5 WordPress tips you (possibly) did not know

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At WpUpgraders we work with WordPress every day. And every day, we try to keep each other on our toes by sharing new tips and discoveries about WordPress with each other. We also like to share these things on our blog. So, here we have five tips for WordPress you (possibly) did not know.

1. Two-factor authentication for WordPress

Many people are still using unsafe passwords on the internet. This increases their chances of being hacked enormously, because hackers can easily find out your passwords through automated guessing. Two-step verification demands two actions before successfully signing into your account, for example, using a password and entering a code you have on your phone. So if a hacker where to ever guess your password, he would still be unable to sign in, because he would need your phone for the second step.

You can get two-factor authentication for WordPress for free with the Google Authenticator plugin. On your smartphone you install the Google Authenticator App, which generates the code you need to enter after logging in. After having completed these two steps, you get access to the WordPress admin. There’s a payed alternative for Google Authenticator called Duo.

2. Selecting several messages or pages at once

Sometimes you have to select a whole list of messages or pages in WordPress at once, to edit or remove them. Did you know you can select more

than one message at the time by pressing and holding SHIFT? Then you press and hold CTRL (or CMD on a Mac) which allows you to check and uncheck individual messages.

This way you can quickly move several messages or pages to trash at the same time.

3. Ping-o-matic

Maybe you’ve never heard of Ping-o-matic, but every WordPress user is using this free service. It informs search engines when you publish a message or page. This way, search engines can include your update in their search results almost immediately after you’ve posted it.

But you don’t always want this to happen right away. Maybe you want it to be included in the search results a bit later. In this case, it’s good to know that you can easily deactivate these notifications to Ping-o-matic. In WordPress you go to Settings > Writing and you remove the address http://rpc.pingomatic.com/ from the text field below ‘Update Services’.

Please note that you only prevent your messages from being sent to search engines immediately. Your messages will still be indexed, but at a later time (because search engines also visit your website on their own). Do you not want your website to appear in the search results at all? Then go to Settings > Reading and check the box at the bottom: ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’.

4. Preview your Widgets and Menus

When editing a blog or page, you can click on ‘Customize’ to see a preview of what your changes are going to look like, before publishing them and making them visible to visitors. But how do you do this with Widgets and Menus?

Since WordPress 4.3 it’s possible to preview the changes you’ve made to your Menus and Widgets. In WordPress, go to Appearance > Customizer to see your website with an extra sidebar on the left. You can just click through your website; the sidebar stays visible. In the Customizer, you click on Menus or Widgets and make the changes you want to make. You immediately see the effect of the changes you’re making to your website. When you are satisfied with the result, you click on ‘Save’, after which your changes will be published.

5. Pasting hyperlinks in a text

When you write many blogs, you will probably sometimes link to other websites. The usual way to do this in WordPress is by selecting the desired part of the text, clicking on the link icon, entering the URL, and clicking on ‘Add link’. But did you know there is a faster way?

Usually you’ve already copied the URL to which you want to direct your reader. Now select the text you want to use as a link and press CTRL-V (or CMD-V on a Mac).

Your selected text will now become a link to the address you had copied earlier. Easy peasy!

Do you have any good tips? Please tell us below!

10 websites that sell WordPress themes

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For a few years, we’ve been commenting the best places to buy WordPress themes. In the past, we tried to make a complete list of all the selling websites. That’s no longer possible. WordPress themes are now sold by tens of thousands of sellers on thousands of websites. An article like Where can I buy the best WordPress themes in 2013 (Dutch) can no longer be rewritten; we needed a new angle.

That is why we’ve selected a couple of websites that stand out to us. Websites we personally go to when we need a theme. This means we’ve kept a few well-known theme-providers out of the picture, because we didn’t think their WordPress themes to be attractive enough. On the other hand, we’ve included a few small providers with very appealing WordPress themes.

Some links in this blog contain affiliate code.

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Ten websites, thousands of WordPress themes


The largest marketplace with quality WordPress themes.

  • Type: marketplace
  • WordPress themes: 5.500+
  • Price: $40 – $60 per theme
  • Customers: > 5 million

Visit ThemeForest.net »

In the past few years, Themeforest has become one of the most popular marketplaces for WordPress themes. Themeforest is part of Envato. This Australian company launched several marketplaces for online products in 2006. Themeforest was one of them. At Themeforest, you could buy templates/themes for various CMSs, WordPress among others, but especially the sale of WordPress themes increased strongly. Now this is by far the largest source of income for all of Envato.

Pros

  • Largest offer;more than 5.600 WordPress themes, so the widest range of quality themes.
  • Price; themes never cost more than $60 which makes them relatively cheap.
  • Flexible; many WordPress themes are sold as construction kit/framework (so-called multi-purpose themes). Themeforest themes are leading with this concept.
  • Strict quality criteria for authors (theme sellers).
  • Tools; Envato offers many development tools to authors. This increases the quality.

