24 Must Have WordPress Plugins for Business Websites in 2020

Looking for the best WordPress plugins to take your business to the next level in 2020?

There are over 55,000+ WordPress plugins that you can choose from. This makes it extremely overwhelming for new users to find the right plugin for their website.

We are often asked by readers for the best WordPress plugin suggestions for SEO, social media, backups, speed, etc.

Being the largest WordPress resource site, our experts test over a thousand best paid and free WordPress plugins every year, so we can make it easy for our users (you) to find the best solutions.

Having the right set of WordPress plugins and tools can help you grow your online business. In this article, we have shared our expert pick of the must-have WordPress plugins for business websites in 2020.

Note: these are the plugins that our team installs when we start a new blog or make a new website for our own businesses.

1. WPForms

Every website needs a contact form because it makes it easy for your visitors to get in touch with you. WPForms is the most user-friendly contact form plugin for WordPress.

This drag & drop online form builder allows you to easily create contact forms, email subscription forms, online order forms, payment forms,
surveys, polls, and basically all other types of online forms with just a few clicks.

WPForms integrates with all popular marketing and payment platforms, so you can build powerful forms in less than 5 minutes.

It even comes with options to help you create a custom WordPress user registration form and login page.

We use WPForms on the WPBeginner website and all of our other websites. But we’re not alone. Over 3 million websites use WPForms, and they have consistently maintained a 4.9 out of 5-star rating average for over 3 years now.

There’s a free WPForms Lite version available for those who are looking for a simple solution.

If you are seriously looking to grow your business, then we recommend getting the Pro version because it comes with all the powerful features you need to boost your lead generation efforts. Use this WPForms coupon to get 50% off your purchase.

Alternative: Formidable Forms is an excellent alternative for creating advanced solution-focused WordPress forms.

2. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It allows you to “properly” connect your website with Google Analytics, so you can see exactly how people find and use your website.

The best part is that it shows you all the important stats that matter right inside your WordPress dashboard.

You can then optimize your website accordingly to increase your traffic, subscribers, and revenue. We have detailed guides on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress, how to use Google Analytics to enable eCommerce tracking, and how to track user engagement.

MonsterInsights has a free version, but the true power of it only unlocks when you upgrade to the premium version.

You can use our MonsterInsights coupon to get 50% off your purchase.

MonsterInsights is used by over 2 million websites.

3. Yoast SEO

SEO helps you get more visitors from search engines to your website. While WordPress is SEO friendly out of the box, there is so much more you can do to increase your website traffic using SEO best practices.

Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugin of all time. Out of all the WordPress SEO plugins, Yoast offers the most comprehensive solution with all the features and tools that you need to improve your on-page SEO.

It helps you add meta tags, generate sitemaps, connect your site to Google Search Console, optimize it for social media, and more.

Yoast comes with a powerful Redirect feature that lets you easily create 301 redirects which is extremely helpful. It also detects change of URLs and create auto-redirects, so you don’t have any broken links on your website.

For complete SEO setup on your website, follow our ultimate WordPress SEO tutorial for beginners with step by step instructions.

Alternative: All in One SEO Pack is a great alternative for Yoast SEO.

4. Constant Contact

Email is the most effective and most reliable marketing tool at your disposal as a business owner. It allows you to stay in touch with your users even after they leave your website. This is why we recommend every business owner to start building an email list right away.

Constant Contact is one of the most popular email marketing service providers in the world.

Their platform allows you to build an email list and send beautiful email newsletters to your subscribers.

It offers a quick and easy setup for non-techy users. It also works well with popular lead generation plugins for WordPress like OptinMonster and WPForms.

Alternatives: SendinBlue and ConvertKit are good alternatives if you want something more advanced, but they are more pricey.

5. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the most popular conversion rate optimization software in the market. It allows you to convert abandoning website visitors into email subscribers and customers.

This WordPress plugin and application helps you get more email subscribers, fast.

OptinMonster comes with pre-made high-converting opt-in forms that you can easily customize with their drag & drop builder. Their powerful display targeting features allow you to personalize the campaigns for each user, so you can show the right message at the right time.

It’s a great solution for bloggers, business websites, and eCommerce websites. Basically, if you want to make more money from your website traffic, then you need OptinMonster.

It helps you recover abandoned cart sales, convert website visitors, and grow your email list. Read these case studies to see how much success other businesses are having by using OptinMonster.

We use OptinMonster on WPBeginner and our other websites.

6. Sucuri

Security should be a top priority for all online business owners. Sucuri offers a WordPress security plugin and web application firewall that is probably one of the best protection you can get for your site.

They monitor and protect your site from DDoS, malware threats, XSS attacks, brute force attacks, and basically every other type of attack. If you don’t have a firewall on your website, then you need to add one today.

To learn more on how to strengthen the security of your website and protect your business, see our ultimate WordPress security guide with step by step instructions for beginners.

Sucuri help us block hundreds of thousands of attacks every month on WPBeginner.

7. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is the most popular WordPress backup plugin on the market. It allows you to set up automatic backups and safely store them on a remote location like Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, Rackspace, FTP, email, and more.

It also makes it super easy to restore your website from a backup. Their base plugin is free, but they also have a paid plan with extra features and priority support.

Alternative: BackupBuddy and VaultPress (Jetpack Backups) are also excellent solutions, but they are paid only.

8. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market. It allows you to instantly improve your WordPress website speed and performance with no technical skills required.

It automatically turns on recommended WordPress caching settings like gzip compression, page cache, and cache pre-loading. You can also turn on optional features like lazy loading images, CDN support, DNS pre-fetching, minification, and more to further improve page load times.

Most importantly, WP Rocket doesn’t wait for someone to request a page to save it in the cache. It automatically crawls and build your website cache which results in an instant performance boost.

WP Rocket also offers Imagify which is a free image optimization service to help you speed up your website even further.

This is by far the easiest and most beginner-friendly caching plugin. The only downside is that it’s paid only.

Alternative: WP Super Cache is free, but it’s not as powerful or easy.

9. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is the best drag and drop page builder for WordPress. It allows you to easily customize your website design and create custom page layouts without writing any code.

Business owners love it because it lets them create completely custom landing pages within minutes without having to hire a developer.

Alternative: Divi page builder plugin is a great alternative.

10. MemberPress

MemberPress allows you to build online communities and membership sites using WordPress. It is the best WordPress membership plugin in the market.

You can create subscriptions and restrict content to users based on their subscription plans. It works with all popular payment solutions and plays nicely with online stores using WooCommerce. For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to make a membership website in WordPress.

11. RafflePress

RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market. It allows you to instantly increase your website traffic, get more social media followers, and email subscribers with viral giveaways and contests.

RafflePress comes with an easy drag and drop giveaway builder along with proven giveaway templates that you can use to create a giveaway that attracts visitor’s attention.

To enter the giveaway, website visitors must use their email address. This helps you get more subscribers for your email newsletter.

RafflePress incentivizes users to follow your social profiles and share the giveaway with their friends to get more entries into the contest. This helps you increase social media engagement.

The word-of-mouth marketing helps you get more traffic, FASTER! This results in more followers, more sales, and more revenue!

You can easily connect your social profiles, WordPress form plugins, and all popular marketing platforms and CRMs.

RafflePress has a free version called RafflePress lite that you can get started with. If you want more powerful features to skyrocket your growth, then you need to use RafflePress Pro.

WPBeginner users can use our RafflePress coupon code: wpbeginner20 to get an additional 20% off.

12. CSS Hero

WordPress themes rely on CSS for the visual appearance of your website. If you want to make customization to your theme, then you will have to learn CSS. This can be time-consuming for a business owner.

CSS Hero is a WordPress plugin that allows you to customize any WordPress theme without writing a single line of code. Check out our review of how CSS Hero makes WordPress customization easy for more information.

It’s not a drag & drop page builder like BeaverBuilder that helps you build custom layouts. Rather it helps you customize any WordPress theme available in the market within minutes to match your needs.

13. SeedProd

SeedProd is the best WordPress maintenance mode and coming soon page plugin that helps you collect leads and grow your followers even when your website is not available.

If your site is under construction, then you can use it to create beautiful coming soon landing pages. It includes features like integration with your email marketing services, countdown timer, social media integration, and dozens of templates to choose from.

14. LearnDash

LearnDash is the best WordPress LMS plugin to create and sell online courses from your WordPress website. It has a drag and drop course builder that allows you to quickly add lessons, quizzes, and assignments to build your course.

For detailed step by step instructions, see our guide on how to create online courses in WordPress using LearnDash.

15. G Suite

G Suite is a suite of web applications like email, docs, spreadsheets, etc. Created by Google, this powerful set of office applications is cheaper, easy to deploy, and hassle free.

It allows you to save costs on software licenses, hardware, hiring IT staff, managing backups, and more. Most importantly it allows you to use professional email addresses with your own business domain name right inside Gmail.

Alternative: You can also get a free business email from your WordPress hosting provider or use Microsoft Office365.

16. SEMRush

SEMRush is an all-in-one marketing toolkit for digital marketing professionals and business owners. It comes with powerful tools to help you improve your SEO, paid traffic strategy, social media, and content & PR strategy.

It also helps you gather competitive intelligence on your competitors, so you can outrank them and dominate your industry.

It helps you do keyword research, backlink audit, track brand mentions, spy on competitors, discover best-performing posts and pages on social media, ad strategy analysis, and more.

These short paragraphs are not enough to describe the true power of SEMRush. It’s a must have tool in our list for serious business owners.

17. LiveChat

LiveChat Inc is the best live chat support software for businesses and e-commerce websites. It is super easy to use and allows you to quickly add live chat on your WordPress website.

It has tons of customization options, and it comes with a mobile app, so you can provide real-time support.

It integrates with your existing support software, CRM, email marketing, and other tools. Most importantly, it loads fast and offers a great user experience.

Alternative: Sendinblue Chat is another popular service which lets you connect chat, CRM, SMS, Facebook, and email in one platform.

18. Pretty Links Pro

Pretty Links Pro is one of the best link management plugins for WordPress. It allows you to easily manage affiliate links while making it easy make your affiliate links short and memorable for sharing.

It is the perfect tool for affiliate marketers, podcasters, business owners, and others who want to easily create short URLs in WordPress.

Alternative: ThirstyAffiliates is an excellent alternative with lots of powerful features.

19. Shared Counts

Shared Counts is the best WordPress social media plugin that allows you to easily add beautiful social sharing buttons on your website.

It also shows share counts, which helps you add social proof to your website.

While there are many paid solutions available, this free plugin beats them all in code quality and performance.

We use SharedCount on a lot of our website because it offers an easy out of the box solution for both beginners and developers.

20. WP Mail SMTP

By default, WordPress uses the PHP mail function to send emails. The problem is that either WordPress hosting companies don’t have this feature setup properly, or they block it to prevent abuse.

This basically means that you and your users may not receive important email notifications from your WordPress site.

WP Mail SMTP solves this problem by sending WordPress emails using a proper SMTP mail server. To learn more, see our article on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

Pro tip: The paid version called WP Mail SMTP Pro comes with white glove setup and more features. Basically, their support staff will set it up and connect it to use your SMTP service provider.

21. Insert Headers and Footers

While managing your WordPress site, you may sometimes need to add code snippets to your WordPress header or footer for verification, inserting ad retargeting scripts, etc.

Insert Headers and Footer allows you to easily add code snippets to your WordPress site without editing your theme files. Take a look at our tutorial on how to add header and footer code in WordPress.

This free plugin is extremely handy for business owners.

22. WPML

By default, WordPress does not allow you to easily create a multilingual website. This is a challenge for businesses that cater to a multilingual customer base in different geographic locations.

This is where you’ll need WPML. It is a WordPress multilingual plugin that allows you to easily create multi-lingual websites with WordPress.

