Unfortunately, in these turbulent times, travel is limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is better to stay safe at home at the moment. However, an alternative to physical travel can be to start a WordPress travel blog and thus discover the world but differently.

Those of you who use WordPress know that it is not easy to find a suitable theme because there are tons of themes available, both free and premium themes from all WordPress themes providers.

However, I decided to create a WordPress travel blog with a randomly selected free WordPress theme.  In the WordPress theme repository, I searched for “travel,” and I came up with lots of attractive WordPress travel themes.

I just picked a random theme, and it turned out as Blossom Travel, a free WordPress travel blog theme from Blossom Themes which offers both free and premium WordPress themes.

So I rolled up my shirt sleeves and started my little project. Let’s see how I proceeded and how the result turned out.

How to Create a WordPress Travel Blog With the Blossom Travel Theme

Installation – Blossom Travel and Required Plugins

When it comes to installing Blossom Travel, it is the same principle as with all other WordPress themes.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to the Appearance tab in the menu on the right, click on the Themes tab. Add New, enter Blossom Travel in the search field. Click Install and finally Activate. You have now installed and activated the Blossom Travel theme.

If you want to download the theme for some reason, you can do it from the WordPress theme repository here.

If you want more information about installing the Blossom Travel, read the documentation – How to Install Blossom Travel Free WordPress Theme?

Furthermore – You are greeted with – Congratulations! Blossom Travel is now installed and ready to use. You can choose to read the theme documentation. See which plugins to install and other details by clicking on the button – Go to the Getting Started.

(Note -I advise you to read through manuals, guides, videos and more before you start using any theme or plugin).

The Getting started with Blossom Travel page is well organized. You find everything you need to get started with Blossom Travel under the tabs Recommended Plugins, Getting Started, FAQ’s & Support, Useful Plugins, Free Vs. Pro. You also have the opportunity to upgrade to the Pro version by Blossom Travel.

As you saw in the first picture – Congratulations! – Blossom Travel is now installed and ready to use.  There are several WordPress plugins recommended for use with the Blossom Travel theme. So click the link – Begin installing plugins.

It takes you to the installation page of the required plugins. Select all the plugins in the tickbox, select Install, and click Apply. Wait, soon, you see that the plugins are installed successfully. Click – All installations have been completed. Select all the plugins, select Activate and Apply.

Shortly you see – The following plugins were successfully activated. BlossomThemes Email Newsletter, BlossomThemes Social Feed, BlossomThemes Toolkit, Contact Form 7, HTML5 Maps, Regenerate Thumbnails, and WooCommerce.

The installation of Blossom Travel and required plugins are complete. The installation of Blossom Travel and required plugins.

(Note – You do not need to install all the plugins unless you need them. Maybe not all users have use for, e.g., WooCommerce used for online shops).

I recommend you take a look at the settings and options for each plugin you have just installed. You find the settings to the left in the menu as you can see in the image above.

You can make your settings for, for example, connect your Instagram account, create a new Newsletter, HTML5 Maps, configure WooCommerce now or wait until later; the choice is yours.

(Note – I looked through all the plugins settings but chose to configure them later.)

Let’s continue and take a closer look at the theme itself.

Blossom Travel Theme Settings

If we look at the front page of my blog when I installed Blossom Travel, it doesn’t look very attractive (yet). However, it is just a first glance with basic settings, and we haven’t started with the customizations (yet). But let’s roll up the sleeves and get started with some customization.

As you have probably noticed by now, there is no theme options or theme options panel. You make all the customizations via the Live Customizer. All changes and configurations are in real-time.

To start the Customizer, you can do so via the menu on the left under Appearance – Customize. Or if you are on the front page of your website, you will find a Customize link in the left corner. Click any of the options to launch the Customizer.

If you have installed WordPress themes lately, you are probably familiar with the Customizer. It is where all the fun happens! Let’s take at walk-trough on what tabs and content are available in the Blossom Travel theme (free version).

• Pro Available – If you wish, you can update the Blossom Travel to a Pro version.
• Demo and Documentation – The title is pretty self-explanatory. Under this tab, you find links to demo, documentation, and video about this theme.
• Site Identity – Under this tab, you can upload a logo, add site title, add a catchy tagline, and a site icon.
• Appearance settings – You can choose the primary and secondary font, add a background image, and customize colors.
• Layout Settings – Through this tab, you can select which header layout you want to use. There are two options to choose from. Furthermore, select page sidebar layout, post sidebar layout, and default sidebar layout.

• Banner Settings – Choose static image or video banner. It is also possible to add an eye-catching header video.
• Front Page Settings – This is a tab where you can add which sections you want to use on the front page. For example, there are – Client Logo, About, Featured, Blog, Map, Call To Action, Newsletter, Instagram sections that you add as widgets. Here you can create an attractive and informative front page.
• General Settings. Under the General Settings tab, you can customize Header settings, background image, Social media, SEO, and Posts (blog) and pages settings.

• Menus – Create or add a menu. In the free version, only one menu location is available.
• Widgets – Here, you can add optional widgets with different features in the Sidebar, and in the Footer.
• Homepage Settings – Choose whether you want to display your latest posts or a static page.
• Footer Settings – Here you can add a Footer copyright text such as © Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved WP Pluginsify. You can also use HTML text to add links.
• WooCommerce – For those who want to use WooCommerce to sell items, services, anything else can edit the settings for Store notice, Product Catalog, Product images, Checkout, and more.

• Additional CSS – If you feel brave or have knowledge of CSS can add custom CSS code.

Blossom Travel Customization

My intension is to create an excellent travel blog with Blossom Travel. Since my installation is clean, I need to create everything from scratch, such as customization of the design, blog posts, pages, and finally a shop, to have something to present.

Categories – The first thing I do is create some categories with beautiful countries around our world.

Furthermore, I created some blog posts and pages with suitable images from Pixabay and Unsplash that provide free images you can use for your websites.

The pages I created are the following About us and a Contact page using the Contact Form 7 plugin that I initially installed.

Menu – Time to create a menu that is a navigation bar for visitors. You can create menus via the Customizer or the dashboard, Appearance – Menus. I choose to create my menu via the customizer you see in the picture below.

Create and add the categories, pages, and more you want to present on the menu as a navigation to your visitors.

Moreover, I also added a new Header image perfect for a vacation trip. Furthermore, I changed the website colors via the customizer to suit my taste.

I also went through all the tabs in the customizer and made small adjustments where needed. It is a flexible theme with many configuration options so it might take a while!

Take a look at how my WordPress travel blog named Planet Wayfarer turned out below. As I mentioned before, I wanted to create a travel website with a clean look and feel. I am more than happy with the result. What do you think?

Setting Up the Shop

My idea is also to set up an online shop using the WooCommerce plugin, which I initially installed.

Before we go any further, I want to point out that my shop will be installed with minimal features.

Furthermore, I recommend you read on how to set up a shop in Woocommerce. There are many tutorials available, but this guide – How to Set Up a New WooCommerce Store from WooCommerce works great to get you started.

First, I need a specific page on which my shop should be located. So I create a new empty page called – Shop. Then I need to point out which page I should use for the shop in WooCommerce. Go to WooCommerce – Settings – Products – point out your shop page and save.

Let’s take a look at what my shop currently looks like.

As you can see, my shop looks pretty empty at the moment. So I need some products to present to visitors. Since it is a travel website, I will recommend and offer travel books.

I’m adding some products via the WooCommerce – Products – Add New tab in my dashboard.

When ready, my shop looks like this.

Minimalistic, however, I like the look and feel.

I set up the shop with the simplest means, and you can, of course, use all the great features in WooCommer as payment, shipping, and more if needed.

In Conclusion

I’m done building my WordPress travel blog even though you can choose to customize the theme much more. There are many features, options, and custom widgets available.

However, because I like the minimalist style, I chose a clean design, but you can style your site according to your liking and needs.

I am very happy with the design and layout of my travel blog.

Blossom Travel is a flexible WordPress theme from Blossom Themes and it comes with various opportunities to create a pleasant and attractive travel website. However, you can easily use the theme for any kind of blog.

The final word is that I like the Blossom Travel theme very much. It is easy to build an attractive website with a great look and feel.

If you want additional features and support, there is also a premium version available – Blossom Travel Pro.

Good luck with building your new travel website with the Blossom Travel WordPress theme.

Disclosure: We sometimes use affiliate links in our content. Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission. It helps our website keep on running and helps us to offset the cost of our writing team. Thanks for your support.

The post How to Create a WordPress Travel Blog With the Blossom Travel Theme appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

E-commerce and online shopping have increased significantly in recent years. There are currently between 12M to 24M e-commerce sites in the world, and people are shopping more and more online. Furthermore, the fastest growth in retail e-commerce until 2022 is expected to be India.

It is estimated that in 2021 there will be 2.1 billion digital buyers worldwide, compared with 1.66 billion in 2016. It is a significant difference.

For instance, a big part of the success of the increase of e-commerce online stores is that it is so much more comfortable than before to set up your shop. It is also easier and more reliable to shop from online stores nowadays.

WooCommerce is one of the best solutions for all WordPress users in setting up a shop and selling products or services. WooCommerce is a free open-source e-commerce plugin and is used by millions and powers over 28% of all online stores.

WooCommerce itself can be expanded using plugins specifically designed for that. Two such plugins are:

WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping – a plugin for creating and implementing advanced shipping rules, even those that apply to logged-in users only.

WooCommerce Order Export – a plugin for exporting WooCommerce order data quickly, automatically, or even on a schedule.

