Friday, July 10, 2020

64 Best Free WordPress Blog Themes for 2020

Are you looking for a free WordPress blog theme for your website?

There are thousands of free blog themes for WordPress, making it hard for beginners to choose between all the different options. The best WordPress themes can be tough to find. Your free theme needs to be reliable and easily customizable.

In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best free WordPress blog themes that you can use on your site.

Best free blog themes for WordPress

Getting Started with WordPress

First, you need to make sure that you are using the best blogging platform.

Self-hosted WordPress.org is the perfect platform to start your blog because it gives you lots of freedom, flexibility, and control. We have a useful guide on the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

WordPress.org is open source. It comes with support for thousands of free templates (called themes) and extensions (called plugins) that help you grow your blog faster. Take a look at our article on why you should use WordPress to learn more.

You can use our step by step beginner’s guide on how to start a WordPress blog for full instructions on getting started.

Although many WordPress themes are free, you will need to pay for a domain name for your site. This is your site’s address on the internet.

You’ll also need WordPress web hosting. This is where your site is built online.

The great news is that WPBeginner readers can get a fantastic deal with Bluehost, one of just 3 hosts officially recommended by WordPress.

Bluehost offers a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and a 65% discount on web hosting. Simply go through our link to Bluehost and you’ll get this deal automatically.

Bluehost's offer for WPBeginner readers

Once you are up and running, it’s time to pick a theme for your website. There are lots of excellent premium themes out there. However, there are also some great free themes that will help you minimize the cost of building a WordPress website.

You can choose a theme from our expert selection below and then follow the instructions in our how to install a WordPress theme guide to set it up properly.

Let’s take a look at some of the best free WordPress themes that you can install on your site.

1. Astra

Astra

Astra is a fully customizable and free WordPress blog theme. It includes starter sites that are suitable for personal blogs, portfolios, business blogs, and even eCommerce websites. It’s responsive and works perfectly with all the best page builders out there.

It comes with built-in support for WooCommerce to easily add an online store to your blog if needed. It’s also translation-ready and can be used to make blogs in any language.

Astra is a lightweight theme with tons of colors options and fonts. You can find the theme options in the WordPress live customizer.

2. OceanWP

OceanWP

OceanWP is one of the most popular free WordPress themes. It includes lots of features that you normally only see in premium themes.

OceanWP can be used for any kind of website, including blogs, magazines, business websites, or eCommerce stores.

It includes multiple layout choices, fullwidth pages, 2 navigation menus on the top, custom logo support, multiple sidebar areas, beautiful image galleries, and more. It is super flexible but still very easy to set up. It also has live customizer support.

3. Hestia

Hestia

Hestia is a highly flexible and responsive theme for all types of websites. It comes with an easy setup wizard and a companion plugin which adds testimonials and services sections to your website.

It can be used with popular page builder plugins and is ready for WooCommerce out of the box. The homepage can be easily set up using the live theme customizer. You can just add sections and rearrange them with drag and drop.

4. Bento

Bento

Bento is a powerful multipurpose WordPress blog theme with tons of features. It works really well with most page builder plugins and it’s suitable for use as a business theme.

For a free WordPress theme, Bento comes packed with great customization options. All of them can be accessed using the WordPress theme customizer. You won’t need to know any CSS code to get your site looking just the way you want.

5. Go

Go

Go is a blog theme with a minimalist approach to design. It’s a simple WordPress blog theme with a welcome message and call-to-action buttons in the header.

Designed to improve readability, it uses clean typography and handles featured images really well. Also, you can easily add a contact form using any popular contact form plugin.

6. Ribosome

Ribosome

Ribosome is a magazine-style free WordPress blog theme. It comes with a custom header, custom background, and unlimited colors. It has a single navigation menu and a social menu on the top.

Ribosome comes with a 2-column layout with a sidebar on the right. It also has 2 widgets areas at the beginning and end of posts, which are perfect for displaying ads or related posts.

7. SiteOrigin Unwind

Unwind

SiteOrigin Unwind is a free multipurpose WordPress theme with full WooCommerce support. Designed with a minimalist style, Unwind is highly customizable using the SiteOrigin Page Builder plugin.

It comes with multiple page layouts, custom header, background, and color support.

8. Hemingway

Hemingway

Hemingway is a clean WordPress blog theme featuring a 2-column layout and a full-width header image area with a parallax effect.

It lets you upload your own logo, supports custom widgets, includes page templates, and more. It’s also retina-ready, meaning it’ll look great on high-quality smartphone themes. All the theme options are quick to set up.

