How to Start a Video Blog (Vlog) And Make Money in 2023

Do you want to start a video blog and make money?

Vlogging is a powerful way to connect with people and build a personal brand. However, if you simply upload vlogs to third-party platforms like YouTube, then you may struggle to grow your audience, make money, and become a successful vlogger.

In this article, we will show you how you can start a vlog and make money.

Which Is the Best Website Builder for Your Video Blog?

There are many website builders that can help you create a vlog site, but we recommend using WordPress and a separate video hosting platform.

To learn more about why WordPress is such a good choice, please see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.

There are two types of WordPress software: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. We recommend using WordPress.org, also called ‘self-hosted WordPress.’ This will give you full ownership and control of your site.

Using WordPress.org allows you to install third-party plugins and themes, including plenty that are designed specifically for vloggers.

Also, while you can upload videos to WordPress, it’s far better to use a separate video hosting platform such as YouTube or Vimeo.

Videos take up a lot of your hosting resources, which will slow down your website. Instead, we recommend uploading your vlogs to a separate hosting platform such as YouTube or Vimeo, which has all the server resources you need.

After uploading your vlogs to one of these sites, you can then embed your vlog in a WordPress page or post by simply copying and pasting a link. WordPress has built-in support for most major video hosting platforms.

If you really want to save time and impress your viewers, then you can use a plugin like Smash Balloon to create a video feed that will update automatically every time you post a new vlog.

If you don’t already have a video hosting platform in mind, then don’t worry. Later in this guide, we’ll help you find the perfect platform for your vlogs.

Step 1. Setting Up Your Video Blog Website

To create a video vlog, you’ll need a domain name and web hosting.

Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up.

A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. This is a lot for hobby vloggers, new creators, or anyone who is working with a tighter budget.

Thankfully, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users over 60% off on web hosting and a free SSL certificate as part of this deal. This is absolutely essential if you plan to sell premium videos and make money from your vlogs. You will also get a free domain name when you sign up!

Simply click the link below to create a vlogging website for as little as $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Because you get a free domain when you sign up with Bluehost, you’ll need to be sure it’s the right fit for your video blog. For expert tips, check out our guide on how to choose the best domain name.

Once you’ve completed the purchase, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to log in to your web hosting control panel. This is your hosting account dashboard where you can manage your vlog, including setting up email notifications and asking for WordPress support if you need it.

It’s also where you’ll install the WordPress software, so let’s do that now.

Step 2. Install WordPress on Your Video Blog

When you sign up with Bluehost using our link, you’ll get access to a one-click WordPress installer. Simply log into your Bluehost account and click on ‘One Click Install.’

You can now follow the onscreen instructions to set up WordPress.

If you’re using a different WordPress website host like SiteGround, Hostinger, HostGator, or WP Engine, then you can see our complete guide on how to install WordPress for all the top hosting providers.

Once WordPress is set up, you’re ready to start customizing your vlog site.

Step 3. Select a Video Theme

WordPress themes are professionally designed templates that change how your vlog looks and acts.

There are lots of different premium and free WordPress business themes to choose from. You can generally categorize these as multipurpose WordPress themes, or niche industry themes. However, most WordPress themes are designed to show text.

Since we’re starting a vlog, we need a theme that’s designed specifically for videos.

Even if you’re using a separate video hosting platform, embedded videos still take time to load. With that in mind, it’s important to find a lightweight theme that won’t slow down your website. Wherever possible, we also recommend using a theme that has built-in lazy loading.

On top of that, vlogs often need special features such as parallax scrolling, lightbox popups, and fullscreen video backgrounds.

That’s a lot to keep in mind, so you may want to look at our expert pick of the best WordPress video themes.

Another option is to use a landing page builder plugin such as SeedProd. SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop WordPress page builder and comes with more than 180 templates.

This includes an entire section of ‘Webinar’ templates that are designed specifically to show videos on your WordPress website.

SeedProd also has a ready-made ‘Video’ block that you can drag and drop onto any page.

For more information, please see our guide on how to create a landing page with WordPress.

Once you’ve chosen a video theme, please see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

After installing a theme, you may want to customize it by going to Appearance » Customize in the WordPress dashboard. This will launch the theme customizer where you can fine-tune the theme settings and see your changes in the live preview.

If you’re using one of the newer full-site editing themes, then you’ll need to go to Appearance » Editor instead.

Here, you can fine-tune the theme using blocks.

Just remember that you can customize your theme at any point. You can even completely change your WordPress theme, if you realize it doesn’t quite meet your needs.

This means you don’t need to finalize your site design now. In fact, it may be easier to fine-tune your vlog once you’ve added some content.

Step 4. Create a Custom Homepage

WordPress comes with two content types called posts and pages.

You’ll typically use posts to create articles and blogs, while pages are static “one-off” types of content. For example, you might publish an about page, a privacy policy, or a custom archive page.

There are a few different ways to show videos in WordPress. However, since we’re creating a video vlog you’ll typically embed one or more videos in a blog post.

By default, the WordPress homepage shows your posts in reverse chronological order, so your latest vlog appears at the top of the homepage.

However, you may want to move this blog list to another page, and use a custom homepage instead. This custom homepage can introduce your vlog to visitors and let them know what you have to offer.

You might even create a YouTube gallery of all your best videos, which is a great way to catch a visitor’s attention and make them want to watch more of your content.

Smash Balloon allows you to create all kinds of galleries, including showing a specific YouTube playlist or favorites feed, a single video, or even your latest live stream.

For step-by-step instructions on how to create an attention-grabbing homepage for your video blog, please see our guide on how to create a custom homepage in WordPress.

