email marketing service for small businesses.

Constant Contact email marketing software

It comes with built-in tools to see your email performance, such as email opens and click rates. These tools can help you make decisions over time that improve your email campaigns and grow your business.

Their Email Plus option comes with features such as:

  • Automations
  • Surveys
  • Polls
  • Coupons
  • Online donations
  • A/B subject line testing

Constant Contact also works well with other tools like WordPress form plugins, so you can use it to grow your business. You’ll see a few of them, and how they can be used later in this article.

Some alternatives to Constant Contact are SendinBlue, ConvertKit, and MailerLite. All work similarly and have slightly different features.

For now, we’ll show you how to add an email subscription option in WordPress using Constant Contact. You can still follow along even if you’re using another email service as they all share similar concepts.

Creating Your Email Subscription List

The first thing you need to do is sign up for Constant Contact. Simply go to their home page, click on ‘sign up for free’, and fill out your information.

Once you’ve created your account, it’s time to set up your email list.

An email list is simply the list of email addresses that your users will provide when they sign up for your email subscription.

First, you need to click on the ‘Contacts’ button at the top of your Constant Contact dashboard.

Contacts link in Constant Contact

This will take you to the contacts page. From there, you need to click on the blue ‘Create List’ button.

Create Contact Constant list

You’ll be asked to provide a name for your email list. It can be whatever you want, but we’ll call it ‘My Newsletter’ for this example.

Create Constant Contact list name

And that’s it. Now you have a new list people can subscribe to.

The next step is to add an email subscription form to your WordPress website where your website visitors can sign up.

Adding Email Subscription Form in WordPress

Constant Contact comes with an email signup form builder, but the easiest way to get started is by using the WPForms plugin. It integrates seamlessly with Constant Contact to set up an optin form easily.

WPForms also has a limited free version called WPForms Lite. It also allows you to connect your forms to Constant Contact.

First, you need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. If you need help, then follow our guide on how to install a plugin for detailed instructions.

Upon activation, you need to visit WPForms » Add New page and then select the ‘Newsletter Signup Form’ template.

Add new WPForm

On the next page, you’ll get a prompt to set up your email marketing service in the marketing tab. We’ll get to that in a moment.

WPForms will now load a sample newsletter sign up with the form builder interface. It will include first and last name and email address fields to the form.

Newsletter signup form fields

You can change the form fields if you want. For instance, you can add a full name and email address field. You can click on a form field to change its title or move them up and down.

Once you are satisfied with the signup form, click on the big orange ‘SAVE’ button at the top.

Now, it’s time to set up your confirmation message. This is what your users will see when they submit the form.

Simply, switch to the ‘Settings’ tab and then click on the ‘Confirmation’ section.

Confirmation message

By default, WPForms will show a confirmation message which you can change to anything you want. You can also change the confirmation type and redirect users to any page or URL.

Now that your newsletter sign up form is ready. Let’s connect it to Constant Contact.

Simply click on the ‘Marketing’ tab and select ‘Constant Contact’.

Connect your Constant Contact account

Next, click on the ‘Add New Connection’ button and you’ll see a popup that asks you to name your connection. We called ours ‘My Newsletter Form’ but you can name it whatever you want.

After that, click on the ‘Click here to register with Constant Contact’ link.

Register Constant Contact with WPForms

It will open a popup where you will be asked to allow WPForms to connect with your Constant Contact account.

Allow WPForms to connect with Constant Contact

Click on the ‘Allow’ button to continue.

You’ll be given a long authorization code to register your form.

WPForm authorization code

Copy and paste the authorization code in WPForms settings and provide an account nickname. The ‘Account nickname’ could be anything you want.

Finally, click on the connect button to continue.

On the next screen, you’ll be able to select the fields you want to pass through from your form to Constant Contact.

We selected ‘email’ and ‘full name’ but you can select as many as you want. Just be sure that those two fields are included in your newsletter sign up form fields.

WPForm email fields

Click the big orange ‘Save’ button when you’re done.

