How to Display Announcements in Your WordPress Blog

Do you want to display announcements in your WordPress blog or website?

Adding announcements to your site is an effective way to direct user attention and boost conversions. They can be used to convey important messages, redirect users to popular content, promote special offers, and more.

In this article, we will show you how to easily display announcements in WordPress.

Why Add Announcements in WordPress?

Many popular websites display special announcements as a floating bar on the top or at the bottom. These announcement bars are highly effective, which is why you are seeing them on more and more sites.

Announcements are immediately noticeable on any website due to their placement. Usually, it is a full-width bar on either the top or the bottom of a page.

You can use it to offer special discounts, run time-sensitive marketing campaigns, ask users to participate in surveys, read a new blog post, etc.

You can also add visual effects, countdown timers, and email forms into your announcement bar.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily add announcements in WordPress.

Method 1: Display Announcements in WordPress Using OptinMonster

For this method, we will be using the OptinMonster. It is the most popular lead generation and conversion optimization software on the market.

OptinMonster helps you convert website visitors into subscribers and paying customers. It comes with many campaign types, including announcement bars that can be displayed on the top or at the bottom of your website.

Most importantly, it comes with powerful display rules which allow you to show different content to different users. You can also choose where and when to show your announcements.

Disclosure: OptinMonster is one of our premium products. WPBeginner users can try the free version by installing our OptinMonster plugin and signing up for a free account through the plugin.

The free version is not visible on the main OptinMonster website.

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

This plugin acts as a connector between your WordPress website and your OptinMonster account.

Upon activation, you need to visit OptinMonster » Settings page and click on the ‘Connect existing account’ or Create a New account button.

This will bring up a popup where you can log in and connect your WordPress website to your OptinMonster account.

Now that your WordPress site is connected, you are ready to create your first geotargeted campaign. Go to the OptinMonster » Campaigns page and click on the ‘Add New’ button.

First, you’ll need to choose your campaign type. OptinMonster supports lightbox popups, floating bars, inline optins, fullscreen, slide-in, and gamified campaigns.

For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll choose a Floating bar campaign that allows you to display a floating bar on the top or bottom of your website.

Below that, you can select a campaign template by clicking on it.

Next, you need to enter a name for your campaign. You can enter any name here, and then click on the ‘Start building’ button.

This will launch OptinMonster’s campaign builder interface with a live preview of your campaign in the right panel.

You can simply point and click on any item in the preview to edit, move, or delete it. You can also add new elements by clicking on the Add Blocks button at the top.

In this example, we are using an announcement bar promoting a special offer with a countdown timer to create FOMO effect.

If you want to display the notification bar at the top, simply click on the Floating Settings from the left column and then check the toggle to move it to the top.

Once you are finished with the campaign design and content, switch to the Publish tab and change the campaign status to ‘Publish’.

After that, click on the Save button to store your settings and close the campaign builder.

OptinMonster will now take you to the Output settings page. From here, you can choose where you want to display your campaign.

After that, change the Visibility status to Published and click on the Save button to make your campaign live.

You can now visit your website to see your announcement bar in action.

Method 2: Display Announcements in WordPress Using Notibar

OptinMonster is a powerful tool with tons of options, like email form integration, timers, unlimited colors and designs, and powerful targeting controls.

However, if you just want to quickly show an announcement without using advanced features, then you can use this method.

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

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Notibar page to configure plugin settings which will launch in the Theme Customizer with a live preview.

You can start by switching to the General Options tab and select a position, width, and button type for your notification bar.

Next, go back and switch to the ‘Content Options’ tab. From here you can enter the content you want to show for your announcement.

The plugin allows you to add different content for mobile devices.

After that, you can go back and switch to the ‘Style Options. From here you can choose colors and font-size for your announcement bar.

Finally, switch to the Display Options tab and choose where you want to show / hide your announcement bar content.