Once you’re happy with the design, it’s time to set it as your homepage. To do this, go to Settings » Reading in the WordPress dashboard.

Here, scroll to ‘Your homepage settings’ and select ‘A static page.’

Next, open the ‘Homepage’ dropdown and choose the page that you want to use.

After that, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’ Now, if you visit your website you’ll see the new homepage in action.

With that done, make sure you create a separate blog page to display your vlogs.

Step 5. Set Up Your Video Hosting Platform

Before you can start adding videos to your WordPress website, you’ll need to upload them to a separate video hosting platform. In this way, you can show countless high-resolution videos on your website without affecting its performance.

For more on this topic, see our post on why you should never upload a video to WordPress.

There are lots of different video hosting platforms that you can use, but we recommend YouTube as it’s the most popular choice.

It’s free to create a YouTube account and you can upload as many videos as you want.

YouTube even has a Partners Program that you can join to make money from your videos. This program also offers more benefits like analytics, longer videos, and editing tools.

Since it’s such a popular platform, there are lots of great WordPress plugins for YouTube. For example, you can use plugins to quickly and easily embed a YouTube playlist in WordPress.

If you don’t want to use YouTube, then there are many other popular platforms including Vidyard, Wistia, and SproutVideo. For a closer look at all the top video sites, please see our expert pick of the best video hosting sites for bloggers.

After choosing a platform, you’ll need to create an account and upload all the vlogs that you want to show on your WordPress website.

For instructions on how to do this, check out the online documentation for your chosen video hosting platform.

Step 6. Create Your First Vlog

To create your first vlog, simply go to Posts » Add New in your WordPress dashboard.

WordPress has a block-based editor that allows you to create beautiful content layouts for your vlogs. Here, you can add text, images, audio clips, and more.

For an in-depth look at the editor, please see our WordPress block editor tutorial.

The easiest way to add vlogs to WordPress is by using the built-in auto-embed feature. If you’re using one of the big video hosting platforms, then you can simply paste the video’s URL into the WordPress content editor, and WordPress will handle the rest.

Just head over to your chosen video hosting platform and find the vlog that you want to show on your WordPress blog. You can then simply copy the video’s URL.

After that, switch back to the WordPress dashboard and paste the URL in the content area. If you paste it into a standard Paragraph block, WordPress will automatically try to place it in the correct block, such as the YouTube block.

Even if you don’t see the platform-specific block, it will use the Embed block and display the video inside the content editor.

For more information, please see our detailed guide on how to easily embed videos in WordPress blog posts.

As you’re working on the vlog, you can see how it’ll look to visitors by clicking on ‘Preview.’

This will open the page in a new tab.

The WordPress post editor also has sections for Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your vlogs so it’s easier for visitors to find interesting content. To learn more, please see our guide on how to add categories and tags in WordPress.

When you’re happy with how the vlog looks, go ahead and click on the ‘Publish’ button in the top-right corner of the screen.

To add more vlogs to your website, simply follow the same process described above.

Step 7. Add a Contact Form to Your Vlog

Some viewers might want to contact you directly. This may include affiliate marketers, sponsors, advertisers, and other brands who are looking to build relationships with creators, or other vloggers who want to collaborate.

These people could ring your phone number or send a message to your business email address, but we always recommend adding a contact form to your website.

This makes it easier for potential partners to contact you, so you don’t miss out on any opportunities to grow your brand and make money from your vlogs.

The easiest way to add a contact form to your WordPress website is by using the free WPForms plugin. WPForms comes with a built-in Simple Contact Form template that you can customize using the drag-and-drop editor.

You can then add the form to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the ready-made WPForms block.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress.

Step 8. Help Visitors Find Interesting Vlogs

Once you’ve added some content to your vlog, it’s a good idea to add a navigation menu so visitors can find their way around the different videos.

The exact location of your menu will depend on your WordPress theme. Most themes have several options, so you can create multiple menus and then show them on different areas of your vlog.

Whether you create a single menu or multiple menus, it’s easy to add navigation to your vlog. For a complete guide, please see our post on how to add a navigation menu.

Menus encourage people to explore your site, but sometimes visitors may want to search for a specific vlog. WordPress comes with a built-in search feature, but it’s quite basic and not very good at finding relevant content.

That’s why we recommend using SearchWP, which is the best search plugin for WordPress.

It is very easy to use and gives much more accurate search results. It allows visitors to search for a keyword in the post or page title, content, URL slug, categories, tags, taxonomies, WordPress excerpts, and even comments.

All of this can help visitors find interesting vlogs, fast.

For step-by-step instructions on SearchWP, please see our guide on how to improve WordPress search.

Step 9. Optimize Your Vlog for SEO

If you want to get more viewers, then you’ll need to optimize your vlog for SEO. This will help search engines understand your content and show it to people who are looking for videos just like yours.

WordPress SEO is a huge topic that can be confusing for new vloggers. With that in mind, we recommend using All in One SEO for WordPress (AIOSEO).

AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market and has everything you need to get your vlogs onto the first page of Google, without having to learn any complicated SEO jargon.

AIOSEO comes with the easiest setup wizard that helps you choose the best SEO settings for your business. AIOSEO will even scan your vlogs and show an actionable checklist on how you can optimize that specific vlog.

Additionally, AIOSEO has a video sitemap feature that you can use to show search engines what’s the most important content to index.

To help you get started, please see our ultimate guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress correctly.

Step 10. Notify Users About New Vlogs

Did you know that 70% of people who leave your site will never come back? Thankfully there are lots of ways to turn abandoning visitors into loyal viewers.

