Once you have designed the idea creating a WordPress website or blog, then you need best cloud hosting platforms to host your WordPress website. Though you have other options such as Premium WordPress hosting and Free WordPress hosting but cloud hosting has some additional benefits such as scalability, reliability and flexibility.

Features of Cloud Hosting Platforms

1. Cloud hosting has load balancing capability where traffic is distributed among different cloud web servers so that best performance can be optimized.

2. Cloud hosting has greater security where they deploy enhanced security measures such as DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service- it is a cybercrime in which the attacker floods a server with internet traffic to prevent users from accessing connected online services and sites) protection, web application firewall and malware scanner to protect your website.

3. Cloud hosting is capable to keep your website online all the time, when one server fails another server in the network acts as backup to keep your website active or online.

4. Cloud hosting is scalable means you can add or remove resources as per the need, it includes more RAM (Random Access Memory), more storage space for data storage and more secure.

5. Cloud hosting is a kind of managed cloud hosting solution which does not require any technical knowledge, the cloud hosting service provider will maintain the cloud servers and your site backup in the backend so you need not to worry about anything as beginner.

6. Cloud hosting services often includes Google Analytics integration, AI SEO tools and AI Copywriting tools as marketing integrations.

WordPress CMS (Content management system) has emerged as the preferred platform for website creation. Its flexibility and scalability make it a top choice for bloggers, businesses, and individuals looking to establish a web presence. However, choosing the right hosting service for your WordPress site can be a crucial decision. Among the various hosting options, cloud hosting stands out as a powerful and flexible solution. In this article, I’ll explore the best cloud hosting services for WordPress, you can check the cloud hosting platform websites, their offerings, prices etc. then make an informed decision to select the best perfect cloud hosting platforms as per your need.

Best Cloud Hosting Platforms

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Hosting

AWS is a giant in the cloud computing industry, offering reliable and scalable cloud hosting for WordPress. With AWS, you have the advantage of various services, including Amazon EC2 for virtual servers and Amazon RDS for databases.

2. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) For Hosting

GCP is known for its high-performance infrastructure. WordPress users can benefit from its Compute Engine for hosting and Cloud SQL for database management. Google’s network infrastructure ensures fast and secure hosting.

3. Microsoft Azure Cloud Hosting

MS Azure is a robust cloud platform offered by Microsoft. It provides dedicated WordPress solutions through Azure App Service. This makes it easy to deploy and manage WordPress websites while taking advantage of Azure’s reliability and scalability.

4. SiteGround Hosting

SiteGround cloud hosting services are known for their speed and top-notch customer support. They offer managed WordPress hosting, which means they take care of technical aspects like updates and security, so you can focus on your website’s content.

5. Bluehost Hosting

Bluehost offers cloud hosting that is optimized for WordPress. It’s an excellent choice for those looking for a balance between performance and affordability. They also provide 24/7 support for WordPress users.

6. HostGator Hosting

HostGator cloud hosting plans come with dedicated resources for WordPress sites. Their cloud infrastructure provides faster load times and enhanced scalability. They also offer a website builder to simplify the process.

7. DreamHost Hosting

DreamHost cloud hosting platform offers performance-optimized WordPress hosting. They focus on speed and reliability while also providing a range of features and resources to support your website’s growth.

8. Kinsta Hosting

Kinsta is a premium managed WordPress hosting provider that utilizes Google Cloud Platform. It’s known for its speed and cutting-edge technology. Kinsta’s hosting is fully optimized for WordPress, and they provide outstanding customer support.

9. InMotion Hosting

InMotion Hosting offers managed cloud hosting for WordPress, known for its speed and performance. Their plans include features like automatic backups and dedicated resources for your website.

10. Cloudways Hosting

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform that provides easy setup and scalability. You can choose from several cloud providers, including AWS, GCP, DigitalOcean, and more. They offer excellent speed and reliability.

Conclusion

When selecting a cloud hosting service for your WordPress site, consider your specific needs, including your budget, technical expertise, and the size of your website. Each of these providers offers unique features, and the best cloud hosting platform option will depend on your individual requirements. It’s advisable to review their offerings and potentially take advantage of free trials to determine which one aligns best with your goals. Remember, with the right cloud hosting service, your WordPress site can benefit from improved performance, security, and scalability.

Cloud hosting platform can provide the power and flexibility needed to ensure your WordPress site runs smoothly and efficiently. With the array of cloud hosting providers available today, you have numerous choices to find the one that suits your WordPress hosting needs best.

Remember that when choosing the best cloud hosting platform for WordPress, essentially you need to consider factors like your budget, technical skills, and the specific requirements of your website to determine which one is the best fit for your needs.

