How to Use Free SMTP Server to Send WordPress Emails (4 Methods)

Do you want to use a free SMTP server to send WordPress emails?

By default, WordPress uses the PHP mail function which is not reliable and often mark your emails as spam. Using an SMTP server is the best way to ensure deliverability of your WordPress emails.

In this article, we’ll show you how to use a free SMTP server to send WordPress emails.

Why Use an SMTP Server to Send WordPress Emails?

Often website owners complain about WordPress not sending email issue. The easiest way to fix that is by using an SMTP server, so your WordPress emails get to people’s inboxes.

By default, WordPress sends emails through PHP mail. Unfortunately, not all WordPress hosting servers are correctly configured to use PHP mail.

Even when the emails are sent successfully, they may get incorrectly identified as spam. This means they could be automatically deleted without ever being seen.

The best way to ensure deliverability for your WordPress emails is by using an SMTP server. It is the standard protocol to send emails on the internet.

SMTP servers use proper authentication to make sure that email is sent by an authorized sender. This improves deliverability, and your emails safely land in users’ inbox.

Now in order to connect your WordPress site to use your SMTP server, you need a plugin to make that connection. We’ll be using the WP Mail SMTP plugin which is the best SMTP plugin for WordPress.

There is a free version of WP Mail SMTP available as well.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to set up WP Mail SMTP and then how to connect it to popular free SMTP servers.

Installing WP Mail SMTP plugin for WordPress

The first step is to install and activate the WP Mail SMTP plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to go to the WP Mail SMTP » Settings page in your WordPress admin area to set up the plugin.

You need to start by entering your From Email and From Name. WordPress emails will be sent from this email address and name.

You should leave the ‘Force From Email’ box checked. This ensures that all emails from your WordPress site are sent from that email address, through your SMTP server.

Tip: Just check the ‘Force From Name’ to make all emails come from the same name, regardless of any settings in plugins such as WPForms.

Next, you need to choose an SMTP mailing service. Simply click on the one that you want to use.

We are going to cover step by step instructions for a number of different free SMTP servers. You need to keep your WP Mail SMTP settings tab open and then follow the instructions for your chosen SMTP server.

• Sending WordPress Emails Using Sendinblue
• Sending WordPress Emails Using Gmail
• Sending WordPress Emails Using MailGun
• Sending WordPress Emails Using SendGrid

Note: If you don’t feel very confident with technical things, we recommend upgrading to WP Mail SMTP’s Elite account. They have a fantastic White Glove Setup service that will help you through the setup process.

Sending WordPress Emails Using Sendinblue SMTP Server

Sendinblue lets you send up to 300 free emails per day from your website.

First, you need to create an account at the Sendinblue website. After confirming your email address, you’ll be asked to choose a Sendinblue pricing plan.

Simply click on the ‘Continue with a Free plan’ button.

You will receive a text message with a confirmation code to enter. Next, you’ll see your Sendinblue dashboard.

Before going further, you need to create a subdomain at your website, such as mail1.yourdomain.com.

To do this, log in to your web hosting or domain registrar account, and then follow their instructions for adding a subdomain.

If you’re using Bluehost, then you need to go to the Domains » Subdomains page under your hosting dashboard.

Simply enter the subdomain you want to use (e.g. mail1) and then click on the create button to continue. Bluehost will add the subdomain to your hosting.

After creating the subdomain, you need to add it into your Sendinblue account.

Adding Your Subdomain to Sendinblue

In your Sendinblue account, you need to go to the Settings page. On this page, scroll to the ‘Your Senders and Domains’ section and click the ‘Configure’ button below it.

Next, click the Domains tab then the ‘Add a New Domain’ button.

Go ahead and enter your whole subdomain, such as mail1.yoursite.com. Make sure you check the box to confirm you want to use the domain name to digitally sign your emails. Then, click the Save button.

After saving, you will see a popup listing ways for you to verify your domain. The default method is to host a file, but this requires you to create the HTML file and upload it via FTP.

We recommend instead using the ‘Add a DNS entry’ method. This gives you a special code that you need to use to verify your subdomain.

Tip: Don’t worry if you close this popup by mistake. You can get back to it by clicking the ‘Verify This Domain’ link next to your subdomain.

Next, you need to open the DNS settings for your domain in your web hosting account. Your web host should have instructions for this.

In Bluehost, you need to scroll down your DNS records to the TXT section.