To start, it’s smart to create an email newsletter so people who enjoy your vlogs can subscribe. After that, you can email these subscribers every time you post a new vlog.

You can also keep them engaged with your brand by sending them fun surveys and polls, notifying them about any giveaways and contests you’re running, or even simply asking them for feedback on your latest vlog.

All of this can help you create a sense of community and build a stronger relationship with your viewers.

If you do build an email list, then you’ll want to make sure your messages arrive safely in the subscriber’s inbox and not in their spam folder. With that in mind, we recommend using an SMTP service provider to improve your email deliverability rates.

Another option is to use push notifications with software like PushEngage to send targeted, personalized messages to viewers after they leave your vlog.

Push notifications are short, clickable notifications that appear as a popup on the user’s desktop or mobile devices. Some of the biggest websites in the world use push notifications to keep users engaged, including Facebook.

These notifications go directly to the user’s web browser or mobile device so they have a high chance of getting the person’s attention, which makes them perfect for notifying viewers when you post a new vlog.

To learn more, see our guide on how to add web push notifications to WordPress.

Step 11. How to Make Money From Your Video Vlogs

Creating lots of quality, engaging vlogs takes a lot of time and effort, so you may want to make money from your videos.

If you’ve created a contact form, then potential sponsors and partners already have a way to contact you, which is a great start. However, there are lots more ways to make money online with WordPress.

Here are some of the best ways to make money from your vlog.

1. Google AdSense

There are many reasons why it’s smart to embed videos on your own website, rather than simply uploading them to platforms like YouTube.

One major benefit is that you can show Google AdSense ads next to your videos.

When you sign up for Google AdSense, Google acts as a middleman between you and the advertiser. Instead of you having to find the right partners for your vlog, Google allows advertisers to bid for keywords matching your content. This allows you to get the best possible rates for the ads on your vlogging website.

For more details, please see our article on how to properly add Google AdSense to your WordPress blog.

2. Affiliate marketing

Many vloggers make money by recommending products and services to their viewers. For example, many lifestyle vloggers film daily routine videos showing off their favorite skincare or fitness products.

By using affiliate links, you can earn money every time a viewer buys a product or service based on your recommendation.

For the best results, it’s a good idea to only recommend quality items that you already use and trust. If you encourage viewers to buy poor-quality or scammy products, then you’ll damage your band and almost certainly lose viewers.

There are plenty of affiliate marketing plugins and tools for WordPress that can help you make money by promoting affiliate products, but we highly recommend PrettyLinks or ThirstyAffiliates to all vloggers.

To get started, please see our step-by-step affiliate marketing guide for beginners.

3. Ask for Tips and Donations

If you build a strong, positive relationship with your viewers then they may want to support your work as a vlogger. This is particularly true if you’re a hobby vlogger or someone who is just starting out.

Although they’re mostly used by non-profits, some vloggers use donation forms so that viewers can support their work. These forms are often presented as ‘buy me a coffee’ or ‘buy me a beer.’

To learn more, please see our guide on how to create a donate form in WordPress.

4. Create a Membership Site

Most of the time, you’ll want your vlogs to be publicly available so you can get as many views as possible and build your audience.

However, some vloggers may want to create a video membership site in WordPress. This allows people to pay for different perks, such as early access to the latest vlogs, exclusive live streams, or premium members-only videos.

You can also offer perks that don’t involve videos, such as a members-only forum, blog posts, or the ability to chat with you directly on channels like Discord.

The easiest way to create a membership site is by using MemberPress. It is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market and allows you to accept payments, create unlimited subscription levels, restrict access to video pages based on levels, and more.

5. Sell Your Videos as Digital Downloads

Depending on the kind of vlogs you create, you may decide to sell some of your premium videos as digital downloads. For example, if you’re a health and fitness vlogger then you might create videos teaching your followers different exercise routines.

For some niches, this can be a way to monetize the audience you’ve built from your vlogs.

Easy Digital Downloads is the best platform to easily sell digital products. You can get started in minutes and accept credit card payments with Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay.

With Easy Digital Downloads, you have complete control over how you distribute your videos. You can allow customers to download files as many times as they want or restrict file downloads by time or attempt.

To start selling your premium videos, please see our complete guide on how to sell digital downloads on WordPress.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to start a video vlog and make money. You may also want to learn how to increase your blog traffic or check out our list of the best email marketing services.

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 Start a Video Blog (Vlog) And Make Money in 2023 first appeared on WPBeginner.

March 16, 2023 at 03:47PM

7 Best Free Autoresponder Tools of 2023 (Pros & Cons Compared)

Are you looking for the best free autoresponder tools to start sending automated emails?

The good news is that you don’t need to wait until your site starts making money. There are lots of free autoresponders that you can use to grow your email list.

In this article, we’ll take you through some of the best free autoresponder tools, comparing their pros and cons.

Why You Need an Autoresponder Email Service

An autoresponder is any tool or service that sends automated messages to the people on your email list. Smart marketers use autoresponders to create a series of emails and then send those messages automatically based on certain rules, conditions, and user actions.

For example, if you’re designing a coming soon page, then you might ask visitors to register their interest by typing in their email addresses.

You can then use an autoresponder to notify these people when your site goes live. This can get you extra visitors and create a buzz around your site’s launch.

Many bloggers use an autoresponder sequence to welcome new subscribers or notify existing subscribers of new posts in WordPress.

Some plugins come with built-in autoresponder features. For example, if you’re using WPForms then you can send a confirmation email after WordPress form submission using the plugin’s built-in features.

Another option is to use a stand-alone autoresponder. With the right autoresponder, you can create advanced workflows that automatically send the right email to the right person, at the right time.