Image credit- Canva

If you are trying online earning methods and choose blogging as career but surrounded with questions how to create a blog in WordPress then in this article I’ll explain everything in detail to clear your doubts regarding blog or website creation process, content creation process and monetization process. I’ll also explain the security of website or your WordPress blog so that no one can login into your site in an unauthorized way as well as how you can maintain your blog or website in a long period of time.

Creating a successful blog or website in WordPress is an exciting endeavor that offers you the opportunity to share your passion, knowledge, and creativity with the world even working from home. Many people around the world are making their livelihood through the blogging only. WordPress, a user-friendly and highly customizable web-based content management system, is one of the most popular choices by bloggers worldwide.

In this comprehensive guide, I shall delve deep into the process how to create a blog in WordPress from start to end, providing you with a thorough understanding of each step and offering valuable insights to ensure your blog or website not only comes to life but thrives in the competitive digital landscape. I will explore everything from choosing your niche to advanced customization and promotion strategies. You can look into small business ideas and creative small business ideas to select your niche.

1. Finding Your Blog’s Purpose

Before you embark on your blogging journey and to find answer how to create a blog in WordPress, it’s crucial to define your blog’s purpose and target audiences. This clarity will shape your content and set the tone for your entire blog or website. Here are some key considerations to keep in mind when deciding the blog’s purpose-

A. Choosing Your Niche

A niche is the subject or topic that your blog or website will revolve around. It’s essential to choose a niche you are passionate about or have expertise in. Your passion will shine through in your writing and keep you motivated to consistently produce quality content.

B. Finding Your Expertise Area

You can write the content of your expertise area very effectively so finding your expertise is important. If, say for example, you are expert in taxation and law then you can guide your audience in that area very well and that will be your niche. You can write hundreds of articles in that area. So better to stick to one niche than multiple at the beginning.

C. Identifying Your Target Audience

Understanding your audience is vital for tailoring your content to their needs and interests. You should consider demographics, interests, and pain points of your potential readers where your content and motivation can benefit them. Accordingly you should give direction to your content writing strategy so that it serves the purpose mutually.

D. Crafting Your Blog’s Mission

Your blog’s mission statement should succinctly express its purpose and the value it provides to readers. It serves as a guiding light throughout your blogging journey.

2. Setting Up Your Blog

With a clear vision in mind, it’s time to bring your blog to life. This chapter covers the technical aspects of setting up your blog, including-

A. Choosing a Domain Name

Your domain name is your website or blog’s web address. It should be relevant to your niche, easy to remember, and unique. Your domain name should be related to your blog’s niche and organization and should be like anyone can remember easily. Ensure that the domain name you desire is available and register it through a domain registrar. Buying domain name is easy but choosing or selecting domain name needs little efforts.

B. Selecting Web Hosting

To make your website or blog accessible on the internet, you’ll need web hosting. Several hosting providers are WordPress-friendly and offer easy installation. Before choosing web hosting services provider, compare hosting options based on factors like price, speed, customer support, and scalability. You can choose the web hosting from Bluehost, SiteGround, HostGator, and many other.

Many Webmasters use free WordPress hosting options due to certain reason but premium WordPress hosting is more feature and security rich.

C. Installing WordPress

Most hosting providers offer one-click WordPress installation which is one of the best mostly used web-based CMS platform. Log in to your hosting account’s control panel, find the WordPress installer, and follow the prompts. You’ll create an admin username and password, which you’ll use to manage your WordPress site from the WordPress Hosting Controller.

3. Customizing Your Blog

You can customize your website or blog using different theme’s capabilities, it plays a significant role which attracts and retains readers. In this chapter, we explore customization options-

A. Choosing a Theme

WordPress offers a vast library of free and premium themes that control your blog’s appearance. Choosing WordPress theme for blog website is crucial task. Browse online for various premium WordPress themes, check their design, features, compatibility, and price etc.

You can see the design and layout of the competitors site related to your niche for the idea purposes. Then make an informed decision to choose the theme that aligns with your brand. Install and activate your chosen theme.

B. Personalizing Your Blog

Customize your blog’s identity by adjusting settings like the site title, tagline, colors, and fonts from the WordPress customizer. Incorporate your logo and header image to create a unique brand identity. You can follow tips to create killing logo online yourself.

4. Essential Plugins for Your Blog

WordPress plugins extend your WordPress blog’s functionality. They are small software tools to enhance features, functionality, SEO of your WordPress blog or website. There are plenty of custom based plugins developed by different developers and thousands of free WordPress plugins available in WordPress[dot]org. I’ll explore must-have plugins for optimal performance-

A. Yoast SEO and All in one SEO and various other SEO plugins

You can select any of the plugin that helps you optimize your blog’s SEO by providing valuable insights and recommendations for improving your content’s visibility in search engines. They provide on page SEO optimization recommendations you should follow to optimize your content.