Then, create a new DNS TXT record.

For the Host Record (sometimes called Host or Name) you need to enter your subdomain, e.g. mail1.yourdomain.com. Depending on your web host, it may already be entered for you, or you may need to enter all or part of it.

For the Value (also called TXT Value or TXT data) you just need to copy the special code from Sendinblue.

Make sure you save your DNS TXT record. After doing so, return to Sendinblue and click the ‘Record Added. Please Verify It’ button.

Tip: DNS changes can take as much as 24 – 48 hours to propagate across the internet. If the verification fails, try again in a few hours.

After doing this, you also need to enter two more DNS TXT records so that Sendinblue can authenticate the emails that are being sent from your domain. This improves deliverability.

In Sendinblue, click the ‘Manage’ dropdown next to your domain, then select the ‘Authenticate this domain’ option.

You will then see a popup with details of the DNS records that you need to add. You just need to add the first 2 DNS records. The 3rd is the one you have added already and the 4th is not needed.

Simply add these to your domain in your web hosting account or domain registrar in the same way as before. Then, go ahead and click the ‘Record Added. Please Verify It’ button for each one.

Now, you just need to finish enabling Sendinblue on your WordPress site. Simply go back to the WP Mail SMTP Settings page that you opened up earlier, and find the API key box.

Then, click the ‘Get v3 API Key’ link.

This link will open up the correct page of your Sendinblue account in a new tab. Here, you just need to copy the API key.

Once you’ve copied it, return to WP Mail SMTP and paste in the API key.

Make sure you click the ‘Save Settings’ after doing so.

Everything is now set up. You just need to wait for Sendinblue to activate your account.

Now, it’s time to go ahead and test that your email is working.

Sending WordPress Emails Using Gmail SMTP Server

You can use a free Gmail account to send SMTP emails. If you don’t already have a Gmail account, then create one before following the rest of these instructions.

First, log in to your WordPress admin, where you should already have installed WP Mail SMTP. On the WP Mail SMTP » Settings page, select Gmail as your mailer.

You will see the options to enter your Client ID and Client Secret. There’s also a URL that you will need to copy later, so keep this tab open.

Next, go to the Google Developers Console website. You need to agree to the terms and conditions. Then, click the ‘Create Project’ button.

Now, it’s time to create your new project. All you have to do here is type in the name you want to use. Then, go ahead and click the Create button.

You will now see your dashboard, with your new project selected in the dropdown at the top of the screen.

You need to click the ‘Enable APIs and Services’ button.

You will then see the API library. Simply type ‘Gmail’ into the search bar.

The page will then refresh. The first result should be the Gmail API. Go ahead and click on it.

Next, you will see some information about the Gmail API. Simply click the Enable button.

It may take a few seconds for the API to be enabled. Next, you need to click the ‘Create Credentials’ button.

On the next screen, you need to select the following options.

Which API are you using? Gmail API

Where will you be calling the API from? Web browser (Javascript)

What data will you be accessing? User data

Then, click the ‘What credentials do I need?’ button.

After this, you will see a popup prompting you to create an OAuth consent screen. Just click the ‘Set Up Consent Screen’ link to do that now.

The OAuth consent screen will open in a new tab. Here, you need to select the ‘External’ type and then click the Create button.

Note: We’re going to keep the app in testing mode. It will not actually become available to the public.

Next, enter a name for your app and select your email address for the support email.

After that, scroll down to the Authorized domains section, click the ‘Add Domain’ button then enter the name of your domain.

Tip: You need to enter the domain name without http, https, or www at the start.

Next, enter your email address.

Then, click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.

Simply click the ‘Save and Continue’ button on the Scopes screen. On the ‘Test users’ screen, click the ‘Add Users’ button and enter your Gmail address.

Then, press ‘Save and Continue’ again.

Once you reach the summary, go ahead and return to your other tab to set up your project’s credentials.

Here, you can enter any name you like or simply leave the default name in place.

In ‘Authorized JavaScript origins’, you need to enter your website’s domain name.

In ‘Authorized redirect URIs’, you need to enter the redirect URL from WP Mail SMTP’s settings.

You will then see a ‘Refresh’ button below this. Click the button then click the ‘Create OAuth client ID’ button that appears.

You have now finished creating your Google web application. Simply click the Done button.

You will now see your new web application listed. Go ahead and click the edit icon next to it.

Here, you will see your Client ID and Client Secret.

