John Mathews, Author at WPcademy

May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Create Short Amazon Affiliate Links in WordPress

In this tutorial, we will learn how to easily create short amazon affiliate links in WordPress.

Why Use Short Affiliate Links for Amazon?

By default an Amazon affiliate link is a long URL containing strings and IDs.

This link is lengthy, and it is hard to look at. It also increases your chances of accidentally making a typo and breaking the URL.

One possible solution is to cloak affiliate links in WordPress by using a plugin like ThirstyAffiliates. Using an affiliate link manager allows you to redirect users while using your own custom short URLs like this:

http://www.example.com/refer/prowp

The problem with using a cloacked URL is that users do not know where they will be taken when they click on that link. You may want to show users that they will be redirected to Amazon’s website, because Amazon is a trusted brand name.

This could potentially increase your earnings, particularly if you most recommend products from Amazon.

Amazon comes with its own short URL option that allows affiliates to easily transform any Amazon link into a short URL using amzn.com domain name.

Creating Short Amazon Affiliate Links

There are two type of short URLs that you can create for your Amazon affiliate links. The first one uses Amazon.com domain name.

You need to simply add /dp/yourproductid/?tag=youraffiliatetag.

Take a look at this example:

http://amazon.com/dp/0470560541/?tag=aff0-link

You can create an even shorter URL by using amzn.com domain name. Simply remove the /dp/ prefix and add your product id with your affiliate tag.

http://amzn.com/0470560541/?tag=aff0-link

That’s all, we hope this tutorial helped you easily create short amazon affiliate links in WordPress.

May 27, 2019May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Display Recent Posts in WordPress

In this tutorial, we will show you how to display recent posts in WordPress with a plugin, widget, shortcode, and the manual method with the recent post function.

Using The WordPress Recent Posts Widget

WordPress comes with a built-in default widget to display recent posts in your site’s sidebar or any widget ready area. Inside your WordPress admin, simply visit Appearance » Widgets and add Recent Posts widget to a sidebar.

The built-in recent posts widget is very basic. You can provide an alternate title to the widget, show date, and add the number of posts you want to display. Next, click on the save button to store your widget settings.

Using Recent Posts Widget Extended Plugin

As you noticed that the built-in widget we mentioned above is quite limited, and it doesn’t even allow you to show thumbnails or excerpts which is often a priority for users.

What if you wanted to display thumbnails and excerpts with your recent posts? What if you wanted to limit them to specific categories or tags?

Well, that’s when Recent Posts Widget Extended plugin comes in handy.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WordPress Recent Posts Widget Extended plugin. Upon activation, simply visit Appearance » Widgetsand add Recent Posts Extended widget to a sidebar.

Recent Posts Extended widget comes with a lot options and gives you full control on how you want to display recent posts on your WordPress site. You can show thumbnails, excerpts, limit categories and tags, ignore sticky posts, and much more. You can even use the widget to display recent posts from any other post type on your site.

Displaying Recent Posts in WordPress Using Shortcode

Adding recent posts to a sidebar is fairly easy, but what if you wanted to show recent posts inside a WordPress post or page? The easiest way to display recent posts in WordPress posts and pages is by using shortcodes.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Display Posts Shortcodeplugin. It works out of the box and there are no settings for you to configure.

Simply edit a post or page where you want to display your recent posts. Next, use the shortcode [display-posts] with your own parameters inside the post. The plugin offers a whole range of parameters that you can use with the shortcode. Here are some examples:

Display 5 recent posts with thumbnails and excerpt

 [display-posts posts_per_page="5" image_size="thumbnail" include_excerpt="true"]

Display recent pages instead of posts

  [display-posts posts_per_page="5" post_type="page"]

Change the order to title instead of date.

  [display-posts posts_per_page="5" orderby="title"]

Display recent pages under a specific parent page.

  [display-posts posts_per_page="5" post_type="page" post_parent="5"]

For a full list of parameters visit the plugin’s documentation.

