Growing your WordPress blog isn’t easy.
There are so many things you need to do – create content, promote that content, manage comments, grow your email list and more.
That is why you should try and take every opportunity to automate things and reduce your workload. But how exactly can you do that?
In this article, I’ll share 6 themes, plugins, and tools that helped me to run my own WordPress blog more efficiently, and to grow it faster!
Have you ever heard that content is king? Well, that’s not entirely true. Of course, quality content matters, and you won’t get far without it. However, the truth is that design matters just as much, if not more. How so? Well, if your design sucks, you won’t be able to keep your visitors on the site long enough for them to read your content!
There was a time when a static site was enough to impress people… And that time is long gone! Nowadays, your visitors expect dynamic design, and if you are unable to provide it, they might get bored and quickly leave your site. So how can you add more motion to your WordPress website?
One option is adding a slider to your homepage – it will immediately liven things up! And don’t worry, you don’t need to hire an expensive developer or a web designer. With Smart Slider 3, you can add a WordPress slider to your website yourself!
You will probably need forms for your website (think contact forms, order forms, surveys, etc.). But what if you don’t have any development skills yourself and can’t afford to hire a developer?
Don’t worry, CaptainForm will always come to the rescue. It’s a WordPress plugin that allows you to create beautiful online forms. No coding skills needed!
Okay, so the first thing you’ll need if you want to have a WordPress blog is hosting, and this can be a difficult choice to make since there are so many options out there.
Hostinger is a reliable hosting provider that offers extremely affordable plans. Their cheapest plan costs only $2.15/month, meanwhile their business web option is only $7.95/month. Crazy, right?
Also, they offer WordPress tutorials for those who are new to it. These tutorials will help you with anything from installing WordPress to finding best free WordPress themes to creating your own WordPress theme using HTML5.
Do you remember all those games websites that you used to play? Well, would you like to own a similar site, and make money with it? You can do it by becoming iGaming affiliate. There’s a lot of potential in this niche – everyone wants to win, after all!
It’s actually much less complicated than you might think. It’s especially easy with VegasHero.co – WordPress Affiliate themes & plugins. With VegasHero you can import up to 1800+ demo games and manage your gambling affiliate website with ease. You can do all that yourself with a click of a button!
You are probably planning to sell products or services on your website, aren’t you? Well, for that you’ll need a method for accepting payments, and Stripe is an excellent option. But how can you easily integrate it into a WordPress blog?
Easy. Stripe Payments is a great payment plugin that allows you to use a simple shortcode to put “Buy Now” buttons anywhere on your site. Plus, with this plugin, you can also accept donations via Stripe!
Do you get a lot of questions from your customers? Maybe you even have someone working in a customer support role? Well, then you know that you can’t just keep answering the same questions over and over again. Time is money! But how can you reduce the load of inquiries you get without reducing your customer service standards?
The solution to this problem is adding a frequently asked questions section to your website and providing a knowledge database for your customers. That way, when they have a question, they can go through the already answered questions first, and only contact you if they didn’t find an answer there. HeroThemes is the perfect choice for this. Need a knowledge database? Just use their KnowAll Knowledge Base Theme. It’s simple, it’s reliable, and it’s affordable!
Conclusion
You have to be wise and make smart decisions if you want your business to thrive. Where you host your website, how your website looks, how you handle payments, all of it matters. Moreover, you should keep a close eye on outgoing expenses, because if you keep hiring developers and designers for every silly little thing, the costs will add up real quick. My best advice? Use the tools that I recommended. They will save you a lot of time, money, and headache in the long run!