It is very easy to use, SEO friendly, and helps you easily create content in different languages.

Alternative: TranslatePress is an excellent alternative that’s growing fast.

23. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress used by over 4 million websites.

It comes with all the powerful features that you need to create an online store.

Over the last few years, WooCommerce has established itself as the most dominant eCommerce plugin for WordPress. There’s even a WooCommerce ecosystem now with dedicated WooCommerce hosting, WooCommerce themes, and WooCommerce plugins available.

Companion plugin: TrustPulse helps you instantly win customer trust with social proof and FOMO.

Alternative: BigCommerce is a fully-hosted headless eCommerce platform for WordPress. It offers high scalability and low maintenance for serious store owners.

24. Nextiva

Nextiva is the best business phone service in terms of features and ease of use. They allow you to get a business phone number for your website which comes with advanced call routing, unlimited free domestic calling, voicemail to email or text, online faxing, and more.

The best part is that you can receive calls from your business phone number straight to your cell phone which is excellent for small businesses. You can also set business hours, so you are not getting disturbed during holidays or non-work hours.

Their platform also offers CRM, live chat, online surveys, and other communication features. You can manage it all in a simple web-based admin panel which makes it easy for small business owners to easily manage everything like a pro.

We use Nextiva VOIP for our business because it’s one of the most affordable and most reliable business phone service that grows with your business.

Alternative: RingCentral is another highly recommended phone service and business voip provider.

Bonus Tools

Aside from the top 24 WordPress plugins and tools that we mentioned above, we also use and recommend the following tools to better manage our WordPress sites:

• Grammarly – excellent grammar checking tool that comes with plagiarism detector, vocabulary enhancement, and more.
• PublishPress – this plugin makes it easy for us to manage our editorial workflow in WordPress.
• Antispam Bee – An excellent plugin to improve comments section with reduced spam on your website. It works particularly well when used alongside with Akismet.
• Adobe Photoshop – this makes it easy for us to create blog thumbnails and other images for our articles.
• MaxCDN – this helps us speed up our website by geographically spreading our content to multiple servers (see: what is a CDN)
• Envira Gallery – we use this plugin to help us create better galleries with albums.
• Codeable – a platform that helps you work with vetted WordPress developers to troubleshoot problems and make customizations.

This concludes our list of the best WordPress plugins for business websites.

Depending on your business, you may not need to use all the WordPress plugins and tools mentioned in our list, but it’s pretty common for our readers to end up using at least 15 to 18 solutions that we have mentioned.

Now that you have the best WordPress plugins, you may also want to see our article on how to increase your website traffic (27 proven tips).

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 24 Must Have WordPress Plugins for Business Websites in 2020 appeared first on WPBeginner.

February 07, 2020 at 05:00PM

How to Clear Your Cache in WordPress

Recently, one of our readers asked us how to clear cache in WordPress?

Your web browser, hosting server, and caching plugins can all serve cached content which can make it difficult for you to see the changes you made to your website right away.

Clearing your WordPress cache is also the first troubleshooting advice that you’ll often hear.

In this article, we will show you how to properly clear the cache in WordPress. We’ll cover browser cache, web hosting cache, and top WordPress caching plugins in this guide.

What is Cache and When Do You Need to Clear Cache?

Caching solutions store a static version of your website. This allows WordPress to skip running the heavier PHP scripts and improve your website speed.

There are many different type of caching solutions available. The most popular ones are WordPress caching plugins like WP Rocket and WP Super Cache.

These plugins offer an easy to use interface for controlling what to cache, when to expire cached content, and cleaning up cache on demand.

Managed WordPress hosting providers like WP Engine also run their own caching solutions, so that you don’t have to install a caching plugin.

If you are using a CDN service like MaxCDN, then they would also serve cached copies of static content.

If you’re using a web application firewall like Sucuri or CloudFlare to improve your WordPress security, then they also have their own cache to speed up your site and reduce downtime.

Lastly, most modern web browsers will also store cached versions of pages on your computer.

The purpose of caching is to speed up the website and improve overall user experience. However, sometimes this causes you to not see the changes you make right away which can be frustrating. In that case, you will need to clear caches to see your changes live.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to clear your cache in WordPress.

Step 1: Clear Your Browser Cache

First, you need to clear your web browser cache. Most web browsers can store static content like stylesheets, JavaScript, images from a website to make your subsequent visits faster.

However, sometimes web browsers may fail to realize that a web page has changed. Instead of fetching a fresh copy, they may still reload the page from the cached version stored on your computer.

Here is how you will clean your browser cache in Google Chrome. First, you need to click on the menu icon and then select More Tools » Clear Browsing Data.

This will bring up a popup where you can select the content you want to remove. Make sure that cached images and files option is checked and then click on the ‘Clear browsing data’ button.

You have successfully cleared your browser cache, and you can now try visiting your website. For more details, see our guide on how to clear cache in all major browsers.

If you are still not seeing the changes you made, then move on to the next steps in this article.

Step 2: Clear Cache in Your WordPress Caching Plugin

If you are using a WordPress caching plugin on your site, then you need to clear your plugin cache. Most caching plugins allow you to easily do that from the plugin’s Settings page.

Clear Cache in WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market. The best part about using WP Rocket is that it proactively builds your WordPress cache in the background, so your users are always served a cached version.

It also makes it very easy to clear caches files with a single click.

Simply go to the Settings » WP Rocket page and click on the ‘Clear Cache’ button under the dashboard tab.

WP Rocket will now clear all cached files for you.

Clear Cache in WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is a popular WordPress caching plugin. It allows you to clean or purge all cached content with a single click.

You need to visit Settings » WP Super Cache page and click on ‘Delete Cache’ button.

That’s all, WP Super Cache will now delete all cached files from your website.

Clear Cache in W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is another popular WordPress caching plugin. It also makes it super easy to clear cache with one click.

Head over to Performance » Dashboard page and click on ’empty all caches button.

W3 Total Cache will now delete all cached content for your site.