The plugin allows you to hide it for devices, homepage, pages or posts, or enter specific post/page ID where you don’t want to show the notification bar.

Once you are finished, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button at the top to save your changes and make your announcement bar live.

You can now visit your WordPress blog to see your announcement in action.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily display announcements in your WordPress blog. You may also want to see our WordPress conversion tracking guide to see exactly how users interact with your announcements, and our comparison of the best WordPress landing page plugins to boost your conversions.

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 Display Announcements in Your WordPress Blog appeared first on WPBeginner.

April 03, 2021 at 03:35PM

6 Best HR Payroll Software for Small Businesses (2021)

We’ve had many people ask us how we handle payroll and HR for our remote team, considering we have over 150+ team members spread worldwide.

HR payroll software can streamline HR tasks and make payroll as easy as clicking a button.

In this article, we’ve hand picked some of the best HR payroll software you can use for your small business including remote teams.

Note: Want to join our fast growing remote team? We’re hiring

Why You Need HR Payroll Software?

HR processes like hiring, employee onboarding, running payroll, and managing benefits are very time-consuming. As a small business owner, you’re looking to save time and money wherever you can.

With HR payroll software, you can automate specific tasks and collect data to improve how your business runs.

Using HR payroll software can help to streamline your small business in a lot of ways:

• It’ll help to make your HR team more efficient, so they can work on other projects
• It’ll ensure you’re always paying and withholding the right amount
• It’ll help you avoid fines and compliance issues
• It makes managing PTO and bonuses much easier
• It makes offering employee health insurance and other benefits easy
• It streamlines employee onboarding, so new hires can get to work sooner

If you’re running an online store or small business website, then using HR payroll software will make your life easier and your employees happier.

No matter if your team is in-person or remote, you can use these HR software to simplify your business operations.

That being said, let’s take a look at the best HR payroll software that you can use with your WordPress website.

1. Gusto

Gusto is the best payroll software in terms of features and ease of use. They offer a ton of functionality and flexibility, so you can create the ideal payroll and HR setup for your small business.

It’s used by over 100,000 small businesses, just like you.

The cloud-based payroll system is simple to set up, plus it gives your workers a dashboard to manage their employee information.

You’ll find standard payroll management features like automatic deductions and filings, direct deposits, and W-2s and 1099s.

It will automatically calculate and file local, state, and federal taxes. There are also plenty of integrations with popular accounting software like Quickbooks, Clover, Xero, and more.

Note: We use Gusto at WPBeginner to manage payroll for remote team members across different states. We started using Gusto back when it was called ZenPayroll and have been loving it since then.

When we were smaller, we used their HR features, but we’ve outgrown it since our team is now worldwide, and Gusto doesn’t support non-US team members.

However, their platform is packed with enough HR functionality to be an all-in-one tool for most US based small businesses.

For example, you can set up employee health insurance enrollment, 401k, workers comp, commuter benefits, and employee savings programs.

Gusto has a range of employee onboarding features like custom offer letters, document signing and storage, onboarding checklists, even software account creation and management.

There are also time tracking tools, compliance paperwork filing, anonymous surveys, and virtual org charts for users on the higher plans.

Best of all, Gusto offers month to month pricing. So, there’s less risk when moving or starting your new payroll system.

The plans start at $19 per month for small teams of 1 to 2 people. Most small business owners will find the Core plan the most valuable, it starts at $39 per month. Higher level plans give you more features like time tracking.

Expert Review: We believe Gusto is the best payroll software for small businesses. They offer a hassle-free experience, and the best part is that they don’t nickel and dime you like payroll services from your bank or some other larger well-known industry players.

2. BambooHR

BambooHR is the best HR software for small businesses.

It’s a complete Human Resource Management System (HRMS) and is trusted by over 20,000 businesses to manage HR tasks. It’s very intuitive, easy to use, and well suited for companies of all sizes.

The cloud-based system focuses on HR tasks like hiring, compensation, onboarding, and company culture.

