Starting a blog and growing an audience is still the best way to earn money in the long term. No one can argue with that. WPBeginner started as a simple blog in 2009, and now it has been an 8-figure company for multiple years now. But blogging is getting harder due to the increased competition. Start your …
The year 2018 is about to come to an end. It was a great year overall for WPBeginner, WordPress community, and for many of our users who started new websites and businesses. We want to thank all of you for your continued support of WPBeginner.
To continue our tradition, in this article, we will share our staff-pick of the best of best WordPress tutorials on WPBeginner. We will also share an overview of the success that our team had in 2018.
WPBeginner Recap 2018 by Syed Balkhi
Like every year, 2018 has been the best year ever for me both personally and professionally.
WPBeginner YouTube channel passed over 100,000 subscribers (currently at 122k subscribers). This was one of my goals for 2018, and I’m very glad that we met it.
We switched WPBeginner to HTTPS and added Browser Push Notification. In the last 6 months, we have added over 260,000+ users in our push list. This has been a great new traffic source for the blog.
In August, I launched the WPBeginner growth accelerator fund, which is the first-ever growth fund focused entirely on WordPress businesses.
Over 90 companies applied to receive investment and mentoring (which is quite humbling).
If you’re interested in learning more, then check out this blog post where I shared some behind the scenes details.
2018 was a great year for WPBeginner’s family of products.
WPForms passed over 1 million active installs and it’s now one of the top 25 most popular WordPress plugins of all time. Considering that we only launched it in 2016, it’s amazing to see how far we have come.
We added a lot of powerful features in WPForms including: surveys & polls, form permissions (form locker), conditional form confirmations, Stripe recurring payments, Drip addon, rating fields, likert scale, NPS fields, image choice fields, custom input masks, better terms of service field, GDPR compatibility, Gutenberg compatibility, and so much more.
WPForms is the most beginner friendly WordPress form plugin, and that’s why it has continued to maintain a 4.9 out of 5 star rating average with over 3000+ five star ratings (read WPForms user reviews).
Not using WPForms yet? You can try the free version and then upgrade to Pro when you’re ready.
MonsterInsights, the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, passed over 2 million active installs.
We launched a brand new Overview report inside WordPress dashboard. We also created customized reports for Publishers and Ecommerce websites, so you can see the stats that really matter. We added several other reports as well including: Search Console report, Form Conversion report, and Custom Dimensions report.
MonsterInsights has become one of my most favorite plugins in 2018 because it helps me grow our business with confidence. I sincerely believe that it’s easy to double your traffic and sales when you know exactly how people find and use your website. MonsterInsights helps me make data-driven decisions to grow our business.
OptinMonster, our flagship conversion optimization software, continued to push the limits in 2018. We launched version 5.0 which added a brand new drag & drop campaign builder and a revamped display rules engine, so you can create more personalized campaigns.
Aside from the big release, we also released several new campaign templates, email conversion summaries, a new beta program, and my favorite Smart Tags feature.
Smart Tags basically makes dynamic personalization easy. Previously OptinMonster offered this feature as part of our API, but it required coding.
Now you can add personalization like user’s name, location (country, city, state, etc), time, and other items inside your OptinMonster campaign to boost conversions without writing any code.
Our free plugin WP Mail SMTP also passed the 1 million active installs mark.
In October 2018, I sold my popular List25 blog, so I can better focus on our WordPress and software business.
List25 was a side project that I started in college as an experiment. In 2018, we passed 2.4 million subscribers on YouTube and had 570 million total video views.
This blog never fit into what we did at Awesome Motive, but I kept it for as long as I did for sentimental values. Not to mention, it did generate a pretty good side income.
As for personal life, 2018 was a great year for my family. My son, Solomon, turned 2 years old. It’s been quite fun to watch him grow. We traveled to 6 countries this year. Solomon attended 1 WordCamp in 2018 (WordCamp Miami). His two favorite letters in the alphabet are W and P. Surprisingly it took me a while to catch that, and of course that makes sense considering most of the shirts I wear are WordPress branded. Below is a picture of our family, since I know many of you often ask for it.
If you want to see more of my personal journey, then please check out my 2018 Year in Review blog post on my personal blog. It has everything that happened to me in 2018 both personally & professionally along with lessons that I learned, and my goals for 2019.
With that said, let’s take a look at the best of WPBeginner in 2018.
Best WPBeginner Tutorials in 2018
We published some really useful guides, tutorials, and how-tos throughout 2018. Here are some of our favorites.
January
What’s the difference between domain name and web hosting – We started the year with a beginner’s guide explaining the difference between domain name and web hosting. Many beginners often confuse the two terms, so we thought it is about time we explain the difference to help users understand the web basics.