Clear Cache on WP Engine

WP Engine is a managed WordPress hosting provider. They run their own caching solution, so their customers don’t need to install a caching plugin.

If you are unable to notice changes take effect immediately, then you can easily clear WP Engine cache from your WordPress admin area.

You need to click on the WP Engine menu item in the admin bar and then under ‘General’ settings click on purge all caches button.

WP Engine will now purge all stored cache for your WordPress site.

Clear Cache on Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the best WordPress hosting companies in the business. They offer a built-in caching solution that instantly improves your WordPress performance and speed.

You can clear your Bluehost WordPress cache from WordPress admin area.

Simply login to your WordPress admin area and you will notice a ‘Caching’ button in the admin tool bar. Take your mouse over and you’ll see the option to ‘Purge All’ cache.

Bluehost will now clear all files from their WordPress cache.

Clear Cache in SiteGround

SiteGround is a leading WordPress hosting provider that’s known for speed and top-notch customer support. They offer a built-in caching solution to improve your website performance.

You can clear SiteGround cache from your hosting account control panel as well as the WordPress admin area. We’ll show you both methods.

Clear SiteGround cache from your hosting dashboard

Login to your hosting account dashboard go to Speed » Caching page under site tools.

From here, switch to the Dynamic cache tab. Click on the menu icon next to your domain name and then select Flush cache option.

Clear SiteGround cache from WordPress admin dashboard

You can also manage SiteGround cache by installing and activating the SG Optimizer plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to click on the Purge SG Cache button in the WordPress admin toolbar.

The plugin will now clear your SiteGround WordPress cache.

Clear Cache in Sucuri

If you’re using a WordPress firewall like Sucuri to protect your website, then they also have their own layer of caching.

You can clear the cache from your Sucuri plugin by going to Sucuri » WAF menu in your WordPress admin area.

Bonus Tip: If you have recently moved your WordPress website, then you may also need to clear your DNS cache. This will ensure that you are getting the updated DNS information and accessing the newer version of your website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to clear cache in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to boost WordPress speed and performance.

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 Clear Your Cache in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

February 06, 2020 at 07:00PM

Best Blogging Niche – 7 That Will Make Money (Easily)

Are you thinking about starting a blog but not sure which topics or niche to choose?

Choosing the right niche for your blog makes it easier to create engaging content and even make money online.

In this article, we’ll explain how to easily choose the best blogging niche that will eventually help you start earning online.

What is a Blog?

A blog is a website that’s updated regularly with new pieces of content, which are normally written articles. These are called “posts” and appear in reverse chronological order, with the newest at the top of the list.

To learn more, see our guide on the difference between a blog and a website.

When blogs first started, they were mostly personal diaries, sharing information on a range of topics of interest to the person writing.

That’s still how some blogs work today, but a large number of blogs now focus on specific niches that interest the blogger and their target audience.

For instance, WPBeginner is a blog focused on helping non-techy users do more with WordPress through helpful tutorials, how-tos, and other articles.

How to Make a Blog?

To start a blog, you need three key things:

• A domain name: the address of your site (ours is wpbeginner.com)
• Web hosting: online storage for your site, so visitors can access it
• A blogging platform: special software that lets you easily create a blog without needing to do any coding

Normally, a domain name costs around $15-20 per year and web hosting starts from $7.95 per year.

That’s a significant investment, especially when you are just testing the waters.

Luckily, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and a generous discount on hosting. Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Deal ←

Need more options? See our guide on how to choose the best web hosting detailed comparison of top hosting providers.

When it comes to your blog platform, there are plenty of choices available, including many great free ones. See our list of the best blogging platforms for detailed comparison.

However, if you want to make money from your blog in the near future, then WordPress.org is your best option (this is what we use on WPBeginner).

It is easy to use and comes with thousands of design options and add-ons. Most importantly, it gives you the freedom to monetize your blog in any way you want.

For more details, see our detailed guide on how to start a WordPress blog.

Related: Why you should use WordPress

Can You Really Make Money Blogging?

Starting a blog isn’t going to make you rich overnight, but you can definitely make money blogging.

Many popular blogs make money online using different methods. Often, this is called “monetizing” your blog.

Smaller blogs with a specific target audience can easily make a nice side income. Many popular blogs make six and even seven-figure income (see: WPBeginner income – how much money does WPBeginner make?).

The following are just some of the most popular monetization methods used by blogs all over the world.

Advertising: Running ads, often through an advertising network like Google AdSense. Some bloggers sell ads directly to companies instead.

Sponsorship: Running sponsored (paid for) content from an advertiser. This is often in the form of sponsored blog posts, but could also include social media posts on Instagram or other social networks.

Affiliate marketing: Linking to products or services that offer commission when someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase. This is a great way to monetize your blog. We have lots of affiliate marketing tips and tools to make it easy for you.

Digital products: By selling digital products like Ebooks, online courses, printables, apps, software, music, and more. Digital products generally have low overheads and can work for almost any niche.

Services: If you’re a writer, photographer, coach, or similar, that can be a great way to monetize your blog. You might even start a blog to help you market an existing service you offer, like logo design or freelance writing.

Physical products: Although they have higher costs than digital ones, physical products can be a great way to make money. It’s easy to add an online store to your WordPress blog and start selling.

Things to Consider When Choosing Your Blogging Niche

Many new blogs die within a few weeks and most don’t even make it to a couple of months.

Whatever blogging niche you choose, make sure you are genuinely interested in that topic. This would make it easier to stick to it and keep yourself motivated.

It’s also important to consider:

Do you know enough about your niche to be able to write confidently? You don’t need to be an expert, but it’s best to start a blog on a topic that you’re able to write about without having to do loads of research.

Can you easily make money from your niche? While blogs on all sorts of topics can and do make money, some niches are a lot easier to monetize than others. A blog about a little-known or uninteresting topic might not get enough readers to make much money.

Have you chosen an appropriately sized niche? It’s best not to go too broad. If you’re aiming for an audience of “everyone”, you’re likely to end up with “no one”. Try to find a sub-niche that’s a great fit for you.