There’s an applicant tracking system (ATS) that speeds up the hiring process, and performance management features to improve your company culture.

It also includes employee benefits tracking, PTO management, easy employee onboarding, training, and more.

This SaaS tool is big on employee data collection, which makes it easy for business owners to make informed decisions about new hires.

It’s one of the few providers that qualifies as a Human Capital Management (HCM) tool, which helps your employees reach their potential.

Note: We have a worldwide remote team in 27 countries, so we started using BambooHR. They make it simple to manage everything across multiple countries and time zones.

Their Android and iOS mobile app is handy and lets team members manage their information at home or on the go. It also makes it easy to find employee contact information throughout your organization.

BambooHR offers custom pricing based on your business needs. But there are two different plans you’ll choose between.

The Essentials plan has standard HR management features like PTO, benefits administration, document storage, and more.

While, the Advantage plan includes an ATS, onboarding and offboarding features, and advanced reporting functionality.

Since BambooHR doesn’t offer full-service payroll features, we use Gusto and BambooHR together to manage all of our HR and payroll needs.

However, you will find addons for tax filing, time entry and timesheets, overtime pay, and various employee performance review tools and assessments.

BambooHR is designed with small businesses in mind, but it is also used by companies like ZipRecruiter, Grammarly, and Postmates. This software can grow with you as your company grows, and we can vouch for that 100%.

Expert Review: We believe BambooHR is the best HR software for small businesses, hands down. This is why we use it on WPBeginner.

3. OnPay

OnPay offers HR payroll software and is a great option for growing small businesses and startups.

Their payroll solution is flexible and supports business owners who have contract, part-time, and hourly employees. Managing all of this on your own can be difficult and time consuming, but with OnPay, it’s much easier to do.

Since payroll doesn’t run automatically, you can choose which employees you want to pay before you run payroll. It’s not as automated as other solutions, but some business owners might need more control.

You can pay employees via direct deposit, printed check, or debit card.

It includes other features like unlimited payroll runs, tax filing, support for multiple pay schedules and rates, unemployment insurance withholding, and more.

You can also integrate your business payroll with your preferred accounting and time-tracking software.

The pricing is straightforward, with a base fee of $36 per month and an additional $4 per person. So if you’re a 50 person company, you’ll pay $236 per month.

Since there’s only one plan, you get access to all features, including HR tools.

The bundled HR tools include templates for employee offer letters, paid time off management, HR document management, and more.

Expert Review: We believe OnPay is the best HR and payroll tool for businesses with contract and hourly workers.

4. QuickBooks

Quickbooks Payroll is one of many Intuit products designed to make the lives of small business owners easier.

If you’re already using QuickBooks accounting software, adding QuickBooks Payroll only takes a couple of clicks. It has a beginner friendly user interface and makes payroll tasks a breeze.

You’ll find useful features like business receipt capture, automated taxes and payroll, in-depth reports, and support for all 50 states.

Quickbooks has also partnered with MammothHR to bundle the HR features you require.

They offer no contract pricing that starts at $45 per month for the Core plan. This plan gives you all the necessary features to manage HR and payroll including, automated payroll, health benefits, 401k plans, and more.

You’ll also find higher-level plans that start at $75 per month and give you additional features like same-day direct deposit, workers comp support, and mobile time tracking.

Expert Review: We believe QuickBooks Payroll is the best payroll and HR software for businesses who use Quickbooks accounting software. With that said, we use QuickBooks for our bookkeeping and accounting, but we prefer to use Gusto because they help us with state compliance and really make the experience hassle-free.

5. Paychex

Paychex is another common choice for online HR payroll software for small businesses.

It’s easy to use and comes equipped with payroll and HR features like new hire reporting, payroll tax administration, direct deposit, time tracking, and more.

Where it really stands out is its reporting features.