How to send email in WordPress using the Gmail SMTP Server – Often WordPress websites fail to send emails because of poor configuration of email functions on their WordPress hosting servers. In this article, we showed an easier solution to the problem by sending WordPress emails using Gmail SMTP server.
Shopify vs WooCommerce – Which is the better platform? – Many beginners who want to start an online store often struggle in choosing between two of the most popular eCommerce platforms, Shopify and WooCommerce. In this article, we compared both platforms side-by-side for their features, ease-of-use, pricing, and flexibility to help you choose the best eCommerce platform for your online store.
16 Best Alternatives to the WordPress Jetpack Plugin – As your website grows, you will likely need to expand beyond the basic functionality of the Jetpack plugin suite. That’s why we created a list of the best Jetpack alternatives for specific features.
February
How to create an online course with WordPress using LearnDash – Selling online courses is becoming a common way for bloggers to make money online. In this guide, we explained how to easily create an online course using LearnDash with step by step instructions.
How to create a survey in WordPress – Surveys are a great way to gather valuable information from your users and use it to grow your business. In this step by step guide, we showed you how to create a survey in WordPress with beautiful interactive reports.
How to create a micro-job website like Fiverr with WordPress – Fiverr is a popular marketplace. This tutorial allows you to create a micro-job website like Fiverr and allow users to offer their services on your website, so you can earn a commission when jobs are completed.
How to fix the Mixed Content Error in WordPress – Mixed content error in WordPress is caused by incorrect HTTPs/SSL settings. While it may not affect your website’s functionality, it can have adverse affects on your website’s SEO and user experience. This guide helps you fix that.
How to create an online marketplace using WordPress – A marketplace website allows your users to buy and sell items by setting up their own mini-stores within your eCommerce website for a fee. It is one of the fastest growing eCommerce categories with many opportunities for small niche marketplaces. In this guide, we showed you how to create your own online marketplace using WordPress with step by step instructions.
How to build an auction site like eBay using WordPress – An auction website allows users to bid on products to purchase them. This helps you to maximize profits and you can even allow other users to run their own auctions on your website for a fee. In this article, we showed you how to easily create an eBay like auction site using WordPress without any special technical skills.
Best online grammar checker tools for WordPress – Modern browsers come with built-in spellcheck but there is no way to check for grammar or readability. We hand-picked the best online grammar checker tools to help you write better blog posts for your website.
The ultimate affiliate marketing guide for beginners – Affiliate marketing is one of the most successful ways to monetize WordPress websites. In this beginner’s guide, we explained affiliate marketing, how it works, and showed step by step instructions to get started with affiliate marketing.
How to enable customer tracking in WooCommerce with Google Analytics – Customer tracking helps you understand user behavior and improve shopping experience on your website for maximum conversions. In this guide, we showed how you can enable WooCommerce tracking with Google Analytics and unlock this invaluable information.
The ultimate guide to WordPress and GDPR Compliance – The EU’s GDPR law made most website owners concerned about how it would affect them. In this guide, we explained everything you need to know about GDPR compliance in plain English.
How to easily accept credit card payments in WordPress – Many beginners want to accept credit card payments on their website without adding a shopping cart. In this article, we showed you how to easily accept credit card payments in WordPress without using a full-fledged eCommerce platform.
Best content marketing tools and plugins for WordPress – Content marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to get search traffic to your website. We shared our pick of the best content marketing tools and plugins for WordPress to create a killer content strategy for your website.
How to do keyword research for your WordPress blog – In this article, we explained what is keyword research and how you can use it to find blog post ideas, improve SEO rankings, and get more traffic for your WordPress blog.
Wix vs WordPress – Which one is better? – Wix is a popular website builder that helps you create websites without any programming skills. In this article, we compared Wix vs WordPress with pros and cons of both platforms to determine which one is better.
How to create a free business email address – A business email address uses your company name and looks a lot more professional than a generic Gmail or Hotmail account. In this step by step guide, we showed you how to easily create a free business email address in 5 minutes.
Best analytics solutions for WordPress users – Website analytics help you find out where your users are coming from and what they do on your site. In this showcase, we shared our pick of the best analytics solutions that you can use on your WordPress website.
How to allow users to upload images in WordPress comments – By default WordPress doesn’t let users upload images in comments. If you want to allow your readers to upload images in comments similar to Facebook comments, then here’s a step by step tutorial to do that.
How to properly move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS – In July, Google announced that Chrome browser will mark all websites without an SSL certificate as insecure. This beginner’s guide shows you how to properly switch WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS.
How to choose the best domain registrar – Domain registrars are the companies responsible for registering and managing all domain names in the world. Choosing the right domain registrar will help you avoid additional costs and have full control of your domain. In this guide, we shared the best domain registrars that you can choose from.
Proven and easy to start online business ideas – If you are looking for a business idea that you can start online and start making money, then this guide is for you. We shared easy to start online business ideas that actually make money and do not cost much to start.