Are you happy to have your name associated with your niche? While it’s fine to blog anonymously if you want to, however you might find it difficult to monetize.

Top Blogging Niches That Will Make Money

You might already have a topic in mind for your blog, or you might not have any ideas at all. All the niches below are great ones to try, so long as you pick a topic that you’re truly interested in.

These are all big, popular niches that have been around for years and that can make a lot of money.

1. Health and Fitness

Health and fitness are huge topics, and you’ll definitely find an audience if you’re blogging about something in this area.

Health and fitness is one of the most popular blogging niches. It is a lucrative niche which means there are a ton of blogs that will be competing with you.

The easiest way to build your voice is by narrowing it down to your general interest.

There are lots of different angles that you could take:

• A particular diet: paleo, gluten-free, raw food, 5:2, keto…
• A particular type of exercise: running, weight-lifting, CrossFit…
• A specific audience: women, men, young, old, geeky…
• A particular approach to health: homeopathy, acupuncture, wellness…
• Sharing your progress: if you’re on a health journey of your own, you could update readers on that and share your lessons learned

Tip: We’ve got a list of the best WordPress themes for CrossFit gyms. A lot of those could work well for other health or fitness topics too, so take a look and see if one would be right for your blog.

2. Personal Finance

We all need money, and many of us want to earn more, spend less, or save more. Blogs on personal finance have found huge audiences, and again, there are lots of different angles and approaches you can take.

You might choose to write about:

• Frugality: money saving tips, using coupons, anti-consumerism…
• Investing: market tips, best index funds, angel investors…
• Debt: paying it off, mortgages, student loans…
• Budgeting: software, motivation, cost-cutting tips…
• Sharing your progress: this is quite common with blogs that focus on getting out of debt

Related: Best WordPress themes for financial blogs.

3. Fashion

Fashion is another immensely popular blogging niche and one that could be a great money-maker. It’s a particularly good fit if you love posting on Instagram, which is where some fashion bloggers have become especially influential.

Many fashion blogs focus on the blogger and include lots of photos. If you want to remain anonymous, or if you hate being photographed, then this type of fashion blogging probably isn’t for you. Instead, you might want to blog about particular trends within fashion, or share fashion-related news.

Although you might associate fashion blogging with female bloggers, this niche isn’t just for women.

There are plenty of men’s fashion blogs (often called “men’s style”) out there too. These tend to focus more on tips and product suggestions than on personal photos.

We have a complete guide on how to start a fashion blog and make money with step by step instructions.

4. Lifestyle

What’s the “lifestyle” niche in blogging? It can be a little confusing if you’re new to blogging, so let’s break it down.

Lifestyle means writing about a range of different topics that are connected through having the same audience.

For instance, you might have a lifestyle blog where you write about food, fashion, and motherhood. The connection is that you’re writing for women in their 30s and 40s who want to eat well and look great while raising young children.

Alternatively, you might have a lifestyle blog aimed at single women that focuses on travel, beauty, and hair. Or you might have a blog aimed at men aged 20 to 40 that’s all about style, fitness, and music.

The mix of topics is up to you, but it’s important to make sure your blog has a very clear brand to give it focus and direction.

Tip: Many fashion WordPress themes or fitness WordPress themes can be a good fit for lifestyle blogs. As with fashion blogs, design is really important in this niche, so invest in a premium theme if you can.

5. Business and Marketing

There are loads of blogs out there that cover business and marketing related topics. If you’ve been reading a lot about blogging, you might feel like every popular blog talks about something to do with blogging, marketing or building a business!

If you’ve got a business or marketing background, then starting a blog in this niche could be a great idea. As with the other niches on our list, this is a huge one, so you’ll want to find a clear focus and voice for your own blog.

Depending on your expertise and interests, you might choose to blog about:

• B2B (business-to-business) marketing
• B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing
• Entrepreneurship: starting and growing companies
• Small businesses: more and more people are moving into self-employment, so this is a great area to target
• A particular type of marketing or area of marketing: networking, social media marketing, copywriting, direct response marketing…

Tip: Almost any of these multi-purpose WordPress themes could work for your business or marketing website. Divi is an especially good option as it’s fully responsive and you can customize it however you like.

6. Technology and Gaming

The fast-paced technology niche is great for making money from affiliate income, either directly from manufacturers and software companies, or through a website like Amazon.

Your best monetization routes are likely to be through advertising and affiliate marketing. Even if you’re not writing in-depth product reviews, a technology or gaming blog will give you lots of chances to link to products or software using affiliate links.

You might not be able to break industry news or share insider information, but there are still lots of things you could write about in this niche:

• Specific equipment or gadgets: phone handsets, digital cameras, fitness trackers, Chromebooks…
• Games: for consoles, PCs, mobiles, Facebook…
• Tutorials: either for a specific piece of software (e.g. Photoshop) or more wide-ranging
• Latest news: usually about a particular company or type of product
• Technology or gaming for a specific demographic, such as teens or boomers

Related: See our step by step complete affiliate marketing guide for beginners.

7. Travel

The final niche on our list is travel. Again, it’s a hugely popular niche, both with bloggers and with readers, and there are a lot of different approaches you could take to build a successful blog.

Blogging about your own travels could be monetized through affiliate links to hotels, recommended travel buys, and so on. It might even give you opportunities for free vacations.

Great photos are, of course, an important part of your travel blog. Even if you’re just writing about local attractions, people will want to see pictures.

You could focus your travel blog by writing about:

• Specific countries or continents: things to do, restaurants to visit, ways to get around…
• A particular type of traveler: families, solo female travelers, digital nomads…
• Travel deals: for flights, hotels, packages…
• Your own travels: having a key theme or brand can make this easier to monetize

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to start a travel blog and make money from it.

Other Popular Blogging Niches to Consider

Of course, these aren’t the only ones you could make great money from. There are bloggers out there with successful blogs on almost any topic you could think of.

Maybe none of the ideas we’ve looked at sound like a good fit for you. Don’t push yourself to start a blog on a topic that you’re not interested in.

