It examines the capabilities of AccelerateWP, the all-in-one performance optimization feature currently being offered in CloudLinux.

GIWS has been keen to activate this service to our customers.

CloudLinux has announced the launch of a new feature for its operating system, CloudLinux OS, called AccelerateWP. It is the package of optimization features provided with the CloudLinux OS, targeted at WordPress websites.

The standard version of AccelerateWP is now in production readiness, and we’ll take a look at its capabilities

Work requirements

• Website must use PHP version 7.0 or higher.
• WordPress version must be 5.4 and higher.
• Other WordPress Caching plugins must not be installed.
• WordPress should not run in Multisite mode.

Explanation of activation

To get started with AccelerateWP, go to your cPanel and find the AccelerateWP app in the Programs section.

Click the apply button and enter the AccelerateWP interface.

Click on Active to activate the plugin inside WordPress

After two minutes, the feature will activate and the tips will be applied. Close the window and see the active link in the corresponding cell of the table.

After a couple of minutes, the plugin will be installed. Login to WordPress Admin and find AccelerateWP in the list of active plugins.

Page caching will be enabled by default.

To view and control the plugin click on “Settings” below the plugin name to configure additional options.

Been completed Explanation of activating AccelerateWP

The post Explanation of activating AccelerateWP appeared first on GIWS Blog.

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Submit Takedown:
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What Does WP Mean?

WP stands for WordPress, which is a popular platform used for creating websites and blogs. It’s also one of the easiest ways to create an online presence for businesses, nonprofit organizations, artists, bloggers, and more.

What Is WP?

Have you ever used WP? This is a question that comes up quite frequently when we talk to clients about our website hosting services. WordPress is an open-source content management system that powers millions of websites.

WordPress is an accessible blogging platform used by many people, whether it’s for a finance company or a competitive duck herding hobby. What makes it incredibly popular is it allows users to create blogs and websites easily. That is why more and more individuals are becoming drawn to WP for their website needs.

What Are the Benefits of WP?

WordPress is a popular content management system that is used by all sorts of people and organizations for blogs, e-commerce stores, and even simple websites that just need a little bit of updating. Here are the main benefits of using WP:

• Simple to use
• Highly customizable
• Easily managed
• Search-engine friendly
• Safe and secure

Conclusion

WordPress is a powerful platform that has been around for over a decade, and it continues to be one of the most popular content management systems in the world. If you want to learn more about what makes this platform so useful, or if you’re interested in learning how GIWS Managed WordPress plans can help with your website, contact us today for more information.

The post What Does WP Mean? appeared first on GIWS Blog.

By adding a scheduling plugin to your website, you can accept bookings at any time of the day or night. If you choose the right tool, it can cut out some of the time-consuming administrative work involved, too. You’ll be free to concentrate on what really matters – growing your business.

In this post, we’ll introduce you to five plugins that enable customers to book appointments directly from your website. We’ll also cover all the features you should look for in a booking plugin, including integration with Google Calendar. Let’s get started!

What to Look for When Choosing a WordPress Scheduling Plugin

When choosing a WordPress scheduling plugin, you may want to look for the following features:

• Customization. You should be able to customize your booking form with your own branding and add the fields you need to gather relevant information from your customers.
• Reminders and notifications. By keeping your staff and customers informed, you can avoid costly no-shows and misunderstandings.
• Responsive. Mobile devices account for around 50 percent of web traffic worldwide. To avoid losing out on potential business, your chosen plugin should have a mobile-friendly interface.
• Support for multiple locations, services, and appointment types. You should consider the features that matter to your business. For example, if you run a chain of salons, then your plugin should make it easy for visitors to switch between locations.
• Support for multiple staff. Unless you’re an independent freelancer, your staff will need to maintain their own profiles and calendars.
• Accept payments online. If the plugin integrates with popular gateways such as PayPal and Stripe, then you can process payments up front.
• A completely on-website experience. It’s more convenient for customers to complete the booking process without ever leaving your website, particularly for mobile users.

Additionally, there are several benefits to choosing a WordPress scheduling plugin that integrates with Google Calendar. This platform is free to use, so your employees can download the app and monitor their appointments on-the-go.

You can also use Google Calendar to promote transparency across your business by creating a shared schedule. Clients who are familiar with the app can keep track of their services easily, which may help prevent no-shows, too.

5 WordPress Scheduling Plugins That Sync With Google Calendar

There are dozens of WordPress scheduling plugins available. It can take a while to sift through them all, so we’ve collected five options that integrate seamlessly with Google Calendar to give you a head start.

1. Simply Schedule Appointments

Simply Schedule Appointments is an easy-to-use and customizable booking plugin that can be synced with your Google Calendar. It comes with a built-in onboarding wizard (which actually walks you step-by-step through the Google Calendar integration), and if you require extra assistance you can access customer support directly from your WordPress dashboard. You can also request to connect with their support staff in real-time over Zoom.

Simply Schedule Appointments integrates with many popular services including Mailchimp, Google Analytics, and Zapier, as well as with WordPress page builders like Elementor, Divi, and Beaver Builder. If you want to accept payments up front, this plugin enables you to do so via PayPal and Stripe.