How to create an IDX real estate website using WordPress – Many of our users wanted to build a functional real estate website using WordPress. In this tutorial, we showed how to easily build an IDX real estate website using WordPress without spending a fortune.
How to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks – Brute force attacks can slow down a website, make it inaccessible, and even crack passwords to install malware. In this article, we showed you how to effectively protect your WordPress install against brute force attacks.
How to create an Etsy-Like store with WordPress – Tired of paying Etsy’s high transaction fees? Here’s a step by step guide on how to create an Etsy-Like store in WordPress, and how to properly move an existing Etsy store to WordPress.
Top reasons why WordPress sites get hacked – One of the most common myths about WordPress is that it is less secure. WordPress is the most popular website builder in the world, and that’s why it is often the biggest target of any hacking attempts. In this guide, we shared the top reasons why WordPress sites get hacked and how you can easily prevent it from happening on your site.
How to properly move from Squarespace to WordPress – Many people who start their websites using Squarespace quickly realize the limitations of that platform and want to move. In this article, we shared how to move your website from Squarespace to WordPress.
How to style the WordPress comment form – This guide is theme designer’s dream come true. It covers all the things you need to customize your WordPress comment form.
Ways to recover WooCommerce abandoned cart sales – More than 67% of users on an eCommerce stores abandon their carts without checking out. In this guide, we showed you how to recover those WooCommerce abandoned cart sales and grow your business more efficiently.
How to move your site from Joomla to WordPress – Joomla is a popular CMS software, much like WordPress but with a much smaller user base. In this step by step tutorial, we showed how to easily move your site from Joomla to WordPress.
Ultimate WooCommerce SEO Guide – Search is the most important source of traffic for most online stores. In this beginner’s guide, we showed you how to improve WooCommerce SEO with step by step instructions to rank higher in Google.
10 website marketing data you must track on your site – Instead of relying on your best guesses to make important marketing decisions, we showed you which website marketing data you must track on every WordPress site from day 1.
How to use user-generated content in WordPress – Use generated content allows you to add content created and generated by user activity on your website. In this tutorial, we showed you how to properly utilize user-generated content in WordPress to grow your business.
15 tips to grow your business online with a small budget – Most businesses who are just starting out don’t have big marketing budgets. In this guide, we shared our expert tips on growing your business online without spending a lot of money.
How to clone a WordPress (in 7 easy steps) – Moving a WordPress site to a new web host? Switching to a new domain? Or just want to create a staging site? Here’s a step by step guide on how to easily clone your WordPress site.
December
Using Google Search Console to grow website traffic – Google Search console is an incredibly powerful tool that offers tons of useful information that you can use to grow your website and get more traffic. In this beginner’s guide, we showed you how to properly use Google Search Console to grow your website traffic.
Best free website hosting compared – Many beginners who just want a quick website often want to start with a free website hosting company. In this article, we shared our pick of the best almost free and free website hosting companies and how they stack up against each other.
How to properly move from Medium to WordPress – Medium is a free writing platform but it is not exactly a flexible website builder like WordPress. In this step by step tutorial, we showed you how to easily move from Medium to WordPress.
How to use the new WordPress block editor (Gutenberg tutorial) – In WordPress 5.0, the classic content editor was replaced by a brand new block editor called Gutenberg. To answer user questions, we published the comprehensive Gutenberg block editor tutorial that walks you through the new editor and how to use it like a pro.
The end of the year is always a good time to look back at all the things – good and bad – that happened over the last 12 months. But today let’s just focus on the good. Hence, this list of the best WordPress dev tools of 2018!
from CodeinWP http://bit.ly/2EVI1XM
More View at https://mwktutor.com
Video content is leading the way in the content marketing scene (as of 2019). YouTube is currently the leading platform for video blogging (vlogging), video sharing, and video marketing. It is a free platform offered by Google, and many (including me) love it.
Facebook and Twitter have recently stepped into the video marketing game, but they still fall way short of having the kind of impact that YouTube has.
If you currently have a YouTube channel, you must be wondering how you can get more YouTube subscribers, and how you can increase the reach of your YouTube videos.
With over a billion unique YouTube visitors per month, there is a large potential audience for every uploaded video. Whether it’s a video of someone performing a prank or a video of a fashionista’s summerwear review, YouTube is the go-to platform for video consumption.
With a whole new lot of YouTube stars on the rise, it is definitely a platform to be considered by everyone looking for some online marketing and publicity.
YouTube is a great platform for bloggers to broaden their internet reach by making a personal connection with their followers.
The possibility for a blogger to leverage this social media giant and drive huge traffic from YouTube is high. To do that, one first needs to get more subscribers.
Note: This detailed guide to getting YouTube subscribers is long. Make sure you have enough time now to read it, or you can always bookmark it and read it later!