Here are some other good options to try. They all have the potential to make plenty of money.

Crafts Blog

If you love to knit, paint, sew, make jewelry, or engage in some other type of craft, why not blog about it? There are lots of great crafty blogs out there, and they tend to do really well on Pinterest.

As with other highly visual niches, like fashion, lifestyle, and travel, you’ll need to be able to include great photos. You could monetize by using affiliate links to any crafting tools and supplies that you want to promote or by selling your crafted items through a marketplace like Etsy.

DIY Blog

Do you enjoy decorating and remodeling your home? Or maybe you’ve gone further and redesigned or even rebuilt your home. There are plenty of DIY blogs out there, and this can be a great type of blogging to try if you enjoy writing tutorials and “how-to” articles.

Parenting Blog

Do you have kids? There are thousands of blogs out there about parenting, covering all sorts of different angles. While you might think the niche is already full of mommy bloggers, the audience for parenting blogs is so large that it’s definitely worth considering.

To help your parenting blog stand out, you’ll want a clear angle. You could write about a stage of parenting (like parenting toddlers) or you could write for a certain group of parents (like older parents or teen parents).

Educational Blog

Is there a topic that you know well and that you could teach others about? That could become a great niche for you.

For instance, perhaps you’re a keen amateur photographer and you could write detailed tutorials for beginners. Or maybe you’re an experienced developer and you could offer tips for people learning to code.

Sites that teach people how to do something can almost always be monetized through selling ebooks, online courses, or other information products.

Tip: You can also create and sell online courses along with your blog posts to make some serious dough.

Food Blog

We all need to eat! Blogs about food can be hugely popular. In this niche, you’ll almost certainly be sharing recipes, so you’ll want to take photos that make your food look great.

Again, it helps to have an angle or specific area that your blog focuses on within the broader niche. Perhaps you’ll be writing about quick and easy meals that taste great or about gluten-free or dairy-free recipes.

Advertising, affiliate links, or your own recipe book could all be great ways to monetize your food blog.

See our complete guide on how to start a food blog and make money for more advice and details.

Final Thoughts on Choosing the Best Blogging Niche

You could spend forever trying to pick the very best blogging niche. Or you could start your blog and, six months or a year from now, you could be making good money from it.

First, choose a niche that interests you and make sure you have a clear idea about how you can monetize it.

Then, choose a domain name that works well for your blog topic.

Finally, sign up for a hosting account and register your domain name. We recommend Bluehost, which will cost you just $2.75 / month, with a free domain name included (this is a special offer for WPBeginner readers).

That’s all you need to do to get started with your blog.

We hope this article has helped you choose the best blogging niche to make money from your blog. You may also want to look at our list of online business ideas to make money, and our article on how to increase your blog 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.

The post Best Blogging Niche – 7 That Will Make Money (Easily) appeared first on WPBeginner.

February 05, 2020 at 05:19PM

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – Which is Better? (Comparison Chart)

Did you know that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are actually two very different platforms?

Often beginners confuse WordPress.com and WordPress.org, which leads them to choose the wrong blogging platform for their needs. Even those who know that they are two different platforms are not aware of the differences between them.

We’re often asked by our users which is the better platform: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. To help answer that, we have created the most comprehensive comparison of free WordPress.com vs WordPress.org (self-hosted version).

Our goal is to highlight the key differences between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org, so you can choose the right platform for your needs.

Since choosing the right platform is crucial for your online success, we have created the most detailed comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org (text comparison, table-based comparison, and a full infographic).

If you just want to start a blog or make a website the RIGHT way, then you can skip this article and head over to our guides here:

• How to Start a Blog with WordPress (step by step)
• How to Create a Website with WordPress (step by step)

Having said that, let’s take a look at the differences between self-hosted WordPress.org vs WordPress.com.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org (Infographic)

Note: This infographic and article compare the powerful self-hosted WordPress.org with the free WordPress.com hosting service. You can unlock additional features in WordPress.com by upgrading to their paid service. We have highlighted those features as well.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Comparison

The best way to understand the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org is to take a look at each platform individually.

WordPress.org

WordPress.org aka “the real WordPress”, is the popular website platform that you have heard all the great things about.

It is open-source and 100% free for anyone to use. All you need is a domain name and web hosting. This is why it is also referred to as self-hosted WordPress.

Below are the pros and cons of using the self-hosted WordPress.org to build your website or blog.

WordPress.org Benefits

With WordPress.org, you have full control of your website. You are free to do anything you want and customize it as much as you need.

Here are some of the benefits of choosing WordPress.org to build your website, and the reason why it is our #1 pick for the best website builder.

• The WordPress software is free, open-source, and super easy to use. (See why is WordPress free?)
• You own your website and all its data. Your site will NOT be turned off because someone decides that it is against their terms of service (as long as you are not doing something illegal). You are in full control.
• You can add free, paid, and custom WordPress plugins / apps to your website.
• You can use customize your website design as needed. You can add any free or premium WordPress theme that you want. You can also create completely custom designs or modify anything that you want.
• You can actually make money from your WordPress site by running your own ads without sharing revenue with anyone.
• You can use powerful tools like Google Analytics for custom analytics and tracking.
• You can use self-hosted WordPress to create an online store to sell digital or physical products, accept credit card payments, and deliver / ship the goods directly from your website.
• You can also create membership sites and sell memberships for premium content, courses, etc and build an online community around your website.

WordPress.org Cons

There are a very few cons of using the self-hosted WordPress.org site.

• Like all websites, you will need web hosting. This is where your website files are stored on the internet. Initially, the cost is around $3-$10 per month. However as your website grows and gets more traffic, the web hosting costs will increase as expected, but then you would be making enough money to cover the costs.
• You are responsible for updates. You can easily update your WordPress site by simply clicking on the update button (1-click), so it’s not too much work.
• You are responsible for backups. Thankfully, there are tons of WordPress backup plugins that let you setup automatic backups.