9. Neve

Neve

Neve is a free WordPress blog theme that works really well for business sites and online stores. It’s also a great option for a personal blog. There’s a navigation menu along the top, with a search bar. You’ll also find built-in social sharing buttons and a featured content slider.

It has a minimalist layout with beautiful colors and typography. You can easily customize Neve. It’s compatible with popular page builder plugins like the Elementor page builder, Divi page builder, and Beaver Builder.

10. Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is a powerful WordPress theme that’s suitable for both personal blogs and business websites. It gives you a fullscreen slider, plus the option to upload your logo, set your header image, use a sticky navigation menu, and more.

Sydney makes it easy for you to create an engaging front page for your site. It’s also compatible with drag and drop page builders, particularly Elementor.

11. Hueman

Hueman

Hueman is one of the most popular free WordPress themes. It comes with a multi-column layout and can be easily used on any kind of content-rich blog or magazine-style WordPress website. There’s plenty of space on the front page for showcasing your content.

You also get support for custom headers, 2-column layout, full-width layout, and tons of easy customization options. It’s a fully responsive and mobile-friendly theme, too.

12. Poseidon

Poseidon

Poseidon is a free multipurpose theme. It has a spacious layout, a full-width slider, homepage layout, and multiple page templates.

The homepage layout can be easily set up using widgets. It’s a great theme for blogging and could also work well for a magazine-style website.

13. Maxwell

Maxwell

Maxwell is a minimalistic and elegant WordPress theme. It features a clean magazine-style layout with beautiful typography.

Maxwell also offers various post layouts, the ability to customize colors, and a gorgeous featured posts slideshow.

14. Writee

Writee

Writee is a free theme suitable for personal WordPress websites, adventure, and travel blogs. It features a large slider at the top that uses featured images from your blog posts.

It also comes with multiple templates and custom widgets among many other features.

15. Fascinate

Fascinate

Fascinate is a beautiful WordPress blog theme designed specifically for professional writers, freelancers, personal portfolios, lifestyle blogs, and fashion businesses.

It uses beautiful typography, elegant color schemes, and an eye-catching featured slider. It also has custom post types, including video, audio, gallery, and quote formats.

16. Moderne

Moderne

Moderne is an elegantly crafted WordPress blog theme. It’s designed with readability in mind and puts your content at the center to make it eye-catching. It could be a good option for a magazine-style blog or even a local newspaper website.

It comes with a featured content carousel slider on the homepage and a 2-column layout that shows your content beautifully. You also get lots of customization settings so you can get it to look just how you want.

17. Kent

Kent

Kent is a modern WordPress blog theme with a 2-column layout. It comes with a collapsible navigation menu, custom logo, custom background, and header support.

All the theme options are simple to set up using the live WordPress customizer.

18. Lovecraft

Lovecraft

Lovecraft is a clean and simple free WordPress blogging theme. It features a full-width custom header at the top and uses bold headlines for post titles.

It comes with a left sidebar and one navigation menu at the top. It also includes special widgets for recent posts and recent comments so you can show the post thumbnail images in your sidebar.

19. Baskerville

Baskerville

Baskerville is a modern and stylish WordPress blog theme. It features a large full-width header image followed by your posts presented as a grid on the front page.

Baskerville comes with gorgeous templates for single posts and pages. It has 4 different page templates and works seamlessly with the WordPress block editor.

20. Admiral

Admiral

Admiral is a magazine-style WordPress theme suitable for sports blogs, magazines, and news websites. It features a 3-column layout with a sidebar on each side and the content column in the middle.

It comes with a featured posts slideshow, a magazine homepage template, a widgetized header area, 2 different post layouts, and support for infinite scroll.

21. Shapely

Shapely

Shapely is a great WordPress blog theme with a fullscreen background. It comes in a 1-column layout with several homepage widgets, parallax sections, and call-to-action buttons.

The theme supports popular WordPress plugins that you need to maximize the functionality of your blog. It’s fully optimized for good WordPress SEO.

22. Ashe

Ashe

Ashe is a beautiful free blog theme for WordPress. It has a magazine-style layout with a large header image and a featured content slider.

It integrates with popular page builders like Beaver Builder, Elementor, and more for easy customization.

23. Hiero

Hiero

Hiero is a free WordPress blog theme with a magazine layout. It uses bold colors for the header and throughout the whole theme. It features a 2-column layout and has a clear navigation menu on top.

The homepage displays your latest posts with excerpts and featured images.

