This is great news for individuals who are looking to personalize their business website or want to add loads of plugins that could facilitate a connection between their website and other communication tools. In whatever ways you are willing to personalize your WordPress.com website, here are some easy instructions to help you achieve desired effects. 

Uploading Themes and Plugins on WordPress.com 

Uploading themes or plugins sounds like a fun opportunity to customize your personal internet space. The only downside to this opportunity is that it is a paid feature and can only be utilized by people who have signed up for the WordPress business account. To get started, you will need to pay $24.92 every month to keep your business account functional. Before you say anything, keep in mind that this is a small price to pay for getting all the customization you need!

Once you are done with that with, you can carry on with the next steps:

1. Choosing the Right Themes and Plugins

When it comes to themes or plugins, you have two options to follow. You can either purchase themes or plugins from trusted third parties or you can create your own themes or plugins. Unless you are fluent in coding and programming, we would suggest you buy from third parties since they are better at understanding the industry and have better support. 

Once you finalize any theme or plugin, there are certain things you need to be aware of. When it comes to themes, you will need to acquire the file to .zip. If you are opting with custom themes, make sure to convert the files to .zip.

With plugins, you will need to figure out whether it is compatible with your WordPress.com website or not. If purchasing from external vendors, you need to check the ‘last updated’ section of the plugins. Going through this piece of information will give you a pretty good idea of how frequently the plugins are being updated by its creators. Stay clear of anything that has not been updated in the past three or more weeks. The same goes for themes from third parties.

That said, if the WordPress’ free theme templates do not appease you or the third-party plugins fail to meet your website’s requirements, you can hire any software development company to fulfill your needs. It may end up being a costly option; however, it will provide you with a lot of customization opportunities that you may lack in the existing themes or plugins. 

2. Uploading the Content

Now comes the part where you upload your selection. To proceed, go to your designated dashboard and spot ‘Add’ option on the left-hand side. Upon clicking, the said resources will be uploaded to your WordPress.com website without any issue. 

But before you get on with it, there are a few things that need your attention. First of all, you need to go through the documentation or user agreement that comes with additional plugins or themes. This is to make sure that you know what you are getting yourself into. Also, this step is necessary since it enlists all the uses you will get out of the plugins/themes once you install them. 

Secondly, test every new addition separately. If you want to work with multiple themes and plugins, the best approach would be to install one thing at a time and test them out individually. Keep doing this until all your themes or plugins have been uploaded and tested out. In this way, you will be able to single out any problematic resource or any plugin/theme that fails to perform according to your expectations. 

Lastly, when uploading and testing out new features, it is better to deactivate any previously installed plugins or themes before uploading a new one. This will provide you with a better testing experience. If possible, have your tech-savvy friends around you during the testing phase since some custom plugins may disrupt your settings or even break your WordPress.com website. 

3. Customization and Setups 

Using plugins or themes in their original state is an amateurish move. So, you may have to tweak some settings to unleash their full potential. To do so, start by putting your WordPress.com website in the maintenance mode. Then, carry on with your modifications and once you are satisfied with the final product, you can remove your WordPress.com website from  maintenance mode and launch your website to put plugins and themes into play. 

You may have to perform additional steps when you are dealing with custom themes or plugins. Since every custom product is different from one another, it is better to go through the instructions provided with the custom product to finish setting them up. If you cannot find any additional instruction manual or you are not sure how to set up a custom theme/plugin, we recommend getting in touch with the plugins/theme’s support department.  

For custom themes, you can explore additional setup settings in the Customizer section. From your WordPress.com website, open My Site and click on Design. From there, locate the Customize option and adjust the settings according to your heart’s desire. For detailed instructions on uploading and setting up custom themes, please refer to this article. 

Wrapping Up 

Uploading themes or plugins from external sources is a fun way of personalizing your website. 

However, doing so is not easy since you need to follow instructions, convert files, not to mention installing, setting up and running your finished product. Even with this last step, you are not truly finished since certain custom themes or plugins require additional steps before being launched completely. 

Considering the thorough nature of this process, we have enlisted a few yet detailed steps that will clear up any confusion for you. We hope this article will help you in setting up your themes or such plugins that can maximize the functionality of your WordPress.com website. 

The post How to Upload Themes and Plugins on WordPress.com appeared first on SiteProNews.

Email has become an integral part of every individual’s life today and it’s a medium that will continue to boom in the future. This is why it is the most low-cost, yet effective method of reaching a wide audience with the intent of receiving a response.

So, give our email marketing guide a read in order to get a clear-cut idea of what is required to direct you towards success.