Cons

  • Not user-friendly; ThemeForest WordPress themes are often very elaborate. Theme builders keep adding more functionalities to compete with other providers. These functionalities can be convenient, but they also make many WordPress themes very complicated to use. It becomes harder to learn how to use these themes and the strength of WordPress as a user-friendly CMS is under threat. It makes the themes more suitable for experienced users and less for beginners.
  • Updates & support; with ThemeForest you pay a one-time fee per theme per website. After this, you get unlimited support and updates for this theme. On the short run, this looks like an attractive deal to users. On the long run, it doesn’t. What this means, is that new customers pay for the updates & support of old customers. When the demand for a certain theme decreases, providers will soon lower their budget to keep providing good maintenance & support. So, sellers have very little interest in providing long-term support for WordPress themes.
  • Little consistency; every WordPress theme has a different working method, for example for configuring theme settings. This makes using WordPress themes more complicated than necessary. By the way, WordPress is working on improving this, but in our opinion Envato should show a little more initiative here.

Tips

There are thousands of sellers on ThemeForest alone. So how do you make sure you can still see the forest for the trees?

  1. Look at the popular WordPress themes. The sales numbers are an indication of the quality other buyers attribute to these themes. Also, the seller will have a higher budget to keep updating the theme.
  2. Look at WordPress themes of popular suppliers. On the seller’s pages you’ll find a Portfolio tab. This leads you to the themes of this particular supplier.
  3. Judge themes on: release date, last update and the number of sales. Find out what others say about the theme (under comments) and what kind of support is included.
  4. Don’t be misled by the number of functionalities. If it has many functionalities, this doesn’t always mean the theme is better.


Best price-quality ratio & powerful flagship theme DIVI.

  • Type: developer
  • WordPress themes: 87+
  • Price: $69 for all themes
  • Customers: > 280.000

Visit ElegantThemes.com »

Nick Roach from Elegant Themes started making free WordPress themes in 2008. Due to popularity, he also started selling the WordPress themes. Now this company from San Fransisco employs over 20 people. Elegant Themes has always distinguished itself by offering the most themes at the lowest price. For $69 you can use all of their (87+) themes for a year. This way you have access to themes that allow you to make a wide range of websites.

Elegant Themes’ Flagship is their theme DIVI. DIVI is somewhat comparable to Enfold, the theme/framework that we use to develop many websites. This allows you to build your website block by block. You don’t have to be able to program to construct a very flexible website. Currently not many new themes are being published, but DIVI is continually being developed.

An interesting feature of Elegant Themes is that you can try it out. You need to buy it first, but they have a money-back guarantee. You can ask for a refund within 30 days.


Mostly suitable for beginners with the need of a niche theme. Recently became active on the flexible layout editors market with Monstroid.

  • Type: developer
  • WordPress themes: 1200+
  • Price: $75 per theme
  • Customers: thousands

Visit TemplateMonster.com »

TemplateMonster offers several online products, among which are website templates and WordPress themes. The TemplateMonster themes are very popular, because they look good and are customized for specific audiences. The TemplateMonster themes are not market leaders when it comes to technical innovations. For example, it took TemplateMonster rather long to switch to responsive design. Now, all new themes are built on the CherryFramework. Just like Enfold and DIVI, TemplateMonster offers the possibility to work with a page builder. However, the MotoPress Drag and Drop Editor has to be purchased separately ($29).

We advise you to buy a theme from TemplateMonster when you really like the design and you don’t have the desire or the ability to do much fine-tuning. TemplateMonster offers all kinds of additional payed services, such as installing themes and adaptions to plugins and design. This makes the TemplateMonster especially suitable for beginners.


Relatively new marketplace of online products with a growing number of sellers and WordPress quality themes.

  • Type: marketplace
  • WordPress themes: 1.850+
  • Price: $25 – $79 per theme
  • Members: > 1 million

Visit CreativeMarket.com »

This new marketplace distinguishes itself from, among others, it’s older brother ThemeForest, because it allows providers to also sell their WordPress themes without restrictions on their own website. Furthermore, the WordPress themes on Creative Market are sold based on a GPL license. This means that after buying the theme, you can use it any way you want. With ThemeForest you’re only allowed to use the theme on one installation. That is why several smaller theme providers that have their own marketplace also sell their themes on this website.


The official WordPress theme directory on WordPress.org with the largest selection of free themes.

  • Type: marketplace
  • WordPress themes: 1.900+
  • Price: many free themes, some with payed upgrade options
  • Users: millions

Visit the WordPress Theme Directory »

Until recently, most themes from the WordPress Theme Directory were viewed as unattractive and outdated. This has changed enormously, however. More and more, we run into nice themes that can be downloaded for free from the Theme Directory. This is because of the business model that is used by many of the suppliers. The basic version of the WordPress theme is free, but if you want extra functionalities, you can buy a professional version. Especially when you need to control your budget, we recommend you first look through this Theme Directory for a suitable theme.


WordPress themes for the business market. Minimalistic in design & technology.