B. Akismet Anti-Spam

Prevent comment spam with this essential plugin. It filters out spammed comments, keeping your blog’s comments section clean and user-friendly.

C. Jetpack

Jetpack offers a suite of useful tools, including site and visitors statistics, security features, and social media integration, enhancing your blog’s overall performance.

D. WP Super Cache

Improve your blog’s page load times and user experience with this caching plugin. Faster load times lead to better SEO rankings and increased reader satisfaction.

5. Creating Essential or Legal Pages

Certain pages are essential for any blog. They are also called Legal pages. I’ll guide you through creating them:

A. About Page

Introduce yourself and your blog’s mission. Readers appreciate knowing the person behind the blog and its purpose.

B. Contact Page

Provide a way for readers to get in touch with you. A contact form or email address ensures easy communication.

C. Privacy Policy and Disclaimer

Detail how you handle user data on your blog. This is crucial for compliance with data protection regulations and gaining your readers’ trust. If there is any disclaimer from your side then you should write that in the same page or you can create a Disclaimer page in your site.

6. Crafting Quality Content for Your Blog

Once your blog is set up, it’s time to start writing articles or content. Write informative, engaging, and well-structured blog posts. Incorporate relevant keywords to improve SEO. You can take help of free keywords research tools to find the keywords related to your niche. Don’t forget to add images and multimedia elements to make your content visually appealing.

Your blog’s success depends on the quality of your content. If the content is informative and continuously updated then it will help users and they will come back for next article.

I’ll delve into the art of creating engaging and informative blog posts-

A. Writing Engaging Content

Craft compelling headlines and introductions to capture your readers’ attention but compelling does not mean bogus headlines and content. If you start betraying your audience by producing unreal or exaggerated headlines and content then you will start loosing them in the long run and your brand value will diminish in some time. Use storytelling techniques to make your content relatable and enjoyable. You can incorporate creative writing into your blog and monetize it.

B. Incorporating SEO

Keywords play major role in search engine ranking, you should integrate relevant keywords into your article to improve its search engine visibility. Yoast SEO can assist you in optimizing each post.

You should apply different types of SEO in your blog whether it is On Page SEO for your articles, or Off Page SEO for your overall site to make it search engine optimized and discoverable. On page SEO will optimize your content and off page SEO will help getting backlinks from other sites.

C. Adding Visual Elements

You should enhance your content with images, infographics, and videos. Visual elements break up text and make your posts more appealing to the audiences. Till this section you have completed your journey of how to create a blog in WordPress, now comes promoting, monitoring, improving, monetizing and maintaining  your WordPress blog. I’ll explore these points in following sections.

7. Promoting Your Blog

Growing your blog’s audience requires active promotions in social media, online communities. I’ll explore various strategies-

A. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing your content means leverage social media platforms to share your content, engage with your audience, and build a loyal following. This will in turn increase your website traffic.

B. Blogging Communities

Participate in blogging communities and forums related to your niche. Networking with fellow bloggers can lead to collaboration opportunities and increased visibility.

C. Reader Engagement

You should respond to comments if any posted by the reader on your blog and try to engage with readers on social media. It helps readers that they are answered thus builds a sense of community & encourages readers to return.

D. Email Marketing

Email marketing practices is another tool to spread the awareness of your website or blog, if done properly then it brings good amount of visitors.

E. WhatsApp Marketing

WhatsApp marketing is yet another tool to spread awareness of your blog, it is web based App so sharing and accessing blog is easy in this mode of marketing.

8. Monitoring and Improving your Blog

Regularly assess your website or blog’s performance to refine your strategy, you can use Google Analytics tools to take help on user engagements-

A. Analytics Tools

Use SEO tools like Google Analytics tools to track your blog’s performance. Analyze data on popular posts, traffic sources, and reader behavior to make informed decisions. You can use SEO tools to increase overall performance of the site.

B. Content Strategy

Based on your analytics, adjust your content strategy. You should focus on creating more content related to your niche so it will resonates with your audience as well.

C. Consistency

Consistency is key to building a loyal readership. You should analyze your posting schedule that brings more audience to the website/blog and stick to a that schedule.

9. Monetizing Your Blog

While monetization is not the primary goal for all bloggers, many seek to generate income from their blogs. I’ll explore various monetization methods-

A. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a way to promote products or service of other company through your channel via blog, website or online content platform. This enables increase in sales and in return you get your commission based on number of purchases through the affiliate link mentioned in your blog content. You can choose the companies products or services aligned with your niche and earn a commission for each sale made through your affiliate links.

