Showing posts with label Beginners guide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beginners guide. Show all posts

Sunday, October 1, 2017

How to Add Rotating Testimonials in WordPress

How to Add Rotating Testimonials in WordPress



Do you want to display rotating testimonials on your WordPress site? Testimonials are a great way to show social proof and build credibility. That’s why you see so many online businesses proudly displaying customer testimonials on their websites. In this article, we will show you to how to easily add rotating testimonials in WordPress.
Adding rotating testimonials in WordPress

Adding Rotating Testimonials Slider in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Testimonial Rotator plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Testimonials » Add Rotator page. This is where you’ll setup the carousel that will display rotating testimonials on your website.
Create your testimonials rotator
You can select how you want your testimonials carousel to behave. You can choose animation, duration for each testimonial, show/hide items, and more.
After that you need to enter the company or product that these testimonials are associated with. This information will not be displayed but will be used to add rich snippets meta data for search engines.
Lastly, you can select a theme for your carousel. By default, the plugin comes with two themes to choose from. You can purchase additional themes from the plugin author if you like.
Once you are finished, click on the publish button to save your changes.
Now that you have created the carousel, it is time to add testimonials. You can add testimonials by going to Testimonials » Add New page in your WordPress admin area.
Add testimonial
You need to add the client name in the title field, and their testimonial in the post editor.
Next, you need to scroll down to the ‘Testimonials Options’ section.
Testimonial options
You can add the testimonial to the rotator you created earlier. After that, you can select a star rating, client’s job title or company, and add client photo.
Once you are done, click on the publish button to save the testimonial. Repeat the process to add more client testimonials.
After you have added a few testimonials, you are ready to add them to your WordPress site.
Head over to the Testimonials » All Rotators page and copy the ‘User rotator settings’ shortcode next to the rotator you created earlier.
Rotating testimonials shortcode
You can add this shortcode to any WordPress post or page to display customer testimonials. You can also add it to a sidebar widget, see our guide on how to add shortcode in sidebar widget.
You can now visit your website to see your rotating testimonial in action.
Testimonials preview
We hope this article helped you learn how to add rotating testimonials in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate step by step WordPress SEO guide for beginners.
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.

How to Add the WordPress Logout Link to Navigation Menu?

How to Add the WordPress Logout Link to Navigation Menu?



Do you want to manually add a WordPress logout link on your site? If you run a WordPress membership site, then having a prominent logout link is helpful for your users. In this article, we will share the direct path to WordPress logout link, and how you can add the logout link in your WordPress menu as well as other areas of your site.
Link to logout of WordPress

The Logout Link for WordPress

Normally you can log out of your WordPress site by clicking on the logout link. This link is located below your profile picture in the top right corner of the WordPress admin bar.
All you have to do is take your mouse over to your username, and it will appear in the dropdown menu.
Log out link in WordPress admin bar
In case you or your site administrator have disabled the WordPress admin bar, then you will not be able to see the WordPress logout link.
The good thing is that the WordPress logout link can be directly accessed to log out of your current WordPress session.
The logout link for your WordPress site looks like this:
http://example.com/wp-login.php?action=logout
Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.
You can access this link directly in your browser window to log out of your WordPress site.
When you visit the WordPress logout link, it will take you to a warning page. You will need to click on the log out link to confirm that you really want to log out.
Logout confirmation
You can also manually add this logout link anywhere on your WordPress site. Let’s take a look at how to do that.

Video Tutorial


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Adding the Logout Link in WordPress Navigation Menus

Adding the WordPress logout link in your site’s navigation menu will make it easily accessible from any page on your website.
Simply head over to the Appearance » Menus page in your WordPress admin. After that, you need to click on the custom links tab to expand it and the the logout link in the URL field.
Logout link in navigation menu
Once you are done, click on the ‘Add to menu’ button, and you will notice the link appear in the right column. You can adjust its position by simply dragging it up or down.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Menu’ button to store your changes.
You can now visit your website to see the logout link in your navigation menu.
Logout link in the navigation menu
The problem with adding the logout link in menu is that it is visible to all users (both logged-in and logged-out). It only makes sense to show the logout link to users who are actually logged in.
You can do that by following our instructions on how to show different menus to logged in users.