These automated emails can re-engage disinterested customers and keep them engaged, get you more sales, drive more people to your website, and much more.

Most top email marketing companies offer auto-responders. However, if you’re just starting out then paying for email marketing can add a lot to your website building costs.

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the best free autoresponder tools to help you get started no matter what your budget.

1. Constant Contact

Constant Contact is the best email marketing service in the world. It’s our top pick for creating autoresponder sequences.

Pros

• Constant Contact’s free trial lasts a generous 60 days. That gives you two months to build up your email list and start making money online blogging with WordPress.
• You can sign up for the free trial without entering your credit card details, so you won’t be charged unless you actively choose to continue using Constant Contact.
• It’s quick and easy to create an account. Simply click a few options and Constant Contact will show some helpful resources based on your answers.
• If you already have a WordPress website, then Constant Contact can create a unique branded email template. Just enter your website’s URL and Constant Contact will create a template using the colors, images, and logos from your website.
• Pick from over a hundred ready-made email templates.
• The drag-and-drop interface is really easy to use. This is especially helpful if you’re new to email marketing.
• The Constant Contact support team is easy to reach through live chat software, phone, and email.
• They also have a library of resources and online training. If you’re in the United States, then you can even go to their in-person live seminars.

Cons

• Constant Contact doesn’t offer a free-forever plan. After the 60-day free trial, you’ll need to pay if you want to keep using your email list. If you enjoyed the free trial and want to continue, then you can get 20% off using our Constant Contact coupon.
• To keep using the automated features after your free trial, you’ll need to pay for the Email Plus plan.

Pricing

Constant Contact’s Core plan starts at $9.99 per month. However, if you want to use the email automation features, you’ll need the Email Plus plan, which starts at $45 per month.

2. Sendinblue

Sendinblue is a marketing automation platform that combines both email and SMS marketing, so you can send SMS text messages to your WordPress users.

They’re one of the fastest-growing email autoresponder platforms in Europe.

Pros

• Sendinblue has a generous free-forever plan that allows you to store as many email contacts as you want. You’re just limited by how many emails you can send each day.
• The majority of Sendinblue’s tools are available on their free plan including the marketing automation tools.
• You get access to email support on the free plan, so you can contact the support team if you’re having any problems.
• Sendinblue’s marketing automation tool has a user-friendly drag-and-drop Workflow Editor. This allows you to create powerful automations without having to write any code or learn complex tools.
• Track the actions that each contact takes on your website, and then send emails based on their behavior.
• A fully customizable sign-up form so you can add email subscriptions to your WordPress blog or website.
• Sendinblue has over 40 responsive email templates that look just as good on mobile and smartphones, as they do on mobile devices. You can also create your own templates using the intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
• If you’re creating an email campaign for a client, then they may have provided some ready-made HTML assets. To save time, you can upload these HTML templates to Sendinblue, and then use them as the basis for your campaign.

Cons

• All emails sent from a free plan have Sendinblue’s branding, which can make your campaigns look less professional. The paid Starter plan also has the Sendinblue branding, but you can remove it by purchasing a $9 per month addon.
• Although the marketing automation tools are included in the free plan, these tools are limited to 2000 contacts on both the free and Starter plans. This can make it difficult to grow your email list.
• The free plan has a 300 emails per day limit. This might seem like a lot when you’re just starting out, but you can hit this limit surprisingly fast. With that in mind, you shouldn’t choose Sendinblue simply because they offer a free-forever plan.

Pricing

Unlike some other email providers on the list, Sendinblue‘s free plan is completely free, forever, with no limit on how many contacts you can create.

Need to send more than 300 emails a day? Then you’ll have to upgrade to one of their paid plans, which start at $25 per month.

Just be aware that Sendinblue’s plans are always based on how many emails you send each month, and not on the size of your email list.

3. HubSpot

HubSpot is a popular marketing automation platform and one of the best CMRs for small businesses. They also have a free plan that’s a perfect introduction to HubSpot’s all-in-one marketing platform.

Pros

• The free plan includes a CRM that creates a contact record for each subscriber. You can use this information to create personalized email campaigns that feature the most relevant subject lines, links, attachments, and content.
• HubSpot’s free plan includes many tools that can complement your email marketing. This includes a form builder, live chat, ad management, and more.
• The email editor has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that lets you easily create a call to action, add images, and customize the email to match your own branding.
• Schedule emails so they arrive in the subscriber’s inbox at the best time, regardless of time zone differences.
• Optimize your emails for different devices.
• HubSpot has a selection of goal-based templates that you can choose from, or you can build your emails entirely from scratch.
• Analyze your campaigns using HubSpot’s email analytics tool. 
• Integrates with Uncanny Automator, which is one of the best marketing automation tools for small businesses. You can use Uncanny Automator to automatically add visitors, customers, and event attendees to your HubSpot mailing lists.

Cons

• You can’t remove the HubSpot branding on the free plan, which can make your business seem less professional.
• The free plan limits you to 2,000 emails per month and 1,000,000 contacts.
• Advanced features like A/B split testing and email segmentation are only included in HubSpot’s higher-tiered paid plans. As your business grows, you may need to upgrade to a paid plan to get the most out of your email list.

Pricing

HubSpot’s free plan allows 2,000 emails per month and a generous 1,000,000 contacts. It also comes with all of HubSpot’s free tools, including the CRM, forms, landing pages, live chat, and more.

Paid plans start at $45/month when paid annually.

4. Omnisend

If you’re looking for an autoresponder that works across multiple channels, then Omnisend offers powerful SMS, email marketing, and web push notification features.