B. Display Ads

You can put Google AdSense codes in your site’s pages and decide where you want to show the display ads in your site or blog. This monetizes your blog when user clicks on the displayed ads. You earn revenue based on clicks or impressions, Google AdSense is the most prominent medium to monetize the site though there are many other ad networks your can try.

C. Sponsored Content

Collaborate with brands in your niche to create sponsored posts or reviews. Ensure that partnerships align with your blog’s values and audience.

10. Blog Maintenance and Growth

To ensure your website’s or blog’s long-term success, focus on these aspects:

A. Security

Regularly update WordPress CMS, themes, and plugins to protect your blog from security vulnerabilities. You should implement security plugins for added protection.

B. Backups

Implement regular backups of your blog’s content and settings to safeguard against data loss. You can use any FTP (file transfer protocol) tools such as Filezilla to take backup of your site regularly.

C. Scaling Up

As your blog grows, you might consider hiring writers, expanding your niche, or launching additional blogs.

By following these comprehensive steps, you’ll be well-equipped to create, manage, and grow a successful blog in WordPress and will find all your answers on how to create a blog in WordPress. This article covers a-z aspects about creating a blog in WordPress, go through all the links given in this article to get the broader idea. Remember that blogging is a journey, and consistent effort and learning are key to your continued success.

Image credit- Canva

Once you have setup WordPress theme in your website now comes to add essential free WordPress plugins in blog and website. WordPress is renowned for its versatility and user-friendliness, making it a popular choice for bloggers and website owners worldwide. One of the reasons behind its popularity is the vast library of plugins that enhance functionality and streamline various tasks.

Free WordPress plugins are the software components that are added in the WordPress CMS to enhance features and functionality of WordPress website or blog. They range from small tools to large scale extensions that also boosts on page SEO. There are around 50000 free plugins in WordPress[dot]org and thousands of custom plugins written by third party developers. Though they all can not be used in WordPress site but in this article I’ll explore a selection of must-have free WordPress plugins that can take your blog website to the next level.

1. Yoast SEO and All In One SEO

Yoast SEO, All In One SEO, and Rank Math SEO are all free WordPress plugins that optimize your blog for Search Engines, it is a comprehensive SEO plugin that helps improve your blog’s search engine rankings. It assists in optimizing on-page content, meta tags, and XML sitemaps, making it easier for search engines to understand and rank your content.

2. Akismet Anti-Spam

Akismet anti spam free WordPress plugin combats comment and contact form spam, It keeps spam comments and form submissions at bay which is crucial for a clean and user-friendly blog. Akismet automatically detects and filters out spam, ensuring that your blog’s comments section remains clutter-free.

3. Jetpack Free WordPress Plugins

Jetpack free WordPress plugin supercharges your website’s performance, it is a multifunctional plugin that offers a range of features, including website statistics, visitor statistics, downtime monitoring, security enhancements, and image optimization. It’s like having a Swiss Army knife for your WordPress site.

4. Wordfence Security Free WordPress Plugins

Wordfence Security plugin enhances your blog’s security, security is paramount for any website. Wordfence Security free WordPress plugin provides robust protection against malware, malicious attacks, and unauthorized logins. It also offers a firewall and login attempt monitoring.

5. UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin

UpdraftPlus safeguards your blog’s data, regular backups are a safety net for your blog. UpdraftPlus simplifies the backup process, allowing you to schedule automatic backups and store them in cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon S3.

6. W3 Total Cache Free WordPress Plugins

W3 Total Cache optimizes website speed, a fast-loading website is crucial for retaining visitors. W3 Total Cache is a free WordPress plugin that improves your blog’s performance by caching pages and reducing load times. This can lead to better user experiences and improved SEO rankings.

7. Smush – Lazy Load Images, Optimize & Compress Images

Smush is used to optimize images for faster loading, large image files can slow down your website. Smush optimizes and compresses images automatically, reducing their size without compromising quality. It also supports lazy loading for images, which enhances performance.

8. WPForms Lite Free WordPress Plugins

WPForms Lite is used to create user-friendly contact forms, building contact forms should be hassle-free. WPForms Lite is a user-friendly plugin that enables you to create custom forms with a drag-and-drop interface. It’s perfect for contact forms, surveys, and more.

9. Classic Editor

Classic Editor is used to retain the classic WordPress editing experience, if you prefer the classic WordPress editor over the block editor (Gutenberg), the Classic Editor plugin lets you revert to the familiar interface. It’s especially useful if you have an established workflow with the old editor.

10. Editorial Calendar Free WordPress Plugins

Editorial Calendar is used to manage your content, it gives you an overview of your blog and when each post will be published. You can drag and drop to move posts, edit posts right in the calendar, and manage your entire blog.

