How to Sell Digital Art and Graphics Online (The Easy Way)

Do you want to sell your digital art and graphics online?

By selling your art as downloadable files, you can make money without having to pay for shipping or professional printing. You can also sell the same digital art or graphic file countless times.

In this article, we will show you how you can easily start selling your digital art and graphics online using WordPress.

Why Sell Your Digital Art and Graphics Online?

If you’re an artist, there are lots of ways to sell your work online. For example, you could create a print-on-demand shop and turn your graphics into branded merchandise or high-quality prints.

However, more and more artists are selling their work as digital downloads rather than tangible goods. These items may include stock photo libraries, downloadable worksheets, ebooks, templates, and more.

Selling digital downloads lowers your costs because you don’t have to pay for printing and shipping fees. You also don’t have to worry about physical storage, supplies, or managing your inventory. All of this means you spend less time and effort for bigger profits.

With that in mind, let’s see how you can sell digital art and graphics online.

Which Platform Should You Use to Sell Digital Art and Graphics?

First, you’ll need to choose an eCommerce platform that you’ll use to sell your art and graphics as digital downloads.

An eCommerce platform is software that you’ll use to upload your artwork and then offer those files for sale.

While it is possible to change your eCommerce platform later, doing so can be disruptive to your business. To avoid that, it is important to choose your eCommerce platform carefully.

For this use case, you should pick a platform that has been designed specifically for selling digital downloads.

That’s why we recommend using WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads for selling art and graphics.

WordPress is the best website builder in the world. It powers over 43% of all websites on the internet including millions of websites where people sell digital downloads. WordPress gives you full control over your website, so it’s easy to design a beautiful and eye-catching site where you can show off your work.

Easy Digital Downloads is the best WordPress eCommerce plugin to sell digital products. In fact, we use the plugin ourselves to sell many of our premium WordPress plugins.

With WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads, you can sell as many products as you want without paying high transaction fees. This gives WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads a huge advantage over other platforms such as Sellfy, Gumroad, Sendowl, and WooCommerce.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to easily create a WordPress site with Easy Digital Downloads, so you can start selling your digital artwork and graphics online.

Step 1. Setting Up Your WordPress Website

Before you start building your WordPress website, it’s important to know that there are two types of WordPress software, WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

We’ll be using WordPress.org, also known as self-hosted WordPress, because it has more features and flexibility. For a detailed comparison, you can see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

To start selling digital art and graphics with WordPress, first you’ll need a domain name (like www.wpbeginner.com). If you don’t already have a name in mind, then you can see our guide on how to choose the best domain name.

You’ll also need web hosting which is where your website’s files are stored online, and an SSL certificate so you can securely accept credit card payments on your WordPress site.

A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. The price of an SSL certificate differs depending on where you buy the certificate. However, you can expect to pay anywhere between $50-200 / year for an SSL certificate.

As you can see, the hosting and security is expensive, especially for artists who are just starting out.

Thankfully, one of our top recommended hosting providers, SiteGround, is offering a huge 73% off deal on their managed hosting for Easy Digital Downloads. It comes with a free SSL certificate, Easy Digital Downloads pre-installed, and all the optimization features you need.

You can get started for less than $4 per month.

→ Click here to Claim this Exclusive SiteGround offer ←

Let’s go ahead and walk through how to purchase your domain name, web hosting, and your SSL certificate.  

First, you’ll need to head over to the SiteGround website and click on the Get Plan button.

After that, SiteGround will ask you to enter a domain name for your website, and they will also show you some optional extras you can purchase. 

You don’t have to worry about the extras at this point because you can always add them later if you want it, so we recommend skipping this step.

After that, you just need to enter your payment information to finish the purchase.

You’ll get an email soon with details on how to log into your new account. Once you login, you will see two buttons under the Websites tab: Site Tools and WordPress Admin.

Site Tools is your website’s hosting dashboard where you can manage everything related to your site, such as setting up your emails.

Clicking the ‘WordPress Admin’ button takes you to the newly installed WordPress site that already has Easy Digital Downloads pre-installed for you.

This will take you to a screen where you can log into your WordPress dashboard.

Here, simply type in the username and password you created, and then click on ‘Log In.’

Now, you’re ready to start building an online store to sell your digital art and graphics.

Are you using a different WordPress website hosting service like Bluehost, Hostinger, HostGator, or WP Engine? Then you can check out our guide on how to install WordPress for step by step instructions for those hosting providers.