20 Smart Ways To Get More YouTube Subscribers in 2019
Another year has gone by and your resolution to re-build that YouTube channel of yours has not been accomplished.
If you are thinking about revamping your YouTube channel, here are 20 smart ways to gain more YouTube subscribers in 2019.
I recently had the opportunity to attend a YouTube fan-fest with a VIP invitee (thanks to my wonderful acquaintances), and a little interaction with them will shed some light on how these things work out.
I have another associate (a student of mine) who saw a tremendous amount of growth in his YouTube subscribers and viewers within a span of two years. Although his numbers might not be outrageous, they total well above a million views, which more than justifies his efforts.
All that said, correctly implementing these techniques will surely help you achieve your goals.
1. Create a plan (and script) for your videos.
“He who fails to plan is planning to fail.“
– Sir Winston Churchill
The first step in getting started on your YouTube journey is to plan what your channel is going to be all about.
Then you need to plan the structure of the videos.
Decide what it is that you love creating and focus on developing related skills. Do not mimic trending YouTube channels.Doing what you love is more important for success on YouTube (and in life).
Videos tend to perform better if you write a script because scripts help you in organizing your videos efficiently and keeping you on track. By sticking to a script, you’ll be able to stay on track without veering off to an unrelated topic. This script will also ensure a perfect flow of events resulting in a well-focused video.
Include as many details as possible into your video script:
The exact words you are going to say.
The actions you will be taking in the video.
The main points you need to stress.
Any necessary calls to action (click on this link, subscribe to my channel, etc.)
Also, identify your target audience and write your script based off of their understanding.
Are they technically savvy? Are they non-native English speakers? Are they smart or dumb? What are their levels of expertise in relation to yours? Do they want something funny or informative?
Identify who your audience is and use appropriate language.
2. Produce highly engaging content (obviously).
It should go without saying, but you need to create content that is engaging, informative, and entertaining. Make sure it stays that way for the entire duration of the video. Losing the hook in the middle will cost you a lot of viewers.
Content that works the best is content that is either entertaining or informative. The content that really works the best is content that is entertaining AND informative. This is pretty standard with any kind of content marketing, but in particular, videos that inform and entertain are usually the most successful.
Specifically, you should be uploading a combination of burst and evergreen videos. Burst videos will be all the rage for a limited time, getting you instant hits, but will fade away as time passes by.
Evergreen videos are the ones that will get you archived views and will remain relevant irrespective of time. Ideally, if possible, you should try to create mostly evergreen content.
If you fear the wrath of the camera, you can try publishing ‘Screencasts‘. You can still make screencasts entertaining and informative.
Whatever you do, before you hit the publish button, make sure your videos are highly engaging and will be of value to your audience.
3. Increase your uploading frequency.
Now this is easier said than done, but you cannot ignore its validity. The main reason someone subscribes to a channel is because they love the work of the publisher and wants to see more of their videos.
YouTube subscribers usually do not like channels that don’t produce regular content. Especially in today’s digital age, consumers want continually more and more entertainment. You need to be able to keep up with your subscribers’ demands.
Consistency is the key to developing a long-lasting relationship with your subscribers.
Release your videos in a timely, recurring, and structured fashion. Try to publish one video per week… or at least one or two per month.
Stick to your schedule and do not upload videos off of this schedule. This will hurt your reputation. It’s like watching your favorite TV series; a new episode comes out according to a regular schedule. This consistency helps you stay engaged as a viewer.
4. Learn how to optimize your titles.
Being distinguishable is the most important aspect of YouTube success.
One great way to do this is to give your videos offbeat names. This way, you’re going to be getting a lot of people coming to your channel based on curiosity alone.
But to get a maximum amount of views, you will also need to dive into the SEO part of YouTube marketing.
Here are a few tips for optimizing your YouTube titles for greater reach:
Use the keyword in the title. This had a larger impact on SEO in the past, but it still has a pretty large effect on video. Google crawlers don’t watch videos the way they read blog posts, so putting the keyword in the title will let Google bots know what your video is all about.
Use Google Adwords to identify what people are searching for on the web. Try to tackle videos with a perfect blend of high volume searches and low competition.
Don’t make the title too long. Google truncates the length of the video down to 66 characters and adds ‘YouTube |’ before the video (taking an extra 10 characters). Your ideal video title should be no more than 50 characters.
Make the title descriptive. Give the audience a sneak peek as to what the video will be about.
Make the title engaging. Like I said above, having a quirky title will get more people to click. The more clicks you have, the higher it will rank.
Don’t use the word “video” in the title. This will only take up space and won’t help you rank higher on YouTube’s search engine (though it may have an effect on normal search engines).
If you already run a blog with a bit of a following, make use of similar branding elements for your YouTube channel. This will make you easily recognizable across all platforms.
Use a custom background header that includes some design elements from your blog.