11. Social Icons Widgets and Block By WPZoom

Social Icons Widgets and Block By WPZoom is a free WordPress plugin which is used to add quickly social icons with links to your profiles from different social networks. It has several icon sets, which gives you the possibility to use the widget for more than just linking to your social media profiles.

12. Broken Link Checker Free WordPress Plugins

Broken link checker is used to find the broken links in your website at the super fast speed, it runs automatically in the background to check broken links in your site and it is limitless. Broken links kill your SEO, site health and user experience so it is a must use plugin in your WordPress site.

13. Easy Table of Contents and Tables of Content Plus

Easy table to contents and Tables of content plus are free WordPress plugins enables in your article to generate table of content based on the headings tags. The later one table of contents are similar to Wikipedia.

14. WP Super Cache Free WordPress Plugins

WP super cache is caching plugin which is used to generate static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. These static HTML files are used by plugins webserver to serve to users instead of processing the heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.

15. ShortPixel Image Optimizer

Shortpixel image optimizer is used to boost SEO by optimizing images and PDF documents. It compresses the images and PDF documents to serve them faster.

Apart from above free WordPress plugins, there is a short list of important plugins you can use in your WordPress blog if needed-

16. Contact Form 7: A versatile contact form plugin.

17. Elementor Page Builder: A powerful page builder with a live preview.

18. WooCommerce: Transforms your WordPress site into an online store.

19. Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin for WordPress by MonsterInsights: Integrates Google Analytics into your site.

20. Redirection: Helps manage URL redirects and 404 errors.

21. Regenerate Thumbnails: Regenerates image thumbnails when you change your theme.

22. WP-Optimize – Clean, Compress, Cache: Cleans up your database and optimizes performance.

23. Black Studio TinyMCE Widget: Adds a visual editor widget to your site.

24. TablePress: Allows you to create and manage tables easily.

25. Google XML Sitemaps: Generates a sitemap to improve SEO.

26. WP Mail SMTP by WPForms: Ensures reliable email delivery.

27. TinyMCE Advanced: Enhances the WordPress visual editor.

28. Loginizer: Enhances login security.

29. Limit Login Attempts Reloaded: Protects your site by limiting login attempts.

30. Post Type Switcher: Easily change post types.

31. Yoast Duplicate Post: Quickly clone posts and pages.

32. WP Security Audit Log: Keeps an audit trail of all changes and user activity.

33. WP Smush: Compresses and optimizes images for speed.

34. Really Simple SSL: Converts your site to HTTPS.

35. Disable Comments: Allows you to disable comments globally.

36. Disable XML-RPC Pingback: Enhances security by disabling XML-RPC pingback functionality.

37. WP Google Maps: Easily add Google Maps to your site.

38. Mailchimp for WooCommerce: Integrates WooCommerce with Mailchimp.

39. WP Fastest Cache: A caching plugin for speed optimization.

40. WP Sticky Sidebar (formerly “Q2W3 Fixed Widget for WordPress”): Keeps widgets in your sidebar visible as you scroll.

41. WP-PageNavi: Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your site.

42. WP User Avatar: Allows users to upload avatars.

43. EWWW Image Optimizer: Optimizes images for faster loading times.

44. WP Rollback: Easily roll back plugin and theme updates.

45. WP Video Lightbox: Adds responsive lightbox functionality to your videos.

46. Easy Google Fonts: Customize your site’s typography.

47. Widget Importer & Exporter: Import and export widgets between WordPress installations.

48. WordPress Popular Posts: Displays popular posts based on views or comments.

49. Code Snippets: Add custom code snippets without editing theme files.

50. Duplicate Page: Quickly duplicate pages and posts.

51. WP Statistics: Provides detailed statistics about your site’s traffic.

52. Insert Headers and Footers: Easily add code snippets to your site’s header or footer.

53. MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress: Integrates Mailchimp with your site.

54. WP Maintenance Mode: Displays a maintenance mode page to visitors.

55. WP Live Chat Support: Adds live chat functionality to your site.

56. WP-PostRatings: Allows visitors to rate your posts.

57. WP Multibyte Patch: Fixes issues with character encoding.

58. WP RSS Aggregator: Import RSS feeds as WordPress posts.

59. CM Tooltip Glossary: Adds a glossary of terms to your site.

60. MailPoet Newsletters (formerly “WYSIJA Newsletters”): Create newsletters and manage subscribers.

61. WP Google Search: Integrates Google Custom Search with your site.

62. Advanced Custom Fields: Customizes the WordPress edit screens with fields.

63. All In One WP Security & Firewall: Enhances your site’s security.

64. Login LockDown: Adds login attempt limiting and monitoring.

65. iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security): A comprehensive security plugin.