To help you avoid missed appointments, Simply Schedule Appointments can send notifications to your customers via email and text notifications. It also automatically associates booked clients with their WordPress accounts, enabling you to display personalized information on your website, including reminders.

You can also use this plugin’s conversion and goal tracking features to monitor the actions users perform before scheduling an appointment. By gaining this insight into visitor behavior, you can refine your sales funnel and secure even more bookings.

2. WordPress Calendar Booking

WordPress Calendar Booking is a free scheduling plugin that integrates your site with the StartBooking platform. It pairs nicely with Google Calendar, but you can also manage your appointments by logging into your StartBooking account.

You can add a booking form to any page on your site by selecting it in your StartBooking settings. If your business offers a range of services, then you can easily create separate forms for each using shortcodes.

To help you provide a more personalized experience, StartBooking records visitor behavior. By analyzing this information, you can nurture potential leads and build lasting relationships with the people who visit your WordPress website.

3. BirchPress

BirchPress is a scheduling plugin that’s designed for small businesses. You can use its form editor to build a custom booking form, and then position it anywhere on your website using the provided shortcodes.

To help keep your customers in the loop, BirchPress generates an email every time an appointment is booked, scheduled, or canceled. You can customize these emails to complement your company messaging and brand identity.

BirchPress can also accept payments via PayPal or credit card. You can support additional payment gateways using WooCommerce, which integrates nicely with this plugin.

While Google Calendar provides all the features you need to manage your schedule, some employees may prefer to use alternative solutions. BirchPress has full support for Google Calendar, but it also integrates with other popular apps including iCalendar and Outlook.

4. Easy Appointments

The free Easy Appointments plugin doesn’t provide Google Calendar integration by default. However, you can add a two-way syncing between your site and the app by purchasing the All in One Extension package.

Easy Appointments provides an email notification system for bookings, confirmations, and cancellations. It also supports multiple locations, services, and workers out of the box.

If you purchase the All in One Extension package, then you can also send SMS reminders via the Twilio communication platform. It enables you to take online payments via PayPal, too.

5. Amelia

If your business offers multiple services, then Amelia may be the best solution for you. It gives you the flexibility to incorporate a range of options via the same form. Visitors can filter available appointments based on service, business location, and employee, helping them schedule a booking that meets all their needs.

If your customers book via another medium, such as over the phone, then you can add these reservations to your online schedule by logging into Amelia’s admin panel. Once a customer has reserved their slot, you can send them reminders, including notifications about follow-up appointments.

Two-way synchronization with Google Calendar will enable employees to manage their schedules with ease. However, if they prefer, Amelia also provides its own user dashboard where your workers can keep track of their clients and upcoming appointments.

Conclusion

If a potential client calls to set up an appointment and no one answers the phone, then you risk losing out on their business entirely. By adding a scheduling plugin to your WordPress website, you can automate the process and accept bookings at any time of the day or night.

In this article, we covered five plugins that integrate with Google Calendar to provide smooth booking and schedule management processes for your clients and employees:

1. Simply Schedule Appointments: A customizable plugin that integrates with a long list of services, and also provides conversion and goal tracking.
2. WordPress Calendar Booking: A scheduling plugin based on the StartBooking platform; it records visitor behavior, providing key insight into your customers.
3. BirchPress: This plugin integrates with some alternative calendar services, including iCalendar and Outlook.
4. Easy Appointments: A free scheduling plugin with an optional Extension package that provides two-way synchronization with Google Calendar.
5. Amelia: This flexible booking plugin supports multiple services, business locations, and employees.

Looking for a quality hosting provider that can deliver your site at high speeds? Check out our small business plans today!

The post The Top WordPress Scheduling Plugins That Sync With Google Calendar appeared first on GIWS Blog.

However, these challenging times also represent a major opportunity for brands to build relationships with their current and potential customers. By adapting your email marketing strategy to maximize engagement and deliver value to subscribers, you can build trust and turn uncertain shoppers into loyal, lifelong fans of your brand.

In this article, we’ll consider some of the challenges email marketers are facing. We’ll then offer tips to overcome those challenges and look at some email marketing tools that can help you do just that. Let’s dig in!

How the Business Landscape Has Changed Due to COVID-19

You’d be hard pressed to find an aspect of life that hasn’t been affected by the pandemic. However, one of the largest shifts has been in retail and consumer shopping habits.

To start, people are just spending less. Some reports earlier in the crisis indicated a drop of as much as 7.5% in personal spending in the US, the largest such drop on record. People are hesitant to spend on non-essentials when there’s so much uncertainty about the future.

Additionally, when people do make purchases, they are increasingly doing so online. Part of this is simply the fact that many shops were closed for several months, but many people are continuing to buy online even after brick-and-mortar stores reopen. Habits are changing, and some experts expect a 160% increase in e-commerce purchases by new or low-frequency consumers.

Combine these changing habits with the increasing amount of time being spent online due to quarantine, and email has become a more powerful vector than ever for reaching customers.