You need to copy these and paste them into your WP Mail SMTP settings page. Then, go ahead and click the ‘Save Settings’ button.

The page will then refresh. You need to scroll down again and click the ‘Allow plugin to send emails using your Google account’ button.

This will open a popup where you need to select your email account. You will then see a warning screen. Simply click the ‘Advanced’ link then click the ‘Go to wpmailsmtp.com’ link to continue.

Note: It’s perfectly safe to continue as this is your own app that you created.

You will then see a popup asking you to grant permissions. Go ahead and click the Allow button.

Finally, you need to confirm your choice and click the Allow button again.

After doing so, you will be directed back to WP Mail SMTP. You will see a message to confirm that you have successfully linked your site with your Google API project.

Now, it’s time to go ahead and test that your email is working.

Sending WordPress Emails Using MailGun SMTP Server

MailGun is another popular SMTP email provider. It lets you send up to 5,000 emails/month for free, for 3 months.

First, you need to go to the MailGun website and click the ‘Start Sending’ button to sign up for an account.

You need to enter your credit card details. If you send more than 5,000 emails, or continue after the first 3 months, then your card will be charged at a rate of $0.80 per 1,000 emails.

Once you’re done, click the ‘Create Account’ button at the bottom of the screen.

You will then see your account dashboard.

Before continuing, look for a verification email from Mailgun in your email inbox. You need to click a link in this email to activate your Mailgun account.

Tip: You will also have an email letting you know that an API key was added to your Mailgun account. This is normal.

After clicking this link, you will be prompted to enter and verify your mobile number. Next, you will see your Mailgun dashboard again.

Now, you need to create a subdomain at your website, such as mg.yourdomain.com.

To do this, log in to your web hosting account and follow their instructions for adding a subdomain. If you’re using Bluehost, you need to go to the Domains » Subdomains page.

After creating the subdomain, return to your Mailgun dashboard and go to the Sending » Domains page.

Next, you need to enter the subdomain that you created in your hosting account earlier.

Simply leave the ‘Domain region’ set to US, unless you’re in the EU.

Go ahead and click the ‘Advanced Settings (DKIM)’ link to open up the DKIM settings.

Here, you should leave the ‘Create DKIM Authority’ box checked and select 2048 for the ‘DKIM key length’.

Then, go ahead and click the ‘Add Domain’ button.

You will now see instructions to verify your domain under the ‘Add DNS records for sending’ step.

You need to login to your web hosting account and add specific DNS records to your subdomain. Your web host should be able to give you instructions for this.

In Bluehost, you need to scroll down your DNS records to the TXT section.

Then, create the first new DNS TXT record.

For the Host Record (sometimes called Host or Name) you need to enter your subdomain, e.g. mg.yourdomain.com. Depending on your web host, it may already be entered for you, or you may need to enter all or part of it.

For the Value (also called TXT Value or TXT data) you just need to copy the special code under ‘Enter This Value’ from Mailgun.

Make sure you save your DNS TXT record.

For the second DNS TXT record, you need to enter the Host Record shown in the ‘Hostname’ column. Then, enter the long code from the ‘Enter This Value’ column for the Value.

After saving your second DNS TXT record, you should also add the MX records from your Mailgun account.

You enter these in the same way as the TXT records. Just make sure you select MX for each one. For more help, check out our article on how to change MX records.

Tip: Your web host may not allow you to add MX records to a subdomain. If so, it’s fine to proceed without using the MX records. However, be aware that you may get a Sender Verification error when sending emails to yourself, if you’re using the same email address as your From address.

This is all you need to do. You don’t need to add the DNS records for tracking.

Once you’ve entered the TXT and MX records, simply click the ‘Verify DNS Settings’ button at the bottom of the page.

You will then see a screen asking how you’d like to send your emails.

Ignore this, and go to the Settings » API key page. Here, you need to click the view button next to the Private API key, then copy it.

Next, you need to paste the private API key into WP Mail SMTP. Below that, enter your subdomain. Make sure the correct region is selected and then click the ‘Save Settings’ button.

The final step is to test that your email is working.

Sending WordPress Emails Using SendGrid SMTP Server

SendGrid lets you send up to 40,000 emails total during your first 30 days. After that, their plan gives you up to 100 free emails per day.

First, you need to visit the SendGrid website and click the ‘Start For Free’ button to create your free account.

After creating your account, you will see your SendGrid dashboard.