66. WP Accessibility: Improves accessibility of your site.

67. Content Views – Post Grid & List for WordPress: Creates beautiful post grids and lists.

68. WP Smush: Compresses and optimizes images.

69. EWWW Image Optimizer: Optimizes images for speed.

70. NextGEN Gallery: A popular gallery plugin.

71. Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode by SeedProd: Displays a coming soon or maintenance mode page.

72. Disable Comments: Allows you to disable comments.

73. Disqus Comment System: Integrates Disqus comments with your site.

74. User Switching: Allows administrators to switch between user accounts.

75. Adminimize: Simplifies the WordPress admin interface.

76. Easy WP SMTP: Configures your site to send emails via SMTP.

77. Breadcrumb NavXT: Adds breadcrumb navigation to your site.

78. Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening: Enhances site security.

79. Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) by BestWebSoft: Adds reCAPTCHA to your forms.

80. BulletProof Security: A security plugin with firewall protection.

81. Instagram Feed: Displays Instagram feeds on your site.

82. Contact Form by WPForms – Drag & Drop Form Builder for WordPress: A user-friendly form builder.

83. WPTouch Mobile Plugin: Creates a mobile-friendly version of your site.

84. WP-DB-Backup: Backs up your WordPress database.

85. Blog Designer: Customizes blog layouts.

86. Easy Testimonials: Adds testimonials to your site.

87. Gallery – Photo Gallery and Images Gallery: A feature-rich gallery plugin.

88. Shortcodes Ultimate: Adds a variety of shortcodes for content enhancement.

89. WP Simple Booking Calendar: Allows booking and reservations.

90. SEO Redirection Plugin: Manages URL redirects.

91. LiveChat: Adds live chat functionality.

93. Amazon Auto Links: Monetizes your site by automatically linking Amazon products.

94. WP User Frontend – Membership, Profile, Registration & Post Submission Plugin for WordPress: Allows user registration and front-end post submissions.

95. Redirection for Contact Form 7: Manages redirects for Contact Form 7 submissions.

96. WP Store Locator: Adds a store locator to your site.

97. NextGEN Gallery: A powerful gallery plugin for managing and displaying images.

98. Disable Comments: Allows you to disable comments globally on your site.

Webmasters around the world use Free WordPress hosting due to various reasons such as cost saving, learning & experiment on their temporary websites. While many webmasters opt for premium WordPress hosting services, there are scenarios where Free WordPress hosting might be the preferred choice.

Since WordPress is a web based content management system and is free to download from WordPress[dot]org under the GNU General Public License (GPL) which means not only you can download it freely but you also can edit and customize it for your use. If you want to create a Self Hosted WordPress Site from WordPress[dot]org (Once you downloaded the WordPress freely from here) then you need to pay some bucks for the web hosting and domain name purchase. You can also purchase premium themes and plugins if you want to give your site more advance look and features.

If you still suspicious to pay for the web hosting and domain names then you can create a free WordPress site from WordPress[dot]com.

Let’s explore why some webmasters choose this option-

1. Cost Savings Due To Free WordPress Hosting

One of the most apparent reasons is cost savings. Free WordPress hosting doesn’t require a monetary investment, making it an attractive option for individuals or organizations with tight budgets. This can be especially appealing to hobby bloggers, students, or small nonprofits.

2. Learning and Experimentation

For those who are new to website development and WordPress, free hosting provides a risk-free environment for learning and experimentation into their respective small niches. It allows users to practice without the pressure of financial commitments. This can be valuable for gaining hands-on experience.

3. Personal Projects

Individuals working on personal projects, such as family blogs, personal portfolios, or resume websites, might find that free WordPress hosting adequately meets their needs. It provides a platform to showcase their work or share personal experiences without incurring hosting expenses.

4. Temporary Websites

In some cases, webmasters require a website for a short duration. This could be for events, conferences, or temporary promotions. Free hosting can serve as a convenient solution for creating these short-lived websites without the need for a long-term hosting plan.

5. Limited Resource Requirements

Certain websites have minimal resource demands. If a website receives low traffic, contains only a few pages, or relies primarily on text content, free hosting can provide sufficient resources to keep it online without performance issues.

6. Testing and Prototyping

Webmasters who want to test website ideas or create prototypes often use free hosting as a starting point. Once the concept is validated and ready for a broader audience, they can consider migrating to a paid hosting service for enhanced features and performance.

7. Portfolio Building On Free WordPress Hosting

Aspiring web designers or developers may use free hosting to build a portfolio of their work. This portfolio can showcase their skills to potential clients or employers, acting as a stepping stone to more extensive projects.