Email isn’t just about letting people know what’s on sale (though that’s important, too). Used properly, it provides a way to build relationships with current and potential customers, so that when they do return to spending, they spend with you.

How to Maximize the Impact of Your Email Marketing

With so many emails being sent out during this time, it’s important to keep a couple points in mind. First, brand image is more important than ever. People want to know the brands they support are responsible and trustworthy.

Second, consumers are tired of the constant influx of COVID-related emails. As Marketo pointed out, folks are also all too happy to hop on social media and call it out.

With that said, here are some tips for making the most of your emails:

• Use authentic messaging. Your audience will know if you’re being genuine or just trying to take advantage of the situation.
• Provide real value to your audience. Don’t just focus on selling. Instead, provide compelling content and useful advice related to your product or service.
• Consider your demographic carefully and be sensitive to their needs. Stress and concern about the future are high right now, so keep that in mind.
• More frequent campaigns appear to be doing better, though this depends a lot on your audience. Since many people are still stuck at home, they’re hungry for content. Give it to them!
• Be personal. Customize your email templates to include little touches like names. It goes a long way.

Finally, consider the tools you’re using for email marketing. The right platform can make it much easier to create memorable, personal emails that speak to your audience. Don’t forget the importance of a reliable email host, either. A robust hosting platform is vital to ensure your messages make it to customers.

4 Email Marketing Tools That Can Help You Stand Out

There are a lot of email marketing platforms on the market. Choosing the right one can make or break your campaign. We’ve narrowed the field down to four of the most powerful and popular options. Let’s start with arguably the most popular.

1. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the biggest names in email, and for many it’s the first one that springs to mind. It certainly earns that reputation, too, with powerful features like the clean template editor and incredibly thorough reporting and analytics.

MailChimp is ideal for very small businesses that don’t need to send a lot of emails (thanks to the free plan), as well as users that value strong reporting, useful integrations, and a simple interface.

As mentioned, there’s a free plan that’s good for up to 2,000 subscribers. After that, prices start at $29.99 per month.

2. ConvertKit

If you’re looking for a MailChimp alternative, ConvertKit is an excellent option. This tool has been gaining popularity in recent years, and much of that has to do with its fantastic targeting features.

ConvertKit allows you to get really granular with user segmentation, so you can easily send the right emails to the right people. The other major advantage of ConvertKit is its built-in landing page editor, which lets you manage your entire funnel from a single platform.

ConvertKit is ideal for any business that needs to send a lot of highly-targeted emails. Prices start at $29.99 per month. There’s also a limited free plan available.

3. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is the tool of choice for businesses that need a more powerful email marketing platform. It’s packed with features, but the standouts are definitely the robust automation and easy-to-use editor.

ActiveCampaign also includes a built-in CRM tool to easily manage contacts and customer relationships, and the customer support is hard to beat. Overall, it’s a fantastic all-in-one tool for email management.

Prices for ActiveCampaign start at $9 per month, but vary highly depending on how many contacts you have. Unfortunately, there is no free plan, but the company does offer a limited free trial.

4. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is an excellent all-around email solution for small to midsize businesses. Standout features include versatile templates, an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, and a useful autoresponder tool.

True to its name, Campaign Monitor also provides highly granular analytics that let you get a clear view of your campaign’s performance. It also features automation and segmentation tools to help target your emails and tailor them to your audience.

Campaign Monitor starts at $9 per month. Although there is technically a free trial, it’s limited to just five subscribers.

Conclusion

Whether your business is pivoting to meet the changing needs of consumers, or you’re looking to maximize impact with existing customers, email marketing can play an important role in the process.

The keys to email marketing, particularly in this climate, are authenticity, personalization, being sensitive to the emotional needs of your audience, and providing genuine value. Combine these pillars with a solid email marketing tool and reliable hosting, and you’ve got a recipe for success.

The post Does Your Email Marketing Strategy Need to Change Due to COVID-19? appeared first on GIWS Blog.

User profiles are simply different accounts that offer different levels of access to your blog. If you’re looking to have other writers or users contribute to your blog, you’ll find user profiles very useful. You can use them to collaborate with other contributors while retaining administrative control over your site.

In this article, we’ll describe different user profile permissions in detail, share some benefits of adopting user profiles, and also show you how to create them. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to User Profiles

Virtually every piece of software is designed for use by different individuals, especially web apps. A user profile collects the specific data that defines how each individual accesses the software. It can contain various pieces of information depending on the function the software performs, such as the name and email address, profile picture, and login credentials.

One of the most important elements of user profiles every blogger must bear in mind the ‘user role’. This is a pre-defined label assigned to a specific user that determines the actions a user can take on a website. For example, WordPress offers these default user roles:

• Administrator. This role is the most powerful and is assigned to the creator of the site. In essence, an administrator can do everything all other users can do and more.
• Editor. This user can create, edit, and publish any page or post. They can also moderate comments, categories, and links. However, they cannot implement administrative changes such as installing themes and updates.
• Author. The role lets you add, edit, moderate, and publish your own posts, but nothing else.
• Contributor. On the other hand, a Contributor can only add or edit their own posts.
• Subscriber. Subscribers can only read posts on a blog.
• Super Admin. If you’re running a multi-site connection, this role has access to the entire network and can implement changes such as deleting sites.