Step 2. Setting Up Your eCommerce Plugin

If you’re using SiteGround, then Easy Digital Downloads already comes pre-installed.

If you’re using a different hosting provider then you’ll need to install and activate the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once you have access to the Easy Digital Downloads plugin, go to Downloads » Settings.

First, you will set your store’s location.

You may plan to sell your art and graphics as digital downloads only, but Easy Digital Downloads will still use your location to auto-fill some fields when a visitor makes a purchase.

It may also use your location to calculate sales tax.

To add your location, simply open the ‘Base Country’ dropdown menu. You can then choose where your business is based.

Next, find the ‘Base State / Province’ field.

Here you can open the dropdown and choose the state or province where your store operates from.

When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to save your changes.

Step 3. Adding a Payment Gateway to WordPress

When selling digital art and graphics online, you’ll need a way to accept credit payments from your customers.

By default, Easy Digital Downloads supports popular payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal and Amazon Payments.

Want to use a different payment gateway instead? You can add extra payment options using the Easy Digital Download extensions.

To add payment gateways to your website, go ahead and click on the ‘Payments’ tab. Then make sure the ‘Gateways’ tab is selected.

In the Payment Gateways section, check the box for each of the gateways that you want to add to your website.

If you check more than one payment method, then you’ll need to choose a default gateway. This payment gateway will be selected automatically when the visitor arrives at your checkout page.

You can use any gateway you want, but Stripe can accept credit cards as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay. With that in mind, you may want to use Stripe as your default payment gateway.

After selecting one or more payment gateways, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

You will now have access to new tabs where you can configure each of your separate payment gateways.

The process of configuring the payment gateway will be slightly different depending on which gateway you’re using, but Easy Digital Downloads will walk you through the process.

Let’s look at Stripe as an example.

To set up Stripe, simply select the ‘Stripe’ tab and then click on ‘Connect with Stripe.’

This launches a setup wizard which will walk you through the process of configuring Stripe as your payment gateway.

If you’re using multiple payment gateways, then you’ll need to repeat these steps to set up each gateway separately.

By default Easy Digital Downloads shows all your prices in US dollars. Once you’ve set up your payment gateway, you may want to change the currency that’s used on your website.

To show your prices in any currency other than US dollars, just click on the ‘Currency’ tab.

Next, open the ‘Currency’ dropdown. You can now choose the currency that you want to use on your website.

Just be aware that some payment gateways may not accept every currency. If you’re unsure, then you can always check your chosen payment gateway’s website. Most have a list of currencies that they support.

When you’re happy with the currency settings, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button near the bottom of the screen.

Step 4. Turn Your Digital Art Into a Downloadable Product

Once you’ve set up at least one payment gateway, you’re ready to create your first digital product. This can be any digital art or graphic file that you want to sell online.

To create a digital product, simply go to Downloads » Add New.

You can now type a name for the product into the ‘Enter download name here’ field. This will be shown on the product’s page, so you’ll want to use something that catches the visitor’s attention and accurately describes your graphic or digital artwork.

Next, type out the description that will appear on this product page. You’ll want to give visitors all the information they need to decide whether this product is right for them.

For example, you might include the graphic’s dimensions and resolution. You might also talk about the product’s licensing and how the customer can use the art after buying it.

Many online stores and websites use product categories and tags to help shoppers find what they’re looking for. These categories and tags can also encourage visitors to explore related graphics and digital art products, which can get you more sales.

You can create new categories and tags in the Download Categories and Download Tags box. To learn more, please see our step by step guide on how to add categories and tags for WordPress pages.

Next, you’ll want to set a price by scrolling to the Download Prices section.

Here, type in how much visitors will pay to download this graphic or digital artwork.

You’re now ready to upload the image file that you want to sell. When it comes to images, WordPress supports gif, heic, jpeg, png, and webp formats.

Pro Tip: If you want to sell digital art and graphics in a file type that WordPress doesn’t support, then see our guide on how to allow additional file types in WordPress.

To add your downloadable file, simply scroll to the Download Files section.

In the File Name field, type a name for the file that shoppers will get when they make a purchase. Then, simply click on ‘Upload a File’ to the right of the ‘File URL’ field.

You can now choose any image from the WordPress media library, or you can upload a new file from your computer.