You can also use these shortcodes inside a text widget, but first you will need to enable shortcodes in your text widgets by adding this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site specific plugin.
add_filter(‘widget_text’, ‘do_shortcode’);

Displaying Recent Posts Manually in WordPress Theme Files

More advanced WordPress users may want to add recent posts directly in their WordPress theme files. There are multiple ways to do this, but the easiest one is to use the built-in WP_Query class. Simply add this code where you want to display the recent posts.

Define our WP Query Parameters // Start our WP Query have_posts()) : $the_query -> the_post(); ?> // Display the Post Title with Hyperlink

// Repeat the process and reset once it hits the limit

This code simply displays five most recent posts with their title and excerpt. The WP_Query class has tons of parameters that allows you to customize it any way that you like. For more information please refer to the codex.

We hope that this tutorial helped you learn how to display recent posts in WordPress.

May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Add Content Locking in WordPress

In this tutorial, we will learn how to add content locking in WordPress without annoying users.

What is Content Locking & When You Need It?

Content Locking is a technique used by site owners. It forces users to perform an action before getting access to your content.

If it is not used properly, then it could annoy your users. But when it is done right, it could be very effective in generating leads and achieving your marketing goals.

The best time to use content locking is when you are offering highly valuable content such as a free course, an ebook download, or something similar.

It uses the same psychological trick as content upgrades. Users wouldn’t mind performing a little task in exchange of valuable content.

Now that you know the use case, let’s see how you can easily add content locking in WordPress like a pro.

What Do You Need for Content Locking in WordPress?

For this tutorial, we will be using OptinMonster. It is the best lead generation solution in the market. You will need a plus or pro plan of OptinMonster for content locking.

WPCademy users can get a 10% discount by using this OptinMonster coupon.

Adding Content Locking in WordPress

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

This plugin is just a connector between your WordPress site and your OptinMonster account.

Upon activation, click on the OptinMonster menu item in your WordPress admin bar. You will be asked to provide your OptinMonster API username and key.

You can find the API information under your account on the OptinMonster website. Simply login and then click on the API link.

Next, copy and paste the API username and key into the OptinMonster plugin page and then click on connect to OptinMonster button.

Once you are successfully connected, you need to click on the create new optin button.

This will take you to the OptinMonster website. You need to provide a title for your optin campaign and select your website from the drop down menu.

You also need to select ‘After post / Inline’ as your optin type. This will load some ready to use templates in the right column. Click on a template to use it as a starting point.

It will open OptinMonster’s form builder where you can customize the appearance of your optin and configure its settings.

Feel free to edit fonts, add text or images, change colors, etc.

Next you need to click on the ‘Optin’ Menu and scroll down to content blocking section. Turn on content blocking for this optin by clicking on the on/off switch.

Turning it on will show you the options to determine how you want content blocking to work. First you need to choose a content blocking method.

You can use obfuscation which blurs content, or removal which totally removes the content below optin.

You also need to change success cookie duration to 0. This will prevent cookie from being set until users submits the optin.

After that go through the Integration setting to connect your email marketing service and also configure the analytics setting.

Once you are done, click on the Save button on the top right corner of the builder to save your settings.

Now you need to visit your WordPress site and click on the OptinMonster menu.

You will see your content lock optin under the list of optins. If you don’t see it, then click on refresh optins button.

Take your mouse to the optin title and then click on ‘Edit optin output settings’ link.

On the next page, click on the checkbox below ‘Enable optin on site’ option.

Don’t forget to click on the save settings button at the bottom of the page.

Next, you need to click on the OptinMonster menu again to go back to Optins overview page. This time you need to copy the optin slug.

Now you need to edit the post or page where you want to enable content locking and add this shortcode before any other content in your post (or after the first paragraph).

Replace your-optin-slug with the optin slug you copied earlier.

Now you can save and publish your post or page. Visit the post or page in a new browser window to see content locking in action.

How to Add Content Lock to All WordPress Posts

If you want to automatically add content locking to all your WordPress posts, then there is an easier way to do this.

Simply install and activate the Insert Post Ads plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Post Adverts » Settings to configure the plugin settings.

Select where you want to enable post ads plugin posts or pages and then click on save settings button.