24. Tracks

Tracks

Tracks is a thoughtfully designed WordPress blog theme for personal, magazines, and photography websites. It includes a logo uploader, social media icons, search bar, widget-ready areas, and crisp typography.

The homepage features a grid layout of your posts with featured images. Your readers won’t have to do lots of scrolling to find posts they want to read.

25. Mesmerize

Mesmerize

Mesmerize is a colorful WordPress blog theme. It is highly flexible and uses over 30 different content sections to showcase your blog content.

It supports video backgrounds, slideshow backgrounds, header content types, and a gradient overlay on the homepage. It’s also WooCommerce ready and works well with WooCommerce plugins.

26. The Columnist

Columnist

The Columnist is a free WordPress blog theme featuring a magazine-style look. It comes with different layout options for homepage, archives, single pages, bbPress, and BuddyPress.

It also includes a responsive customizable slider and four color schemes.

27. Satori

Satori

Satori is a highly customizable WordPress theme for blogs, personal websites, and small business websites. It would look great for a restaurant or a food blog.

Satori features a full-width header on the homepage and comes with different page templates. It also has support for WooCommerce, multiple widget-ready areas, and several post formats.

28. Phlox

Phlox

Phlox is a highly customizable free WordPress blog theme. It has a beautiful homepage layout with a fullscreen header background image on top and featured content below.

It comes with multiple widget-ready areas, page templates, custom headers, backgrounds, social icons, and color schemes. Plus, it makes it easy for you to comply with GDPR.

29. Illdy

Illdy

Illdy is a multipurpose WordPress theme suitable for business, personal, and magazine websites.

It is built on the Bootstrap theme framework and features large header images, 2-column and full-width layouts, a custom background, and color selection.

30. Primer

Primer

Primer is a simple and clean WordPress blog theme. It features a classic blog layout with a content column and a right sidebar.

It has a fullscreen header image with a custom logo, a navigation menu, and a call-to-action button to redirect users to a landing page on your site.

31. Blog Diary

Blog Diary

Blog Diary is a multipurpose WordPress blog theme featuring a beautiful black and white layout. It has unlimited color choices, crisp typography, and custom widgets.

The theme fully supports the Gutenberg block editor out of the box.

32. Garfunkel

Garfunkel

Garfunkel is a stylish WordPress blog theme featuring a grid layout on the homepage.

It supports custom headers, custom backgrounds, six post formats (including a gallery slideshow), six custom widgets, a social menu, and 2 page templates.

33. Author

Author

Author is a beautiful WordPress blog theme for authors and writers. It features a simple 2-column layout with a sidebar and navigation menu in the left column and content on the right.

It supports custom colors, backgrounds, and multiple post formats. It is optimized for accessibility and performance.

34. Tempo

Tempo

Tempo is a modern WordPress blogging theme that can be easily used as a business website as well. It features clean crisp typography with a bright breezy layout.

It gives you lots of customization options. You can change your header, logo, colors, background, and much more. You can also easily add social media links.

35. iFeature

iFeature

iFeature is a modern and stylish WordPress theme suitable for magazines, business, personal, and portfolio websites. It features a full-width background image and a slider on top followed by your content.

It includes features like sticky headers, author bio boxes, multiple widget areas, and page templates. The theme options can be easily set up using drag and drop in the live customizer.

36. Natural Lite

Natural Lite

Natural Lite is a simple blogging theme with earthy tones. It uses large featured images and supports custom headers and backgrounds.

It comes with multi-column layouts and easy customization options. It’s a particularly good option for green or environmental blogs and websites. If that’s important to you, we also recommend checking out our GreenGeeks coupon for eco-friendly WordPress hosting.

37. Responsive

Responsive

Responsive is a beautiful WordPress theme designed for flexibility. It is suitable for authors, personal websites, photography, and even business websites.

It comes with 9 page templates, 11 widget areas, 6 template layouts, 4 menu positions, and more. Responsive is WooCommerce compatible, multilingual ready, and supports all RTL-languages.

38. Virtue

Virtue

Virtue is a beautiful and free WordPress blog theme. It has a clean layout with 2 navigation menus and a large full-width header image. It supports wide and full-width blocks in the visual editor, and works with useful blocks plugins.

All the theme options are easy to change using the live theme customizer. Virtue also comes with multiple post formats, including video, gallery, audio, chat, aside, and quotes.

39. Otography

Otography

Otography is a classic WordPress free blog theme. It has a large image slider with social icons, navigation menu, and eye-catching colors.