Your first step is to create a sender identity. Go ahead and click the ‘Create a Single Sender’ button.

Then, simply enter the name, email address, and mailing address that you want to use for your emails.

Important: This email address needs to be the same as the one that you’re using as your From address in your WP Mail SMTP settings.

You will then see your details listed in the Senders table.

You will get a verification email with a button you need to click in order to verify this business email address.

Once you’ve verified your email address, go ahead and return to your SendGrid dashboard by clicking the Dashboard link in the sidebar.

The next step is to click the Start button for the Web API and SMTP Relay option.

On the next screen, select the SMTP Relay option.

Next, you need to enter a name for your API key and click the ‘Create Key’ button.

You will then see your API key.

Next, open up your WordPress admin in a separate tab and go to WP Mail SMTP » Settings. You should have already selected SendGrid for your mailer. If not, select it now.

At the bottom of the screen, you will see a box for entering your SendGrid API key. Simply copy and paste it here, then click the ‘Save Settings’ button.

Next, you need to verify that your integration is working. First, go to the Email Test tab in your WP Mail SMTP settings. Then, enter your email address and click the Send Email button.

You should see a message that the test email was sent successfully. You can also check it in your inbox.

Now that your test email has been sent successfully, go back to the tab with your SendGrid API page. Go ahead and check the ‘I’ve updated my settings’ box. Then, click the ‘Next: Verify Integration’ button.

On the next screen, click the ‘Verify Integration’ button.

You should then see this message.

Next, you should create and authenticate a subdomain to help improve your emails’ deliverability.

Tip: If you aren’t able to create and authenticate your subdomain, the emails from your website will still go out. However, there is a possibility that some emails may not be delivered to their recipients.

Creating a Subdomain to Use with SendGrid

Now, you need to create a subdomain at your website, such as sg.yourdomain.com.

To create a subdomain, log in to your web hosting account and follow their instructions for adding a subdomain. If you’re using Bluehost, you need to go to the Domains » Subdomains page.

We suggest using sg.yourdomain.com for your subdomain.

After creating the subdomain, you need to add it in your SendGrid account.

To do this, you need to go to the Settings » Sender Authentication page in your SendGrid account. Under ‘Authenticate Your Domain’ you need to click the ‘Get Started’ button.

Now, you should select your DNS host. This is your website host, unless your domain name is registered with a different company.

In the second step, select Yes for ‘Would you also like to brand the links for this domain?’ This means that your emails will be shown as coming from your domain, not SendGrid’s.

Then, simply click the Next button.

Now, enter your domain in the ‘Domain You Send From’ box. Below this, click the ‘Advanced Settings’ link. This will open up new options.

You need to uncheck the ‘Use automated security’ box and check the ‘Use custom return path’ box. Then, type the first part of your subdomain for the ‘Return Path’. For instance, if your subdomain is sg.example.com, then type sg.

Once you’ve done this, click the Next button.

Now, you will see some DNS records that you need to add to your domain. You can consult your web host’s documentation for help doing this.

After you’ve added the records, go ahead and click the ‘Verify’ button at the bottom of the screen. You should then see a success message.

Finally, test your SMTP email again to be sure that emails are being sent correctly.

Testing That Your SMTP Mail is Working

The final step for all these methods is to send a test email to make sure everything is working.

First, go to the ‘Email Test’ tab in the WP Mail SMTP settings. Then, enter the email address where you want the test email to be sent, if it’s different from the default.

Simply click the ‘Send Email button and your email will be sent. You should see a message to let you know that the email was sent successfully.

Next, go ahead and check your inbox to make sure that the test email has arrived.

Other Free SMTP Mailer Options

There are some other free SMTP mailer options you could use instead of the ones we have covered.

• Outlook: This involves a longer set up process than some other methods, but the advantage is that you can send a LOT of emails (up to 10,000 per minute).
• Amazon SES: This service is only recommended if you are confident with technology as the set up is quite complex. It is free for your first year.
• SMTP.com: This is a robust and reliable option. The drawback is that it is only free for your first 30 days, then you have to pay to use it.

For all these, you can get instructions by selecting the mailer on your WP Mail SMTP settings page then clicking the documentation link. This will open up instructions in a new tab.

We hope this article helped you learn how to use a free SMTP server to send WordPress emails. You might also like to check out our articles on the best email marketing services and our comparison of the best virtual business phone number apps (with free options).