Make the most of the YouTube channel bio and custom URL to finish up your channel customizations. Keep the bio short and to the point. You can always link to your blog’s URL in the video description for a more detailed bio.
6. Personalize video thumbnails.
Here is something many YouTube creators agree upon.
Create a custom video thumbnail for each video instead of letting one be randomly generated. This only makes sense.
Using annotations and relevant images as custom thumbnails for your YouTube videos will increase your videos’ CTR (click through rate). A custom video thumbnail with a minor annotation will tell your users what your video is all about.
YouTube currently offers a selection of thumbnails from three intervals – at the 1/4th mark, at 1/2 mark, and at the 3/4th mark. Choose the one that best illustrates what your video is about.
7. Create an engaging channel trailer.
YouTube offers a great feature called channel trailers that lets you automatically play a video upon the opening of a YouTube channel.
Your channel trailer is something you must carefully work on and constantly improve to keep visitors engaged.
This is the moment where you need to catch your audience’s attention within a few seconds. The perfect channel trailer is somewhere between 30 seconds to 60 seconds.
Here you will need to provide a reason to your potential subscribers as to why they must stay on your channel, and what it is that you have to offer them.
If you are good in front of the camera, give a quick, informative, and engaging introduction (with a well-structured script).
In your YouTube’s Channel Reports, check the viewer retention rates to see if you are killing off potential subscribers with a boring or lengthy channel trailer.
Tweak it until it’s perfect.
8. Make use of ‘Call to Action’ annotations.
‘Call to action’ annotations are those annoying popups in the video (which can be a blessing for the YouTube creators). If used in a proper way, you can get more subscribers by making your visitors click them during the video.
Many YouTubers have reported increased channel subscriptions with these annotations added to their videos.
A simple link created for subscribing to the channel can be placed as a call to action in your video.
If you’re using a graphic to add a call to action, you can liven it up with a call to action annotation.
If done in an unobtrusive way, you will see your channel subscriptions grow.
But again, the key here is not to be annoying. Users will not subscribe if your only reason for making videos is to get more people to subscribe.
Do it smartly, and it will pay off.
9. Use the right tools.
There are a lot of great tools out there. From tools to help you make videos to tools to help you promote your videos, using the right tools will help you increase your organic viewership.
And the more organic views you have, the more potential subscribers you can get.
For me, I have been using TubeBuddy for a while & I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about YouTube marketing.
YouTube provides an option to link to your official web page, and if you’ve got one, make sure you do it.
This makes sense, and there’s no reason for you not doing it.
The efforts you put into getting visitors for your YouTube channel can be capitalized on when you direct your most curious visitors to your website. Moreover, your channel will also become verified as an authentic representation of your brand on YouTube.
Under the channel settings of your YouTube page, add your website/blog URL to your channel.
You may also consider adding your website/blog URL in the channel description itself.
Similarly, add a ‘Subscribe’ button somewhere on your blog to drive more subscribers to your YouTube channel.
Although YouTube is home to many detailed, in-depth reviews and other such lengthy content, the high converting videos are the ones which are optimized for less than 5 minutes in length.
Comscore reported in January 2014 that the average length of most YouTube videos was around 4.4 minutes. For content creators who are getting started, this is the golden number.
Follow this number until a following is built.
Once you have a good following, you can experiment with video length and see what your audience’s reaction is.
Keep it short, simple, informative, entertaining, and under 5 minutes.
It is a tough challenge, but it’s worth your efforts.
12. Use A YouTube Intro & Outro.
Your YouTube intro and outro not only helps in branding, it will make your video more entertaining.
Having an intro and outro will serve your brand and offer your video a sense of professionalism. It’s like the opening theme song of a TV show.
Moreover, an attractive intro will ensure that your viewers stay glued to the rest of the video.
Thomas Hawk, a well-renowned photographer, claims that for every single photograph that he publishes, he has ten rejected shots. The same goes with any type of editing.
Ruthlessly edit your YouTube videos and make sure only your best ones get published.
If you make haste about strictly adhering to your schedule and publish haphazardly, it will only hurt you and your brand as a whole. Make a lot of recordings while you are shooting a video, and make sure only the best parts get selected.
Take multiple shots if you don’t feel confident about a certain take.
Although I haven’t done much video editing on a Macintosh, Adobe Premier will work perfectly if you are based on Windows. Get the right editing tools to assist you in this (often) painstaking process.
If are willing to invest more time and effort to understanding cinematography, I recommend you check out The Five C’s of Cinematography: Essential tips for film making. It has some great cutting-edge techniques for both the novice and the seasoned cinematographer.
Coming back to the SEO aspect of YouTube videos, the video description is not to be neglected.
The description will not only let your videos be found in search engines, they’ll also give potential viewers an idea of what your video is about.
But don’t overdo it. Having a very detailed description makes no sense because only the first few lines of your description show up when the video is initially loaded.