It includes typography options and easy theme setup with drag and drop settings in the live customizer. It’s an ideal theme for personal, blog, magazine, photography, and fashion websites.

40. Ignite

Ignite

Ignite is a stylish free WordPress theme featuring a classic blog look. It comes with a 2-column layout, plus a compact top bar used for navigation menus, site title, and description.

It uses medium-sized featured images before post titles and uses crisp typography for a better reading experience on your blog.

41. Avant

Avant

Avant is a highly customizable and free WordPress theme suitable for all kinds of websites. It is ready for eCommerce with full WooCommerce support and can be easily used to create content-rich websites as well.

It includes 7 header layouts, 5 blog layouts, 3 footer layouts, unlimited color choices, and lots more settings all built into the WordPress customizer. It is tested to work with all popular page builders and other essential WordPress plugins.

42. Responsive Mobile

Responsive Mobile

As the name suggests, Responsive Mobile is a WordPress theme designed with a mobile-first approach. It looks equally great on all mobile devices, computers, and screen sizes.

This theme features 9 page templates, meaning you can easily create great-looking pages with a responsive layout. There are also 11 widget areas, 6 template layouts, 4 menu positions, plus a call-out section with a call to action button. It’s very easy to use and can be quickly set up. It’s a good choice for business websites.

43. Vogue

Vogue

Vogue is a stylish WordPress theme designed specifically for fashion, lifestyle, and eCommerce websites. It comes with full WooCommerce support and allows you to set up an online store easily.

It offers multiple header layouts, custom WooCommerce design, multiple footer layouts, multiple blog layouts, and lots of extra layout customization. It has unlimited color settings within the WordPress customizer.

44. Magbook

Magbook

Magbook is a beautifully designed WordPress theme for content-rich websites, including magazines, newspapers, blogs, and more. It features a clean minimalist design with multiple layout choices and a quick 1-click demo installer.

It comes with ready-to-use templates for contact us, gallery, and magazine pages. Magbook can also be used to create an online store or a multilingual WordPress site. It’s tested with all popular WordPress plugins.

45. Panoramic

Panoramic

Panoramic is another excellent free WordPress theme suitable for all kinds of blogs, websites, and online stores. It comes with flexible customization options and a beautiful homepage slider.

Panoramic is very easy to use even for absolute beginners. You can find the theme options in the live customizer. It also works seamlessly with WPForms, the most popular contact form plugin.

46. Conica

Conica

Conica is a super-flexible WordPress multipurpose theme that can be used to build almost any kind of website. It’s a particularly good option for an eCommerce site or another money-making website.

It includes 2 site layouts, 2 color schemes, 4 header layouts, 5 blog layouts, 3 footer layouts, multiple page templates, and a bunch of theme options to customize your colors and layouts.

47. CityLogic

CityLogic

CityLogic is a premium-like free WordPress theme suitable for all kinds of sites, including small business websites. It features a modern design with a large header on the homepage, a transparent navigation menu, a welcome message, and your most important content.

It also comes with a built-in slider and can be used with other slide plugins as well. It is WooCommerce ready and can be used to create beautiful online stores.

48. Agama

Agama

Agama is a clean and spacious free WordPress theme suitable for all kind of websites. It is super-flexible and comes with simpler theme options allowing you to quickly set it up.

It is built on Bootstrap with parallax support, responsive design, and a minimalist layout. It is WooCommerce ready and can also be used to create multilingual websites.

49. Fury

Fury

Fury is a simple WordPress theme with a minimal design and layout. It works out of the box and has very easy to use theme options. It is built on Bootstrap with responsive design and fast performance.

It includes a sticky header, unlimited colors, a smooth scroll effect, and more. It’s also suitable for use with BuddyPress, which allows you to create your own social network.

50. Ascend

Ascend

Ascend is a beautiful WordPress multipurpose theme. It fully supports the WordPress block editor plus all popular page builder plugins.

Inside, you will find lots of useful options in the theme customizer. Ascend also includes a transparent header, multiple navigation menus, sidebars, color options, and more.

51. Wisteria

Wisteria

Wisteria is a simple WordPress blog theme with a focus on beautiful typography and content. It comes with a custom background, custom colors, custom header, and a left sidebar.

Wisteria also has a single navigation menu on top and beautiful front page design that shows your posts with custom excerpts and featured images.

52. The Writers Blog

The Writers Blog

The Writers Blog is a free multipurpose WordPress theme designed specifically for writers, bloggers, journalists, authors, and content-rich blogs. It comes with an image slider that helps your site make a great first impression.