Now that we have the form set up, we want to place it on our WordPress website. For this example, we’re going to place it in our sidebar. But the form can go on any page you want.

Go to Appearance » Widgets page and add the WPForm widget to your sidebar.

Put a Constant Contact form in your sidebar

Provide a title for your widget and then select your newsletter sign up form. Don’t forget to click on the save button to store your widget settings.

You can now visit your website to see your email subscription form in action.

Constant Contact form in sidebar

You now have an email subscription box in your sidebar. And whenever someone fills out their name and email, they get subscribed to your newsletter.

Now that everything is set up, let’s take a look at how to send emails to your subscribers.

How to Write and Send Emails to Your Blog Subscribers

There are a few ways people can get your updates, and that’s through regular emails or an RSS feed.

The RSS feed method automatically sends users an email whenever you publish a new blog post. However, it is less effective, has very low open rates, and users get annoyed when they receive too many emails.

We recommend writing your emails manually. This allows you to make your emails more personalized and conversational, add any content you want, and choose your own frequency.

Most popular bloggers send an email newsletter once a week. You can set your own frequency and schedule the emails ahead of time, so that your users get them on the same day and time every week.

We’ll now walk you through writing your first email and sending it to your subscribers.

First, go to the ‘Campaigns’ page in your Constant Contact account dashboard and then click the ‘Create’ button.

Create email in Constant Contact

You’ll then select ‘Email’ under ‘Choose a campaign.’

Select email in Constant Contact

Next, you’ll need to name your newsletter. This is for organization and you can change it later if you want.

Name your newsletter

After you click on ‘Open in editor,’ you’ll see the option to choose a template. We’ve chosen the Basic Newsletter template for this example, but you can pick anything you want.

On the next page, you’ll be able to edit, add to, or remove any of the elements you see. Here’s what ours looks like as an example:

Example newsletter

At the top, you’ll see the subject and preheader. To change this, you just click that area and add whatever you want.

On the left side, you’ll see a handful of options you can drag directly into your newsletter template. You can add text, buttons, images, and more.

In this example, we added a few photos, some text, and some links. To add a link to your newsletter, you can highlight any text you want.

Insert link into email

Click the chain link icon, and then paste the link to your blog post, like this:

Paste link into text

Click ‘Insert’ and you’re ready to go. Now, for the last step, click ‘Continue’ in the upper right corner and you’ll see the following:

Send your email

Make sure you check the box next to your list (My Newsletter), and then hit the ‘Send Now’ button at the top.

And that’s how you send your very first email manually. Also, if you want to schedule it for later, you can choose that option and set a date for it to send.

You can repeat this process at any time you want to notify your subscribers about anything new on your blog.

How to Get More Email Subscribers

Did you know that more than 70% people visiting your website will simply never see it again? This why you have added an email subscription option to your blog so that you can notify users about new content, offers, and services.

However, adding just one sign up form in your sidebar is not enough. You’ll need to find more ways to quickly get more email subscribers.

This is where OptinMonster comes in. It is the best conversion optimization software in the world and helps you convert more website visitors into subscribers.

Instead of embedding a form in your sidebar that probably won’t get noticed, you can create opt-in forms that convert well and have been tested on thousands of sites.

With OptinMonster, You’ll get floating header and footer bars, slide-in boxes, welcome mats, inline forms, and lightbox popups.

Select campaign type

Next, you need to choose a campaign template that you can further customize to your liking:

Select campaign template

For instance, you can set up a popup on your site that triggers when someone is about to hit the back button in their browser. This is known as an exit-intent popup.

So right before someone leaves your site, they get a chance to subscribe, and many do because this has been tested on thousands of sites.

Lightbox popup

What’s great is OptinMonster integrates perfectly with any email marketing software and all types of websites. For more tips check out these tested and easy ways to grow your email list faster.

We hope this article shows you how to add email subscriptions to your WordPress blog. You may also want to read our guide on how to get a free business email address for your blog, and how to get a free virtual business phone number for your blog.

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.

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