Add WordPress Logout Link in the Sidebar Widget

WordPress comes with a default widget called Meta. This widget shows a bunch of useful links including a logout or login link to users.
Meta widget in WordPress
Some people find the other links in the Meta widget are not quite as useful.
As an alternate, you can also add a plain text or custom HTML widget with the logout link in plain HTML. Here is the HTML code you’ll need to add:
<a href="http://example.com/wp-login.php?action=logout">Logout</a>
Logout HTML widget
That’s all for now.
We hope this article helped you find the direct WordPress logout link and add it on your navigation menu. You may also want to see our ultimate step by step WordPress security guide for beginners.
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.

How to Create and Add Cinemagraphs in WordPress

How to Create and Add Cinemagraphs in WordPress



Do you want to learn how to create and add Cinemagraphs in your WordPress posts? Cinemagraphs are images with one part or area moving while rest of the image stays still. These images are highly engaging and add an storytelling element to your articles. In this article, we will show you how to easily create and add cinemagraphs in WordPress.
Creating cinemagraphs for your WordPress site

What are Cinemagraphs?

Cinemagraphs are typically GIF images where a small part of the image is moving while rest of it remains still. They look very cinematic hence the name cinemagraphs.
Cinemagraph preview
They add a storytelling element to images which makes them look more engaging. They are particularly useful when accompanying longform content, podcast episode, or an audio story.
Creating cinemagraphs is a bit different than regular GIFs. However if you have the right tools, then with little effort and some practice you’ll be able to create stunning cinemagraphs from your own videos.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily create and add cinemagraphs in WordPress.

Creating Cinemagraphs from Videos

To get started, you’ll need the following items:
  1. A small video clip that you want to convert into a cinemagraph
  2. Adobe Photoshop
  3. Your time, patience, and creativity
Let’s get started.
First you need to get your video ready. You can use a video editing tool like iMovie to trim the video to just the bare minimal clip that you need for the cinemagraph.
Next, you need to open Photoshop and import your video into layers by clicking on the File » Import » Video Frames to Layers menu.
Import your video into layers
Select your video and then click on the OK button to continue. Depending on your video size, it may take a little while to be fully imported.
Video to layers import
Once your video is imported, you will see video frames as layers under the layers panel.
Layers imported from video
Now you need to select all the layers except for the very first layer (Layer 1).
Go to Layer » New » Group From Layers menu or press Command + G (CTRL+G on Windows) to add layers into a group.
Grouped layers
Next, you need to select the group and go to Layer » Layer Mask » Reveal Allto add a mask to the group.
Reveal all
After adding the mask, press Command + I (Ctrl + I on Windows) keys to invert the color of the mask.
Now set the foreground color to white and then click on the brush tool. You need to use the brush tool to highlight the area you want to show in the loop.
Brush the moving parts to highlight them
After that, go to Window » Timeline to open all your layers in an animation format.
You will notice all frames appear transparent in the timeline except for the first frame.
Timeline
To change that, select the first layer (Layer 1) in the layers panel and click on the Unfiy Layer Visibility icon and then press the Match button.
Unify visibility
Next, click on the toggle icon of the Timeline and select all frames. After that click on the toggle button again to choose Copy Frames.
Copy frames
After copying the frames, click on the toggle button and select ‘Paste Frames’ option.
You will be asked to choose a paste method. Select ‘Paste After Selection’ and press the OK button.
Paste after selection
Next, you need to click on the Timeline toggle icon once more and select the ‘Reverse Frames’ option.
Reverse frames
Your cinemagraph animation is almost ready.
To save it on your computer, go to File » Save for Web option. This will bring up a popup where you need to select GIF format and click on the save button.
Save as GIF
That’s all your Cinematograph is ready.
You can add it to your site like you would add any other GIFs in WordPress. Simply edit the post or page where you want to add the cinemagraph and click on the add media button.
Upload your cinemagraph GIF in WordPress
This will bring up the media uploader popup, click on the select files button to upload the GIF file from your computer.
Once uploaded click on the ‘Insert into post’ button to continue.
You will now see the image in your WordPress post editor.
Don’t forget to save or update the post. You can now click on the preview button to see the cinemagraph in action. Here is the cinemagraph we created during this tutorial.
Cinemagraph example
We hope this article helped you learn how to create and add cinemagraphs in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of websites offering free royalty free images for WordPress users.
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.