Again, like the title, you should use your keyword in the description, and again, don’t overdo it. Don’t think you’re outsmarting the search engine by adding in your keyword 17 times. Doing this will actually hurt your chances of showing up in searches.
Keep it natural and authentic.
Hint: You can try linking people to a ‘squeeze page’ in your video description.
15. Make the most of meta tags.
Make use of the Google Keyword Planner for getting ideas on relevant keywords for your YouTube videos. Add all of those relevant keywords to your videos. This will help you become more discoverable in both Google and YouTube search engines.
Overdoing keywords will not help (it will actually hurt), but a few well-researched and well-placed keywords can do wonders for your rankings.
A low video count may not always be only about poor content; it could also indicate poor discoverability
Metadata is something that plays a major role in getting your videos displayed in search results. You can browse some well-converting videos and see what meta tags they are using to give you some ideas. But don’t just copy and paste meta tags; this won’t help your cause.
Here’s a video guide to help you out:
16. End your videos on a high note.
Whatever the nature of your videos, make sure you end your videos on a high note.
Just like the last dialogue before the curtain falls, make sure you end your videos in a memorable fashion.
Ask your audience for a subscription and a like if they liked the video. Tell them to check out your website. Give them your phone number and ask them to call you (…I wouldn’t recommend that one).
Whatever you do, remember:
If you never ask, the answer will always be no.
End your videos on a note of confidence and let your audience know that you appreciate their viewership.
Create a tail slate, or a brand-like outro with a standard banner and “subscribe” annotations across all of your videos.
End your videos with a smile and keep your visitors eager for more.
17. Consider collaborating with fellow YouTubers.
Collaborating on YouTube has become pretty common recently among top content creators.
Why?
Because collaboration benefits everyone.
It’ll be good for you, for your collaborators, and for the audience.
The creative process is a constructive one, and seeing other YouTubers as your competitors will only impede your progress, leaving you languishing and loathing others’ successes.
Try to reach out to similar users in your field and ask them out for an opportunity to work together on something interesting.
You’ll be able to connect to a new audience, your collaborator will be able to connect to a new audience, and your viewers will love all of this extra value they’re getting.
It’s a win-win-win.
18. Interact with your loyal fan base.
Social media is built upon this intangible thread of connecting and interacting with fellow people.
It is all about how much you care.
When your fans know that you care about them, they will care about you.
Interact with your audience, and listen to their requests in the comments section of your videos. It is true that you may face certain backlashes and anger in your comments section, but brush it off with elegance and listen to your loyal fan base.
Reply to the comments under your videos, and make your viewers feel connected all the time. This will build trust, and they will respect you for caring about them.
19. Consider giveaways and video challenges.
Who doesn’t love giveaways?
Offer your audience something in return for all of their engagement on your YouTube channel.
A free giveaway or video contest will reward your current followers, and will help lure in new followers.
You can give away anything you want:
A new tech gadget.
A branded t-shirt.
A hosting subscription.
A new car…!
Whatever it is, your audience will love the chance of getting something for free, and they will tell all of their friends about it (especially if the prize is really good). This is not only free promotion, it’s free viral promotion.
For a really big giveaway, many YouTube hosts require users to follow all of their social media profiles to enter into the contest. I recommend this approach.
It’s best if the thing you’re giving away is related to your niche, but even if it’s not, your audience will still love getting something for free.
20. Cross-platform promotion is a necessity.
In this age of social media, being present and active on multiple social platforms is a pre-requisite for being alive.
If you’re trying to build a brand, being discoverable is a must. You need to be active on many major social media platforms.
You should at least have a profile on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. But you can always opt for other ones like Pinterest, Instagram, SnapChat, and all of the others… If being on too many social media platforms sounds like a logistical nightmare, you can use an auto-scheduling app like Buffer to help you stay organized and on a regular posting schedule.
You can also try Facebook Ads and Google Ads to promote yourself further on the web (I’d recommend trying Facebook Ads before Google Ads). You can also try tools like Pay with a tweet that lets users pay for a product with a tweet.
This is how successful brands are built. By being visible on many places around the web, you set yourself up as an omniscient presence.
Bonus Tip: Hustle for your first 1000 YouTube subscribers.
Whatever you do, have an aggressive strategy to get out there and get your first 1000 subscribers as quickly as possible.
The ‘build it, they’ll come’ attitude won’t work on social media. You will need to promote your channel to your maximum abilities. A channel that’s quickly gaining buzz will also help you stay motivated to work even harder and create better videos for your audience.
Share with your friends what you’ve been working on, and ask for a subscription if they are interested. Remember, don’t keep pestering friends; they are not obliged to do anything.
Get out there on other social media platforms with some personal connections and let them know about your undertakings. Ask them for likes and subscriptions (if they’re interested).