Omnisend comes with ready-made autoresponders for cart abandonment, purchase follow-up, and other eCommerce workflows.

With that being said, it’s a particularly good choice for online marketplaces, stores, and anyone who sells digital downloads or physical products online.

Pros

• All of the marketing automation features are included in the free plan.
• Use an unlimited number of triggers in your automation workflows.
• Personalize your autoresponders with dynamic content.
• Create powerful custom workflows using the drag-and-drop Automation Editor.
• Pre-built automations that you can use to welcome new signups.
• Unlimited segmentation. If you run an eCommerce site, then Omnisend can even segment users based on the different stages of the customer lifecycle.
• Sales and performance reports so you can continuously review and refine your autoresponders. This includes open, click, deliverability rates, and revenue data for each autoresponder.
• 24/7 email and live chat support.

Cons

• The free plan limits you to 500 emails per month, 60 SMS, and 500 web push notifications. If you want to send more messages, then you’ll need to upgrade to the Standard or higher plan, which starts at $16 per month.
• If you plan to use SMS autoresponders, then the free plan doesn’t come with any SMS credits, so you’ll need to buy these separately.
• The free plan comes with a built-in form builder and signup forms, but there’s no option to remove the Omnisend branding.

Pricing

Omnisend’s free plan allows 500 emails per month, up to 60 SMS, and 500 web push notifications. You can also add an unlimited number of contacts to your mailing lists.

If you want to send more emails, SMS, or web notifications then you’ll need to upgrade to the Standard plan ($16 per month) or Pro plan ($59 per month).

5. FunnelKit Automations

Formerly Autonami, FunnelKit Automations is the best marketing automation tool for WooCommerce stores.

You can use this free plugin to create automated emails and SMS campaigns to help you recover abandoned shopping carts, nurture leads, send automated coupons, and more.

Pros

• No limit on the number of contacts you can add, or how many emails you can send. 
• Use any email service provider such as Sendinblue, Mailgun, Postmark, or SendGrid.
• Build automations from scratch using the drag-and-drop editor, or import any of FunnelKit’s pre-built automations with a single click. 
• Onboard and educate new customers by sending welcome emails to new users.
• Re-engage disinterested customers with automated win-back campaigns and first purchase anniversary campaigns.
• Upsell to customers by creating automated post-purchase follow-up emails, and cross-sell with recommended product emails.
• Build more effective cart recovery campaigns, with detailed information about recoverable, recovered, and lost carts.
• Customize all of WooCommerce’s built-in emails using the intuitive drag-and-drop workflow builder.
• ‘Unsubscribe text’ is pre-inserted into all emails, so you can be confident your autoresponders are GDPR compliant.
• Send targeted emails using audience segmentation and personalized merge tags.
• Get useful analytics directly inside the FunnelKit dashboard, including email open and click-through rates.
• If you’ve already used an email marketing tool or CRM, then you can easily import your contacts with a CSV file.

Cons

• The free plugin only gives you access to a limited number of pre-built automations. You can unlock over 20 extra automations by upgrading to FunnelKit Automations pro. 
• You can’t create conditions-based automations using the free plugin, which can make it more difficult to create personalized autoresponder sequences. 
• You’ll need to upgrade to FunnelKit Automations Pro to see advanced analytics and to enable customer tracking in WooCommerce.
• The pro version adds CRM-like features, including detailed contact profiles that show each person’s latest engagement, total spend, last order date, and more. 
• Many of the more advanced analytic and reporting features are exclusive to the pro version. This includes the ability to see your top-performing automations, most popular emails, total orders, and total revenue.
• The pro version integrates with many popular WordPress plugins including LearnDash, WishList Member, AffiliateWP, and more. 

Pricing

The free FunnelKit Automations plugin has everything you need to create powerful autoresponders for your WooCommerce store. However, if you want to unlock more automation features, then you’ll need to upgrade to the FunnelKit Marketing Automations Professional or higher plan, which starts at $219 per year.

6. AWeber

Founded in 1998, AWeber is one of the most established autoresponder tools. This popular email marketing service has powerful autoresponder features, and also offers a free plan that lets you send 3,000 emails per month to 500 subscribers.

Pros

• AWeber’s free plan includes all the features you’d expect from a premium plan, including a drag-and-drop editor, hundreds of templates, and access to thousands of professional stock images.
• Easily add AWeber to your WordPress website using the AWeber WordPress plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
• Ready-made landing page templates, so you can create high-converting landing pages for your email campaigns.
• AWeber has powerful automation and segmentation tools. This allows you to create some very detailed autoresponder series.
• Integrates with lots of other services, including OptinMonster, Unbounce, Elegant Themes, and more.
• If you’re selling online, then AWeber integrates with all the top eCommerce solutions including Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, Etsy, and more.
• While on the free plan, you can access all the support materials including master class sessions and live webinars.
• AWeber regularly brings out new features that all customers can access, including people on the free plan.
• Allow subscribers to fill out forms, purchase products, book meetings, and more without leaving their inboxes, with the AMP interactive email feature.
• Send web push notifications to people who’ve opted into receiving them.
• 24/7 customer support.

Cons

• AWeber’s free plan limits you to 3,000 emails per month and 500 subscribers.
• You’re also limited to 1 landing page and 1 email automation.
• The free version has the AWeber branding, with no way to remove it.
• If you do upgrade, then AWeber definitely isn’t the cheapest option out there. It has more features than some other email autoresponders, but these do come at a price.

Pricing

You can send 3,000 emails per month to 500 subscribers, using the free AWeber plan. If you want to add more contacts or send more emails, then you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro plan, which starts at $16.50 per month when billed annually.