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 Use Free SMTP Server to Send WordPress Emails (4 Methods) appeared first on WPBeginner.

December 17, 2020 at 06:00PM

How to Easily Embed iFrame Code in WordPress (3 Methods)

Do you want to embed an iFrame code in a WordPress post or page?

IFrames provide an easy way to embed video or other content to your site without uploading it. Many third-party platforms like YouTube allow users to use iframe to embed content from their website.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily embed iFrame code in WordPress using multiple methods.

What is iFrame?

An iFrame lets you embed videos or other content on your site. This means you can display a video on your site without actually hosting that video.

The iframe is like opening a window on your site to display external content. The actual content is still loaded from the source that you are embedding from.

To add an iframe, you need to add a special HTML code. Don’t worry if that sounds quite technical.

We’re going to show you the easiest way to embed an iFrame in your WordPress blog.

Why Use iFrames?

A key reason to use iFrames is to avoid having to host videos or other resources on your site, which will use up your bandwidth and storage space.

Also, iFrames let you avoid infringing on other people’s copyrighted content. Instead of downloading their video or other content then uploading it to your site, you simply add it to your page using an iFrame.

Another advantage is that if the original content is changed, it will automatically be updated in the iFrame too.

There are also some drawbacks to using iFrames. Not all websites let you put their content into an iFrame. Also, the iFrame may end up too big or small for your page, and you will need to manually adjust it.

Another issue is that HTTPS sites can only use iFrames for content from other HTTPS sites. Similarly, HTTP sites can only use iFrames for content from other HTTP sites.

This is why many platforms like WordPress prefers oEmbed. You can use oEmbed to embed videos as well as some other types of content by simply pasting a URL into your WordPress post. The content will automatically be resized to fit, and it will be the right size even on mobile devices.

Important: WordPress doesn’t support oEmbed for Facebook and Instagram posts. For more on this, check out our full guide on the Facebook / Instagram oEmbed issue and how to fix it.

Another great alternative to iFrames is to use a social feeds plugin. We recommend using Smash Balloon‘s plugins. These let you display content from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Having said that, let’s take a look at three different ways to add iFrames to your site.

1. Use the Source’s Embed Code to Add iFrame in WordPress

Many large sites have an Embed option for their content. This gives you the special iFrame code that you need to add to your site.

On YouTube, you can get this code by going to the video on YouTube, then clicking the Share button below it.

Next, you will see a popup with several share options. Simply click on the Embed button.

Now, YouTube will show you the iFrame code. By default, YouTube will include the player controls. We also recommend that you enable the privacy-enhanced mode.

After that, go ahead and click the Copy button to copy the code.

Now, you can paste that code into any post or page on your site. We’re going to add it to a new page in the block editor.

To create a new page, go to Pages » Add New in your WordPress dashboard.

Then, add an HTML block to your page.

Now, you need to paste the YouTube iFrame code into this block.

You can then preview or publish your page to see the YouTube video embedded there.

Tip: If you’re using the old classic editor, you can still add iFrame code. You need to do so in the Text view.

Switching between the visual and text view on the Classic Editor can cause issues with the iFrame code.

2. Using the iFrame WordPress Plugin to Embed an iFrame

This method is useful as it allows you to create an iframe to embed content from any source, even if that source doesn’t provide an embed code.

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

Upon activation, the plugin will start working straight away with no setup needed. Go ahead and edit or create a post or page. Then, add a shortcode block.

After that, you can use this shortcode to enter your iFrame code.

[iframe src="URL goes here"]

Simply replace URL goes here with the URL of the content you want to embed on your site. We are embedding a Google map.

Tip: You may need to use the Embed option to get the direct URL of the content. You need to use just the URL, not the rest of the embed code.

Next, preview or publish your post. You should see the Google map embedded on your site.

You can optionally add parameters to the iFrame shortcode to change how the embedded content displays. For instance, you could set the width and height, and add or remove a scrollbar or border. You can find details on the iFrame plugin’s page.

Tip: If you’re using the Classic editor, you can simply paste the shortcode into your post or page. You don’t need to switch to the Text view.

3. Manually Creating the iFrame Code and Embedding in WordPress

If you prefer not to use an iFrame plugin, then you can create the iFrame code manually. To do this, you need to add an HTML block in the WordPress content editor.

First, you need to paste this code into your HTML block.

<iframe src="URL goes here"></iframe>

Simply replace “URL goes here” with the direct URL for the content that you want to embed. You only need the URL itself.