Now you need to visit Post Adverts » Add New page. Provide a title for this content locking script and then add your content lock optin shortcode in the advert code section.

Under ‘Display the advert’ dropdown menu, you can select before the content or choose to add this after the first paragraph and click on the publish button.

That’s all, the plugin will now enable content locking for all your WordPress posts.

Pro Tip: The reason why you may want to add it after the first paragraph is because you can use the first paragraph as a teaser to tell users why they really need to read the rest.

We hope this tutorial helped you add content locking in WordPress.

May 27, 2019

Easy Guide of Inspect Element: Customizing WordPress for DIY Users

In this tutorial, we will learn the basics of inspect element and how to use it with your WordPress site.

Inspect Element or Developer Tools

Modern web browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox has built-in tools which allow web developers to debug errors. These tools show the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code for a page and how the browser executes the code.

Using Inspect Element tool, you can edit HTML, CSS, or JavaSCript code for any webpage and see your changes live (only on your computer).

For a DIY website owner, these tools can help you preview how a site design would look without actually making the changes for everyone.

For writers, these tools are awesome because you can easily change personal identifying information when taking your screenshots eliminating the need to blur out items altogether.

For support agents, it’s a great way to identify the error that could be causing your galleries to not load or your sliders to not work properly.

We’re just scratching the surface of use-cases. Inspect element is really powerful.

In this article, we will be focusing on Inspect Element in Google Chrome because that’s our browser of choice. Firefox has its own developer tools which can also be invoked by selecting inspect element from browser menu.

Launching Inspect Element and Locating The Code

You can launch inspect element tool by pressing CTRL + Shift + I keys on your keyboard. Alternately you can click anywhere on a web page and select inspect element from browser menu.

Your browser window will split into two, and the lower window will show the web page’s source code.

The developer tool window is further divided into two windows. On your left, you will see the HTML code for the page. On the right-hand pane, you will see the CSS rules.

As you move your mouse over the HTML source you will see the affected area highlighted on the web page. You will also notice CSS rules change to show the CSS for the element you are viewing.

You can also take the mouse pointer to an element on the web page, right click and select inspect element. The element you pointed at will be highlighted in the source code.

Editing and Debugging Code in Inspect Element

Both the HTML and CSS in the inspect element window are editable. You can double click anywhere in the HTML source code and edit the code as you like.

You can also double click and edit any attributes and styles in the CSS pane. To add a custom style rule click on the + icon at the top of CSS pane.

As you make changes to the CSS or HTML those changes will be reflected in the browser instantly.

Note, that any changes you make here are not saved anywhere. Inspect element is a debugging tool, and it does not write your changes back to the files on your server. This means that if you refresh the page, all your changes will be gone.

To actually make the changes, you will have to edit your WordPress theme’s stylesheet or relevant template to add the changes you want to save.

Before you start editing your existing WordPress theme using Inspect Element tool, make sure you that you save all your changes by creating a child theme.

Easily Find Errors On Your Site

Inspect element has an area called Console which shows all the errors that exist on your website. When trying to debug an error or requesting support from plugin authors, it’s always helpful to look here to see what the errors are.

For example, if you were an OptinMonster customer wondering why your optin is not loading, then you can easily find the problem “your page slug does not match”.

If your sharebar wasn’t working properly, then you can see that there’s a JavaScript error.

Tools like the Inspect Element Console and SupportAlly help you get better customer support because the technical support team love customers who take initiative in providing detailed feedback of the issue.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn the basics of inspect element and how to use it with your WordPres site.

May 27, 2019May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Disable RSS Feeds in WordPress

In this tutorial, we will learn how to disable RSS feeds in WordPress.

Method 1: Disable RSS Feeds Using a Plugin

This method is easier and is recommended for beginners.

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

The plugin works out of the box and it will start redirecting users to your website when they request an RSS feed.

There are a few settings available for the plugin. You need to visit Settings » Reading page to configure them.

By default, the plugin will try to redirect users to related content on your site when they request a feed. For example, users requesting a category feed will be redirected to category page. Users trying to access custom post type RSS feed will be redirected to the custom post type archive.

You can change this behavior and show users a 404 error page.