Again, don’t pester anyone!
Conclusion: Keep experimenting and exploring
“Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.”
— M. C. Escher
What worked for someone else might not turn out to work for you. So, keep experimenting and stick to the methods that work… for you.
Keep experimenting with camera angles, backgrounds, video thumbnails, and all of the techniques in this article. Keep tracking your changes and the way they are affecting your audience’s behavior.
Stay true to your brand.
Building something of value on YouTube takes a lot of effort, time, perseverance, and a long-term commitment. But eventually, with patience, you can reap its benefits.
What are some other strategies you think should be mentioned here? Shout out your thoughts on how to build YouTube subscribers in the comments below.
Did you know that more than 67% of users on eCommerce websites abandon their shopping carts without checking out? Customers want their questions to be answered instantly, and any uncertainty with their purchase can result in losing a sale.
Using a live chat support software helps you instantly answer user questions and convert them into paying customers. In this article, we will share our pick of the best live chat software for your small businesses. These live chat services work perfectly with any WordPress site.
Why Add Live Chat Support to Your Website?
According to eConsultancy, live chat has the highest satisfaction levels of any customer service channel at 73%, compared to 61% for email and 44% for phone.
It is a no brainer that live chat has such a significant impact on online sales and marketing. It allows customers to get instant answers without leaving your website. A positive live chat experience can effectively help customers make the buying decision.
Adding live chat support can definitely reduce cart abandonment, increase sales, and boost conversions. But a lot of it depends on the live chat software that you use.
A poor live chat support experience can have an adverse impact. You can lose sales, customers may leave with a bad impression of your brand, you may end up paying too much for the service, or fail to utilize the live chat app due to technical skills.
Basically, you want to find an affordable live chat service, that is easy to use, works with WordPress, and comes with all the features to help you make more sales.
That being said, let’s take a look at our expert pick of the best live chat software that you can use to grow your business.
LiveChat is the industry leader in live chat software. It’s very easy to set up and install with their free LiveChat plugin for WordPress.
LiveChat also offers beautifully designed live chat support apps that you and your agents can use on your laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. That means you can chat with customers while on the go, without having to login to your WordPress dashboard.
You can add survey forms before and after a live chat session, so you can evaluate how your support team is doing. During your off-hours, your users can also conveniently send a support ticket directly from live chat.
LiveChat integrates with dozens of other services like popular CRM software, Google Analytics, Zendesk, all the top email marketing services, and many more. This will save you time since you won’t have to enter customer details manually into your other systems.
Perhaps the best feature of LiveChat is speed. It loads extremely fast, works on all devices, and offers a much better user experience than most other live chat software.
We use LiveChat on our eCommerce websites.
Pricing: LiveChat has different plans for businesses of all sizes. Their starter plan starts from $16 per agent per month billed annually, or $19 for month-to-month. Each plan comes with a 30 day free trial.
Special: WPBeginner users get 30% off the first payment when you use our LiveChat Coupon.
Olark is a popular live chat solution for online businesses. It’s easy to use, and adding Olark to a WordPress site is simple. All you need to do is copy and paste a code snippet into your WordPress sidebar widget or in your child theme.
If you’d rather not work with code, then there is also a free Olark Live Chat plugin which makes setup even easier.
Olark offers integration with other services such as Salesforce, Zendesk, Highrise, etc.
There are third-party mobile apps which allow you to connect to Olark chat from almost any iOS or Android device, so you can chat with customers on the go.
Pricing: Olark offers simpler pricing plan starting from $17 per agent each month. There is a 12% discount if you choose annual billing and 29% discount for two-year billing. They also offer 2-week free live chat support trial.
Zendesk is the leading help desk support software provider. They recently acquired an existing company called Zopim to enter the live chat support market and rebranded it as Zendesk Chat.
If you are already using Zendesk, then the best advantage you get is that it already integrates with your existing support software. It also works smoothly with WordPress, Salesforce, and a number of other third-party services.
Zendesk Chat also offers real-time chats, advanced analytics, and AI-powered chat-bots to automate the process when no live agents are available. They have beautiful templates and customization options to create attention-seeking chat widgets.
Pricing: Zendesk Chat offers a limited free live chat support account for 1 concurrent chat session. Their paid plans start from $14 per month per agent.
If you are looking for a free live chat support software for WordPress, then you may want to checkout Chaport. They offer a free forever plan with unlimited chats, history, notifications, unlimited registered operators, and up to 5 operators online at the same time.
Their software covers all the basic requirements. They have live chat support apps for mobile devices, beautiful multilingual chat widgets, reporting and analytics, third-party integrations through Zapier.
Paid plans give you access to more features like typing insights, visitor notes, saved replies, file sending, auto-invitations, and more.
Pricing: They offer a free plan and a Pro plan starting from $9.80 per agent / month.