The Writers Blog is easy to set up and allows you to select a color scheme of your choice. It’s a responsive and fully customizable WordPress theme. You could even use it to create an online resume.

53. BlogStart

BlogStart

BlogStart is free to download with a clean and simple layout. It’s a great option if you’re new to blogging and want to get started quickly.

BlogStart lets you display featured posts alongside the navigation menu. It’s optimized for website speed and performance.

54. Creativ

Creativ

Creativ is a modern free WordPress blog theme. It has a full-width boxed frame layout for the header with an image slider, navigation menu, search bar, and social menu.

This theme features a custom logo in the middle of the header section. It also has blurbs for landing pages on the homepage. Creativ is fully compatible with both the block editor and the classic editor in WordPress.

55. Blogger Era

Blogger Era

Blogger Era is a free blog theme for WordPress. It’s a good choice for an online magazine, personal blog, news, or portfolio site. It has an about section for you to add an image and excerpt in the sidebar.

Blogger Era offers a centralized layout to post your content. This theme is fully responsive and translation ready to create a multilingual website.

56. Queens Magazine

Queens Magazine

Queens Magazine is a user-friendly free WordPress blog theme built for bloggers and online magazines. It has a lot of space for your content. With the 3-column layout, you can display multiple featured posts upfront.

It comes with custom settings for your logo and tagline. The Queens Magazine theme offers multiple sidebars and footers so you have lots of options for your site’s layout.

57. Balanced

Balanced Blog

Balanced is a clean and responsive WordPress blog theme. It has a custom logo with a full-width header background.

The theme has a 2-column layout with an alternating style for posts. You can use any WordPress widgets in the sidebar. It is SEO optimized and supports WPML for translations.

58. Infinity

Infinity Blog

Infinity is a minimalist and free blog theme. It has bold colors for borders and the background. It’s well-suited for small businesses, designers, and creative agencies.

The homepage has a navigation menu on top with social icons. It allows you to add a custom logo with a tagline.

59. Interserver

Interserver

Interserver is a beautiful free mommy blogger theme for WordPress. It is fully customizable with lots of options for blog layout and landing pages.

You can add an image slider and categories on the homepage. Interserver has beautiful colors and design features for your entire blog.

60. Journal

Journal

Journal is a stylish free WordPress blog theme for personal journals and all types of bloggers. It has stunning typography and a striking design.

It offers a space to add your short bio on the homepage. Journal is a fully responsive and search engine friendly theme.

61. Bold Photography

Bold Photography

Bold Photography is a modern and free blog theme for photographers, writers, and authors. The homepage has a fullscreen background image slider that you can replace with your most popular or featured photos.

It has custom widgets, color choices, parallax sections, and more. Bold Photography has a fast page load time and lazy load images to keep it as fast as possible. You can also use any popular caching plugin with it to speed up your website further.

62. Sparker

Sparker

Sparker is a lightweight free WordPress blog theme. This theme can also be used to create small business websites and online stores.

Sparker features custom widgets, a beautiful slider section, and a featured post column. It also has space to put advertising such as Google AdSense. It is easy to use and optimized for SEO.

63. Memory

Memory

Memory is a trendy free WordPress theme with a youthful vibe. It’s SEO friendly and lightweight, so it won’t impact your WordPress site’s speed.

It’s designed to be easy and straightforward to use, even if you’re new to blogging. It includes a featured image slider, too.

64. EightyDays Lite

EightyDays Lite

EightyDays Lite is a great theme for travel bloggers. It has a modern, clear design to help make your travel photos look great.

It’s also lightweight, fast, and optimized for good WordPress SEO. It will look great on mobiles and computers as it’s a fully responsive WordPress theme. It also has RTL language support.

We hope this list helped you find the best free WordPress blog themes for your website. We also recommend taking a look at our pick of the best free and premium WordPress plugins for your site.

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

The post 64 Best Free WordPress Blog Themes for 2020 appeared first on WPBeginner.


July 10, 2020 at 05:00PM

Thursday, July 9, 2020

How to Create a Paywall in WordPress (with Preview Options)

Do you want to create a paywall on your WordPress site to publish paid content?

Adding a paywall allows you to monetize some or all of your content with a subscription plan. This freemium model is already used by top publications like the NYTimes and the Washington Post.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a paywall on your WordPress site without hiring developers.

Creating a paywall in WordPress

What is a Paywall and Why Use One?

A paywall is a way of hiding or locking your content until the reader pays for accessing it. This is normally done through an ongoing subscription.