You can also select not to disable the global RSS feed and comments feed. This will allow users to still subscribe to your RSS feed, but there will be no individual category, author, or post comment feeds.

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

Method 2: Manually Disable RSS Feeds in WordPress

This method requires you edit WordPress files. You can use this method if you are comfortable pasting snippets from web into WordPress.

Simply add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function wpb_disable_feed() {
wp_die( __('No feed available,please visit our homepage!') );
}
 
add_action('do_feed', 'wpb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rdf', 'wpb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rss', 'wpb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rss2', 'wpb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_atom', 'wpb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rss2_comments', 'wpb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_atom_comments', 'wpb_disable_feed', 1);

This code simply returns an error page when someone requests an RSS feed.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to disable RSS feeds in WordPress.

May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Add an Admin User in WordPress using FTP

In this tutorial, we will learn how to add an admin user in WordPress using FTP.

Add an Admin User in WordPress Using FTP

Sometimes you may forget your username or email address on a WordPress site and cannot login to the admin area.

One way to do this is by adding an admin user to the WordPress database using MySQL. But you may be unable to connect to phpMyAdmin or don’t want to run MySQL queries directly.

Some users may get their site hacked and admin account deleted. In that case, adding an admin user using FTP can quickly restore your access to the WordPress admin area.

Having said that, let’s see how you can easily add an admin user in WordPress using FTP access.

Adding an Admin User in WordPress Using FTP

First thing you will need is an FTP client. If you are new to using FTP, then see our guide on how to use FTP to upload files in WordPress.

Once connected to your WordPress site, you need to locate your WordPress theme’s functions.php file. It would be at a location like this:

/yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/your-current-theme/functions.php

Right click on functions.php file and then select download. Your FTP client will download the functions.php file to your computer.

Open the file you just downloaded on your computer using a plain text editor like Notepad. Now you need to add this code at the bottom of the file.

function wpb_admin_account(){
$user = 'Username';
$pass = 'Password';
$email = '[email protected]';
if ( !username_exists( $user )  && !email_exists( $email ) ) {
$user_id = wp_create_user( $user, $pass, $email );
$user = new WP_User( $user_id );
$user->set_role( 'administrator' );
} }
add_action('init','wpb_admin_account');

Don’t forget to replace Username, Password, and [email protected] with your own values.

Next, save the file and then upload it back to your website using the FTP client.

You can now visit your WordPress site’s login area and sign in with the user account you just added.

Once you have logged in to your WordPress site, please edit the functions.php file and delete the code you added. Deleting the code will not remove the user you added, and you can always add new users and authors to your WordPress site.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to add an admin user to WordPress using FTP.

May 27, 2019May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Add Free SSL in WordPress with Let’s Encrypt

In this tutorial, we will learn how to add free SSL in WordPress with Let’s Encrypt.

What is SSL and Let’s Encrypt?

Every internet user shares lots of personal information each day. We do that when shopping online, creating accounts, signing into different websites, etc.

If not properly encrypted, then this information can be spied upon and stolen. This is where SSL comes in. It provides the encryption technology to secure the connection between a user’s browser and the web server.

Each site is issued a unique SSL certificate for identification purposes. If a server is pretending to be on HTTPS, and it’s certificate doesn’t match, then most modern browsers will warn the user from connecting to the site.

Previously, the only way to secure sites with SSL was by using a paid SSL certificate.

Let’s Encrypt is a free open certificate authority that aims to provide SSL certificate for general public. It is a project of Internet Research Group, a public service corporation. Let’s Encrypt is sponsored by many companies including Google, Facebook, Sucuri, Mozilla, Cisco, etc.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how you can add free SSL certificate to your WordPress site with Let’s Encrypt.

Easy Way – Using a Host That Offers Built-in Free SSL

As Let’s Encrypt is becoming popular, some WordPress hosting companies have already started offering built-in easy SSL set up.

The easiest way to add Let’s Encrypt free SSL to WordPress is by signing up with a hosting company that offers a built-in integration.

