Category: Wordpress Tutorials

In this article, we will show you how to use shortcodes in your WordPress sidebar widgets.

 

What Are Shortcodes?

Shortcodes allow you to add dynamic items like contact form, tables, and others inside your WordPress content area.

You can also use shortcodes in your widgets to add these dynamic items in your sidebars and other widget-ready area.

Let’s take a look at how to easily add and use shortcodes in your WordPress sidebar widgets.

Method 1: Adding Shortcode in WordPress Sidebar Using Text Widget

First thing you need to do is drag & drop a Text widget to your WordPress sidebar on the Appearance » Widgets screen in your dashboard. After adding the widget, you can simply add your shortcode inside the text edit area of the widget.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to store your widget settings.

You can now visit your website and see the shortcode in action.

Method 2: Adding Shortcode in WordPress Using Custom HTML Widget

Sometimes you may want to add custom HTML code around your shortcode which may not work so well in the plain text widget. In that case, you will need to add your shortcode using the ‘Custom HTML’ widget.

By default, shortcodes are not allowed to be executed in a custom HTML widget. To change this, you will need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

add_filter( 'widget_text', 'do_shortcode' );

After that, you can simply add a ‘Custom HTML’ widget to your sidebar and add your shortcode inside it.

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

You can now visit your website to see your shortcode in action.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily add shortcode to your WordPress sidebar widgets.

In this article, we will show you how to easily fix the HTTP image upload error in WordPress.

 

What Causes HTTP Error During Media Upload in WordPress?

There are a number of things that could lead to a HTTP error when you are trying to upload files using the WordPress media uploader. Basically, WordPress is unable to figure out the cause and that’s why it displays the generic ‘HTTP error’ message.

The frustrating part is that this error message doesn’t give you any clue as to what may have caused it. This means that you will have to try different solutions to find the cause and fix the error.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to troubleshoot and fix the HTTP error during media upload in WordPress.

1. Make Sure The HTTP Error is Not Temporary

First, you should wait a few minutes and then try uploading your image file again. This error is sometimes caused by unusual traffic and low server resources, which are automatically fixed on most WordPress hosting servers.

If that doesn’t work, then you may want to try uploading a different image file. If the other file uploads successfully, then try saving your original image file to a smaller size and retry uploading.

Lastly, you may want to try saving the file to a different format. For example, change jpeg to png using an image editing software. After that, retry uploading the file.

If all these steps result in the HTTP error, then this means that the error is not caused by a temporary glitch and definitely needs your immediate attention.

2. Increase WordPress Memory Limit

The most common cause of this error is lack of memory available for WordPress to use. To fix this, you need to increase the amount of memory PHP can use on your server.

You can do this by adding the following code to your wp-config.php file.

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

This code increases the WordPress memory limit to 256MB, which would be enough to fix any memory limit issues.

3. Change Image Editor Library Used by WordPress

WordPress runs on PHP which uses two modules to handle images. These modules are called GD Library and Imagick. WordPress may use either one of them depending on which one is available.

However, Imagick is known to often run into memory issues causing the http error during image uploads. To fix this, you can make the GD Library your default image editor.

You can do this by simply adding this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function wpb_image_editor_default_to_gd( $editors ) {
    $gd_editor = 'WP_Image_Editor_GD';
    $editors = array_diff( $editors, array( $gd_editor ) );
    array_unshift( $editors, $gd_editor );
    return $editors;
}
add_filter( 'wp_image_editors', 'wpb_image_editor_default_to_gd' );

After adding this code, you can retry uploading files using the media uploader. If this doesn’t solve the issue, then you can remove this code and try other methods described in this article.

4. Using The .htaccess Method

This method allows you to control how Imagick uses server resources. Many shared hosting providers limit Imagick’s ability to use multiple threads for faster image processing. However, this would result in you seeing the http error when uploading images.

An easy fix is be to add the following code in your .htaccess file:

SetEnv MAGICK_THREAD_LIMIT 1

This code simply limits Imagick to use a single thread to process images.

We hope this article helped you fix the HTTP error during media upload in WordPress.

In this article, we will show you how to easily embed a Facebook video and Facebook live video in WordPress.

 

Why Add Facebook Videos in WordPress?

We tell our users that they should never upload videos to WordPress. Instead, we recommend using a video sharing site like YouTube.

While YouTube is currently the world’s largest video hosting platform, Facebook is the biggest social network, and their videos are growing fast.

Recently, Facebook introduced auto-play and Facebook live video features. Marketers all over the world are raving about these features because they increase user engagement and overall reach.

You can also use Facebook videos to increase likes on your Facebook page. For a more immersive social experience, you can add Facebook page plugin, install Facebook comments, and add Facebook like button on your WordPress site.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to embed Facebook videos on a WordPress site.

Embedding Facebook Videos in WordPress

First, you need to locate the video that you want to embed on your WordPress site.

Next, you need to right click on the video name or date, and then select copy link address.

After that, you need to visit the Facebook embedded video player website and scroll down to the code generator section.

You will need to paste the URL you copied earlier in the ‘URL of video’ field.

Next, you need to click on the get code button which will bring up a popup showing you two boxes of code.

The first part of the code needs to go in your website’s header section. There are multiple ways to add this code to your website.

If you are comfortable editing theme files, then you can add it to your theme or a child theme by simply editing the header.php file and paste it right after the <body> tag.

Alternatively, you can install and activate the Insert Headers and Footersplugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to go to the Settings » Insert Headers and Footerspage in your WordPress admin and paste the code into the footer box. Click on the save button to store your changes.