If you want, you can also set a one-off fee for access to all paid content. Some websites also use the paywall to grow their email list by asking users to subscribe to their newsletter or by creating a free account.

Many newspapers have introduced paywalls to their websites. Here’s an example from the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph:

The Daily Telegraph's paywall

And here’s the New York Times paywall which only requires an email subscription:

New York Times asking for an email address but not payment

In many cases, paywalls let readers access a limited amount of free content. For instance, readers might be able to view up to 5 articles before needing to enter their email address or purchase a subscription.

A paywall can be a great way to monetize if you provide lots of high-quality content. It’s suitable for sites that don’t want to make money online through other methods like running advertising or selling products.

Creating a Paywall on Your WordPress Site

For this tutorial, we’ll be using the MemberPress. It is the best WordPress membership plugin that allows you to easily sell subscription-based products on your website.

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

Once you’ve activated the plugin, go to MemberPress » Settings » License page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the MemberPress website.

Enter your MemberPress license key

Simply copy and paste your license key and click on the Activate button.

After that, you will need to set up a way to receive payments. MemberPress supports several popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.Net.

You can add your payment method by going to the MemberPress » Settings page, switching to the ‘Payments’ tab, and then clicking on the (+) button.

You will need to provide a name for this payment method and then select your payment gateway from the dropdown menu.

Add payment method for your paywall subscriptions

MemberPress will prompt you to fill in details for that payment method. For instance, for standard PayPal payments, you’ll need to enter your PayPal email address:

Entering details for your chosen payment method

You can also add multiple payment options by simply clicking the (+) button and repeating the process.

Once you are satisfied with payment settings, don’t forget to click on the ‘Update Options’ button to store your changes.

Creating a Subscription Plan for Your Paywall

Now that you have completed the initial setup, it is time to create the paywall itself. To do that, you will need to create a membership level in MemberPress.

Simply visit the MemberPress » Memberships page and then click the ‘Add New’ button at the top.

Add new membership

On the next screen, you need to first give your membership plan a name (title) and then set a price under the ‘Membership Terms’ box. Here, we’ve called our membership ‘Premium Subscription’ and set the price to $5/month:

Setting up the new membership, including the price

You can set your membership terms to match your requirements. For instance, If you want to create a free membership, then you can leave the price at 0.00.

You can also choose between ‘Recurring’ and ‘One-time’ billing type. For recurring payments, you can choose from monthly, yearly, weekly, quarterly, or custom interval options.

Optionally, you can provide a description for your membership plan in the text editor or customize it further under ‘Membership Options’ box.

Membership options

The default settings would work for most cases, but you can still review them and see if you would like to change something.

Once you are finished, just click on the ‘Publish’ button to create the membership plan.

You can create multiple membership plans with different subscription levels. For instance, you can create a premium plan and a VIP plan which gives your users access to even more exclusive content and features.

Adding Content Behind The Paywall

Now that you have created a membership plan, it is time to choose which content you want to restrict with a paywall in WordPress.

MemberPress gives you powerful rules which provide multiple ways to restrict content to specific membership plans.

To set up a rule, you need to visit MemberPress » Rules page and click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top.

Creating a new rule

Next, you need to select the content that you want to restrict. Simply click on the first drop down to select the content that matches the specific conditions.

Creating rules to restrict access

You can select content by category, tags, child pages, individual posts, pages, and more. We choose ‘All content tagged premium’ for this example.

Below that, you need to select the membership plan or individual member. We choose ‘Membership’ and then the plan we created earlier.

You can now click on the Save Rule button to store your changes.

Now, if someone tries to view the content tagged ‘premium’ without a subscription, they’ll see this message:

The default message that visitors will see if they aren't subscribed and logged in

Tip: You can customize that message when adding or editing your rule. Simply scroll down to the Unauthorized Access section. There, you need to select Custom from the Unauthorized Message dropdown and type in the message you want to use.

Changing the unauthorized access message

You can add links, images, and format text here. You can also hide the login form and replace it with a link. Here is how the paywall looked on our test website.

Customized paywall in MemberPress

If you go back to Posts » All Posts in your dashboard, you’ll see that all posts that match that criteria have their access marked with the membership plan.

Posts with their access level listed

For more help with setting up MemberPress, check out our ultimate guide to creating a membership site.

Giving Non-Members a Limited Number of Free Views

What if you want to let non-members see a certain amount of your content for free? This can be a great marketing tool.