1. Do your Market Research

The initial step to an effective email marketing strategy is research. Observe and understand how booming competitive businesses are running campaigns and how they target their relevant audience. Note the various schemes and strategies implemented in their email campaigns and try to formulate a similar pattern. You can fine-tune it later once you’ve understood your subscribers.

2. Identify your Target Audience

Recognize your target market and plan out whether you’re focusing on a select group or a broad audience. It is critical to identify the people who will actually buy your products because you don’t want to waste your efforts in the form of cold emails. Your aim should be achieving good results without wasting resources.

3. Creation of an Email List

Building an email list requires some planning and patience. First, convince your customers by publishing high-quality content and give them the option of receiving updates for the price of their email address. You can also add case studies or resources that can be unlocked once a user has entered their email address.

Ensure that the email addresses you collect are relevant to your market audience and include the social sharing option so it will boost the reach of the emails even further.

4. Choose Specific Email Management Tools

Selecting the right email management tool is as important as the structure of your email. The right management tool for your startup can be the cause behind your success so choose wisely. Here is an overview of some of the best email management tools for startup campaigns.

ReachMail

This tool is highly recommended for its high performance in metric analysis. Also, it allows you to run five email campaigns simultaneously and provides launch-ready templates that are helpful in testing and modifying email campaigns.

MailGet

This is one of the best email marketing software packages used today. Its excellent features such as: 500+ email templates, drag-and-drop email builder, infinite customized tags and more, allow startups to run smooth email campaigns without any struggle.

5. How to Segment your List

Segmenting your list allows you to send relevant information to the right contact. When a subscriber has a personalized email sent to them, you have a higher chance to receive a response than when you send them unlimited emails regarding things they’re not interested in. This could lead them to unsubscribing to all communications in general, which would put you at a loss. By segmenting your subscribers, you add a personal touch to the emails which leaves a positive impression on the client.

Location

For instance, if your firm has several outlets in different locations, you can customize your email campaign to deliver information regarding the store closest to the recipient. This could include updates regarding promotional offers, sales, clearance dates and more.

Similarly, other businesses can schedule emails according to an individual customer’s region for whatever purpose, to keep them informed about important news.

Age

When your target audience belongs to a certain age group, segment your list accordingly to fit your target group. Your email should include information regarding services that are applicable to that recipient and nothing more. An email heavy on unnecessary information will end up in the receiver’s trash folder.

Gender

When you’re promoting a service or product that is gender sensitive, customize your emails based on the gender of the recipients for a higher probability of a positive response. This is extremely useful for a retail company, or a jewelry store.

6. Draw a Perfect Execution Strategy

Experimenting is the key to an ideal execution strategy. You must be ready to step out of your comfort zone and take risks in order to achieve a desirable outcome.

For instance, campaigns related to international and national holiday events are a great way to gain your customer’s attention. They have a higher likelihood of gaining positive results since most customers are looking for good promotional offers and emails.

7. Optimize Your Emails

The most basic hacks to optimizing an email marketing campaign are to come up with a strong and catchy subject line. Then follow it with a clear, sharp and concise body that expresses your message to the recipient.

Also, you can send re-engagement emails to your customers that haven’t engaged with your content lately. A simple, crisp re-engagement email with a caption like “here’s what you missed” followed with any promotional offers events or important news, can help in capturing their attention.

Use images to make your emails more appealing, but keep in mind that too many high resolution photos will increase the load time and not everyone has the patience for it.

Lastly, keep an eye on your frequency. Too many emails will irritate your recipients and will lead to your emails winding up in junk mail, while not sending enough makes you forgettable. Find the balance to maintain reader attention with a couple emails a week or a few customized emails.

8. A/B Testing

When you’ve got two ideas for a campaign but don’t know which one to execute, a method to help reach a solution is A/B testing.

This is when there are two variations of one campaign and both – Version A and Version B – are sent to two small groups. The version to receive the most level of engagement in the form of opening rate and clicks from the test groups decides the winner, which is then sent to all the recipients.

A/B testing is also applied in other fields of digital marketing services such as search engine marketing, affiliate marketing and more.

To wrap up, don’t ignore email marketing. It is delivering huge returns to businesses today. The main process is focusing on research, constructing an exceptional message, setting up the appropriate list and launching your campaign. Use the instructions above to improve your email marketing results and gain success in the industry. Remember, as long as you remain polite, concise and deliver value, you are guaranteed to gain the interest of your recipients.

The post Email Marketing Guide for Startups – All You Need To Know! appeared first on SiteProNews.