As a blog owner, it’s highly recommended to carefully assign the more powerful user roles. For example, Administrator roles are usually only assigned to one or two users on the site. Any more than this, and you begin to potentially introduce security concerns onto your entire website.

The Benefits of Using User Profiles

Apart from helping to identify contributors on your site, here are some of the other ways bloggers can benefit from utilizing user profiles:

• Collaboration is easier. With the help of user profiles, several users can contribute to your blog with more organization. You can assign duties to different users by simply defining their roles. In other words, you can easily manage the entire publishing process from start to finish without hassle.
• They permit freedom and security. Every contributor is free to manage their own content with a defined user role. This again helps organization while preserving autonomy. For example, in the case of the Administrator role, if a third-party has to manage critical changes such plugin installation, you can create a new temporary user profile with administrative privileges.
• They enhance productivity. With better collaboration, you’ll end up achieving more with your blog. As such, everyone will be more productive and your blog readers get to read varied content from different authors.

In essence, bloggers have a lot to gain by having multiple user profiles on their blogs. Now, let’s go on and show you how to create your own user profiles.

How to Create Your Own User Profiles

The process of creating new user profiles on the majority of CMSs is similar. However, in this article, we’ll use 3 of the most popular options – WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal to illustrate what the process typically entails.

1. How to Create WordPress User Profiles

As we mentioned, only users with Administrator privileges can add new users to a blog. Once you log into your WordPress website using your Administrator login credentials, navigate to the Users > Add Newtab within the dashboard:

You can now add the new user’s information. This is where you get to assign a role to the user. By default, WordPress notifies the new user by email once you’ve created their new profile.

However, you can uncheck this box if you don’t want them to be notified. Once you’re done, you can click the Add New User button and you’ve just successfully opened up your blog to third-party collaboration!

2. How to Create Joomla Profiles

To create Joomla profiles, begin by logging into your administrator panel with your login credentials. You’ll usually find the panel at a link similar to https://mydomain.com/administrator.

To add a new user, simply navigate to Users > Manage > Add New User within your administrator panel:

The next screen displays three tabs where you can tweak the new user’s information and privileges as you wish – Account Details, Assigned User Groups, and Basic Settings:

You can define user roles under the Assigned User Groups tab. Once you’re done here, simply click the Save button.

3. How to Create Drupal Profile

To create your Drupal user profile, head to your admin panel by navigating to your domain’s admin page (for example, https://yourdomain.com/admin,) and filling in the details.

Once you’re in the admin panel, navigate to People > List, and click the Add user link:

After adding the new user, fill in all the available information fields.

You can assign the new user a role under the Roles section. Drupal will also notify the user by email if you check the box.

Conclusion

User profiles are an effective and often necessary way of managing content contributions on your blog. They significantly ease the process of collaboration and help bloggers to be more productive.

User profiles help bloggers by boosting their productivity and offering freedom and security while collaborating together on the same project. Fortunately, the process is straightforward, no matter whether you’re using WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!, or any other CMS.

The post An Introduction to User Profiles for Bloggers appeared first on GIWS Blog.

GIWS provides you with an massive free, and ad-free load balanced free web hosting service including PHP, MySQL, FTP, cPanel & more!..

Free Hosting Plan:

Along with all this, we provide free FTP, PHP 7.2, 7.3 & 7.4, MySQL and our very popular feature: The Automatic Script Installer (Like Fantastico) You can install many popular scripts such as PHPbb2 and PHPbb3, WordPress, Zen-Cart, osCommerce, MyBB, UseBB, MyLittle Forum, 4images, Coppermine, SMF, Joomla, e107, XOOPS, PHP Wind, CuteNews, Mambo, WikiWig and many more! No need to wait a long time uploading files, Softaculous Script Installer deploys your files in seconds! You can find our Automatic Script Installer in the cPanel.

Main Features

• 1000 MB (one gigabyte!) Disk Space
• FTP account and File Manager
• Control Panel
• MySQL databases & PHP Support
• Free tech support
• Addon domain, Parked Domains, Sub-Domains
• Free Community Access (Forums)
• Clustered Servers

Complete Features

Tutorial – How to sign up for Free Hosting

Step 1.

Go to Free Hosting

And press Get Started For Free!

Step 2.

Select “I will use my existing domain and update my nameservers” enter the domain and press USE

Step 3.

Enter “Username” and Click Continue

Step 4.

Click Checkout

Step 5.

Fill In The Information  – please don’t fake your information to prevent account termination

Step 6.
And Click Complete Order

Step 7.
Access Your Email and click Verify Link

Step 8.

Fill in your account information and click Login

Step 9.

Select Login to cPanel

Step 10.
you will be redirected to your cPanel Page

The post How to get Free Hosting appeared first on GIWS Blog.