Important: You only need to add the first part of the code once. Next time you add a Facebook video, you will only need to copy and paste the second part of the code.

Now return to the Facebook video embedder page and copy the second part of the code.

You can add this code in your WordPress posts, pages, or even a sidebar widget. When adding the code to your posts and pages, you need to make sure to switch to the Text editor, otherwise WordPress visual editor will mess up the code.

You can now visit your website to see the Facebook video in action.

How to Embed Facebook Live Video in WordPress

You can embed the Facebook Live video just like you would embed a regular Facebook video. The only difference here is how to get the URL of your Facebook live video.

Facebook doesn’t allow you to get a URL for your live video before you go live. If you want to simultaneously broadcast the Facebook Live video on your website, then you will need to first go live.

Once you are live, right click on the date and select copy link address to get the live video URL.

Once you have the URL, you can go to the Facebook embedded video playerwebsite and paste the link in the ‘URL of video’ field.

The video embed code generator will now fetch and display a preview of your Facebook live video. You need to click on the Get Code button to continue and follow the instructions described above to add these codes to your website.

Once you have added the Facebook live video code to your site, your users will be able to view the Facebook live video directly from your website as well as their Facebook feeds.

We hope this article helped you learn how to embed Facebook videos in WordPress.

In this beginner’s guide, we will show you how to easily blog anonymously using WordPress while keeping your personal information safe.

 

Note: This guide is not for journalists or whistle-blowers doing high-risk work. They should use something like TOR or other tools. This is for an average blogger who wants to blog anonymously.

Anonymous Blogging Pros & Cons

There are many users who simply want to blog anonymously to express their opinions. Most of them want to remain anonymous because they fear it may affect how people see them in real lives. Some want to do it just to be more creative.

There are pros and cons to blogging anonymously, and it’s important that you understand them before you start blogging.

Pros of Anonymous Blogging using WordPress

• Freedom to express your opinions without being judged
• Protect your personal identity and information
• Creative and artistic freedom

Cons of Anonymous Blogging Using WordPress

• Not able to meet with people who follow your blog
• Limited monetization options, you can still use Google AdSense, but you will have to share your personal information with Google.
• If someone is really determined, then they can still trace your blog back to you.

That being said, let’s see how to blog anonymously using WordPress.

How to Start an Anonymous Blog using WordPress

There are two types of WordPress websites. First, there is WordPress.com which is a hosted blogging service, and then you have WordPress.org also known as self-hosted WordPress. For comparison, see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

There are other blogging platforms as well. However, we recommend using self-hosted WordPress.org to have complete control on the privacy and ownership of your website.

You will need a domain name and a website hosting account to start your self-hosted WordPress blog.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider. They’re offering our users a free domain and 60% off their web hosting.

For details, see our article on how to start a WordPress blog with complete step by step instructions.

After you have installed WordPress, let’s make it anonymous.

Using Whois Privacy

When you purchase a domain name, you are required to provide contact information, like name, address, phone number, and email address. This information is publicly accessible and anyone can look up for it.

To protect customer’s privacy, many domain name providers offer a service called Whois privacy. For a small fee, this service displays their contact information instead of yours. If someone sends an email to the address displayed on WHOIS privacy page it will be forwarded to you.

You can purchase domain privacy during the set up on most hosting companies. For example, Bluehost provides you an option to do so during the sign up. We normally don’t recommend it due to the additional cost, but since you want to create an anonymous blog, you would want to check this option.

If you didn’t purchase it during set up, then you can always enable it from your hosting account’s dashboard under the domains section.

Using a Blogging Email Address

Next step is to create a new email account to use for your WordPress website, and your author profile in WordPress. You can use a free email service provider like Gmail or use a more private email service like Proton Mail.

After you have created an email account, you need to add it as a WordPress administrative email address. This email address is used to send WordPress notification emails.

You can do this by going to Settings » General page in the WordPress admin area and add your new email address there.

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

Next, you need to add the same email address to your author profile page. Simply go to the Users » Your Profile page and add the email address under your contact info.

Don’t forget to click on the Update Profile button to save your changes.

You can also use gravatar to display an anonymous profile picture next to your author bio under your blog posts.

Tip: If you are not receiving WordPress emails, then see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending emails issue.

Using a Psuedonym for Anonymous Blogging

You will need to choose and use a pseudonym on your blog. For better WordPress security, you cannot just use admin as your username or author name. You will need to think of a different nickname that you can use to sign your posts.

To add your pseudonym, you need to visit Users » Your Profile page and add the name next to the Nickname field. After entering your nickname, click on the drop-down menu next to ‘Display name publicly as’ option and select your nickname.

It’s important that you don’t add your real first and last name in this user profile.

Don’t forget to click on the Update Profile button to save your changes.

Using a VPN

VPN is a Virtual Private Network that helps you secure your internet connection and protect your identity.

Normally, all your internet traffic travels through different servers spread across the world. Hackers and governments can spy on this traffic and see what you are doing online.

VPN acts as a network between your computer and outside world. All your internet traffic goes to a VPN service where it is encrypted and sent to the destination using a random server in a different geographic location.

Here is a list of the best VPN service providers. We recommend using IPVanish. They offer military grade encryption with hundreds of servers. They also have the easiest software to turn on VPN with the click of a button on any device including laptops, tablets, and mobile phones.

We hope this article helped you learn how to blog anonymously using WordPress.