Finally, you will need to add a product image.

When you’re selling digital art and graphics, you don’t want people to steal your work without paying. For this reason, we do not recommend using your original digital art or graphic as the product image.

One option is to use a lower-resolution version of your image. Another is to add a watermark to the original graphic. Or you can do both.

If you do create a watermark using web design software, then make sure you show this watermark in a location that isn’t easy to crop out.

Many artists place their watermark in the center of the image, or they use the watermark in a repeating pattern that covers the whole product.

A third option is to create a preview of how the shopper might use your digital art or graphic. For example, you could show your work in a mock-up mobile phone screen or marketing display. Providing context like this can encourage shoppers to buy your product.

To add a product image, simply scroll to the Download Image section and then click on the ‘Set Download Image’ link.

This launches the WordPress media library where you can choose an image or upload a new file from your computer.

When you’re happy with your digital download, click on the Publish button to make it live.

Step 5. Customizing Your Digital Download Emails

Every time someone buys a digital download from your website, Easy Digital Downloads will send an email to that person.

This email has a link that the customer can use to download the digital art file or graphic that they just purchased, as you can see in the following image.

While this email has everything the customer needs to access their download, it’s a good idea to customize it. For example, you might help your email stand out by adding your own logo and branding.

To customize the default email, simply go to Downloads » Settings. Then click on the ‘Emails’ tab.

You may want to start by adding a logo to the purchase confirmation email.

This logo appears at the top of your purchase receipt emails, so your customers can clearly see who this email is from.

To add a logo, click on the ‘Upload File’ button. You can now either choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a file from your computer.

You can also add a ‘From Name.’ This name will appear in the customer’s inbox, so you’ll want to use something that the customer will recognize such as the name of your website or design company.

You’ll also need to add a ‘From Email,’ which will act as the ‘from’ and ‘reply-to’ address.

Some customers may reply to the purchase receipt email. For example, if they’re having problems downloading the file, they might reach out by simply clicking ‘Reply’. With that in mind, you’ll want to use a professional email address that you check frequently.

After making these changes, click on the ‘Purchase Receipts’ tab.

On this screen, you can type in an email subject, add heading and also change the email’s body text.

You could simply type in the text that you want to send to every customer. However, you can create more helpful and personalized emails by using the Easy Digital Downloads feature, Conditional Emails.

Conditional Emails use what are called ‘template tags’ to personalize your messages. These template tags change based on factors such as the buyer’s name and how much they paid for their digital download. Every time Easy Digital Downloads sends an email, it will automatically replace the template tags with real values.

You’ll see all the different tags that you can use in Conditional Emails at the bottom of the ‘Purchase Receipts’ tab.

When you’ve finished making changes, you may want to send a test email so you can see how the message will look to your customers.

To do this, simply click on the ‘Send Test Email’ button and Easy Digital Downloads will send an email to your admin email address.

Have you clicked on the ‘Send Test Email’ button, but haven’t got a test email? Maybe your site isn’t sending emails properly. If customers don’t get purchase confirmation emails, they won’t be able to download your digital art and graphics.

With that in mind, you can follow our guide on how to fix the WordPress not sending email issue to make sure your emails reach your customers. You can also check out WP Mail SMTP, our solution to WordPress email problems.

When you’re happy with how the purchase receipt email looks, you can go ahead and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Step 6. Test Your Digital Download

Once you’ve created your first Easy Digital Downloads product and customized the purchase emails, it’s a good idea to check that visitors can buy it without any problems.

Before you do a test purchase, it’s important to put Easy Digital Downloads into test mode. This allows you to test the purchasing process without having to type in your credit or debit card information.

To put your site into test mode, you can go to Downloads » Settings and click on the ‘Payments’ tab.

Under ‘Gateways,’ you will want to enable ‘Test Mode’ by checking the first box.

Next, find the ‘Payment Gateways’ entry and check the ‘Test Payment’ box to the right. Finally, open the ‘Default Gateway’ dropdown and choose ‘Test Payment.’

After that, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’

Now that you’re in test mode, go to Downloads » All Downloads. Here, find the product that you want to test and click on its ‘View’ link.

This opens the product page where shoppers can buy this digital download.

To make a test purchase, go ahead and click on the ‘Purchase’ button.

Easy Digital Downloads will now add this item to your cart.

After that, it’s time to click on the ‘Checkout’ button.