What’s more, if your content isn’t accessible on any type of device, then you risk losing out on potential visitors. Fortunately, by using a headless Content Management System (CMS), you can create your content once and then publish it across multiple operating systems, including Android and iOS.

In this post, we’ll explore what makes a CMS headless, and the reasons you may want to choose that kind of platform. Let’s get started!

What Is a Headless Content Management System (CMS)?

A Content Management System (CMS) has a front end (the head) and a back end (the body). To convert a traditional CMS into a headless CMS, you separate the two ends. The ‘head’ refers to where the content ends up, and the ‘body’ is where that content is stored and authored.

A headless CMS tends to take the form of a database back end with a web-based User Interface (UI) as the front end. You’ll use the UI to create your content, and the database to store and manage all of the supporting data.

A headless CMS doesn’t care how or where your content is displayed. Instead of coupling your content to a specific output, such as a web page, it provides your content as data using a RESTful Application Programming Interface (API). To access a post, you’ll send the headless CMS a network request to an API endpoint.

You can host a headless CMS on your own server and database. However, this requires you to perform your own scaling and operations. In most cases, it’s simpler (and cheaper) to host your headless CMS using a web hosting provider.

The opposite of a headless CMS is a traditional or ‘monolithic’ CMS. This is software that you either install and manage yourself, or access via a managed environment. While a headless CMS only provides the back end required to store and manage your content, a traditional CMS provides a way to display that content as well.

Of course, some platforms can do double duty. For example, WordPress is typically considered a traditional CMS. However, WordPress has a REST API built in, which makes it a popular choice for converting into a headless CMS.

5 Benefits of Using a Headless CMS

There are many benefits to opting for a headless rather than a monolithic CMS. Let’s look at five of the key advantages.

1. You Can Push Content to Multiple Platforms

Modern web content should be accessible across multiple platforms. A headless CMS removes the presentation layer from your content, which makes it platform-independent.

When you need to deliver the same content across various channels, a headless CMS can save you a significant amount of time. For example, you can make API calls to a headless CMS and push the same content to both iOS and Android. This is often much easier than developing and maintaining two separate sets of content.

2. Choose Your Preferred Technology and Tooling

A headless CMS enables you to take a developer-first approach, rather than focusing on how the back end will feed to the front end. Since headless content is served over APIs, you can build your website using the technology of your choice, including your preferred front-end tooling. You can also define how data is stored and managed in the back end.

Since you don’t have to learn technology that’s specific to your chosen CMS, a headless platform can save you a significant amount of time. As your project evolves, you can interchange parts of your technology stack, or move from one framework to the other without having to start from scratch. This gives you the freedom to continuously revise and improve your approach, based on the changing needs of your project.

3. Greater Freedom to Display Your Content

Since you’re not tightly tied to any particular themes, plugins, or even a specific platform, you have more control over your content’s appearance. Even if you develop custom software such as bespoke themes and plugins, you’re often restricted by your CMS’ front end.

By opting for a headless CMS, you have greater freedom to store, develop, and present your content. This includes showcasing your content in ways that traditional CMSs such as WordPress aren’t designed to support, even with the help of themes and plugins.

4. Protect Your Content Against Attackers

Headless content is separated from the presentation layer, which means that it has a smaller attack surface. In particular, a headless CMS doesn’t have a native content publishing solution, so the chances of a Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack are reduced.

Since your content exists separately from your front-end delivery, it also isn’t as vulnerable to third-party application issues. This includes security vulnerabilities and bugs that are sometimes present in pre-existing technology stacks.

5. Get a Performance Boost

Traditional CMS architectures have to spend resources on content editing and rendering. By contrast, a headless CMS consists of a content database and API calls. This can significantly reduce your overhead costs and cloud storage bills.

When used as a headless CMS, WordPress only requires a simple MySQL and PHP stack, making it a lightweight and high-performing option. In other words, headless architecture is a great way to speed up your websites and applications.

Potential Issues With Headless CMSs

For all the benefits on offer, there are some potential drawbacks. Headless CMSs don’t offer a ‘What You See Is What You Get’ (WYSIWYG) editor or a live preview option, which can make it difficult to predict how your content will appear when rendered.

Headless CMSs also typically require more maintenance, particularly in terms of updates and security. They can also require different credentialing, and may benefit from advanced libraries and front-end programming expertise. For these reasons, headless CMSs can be challenging for users who don’t have extensive content management and programming experience.

Using WordPress as a Headless CMS (2 Methods)

If you’ve weighed up the pros and cons and decided to give headless a try, WordPress is a great platform to get started with. Here are two ways to set up WordPress as a headless CMS.

Method 1: Create a Blank Theme

The front end may have little role to play in a headless CMS, but WordPress does still require a theme to run. The easiest option is to create a blank theme, using the following files:

1. index.php. This will redirect users to your website’s static home page. The file will preserve the back end, and remove the front end of your CMS.
2. style.css. This should contain some basic information about your theme, including the theme’s name and the author’s name.