In today’s article, I have put together a list of the ten best free WooCommerce WordPress themes that will expectedly facilitate your choice of themes.

Best Free WooCommerce WordPress Themes 2020

Let us have a look at my selections of the best free WooCommerce WordPress themes 2020.

Astra

Astra is a multipurpose WordPress theme created by Brainstorm Force. It is a theme that suits most website niches whether you run a blog, business, portfolio or online shop. However, if you consider starting a WooCommerce shop, Astra may be one of the best theme alternatives available.

Astra is a very popular WordPress theme with over 700 000+ active installations from the WordPress theme repository. Furthermore, it has over 3,500 five stars reviews which means that users are highly satisfied with Astra.

It is a very flexible theme and you can easily customize everything such as layout, header, colors, typography and much more. Moreover, it is a blazing fast theme which is valued by search engines like Google to rank higher.

Astra is also the perfect theme for any e-commerce and WooCommerce online business. It is an easy-to-install theme. Follow all instructions and your site is up and running within minutes.

Furthermore, you can choose between the page builders Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi or any other page builder you like. For a quick start, you can choose any of the many starter templates available. I picked Elementor and the Brandstore template which turned out to be a perfect choice. My shop looked awesome.

With its inbuilt integration for WooCommerce and all Astra WooCommerce features make this theme one of the best free ecommerce themes available. However, with Astra Pro, you get even more powerful customization options and many more features.

The key features of Astra:

• WooCommerce integrated.
• Pre-Built starter templates.
• Optimized for mobile sales.
• Conversion ready checkout.
• Code-Free customizations.

Astra is a must-have theme if you want to start an online shop using WooCommerce. It is a feature-rich theme and with Astras WooCommerce features and integration to help you to increase sales and convert better.

Get Astra and boost your store’s sales.

Almaira Shop

Almaira Shop is an engaging eCommerce theme from the WordPress theme shop ThemeHunk. With this theme, you can build a perfect eCommerce online shop to retail products such as fashion, clothing, electronics, or other products, depending on which niche you are into. Almaira Shop is suitable for all kind of online business.

It is a theme with various opportunities to create an attractive online shop. The theme comes with three elegant layouts to choose from. It is also easy to install and get started with the Almaira Shop. Just follow the steps in the – Get started with Almaira Shop from your dashboard.

The key features of Almaira Shop:

• Hero slider section.
• Home shop filter section.
• Product filter section.
• Dropdown cart, and Quick view feature.
• Distraction-free checkout.

Almaira Shop is a flexible and powerful free theme with surprisingly many features included. Furthermore, you can upgrade to the Pro version of Almaira Shop if you want additional features and support.

Orchid Store

Orchid Store is an attractive free WooCommerce WordPress theme from themebeez. It is a popular theme with over 7,000+ active installations from the WordPress theme repository. Orchid Store is a very flexible theme suitable for all kinds of online shops selling products.

With Orchid Store, like so many other e-commerce themes, you need to activate a static front page. However, follow the theme documentation, and you are just fine. Furthermore, the theme comes with three beautiful pre-built demos that you can import to get started with your shop even faster.

Key features of Orchid Store:

• WooCommerce support.
• Elementor compatible.
• WooCommerce featured categories widget.
• Three variations of the WooCommerce product widget.
• Megamenu at primary navigation.

Furthermore, Orchid Store is a theme packed with excellent features and opportunities to create an all-embracing online webshop—also a big plus for all the configuration options via the live Customizer. If you lack features? It is possible to upgrade to Orchid Store Pro.

NewStore

NewStore is a free and modern WordPress theme from the ThemeFarmer shop available for Woocommerce. When you install the theme, follow the recommendations, and install the necessary plugin. Also, set up a Home and a Blog page, and you are ready to start.

Import any of the five available demos to get a head start. Or, if you want, you can build your shop with the Elementor plugin. I imported a pre-built demo—everything up and running smoothly in minutes.

When your shop is up and operating, you can fine-tune everything, such as frontpage options, via the live Customizer.

Key features of NewStore:

• WooCommerce support.
• Elementor page builder support.
• Live Customizer.
• Five selectable pre-built demos.
• Responsive design.

Overall, I think NewStore is an excellent WordPress theme for establishing a WooCommerce online shop. Just make sure you follow the recommendations and read the documentation; it facilitates and saves time.

Furthermore, it is also possible to upgrade to a pro version of NewStore here.

Envo Storefront

Envo Storefront is a free and fast WooCommerce WordPress theme from EnvoThemes. If you are considering setting up or starting an online store, the theme Envo Storefront may come in handy.

It is a theme created to integrate perfectly with the WooCommerce plugin, and page builder plugins such as Elementor, Beaver Builder, SiteOrigin, Brizy, Divi, to name a few of the best builder plugins.

Furthermore, Envo Storefront is a WooCommerce theme optimized for speed to boost and increase your SEO results. Although the Envo Storefront is a free theme, the free version comes with many excellent features.

Key features of Envo Storefront.

• WooCommerce support.
• Page builders support.
• Speed optimized.
• Responsive design.
• Demo import.

Envo Storefront is a creative WooCommerce based theme perfect for any online store. If you want additional features and support, you may be able to upgrade to a premium version of the Envo Storefront theme.

ShoppingCart

Shopping Cart is a creative and appealing theme by Theme Freesia. It is specially created for ecommerce and online stores. The design and layout are structured and spacious and presents products in the best way.

Shopping Cart is a perfect theme for all kinds of shopping and online shops. Furthermore, the theme comes with multiple sections on the front page, which allows you to display different categories, widgets, and multiple navigations.

Since it is an ecommerce theme you need to install a couple of recommended plugins for everything to work perfectly. You can also install the Demo Import Plug-in ShoppingCart plugin if you want to make use of the demo content to get you started with your shop quicker. Therefore,  follow the directions and it will work perfectly.

The key features of ShoppingCart:

• WooCommerce support.
• Theme Freesia demo import and setup.
• Multiple layouts.
• Social media integrated.
• SEO friendly.

Within a couple of minutes, my shop was up and running. For further configuration, you can use the live customizer which contains lots of options to customize and create your perfect shop. It is also possible to upgrade to the pro version Shopping Cart.

Punte

Punte is a multipurpose WordPress theme that suits most niches of websites but especially online shops. It is a free, flexible theme from AccessPress Themes with lots of opportunities to create a perfect online appearance.

Furthermore, it is a theme with WPBakery Page Builder and Elementor page builder support. Grab one of the 12+ pre-built demos, import with a single click, and start building a winning online store. Whether it’s a site for business, corporate, restaurant, fashion, or merely a blog, Punte is an excellent choice.

Key features of Punte:

• WooCommerce support.
• 12+ pre-built demos.
• Theme options, responsive and Retina ready.
• High-Speed performance.
• Custom header and footer.

With this free WordPress theme, you can set up a comprehensive website for any purpose. Punte is suitable for WooCommece and eCommerce online shops and attractively selling your products.

Store Lite

Store Lite is a free Woocommerce based WordPress theme from ThemeinWP. It is a theme with a stylish and elegant look and feels. With its spacious design, your content and products look perfect.

However, as with so many other eCommerce and WooCommerce themes, it takes some preparation before you can get started with your shop.

Install Store Lite like all other themes, install the necessary plugins recommended. Furthermore, importing the demo requires that you read the documentation because it can be a bit tricky for a beginner. However, don’t worry, follow the guide, and your website shop is up and running within minutes.

Key features of Store Lite:

• WooCommerce support.
• Live Customizer.
• Drag & Drop homepage blocks.
• Gutenberg ready.
• Fullwidth layout and boxed layout.

I like the Store Lite for its great flexibility in the live customizer. There are lots of options to change and configure the layout and sections. Therefore, a big plus for the drag & drop homepage blocks, which allows easy handling and customization of the front page sections.

Furthermore, you can if you need more features and support upgrade to the pro version.

Shopay

Shopay is a free WooCommerce based WordPress theme from Mystery Themes. It is above all a great and beautiful looking theme, suitable for all kind of online shops selling products.

Moreover, it is a theme I enjoyed trying out. With this theme, you can create a fully-fledged WooCommerce shop with an attractive and elegant layout and design. Shopay is a feature-rich WordPress theme and includes all possible features needed for your online shop.

The key features of Almaira Shop:

• Woocommerce compatible.
• Build-in live customizer.
• Dozens of theme options.
• Unlimited color options.
• Responsive design.

It is a WooCommerce theme with multiple opportunities to create a great looking online store to sell your products in the best possible way.

However, to set up the theme correctly you must follow the instructions and if you want to make use of the demo content you have to download specific files. However, this task can be improved and simplified, in my opinion.

Also, it is possible to upgrade to the Shopay Pro version if you need more features and support.

Modern Store

Modern Store is another excellent free eCommerce WordPress theme perfect for all WooCommerce online shops. The theme is built by Compete Themes and is a popular theme in the WordPress theme repository.

When you install the Modern Store. It is also necessary to follow documentation and videos if you want to import WooCommerce dummy data. If you want to start up your shop faster.

Although, it can be a little tricky to get all the pieces in place. However, when ready, it is a great looking shop that you can present to your visitors and customers.

Key features of Modern Store:

• WooCommerce integrated.
• Elementor-friendly.
• Gutenberg compatible.
• Responsive and mobile-friendly.
• Actively developed.

The Modern Store Woocommerce WordPress theme is an additional good alternative to the other themes listed in this article. Give it a try! It is also possible to upgrade to Modern Store Pro here.