7. MailerLite

MailerLite has become a popular autoresponder tool over the past few years. They have a generous free plan and lots of great features.

Pros

• You can use autoresponders and advanced segmentation on the free plan, without any need to upgrade.
• The free plan includes lots of features, such as landing pages, multi-user accounts, and A/B split testing so you see which campaigns get the most conversions.
• There’s no limit on the number of emails you can send per day. Instead, there’s a monthly limit of 12,000 emails.
• Create personalized email newsletters by segmenting your mailing list, and then assigning different blocks to different target audiences. MailerLite will then show each subscriber the content that’s most relevant to them.
• There’s a drag-and-drop editor and pre-built blocks that you can use to create your emails without having to write any code. You can add and remove blocks easily, change fonts and styles, and more.
• Built-in triggers for many common actions, so you can automatically send an email when a subscriber joins a group, completes a form, clicks a link, and more.
• If you run an online store, then MailerLite has special eCommerce triggers. This allows you to create emails that help recover abandoned cart sales, cross-sell and upsell products in WooCommerce, and more.
• Add up to 3 triggers to every email workflow, so subscribers can enter the workflow at multiple points.
• You can connect MailerLite and WooCommerce using a MailerLite extension.

Cons

• The free plan doesn’t include any special email templates. However, the drag-and-drop builder has a simple default template with space for a logo, header, image, and other important content.
• If your list grows beyond 1,000 people, then you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
• Your emails will all have the MailerLite logo, which can hurt your brand image.
• Although the paid plans have 24/7 support, the free plan only includes Monday-Friday email support.

Pricing

MailerLite has a free plan that you can use for as long as you want. Paid plans start at $9 per month when billed annually, but if you want to add more than 1,000 subscribers, then you’ll need to buy a paid plan. These prices vary depending on how many subscribers you have, but you can expect to pay at least $15 per month for 2,500 subscribers.

Bonus: ConvertKit

ConvertKit has a free plan that allows you to build unlimited landing pages and opt-in forms. It’s a good way to start building your email list, but you can’t use the automation features on the free plan.

Despite this, we’re including ConvertKit in our list as it’s a popular email marketing solution, and you can try the automation features as part of a 14-day free trial.

Pros

• The free ConvertKit plan includes unlimited landing pages, email opt-in forms, and one-time email blasts, which are also known as ‘broadcasts.’
• Many website owners do lead generation by offering a free digital download to new subscribers. ConvertKit can automatically deliver a digital file every time someone subscribes to your mailing list.
• ConvertKit can segment your subscribers in lots of different ways. You can also assign tags to customers based on entry points, interests, actions, and other characteristics.
• ConvertKit comes with a drag-and-drop page builder that you can use to create attractive landing pages for your email campaigns.
• To help you get started, ConvertKit has 30 fully-customizable templates that you can choose from. All of these templates are responsive, so your emails will look just as good on smartphones and tablets, as they do on desktop computers.
• Setting up your free account is really quick and easy. In just a few minutes you can register with ConvertKit and start building attractive landing pages.
• Identify the forms and pages that are getting the most email signups, with ConvertKit’s list growth reporting.
• Customize and personalize your ‘unsubscribe’ page so people don’t opt out of your mailing list.

Cons

• The free plan limits you to 1,000 subscribers.
• You can’t use the automation features on the free plan, so you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan in order to create autoresponders. Automation is included in the 14-day free trial though, so you can try before you buy.

Pricing

ConvertKit has a limited free plan. After this, the cheapest plan is $29 per month, which allows up to 1,000 subscribers. The next tier is $41 per month for up to 3,000 subscribers when billed annually.

Bonus: Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a very popular email marketing service with a forever free email marketing service plan.

When it comes to autoresponder features, Mailchimp is quite limited when compared to other providers in our list.

For that reason, we don’t recommend Mailchimp anymore since there are better solutions available in the market, but we cannot create a list of the best autoresponders without including Mailchimp due to the platform’s sheer popularity.

If you do want to use Mailchimp, then we’ve created an ultimate guide to using Mailchimp and WordPress to help you get started.

Pros

• Automatically import the logos, brand colors, fonts, and images from your website, to create branded emails.
• Grow your email list with signup forms and landing pages.
• Monitor and analyze your campaigns with built-in reports and analytics.
• Mailchimp integrates with over 300 apps, including Canva, LiveChat, Help Scout, Stripe, and more.
• Built-in drag-and-drop templates that are easy to set up and customize.

Cons

• The free plan limits you to 2,500 emails per month. If you reach that limit, then all your email campaigns and autoresponders will be paused automatically.
• The free plan only includes email support for the first 30 days. After that, the Mailchimp knowledge base documents will be your main source of support.
• The free plan adds the Mailchimp badge to your emails and signup forms, and there’s no option to remove the branding.
• You can’t schedule emails, create automated workflows, or add branching points to your email series, without upgrading to a paid plan. This is the major reason why we suggest you use one of our Mailchimp alternatives instead.
• Segmentation and dynamic content are premium features, making it difficult to create personalized email campaigns.
• Mailchimp’s customer support, pricing structure, and features are definitely not the best out there.
• Mailchimp’s automation tools aren’t as powerful as its competitors, which is a big problem if you’re mainly interested in using Mailchimp as an autoresponder.

Pricing

Mailchimp has several different pricing systems, which can be a bit confusing. You can either choose a monthly plan (from $13 per month for the Essentials plan) or you can use “pay as you go” pricing.

Note: Mailchimp’s pricing tiers are based on how many contacts you have. This includes anyone who has unsubscribed and people who haven’t confirmed their email addresses. With that being said, you may end up paying for people who are never going to convert.