To create your index.php file, you’ll use the following format:

<script type="text/javascript">

window.location = 'http://example.com';

</script>

To create the style.css file, use this format:

/*

Theme Name: blank

Author: name

*/

You can then place these two files in your wp-content/themes/blank directory, and activate the theme in the WordPress admin area.

Method 2: Use a Plugin

Alternatively, you can create a headless WordPress installation using a plugin. While this diminishes your flexibility a bit, it’s also a faster and simpler option.

There are a few tools you can try, but we’d recommend getting started with WP Headless CMS Framework:

This solution provides multiple framework options, and is highly-configurable thanks to a collection of modules that can be activated and deactivated at will. The plugin also comes with its own comprehensive documentation, which should get you up and running quickly.

Conclusion

In today’s multi-device world, it’s often not enough to publish your content to a single place. Creating content for multiple platforms can be a time-consuming process, but a headless CMS enables you to do this far more quickly and effectively.

To set up WordPress as a headless CMS, you can either:

1. Create a blank theme.
2. Use a plugin, such as WP Headless CMS Framework.

Going headless doesn’t eliminate the need for secure, reliable hosting! Regardless of whether you opt for a traditional or a headless CMS, make sure you choose the right hosting provider.

The post What Is a Headless Content Management System (CMS)? appeared first on GIWS Blog.

If you’re going to earn money from reseller hosting, you need to get ahead of the competition. This means offering the right services to the correct customers, with strong branding and a consistent marketing message.

In this article, we’ll cover all of these points. If you’ve been debating whether to start your own reseller hosting business, we have a ten-step plan to turn reseller hosting into a profitable online venture. Let’s get started!

A Brief Overview of Reseller Hosting

As a hosting reseller, you’ll purchase a hosting package from an established hosting provider. You’ll then divide these resources into smaller hosting packages, and sell them to your customers for a profit.

As a business, it’s a bad idea to depend on a single revenue stream. By adding hosting services to your repertoire, you can diversify your income and protect your business against fluctuations in the market. After all, just because your flagship product is in high demand now, doesn’t mean it’ll be flying off the shelves forever.

In today’s market, it’s difficult to think of an organization that doesn’t need a website. If you have an existing customer base, you already have an audience for your hosting services. In this way, reseller hosting can help you maximize your revenue without the added expense of acquiring new customers.

As a reseller, you can generate additional income while also eliminating the upfront costs typically associated with launching a new business venture. This includes purchasing servers and software licenses, and configuring your own network. It also removes many of the ongoing costs, including hiring staff to manage your hosting infrastructure, and repairing broken hardware.

Reseller hosting can be effective for building long-term relationships with your existing customers. Since it’s a subscription-based service, hosting can transform one-off or occasional purchases into loyal, repeat customers. In the best case scenario, reseller hosting will provide your business with a reliable, recurring revenue stream that lasts for years.

How to Make Money With Reseller Hosting (10 Ways)

You now know the answer to the question: What is reseller hosting? Next, let’s find out how you can turn reseller hosting into a lucrative sideline, or even an entirely new business venture. Here are ten tips for making money with reseller hosting.

1. Find Your Relevant Niche

Becoming a successful hosting reseller isn’t about competing with the big hosting providers. These established companies are often in a position to provide highly competitive pricing. They also have the funds to target a large, diverse customer base.

Many successful hosting resellers target a niche audience. By focusing on a specific audience, you can create services, features, and marketing that speaks to the deep needs of your chosen niche.

As such, your potential revenue may be smaller as a niche hosting provider. However, you’re not trying to compete with the big hosting companies. This means your costs should be lower – which is great news for your profit margins.

When deciding who to target, it’s important to find a niche that’s large enough to sustain your business. Here, it may help to use a tool such as Google Trends. Using Trends, you can gauge how many people are searching for keywords related to your potential customer base.

You should also pay attention to the areas where relevant searches are originating. You may be able to increase your appeal, by adding a local slant. For example, if a large number of relevant searches originate from the Florida area, you can incorporate this location into your branding.

2. Plan for Future Expansion

Targeting a niche audience can help you reduce costs, while improving the customer experience. However, if you get too specific, you’ll limit your future growth opportunities.

You may have already chosen your niche. However, before committing to this niche it’s smart to consider future expansion opportunities. One solution is to transition into new niches as your business grows. This might involve expanding into related industries, or related locations.

For example, your business might target local restaurants that require web hosting. This is great for positioning yourself as an expert in the local hospitality industry. However, eventually you may struggle to find new customers who fit this very specific demographic.

In this scenario, you might expand your geographical reach to include restaurants in neighboring cities and states. Alternatively, you might target other segments of the hospitality industry, such as local hotels, gyms, and theaters. When identifying expansion opportunities, it may help to refer to Google Trends.

By planning your businesses’ future now, you can ensure you’re targeting a niche that has growth potential. If you need to adjust your niche, it’ll be far easier to make these changes now, rather than waiting until after you’ve launched your business.

3. Position Yourself in the Market

Once you’ve found your niche, it’s time to identify what they want from a hosting provider. To help you understand the needs of your target audience, you should examine the providers already operating in your chosen niche.