Wrapping Up

If you are considering opening a WooCommerce online shop. These free WooCommerce WordPress themes can come in handy. After all, all themes are free and wallet-friendly.

So grab one or more themes and test which of the themes that suit your purposes for selling products or services.

There are, of course, plenty of additional free WooCommerce WordPress themes you can choose. However, I have tested all the themes and I can recommend these themes to both beginners to more advanced WordPress users.

What is your favorite theme on the list? In addition, feel free to suggest a theme that you might use yourself or know of a useful WooCommerce theme. I would love to hear his opinion in the comments section below.

The post 10 Best Free WooCommerce WordPress Themes 2020 appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

Rough Pixels is a WordPress theme shop based in British Columbia, Canada. They design and build attractive WordPress themes with the focus their themes should be easy-to-use, no plugin or page builder dependency, and the themes should work right out of the box.

Rough Pixels has a dozen attractive WordPress themes in their portfolio. Furthermore, all their themes are Gutenberg block and Classic editor ready. I must say I am a big fan of their themes, especially their latest theme – Prologe.

André Jutras is an experienced web designer with over 14 years of website design and has worked with content management systems such as Movable Type, Joomla, and WordPress.

He later started Rough Pixels, a successful WordPress theme shop with elegantly designed themes suitable for all kinds of blogs and websites.

To find out more, I reached out to André and asked some questions about Rough Pixels. Let’s find out more about Rough Pixels and André. Shall we?

10 Questions to André Jutras from Rough Pixels

Q1. Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is André, and I’m the owner (and jack-of-all-trades) for the WordPress theme site called Rough Pixels. Being the only individual running the show, I’m the designer, developer, manager, accountant, support team, and everything else in between!

On average, I work 7-days per week and up to 10 hours each day, so I really don’t get official days off, but I try to give myself enough breaks throughout the day.

I work from my home office, which is a great way to work – especially living out in the country because I’m surrounded by trees, mountains, ranches, and yes, even wildlife! One of the best things about being out here is being able to sit out on the back deck with an iced caramel coffee, overlooking the scenery as far as the eye can see. What could be better?

Q2. How did you first get involved with WordPress?

A long, long, time ago, before I even knew about WordPress, I was designing Joomla templates as I was transitioning away from being an independent website designer. I did this for about three years at which point I soon become aware of other content management systems.

Movable Type was one, but it was also around this time that I was discovering an up-and-coming blogging platform called WordPress.

Back then, I was fascinated with Movable Type for its professional attributes and extensive capabilities. However, I believe it was around 2005 when I can attribute the discovery of WordPress from a website client I had at the time. He needed some work done to his blog, and if I remember correctly, he was using the Kubrick theme. I guess you can say the rest is history!

Q3. Rough Pixels build themes for WordPress; tell us why you chose that niche?

When I saw how popular WordPress was becoming, I realized there was a lot of potentials if I were to expand my business endeavors with it. For obvious reasons, it didn’t take long for me to come to the conclusion that this was the direction to go. I mean, look at where WordPress is now!

I’ve been lucky to have experienced the many facets of WordPress. Of course, when learning anything new, there were many failures over the years, but I was determined to learn from my mistakes.

Designing for WordPress will always involve something new to learn and the more I dug deeper, the choice of pursuing themes became both evident and a reality.

I could have stayed with Joomla templates, but with the insane growth of WordPress and the opportunities it brought; it made sense that WordPress was the solution.

Q4. What challenges did you face in building Rough Pixels?

Rough Pixels wasn’t the first and only theme site that I’ve owned. In fact, over the last 14 years, I’ve had a couple of other sites, each having their own set of challenges. The most common problem is the intense competition within the growing market saturation of themes.

For Rough Pixels, it’s been especially difficult because when I started to build it, the competition from other theme sites, authors, and theme marketplaces had already reached the pinnacle of saturation.

For anyone wanting to get started in this market now is going to find it almost futile. However, I consider myself luckier than most because I’ve done this for so many years, I am familiar with the industry and can apply the experience that I’ve gained. Unfortunately, there is still a challenge compared to what it used to be just 6 years ago.

Another challenge is trying to dedicate enough attention to the blog that I have on the site. Being the only person running the show, most of my time is taken up with theme development, so the blog suffers.

When I first built Rough Pixels, I wasn’t sure if I would have a blog, although I think having one is necessary for these types of sites. I still need to organize myself to get in the habit of writing blog posts. I’ve even considered having sponsored guest bloggers…but we will see.

Q5. What makes Rough Pixels stand out from other shops? Why should people use a Rough Pixels theme?

That is a really good question because I think most theme shops stand out from others in one way or another.

For Rough Pixels, I can easily claim the simplicity of how I build my themes. For example:

1.    My themes are made without bloated code as I have seen so many others do. This is a huge benefit when we talk about load times, stability, compatibility, and even security. The more you put in, the more chances something will break.

2.    Common sense theme options that make using the theme and customizing your website easier.

3.    No plugin or page builder dependency; my themes work right out of the box! One of my biggest frustrations is how many themes require and lock you into using a page builder. Don’t get me wrong, their demos are impressive. Unfortunately, you need a page builder to make them look like they do. I can probably write an article just on that topic alone!

4.    WordPress standards are an absolute necessity. My history of building themes involves submitting them to the WordPress theme directory where they get reviewed and MUST pass 100% before they go live. This also means that my premium themes are based on WordPress coding standards to ensure stability, compatibility, scalability, and having no worries when WordPress releases an update; your theme still works.

5.    Support is just as important as the theme itself. My philosophy for providing quality support is paramount when it comes to my themes. Customers are often shocked when they get a fast response compared to other sites. I also believe that if you cannot provide good support, even for free themes, you should not be in this business because a big part of doing this involves helping those who need it. A customer should not have to worry about waiting days for support, or worse, being totally ignored.

6.    Rough Pixels makes it easier to adapt to the ever-changing aspects of WordPress. A good example is the Gutenberg block editor. I make my themes compatible for both the block and classic editors, so if you are one who still wants to use the classic editor, I’ve got you covered!

6. You recently redesigned Rough Pixels – Can you tell us why, how the process went and what difficulties you experienced?

It’s funny to say this, but I can design themes for others, but when it comes to my own site(s), I’m never happy with them. Throughout 2019, I kept staring at my site and thinking, I need to change this; I don’t like the layout; my theme tutorials are not as organized as they should be, and so on.

There were even a couple moments in time when I considered changing the site from WordPress to run on Joomla because of the direction WordPress was going. For a complex website such as Rough Pixels, Joomla makes sense. However, the problem with switching to a new CMS when I’ve already been running the site on WordPress for over a year made me scrap the idea.

Even more so when you consider how many customers and members would be grossly affected by the change. Not to mention the fact that I honestly cannot fathom doing that to them because they are more important than what I want for myself.

I still had to make major changes. So throughout the summer of 2019, I made copious notes on what needed to change. What things were needed but not required, and what were wishful changes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the ball rolling until mid-December because of other projects I had going.

Another problem that I encountered was to figure out what to do about my free themes. Should I keep them on the WordPress.org theme directory or make them available right from the Rough Pixels website? For the most part, I wanted to keep them at WordPress. But they have a serious problem with their theme review queue (a waitlist) that was getting as long as 7 months.

On top of that, theme authors are only allowed to submit 1 theme to the queue and must wait until that one gets reviewed and goes live before submitting another. This meant that it would limit how many free themes I can give back to the community. In this case, it would be 1 theme per year. That’s insane!

Needless to say, I decided to make my free themes downloadable from Rough Pixels. So, I had to integrate that concept into the redesign of my site. Even to this day, I am still making adjustments. In the meantime, I’ve created a special membership to access all my free themes.

But there was still at least one more challenge I had to face…I was going to rebuild the entire site using the Gutenberg block editor. It’s funny because I design themes for Gutenberg, but I was never really a fan of it, so I figured, hey, let’s try this out and see just how well it performs for a site like this. It turned out to be OK. I’m also planning to write an article about my personal experience tackling this; things I liked, things I didn’t, and how I succeeded with it.

Q7. What is your typical working day at Rough Pixels?

Working from home is an amazing experience, especially because I live in a log house on 7 acres of forested land. So, I make it a habit of getting out in nature as often as I can. I’ve mentioned that I work 7 days per week and up to 10 hours each day, so it’s nice to get outside.

My days can be long, but I generally get up in the morning, have breakfast, make tea or coffee, check emails. Then if the weather is nice, I will sit out on the deck and prepare myself for the day. Eventually, I head downstairs and metaphorically plug myself into the computer and begin work.

There are very few if any support requests. Which I think is a good sign. So I will usually spend the rest of the day and evening designing, coding, jumping on Twitter. Continuously thinking “how can I improve the next new theme?” I often check out WordPress articles on blogs to keep up to the changing times and to find out what is trending for themes.

There are still home duties to attend to, whether it’s cleaning, splitting firewood, landscaping. Shoveling snow (in winter), or heading into town for food and supplies. Overall, I keep busy.

Q8. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working with WordPress & Rough Pixels?

I have a habit of sitting at the computer all day and night. So it feels like I don’t have too much free time. However, being where I am, I try to get out and about. Even relaxing on the back deck in the summer for a half-hour is nice!

One of the biggest problems when you work on the computer, you are sitting long hours in front of a monitor which is not overly healthy. I have a few inches in the middle to prove that. Doing some form of exercise is critical for this work-style!

Q9. What are your future plans for Rough Pixels (or any other upcoming/ongoing projects?)

My original plans were to release a new theme every month to build a massive portfolio and offer tons of themes. The problem with this ideology of “more is better” is the wrong way of thinking because the quality is often sacrificed.