SnapEngage offers live chat service to businesses of all sizes. It is a bit expensive than some other live chat companies on the list but offers some unique features and add-ons to justify the cost.
They offer integrations with popular CRM software, call back request, automated chat invitations, and customizable chat widgets to match your site.
SnapEngage also offers a SMS to Chat feature as an add-on service to their live chat software, so your visitors can directly communicate with your support team via text. Their OmniChannel chat solution allows you to help customers across different channels like Facebook, Twitter, SMS, WeChat, Zalo, and more.
Pricing: Their essentials plan starts from $16 per user / month, with minimum 3 users and it is billed annually with 7-day free trial.
Intercom is a flexible tool that helps you capture leads, engage users, and boost conversions. It offers messaging services with live chat widgets that you can automate with your own flows, add chatbots, and engage customers.
It is not just a live chat support software. It can be used as an onboarding tool, support assistant, lead generation tool, marketing automation, and user-engagement software.
If you are just looking for a live chat software, then you may not be able to utilize Intercom’s full potential. On the other hand, if you want your live chat support software to do all these tasks, then you’ll love Intercom.
It is easy to use, integrates with Google Analytics, CRM software, Slack, email marketing services, and more.
Pricing: Their essential plan starts from $136 / month, after which pricing is calculated based on your usage and add-ons you purchase.
Freshchat is another good live chat support service with awesome features that rival some of the more well-known companies on this list.
Designed to be a conversation and messenger app, it allows you to start real-time chats with customers using agents or AI-powered bots. It also offers customer timeline views, live profiles, in-app campaigns, and customizable bots for automated conversations.
You can connect chats to support tickets on Zendesk or on a slack channel. Your team can use smart plugs, canned responses, labels, private notes, and desktop notifications to be more productive.
Pricing: They offer a free live chat support service plan for up to 10 team members. Their paid plans start from $15 per user per month and are billed yearly.
LivePerson is another powerful live chat support software with tons of awesome features to help you engage customers and increase sales.
It allows you to engage your customers via live chat on your website but also through SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more. You can use chatbots to create automated conversation flows and save customer information in your other third-party apps.
LivePerson is targeted towards medium to large businesses and enterprise level clients.
Pricing: You will have to request a quote to get pricing information based on your needs.
Userlike is another neat live chat support software that you can use on your WordPress site. It is based in Germany and their servers are hosted in Europe. They offer GDPR compliant services, which makes them a particularly good option for businesses in the European Union.
Their software is beautifully designed offering a better experience not just for your users but also for chat agents. With a clean and clutter-free dashboard, your agents still have all the tools that you would expect from a professional live chat support service.
It offers beautiful chat widgets, chatbots, integrations with all top support, CRM, and email platforms. You also get meaningful analytics reports, which helps you improve performance and overall conversions.
Pricing: They offer free live chat support account for 1 user. Their paid plans start from €29 per month for 3 operators.
Smartsupp is a low-cost live chat support software that allows you to track and record user sessions on your website. This helps you see how potential customers use your website and what’s preventing them from making a purchase.
It also helps you track chat conversations in Google Analytics to see your performance. It works with WordPress, Magento, Shopify, and other popular eCommerce platforms.
Pricing: A basic free-forever plan and their paid plans start from $8 per month per agent.
If you are looking for a free live chat software, then Pure Chat is another good alternative. It allows you to easily add beautiful live chat widgets to your websites and the free plan allows you to add 3 operators with unlimited chat history.
It comes with mobile apps so that you can stay connected with customers. Your customers can send you email messages when you are offline and pre-chat form helps you collect user information to reach out later.
Pricing: A basic free plan, and their paid plan starts $79 / month billed annually.
Drift is a conversational marketing platform that combines the power of live chat with an automated chat bot to help you save time and increase conversions. It comes with powerful features to help you convert more website visitors into sales leads.
They offer several powerful features including Drift bot, anonymous visitor intelligence, account based marketing, scheduling for meetings, and more.
While it has a lot of powerful features, Drift is not affordable for small businesses.
Pricing: The Standard plan starts at $50 / month billed annually, and it comes with 2 seats. If you want the bot feature, then you will have to upgrade to the Pro plan which starts at $500 / month billed annually, and it comes with 5 seats.
Our Pick: Best Live Chat Software
For small businesses, we recommend LiveChat Inc. They’re the top rated live chat software in our list, and we use them on our business websites. It has all the necessary features for the right price.
If you’re looking for a complete platform and cost is not an issue, then we recommend that you look into Intercom.
If you’re looking to hire live chat agents, but not sure where to start, then we recommend using LTVPlus. We use them to hire affordable 24/7 live chat agents for our eCommerce website.
We hope this article helped you choose the best live chat support software for your WordPress site. You may also want to learn how to enable customer tracking in WooCommerce with Google Analytics.
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