Here, we’re embedding a map from Google.

You can add extra parameters to the HTML tag. For instance, you could set the width and height of your iFrame. The code below means your embedded content will display 600 pixels wide and 300 pixels high.

<iframe src="URL goes here" width="600" height="300"></iframe>

This is useful if you need to restrict the embedded content to a smaller space.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily embed iFrame code in WordPress. You may also want to check out our ultimate guide on how to speed up your WordPress site, and our comparison of the best keyword research tools for improving your SEO rankings.

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 Embed iFrame Code in WordPress (3 Methods) appeared first on WPBeginner.

December 16, 2020 at 06:00PM

How to Easily Save a Blog Post to Your Computer (5 Methods)

Do you want to save your WordPress blog posts to your computer?

Normally, you can make a WordPress backup and save it on your computer. However, these backups are not readable or easy to share without installing WordPress again.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily save a copy of your blog content that you can read, share, or even convert to an eBook.

Why Save Your Blog Posts to Your Computer

There are several reasons to save your blog posts to your computer.

The most common reason is to create a back up of your blog, so that you can restore it later. You may want to move it to a new WordPress website or just keep it safe as a security precaution.

Or you may want to close and delete your WordPress website, but want to preserve your blog content in a readable format. Instead of saving them as back up files, you can save all of your blog posts as PDF or an eBook, so you can easily read or share your articles.

Another common reason is to move from another blogging platform to WordPress. To do this you’ll need to save your blog posts and then import them into WordPress.

There are multiple ways to save and download your blog posts. Depending on your needs, you can choose the method that best suits you.

• Creating a backup of your entire blog
• Creating a PDF or ebook of your blog posts
• Printing a book of your blog posts
• Saving your blog to migrate
• Saving your WordPress.com blog posts

Creating a Backup of Your Blog

This method is recommended if you just want to make a backup of your blog posts for safekeeping.

It allows you to restore your blog posts on any other WordPress website. However, it does not save your blog posts in a readable or shareable format.

WordPress has a built-in feature to export your blog posts. Simply go to Tools » Export. page inside your WordPress admin area. Here, you can choose to download your entire site, or only your blog posts.

After that, you can click on the Download Export File button and WordPress will download all your blog posts in XML format. This file can be used to restore your site, or to migrate to another domain or a different web host.

You can also download your entire media library and save your images and videos separately.

However, if you want to keep a backup of your entire WordPress site, then the export tool is not the ideal method. It will not save any other website data, settings, your WordPress theme, or plugins.

For that, you will need to use a proper WordPress backup plugin. These plugins allow you to make a complete WordPress website backup which you can then save on your computer or upload to cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox.

You can also set them up, so they automatically take backups at regular intervals and save them remotely.

We recommend using UpdraftPlus, which is easy to use and supports multiple cloud storage options. For more details, see our guide on setting up WordPress backups using UpdraftPlus.

Creating a PDF or eBook of Your Blog

The problem with WordPress backup plugins or the default export method is that your blog posts will not be readable outside WordPress.

This is why many users prefer to save blog posts as PDF because it makes it easy to read, share, or republish the blog post as an eBook.

Let’s take a look at how to easily save your blog posts as PDF to your computer.

If you’re only looking to save a single blog post, then the easiest way is to open it in a browser and use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + P (for Windows) or CMD + P (for Mac). This will open the browser’s print settings window.

You can now change the Destination to ‘Save as PDF’ and click on the ‘Save’ button to download it to your computer.

Now, if you want to save all your blog posts as PDF at once, then the easiest way to do that is by using a WordPress plugin.

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

Upon activation, you need to visit Print My Blog » Print Now page to configure settings. From here, you can choose to print a physical copy, save a PDF file, create an eBook, or save it in HTML format.

You can select Digital PDF to create and save a readable PDF file on your computer. Alternatively, you can choose eBook if you want to create a digital book that you can publish online.

After that, click to expand the ‘Show More Print Options’ menu to customize your blog copy.

In most cases, the default settings are good enough. But you may want to go through them just to make sure the blog copy is exactly what you need.

From the drop-down menu, you can apply a number of filters. For instance, you can choose to save only posts or only pages of your WordPress site.

You can also select what order you want the posts to appear, whether you want the oldest or the newest posts first.

Another option is to filter the posts by their status. You can choose to download only the published posts, or include drafts and deleted posts that are in your Trash folder.