Since we’re in test mode, you can simply type in your email address and name, and then click on ‘Purchase.’

You don’t need to enter any payment information.

After a few moments, you’ll get a purchase confirmation email containing a link to download your file.

If everything works and you can access your file, then you can add more digital products to your site by repeating the same process described above.

Once you’ve completed the test, don’t forget to take your site out of test mode so you can accept payments from your visitors.

To do this, simply go to Downloads » Settings » Payments. You can then uncheck ‘Test Mode’ in your payment gateway settings.

Step 7. Selecting and Customizing Your WordPress Theme

Themes control how your WordPress website looks including the colors, layout, and fonts. Your theme is the face of your WordPress site and plays an important role in how visitors see your brand.

There are thousands of different free and premium WordPress themes to choose from. You want to make sure you choose a high-quality WordPress theme that looks good and has exactly the features you need.

To help you make the right choice, we’ve put together a list of the most popular WordPress themes. Our top pick is the Astra Theme since it’s fully compatible with Easy Digital Downloads, free to get started, and completely customizable.

Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can see our guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

Alternatively, you can create your own custom theme from scratch with SeedProd. It’s the best drag and drop WordPress theme builder in the market, used by over 1 million websites.

SeedProd also comes with lots of ready-made, professionally designed templates. These templates include layouts that are perfect for promoting graphics such as stock photos, worksheets, and ebooks.

For more details, check out our guide on how to create a custom WordPress theme (no coding needed).

Step 8. Promoting Your Digital Downloads

If you’re going to sell your digital art and graphics on your new site, then you’ll need to drive traffic to your different product pages.

This might mean adding a product page to your website’s menu. You might also create a sales page to advertise your digital products, and then include links to different products you mention so that visitors can check them out.

We’ve also seen digital artists create a blog where they write about their work, share advice and ‘how to’ guides, and cover other relevant topics. These posts are the perfect place to include links to any relevant digital art and graphics that readers can buy.

No matter how you promote a product, you’ll need to know its URL.

To find this link, simply go to Downloads » All Downloads. You can then find the product that you want to link to, and click on its ‘Edit’ link.

You’ll find the URL directly below the product title.

You can now link to this product page from any area of your website, simply by using this URL. To learn more, see our step by step guide on how to add a link in WordPress.

Easy Digital Downloads also creates a unique ‘Purchase’ button for each product. You can add this button to any page, post, or widget-ready area. That way, the visitor can purchase a specific product from any page on your website.

When the visitor clicks on this button, it will add that item to their shopping cart. That way visitors can start the purchasing process from anywhere without having to visit the product’s individual page.

You can add this button to your site using a piece of shortcode that Easy Digital Downloads creates automatically.

To get a product’s shortcode, simply scroll to its Download Settings section. You can then copy the text in the ‘Purchase Shortcode’ field.

You can now add the shortcode to any post or page, or even a widget-ready area like your website’s sidebar. For more details on how to place the shortcode, you can see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

You can test it out by pasting the copied shortcode into a blog post or page, and then you should see a ‘Purchase’ button in the content area.

If your visitors click on this button, it will turn into a ‘Checkout’ button. To complete the purchase, your users will simply click it again to go to a checkout page where they can enter payment information and buy your digital art or graphics.

BONUS – Tools to Sell More Digital Art & Graphics

There are 2 main ways to sell more of your artwork: drive more traffic to your website, and convince more of your website visitors to complete a purchase.

This is where WordPress plugins come in.

Here are some of our top picks for plugins that can help you get more traffic and sell more of your art and graphics:

• All in One SEO is the best SEO plugin for WordPress and can help you optimize your site to get more traffic from search engines like Google.
• MonsterInsights is the best Analytics solution for WordPress. It helps you see where your visitors are coming from and what they do on your website, so you can decide your business strategy based on real data.
• OptinMonster is the conversion optimization software on the market. You can use it to create optin forms to grow your email list and convert visitors into paying customers. It can also reduce shopping cart abandonment.
• PushEngage is the best push notification software for WordPress. It allows you to send personalized web push notifications to let your customers know about your new artwork or sales and promotions.

FAQs About Selling Digital Art and Graphics Online

Many of our readers have reached out to us with questions about selling their digital art and graphics. We have tried to answer some of the most frequently asked questions below.

Where can I sell my digital art online?

There are lots of platforms, stores, and digital marketplaces where you can upload your digital art and sell it.