How to Duplicate WordPress Database using phpMyAdmin

How to Duplicate WordPress Database using phpMyAdmin



Do you want to duplicate your WordPress database using phpMyAdmin? WordPress stores all your website data in a MySQL database. Sometimes you may need to quickly clone a WordPress database to transfer a website or to create manual backups. In this article, we will show you how to easily duplicate WordPress database using phpMyAdmin.
duplicate or clone WordPress database using phpMyAdmin

Why Use phpMyAdmin to Duplicate WordPress Database

WordPress stores all your website content in the database. Almost all WordPress hosting companies offer MySQL as your database management software. You can interact with MySQL using command line tools, but that is not ideal for beginners.
PhpMyAdmin offers a web based interface to manage your MySQL database. It can be used to manually backup your WordPress databaserestore admin password, or move your website to new server.
You can learn more about it in our guide on how to manage WordPress database with phpMyAdmin.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to duplicate WordPress database using phpMyAdmin.

Duplicate / Clone WordPress Database using phpMyAdmin

First, you need to visit the cPanel dashboard of your hosting account. Once logged in, scroll down to the Databases section and click on the phpMyAdmin icon.
phpMyAdmin icon in cPanel
Don’t worry if your cPanel dashboard looks a little different than our screenshots, or if your hosting company doesn’t have a cPanel dashboard. You just need to locate the databases section, and you’ll find the option to open phpMyAdmin.
This will take you to the phpMyAdmin interface where you need to click on the Databases link on the top to continue.
Select your WordPress database
On this screen, you will see a list of databases available. You need to click on your WordPress database from the list.
Next, you’ll see the list of tables in your WordPress database. Click on the ‘Operations’ link from the top menu to continue.
Database operations in my phpmyadmin
Now, you need to provide a name for the new duplicate database under the ‘Copy database to’ box. Make sure the ‘Structure and Data’ option is selected and then click on the Go button.
Copy database
PhpMyAdmin will now create a duplicate WordPress database for you. Once finished, you will see a success message.
After that you can click on ‘Databases’ link on the top to view your newly created duplicate database.

Manually Duplicate WordPress Database using phpMyAdmin

If you are on a shared WordPress hosting, then it is likely that your hosting company does not allow users to create databases directly from phpMyAdmin.
In that case, you will not be able to see the ‘Copy database to’ box on the operations page.
However, you can still export the existing database and then import it into a new database. To do that, visit the phpMyAdmin in your cPanel dashboard.
After selecting your WordPress database, click on the export button on the top menu and then select custom method.
Export database using phpMyAdmin
Now you need to scroll to the output section and check the ‘Save output to a file’ option.
Output settings
Click on the ‘Go’ button to continue.
phpMyAdmin will now export your WordPress database and send it to your browser as a .mysql file.
Next, you need to create a new database where you can import this file. Visit the cPanel dashboard and click on ‘MySQL Databases’ icon.
MySQL databases in cPanel
On the next screen, enter a name for your new database and click on ‘Create database’ button to continue.
New database
Cpanel will now create a new MySQL database. However, in order to use the database you need to assign it to a MySQL user.
Scroll down to ‘Add user to database’ section and select your MySQL username and then select your newly created database.
Add user to database
After that, click on the Add button to continue.
Cpanel will now grant the MySQL user full privileges on your newly created database.
Now that your new database is ready, you can go ahead and open phpMyAdmin from your cPanel dashboard.
You need to select your newly created database and then click on the import button from top menu.
Import database
Next, click on the choose file button to select the .mysql file you downloaded earlier and click on the Go button to continue.
PhpMyAdmin will now upload the file from your computer and import your database. You will see a success message upon completion.
Successfully imported WordPress database
We hope this article helped you learn how to duplicate WordPress database using phpMyAdmin. If you’re looking for a more efficient way to backup and manage your website, then check out our list of the best WordPress backup plugins.
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.