The real cost of WordPress.org website varies based on what you are trying to build (simple blog, portfolio website, eCommerce store, membership site, etc). There are also other factors like free templates vs premium templates, free plugins vs premium plugins, etc.

On a low budget, you can build your website for as little as $46 per year. See our guide on how much does it really cost to build a WordPress website for full details.

For 99% of users, our recommendation is always to use WordPress.org. See our guide on how to start a website.

WordPress.com

WordPress.com is a hosting service created by the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg. Because of the same founder, often users confuse WordPress.com with the popular WordPress.org software.

The WordPress.com hosting service has 5 plans:

• Free – Very limited.
• Personal – $48 per year
• Premium – $96 per year
• Business – $300 per year
• Ecommerce – $540 per year
• VIP – starting at $5000 per month

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of WordPress.com.

WordPress.com Benefits

The free WordPress.com platform is a good choice for hobby bloggers and those starting a blog for their family. Here are some of the benefits of using WordPress.com:

• It’s free for up to 3GB of space. After that you will have to switch to a paid plan for more space. (Personal plan $48 /year gives you 6GB, Premium plan $96/year gives you 13GB storage, or Business plan for $300/year for 200 GB storage).
• You will not have to worry about updates or backups. WordPress.com will take care of that.

WordPress.com Cons

There are several limitations of free WordPress.com which differentiate it from WordPress.org. Here are some of the disadvantages of using WordPress.com:

• They place ads on all free websites. Your users see those ads, and you don’t make money from it. If you don’t want your users to see their ads, then you can upgrade to a paid plan (starting from $48 per year).
• You are NOT allowed to sell ads on your website, which severely limits ways to monetize your site. If you run a high traffic site, then you can apply for their advertising program called WordAds where you share revenue with them. Premium and Business plan users can use WordAds right away.
• You cannot upload plugins. Free plan users get built-in Jetpack features pre-activated. Business plan users can install from a selection of compatible plugins ($300 / year). WordPress.com VIP program lets you install plugins, and it starts from $5000 per month.
• You cannot upload custom themes. Free plan users can only install from the limited free themes collection. Premium and business plan users can also select premium themes. There are limited customization options for the free version. Premium and Business plan users can use custom CSS.
• You are restricted to their stats. You cannot add Google Analytics or install any other powerful tracking platform. Business plan users can install Google Analytics.
• Free WordPress.com websites come with a WordPress.com branded domain (e.g. https://ift.tt/2fsDr6k). You’ll need a paid plan to get a custom domain name (e.g https://ift.tt/1RRlBUM).
• They can delete your site at any time if they think that it violates their terms of service.
• Your site will display a powered by WordPress.com link. It can be removed by upgrading to the Business plan.
• WordPress.com does not offer any eCommerce features or integrated payment gateways unless you switch to the eCommerce plan.
• You cannot build membership websites with WordPress.com.

As you can see, the WordPress.com hosting platform is quite limited when you’re on the free, personal, or even premium plan. To unlock some of the more advanced features, you have to be on the Business plan ($300 per year) or on the VIP plan ($5000 per month).

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org (FAQs)

Since this is a popular topic, and WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners, we get tons of questions regarding WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

We have done our best to answer the most frequently asked questions below:

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – Which is Better?

If you are a personal blogger, and you don’t care about making money from your website, then go with the free WordPress.com.

If you are a business or a blogger that wants to make money from your site, then we recommend using the self-hosted WordPress.org. It gives you the freedom and flexibility to grow your website the way you want.

While you can get several advanced features with the WordPress.com Business plan ($300 / year for each website), you can make that money go much further on a self-hosted WordPress site which costs $46 per year.

In our expert opinion, WordPress.org is hands down the better platform. That’s the platform that every professional blogger, small business owner, and even big name brands like Disney uses.

Can I Monetize Free WordPress.com Website?

WordPress.com does not allow you to run ads on free WordPress.com websites. If you run a high traffic website, then you can join their own WordAds program and share your ad revenue with WordPress.com.

You can put some affiliate links on your website, but that’s about it.

Basically, you have very limited options to monetize content on your WordPress.com website.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – Which one is better for Ecommerce?

WordPress.org offers the easiest way to build an eCommerce website. You can use WooCommerce to build your store or choose from many other WordPress eCommerce, membership, and LMS plugins.

WordPress.com also offers an eCommerce plan starting at $540 per year which is a hefty amount if you are just getting started. It is still limited in terms of features and you’ll have to follow WordPress.com’s terms of services for your eCommerce store.

See our guide on how to start an online store without a high budget.

How do I start a WordPress.org Website?

To start a self-hosted WordPress website, you need a domain name and WordPress hosting.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet such as google.com, wpbeginner.com, etc. Web hosting is where your website files are stored on the internet.

We recommend using Bluehost for hosting your website because they are one of the largest web hosting companies in the world. They’re also an official WordPress.org recommended hosting provider. Last but not least, they’re offering our users a free domain + 60% off on hosting.

For step by step instructions, you can checkout our free guide on how to make a website.

If you need help, WPBeginner team can even install WordPress and build your website for free. Learn more about how our free WordPress blog setup works.

Can I move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org?

Often new users who don’t know the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org end up starting with the free WordPress.com service. Once they see the limitations of the platform, they want to switch to “the Real WordPress” aka WordPress.org.

Yes, you can definitely switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org and fairly easily move all of your content.

We have created a step by step guide on how to move your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, or you can take advantage of our free blog setup service, and we will transfer your blog for free.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – Summary

The best way to think about the differences between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org is the analogy of renting a house vs. owning a house.

WordPress.com is similar to renting a house. You have limited power and control over what you can and cannot do.

WordPress.org is like owning a house. Where you have full control, no one can kick you out, and you can do anything that you want.