When rebuilding Rough Pixels, I had to give serious thought on the direction I wanted to take the site as we approached 2020. I decided that quality and ease-of-use were the two most important factors for the mission statement of Rough Pixels.

My goal now is to refocus on improving existing themes to make them even better while designing new ones over the course of this year.

One additional project to work on is the Rough Pixels affiliate program. I’m not sure how many people know about, so the plan is to put some effort to market the program to anyone that loves writing about WordPress. Even more so if they focus on themes.

Q10. Whom should we interview next & why?

WOW, hard question to answer because there are so many to consider. Not sure I can name just one. But I can mention a couple, Ben from LinkWP.com.  Jeffrey with his EditorsKit plugin (which is in my top 5 list of plugins) and another growing project called ShareAblock.

Final Words

I thank André Jutras from Rough Pixels for taking the time to attend and answer all the questions for this interview. Much appreciated. I wish André Jutra’s best of luck with Rough Pixels. Your WordPress themes are awesome.

Read more interviews – Interview with Katie Keith from Barn2 Plugins.

The post Interview with André Jutras from Rough Pixels appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

I hardly remember what websites I had at that time. However, I started with WordPress 2008 and I remember a lot of these WordPress theme providers listed in today’s article around the current time.

I have listed 20 popular WordPress theme providers that have been around and in the business for over ten years. It’s incredible to see how their website designs have evolved and changed over the years.

I have used two tools to grab screenshots and get information when these theme providers registered their websites.

The tools I’ve used is the Wayback Machine – Internet Archive, which is a fantastic site to see how the web looked in the past. They have over 411 billion web pages saved by today, which is impressive numbers. The other tool is Whois.com to generate domain information.

So here comes a blast from the past. A tip is to compare the images below with how these popular WordPress theme providers website designs look like today. It may differ a great deal!

Check Out How 20 Popular WordPress Theme Providers Websites Looked in the Past

TemplateMonster

TemplateMonster is a huge marketplace that has been in business since 2002, which makes TemplateMonster one of the oldest players in the industry.

They have a wide variety of WordPress themes, WooCommerce themes, WordPress plugins, HTML templates, but also other CMS templates such as Joomla templates, Drupal themes, and more. Here is a screenshot of the TemplateMonster website from 2003-06-18.

TemplateMonster domain creation date: 2002-04-26.

Check out how the TemplateMonster website looks today

» TemplateMonster – 2020

Elegant Themes

Elegant Themes is one of the largest WordPress theme clubs today, with around 650K customers. Nick Roach is the founder of Elegant Themes, one of the most successful WordPress businesses in the world.

Elegant Themes offer both WordPress themes and plugins; however, their flagship is Divi, which is one of the most popular themes and page builders in the world. Here is a screenshot of the Elegant Themes website 2008-08-20.

Elegant Themes domain creation date: 2008-10-07.

Quite a big difference in the Elegant Themes website design 2008 and 2020, right?

» Elegant Themes – 2020

CyberChimps

CyberChimps is a WordPress theme company that has been around for over ten years. They offer both premium and free WordPress themes. Their most famous theme is their free theme Responsive with over 50,000+ active installs on WordPress.org.

Here is a screenshot of the CyberChimps website 2010-08-20.

CyberChimps domain creation date: 2010-05-23.

Check out and compare CyberChimps 2010 verse 2020.

» CyberChimps – 2020

Gabfire Themes

Gabfire Themes was founded by Sahin Ozek and Charlie Patel in 2008 and is another WordPress theme provider that has over ten years in the theme industry.

They mostly build WordPress themes in magazine and news portal styles. Advanced Newspaper, Sharp, and Stylebook are their most popular themes.

Here is a screenshot of the Gabfire Themes website 2009-02-03.

Gabfire Themes domain creation date: 2008-07-10.

Their website design differs significantly between 2009 and 2020. Take a look at the Gabfire Themes website 2020.

» Gabfire Themes – 2020

Graph Paper Press

Graph Paper Press is a New York digital agency that builds WordPress themes and plugins. They are a well-known name in the WordPress community and has been active in the theme business for over ten years.

Here is a screenshot of the Graph Paper Press website 2008-12-16.

Graph Paper Press domain creation date: 2007-12-07.

There is a big difference between website design by Graph Paper Press 2008 and 2020. Check out how the Graph Paper Press website looks like today.

» Graph Paper Press – 2020

Viva Themes

Viva Themes is another WordPress theme provider that has been in the business for a long time, more specifically over ten years. The people behind Viva Themes are a group of professional web developers with long experience in creating themes and templates.

Here is a screenshot of the Viva Themes website from 2009-12-17.

Viva Themes domain creation date: 2009-06-15.

Like so many of the participants in our article, it differs significantly between Viva Themes website design 2009 and 2020. Have a look at Viva Themes 2020.

» Viva Themes – 2020

Theme Junkie

Theme Junkie is one of many popular WordPress theme providers that have built WordPress themes and plugins for over ten years. The company consists of a remote team of five designers, developers, and support staff.

They have a wide range of themes for various niches such as Business, E-Commerce, Real Estate, Fashion, Food, and Travel.

Here is a screenshot of the Theme Junkie website 2009-11-02.

Theme Junkie domain creation date: 2009-09-07.

If you compare Theme Junkie 2009 and 2020, you will see that there is a big difference in design and appearance. Here is how their websites design 2020. Check out and compare.

» Theme Junkie – 2020

iThemes

iThemes, a US-based WordPress theme, and plugin company were founded by Cory Miller back in 2008. They offer both WordPress themes and plugins, and since Liquid Web acquired iThemes, they now also provide WordPress hosting.

Moreover, their BackupBuddy plugin is a well known and widely used backup WordPress plugin. Their security plugin iThemes Security with close to a million installations is also a popular product.

Here is a screenshot of the iTemes website 2008-04-22.

iThemes creation date: 2005-11-16.

iThemes 2008 has a clean and spacious look and feel. Their website design 2020 also looks impressive, so the development of their website design has been successful.

» iThemes – 2020

Gorilla Themes

Gorilla Themes is another WordPress theme company that has been in the theme business for over ten years. They specialize in niche themes for industries such as car dealers, real estate, and music.

Here is a screenshot of the Gorilla Themes website 2009-12-30.

Gorilla Themes domain creation date: 2008-12-05.

Take a glance at the Gorilla Themes website design in 2020.

» Gorilla Themes – 2020

RichWP

RichWP is a WordPress theme provider founded by Felix Krusch and has been creating themes for over a decade. They have a large selection of theme categories available such as blogging, ecommerce, magazine, video, portfolio, and more.

Minimalist and elegance is a hallmark of all themes from RichWP. You can choose between premium and free themes. 

Here is a screenshot of the RichWP website 2009-11-16.

RichWP domain creation date: 2009-02-04.

It differs significantly from the RichWP website design now and then. Check out what their website looks like today.

» RichWP – 2020

Press75

Press75 is another popular WordPress theme provider, established already in 2008 by Jason Schuller. Jason Schuller, however, sold Press75 in 2014. But still today, Press75 delivers high-quality WordPress themes.

Press75 creates premium WordPress themes for niches like business, photo, video, blogs, and magazines in minimalistic style.

Here is a screenshot of the Press75 website 2009-12-28.

Press75 domain creation date: 2008-01-09.

Press75 is one of the theme providers in today’s article that changed their website design the most. There is a big difference between then and now. Check out the Press75 website design 2020.

» Press75 – 2020

ThemeTrust

ThemeTrust has been building and selling WordPress themes for over a decade. Henry Jones is the founder and owner of ThemeTrust. He also runs the web design blog – Web Design Ledger.

The WordPress theme provider ThemeTrust has a vast selection of minimalist themes with varying categories such as business, portfolio, e-commerce, and more.

Here is a screenshot of the Press75 website 2010-10-25.

ThemeTrust domain creation date: 2008-01-09.

Compared to ThemeTrust website design in 2010, there is a big contrast to today’s design. ThemeTrusts website feels modern and trendy. Check out ThemeTrust look for 2020 here.

» ThemeTrust – 2020

WPZOOM

WPZOOM is a popular WordPress theme shop based in Amsterdam and founded by Pavel Ciorici in 2008. They have a wide selection of WordPress themes focusing on business, Woocommerce, magazines, and blogs.

Some of their popular themes are Inspiro and Foodica. They provide both premium and free themes.

Here is a screenshot of the WPZOOM website 2008-05-12.

WPZOOM domain creation date: 2008-03-27.

In the WPZOOM website design in 2020, there are no traces of the design they used in 2008. A complete makeover. Check out what the WPZOOM website looks like today.

» WPZOOM – 2020

Organized Themes

Organized Themes is a WordPress themes store that has been around for over ten years and started by offering free themes but later switched to premium themes. They have an extensive collection of WordPress themes in the categories of business, church, restaurants, nonprofit, and blogs.

Here is a screenshot of the Organized Themes website 2010-11-30.

Organized Themes domain creation date: 2008-07-30.

Organized Themes has also undergone a significant transformation in their website design. Compare 2010 with today’s design. Quite a big difference, right?

» Organized Themes – 2020

StudioPress

StudioPress is another WordPress theme shop that has been in the business for over ten years. Brian Gardner is the founder of StudioPress, which is also behind the popular Genesis Framework. In 2018 WP Engine acquired StudioPress.

StudioPress has a large selection of WordPress themes for categories such as business, real estate, ecommerce, photography, and more.

Here is a screenshot of the StudioPress website 2009-02-04.