You can enable this in MemberPress by going to MemberPress » Settings » General in your WordPress dashboard:

Settings - General in MemberPress

Here, you’ll need to scroll down to the ‘SEO & PayWall’ section and check the ‘Enable PayWall’ option. You then need to enter the number of free views you want to provide.

Enabling the paywall feature in MemberPress

Note: You can also give search engines access to your protected content here. This lets your paywalled content rank in search engine’s results, but it requires turning off any caching plugins. This may slow down your WordPress site.

Make sure you click the Update Options at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

That’s all.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a paywall on your WordPress site and add free views option. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter and must have WordPress plugins to grow your traffic.

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

The post How to Create a Paywall in WordPress (with Preview Options) appeared first on WPBeginner.


July 09, 2020 at 06:00PM

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

How to Embed TikTok Videos in WordPress

Do you want to easily embed TikTok videos on your WordPress website?

By default, WordPress makes it super easy to embed a TikTok video inside your posts and pages. However, it doesn’t automatically display your latest TikToks.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily embed TikTok videos in WordPress and show your recent TikTok videos automatically.

How to embed TikTok videos in WordPress

Embed TikTok Videos in WordPress without Plugin

This method is the easiest way to embed any TikTok video on your WordPress site. All you need to do is simply copy and paste the URL into your WordPress post or page.

First, you need to copy the URL of the TikTok video you want to embed by visiting it in your browser.

Copy TikTok URL

Next, you need to edit the post or page where you want to display the TikTok video. On the post edit screen, simply paste the URL in the content area.

Paste TikTok URL

As soon as you paste the TikTok link, WordPress will automatically load a preview of it in the post editor. You can now save your post or page and visit it to see your TikTok video in action.

Embedded TikTok video

You can also accomplish the same thing by using the TikTok block. On the post edit screen, click on the (+) to add a new block and then search for ‘TikTok.’

TikTok widget

Next, insert the block in post editor and then paste the TikTok video URL into the block settings. WordPress will automatically load a preview of the video.

TikTok embed

You can also insert TikTok videos into your WordPress site’s sidebar by using WordPress widgets.

Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘Text’ widget into your sidebar.

After that, go ahead and paste the TikTok video URL into the text area. WordPress will now automatically display a preview of the TikTok video in the widget area.

Sidebar TikTok embed

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

While this method allows you to easily embed TikTok videos in WordPress, it doesn’t automatically display your latest TikTok videos. For that, you’ll need a plugin.

Embed Latest TikTok Videos Feed in WordPress

If you wanted to display your latest TikTok videos automatically on your WordPress blog, then you will need to use a TikTok plugin.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the QuadLayers TikTok Feed plugin. If you’re not sure how to do this, check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Next, go to TikTok Feed » Feeds page. Here you’ll see the plugin has already added a demo TikTok feed using the WordPress hashtag. You need to click on the ‘+Feed’ button to add your own TikTok feed.

Add your TikTok Feed

This will bring up a popup where you can create a TikTok video feed by using a HashTag or entering a TikTok username.

You can also choose to display the videos in the Masonry style, which will show the videos in portrait mode. Alternatively you can choose the Gallery style, which displays the videos as square thumbnails.

General TikTok tab

We’ve set the options to display videos from a hashtag, which means any video with the #WordPress hashtag will show up in our feed.

And we chose the Gallery with a limit of 9 videos and 3 columns, so it shows up in a streamlined format on our page.

Once you’ve customized the settings to your liking, click save and then you’ll see the new feed with a shortcode ready for you to use.

TikTok Shortcode

Now you’ll want to copy that shortcode and paste it into a page or post. Simply head back to the page you want to insert your TikTok gallery into.

In the content editor, click on the (+) icon, search for ‘shortcode’, and select the shortcode widget.

Shortcode widget

From there, paste your shortcode into your post and then save your page.

Insert embed TikTok code

When you view your page, you’ll see that your gallery is embedded along with a ‘View on TikTok’ button that takes the user to the #WordPress tag feed on TikTok.com.

TikTok gallery in page

When you go back and edit your feed, you can select the ‘Button’ tab on the left and uncheck the box next to the ‘TikTok button’ field to remove the button.

TikTok button options

You also have the option to enable or disable the Popup options when someone clicks on a thumbnail in your gallery.

TikTok popup options

If you leave this option checked, any time someone clicks on a video, it displays a popup of the video instead of opening up the video in a new link, taking your reader away from your site.

TikTok Popup

On the video tab, you have the option to customize your feed by removing the video controls, preventing autoplay when clicked, increasing the space between videos, and more.