Setting up Free SSL with Let’s Encrypt on SiteGround

SiteGround is one of the most trusted and well-known hosting companies offering built-in integration of free SSL. We use Siteground for our List25 website.

Here is how to enable Let’s Encrypt free SSL in SiteGround.

Simply login to your cPanel dashboard and scroll down to the security section. There you will need to click on the Let’s Encrypt icon.

This will bring you to the Let’s Encrypt install page. You will need to select the domain name where you want to use the free SSL, and then provide a valid email address.

You can now click on the install button. Let’s encrypt will now issue a unique SSL certificate for your website. Once it’s finished, you will see a success message.

That’s all, you have successfully integrated Let’s Encrypt free SSL to your WordPress site.

However, your WordPress site is not yet ready to use it. First you will need to update your WordPress URLs and then fix insecure content issue.

Don’t worry we will show you how to do that. Skip to the section on updating URLs and fixing insecure content issues.

Setting up Free SSL with Let’s Encrypt on DreamHost

DreamHost is another popular WordPress hosting service provider that’s offering built-in integration to setup free SSL on any of your domains hosted with them.

First you need to login to your Dreamhost dashboard. Under the Domains section, you need to click on secure hosting.

On the secure hosting page, you need to click on ‘Add Secure Hosting’ button to continue.

Dreamhost will now ask you to select your domain. Below that it will give you an option to add free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt. You need to make sure that this checkbox is checked.

You can optionally choose to add a unique IP to your domain name. It is not required, but will improve compatibility with older versions of Internet Explorer on Windows XP.

Click on Add Now button to finish the setup. DreamHost will now start setting up your Free SSL certificate with Let’s encrypt. You will see a success message like this:

You have successfully added a free SSL certificate with Let’s Encrypt to your WordPress site on DreamHost.

You still need to update WordPress URLs and fix insecure content issue. Jump to the section, updating WordPress URLs after setting up SSL.

Installing Let’s Encrypt Free SSL on Other Web Hosts

Let’s Encrypt free SSL is a domain based SSL certificate. This means that if you have a domain name, then you can add it on any web host.

However, if your web host does not offer an easy integration like SiteGround or DreamHost, then you will need to go through a somewhat lengthy procedure.

This procedure differs from one web host to another. Most hosting companies have a support document explaining how to do that. You can also contact their support staff for detailed instructions.

BlueHost one of the official WordPress hosting providers allows you to add third-party SSL to your domains hosted with them. For detailed instructions, take a look at their SSL installation of 3rd party certificate page.

Updating WordPress URLs After Setting up SSL

After setting up the Free SSL certificate with Let’s Encrypt, the next step is to move your WordPress URL from HTTP to HTTPS.

A normal site without SSL certificate uses HTTP protocol. This is usually highlighted with http prefix in web addresses, like this:

http://www.example.com

Secure websites with SSL certificates use HTTPS protocol. This means that their addresses look like this:

https://www.example.com

Without changing the URLs in your WordPress site, you will not be using SSL and your site will not be secure for collecting sensitive data.

Having said, let’s see how to move WordPress URLs from http to https:

For Brand New WordPress Website

If you are working on a brand new website, then you can just go to your WordPress admin area and click on settings. There you will need to update the WordPress URL and Site URL fields to use https.

Don’t forget to save your changes.

For Existing WordPress Sites

If your site has been live for a while, then chances are that it is indexed by search engines. Other people may have linked to it using http in the URL. You need to make sure that all traffic is redirected to the https URL.

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

The plugin will automatically detect your SSL certificate and set up your website to use it. In most cases, you will not have to make any more changes. The plugin will also fix insecure content issue.

Update Google Analytics Settings

If you have Google Analytics installed on your WordPress site, then you need to update its settings and add your new url with https.

Login to your Google Analytics dashboard and click on ‘Admin’ at the top menu. Next, you need to click on property settings under your website.

There you will see the default URL option. Click on http and then select https.

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

More Options:

How To Install Let’s Encrypt SSL With Nginx on CentOS 7

How To Install Let’s Encrypt SSL on Ubuntu With Apache

That’s all, we hope this tutorial helped you add Free SSL in WordPress with Let’s Encrypt.