You can also filter your posts by categories, tags, authors, and dates. This is handy if you want to download only particular categories for a project, or if you want a document of every article written by a single author.

The plugin also allows you to choose what header and post content you wish to appear in your saved copy. By default, the date and the plugin’s branding is selected, but you can unselect this if you don’t want this information to appear in your PDF.

You can apply these filters to every post and choose what information you want to appear for each post such as the published date, comments, URL, and author.

Lastly, you can determine your page layout. Print My Blog basically creates a single PDF file for all your blog content. You can choose to have each new post start on a new page to ensure there is proper separation.

You can also customize the font size, image size, and choose whether you want to include hyperlinks.

Once you are satisfied with the settings, click on the ‘Prepare Print-Page’ button to continue. To print an eBook, you need to use the dotepub extension.

To save a PDF file, click on the ‘Print to PDF’ button to save the file.

This will bring up your browser’s print settings. Select Save as PDF option and then click on the save button to save the PDF file to your computer.

Note: The save to PDF functionality works best with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers.

If you’ve created an eBook, you might find our guide on how to add an eBook download to your WordPress site helpful.

Printing your Blog Posts as a Book

You can also convert your blog into a physical book for distributing it among friends or at an event. You could also make an online store to sell it from your website.

Blog2Print converts your blog on WordPress, Tumblr, Typepad and Blogger into professionally bound books.

They also let you turn your Instagram feed into a book!

Blog2Print automatically formats your content. You can select what content you want to include, customize your book cover, add photos and supplemental text to make the book seem more like a published book rather than a series of blog posts.

Another platform you can use is Into Real Pages. They have four formats you can choose from, along with 8 wonderful themes. You get to design your own cover and add additional text and photos. They also offer good deals on bulk printing.

Saving Your Blog Posts to Migrate Platforms

A lot of folks want to save their blog posts, so they can move to them elsewhere. Now there are two common types of blog migrations.

• Moving a WordPress blog to another WordPress blog. This happens when a user is changing their WordPress hosting company or domain name, and they need to move their WordPress files to the new location.
• Moving from a third-party platform to WordPress. A lot of folks start with other blogging platforms and later on want to move their blogs to WordPress.

We will talk about both user cases and will show you how to properly save your blog posts and move them over.

1. Migrating a WordPress Blog

To move to a new domain, a different host, or another top blogging platform, you need to create a copy of your blog. This copy can then be used to migrate over.

You can use a migration plugin that automatically makes a backup for you and lets you move to a new domain or new host.

There are plenty of migration plugins to choose from, out of which Duplicator Pro is one of the best on the market.

If you want to move your site from one domain to another, but you’re worried about losing your blog content, see our guide on how to move WordPress to a new domain. This guide also ensures you don’t lose any of your SEO efforts.

If you’ve been blogging on a subdomain and want to merge it with your main domain, the process is fairly simple. But you need to follow it step by step to make sure you don’t face errors. See our guide on moving subdomain to root domain in WordPress.

You can also move between hosts and servers but there’s a risk of downtime. Our guide on how to move WordPress to a new host or server shows you how to switch over without losing any content or having downtime.

2. Migrating a Third-Party Blog to WordPress

A lot of users want to save their blog posts, so they can move all their content to WordPress.

There are two types of WordPress blogs. WordPress.com which is a hosting service and WordPress.org which is also called self-hosted WordPress. For more details, see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com vs Wordress.org with detailed pros and cons.

You’ll need WordPress.org because it gives you instant access to all WordPress features out of the box.

To get started, you’ll need a domain name and a WordPress hosting account. The domain name is your website’s address (e.g. wpbeginner.com), and the hosting account is where all your website files are stored.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the top hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

They are offering WPBeginner users, a generous discount on hosting with a free domain name and SSL certificate.

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Once you have signed up for a hosting account, you can follow our step by step tutorial on how to start a WordPress blog for the complete setup.

After the set up, you’ll reach your WordPress admin dashboard.

WordPress powers over 38% of all websites on the internet. This is why many users want to switch blogging platforms and use WordPress.

You can easily import your blog posts from other blogging platforms to your WordPress blog. Depending on which platform you are moving from, you can follow the step by step instructions from our guides below.