Wherever possible, try to identify at least five competitors who are targeting your future customers. You can then examine the products and services they offer, and their price points.

These are your direct competitors. To stand out from the crowd, you can either offer hosting that’s more budget-friendly, or present yourself as the premium option. Of course, the latter might involve offering more resources, unique features, or a higher standard of customer service.

You should also gauge the size of your direct competitors, and the resources available to them. It’s possible that established providers may already be targeting your chosen niche. In this scenario, you may decide to further refine your target audience. For example, if there’s fierce competition for local e-commerce sites, you could narrow your focus to local affiliate sellers, wholesale retailers, or business-to-business sellers.

4. Choose the Right Hosting Provider

As a hosting reseller, your services are completely dictated by your hosting provider. Choose the right provider for your business, and you’re off to a strong start.

For the best results, you should find a hosting provider that closely matches the resources and features your customers need, without providing any unnecessary added extras. It may be tempting to opt for the provider offering the latest features, or uncapped resources such as bandwidth, memory, and disk space. However, this doesn’t represent good value for money if your customers don’t actually need these features and resources.

If you’re launching a new business, it can be difficult to predict what your target audience might need. Here, it can help to study your competitors. You can also opt for a provider that offers a range of bandwidths.

When choosing a provider, we’d also recommend paying attention to uptime. If your hosting provider’s servers go down, it’ll take all of your customers’ websites down with it. According to Gartner, unscheduled downtime can cost a company as much as $5,600 per minute.

A recent study by Moz also found that intermittent 500 internal server errors can cause issues with tracked keywords. Choose the wrong hosting provider, and your customers may see a drop in their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) after switching to your reseller business.

Wherever possible, we’d recommend opting for a provider that offers an uptime guarantee. You should also check the provider’s reputation amongst customers, including their rating on third party review sites such as HostAdvice.

When you have a network of customers relying on your hosting services, it’s also vital that you can contact your hosting provider 24/7. Ideally, your chosen hosting provider should be contactable via multiple channels, and provide self-help resources including a detailed knowledge base.

5. Create a Strong Brand

Your branding should reflect your chosen niche, and communicate what makes you unique. By creating a consistent message that runs through your entire branding, you can clearly communicate who you’re targeting, and what you have to offer.

By creating a clear, consistent brand now, it’ll be easier to market your business in the future. Strong branding can also help obscure your identity as a hosting reseller.

There are some misconceptions surrounding hosting resellers. Some customers believe they can get a better experience, by cutting out the middleman and purchasing directly from your provider. Other customers may believe that reseller hosting is more expensive, since both the provider and the reseller have to earn a profit.

At GIWS, we provide extensive white labelling functionality. Our resellers can use these features to re-brand all of our GIWS products and services.

Our white labelling options include customizing your customers’ cPanel accounts, your nameservers, and even your billing software. By taking advantage of these features, you can build a strong brand identity.

6. Launch Your Reseller Hosting Business

Once you’ve chosen your provider, the next step is creating your hosting packages. This process can vary, but at GIWS all our reseller accounts include Web Host Manager (WHM) as standard.

WHM is an essential tool for managing any reseller hosting business. You can use WHM to perform important tasks, including creating client accounts, monitoring bandwidth usage – and creating your web hosting packages.

To create a package, log into the WHM console and select Add a Package. You can then specify the resources that you want to include in your hosting package.

You’ll also need a way to get your hosting packages in front of potential customers. If web hosting is a natural extension of your current services, you might add a landing page to your existing WordPress website. It’s possible to create landing pages using WordPress’ built-in features. However, you may find it easier to create beautifully-designed landing pages, using a dedicated page builder such as Elementor.

Another option is to launch an e-commerce store dedicated to your web hosting business. When it comes to selling products and services online, WooCommerce is a hugely popular option.

7. Excel at Customer Support

As a smaller hosting provider, your customer support has the potential to make or break your business. Provide a high level of customer support, and you’ll stand out from your direct competitors – and potentially even the major hosting providers.

Happy customers can be the best way to advertise your business. Today, it’s difficult to think of an organization that wouldn’t benefit from an online presence. In a world where everyone needs web hosting, every satisfied customer could potentially recommend your company to a huge number of people. To grow your business, it’s essential to provide a good customer experience.

The best customer support starts as soon as someone lands on your website. If they have questions then it should be easy for them to get answers. This might involve posing their questions via live chat, or researching the answers themselves using self-help resources such as FAQs.

Ideally, there should be multiple ways to contact your customer support. This might include telephone support, live chat, and a dedicated ticketing system.

Some customers may prefer to find answers for themselves. For these customers, you should provide self-help support. Popular self-help resources include a wiki or a knowledge base. There are plenty of WordPress plugins that can help you build an effective knowledge base, including Echo Knowledge Base.

However, it’s important not to over-promise and under-deliver. It’s far better to offer a few support options and provide excellent customer service across these limited options, than to offer inconsistent support across all channels.