Video tab options

Lastly, you can also embed this shortcode into your sidebar to display your TikTok feed using a widget.

To do this, head over to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘Text’ widget into your sidebar.

Now go ahead and paste the TikTok feed shortcode into the text area widget settings. Don’t forget to click on the Save button to store your changes.

Shortcode sidebar gallery

You can now visit your website to see it in action. Here’s how the TikTok feed looks on our demo site’s sidebar.

Sidebar TikTok siteview

We hope this article helped you learn how to embed TikTok videos in WordPress. You might also want to check out how to create a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress, and our comparison of the best WordPress giveaway plugins to grow your followers.

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 Embed TikTok Videos in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.


July 08, 2020 at 04:30PM

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

How to Easily Add Title Attribute to Images in WordPress

Do you want to add the title attribute to images in WordPress? The title attribute makes images on your WordPress site more accessible and SEO friendly.

Similar to the alternate text, the title tag allows you to provide additional information about your image. This helps screen readers and search engines understand the context of the image inside your article.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add title attributes to images in WordPress.

Adding the title attribute to images in WordPress

What is the Title Attribute in Images?

The title attribute in images allows you to add a text description of your image. This makes it easy for screen readers and search engine bots to understand the image and it’s context.

We will show you some code examples to explain how the title attribute is used in HTML. But don’t worry, you wouldn’t need to add any HTML code to your website.

Normally, you can display images with the HTML tag like this:

<img src="/path/to/image/fruits.jpg" width="100" height="100" />

However, web crawlers, bots, and screen reading devices cannot actually see your images. To help those devices, you can use the alternate text and title text attribute in your images.

So, to help search engines and bots learn what your images are, you can add an alternate text attribute to your image tag.

The alternate tag attribute describes what your image is, and it is more important than title attribute. Here’s what it looks like:

<img src="/path/to/image/fruits.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="A fruit basket" />

The alternate tag is also displayed when an image link is broken, not found, or when a browser is unable to load images. You’ll see the little image icon with the alternate tag next to it.

Broken image path

To make it easier for users with screen readers and accessibility needs, you can also add a title attribute to the image, like this:

<img src="/path/to/image/fruits.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="A fruit basket" title="Fruit Basket" />

This title attribute appears in a popup when you hover your mouse over the image. Those who use screen reader software can configure their software to read this title.

Image title attribute

Using both the alternate text and the title attribute helps your image SEO, so you can bring more traffic to your site from search engines.

Adding Title Attribute to Images in WordPress

WordPress allows you to easily add alt text and title attributes within the content editor. First, go to Posts » Add New and create a post.

Click on the ‘+’ icon, and select the ‘image’ block to insert an image into your post or page.

Add image block

You’ll be prompted to upload or select an image from your media library. When you select your image, you’ll have the option to give it a title and enter your alt text.

Add alt and title to image

Important: This title is not the title attribute used in HTML. This one is used by WordPress internally to show your images in Media Library.

To add the actual title attribute, you will need to click on your image to view image settings in the right column.

Now click to expand the ‘Advanced’ tab and input the text you want to use for the title attribute. We wrote ‘Fruit Basket’ because that’s telling the internet what the image is.

Add title attribute

Now, when you view your site and hover your mouse over the image, you’ll see the popup that reads ‘Fruit Basket.’

Image title attribute

Add Title Attribute to Images in WordPress Classic Editor

If you are still using the older classic editor in WordPress, then you can still add title attribute by following similar steps.

In the classic editor, you’ll click the ‘Add Media’ button and then select your image.

Add image classic editor

Now, select the image you want to add to your post or page and fill out the Alt Text field and Title field.

Please keep in mind that this title is used by WordPress internally and is not the image title attribute.

Select image classic editor

Click the ‘Insert into post’ button at the bottom of your screen and then you’ll see your image in your classic post editor.

Edit image in post

From there, click to select your image and then click on the little pencil icon. This will bring up the ‘Image Details’ popup. From here, you need to click the Advanced Options dropdown to enter your Image Title Attribute.

Image title attribute field

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button at the bottom, then save your post and check it in your browser. you’ll see the popup showing your image title attribute when you hover your mouse over the image.

Image title attribute popup

We hope this article helped you easily add the title attribute to images in WordPress. You may also want to take a look at how to fix most common image issues in WordPress, and how to save images optimized for web speed.

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 Easily Add Title Attribute to Images in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.


July 07, 2020 at 05:00PM