StudioPress creation date: 2002-04-12.

There is a big difference in the design if you compare StudioPress 2009 and 2020. For the better, I have to admit.

» StudioPress – 2020

Themes by bavotasan.com

Themes by bavotasan.com is another WordPress theme shop started by Chris Bavota back in 2009. Chris Bavota is a WordPress developer from Montreal, Canada. Themes by bavotasan.com have dozens of themes geared towards different niches such as portfolios, WooCommerce, blogs, and more.

Here is a screenshot of the Themes by bavotasan.com website 2009-11-14.

Themes by bavotasan.com creation date: 2008-10-29.

Themes by bavotasan is another WordPress theme provider that has been in the business for over ten years. Like many other websites, Themes by bavotasan has also changed their website over the years. Here is their website design in 2020.

» Themes by bavotasan.com – 2020

Themify

Themify is another WordPress theme shop that can celebrate its 10th anniversary. Nick La, a cofounder, launched Themify in 2010 and has since grown into one of the most significant WordPress theme and plugin sellers in the world.

Their flagship theme is the multipurpose Ultra theme. They have also created their own Themify framework.

Here is a screenshot of the Themes by bavotasan.com website 2010-08-16.

Themify creation date: 2010-03-29.

Like so many other popular WordPress theme providers have also changed their website design over the years, but Themify in 2010 looks surprisingly good. Check out the website design by Themify in 2020 here.

» Themify – 2020

PremiumPress

PremiumPress has been in the industry for a long time and is one of the oldest theme providers on the list. They build niche WordPress themes in various categories such as Dating, Auctions, Directory, Real Estate, Shopping, to name a few.

Here is a screenshot of the Viva Themes website 2010-05-26.

PremiumPress domain creation date: 2002-10-30.

There are significant differences between their website 2010 and 2020, as it should. Take a look at what Their website design looks like today.

» PremiumPress – 2020

AppThemes

AppThemes is a WordPress theme provider that been around for over ten years. They have several niche well-known themes, such as ClassiPress and Clipper.

They also have a large marketplace with both themes and plugins. Here is a screenshot of the AppThemes website from 2010-10-29.

AppThemes creation date: 2008-12-27.

Have a look at how the AppThemes website looks today.

» AppThemes – 2020

ThemeZee

ThemeZee is another popular WordPress theme provider that can celebrate its 10th anniversary this year. Thomas Weichselbaumer started ThemeZee back in 2010 as a part-time project; later, it turned into a premium theme shop.

They have a large selection of WordPress themes in magazine-style. They offer both free and premium WordPress themes.

Here is a screenshot of the ThemeZee website 2011-01-29.

ThemeZee creation date: 2009-11-26.

Of course, like so many other popular WordPress theme providers, ThemeZee’s website design does not look the same as back in 2010. ThemeZees today has a website design with a spacious and elegant look and feel. Compare 2010 and today’s design below.

» ThemeZee – 2020

Wrapping Up

Pretty fun to see what these popular WordPress theme providers website designs looked like ten years ago! There are not many similarities to their designs in the past compared to their website look and feel today.

However, time changes and trends come and go. Do you remember what the websites looked like in the nineties? Hopefully, we don’t see that trend coming back (for a long time)!

In addition to the WordPress theme providers included in the list above, several other WordPress theme providers have been in the theme business for as long. However, I could not capture any good screenshots of what these sites looked like a decade ago.

But I hope this blast from the past creates memories for everyone who remembers what it was like in the WordPress theme business and how these popular WordPress theme providers website designs looked like ten years ago.

The post How 20 Popular WordPress Theme Providers Websites Looked in the Past appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

Although there are plenty of WordPress themes providers with premium WordPress themes to choose from, I have decided only to highlight free themes in today’s article.

Don’t we all like music? Today it is so straightforward to reach and access all kinds of music by listening to it through streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, but also other online services. Just hit play on your phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop, and get access to millions of songs directly.

When I work at my computer, I always have music thundering from my speakers. Some prefer a quiet and calm environment to be able to concentrate. I’m the opposite; I need loud music to be able to work effectively. (presumably one of the reasons I work best alone) Preferably hard rock and heavy metal roaring in my office.

As a musician or artist, visibility is one of the most significant factors, and having an engaging website is essential. Another factor is to rank high in the search engine search results, which can be made possible with a little help from SEO and, of course, well-optimized WordPress themes.

So let’s get started…

Best Free WordPress Music Themes for Artists and Bands

These WordPress music themes in today’s article can be great alternatives for you to get started. (They are free and wallet-friendly); however, there is the option to upgrade to pro versions of most themes in the list if you need more features and support.

Grab any of the WordPress music themes and promote your work. Kick your music website into full swing, shout it out from the rooftops and promote it everywhere to get your fans to find your excellent site.

Ready to rumble? Awesome ninja stuff coming your way below!

Creativ Musician

Creativ Musician is a creative and full-fledged music-oriented free WordPress theme from Creativ Themes. With this theme, artists, musicians, and bands can promote their content clearly and attractively.

While this is a free theme, I am a bit surprised by the number of great features included. That’s a big plus to the creators. Here are some of the features included in the theme.

Via the live customizer, you can boost your setting with several theme options, homepage settings, frontpage settings, featured slider, and much more. If you need more features, the theme is also available in a premium version.

Creativ Musician is a theme that is flexible and very configurable with a great and attractive look and style.

My Music Band

My Music Band is a free WordPress theme from Catch Themes. It is designed especially for musicians and music bands to promote their music and products. It is a responsive and adjustable theme full of great features and options to create a perfect music website.

With the live customizer, you have access to all options to enable, customize, and change settings for basically everything regarding the theme’s design and functions. There are a significant number of features to boost your music site. Via the theme options, you can set up playlists, layouts, slides, hero content, pagination, portfolio, search, and much more.

My Music Band is a theme you should try if you are in the music industry. Furthermore, there is also a premium version for you who do not consider the free version suffices.

It is a theme that suits me perfectly — lots of features to set up the theme, just as I want.

Music Freak

Music Freak is a free WordPress music theme from Theme Palace. If you are a musician or play in a band, this theme is a suitable choice. It’s a free theme with limited features but still worth a try. However, if you need more features, there is the option to upgrade to a premium version.

Features included in the free version are the live customizer, where you can configure Frontpage settings with the ability to add sliders. About us section, music, video playlist section, and a call to action section. Under the theme options tab, there are additional customization options such as layout, breadcrumb, blog page excerpt, and much more.

The Music Freak theme includes several features and customization opportunities, which is very advantageous for a free theme.

Musicsong

Music Song is another music-inspired free WordPress theme from Theme Palace. With this theme perfect for musicians and bands, you can create an impressive online presence. With the large main full-width slider, you can capture your visitors’ interest directly.

Also, this theme comes packed with features that make it easy to customize pretty much everything to the theme. There are theme options with various options to tick. Among other things, several layout section options, pagination, and excerpts.

Furthermore, frontpage settings where you can activate sections like slider, about us, services, latest release, call to action, and much more.

Music Song is a theme that suits both WordPress beginners and more advanced users. If you are running out of options, there is also a Musicsong premium version.

Musical Vibe

Musical Vibe is a free compelling WordPress music theme from WEN Themes that is suitable for all kinds of artists and bands. With this theme, you and your music can stand out from the crowd.

It’s a theme with a distinguished-looking full-width slider and spacious design, perfect for displaying your content to your fans.

Furthermore, it is a versatile theme with a lot of features and optimization possibilities via live customizer. You can enable options through the theme options, optimize header, layout, blog, footer, breadcrumb, etc.

With the Musical Vibe theme, you can supercharge and boost up your web presence to the fullest.

I had no problems whatsoever with creating an elegant and attractive website with this theme. So give the Musical Vibe theme a try and keep on rocking. For those who want more additional features and support, there is also a premium version.

Music Lite

Music Lite is a free WordPress music theme from Organic Themes. It is an ideal theme for artists, musicians, bands, or all varieties of entertainment to present music and content in an artistic and inspirational behavior.

The theme comes with a beautiful dark and spacious design — bold and elegant typography. In the full-screen header, you can add eye-catching full-screen images or videos to boost your visitor’s first impression. Furthermore, you can also add tour dates if you have upcoming gigs or events.

In this light version of the Pro Music theme from Organic Themes, it is possible to configure the settings of the theme via the WordPress live customizer.

Some of the features included are the following: Responsive design, custom header, custom background, and menus: custom page templates, slideshow page template, category portfolio layout, pagination, and much more.

Music Lite is an artistic theme. Easy to set up and optimize. Excellent and useful features for a free theme. To all the artists and entertainers out there. Give this theme a test run.

Creativ Singer

As the name implies on this free music theme, this is a suitable theme for all singers, artists, or bands to promote their music and products. Creativ Singer is a beautiful free theme from Creativ Themes with several standard and custom features included.

Furthermore, Creativ Singer comes with a dark elegant look and feel. It focuses entirely on music, which makes it perfect for all musicians and artists.

You find all the settings in the WordPress live customizer. In addition to a lot of theme options, you can also customize the homepage sections, header, colors, background, and much more.

Creativ Singer is a theme that is easy to create an attractive online presence that your audience and fans will appreciate. Also, it is a theme that is easy to customize to build your perfect music website.

Euphony

Euphony is another free WordPress music theme from Catch Themes. Whether you are an artist, musician, or band, this is a versatile theme that is perfect for the music industry.

The full-screen featured slider is a perfect place to display creative images or cool videos in an eye-catching way for your visitors. Euphony is indeed a free theme. However, there are a large number of theme options to customize the design, layout, and look of your music website.