If you’re on one of the higher plans, you can access 160 different reports or create reports based on your own parameters. This will help you make data-driven decisions to grow your business.

The easy to use online dashboard lets you manage your payroll processes, health insurance and benefits, retirement, and more. Workers also have an employee self-service portal to manage their personal information.

You can also link your existing accounting software like Quickbooks or Xero directly into payroll.

The best plan for most small businesses will be PayChex Flex Select. This plan includes standard payroll features, along with HR and employee management functionality.

Pricing for the PayChex plans is hidden online, but it’s quote based pricing, so you’ll pay based on the features you need.

If you want advanced HR features like employee training and performance feedback, you’ll need the Paychex Flex Enterprise plan.

Expert Review: We believe Paychex is the best payroll and HR software for businesses who need detailed reporting.

6. ADP

ADP offers robust payroll services for small and growing businesses.

ADP is a leader in providing outsourced HR for large-scale companies. But, they offer the RUN service, which compiles decades of HR experience into an easy-to-use software.

With ADP RUN, you’ll find standard features like easy tax filing, automated payroll, direct deposit, compliance for all 50 US states, along with mobile and web-based timecards for employees.

There are also integrated HR features like employee health insurance, retirement services, and built-in onboarding processes for new employees.

ADP doesn’t share its pricing publicly.

But, the pricing is custom to your business. If you only need payroll assistance, this will be cheaper than bundling payroll and HR software together.

The more expensive plans offer features like employee background checks, integration with ZipRecruiter, and more advanced payroll features like unemployment tax deductions and wage garnishment.

Expert Review: We believe ADP is the best long-running payroll and HR provider for business who need a wide range of services. However their pricing may feel unfriendly towards small businesses.

Which is the Best HR Payroll Software for You?

After carefully researching all of the top HR payroll service providers, we believe that Gusto is the best HR payroll software in the market.

Their plans are flexible and affordable and can support single person businesses up to businesses with thousands of employees. Alongside these features, you’ll find a helpful and dedicated customer support team.

The best part is that Gusto is a complete all-in-one solution. It offers automated payroll, tax support, HR features, and unique employee benefits that other software solutions don’t provide.

For all the reasons above, we decided to use Gusto in our own business and rate it as the best HR payroll software in the market.

In our research, BambooHR and OnPay came as very close seconds. We use BambooHR in our own business for every single HR-related task. However, the lack of full payroll features stops it from being an all-in-one tool.

You can’t go wrong using either of these tools. If you don’t mind using more than one software, the combination of Gusto and BambooHR supports our worldwide remote business of over 150 employees, and it can do the same for you.

We also looked into other service providers like Patriot, Zenefits, CoreHR, Paycor, SurePayroll, and more.

However, we decided not to list them all so we can help make your decision easier by avoiding choice paralysis. Our goal is always to make it easy for you to choose the best software provider for your business needs.

HR Payroll Software FAQs

After helping thousands of business owners choose the best HR and payroll software, we’ve answered many different questions.

Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about HR and online payroll solutions.

What is the easiest payroll software to use?

The easiest payroll software to use is Gusto. The user onboarding is straightforward, simple, and even fun. As an HR manager or business owner, you can simply set up your automated payroll and taxes.

Plus, your employees have dashboards to manage their employee information, download pay stubs, and more.

With that said, most online payroll processing software in our list are easy to use. OnPay is another good option for delivering a good user experience.

What is the best HR software for small businesses?

The best HR software for small businesses is BambooHR.

The customizable plans ensure you’re getting the perfect HR solution for your unique business needs.

Plus, it can support small, midsize, and large companies with ease.

It’s what we use to manage HR for our 150+ person global remote team.

What is the best free payroll software?

There are free payroll software available, but we don’t recommend using them.

Payroll is a complex process that requires employee tracking and payment, plus withholding the correct amount for taxes.

Paid payroll software like OnPay and Gusto are more accurate and secure than free alternatives. They help you save time while avoiding the regulation hassle, so you can focus on growing your business.