Choosing the Free Autoresponder That Suits You Best

So now you might be wondering: which free autoresponder tool should I choose? The answer will vary depending on your business, and how you plan to use the autoresponder.

Small Businesses

When you’re building a business, you need access to quality support and a powerful platform.

For small business owners, Constant Contact is our top pick. Their free trial lasts 60 days which gives you plenty of time to try it out. It’s quick and easy to get started, and there’s lots of support available if you need it.

You’ll have access to all of Constant Contact’s features as soon as you sign up, and you don’t even need to enter your credit card information.

The best part is they offer support via phone agents, live chat, and Twitter. They also have a knowledge base and a support portal where you can get help from the community.

Run an online store on WooCommerce? Then FunnelKit Marketing Automation Engine & CRM has the pre-built automations, triggers, and actions you need to create powerful eCommerce autoresponders.

Meanwhile, if you’re an established business with a bigger budget, then we highly recommend looking at Omnisend or Drip.

They offer advanced segmentation and powerful automation, but we didn’t include them in our list above because they don’t have a free option.

Non-Profits and Community Organizations

If you’re a non-profit or community organization, then you’ll probably want an autoresponder and email marketing tool that’s completely free.

SendinBlue is a good option if you have a small email list of 300 people or fewer, who you want to email more than once a week.

Meanwhile, MailerLite is a better choice if you have a larger list that you want to email weekly or less.

If you value phone support, then nothing will beat Constant Contact, and that’s why many non-profits use their platform because it offers all the support they need.

Note: We have tried all the top major email autoresponder software including many that are not in our email platform lists above such as ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, Ontraport, Mailjet, Campaign Monitor, InfusionSoft (now Keap), Klaviyo, Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot by Salesforce, Sendloop, iContact, Emma, TotalSend, SharpSpring, MailPoet, and more.

The email marketing platforms that we’ve chosen to include in our list provide the best automation workflows, deliverability, and pre-built email marketing tools for the best price.

Make Sure Your Emails Make It Through

If you do add an autoresponder or email marketing service to your website, then you’ll want to make sure your emails arrive safely in the person’s inbox, and not in the spam folder.

Here, a good SMTP service provider can improve your email deliverability. You can also use WP Mail SMTP to configure your WordPress emails to ensure they are sent correctly.

For more on this topic, see our guide on how to fix the WordPress not sending email issue.

We hope this article helped you learn about the best free autoresponder tools. You may also like our guide on how to create automated workflows in WordPress, and our comparison of the best business phone services 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 7 Best Free Autoresponder Tools of 2023 (Pros & Cons Compared) first appeared on WPBeginner.

March 16, 2023 at 01:01AM

How to Download WordPress for Free (Step by Step)

Are you looking to download WordPress to create your website?

WordPress is an open-source project, and you can download it for free. Although many web hosting providers now install WordPress for you automatically, you can always download and install it manually on your own server or computer.

In this article, we’ll show you how to download WordPress for free, as well as what you need to do next to get it installed.

Why Is WordPress Freely Downloadable?

WordPress is free for anyone to download and use to build any kind of website without any restrictions. That’s because WordPress is an open-source community project that tens of thousands of talented people contribute to.

According to our WordPress market share report, over 43% of websites on the internet use WordPress.

There is a core team of developers that lead the project development, but anyone can contribute patches, fix bugs, make features, suggest features, and more.

Note: When we speak of the WordPress open-source project, we’re talking about self-hosted WordPress.org. This is different from the WordPress.com hosting service. For more details, see our comparison between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

While the core software is free, there are still costs involved in making a WordPress website. The cost of a website depends on your budget and goals, but it can be quite affordable.

The main costs will be a domain name, which will be your website’s address on the internet, and website hosting, which is where you will store your website files and database.

The good news is that most website hosting providers will automatically install WordPress for you, and you will probably never need to manually download or install it yourself.

However, if you are an intermediate or advanced user, then you always have the option of installing WordPress manually. That’s handy if you wish to do a custom WordPress install, or have WordPress running on your own server or computer.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to download WordPress for free, along with what you need to do next. Here are the topics we’ll cover in this tutorial:

• How to Download WordPress for Free
• How to Install or Reinstall WordPress Manually on a Web Server
• How to Install WordPress Locally on Your Computer

How to Download WordPress for Free

First, you need to visit the WordPress.org download page. This page offers two options:

• You can download WordPress and install it yourself as we’ll cover in this article, or
• You can set up WordPress automatically with a hosting provider.

We recommend most users take the second option. Reputable hosting providers such as Hostinger, Bluehost, Dreamhost, or SiteGround will install WordPress for you automatically in just 5 minutes. To learn how that works, see our complete guide on how to install WordPress.

But if you’re an advanced or intermediate user and want to install WordPress manually, then go ahead and click the ‘Download WordPress’ button.

This button will also indicate which version of WordPress you are downloading. In this case, it is WordPress 6.1.1.

After downloading the file from WordPress.org, you just need to unzip it. This will create a ‘wordpress’ folder on your computer that contains all the files you need to create a WordPress website.

Now that you have downloaded WordPress for free, you can use it to install or reinstall WordPress on your server or create a local WordPress installation on your computer.

How to Install or Reinstall WordPress Manually on a Web Server

Installing WordPress manually requires a few added steps, but may be easier than you expect. You will need the files you downloaded and an FTP client or a web-based file manager.

You can also use this manual method when updating WordPress or uninstalling and reinstalling WordPress.