Some features worth mention in the arsenal of options are the following: Theme options featured slider, hero content, homepage/frontpage options, layout options — furthermore, pagination option, search options, services, sticky playlist, plus much more.

I like the Euphony theme for its flexibility, and it is possible to create an impressive and great looking website with this theme. If you lack any features in the free version, it is possible to upgrade to Euphony Pro.

Deejay

Deejay is a WordPress theme from Carolina Nymark. The theme is designed with DJs, musicians, and events in mind. However, you can use this theme for all kinds of niches in the music industry.

The theme is responsive and adaptable and displays perfectly across all devices, no matter what screen size your visitors use. Furthermore, within the header media section, it is possible to display fullscreen videos or large attractive images. Deejay also uses audio and video post formats, which allows you to add and play your music to your visitors or fans.

All settings avaible are in the live customizer. With the theme options such as theme options, crew template settings, colors, menus, widgets, you can easily set up a website with a focus on music or events.

The Deejay theme does not contain as many features and options as many other themes in the list. However, it is an easy-to-use theme with great potential for creating an artistic website.

Surplus Concert

The last theme in the list is Surplus Concert. It is a free WordPress theme by Surplus Themes. If you are an artist, musician, band, or planning events or concerts, then this is a perfect theme for you.

Surplus Concert is a great looking theme with a creative full-wide slider, perfect for viewing music videos. Within the live customizer, you can choose a wide or boxed design. Add a blog and about us section on the front page. Set global sidebar layout etc.

More features included in the theme are banner/slider sections, colors, layout options, menus, widgets, footer settings, and more.

Surplus Concert is an excellent theme for everyone in the music industry. I had no problem setting up a creative and good looking music inspired site with this theme. If you need more features and support, you can upgrade to Surplus Concert Pro.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, if you are in the music industry, whether you are an artist, musician, performer, or band, these free WordPress music themes can come in handy if you want to create a significant online presence.

I have personally tested all the themes on the list in a test environment (InstantWP). Some more feature-rich than others, some themes easier to customize, but overall, I have to say I manage to create stylish and attractive music-oriented test websites with all the WordPress music themes above.

Time for action! Grab one of the WordPress music themes, test it carefully in a test environment, or a staging site before you go live with your production site, and do not forget to keep on rocking.

The post 10 Free WordPress Music Themes for Artists and Bands appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

I’m talking, of course, about WPForms.

WPForms is a popular and powerful WordPress form builder plugin. With its innovative and user-friendly interface, you can easily create beautifully and fully functioning contact forms, donation forms, and newsletter forms within minutes.

The Pro version comes with dozen of great features and options such as drag & drop form builder, pre-built form templates, 100% responsive, multi-page forms. Furthermore, conditional logic, instant form notification, form abandonment, Mailchimp forms, PayPal, and much more. Check out the full list of features included here.

Three lucky winners will receive a yearly WPForms Pro license, and each license is worth $199. So don’t miss this opportunity to win a Pro license by WPForms, one of the best drag & drop WordPress form builder plugins. Jump on the bandwagon and start sharing the WPForms giveaway to get a whopping amount of points to increase the chances of winning.

How To Win a WPForm Pro License

Participating in the WPForms giveaway is very easy. Just enter your email address, and you’re ready to rumble. Here’s what to do. Join and share as many entries you want; however, the more entries you join and share, the higher are your chances of winning these grand prizes.

The giveaway lasts two weeks. When the WPforms giveaway is over, we draw 3 random winners that we contact via the email address you logged in with and participated in the giveaway. We also present their names here in the post. So stay tuned.

So let’s get started and Share, Like, Tweet, Comment, and spread the word. The more entries you join and share, the higher your chances are to win!

Make sure to participate in the giveaway of 3 WPForms Pro licenses worth $199 each. So join, sit back, relax, and wait for the winning email (hopefully) coming your way.

The winners will be announced on 5 February 2020.

Good luck!

The post WPForms Giveaway – Win 3 WPForms Pro Licenses and Build Professional Forms for Your WordPress Website appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

The inclusion of Gutenberg in version WordPress 5.0 was widely discussed in the community. Many users were for Gutenberg, while others preferred the Classic editor. The discontent led, among other things, to the creation of a fork of WordPress. Scott Bowler launched ClassicPress in August 2018, and the primary purpose was to preserve the classic TinyMCE editor as the default option.

It is still, however, possible to use the Classic editor in WordPress by installing the Classic Editor. Yet, the plugin will only be supported and maintained until 2022.

So here we are. If you do not use ClassicPress, you will inevitably have to use Gutenberg sooner or later. I have to admit that I was skeptical of Gutenberg for quite a while. But I took the time to learn how the new editor worked. There were a bit of a learning curve, ups, and downs before I found the flow of writing articles. A good idea is to learn the keyboard shortcuts. It makes everything a bit smoother and faster.

However, in my opinion, Gutenberg still has its flaws, but it feels like, after each update, the editor feels better and faster. But a big minus is that there are still not enough blocks available as default.

10 Gutenberg Add-Ons to Bring More Functionality in WordPress

Nowadays, there are a plethora of Gutenberg add-ons available in the WordPress plugin repository with a wide variety of blocks for every conceivable feature you can think of for blog posts and pages.

In this article, I have tested the most popular Gutenberg add-ons, which can bring more functionality and boost the creation of your blog posts.

Let’s dig into it…

Gutenberg Blocks – Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg

Gutenberg Blocks is an addon to Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor. It is an addon from Brainstorm Force, which contains a set of unique and beneficial blocks that can be helpful when building and designing pages and posts.

Some of the blocks included in the package are Info Box, Advanced Heading, Price List, Testimonial, to name some of the blocks you can get for free. It is a massive list of blocks you can use to boost your creativity and build awesome pages and posts.

With over 200,000+ active installations, this is a popular and well-maintained addon to Gutenberg.

Page Builder Gutenberg Blocks – CoBlocks

CoBlocks is a plugin from Godaddy and is a set of page building WordPress blocks for Gutenberg, the new editor in WordPress. The plugin contains 20+ blocks to boost your page and post builder creativity.

The set contains some great and useful blocks like Search for Gifs, Dynamic HR, Logos & Badges, Food & Drinks, which can be appreciated and used for all restaurants. Furthermore, the set contains all the necessary blocks to create website awesomeness.

Do you also want to create galleries! No problem! The plugin also comes with CoBlocks Galleries blocks, which significantly simplifies handling when creating a Carousel, Masonry, Stacked, or Photo Collage.

CoBlocks is a plugin that I recommend. Easy to use. Loads quickly and with many features to build an awesome website.

The plugin has over 100,000+ active installations.

Kadence Blocks – Gutenberg Page Builder Toolkit

Kadence Blocks is a free Gutenberg page builder toolkit for creating and building custom layouts for your WordPress website. The toolkit contains 10+ blocks, and some of them are Row Layout, Advanced Gallery, Advanced Heading, Testimonials, and Icon List.

Kadence Blocks Gutenberg page builder toolkit is easy to use. But do not offer any direct surprises but do a well-done job as page and post builder to create more engaging content. It is a popular and well-maintained plugin with over 50,000+ active installations.

Atomic Blocks

Atomic Blocks comes with a collection of custom page and post building blocks for the new WordPress editor Gutenberg. The plugin contains 15+ blocks for both building pages and posts and for customizing the design with, for example, premade attractive layouts and sections, which is also my favorite block.

Atomic Blocks is a flexible block addon with many options to customize a lot of settings for each block you add. It makes it possible to adjust just about everything. It is a free plugin with 30,000+ active installs worth recommending.

Gutenberg Blocks and Template Library by Otter

Gutenberg Blocks and Template Library by Otter is a WordPress plugin and addon from ThemeIsle. It brings extra custom Gutenberg blocks to your website. With the blocks, you can create pages and posts for all possible niches such as blogs, business, e-commerce, and more.

The plugin comes with 12+ blocks, and some of the blocks included are Advanced Heading, Google Map, Sharing Icons, Pricing, Testimonials. All blocks work satisfactorily, and there is the possibility to customize the settings per block, which gives excellent flexibility.

The plugin currently has over 30,000+ active installations.

Advanced Gutenberg

Advanced Gutenberg is another free Gutenberg add-ons. With Advanced Gutenberg, can create or edit profiles, assign a user or user group to the profile. Select each block activation by user profile.

It is also possible to make custom settings for each profile and block so that all members in a specific profile use the same settings, which is an excellent feature and convenient so that, for example, a profile with writers uses the same settings for their articles.

Furthermore, this is an addon with a lot of opportunities and many useful blocks for creating pages and posts in an efficient, straightforward, and elegant way. Advanced Gutenberg works right out of the box, but it is possible to customize just about anything, which makes it a very flexible alternative. The plugin has over 20,000+ active installations.

Stackable – Gutenberg Blocks

Stackable is another popular free addon with over 10,000+ active installations that add more power to Gutenberg. With its ready-to-use custom blocks, it is possible to create beautiful designs.

No matter if you want to create or design a page or post, hence your entire website, you can achieve it with the Stackable blocks. You do not need any coding knowledge to use Stackable. Install the addon, activate it, and start your website, page, or post creation.

GT3 Photo Gallery / Video Gallery / Gutenberg Gallery Block

GT3 Photo Gallery is an add-on to the WordPress editor Gutenberg which adds more functionality to the WordPress image gallery. If you want to boost the look and feel of your photos and galleries, then this is a great free alternative.