Can I use Excel for payroll?

Yes, a lot of small business owners use Excel to calculate payroll by hand. However, this only works if you have a small number of employees and a relatively static business.

Also, there’s no guarantee that the calculations you’re doing will be accurate.

If you have the budget, we recommend investing in paid payroll software. There are affordable options, especially if you only have a few employees.

We hope this guide helped you choose the best HR payroll software for your small business. You may also want to see our comparison of best business phone services and best email marketing software for small businesses.

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 6 Best HR Payroll Software for Small Businesses (2021) appeared first on WPBeginner.

April 02, 2021 at 04:44PM

How to Integrate Slack with WordPress (Beginner’s Guide)

Do you want to integrate Slack with your WordPress website or WooCommerce store?

Slack is a powerful team communication suite that allows you to stay collaborate with your team and optimize your workflow.

In this article, we’ll show you how how to easily integrate Slack with WordPress and WooCommerce to directly receive push notifications in your Slack channels.

Slack offers real time messaging between teams with the ability to archive and search all messages. It is a great tool for bloggers, businesses, and remote teams.

We use Slack for our own team, and we have many Slack integrations that help us improve our workflow.

You can use Slack as a centralized communication hub to receive automatic notifications and alerts when:

• A writer updates a blog post on your site
• A new lead form is submitted, so your sales team can act on it
• A new customer purchases something from your online store
• A student signs up to a new course on your membership website
• A visitor registers to your online webinar
• … and so much more.

Below is an example screenshot of what an automated Slack notification looks like:

Now, let’s take a look at how to add automatic WordPress notifications in Slack like the screenshot above.

Here is a quick overview of the topics we’ll cover in this guide:

• Connecting Slack to WordPress
• Creating Automation Recipes for Slack in WordPress
• Integrating Slack with WooCommerce
• Other Slack Integration Ideas for WordPress

Connecting Slack to WordPress

The easiest way to connect Slack with WordPress is by using Uncanny Automator. It s the best WordPress automation plugin that helps you create automated tasks and workflows without writing any code.

It acts as a bridge by helping you integrate different WordPress plugins and allow them to talk with each other. You can also use it to connect your website to hundreds of online tools including Slack.

To learn more, see our article on how to create automated workflows in WordPress with Uncanny Automator.

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

Upon activation, you will also be asked to install the free version of Uncanny Automator core plugin. This light version of the plugin is limited in features but is used as the base for the pro version.

Next, you need to head over to Automator » License Activation page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the Uncanny Automator website.

Now that Uncanny Automator is set up, let’s connect it to your Slack Workspace.

Simply go to Automator » Settings and switch to the Slack tab. Here you can provide a name for the bot and a profile photo.

After that, click on the ‘Connect an account’ button to continue.

This will take you to the Slack website where you will be asked for permission. Click on the Allow button to continue.

This will take you back to the Slack settings page on your WordPress website with a success message.

That’s all, you have successfully connected your WordPress website to Slack using Uncanny Automator.

If you visit your Slack workspace now, you’ll see Uncanny Automator as an app in the sidebar. Cliking on it will open the App window where you need to click on the More button under the Details panel.

Under the ‘More’ drop down menu, you need to select the option ‘Add this app to a channel…’. This will allow you to send notifications and messages to that particular channel via Uncanny Automator.

When you click on it, it will bring up a popup where you need to select a channel and then click on the Add button.

Uncanny Automator will now be able to broadcast messages and interact in your selected channel.

Now that, we have set up Slack and integrated it with WordPress, let’s see some of the neat things you can do with this Uncanny Automator integration by connecting Slack with WordPress.

Creating Automation Recipes for Slack in WordPress

The first thing, you need to do is go to Automator » Add New page to create your first recipe.

You’ll be asked to select whether you want to create a ‘Logged-in’ recipe or an ‘Anonymous’ recipe.