• Moving your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org
• Moving your blog from Blogger to WordPress
• Moving a website from Weebly to WordPress
• Moving a website from Wix to WordPress
• Moving a website from Joomla to WordPress
• Moving a website from Squarespace to WordPress
• Move articles from Medium to WordPress
• Moving your blog posts from Tumblr to WordPress
• Moving your blog from LiveJournal to WordPress
• Moving from GoDaddy Website Builder to WordPress

Saving Your WordPress.com Blog Posts

If you are using WordPress.com, then you can still save your WordPress.com blog posts to your computer. You can also move to WordPress.org or use the downloaded file as a backup that you can restore at any time.

First, you need to login to your blog and then go to the Tools » Export » Export all. WordPress.com will then create an XML file and your browser will download it to your computer.

This file uses the same format as WordPress.org, which means you can easily use it to move your blog from WordPress.com to a WordPress.org blog.

We hope this article helped you learn how to save blog posts to your computer. You may also want to see our guide on how to increase your blog traffic by 406%, and over 30 proven ways make money blogging using WordPress.

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 Save a Blog Post to Your Computer (5 Methods) appeared first on WPBeginner.

December 15, 2020 at 06:00PM

How to Create a Simple Event Calendar with Sugar Calendar

Do you want to add an event calendar to your WordPress website?

There are lots of different plugins and calendar apps that can do this, but some are much too complicated or don’t work very well with WordPress.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a simple event calendar in WordPress with Sugar Calendar.

How to Create a Simple Event Calendar with Sugar Calendar

Sugar Calendar is a simple and lightweight events calendar plugin for WordPress built by Pippin Williamson and the team behind Easy Digital Downloads.

Since we were looking for a lightweight event calendar plugin, we decided to give Sugar Calendar a try, and found it quite easy to use.

Here’s how to create an event calendar in WordPress with Sugar Calendar.

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

Upon activation, go to the Calendar » Settings page in your WordPress admin. Here, you need to enter your license key. You will find this in your account area on the Sugar Calendar website.

Once you’re done, click the Save Changes button to make sure your license key is saved.

Creating a Calendar in Sugar Calendar

Sugar Calendar divides the functionality into two main sections: Calendars and Events.

You can create multiple calendars, and then add different events or actvities to each calendar accordingly.

To get started, click on the ‘Calendar’ menu item page in your WordPress admin sidebar. After that, you need to select the Calendar tab then click on the ‘Add New Calendar’ button to create a new calendar.

You will then see a popup box for adding your new calendar.

You need to give your calendar a name and a ‘slug‘ which will become the end part of the calendar’s URL (web address).

There’s a box where you can describe your calendar. The description is optional, and you can leave it blank if you want.

Below the description, you can select a color for your calendar. This is very useful if you’re creating multiple calendars because this will make it easier to identify different calendars on your WordPress website.

If you’re just creating one calendar, then you don’t need to set a color.

When you’re done, click the ‘Add New Calendar’ button to create your calendar.

Adding Events in Sugar Calendar

Now, it’s time to add some events to your calendar. Just click on the Events tab then click the ‘Add Event’ button to create your first event.

The ‘Add New Event’ screen has space for all the information about your event. Go ahead and enter the name for your event at the top.

Below this, you can set the start time and end time for your event.

Your event can be on a single day or across multiple days. If it’s an all-day event, then simply check the ‘All-day’ box.

Next, go ahead and add more information about your event in the Details box. If you would like to include images or photos here, go ahead and add those using the ‘Add Media’ buttons.

On the right-hand side of the screen, you need to click on the calendar that you want to add your event onto. You can also create a calendar here if you haven’t done so already.

When you’re ready, go ahead and click the Publish button.

You can repeat this process to add more events to your calendar.

Putting Your Events Calendar on Your Website

You can add your calendar to any page or post on your website. You can even use the Sugar Calendar widget to add it to your sidebar.

We’re going to add our calendar to a new page on our demo site.

First, go to Pages » Add New. Then, enter a title for your page and add a shortcode box to your page.

Next, copy the shortcode [sc_events_calendar] into the shortcode block.

Now, it’s time to preview or publish your page. You will then see the calendar of events on your website.

Visitors on your website can click on an event to see the full details.

Note: This events page will use the fonts, colors, etc from your theme. That means it will match the posts and pages on your blog.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a simple event calendar with Sugar Calendar. You might also like our article on the best email marketing services and best push notification software, so you can keep your users updated about new events and activities.

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 Simple Event Calendar with Sugar Calendar appeared first on WPBeginner.

December 14, 2020 at 06:00PM