In the free version of the GT3 gallery, you do not have access to all gallery options and features. Still, you can create Grid and Masonry galleries, and if you want additional galleries, there is the possibility to upgrade to the pro version of the GT3 gallery.

There are some settings you can use to customize each gallery type to display images and galleries, which provides additional flexibility. It is a great block add-on for creating beautiful galleries to add some visual creativity. The plugin has over 10,000+ active installations.

Block Gallery – Photo Gallery Gutenberg Blocks

Block Gallery is another plugin from Godaddy. It is a plugin that contains a set of gallery Gutenberg blocks. Especially for anyone who wants to display images in galleries in an organized and creative way.

With the drag and drop feature, you can build gallery types such as Carousel, Masonry, and Stacked. It is effortless to create beautiful galleries with self-explanatory options. Further options that I appreciate are that you can apply filters with grayscale, serpia, vintage, and more to the galleries.

It is also possible to transform or switch to a different gallery type on the fly with one click. It is a plugin that I recommend if you want to create beautiful and exquisite image galleries on your WordPress website. The plugin currently has 8,000+ active installations.

Ultimate Blocks – Custom Gutenberg Blocks

Ultimate Blocks is a collection with Gutenberg blocks to increase the flexibility to create more engaging content than the default blocks in Gutenberg have to offer.

Currently, there are 27+ blocks available, and some of them are Image Slider, Call To Action, Progress Bar, Review, Tabbed Content, and more. More blocks are in the making, according to the creator of Ultimate Blocks.

Also, these blocks from Ultimate Blocks are easy to use with every conceivable opportunity to customize each block. Not much more to say about this plugin, it does the job of building pages and posts satisfactorily. The plugin currently has 7,000+ active installations.

Qubely

Qubely is the brainchild of Themeum. Having 34+ Enhanced Custom Blocks, 150+ Predesigned Sections, custom blocks, and more it can currently be considered as the most powerful name among other Gutenberg plugins out there.

With Inbuilt Animations, Advanced Post Grid, and many other improved features this plugin lets its users create elegantly designed websites in no time.

However, it is among those plugin that offers regular updates with impressive and newer innovation, possible bug fixes every time. The best part of this plugin is it offers both free and paid versions. Whether website, portfolio, landing page, or any other online presence it brings all in one solution for each.

Everything you create with Qubely meant to be outstanding. It’s also proved itself as responsive regardless of all devices. So, everyone out there who are seeking for a user-friendly and feature-rich plugin solution for their website can definitely give it a try to Qubely.

The plugin currently has 4,000+ active installations.

Page Builder Gutenberg Blocks – Kioken Blocks

Kioken Blocks is the new kid on the block. This addon/plugin has received a lot of attention lately on significant blogs. I understand why after playing around with the Kioken Blocks for awhile. Using the blocks is very easy. Plus, you can create amazing looking pages, posts, or an entire website if you like.

With all the blocks available and all options to customize the settings for each block you add, this is a flexible way to boost the look and feel in the best possible way. Kioken Blocks comes with several unique blocks, but my favorites are the designed premade block layouts and templates.

ZeGuten

ZeGuten plugin is a multifunctional and the most trendy tool for building flexible blocks for Gutenberg. It is compatible with the latest WordPress version and with the Gutenberg editor. ZeGuten is a perfect match both for the beginners or experienced developers.

It has 14 SEO-optimized blocks, one of which is Section block. Section is a parent element for any other block, so you don’t have to worry about the responsiveness.

However, if you want to set a custom spacing, you are completely able to set margins and paddings for desktop, tablet, or mobile phone. Moreover, you can set various backgrounds for the blocks: color, image, video, gradient, or custom figure.

As for the post’s settings, ZeGuten provides you with 5 modern layouts: listing, grid, chess, masonry, and dynamic carousel. Choose one of them and arrange your posts. Use quick post query settings and apply offset. As for the typography, theme a bunch of properties. Enjoy building content with the top-notch tools at your hand.

Wrapping Up

These ten Gutenberg add-ons are the most popular in the WordPress plugin repository and have the most active installs. I’ve taken all the add-ons for a test run. Some plugins are more comprehensive, with more advanced features than others. But overall, all of Gutenberg’s add-ons above work satisfactorily and can help bring more functionality into the editor.

If I were to choose three add-ons that I think to stand out a bit from, the crowd is as follows Gutenberg Blocks, CoBlocks, and Atomic Blocks. My favorite blocks are premade layouts and sections, which makes it easy to add attractive and mainly finished sections, which simplifies and speeds up processes immensely.

Finally, if you are using the Gutenberg editor and are not pleased with the default block composition, I recommend you install one or more of the above Gutenberg add-ons to bring more fun and useful features to WordPress.

The post 10+ Great Gutenberg Add-Ons to Bring Additional Blocks and More Functionality in WordPress appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

When using WordPress, there are various methods to insert tables. The most straightforward way since Gutenberg, the new block-based editor in WordPress, was introduced in version WordPress 5.0 is to use the predefined table block. The table block is simple to use and works great. However, more choices and configuration options would be appreciated.

If you want more customization choices for creating tables, you should install a WordPress plugin, especially if you use software like ScraperBox so you can arrange the data to your exact preferences. There are some excellent table plugins. But the most popular is TablePress, with over 800,000+ installations. I use this plugin on several of my websites.

A while ago, I got an email about a plugin that caught my attention. WP Table Builder is the name of the plugin. It is a responsive drag and drop table builder plugin with the ability to insert five predefined elements in tables.

For you guys to see how WP Table Builder work, I wrote this tutorial on how to install and add tables with WP Table Builder and also my assessment of the plugin.

WP Table Builder – WordPress Table Plugin

WP Table Builder is a free WordPress table plugin you can download from WordPress.

It is a shortcode based plugin, which means that you create a table within the plugin, but you display the table by inserting a shortcode into a blog post or page on your WordPress website.

Furthermore, it is also a drag and drop based plugin, which allows you to drag and drop available elements into any cell to present data such as text, images, buttons, lists, and star ratings.

Some features included WP Table Builder

I tested the WP Table Builder plugin, and if you want to use a WordPress table plugin, this can be a suitable and creative alternative. Let’s find out what you can do with this plugin.

Install WP Table Builder

First of all, you need to install the plugin. You install the WP Table Builder plugin just like any other plugin. In your admin dashboard, go to -> Plugins -> Add New -> Add WP Table Builder in the search box -> Click Install Now and -> Activate.

For those of you who want to install via FTP do the following. Download the plugin and extract the plugin ZIP file on your local computer. Upload the plugin folder containing your plugin files.

The WP Table Builder plugin should now be visible in the list of plugins. Activate the plugin, and you are ready to go.

After you installed the plugin, in your dashboard menu, there is now a new tab named Table Builder. Also, two sub-tabs All Tables and Add New. Self-explanatory menus. You handle all the tables, and you create new tables with these tabs.

Create a New Table

We take the plunge and create a new table by clicking -> Add New. Start with the new table and select numbers of columns and numbers of rows. Click Generate.

Build and Edit the Table

You can now start building the table with available elements.

Elements available are Text, Button, Image, List, and Star Rating. By dragging and dropping the element into the table, you can easily insert any element wherever you want in the table.

Add text, images, and more. If you want to edit a table cell, select the cell you want to edit, and you can see configuration options above the table or to the left of the table, depending on which element you are editing.

My table is almost ready. I have created a small list with a couple of WordPress theme providers, as you can see in the picture. But I missing something and I want to add another column.

If you want to edit all cells in the table and add more columns or rows, click on – Manage Cells to the left of the menu.

A new view opens up, and you can easily add or delete columns and rows. I choose to add an additional column — all set.

In the new column, I add buttons with links to the particular websites represented in the table.

As you can see, there are several options in the menu on the left where you can configure each element in the table. For example, for buttons, you can change button size, change text color, add links, and select button alignment.

It is a lot of fun to play around with the elements avaible, change settings, colors, fonts, and more. It is straightforward to create attractive tables, and this is a plugin in my appreciation.

When you are feeling done with your table, you can preview it by clicking the Preview button.

If you are not satisfied, then continue to configure your table to best look and style.

Save the table with the – Save Table button.

Click the EMBED button, copy the code, in my case the code looks like this – [wptb id=30] and save it for later to insert it into a post or page.

Insert Table Into a Post or Page

When done with our creative table, it’s time to insert it into a blog post or page if you prefer.

Create a new blog post or page. Paste the code you copied earlier.

Here is what it looks like in the Gutenberg editor.

In the Classic editor. (Yes, there are a lot of people still using the classic editor).

The final results of my table look like this below.

Not too bad! However, with a little creativity and time, it is possible to create even more great-looking tables without any knowledge of coding.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Above all, I want to give a big plus to the user-friendly interface. All features and customization options are easy to find.
• The five elements available work well, and I like all the customization options, which allows you to customize the elements and cells with a variety of settings.
• All essential buttons like Manage Cells, Preview, Embed, and Save Table are prominent and visible.

Cons

• I lack the filtering options for tables. If you are building extensive and large tables, it is preferable to add filtering options so that visitors can easily filter the contents of the table.
• Although there are six contributors and developers involved in developing the plugin, there are several unsolved support tickets.

In Conclusion

When it comes to add tables in WordPress, it is essential to find a plugin that meets the criteria you require to present the data in the best way.

WP Table Builder is an excellent and handy WordPress plugin for building and creating tables with an appealing and user-friendly interface. Better than most plugins I have used.

Despite some shortcomings, such as filtering options (maybe an idea for future versions?), WP Table Builder is a WordPress table plugin that I recommend for its simplicity in creating attractive and great looking tables.

