One of the reasons SiteGround is my go-to web host for shared hosting of WordPress websites is it’s staging sites feature. However, not every site I work on is hosted on SiteGround or another web host that offers staging. Therefore I was very happy to discover yesterday — way later than I would have liked — a WordPress staging site plugin that has a lot of promise.
Plugins
WordPress Free Booking Plugins Face-Off: Amelia Lite vs. Simply Schedule Appointments
I recently evaluated and compared two free WordPress booking plugins: Amelia Lite (Booking for Appointments and Events Calendar – Amelia); and Simply Schedule Appointments (Appointment Booking Calendar — Simply Schedule Appointments Booking Plugin). Read on for the results of this face-off.
How to Build Stunning WordPress Photo Galleries Quickly and Easily With FooGallery PRO
Photo (image) galleries are common and popular elements for many Web sites; for some, they’re downright essential. In this article I focus on how FooGallery PRO allows you to create galleries quickly and easily using “Media Tags” as the datasource for a gallery.
I’ve been using and liking the free version of FooGallery for years. Working on several client Web sites with multiple image galleries, I looked for more efficient ways to create and maintain those galleries. The datasource feature of FooGallery PRO is a game-changer. Read on for an explanation of how this works, with detailed instructions and screen captures.
Strong Testimonials – Problem with v2.40.2
Warning! Strong Testimonials is my go-to WordPress plugin for displaying testimonials. I use it on my own site and on many client sites. Today, after updating WordPress to version 5.4 — and updating Strong Testimonials from 2.40.1 to 2.40.2 — on one of those sites, the WordPress dashboard crashed. The error message: By downgrading back […]
I Built a WordPress Plugin for Downloadable Files
If you’ve ever embedded a PDF file or other downloadable file in WordPress posts or pages using the standard “Add Media” button, you probably know what a pain it can be if and when — but most likely when — that file needs to be updated.
You can’t just upload the newly updated file to the Media Library and expect “voila” to happen.
Even if the updated file has the same filename as the original, WordPress will rename it on upload rather than replace the old one with the new one. (I’ve tried a plugin that offers this replacement functionality, but it wasn’t user-friendly and fell short in other ways.)
So I made my own plugin.
How to Reuse Content in WordPress with the amr shortcode any widget Plugin
Whenever you’ve entered identical content in more than one place in your WordPress Web site, have you wished there was a better way? Well, there is. In fact, there’s a plugin for that: the amr shortcode any widget WordPress plugin. This has become a standard plugin for all of the sites I build. Read this post to find out why and how it’s used.
Help Your Blog Readers Find What They’re Looking For with the Search & Filter Plugin
This article shows how to use a simple, lightweight plugin — one I installed long ago, deactivated because I hadn’t followed directections, and forgot about — to filter blog posts and make it easier for you Web visitors to find what they’re looking for in your blog. After all, making our visitors’ experiences better is what it’s all about.
Offer Live Chat for Enhanced Customer Engagement and Sales
Live Chat is here to stay, and smart businesses everywhere and in every industry are using it to provide the immediate personal touch that their prospects and customers long for. In this blog post, I discuss the Live Chat software I’m currently using (Tawk.to) and offer some reasons you ought to consider going “Live Chat” as soon as possible.
Enhanced Media Library Pro Plugin for WordPress: First Look
While building a WordPress powered e-commerce website for a bridal shop that could have thousands of images to manage, I quickly realized we’d need a much better way to manage images than navigating through hundreds of Media Library screens — especially considering the very limited functionality of the native WordPress Media Library.
I considered several solutions before remembering that I had used the Enhanced Medial Library plugin (free version) on another client site. This is a first look at Enhanced Medial Library Pro (although I suppose it’s also a first look at the free version).
Spoiler alert: For a one-time payment of $25 for unlimited lifetime updates for unlimited sites, you might not have to read past this summary.
(But please do.)
Responsive Lightbox by dFactory: Make it Work with FooGallery
This is a repurposing of an earlier blog article, First Look at Foo Gallery. I wanted to make it easy for people to find this solutions for making FooGallery and Responsive Lightbox by dFactory work together.