Uploading the WordPress Files to Your Web Server

Your first job will be to use FTP to upload the WordPress files you have downloaded to your web server. You can think of FTP as file management for the internet.

Most web hosting providers offer an FTP server and send your FTP username, password, and other details via email when you sign up for your WordPress hosting account. You can also find your ‘FTP Accounts’ information in your hosting account’s cPanel or Site Tools dashboard.

As an alternative to FTP, most hosting providers also provide a browser-based file manager application. This can be accessed from your web hosting control panel as pictured above.

We’ll use the FileZilla FTP client because it’s free and works on Windows and Mac.

First, you need to open FileZilla and select File » Site Manager from the menu. Next, you should click the ‘New site’ button and provide a title for your website. Once you’ve done that, you should enter the login details in the ‘User’ and ‘Password’ fields.

From the Protocol dropdown, you should select ‘SFTP’ if your hosting provider supports it, otherwise leave it as ‘FTP.’

Next, you just type your domain name such as ‘example.com’ in the Host field and select ‘Normal’ for the Logon Type.

Once you’ve entered those details, you can click on the Connect button to continue. FileZilla will now attempt to log in to your website using the credentials you entered.

Once connected, you will see two columns of files and folders. The left column lists the Local files on your computer. The right column lists the Remote files on your website. This layout lets you easily transfer files to and from your website.

In the left column, you need to locate the ‘wordpress’ folder that you downloaded and unzipped earlier. In the right column, you need to locate the folder on your website where you need to upload these files:

• If you want to install WordPress on your root domain name (like example.com), then you need to upload WordPress files to your website’s root directory. Usually, this directory is called /public_html/.
• On the other hand, If you want to install WordPress in a subdirectory (like example.com/blog), then upload it to a folder /public_html/blog/.

Now you simply select all the files on the left. After that, you need to right-click the files and select Upload from the menu, or simply drag the files to the right column.

Your FTP client will now upload the WordPress files to your website.

Creating Your WordPress Database

Once the WordPress files are uploaded, you need to go to your hosting control panel to create a database. We’ll show you how to do that using cPanel, but if your hosting provider has a different control panel, then just look for the

‘phpMyAdmin’ option.

Clicking the ‘phpMyAdmin’ icon will open the phpMyAdmin application in a new tab. In the phpMyAdmin dashboard, click on the Databases tab.

You can now type a name for your database into the ‘Database name’ field. You can name your database anything you want. Make a note of the name because you’ll need it later.

For this tutorial, we will call our database test_db.

After typing your database name, you should click the ‘Create’ button.

PhpMyAdmin will now go ahead and create your database.

Now that you’ve uploaded the WordPress files to your website and created a database, everything is ready to install WordPress.

Installing WordPress

To start installing WordPress, simply go to your website’s URL, such as example.com or www.example.com. This will open the WordPress installation wizard.

You will see the language selection page. You can choose a language here so that the rest of the installation is displayed in your own language. You can also use English for now and then later change the language or add multiple languages.

Next, you can click the ‘Continue’ button to proceed.

You will now see some instructions about the installation process. You will see a list of information you need, including the database name, username, password, and host.

After reading the screen, you should click the ‘Let’s go!’ button to continue. The setup wizard will now show you a form where you can enter the database information you created earlier.

Once you’ve done that, make sure you leave the Database Host field as the default ‘localhost.’ This just means that the database and website are hosted on the same server. Unless you changed the database prefix, the Table Prefix field should say wp_.

After filling in this information, you need to click the ‘Submit’ button. WordPress will connect to your database and show you a success message.

To move on to the next step, simply click on the ‘Run the installation’ button. WordPress will now create tables in your database and then send you to the next step of the installation.

The next screen will ask for some additional information.

You will need to enter the Site Title that you wish to display at the top of your website, such as your business name. You can change the title in your WordPress dashboard at any point.

You’ll also need to create a username and password. This is the login information you’ll use to access your WordPress dashboard.

You can also type your email address into the Your Email field. This is the address where WordPress will send all of its admin emails.

If you don’t want your website to be visible to search engines at this point, then you can check the box next to search engine visibility.

Later when you are ready you can change this from WordPress settings. If you are unsure about what to do, then simply leave it unchecked.

After completing this form, click the ‘Install WordPress’ button. WordPress will now run the installation and after a few moments, you should see a ‘Success!’ message.

Now you can sign in to your WordPress dashboard by clicking on the ‘Log In’ button.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed WordPress by downloading the core software for free and then installing it manually.

How to Install WordPress Locally on Your Computer

You can also use the WordPress core files you downloaded to install WordPress on your own computer. This gives you the chance to try out WordPress before starting your blog or website. It’s also a great way to experiment with themes and plugins risk-free.

Note: If you install WordPress locally on your computer, then you will be the only person who can see it.

For WordPress to successfully run on your computer, you first need to install the software that WordPress relies on. This includes the PHP server-side programming language, the Apache web server, and the MySQL database management system.

Now, installing all these software independently and making them work with each other sounds like a daunting task.

Luckily, there are free development tools that make it super easy to install them as one package even for non-techy users. Once you install one of these applications, then you will be able to install WordPress using a method similar to the above.

We recommend using Local WP to install WordPress on your computer. Here are detailed tutorial on how to install WordPress on Windows, and how to install WordPress on Mac.

Note: When you’re using Local WP, you don’t need to manually download and install WordPress on your computer. It can help you do that with just a few clicks.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to download and manually install WordPress for free. You may also want to learn how to keep your WordPress site secure, or check out our list of must-have plugins to grow your site.

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

The post How to Download WordPress for Free (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

March 15, 2023 at 03:28PM