The post How to Add Tables in WordPress Using WP Table Builder appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

Why no supercharge your website with a new WordPress theme? Grab the WordPress plugin you’ve wanted to purchase for a long time! Or perhaps obtain a super-speedy hosting to boost your website’s performance! Now, with huge savings!

As usual, I have this year prepared a collection of Christmas and New Year WordPress deals that kick in full-swing right now and ends early next year.

Here is our list of the best WordPress Christmas and New Year WordPress deals for 2019. Let’s grab some awesome deals at bargain-basement prices, shall we?

Christmas and New Year WordPress Deals 2019

MyThemeShop

• Discount: Get any WordPress theme for only $19. Unlimited Domain License. Or Get 50% off any premium WordPress plugin.
• Coupon Code: hello2020
• Valid Date: Limited Time! Hurry!

» Get MyThemeShops Deal

Wrapping Up

Did you find what you were looking for? WordPress themes, plugins, hosting, or services! If not, visit it or bookmark this article. I will update the article regularly with new whooping deals.

If you have more deals to add to the list, please add a comment with the deal or contact us via our contact page here.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.

The post Best Christmas and New Year WordPress Deals 2019 appeared first on WP Pluginsify.

Barn2 Plugins (formerly Barn2 Media) based in South Devon, England, are the UK’s longest established WordPress company. Already in 2009, they started their business.

Since then, they have grown tremendously and now have an entire team of colleagues around the world, including two full-time plugin support engineers, a developer who works on the Barn2 website, and a marketing team.

Barn2 Plugins now sells WordPress and WooCommerce plugins to over 111 countries worldwide.

As the curious soul, I am, I contacted Katie and asked some questions about Barn2 Plugins.

10 Questions to Katie Keith from Barn2 Plugins

Let’s find out more about Barn2 Plugins, Katie and Andy Keith. Shall we?

Q1: Can you please tell us a bit about yourself and Barn2

I’m Katie, the business half of Barn2 Plugins. I run the company with my husband Andy (the technical half!). We’re based in a small town in South West England and have an 8-year-old daughter called Sophia.

Q2: How did you first get involved with WordPress?

I started building WordPress websites for clients back in 2009. While we started as a general web design company, we always chose to build websites with WordPress and ended up being one of the first UK companies to specialize in WordPress. It allowed the business to grow very quickly, as there was a shortage of WordPress experts back then.

We always wanted to sell WordPress products and switched to selling plugins in 2016. We now sell plugins to over 111 countries worldwide.

Q3: Barn2 build plugins for WordPress and WooCommerce; tell us why you choose that niche?

When building a product business, it’s essential to play to your strengths and focus on what you know. Since we already ran a successful WordPress agency, we were deeply immersed in the industry. We knew where the gaps, opportunities, and pain points were, which would allow us to build a successful plugin business.

We were aware of how fast WooCommerce was growing. How people are willing to pay more for plugins that will increase their sales – for obvious reasons! It naturally led us to focus on WooCommerce. This decision has proved to be correct, as the WooCommerce versions of our plugins sell much better than the general WordPress versions. For example:

• We have sold 5x more copies of our WooCommerce Protected Categories plugin than its generic equivalent – Password Protected Categories.
• We have sold 2x more copies of our WooCommerce Product Table plugin than its generic equivalent – Posts Table Pro.

This is particularly interesting given that the generic Password Protected Categories and Posts Table Pro plugins can be used for ANY WordPress post type. Whereas the WooCommerce versions only work with WooCommerce products.

When we launched WooCommerce Product Table and Posts Table Pro, I was convinced that Posts Table Pro would sell more because it has so many more potential use cases such as creating a WordPress document library, blog post index, member directory, audio library, and much more.

I think this shows the size of the market for WooCommerce products and the opportunities it brings.

Q4: What challenges did you face in building your business?

Our three biggest challenges have been time, time, and time!

Our daughter was born shortly after we started the business. As a result, we have grown the company against the backdrop of making sure we had the right work-life balance, and have never worked ridiculous hours. We do work hard, but not at the expense of family.

In many ways, we wish we had started working for ourselves much sooner when we had more free time. Andy and I are both perfectionists, and it has been hard to free up more time by building a team. We’ve never wanted to spend our time managing people, as that’s not what we enjoy.

While we still don’t have any in-staff. We have now built a team of colleagues around the world, including two full-time plugin support engineers, a developer who works on the Barn2 website, and a marketing team. When needed, we also bring in additional skills as required, for example, design work.

We have recently experimented with having other developers build some straightforward plugins for us. We hope to be able to get more help with the plugin development in the future – we’re very careful about this because it’s important that our plugins continue to meet our high standards.

Q5: You recently rebuilt and rebranded Barn2 – Can you tell us why, how the process went and what difficulties you experienced?

When we started selling plugins in 2016, we sold them on our existing website, which was previously used to promote our web design services. We added Easy Digital Downloads to the site, but never actually rebranded as a plugin company.

We had known for a long time that we would need to rebrand and launch a new website to take the plugin business to the next level. However, given the challenges I mentioned in the previous question, it took us a long time to prioritize this. We knew it would be a huge project which would distract us from building more plugins and improving our existing ones!

In the end, we started the project. It took us a long time to find a designer we were happy with because while we’re not designers ourselves, we know what we like – not an easy combination!

We weren’t happy with the work of the first designer we hired for the project and ended up using 99Designs for our new logo and website design.

The logo design went well. We were very pleased with one of the competition entries to design our new website. But, unfortunately, their work got worse and worse as we commissioned them to produce additional designs.

We later discovered that the original designer left the designer part-way through the project, which explains why the later designs weren’t as good as the original ones. We only got them to the standard we wanted by providing long lists of feedback and doing some of the work ourselves, which was the last thing we wanted to spend time on.

While the design part of the project was a struggle, we got there in the end and are delighted with our new branding. We were lucky to find a fantastic developer to build our new website. As we now work with on an ongoing basis.

You can read the full story of our rebrand in a transparency post I wrote – The Story Behind Barn2’s Rebrand & New Website.

Q6: What is your typical working day like at Barn2?

Andy and I work partly from our home office, and partly from an office. We rent at an ex-factory, which has been converted into a work hub.

After walking my daughter to school. I typically spend about half an hour cleaning the house and tidying up, before starting work in the home office.

Mid-morning, we will often drive to the work hub and work there. Since I work with my husband, we usually take time out to go for lunch or a walk in Dartmoor National Park. Which is right behind the office. We then return to the office and work until it’s time to collect Sophia.

While we rarely have face-to-face meetings with anyone other than each other. We work closely with the other members of the Barn2 team via email, Slack, and Helpscout. Due to time zone differences, the support team start work first and finish at about the same time as us. Our developer continues working after we have finished. There’s always some overlap, which is great.

Q7: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working with WordPress?

Since being desk-based isn’t very healthy, I try to find the time to do some exercise each day. The only exercise I particularly enjoy is walking. We’re lucky to live in a beautiful part of the English countryside with the coast and a national park very close by.

I also use the treadmill in the garage (while watching Netflix) a couple of times a week and do yoga sessions on YouTube.

Q8: What does the WordPress Community mean to you?

The WordPress Community is hugely important to me. Like most home workers, it’s easy to become isolated and work in a silo. The WordPress community provides a broader perspective, lots of ideas

I’m proud to be quite active in the WordPress Community, particular in relation to other plugin companies.

I’m an active member of several Facebook groups relating to selling WordPress products, WordPress product support, WooCommerce, and Easy Digital Downloads. It has been a fabulous opportunity to get to know other people who run similar plugin companies. I often exchange messages and ideas with people who do similar work to me.

This morning I was invited to join a new group of people who run similar plugin companies so that we can learn from each other.

WordCamps are my favorite part of the WordPress community because they’re the only time that I meet other WordPress people face-to-face. I don’t have the opportunity to attend many WordCamps. But I make the effort to go to WordCamp London and WordCamp Europe where possible.

Now I know more and more members of the WordPress Community. I try to contact people who I know will be attending and arrange to meet them in person.

For example, for WCEU in Berlin this year. I helped to arrange a meetup with the owners of several WordPress plugin companies. It makes networking opportunities more relevant, although it’s fun meeting random people at WordCamps too.

Q9: What are your plans for Barn2 in the future?

I love selling plugins and plan to continue doing this for the foreseeable future. More specifically, we plan to continue growing the business by improving our existing plugins and launching more new ones.

We need to continue focusing on expanding our development capacity. Recruiting some highly experienced WordPress developers who we can trust to add new features, build new plugins, etc. – while being very careful not to sacrifice on quality. This will involve continuing to fine-tune and formalize our processes so that less is dependent on Andy as the sole developer.

Right now, we’re building what will be the best plugin on the market for adding EU VAT support to Easy Digital Downloads. This has always been a significant pain point for EDD stores, such as ourselves.

There are no high quality, well-maintained plugins available, so we’ve decided to “scratch our own itch” by building our own. As well as using it on our website. We will be releasing the plugin to the wider WordPress community, and we hope it will be useful to other Easy Digital Downloads store owners.

Q10: Whom should we interview next & why?

James Kemp from IconicWP. His company is quite similar to Barn2 as he is building a small team and specializes in selling WooCommerce plugins. I’m always impressed by his professional and business-like approach to building a plugin company, so he’s a good person to interview.

Final Words

I thank Katie from Barn2 Plugins for taking the time to attend and answer all the questions for this interview.

The post Interview with Katie Keith from Barn2 Plugins appeared first on WP Pluginsify.