Below is the summary of everything we discussed above in our self-hosted WordPress.org vs WordPress.com comparison:

	WP.org (Platform)	WP.com (Free)	WP.com (Premium)	WP.com (Business)
Cost	$46 - $100 / year	Free	$96 / year	$300/ year
Custom Domain	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Hosting Storage	Unlimited	3 GB	13 GB	200 GB
Monetization Freedom	Yes	No	Yes (with rev/share)	Yes (with rev / share)
Branding Freedom	Yes	No	No	Yes
All SEO Features	Yes	No	No	Yes
Powerful Analytics	Yes	No	No	Yes
Full Theme Support	Yes	No	Limited	Yes
Full Plugin Support	Yes	No	No	Yes
Ecommerce Store	Yes	No	No	No
Membership Site	Yes	No	No	No
Maintenance	Yes	No	No	No
Full Control	Yes	No	No	No

Final Thoughts

The confusion created by similar domains: WordPress.com vs WordPress.org is quite unfortunate for beginners. There is a lot of history behind the decisions, and you can read more about that in our article how WordPress.com and WordPress.org are related.

Our hope is that you found this article helpful in understanding the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

We wish you all the best with your website and hope that you chose the right platform: WordPress.org.

If so, you may want to follow our guide on how to learn WordPress in 7 days or less. You may also want to see our guide on how to increase your blog traffic (with 27 proven tips).

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 WordPress.com vs WordPress.org – Which is Better? (Comparison Chart) appeared first on WPBeginner.

February 04, 2020 at 03:00PM

How to Uninstall and Delete a WordPress Theme (Step by Step)

Do you want to delete a WordPress theme but are worried that it might be unsafe?

If you have recently switched your WordPress theme, then you may want to delete the old one. You may also have a few other WordPress themes that come pre-installed on your website that you may want to remove.

In this article, we’ll show you why and how to easily delete a WordPress theme without affecting your website.

Why Delete a WordPress Theme?

If you are not using a WordPress theme, then it is recommended to delete it from your website. There are a number of reasons for deleting unused WordPress themes.

• WordPress theme files are written in PHP and can be used to hide malicious code or malware on your website (that is if your website was ever compromised). Sometimes rogue developers can hide backdoors in unused themes as well.
• Keeping them installed on your server increases your backup sizes and your WordPress security plugin takes longer to finish a scan.
• You’ll also keep getting updates for those themes, even though you are not using them at all.

Now a lot of users install WordPress themes on their live websites just to test them out. This is not the best way to test drive a WordPress theme.

We recommend using a staging site or a local WordPress install to do all your testing. This way it doesn’t affect your live website and allows you to offer a consistent experience to your users.

What’s the difference between uninstalling vs deleting a WordPress theme?

WordPress allows you to only keep one theme as your active theme. However, you can install as many themes as you want on your website.

These themes will not be active, but they are still installed on your site, and you’ll continue to receive updates for them.

To completely uninstall a WordPress theme, you need to delete it. This will remove all theme files from your website.

Is it safe to delete old WordPress themes?

Yes, it is safe to delete a WordPress theme that you are not using.

Each WordPress site needs at least one theme installed to function properly. This is the theme that WordPress will use to display your website.

You can view which WordPress theme you are currently using by visiting Appearance » Themes page. Your current theme will appear as ‘Active’ theme.

We also recommend keeping one default WordPress theme (e.g. Twenty Twenty or Twenty Nineteen) installed on your website. It acts as the fallback theme in case your current theme is not working.

If your current theme is a child theme, then you will also need to keep the parent theme installed on your website.

Apart from these themes, you can safely delete any other themes installed on your website.

That being said, let us show you how to delete a WordPress theme.

Preparing Before Deleting a WordPress Theme

If you have customized a WordPress theme and want to preserve those customizations before deleting it, then you can create a complete WordPress backup.

You can also just download the theme folder to your computer as a backup.

To do that, you can use an FTP client or the File Manager app in your WordPress hosting account dashboard. Once connected, go to /wp-content/themes/ folder and download the inactive theme folder to your computer.

Once you have safely backed-up your old theme, you can proceed to delete it.

Deleting a WordPress Theme

There are multiple ways to delete a WordPress theme. We’ll start with the easiest one first.

1. Deleting a WordPress theme via admin dashboard

This is the easiest and the recommended way to delete a WordPress theme.

First, you need to go to Appearance » Themes page and click on the theme that you want to delete.

WordPress will now open theme details in a popup window. You need to click on the Delete button at the bottom right corner of the popup screen.

Next, you’ll be asked to confirm that you want to delete the theme. Simply click the OK button to continue, and WordPress will delete your selected theme.

2. Deleting a WordPress theme via FTP

This method is a bit advanced, but it comes in handy if you are unable to access the WordPress admin area.

Simply connect to your WordPress site using an FTP client and then go to /wp-content/themes/ folder.

From here you need to locate the theme folder that you want to delete. Right-click on the folder name and then select delete.

Your FTP client will now delete your selected theme.

3. Delete a WordPress theme using File Manager

If you are uncomfortable using an FTP client, then you can also use the File Manager app in your web hosting control panel.

For this example, we’ll be showing screenshots from Bluehost’s hosting dashboard. Depending on your hosting provider, your hosting dashboard may look a bit different.

Login to your hosting account dashboard and click on the File Manager icon under the Advanced tab.

This will launch the file manager where you can browse the contents of your web server like you would using an FTP client. You need to go to the /public_html/wp-content/themes/ folder.

Next, you just need to right-click and delete the theme that you want to get rid of, and that’s all.

What to Do If You Accidentally Delete a WordPress Theme?

If you accidentally deleted a WordPress theme, then there are multiple ways to restore it back.

First, you can restore the theme from the backup. This is easier as many WordPress backup plugins allow you to quickly restore your website to an earlier stage.

However, if you didn’t make a backup, then you can restore the theme by downloading and installing a fresh copy of the same theme.

The downside of the second approach is that you would lose any customizations you made to the theme.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily delete a WordPress theme. You may also want to see our list of the best WordPress plugins and best email marketing services for small business.

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 Uninstall and Delete a WordPress Theme (Step by Step) appeared first on WPBeginner.

February 03, 2020 at 06:16PM