Some popular choices among artists include Etsy, Amazon, and Fine Art America.

Many of these platforms already have a large audience. By uploading your work to these sites, you have an existing audience of people who use the platform.

However, many of these marketplaces and websites take a percentage of every sale you make, and some even charge upfront fees. To boost your profits, we recommend creating your own website instead.

In this way, you’ll have complete control over your brand, and get all the profits from each digital sale.

How much does it cost to create a website for my digital art?

Setting up a digital store is much easier and cheaper than opening a physical shop.

You can start with SiteGround EDD Hosting for $5 per month and use free plugins and themes to limit your costs. We always recommend a business model where you start small. That way, you can spend more money as you build your audience and start to sell more digital art and graphics.

By using Easy Digital Downloads to sell your artwork, you can avoid many of the upfront costs and middleman fees you typically get when selling via an online marketplace such as Etsy. Instead, you just have to pay industry-standard credit card transaction fees.

For more information, see our article on how much it costs to build a WordPress website.

Can I also sell physical products?

At some point, you may want to sell physical products. For example, you might create merchandise featuring your graphics or sell your digital art as framed prints.

Despite the name, Easy Digital Downloads is also capable of selling physical products. There’s even a Simple Shipping addon that adds shipping features to the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. In this way, you can ship your branded merchandise, framed prints, or other physical products to your customers using the tools you’re already familiar with.

We hope this article helped you learn how to sell digital art and graphics online. You can also go through our guide on the best Instagram WordPress plugins and how to choose the best website builder.

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 Sell Digital Art and Graphics Online (The Easy Way) first appeared on WPBeginner.

July 22, 2022 at 03:00PM

How to Fix Upside Down or Flipped Images in WordPress

Do you want to fix upside down or flipped images in WordPress?

When you upload images from mobile devices, these images may occasionally appear flipped or upside down in the WordPress media library. This seems to happen most often when you upload images from iPhone or other iOS devices.

In this article, we will show you how to fix upside down or flipped images in WordPress.

Why WordPress Shows Upside Down or Flipped Images?

Since version 5.3, WordPress has looked at the metadata embedded inside each image and then rotated the image based on that data. If you’ve installed WordPress 5.3 or higher, then most of the time WordPress should rotate upside down or flipped images automatically.

For more details about how WordPress uses metadata, please see our guide on how to add EXIF photo tags in WordPress.

However, some WordPress users still see flipped or upside down images in the WordPress media library.

If this is happening on your WordPress blog, then there are a few fixes you can try. If you prefer to jump straight to a particular method, then you can use the links below.

• Method 1. How to fix upside down or flipped images in the WordPress media library
• Method 2. How to fix upside down or flipped images in WordPress automatically

Method 1. How to Fix Upside Down or Flipped Images in the WordPress Media Library

You can do basic image editing in the admin area of your WordPress website, including rotating images or flipping them vertically. This lets you fix upside down or flipped images in WordPress without having to install any extra plugins.

To rotate or flip an image, simply open the WordPress media library by clicking on Media » Library in the left-hand menu.

You can then click on the upside down or flipped image that you want to rotate.

WordPress will now show some basic settings that you can use to edit the image, such as adding title attributes to images in WordPress or adding image alt text.

To rotate or flip the image, just click on the Edit Image button.

To rotate the image clockwise, simply click on the ‘Rotate right’ button.

To rotate the image counter-clockwise, go ahead and click on the ‘Rotate left’ button instead.

Another option is to flip the image vertically.

To do this, simply click on the ‘Flip vertical’ button.

The live preview will update automatically, so you can play around with the settings until you’re happy with how the image looks.

Once you’ve finished, click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the image to save your changes.

If you make a mistake while editing the image, then you can simply keep clicking on the Undo button to undo each change until you’re happy with how the image looks.

Already saved the image? You can restore the original image by selecting that image and then clicking on the ‘Edit’ button, exactly as we described above.

However, this time click on ‘Restore Original Image’ to expand this section. Finally, it’s time to click on the ‘Restore image’ button.

After a few moments, you’ll see a message that the image was restored successfully.

You can also scale and crop images using the WordPress media library’s built-in tools. To learn more, see our step by step guide on how to do basic image editing in WordPress.