How to Fix 503 Service Unavailable Error in WordPress

How to Fix 503 Service Unavailable Error in WordPress



Are you seeing a 503 service unavailable error in WordPress? The problem with the 503 error is that it gives no clues about what’s causing it which makes it extremely frustrating for beginners. In this article, we will show you how to fix the 503 service unavailable error in WordPress.
Fixing 503 service unavailable error in WordPress

What Causes 503 Service Unavailable Error in WordPress?

All WordPress hosting companies offer fixed amount of resources for each hosting account. For websites on shared hosting, this limit cannot handle heavy usage of server resources.
The 503 service unavailable error occurs when your web server is unable to get a proper response from a PHP script. This PHP script could be a WordPress plugin, a theme, or a misbehaving custom code snippet.
If the error is caused by heavy usage, a server glitch, or a DDoS attack, then it could automatically disappear in a few minutes.
However, if it is caused by bad code on your website, then it will keep occurring unless you find and disable the code that’s causing it.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily fix 503 service unavailable error in WordPress.

Fixing 503 Service Unavailable Error in WordPress

As we mentioned above that this error is caused when your web server is unable to get a proper response from a PHP script running in the background.
To fix it, we will disable all unnecessary PHP scripts one by one until the error is resolved.
Let’s get started.

Deactivate All WordPress Plugins

All your WordPress plugins are PHP scripts, so first you need to deactivate all your WordPress plugins.
Since you cannot login to your WordPress dashboard due to the 503 error, you will need to connect to your website using a FTP client or File Manager in cPanel. Once connected, go to /wp-content/ folder and rename the plugins folder to plugins-old.
Rename plugins folder
Next, you need to create a new folder and name it plugins.
Now you need to visit your WordPress site to see if this resolved the error.
If it did, then this means a plugin installed on your website was causing the error. The above steps have deactivated all WordPress plugins.
To figure out which plugin was causing the issue, you need to switch back to your FTP client or file manager in cPanel. Next, you need to go to /wp-content/ folder and delete the empty plugins folder.
Delete empty plugins folder
After that you need to rename the plugins-old folder to plugins. This will make all your previously installed plugins available to WordPress. However, these plugins will remain deactivated.
You need to visit the WordPress admin area and then go to the plugins page. You can activate your plugins one by one and visit different pages on your website after activating each plugin. Keep doing that until you find the plugin causing the 503 error.
If this step resolved your issue, then you don’t need to follow rest of the instructions on this page. Otherwise, you can move on to the next step.

Switch to a Default WordPress Theme

If deactivating plugins didn’t resolve the issue, then the next step would be to switch to a default WordPress theme. This will deactivate your current WordPress theme.
First, you need to connect to your WordPress site using an FTP client or File Manager in cPanel. Once connected, go to /wp-content/themes/ folder.
Download your current WordPress theme
Locate your currently active WordPress theme and download it to your computer as backup.
After downloading your theme, you can go ahead and delete it from your website
Now, if you already have a default theme like Twenty Seventeen or Twenty Sixteen installed, then it will be automatically activated. If you don’t, then you can go ahead and install a default theme on your website.
Thoroughly check your website to make sure that 503 service unavailable error is resolved.

Troubleshooting

If both methods fail to resolve the error, then you can take the following steps:
  • Contact your WordPress hosting company because they may be able to pin-point what’s causing the issue.
  • As a last resort, you can reinstall WordPress with a fresh copy.
We hope this article helped you learn how to fix 503 service unavailable error in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate list of the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.
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.