If you’re an GIWS reseller, you can display information about how to contact customer support, as part of the customer’s cPanel account. This ensures your customers know exactly where to turn if they ever encounter an issue.

8. Connect With Your Ideal Customer

When you focus on a specific niche, you can market your business more effectively. Instead of marketing to everyone (which rarely works), you can concentrate on connecting with a specific target audience.

First, it’s a good idea to determine whether there are any platforms, websites, publications, or other channels that target your ideal customer. These niche channels will usually have a smaller audience, which helps reduce your marketing costs. There should also be a strong correlation between the channel’s audience and your ideal customer. This means the Return On Investment (ROI) for these marketing activities will likely be very high.

9. Do Your (Keyword) Research

Targeting a specific niche also makes it easier to market your business using tools such as Google AdWords. Keyword research can often reveal keywords that strongly relate to your business and target audience, but have very low competition. This can help get your adverts in front of your ideal customer, at minimal cost.

To create Google Ads, you’ll need to sign up for a Google Ads account. You can then access the Keyword Planner, and research keywords that are related to your business. You can also filter these keywords according to search volume and level of competition.

As a smaller or newer hosting provider, we recommend avoiding popular keywords, as these tend to be hard to rank for. Instead, it’s a smart move to focus on keywords that have a decent search volume and low competition.

There are many more factors that go into marketing your business. When creating a marketing plan, it may help to ethically ‘spy’ on your competitors. For example, you can review a competitor’s marketing activities, using tools such as SEMrush or SimilarWeb. This may involve gaining an insight into your competitors’ SEO strategies, and much more.

10. Monitor Your Site’s Performance With Google Analytics

At this point, your website is up and running and you’re actively promoting your hosting services. This is a great start, although to grow your business you’ll need to continuously monitor its performance.

By consulting key metrics, you can identify content, actions and campaigns that aren’t delivering your desired results. You can then remove these activities from your business plan. On a more positive note, you can identify the actions that are delivering the results you want. You can then focus more time and effort into these activities.

You can monitor your website’s performance, using analytics platforms. Using analytics data, you can make more informed decisions about the future of your marketing campaigns, and even the future of your business in general.

There’s lots of analytics platforms that you can use to monitor your website, but Google Analytics is one of the most popular. Platforms such as Google Analytics provide access to metrics that are critical to your businesses’ success, including bounce rate, traffic sources, and conversions.

The sheer amount of data in platforms such as Google Analytics, can be overwhelming at first. To start, we’d recommend focusing on your overall traffic, and time spent on site. These two metrics provide an insight into your ability to attract visitors, and your ability to keep them engaged with your content.

It’s also a good idea to monitor your primary sources of traffic. This can help you identify any third parties or platforms that are supplying you with a significant amount of traffic. You can then invest more time and effort into nurturing these sources.

Conclusion

Turning reseller hosting into a profitable business isn’t always easy. However, many people have already successfully added hosting to their offerings, and have even launched entire businesses dedicated to reselling hosting services.

The ten-step plan we’ve given you in this article is a great start for making money from your new business venture. Of course, identifying a niche audience with lots of room for future growth is one of the first steps to take. Also, building and marketing your brand as a respected hosting provider in your own right is key to success.

As a hosting reseller, the service you provide to your customers is ultimately dictated by your hosting provider. If you’re going to make money with reseller hosting, it’s important to choose the right provider. This will vary between businesses, but we recommend opting for a reseller provider that offers an uptime guarantee, prioritizes performance, and provides 24/7 customer support.

How to Make Money With Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting is a great way to earn extra revenue, but it’s also a competitive industry. These ten tips will help you get ahead of the competition!

The post How to Make Money With Reseller Hosting appeared first on GIWS Blog.

What is ModSecurity?

The vast majority of website attacks occur because vulnerabilities found in certain web applications (i.e. CMS software, blogs, eCommerce carts, forums etc.) are exploited. ModSecurity is a web-based firewall application (WAF) security solution that adds an additional layer of protection to protect against this sort of attack. ModSecurity detects and blocks these types of attacks before they can reach your web application.

What Do I Need To Know About False Positives?

ModSecurity works in the background checking every page request your site receives against a number of security rules. Requests that are deemed malicious are blocked in an attempt to keep your site safe. ModSecurity, like any other WAF, can produce false positives.  This means ModSecurity may occasionally incorrectly block a legitimate request. This can occur if the application is poorly coded and appears to be malicious.

If a false positive occurs, you may receive a 403 Forbidden, 404 Not Found or 406 Not Acceptable Error. This can easily be corrected by contacting our Support team. We will be happy to help you solve this issue!

What Are The Advantages Of ModSecurity?

The bottom line is that ModSecurity will be a free service, automatically configured on our Shared and Reseller accounts. The intent is to keep your websites even safer! ModSecurity provides us with improved protection against a number of different attacks including:

• SQL Injections
• Trojans
• Cross Website Scripting
• Session Hijacks
• Bad User Agents
• Additional Exploits

The post Coming Soon: FREE Enhanced Account Protection With ModSecurity! appeared first on GIWS Blog.