Method 2. How to Fix Upside Down or Flipped Images in WordPress Automatically

Fixing each image inside the WordPress media library can become time-consuming if you’re getting lots of flipped or upside images. With that in mind, you may want to rotate your images automatically using the Fixed Image Rotation plugin.

When you take a photo, smartphones typically create an Orientation value for that image. This plugin looks at the Orientation value and then rotates the image if needed. This all happens automatically, saving you time and effort.

Want to see the metadata that Fixed Image Rotation uses?

Many software editing programs let you check an image’s metadata. For example, you can check an image’s Orientation information using the Mac Preview app.

Simply open the image in Preview and then select Tools » Show Inspector.

In the popup that appears, click on the ‘General’ tab.

You can now see the Orientation value for this image. This is the information that Fixed Image Rotation uses to fix any upside down or flipped images.

To fix these images in WordPress, the first thing you need to do is install and activate the

Fixed Image Rotation plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the Fixed Image Rotation plugin starts working automatically and there are no settings for you to configure.

You can now upload any image from your phone, and WordPress will flip that image automatically when needed.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix upside down or flipped images in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to create a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress, or check out our list of the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

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

The post How to Fix Upside Down or Flipped Images in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

July 21, 2022 at 04:56PM

How to Allow Users to Upload Images in WordPress Comments

Do you want to allow users to attach images and files in WordPress comments?

Images and comments are both powerful tools to boost user engagement on your WordPress site. Depending on your site’s niche and target audience, allowing visitors to upload images in comments can significantly increase user engagement on your site.

In this article, we will show you how to allow users to upload images in WordPress comments.

Why Allow Users to Upload Images in WordPress Comments?

WordPress comments are a great way to communicate with your visitors. People leave feedback, ask questions, and offer recommendations that can be useful for building your brand and improving products.

Allowing users to upload images in comments can further boost the user experience. For example, visitors can share screenshots of their problems in the comments, giving your support team more information to resolve their issues.

Similarly, it can help start engaging discussions where people can share funny pictures and memes. This will help make your comments visually appealing and more fun to read.

Or if you’re running a travel blog, then allowing images in comments can help gather user-generated content. For instance, users can share pictures from their favorite destinations, places they visited, and more.

That said, let’s see how to allow image uploads in WordPress comments.

Allow Users to Upload Images in WordPress Comments

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the DCO Comment Attachment plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will work out of the box and add a file upload option in the WordPress comments area.

You can edit its settings by going to Settings » DCO Comment Attachment from your WordPress dashboard.

The plugin lets you set a maximum upload file size, make it a requirement to attach files, embed attachments, select an attachment image size, and more.

You can also allow your users to attach different file types, like a document, PDF, PowerPoint presentation, excel spreadsheet, and more by checking the file type option.

There’s also an option to select all users or only allow logged-in users to upload attachments in WordPress comments.

When you’ve made the changes, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

After that, head over to any post page on your WordPress blog, and you will see an image upload field in the comments area like the screenshot below:

All images uploaded by users are stored in your WordPress media library. If you want to delete an image uploaded by a user, then you need to go to Media » Library, locate the image, and then delete it.

This will delete the image from the comment without affecting the comment text.

To avoid abuse of this feature, we recommend adding some comment guidelines on your site to let users know what kind of attachments they can upload. You can check WPBeginner’s comment policy page for an example.

You can then add a link to your comment policy text in the WordPress comment form.

Due to the nature of images, you may want to moderate all comments before they appear on your site. You can do this by enabling comment moderation and notifying users when their comment is approved on your site.

To further boost media capabilities in your comments, you can enable oEmbed support for comments in WordPress. This will allow your users to embed YouTube videos, tweets, Flickr photos, and more alongside the images they upload.

We hope this article helped you learn how to allow users to upload images in WordPress comments. You may also want to see our tips on getting more comments on your WordPress blog posts, and how to start an online store.

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 Allow Users to Upload Images in WordPress Comments first appeared on WPBeginner.

July 20, 2022 at 04:00PM

How to Connect Multiple WordPress Sites Together (3 Ways)

Do you want to connect two or more WordPress websites together?

Having multiple websites is an advantage for your business as you easily segment products and services for different customers and keep your main website secure. However, connecting each site and making them work together can be tricky.

In this article, we’ll show you how to connect multiple WordPress sites together.

Why Connect Multiple WordPress Websites Together?