8. Ad-supported Hosting

Some free WordPress hosting providers offer their services in exchange for displaying ads on hosted websites. While this can be a trade-off, it allows webmasters to access hosting without direct costs. However, the presence of ads may impact the website’s aesthetics and user experience.

9. Local Development On Free WordPress Hosting

Free hosting can also serve as a staging environment for local development projects. Webmasters can build and test their websites on free hosting platforms before deploying them to a paid hosting service or live server.

10. Geographic Restrictions

In some regions, premium hosting services may not be easily accessible due to payment or currency restrictions. Free hosting can be a viable alternative for webmasters in such areas.

While free WordPress hosting has its advantages, it’s essential to note its limitations. Free hosting services often come with restrictions on storage, bandwidth, customization, and may lack the support and security features of premium plans. Additionally, websites hosted for free may have subdomains or display ads, which can affect branding and user experience.

Ultimately, the choice between free and paid WordPress hosting depends on individual needs, goals, and budget constraints. Webmasters should carefully evaluate their requirements and the features offered by hosting providers to determine the best solution for their specific projects.

WordPress is the most popular blogging and publishing platform in the world today. WordPress also powers a great number of websites including corporate solutions and personal websites. This has also pushed the demand for plugins (which power up websites) go up. Developers are now spending sleepless nights trying to develop plugins to help WordPress users easily run their websites. This article has ten tips to help plugin developers with their plugin developing tasks. Whether you are a newbie or guru, these tips are beneficial to all plugin developers.

>>> 100+ Small Business Ideas With Really Less Investment

1. Use Ubiquity Firefox add-on to speed up development

This is a cutting edge add-on for Firefox and was developed by Mozilla Labs. Ubiquity allows plugin developers to instantly search WordPress and PHP documentation in an instant using PHP Search and WP Codex Search plugins. This add-on also has several creative ideas that can help developers transform their creativity into WordPress development.

2. Need a plugin idea? Use the official Ideas forum

Developing new plugins is just as important as creating new WordPress themes. Many developers find themselves in a funny predicament where they run out on new plugin ideas. This happens all the time. The best place to come up with new ideas is through the WordPress forum. There are thousands of new plugin ideas every time and you can miss one. Through the forum, many developers who ran out of ideas are now refreshed from new ideas from the WordPress community.

3. Use the WordPress Plugin Directory

The WordPress Plugin Directory is a haven for many new apps. Hosting your apps at WordPress Directory has several benefits including:

• • Free hosting bandwidth
  • You can manage your plugin versions though SVN repository
  • Free download statistics
  • Free plugin promos

Setting up a WordPress directory doesn’t take more than an hour. The Developer Center gives you detailed instructions while doing WordPress Plugin development.

4. Invest in proper readme.txt file

Any plugin distribution should have a readme.txt file. Investing in one is a time well spent and the results will be worth it in the long run. One benefit of readme.txt is that the plugin will have more downloads since users want to download plugins with installation instructions, good descriptions, and screenshots. Another advantage that is not so obvious is that once a WordPress plugin becomes popular, it will get lots of support questions that a developer may not handle. A good readme.txt will help you with that. The standard readme.txt provided by WordPress gives you a good base to build your own on.

>>> 19 best methods to earn money online with less investment

5. Promote Your Plugin

Whenever you are done developing a WordPress plugin you expect maximum exposure and download. You can follow the following steps to achieve this.

• • Go to the WordPress Plugins and Hacks forums
  • Create a new topic
  • Have a simple, informative template describing your plugin release: Plugin Name: Insights
  • Visit the Weblog Tools Collection forum and also create a topic there using the same template. After the team reviews the topic, the plugin will be added to their regular plugin news post that appears on the dashboard of every WordPress user.
  • Add it to wp-plugins.net
  • Announce it on your blog

6. Enhance plugin security by using the nonce

Nonce is a number used once as an effective way of secure your plugin against a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) hacking attack. Fortunately, its implementation takes a few minutes. For starters, you can check out WordPress documentation, for examples of implementation.

7. Mind your database queries

Ensure you utilize functions provided by WordPress to create database queries and insert/update information.

These functions are $wpdb->prepare (), $wpdb->insert () and $wpdb->update (). You will be guaranteed that your queries are properly escaped.

8. Don’t forget the optimization

To avoid your WordPress plugins being a resource hog, you need to localize the usage of resources by loading them only when needed. This is done through code. Therefore, you need to have some coding skills or you may ask another developer to help you with it. On this, you also need to pay attention to load JavaScript files only when needed.

9. Properly load JavaScript with WP_enqueue_script

For external JavaScript files, you can invoke these using wp_enqueue_script () function. For passing variables to your JavaScript from your plugin, use wp_localize_script () function. Besides making it easier to handle and change, it also ensures future maximum compatibility for your plugin.