Logged-in recipes can be triggered by logged in users only, and anonymous recipes can be triggered by any user.

You need to choose a recipe type based on your workflow needs, and then click on the confirm button.

For the sake of this tutorial, we will be creating a recipe that sends a Slack message to a channel when a post is updated on your WordPress blog.

Next, you will need to provide a title for your recipe. This title will not be publicly visible to the users because it’s only there to help you identify a recipe.

Each recipe in Uncanny Automator has two parts called Triggers and Actions.

Triggers are the events that will start the recipe and run the processes you define. Actions are the tasks that you want to perform when the recipe runs.

First, you need to set the trigger part of the recipe by choosing an integration.

The Automator will detect any existing integrations that you may have installed on your site. As you can see in the screenshot, it automatically detected WordPress Core, WooCommerce, MemberPress, and WPForms.

Click on WordPress as your integration to continue.

Next, you will be asked to select the event that will trigger this recipe. Go ahead and choose ‘A post is updated’ as the trigger event.

Next, you will be asked to select which post type. If you only want to receive updates for blog posts then select Post. After that, you can leave the Post option to Any Post and click on the Save button.

Now that your trigger event is set, the next step is to configure the action. Simply click on the Add action button button to continue and select Slack as your integration.

After that, you will need to select an action event. This is the action that you want to perform on Slack. For instance, send a message to a channel.

This will bring you to the action event options. From here, you can select the channel where you want to send the message and type in the message you want to send.

You can also click on the star button and add dynamic values to your message. For instance, you can add the user name and a post URL tags with your message.

After that don’t forget to click on the Save button to store your action settings.

Once you are finished editing, you need to switch your recipes from Draft to Live mode and it will became effective on your website immediately.

You can now edit any blog post and click on the Update button to trigger this recipe. As the recipe runs, you’ll see a message from your Uncanny Automator bot in your selected channel.

Integrating Slack with WooCommerce

Uncanny Automator works with all top WordPress plugins including WooCommerce. This means if you run an online store, then you can easily integrate it into your Slack workspace.

Simply head over to Automator » Add New page to create your recipe. Choose the logged-in option for your recipe type and then select WooCommerce as your Trigger Integration.

For the Trigger event, select ‘A user purchases a product’.

Next, you need to select ‘Any Product’ and then click on the Save button.

After that, you can move on to the Action tab. Simply click on the Add Action button and select Slack as your integration.

After that, you need to choose the action event. For instance, we’ll choose ‘Send a message to channel’ here.

Next, you will be able to select the channel where you want to send the message and compose your message. You can use dynamic tags to insert data by clicking on the Star button.

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

You can now go ahead and switch your recipe from draft to Live mode.

After that, you can test the recipe by making a free purchase on your WooCommerce store to trigger the recipe. You’ll see a message from the Uncanny Automator bot in your selected channel on Slack.

Other Slack Integration Ideas for WordPress via Uncanny Automator

The Uncanny Automator allows your WordPress website and your plugins to speak with Slack. This opens doors to countless things you can do by combining your apps together.

Following are just a few recipes that you can create to bring WordPress activity directly on to your Slack workspace:

• Send a message to Slack when a new user joins your WordPress website.
• Send content update messages to Slack and keep an eye on drafts, published posts, and page changes
• Get alerts for new orders on your online store directly in Slack
• Get a message when someone purchases your online course using MemberPress
• Get new lead notifications when someone submits your WordPress contact form

Apart from Slack, Uncanny Automator also allows you to create countless other recipes for all different plugins and thousands of other apps.

We hope this article helped you learn how to integrate Slack with WordPress. You may also want to see our list of the most useful tools to grow your WordPress blog and our comparison of the best WordPress page builder plugins to create custom site layouts.

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 Integrate Slack with WordPress (Beginner’s Guide) appeared first on WPBeginner.

April 01, 2021 at 04:00PM