Let’s say you have multiple websites like a WordPress blog and an online course website. If someone purchases a course from your blog, then you’d have to manually enroll them on to your site that has the learning management system (LMS).

This could take a lot of time, or cost you a lot if you need to hire help to get the job done.

On the other hand, you can automate different tasks and save time by connecting these websites together. When a customer purchases the course, they’re automatically registered and enrolled on a separate membership site. This is good practice to keep your main WordPress site secure.

Many people think of creating a WordPress multisite network when connecting numerous sites together. However, you don’t need to run a multisite network to connect each website together. In fact, that’s usually not the best solution.

We’ll show you 3 simple ways of making different websites work together. You can click the link below to jump ahead to any section you’re interested in:

• Connect Multiple WordPress Sites Together Using a Plugin
• Create a Subdomain to Connect WordPress Websites
• Use Interlinking to Connect WordPress Websites

Method 1: Connect Multiple WordPress Sites Using a Plugin

The best way to connect two websites and make them talk to each other is by using the Uncanny Automator plugin. It’s the best WordPress automation plugin and helps you create automated workflows on your website.

You can think of the plugin as Zapier for WordPress websites. With Uncanny Automator, you can easily create a connection between multiple websites.

For this tutorial, let’s consider a situation where you have a WooCommerce store and a membership website.

We’ll show you how to connect both websites using Uncanny Automator. Our goal is to automatically register customers on your membership website when they buy a course from your store.

Note: Before you start, make sure that you’ve added a product to your WooCommerce store and created different membership levels on your membership site.

Next, you’ll need to install the Uncanny Automator plugin on both of your websites. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll be asked to install the Uncanny Automator free plugin. The lite version offers limited features and is used as a base for the pro version.

After that, you’ll need to go to the Automator » Settings page from your WordPress dashboard and enter your license key. You can find the key in the Uncanny Automator account area.

After entering the key, don’t forget to click the ‘Activate License’ button.

You’ll need to repeat the activation steps for both WordPress websites.

Creating a Recipe for Purchasing a Product on Your WooCommerce Store

Next, you’ll need to create a recipe on your WooCommerce store when customers purchase your product. ‘Recipes’ are automations.

To start, you can head over to Automator » Add New from your WordPress admin panel.

After that, you’ll be asked to select a recipe type. Logged-in recipes are triggered by logged-in users only, while ‘Everyone’ recipes can be triggered by all users.

Go ahead and select the ‘Logged-in users’ as the recipe type, since your customers will be creating an account and logging in to make a purchase. Then click the ‘Confirm’ button.

Next, you can enter a name for your recipe and select ‘WooCommerce’ as the integration. The name is for your reference only, and your users won’t see it.

Then, you’ll need to select a trigger for your recipe.

Simply select the ‘A user completes, pays for, lands on a thank you page for an order with a product’ as the trigger.

Next, you’ll be asked to select the trigger condition.

You can select ‘pays for’ as the condition and click the ‘Save’ button.

After that, Uncanny Automator will ask you to select a product for your recipe.

Go ahead and select the digital product that’s on your WooCommerce store. For example, we’ll choose the WordPress Course: Ultimate Growth Hacking as the product for this tutorial.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button after selecting a product.

Now you’ll need to choose an ‘Action’ for your recipe.

To create the action, you’ll need to select an integration.

You can easily send the customer’s registration data to your membership website using a webhook. A webhook is a bit of code that allows different tools and apps to provide information to other apps in real-time.

Don’t worry, you won’t need to know how to code in order to use it. We’ll walk you through all the steps.

Go ahead and select ‘Webhooks’ as the integration.

In the next step, you can select an action for your chosen integration.

Simply select the ‘Send data to a webhook’ option.

Next, you’ll need to enter your webhook details.

Keep this tab open for now.

To complete the recipe on your WooCommerce store and fill in the webhook details, you need to create a webhook on your membership website.

Creating a Webhook on Your Membership Website

First, you’ll want to open your membership site in a new tab. Then head over to Automator » Add New from your WordPress admin panel on your membership site.

Go ahead and select ‘Everyone’ as the recipe type and click the ‘Confirm’ button.

After that, you will have to enter a name for your recipe and select a trigger integration for your recipe.

Simply click the ‘Webhooks’ as the integration.

In the next step, you’ll need to select a trigger for your integration.

Go ahead and select the ‘Receive data from a webhook’ as the trigger.