10. How to handle freelance work

To start getting Freelance work, create a couple of free plugins and publish them in the WordPress directory for self-promotion. Before you know it, you will be approached with parties interested in custom development. If such happens, don’t be shy to ask for an upfront payment. This shows a level of professionalism and that you mean business. If there are no disagreements, it also shows that they mean business. Honesty and consistency are the main ingredients of the professional WordPress plugin developer.

Conclusion 

There you are a huge market of WordPress plugins and as a WordPress developer; you shouldn’t sleep hungry with so much potential. Follow these simple tips and you will surely benefit from your WordPress plugin development services. This is one career that is not fully explored simply because developers are afraid to enter into the murky water of plugin development. If you have confidence in yourself, take the competition head-on and you will have nothing to lose and much to gain.

Image credit- Canva

When trying to manage your website for any reason, the first thing to work on is subject of topic, site or genre addressed primarily by your site. It can either be a blog topic or an online site to exhibit artwork. It can even be your much awaited commercial site. Depending on the type of work done on this site, the design must match.

There are so many themes, which you might have to choose based on CMS platform you have selected.  In this modern world, most people opt for promotion through the field of the digitalized channel. So, with the influence, social media has on people and their daily lives, you need to provide some attention to aesthetic and design of the website.

A simple form of web presence isn’t enough to attract traffic to the site. Apart from content and design, there are multiple search engine based parameters, which the site needs to have. It helps make the site rather visible whenever people are generally searching for services and products.

Introducing social media along with websites

The current periods have generally witnessed a surplus of people, spending a whole lot of time running through multiple social media platforms. There are so many forms of media platforms available like Instagram, FB, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and more. These are some of the popular choices among people these days.

In case, you are planning for ways to ensure that work is made visible to the entire world, the social media source is the best choice you could have asked for. You can always get along with people, willing to be interested in your said work and promoting the same work through various platforms.

Right now, the craze is with Instagram, which helps websites of multiple genres to focus on images primarily and trying to design website, mimicking design and working on Instagram. There are some specified advantages associated with Instagram as below-

1. A familiar form of platform for the majority of viewers

With over 800 million active users on Instagram, you can easily state that people are quite comfortable on IG platform. They are also thoroughly enjoying it well. If you are planning to create a website which might grab the attention of viewers by content and design, and focusing mainly on images, then IG is the most preferred choice you can ask for.

• Whenever viewers plan to visit an online site and finding it user effective due to IG practice, they are going to get addicted to site’s concept easily and will keep on surfing it for more details.
• This is exactly what you need to deal with for ensuring that the website receives a proper boost in traffic.
• The main focus is on the ways, the site works to hold the attention of viewers so that they will keep coming back for more and will check through the content that you are providing them with.

It is no doubt to state that the WP website will look rather catchy with the help of an Instagram styled base theme. WordPress CMS is one such platform, offering such IG designed themes to users easily and on time.

In case, the website seems to be imaged based like photography blogging content, Instagram web theme is the way you should work on. It helps in displaying the pictures you need and in the most sophisticated manner. It works more like Instagram, which helps accompanying images with hashtags and proper caption, which in turn will help viewers find it easily.

• These platforms will have designs, perfect for procuring more traffic from those, addicted to IG.
• For ensuring that content is of a high standard to hold attention, you need to create impact and get more traffic for boosting SEO of the website.
• It is vital to ensure that your site can be monetized to earn even more than usual.
• Moreover, you need to gain some prospective clients, who are otherwise interested in products when impressed by images you are primarily sharing.

Therefore, it is always mandatory to pay some real attention while designing your online site. It helps you to gain some traffic, designed for your proficient business growth.

You are cordially invited to create a business based Instagram profile to bring some more traffic home. It will gladly ensure that your site is promoted. IG account has to be promoted for gaining significant followers. It further ensures that the website is getting the major boost it actually needs.

• If you are looking for that accurate plan to gain more traffic, then some promotions might work your work.
• There are so many forms of social media platforms, which anyone can use. They will also have the accurate potential to become the primary solution to ensure that the online site can reach millions of new users through some specified keywords only.
• Strategists globally see multiple social media platforms as primary choices for managing your current promotional needs. They further come handy with some innovative and new ways to tap resources of platforms.

So, the next time you are planning to create a website, which is made reachable by users, trying to head down for the social media platforms can prove to be a great way to promote the same.

Now for the concluding note

The market has so many types of social media platforms, designed to showcase items and procure legitimate traffic. In case, you are planning to create a website for content, then IG based theme design is a perfect way to try your hands on. It definitely ensures more viewers to your website or online site. It helps in ensuring that your current website looks catchy and attractive to viewers, making them come back for second and more rounds.

Image credit- Canva