Next, the plugin will show the webbook URL. You can note down the URL in a text file, as we’ll need it later on to finish the recipe on your WooCommerce store.

After that, scroll down to the Fields section. Now enter ‘Email’ under the Key field and select ‘Email’ for the Value type.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button.

Next, you can add an action to your recipe by clicking the ‘Add action’ button.

There will be different integrations you can choose for your action. Simply select the membership plugin you used to create the membership site.

In our case, we’ll select MemberPress since we used it to set up the membership site.

After that, you can choose an action for your selected integration.

Since we want our customers to subscribe to a membership automatically, we’ll select the ‘Add the user to a membership’ option.

A popup will now appear showing that the action will require WordPress user data.

Go ahead and click the ‘Set user data’ button.

Next, you’ll need to choose between an Existing User or a New User.

Simply click the ‘New User’ option.

A form will now appear where you can set the user data. You can leave the first name and last name fields blank.

Next, go ahead and click the asterisk icon (*) for the Email field. From the dropdown options, select ‘Field #1 Email’ under Receive data from a webhook.

You can repeat this step for the Username field as well. As for other fields, you can leave them blank.

Now, under the ‘What to do if the user already exists’ option, simply choose ‘Do nothing’ and click the Save button.

Next, you can select the membership plan you want the WooCommerce customer to subscribe to by clicking the Membership dropdown menu.

Besides that, you’ll see more fields for subtotal, tax amount, tax rate, status, gateway, and more. You can leave them to the default setting.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button when you’re done.

If you want, there are more actions you can add to the recipe, like allowing WordPress to send a confirmation email or registering the user to a Zoom webinar.

Next, you can now go ahead and publish your recipe. Simply click the ‘Draft’ toggle on the right side of the page and change it to ‘Live.’

Finishing Your Purchase Recipe in WooCommerce

Now that your recipe is active on the membership website, it’s time to finish up the recipe on your WooCommerce store.

First, go back to your WooCommerce website and open the recipe we created earlier. Next, enter the webhook link we copied in a text file (when creating a recipe on the membership site) under the ‘URL’ field.

Next, you can scroll down and keep the Request Method and Data format to the default setting.

Under the Body section, you can click the asterisk (*) sign for the ‘Key’ field and select ‘Billing email’ as the option. Similarly, you can also select ‘Billing email’ for the Value field.

There’s also an option to send test data to see if your connection is set up correctly.

When you’re done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button.

Next, go ahead and publish your recipe by clicking the Draft toggle and changing it to Live.

That’s it!

Whenever a customer purchases your selected WooCommerce product, they’ll be automatically subscribed to a membership plan on your membership website.

You can use this same method to set up similar automations to connect multiple WordPress sites together.

Method 2: Create a Subdomain to Connect WordPress Websites

Another way you can connect multiple WordPress websites is by creating a subdomain.

However please keep in mind that these websites will not be in sync automatically, and you will have to manually update both of them.

Subdomains are additional parts of your primary domain name and help you organize different sections of your WordPress website. You can use them to separate other functions from your main website.

For example, let’s you want to create an eCommerce store but keep it away from your main domain. In this case, you can create a subdomain for your online store, and your website will look like this:

https://ift.tt/WYH4vkI

Similarly, you can create a subdomain for different locations like uk.yourexamplesite.com or fr.yourexamplesite.com.

At WPBeginner, we also use a subdomain for our video content. You can visit https://ift.tt/dN064gO and get access to numerous video tutorials on WordPress.

You can easily create a subdomain using your WordPress hosting account. For more details, you can see our explanation about subdomains and how to create one.

Then, you can see our guide on how to install WordPress to create another WordPress site on the subdomain.

Method 3: Use Interlinking to Connect Websites

You can also connect multiple WordPress sites together by linking them together. The links will help to boost your WordPress SEO by passing authority (link juice) to each domain.

One common way to do this is by adding a custom link to your main navigation menu.

You can also add a link to your website’s footer.

For example, on WPBeginner, you’ll see that we’ve linked to websites that are part of the WPBeginner family of products along with some site links.

To edit your WordPress footer and add links to another website, please see our guide on how to edit the footer in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to connect multiple WordPress sites together. You can also see our guide on how to start a WordPress podcast and the best WordPress plugins.

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

The post How to Connect Multiple WordPress Sites Together (3 Ways) first appeared on WPBeginner.

July 19, 2022 at 04:07PM