  • Type: developer
  • WordPress themes: 20+
  • Price: 2 themes for $69
  • Customers: unknown

Visit ThemeTrust.com »

ThemeTrust was founded in 2010 by the internet entrepreneur Henry Jones. The company (about 4 people) offers a nice range of 20+ themes. Their setup is minimalistic and their functionality is simple, which makes them highly suitable for beginners. The ThemeTrust themes can be used for more than one purpose, but we think the look and functionality of these WordPress themes are mostly suitable for business purposes


Sharp design for video, photography and magazine websites.

  • Type: developer
  • WordPress themes: 20+
  • Price: $75 per theme
  • Customers: >30.000

Visit Press75 »

Press75 may be one of the first premium theme suppliers. The company was founded by Jason Schuller in 2008. Jason wanted to offer minimalistic no-nonsense themes: the theme has to determine the website’s layout; the functionalities should be configured through plugins. Despite the great start his company made, he could not compete with other suppliers that overloaded their themes with functionalities. In 2014 Jason sold his website to Westwerk Design, a web agency in Minneapolis. What appeals to us most in these themes is their neat design and simplicity.


Modern design themes that are easy to use.

  • Type: developer
  • WordPress themes: 120+
  • Price: from $69
  • Customers: > 50.000

Visit OrganicThemes.com »

Organic Themes is a company from San Diego that sells WordPress themes since the beginning of 2010. Now, Organic Themes employs four people. The company has always worked closely with WordPress.com. They have contributed greatly to the availability of quality themes on WordPress.com. Which has benefited them enormously. They claim to now have over 50.000 customers, one of which is us. What we really like about these WordPress themes is the way they combine design and simplicity.


Simple visually attractive themes for small foundations, churches and restaurants.

  • Type: developer
  • WordPress themes: 17
  • Price: $59 for 2 themes
  • Clients: unknown

Visit OrganizedThemes.com »

The man behind Organized Themes is Bill Robbins, originally a preacher. With this background in mind, you can understand the way these themes are set up especially for small foundations and churches. The themes are visually attractive and are limited when it comes to adjustment options. This makes them suitable for beginning users and small foundations/churches. The themes include a GPL license.


Visually attractive designs. The themes are meant for many different audiences.

  • Type: developer
  • WordPress themes: 30+
  • Price: from $45
  • You can test the themes before buying them

Visit Themefuse.com »

ThemeFuse was founded in 2010 by four men in Bucharest, Romania. Besides purchasing WordPress themes from ThemeFuse, they also offer customization for each theme. The company also tries to stand out by offering excellent support. We really like the original design of their themes. They’re not completely different from standard themes, but they are different from those of other suppliers. What separates their themes from the others is that they focus on a specific audience/functionality.

WordPress themes and plugins for the hotel and catering industry

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If you are the owner of a hotel, bed-and-breakfast, restaurant, café or any other business in the hospitality sector, you can use WordPress to make a beautiful website. But which themes and plugins should you use? In this article, we’ve listed the pros and cons of some popular themes for the hotel and catering industry and recommend some additional plugins to make your online service successful

Some links in this article contain affiliate code.

WordPress themes for the hotel and catering industry

Online you can find thousands of WordPress themes for restaurants, coffee shops, diners, bed-and-breakfasts, etc. But which one is most suitable for your company? We’re giving you an overview of the most popular WordPress themes for hotel and catering businesses.

Divi Café ($ 69 per year)



Divi Café is a beautiful complete theme for cafés and restaurants from ElegantThemes. The theme contains a digital menu, online ordering options and lots of space for nice product photography.

Pros:

  • Digital menu
  • Ordering online
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Great design
  • Contact form
  • Responsive

Cons:

  • Payment module not included by default
  • Reservations/schedule module not included by default

MyCuisine ($ 69 per year)



MyCuisine is a complete theme for restaurants from ElegantThemes. The theme contains a digital menu and a page for contact information, including your location on Google Maps.

Pros:

  • Digital menu
  • Google Maps
  • Many settings options
  • Contact form
  • Responsive

Cons:

  • Payment module not included as standard
  • Reservations/schedule module not included as standard

Enfold ($ 59 one-time)



Enfold is our favorite WordPress theme, and is also suitable for restaurants. With the floorplan and reservation form, your customers can book their own table in your restaurant. Furthermore, Enfold can be expanded with many plugins.

Pros:

  • Multipurpose design
  • Floor plan with reservation form
  • Many settings options
  • Contact form
  • Responsive

Cons:

  • No digital menu
  • No ordering module
  • Booking module does not block the times that are fully booked

Restaurant ($ 69 per year)



Restaurant Theme from Organic Themes is simple and to-the-point. The fact that you can make a very elaborate menu with this theme, makes it very attractive. The contact form is limited and depends on the Gravity Forms plugin, which is not included ($ 39 per year).

Pros:

  • Simple design
  • Elaborate digital menu
  • Contact form
  • Responsive

Cons:

  • No ordering module
  • No booking module
  • Contact form only possible with external plugin

Hotel California ($ 59 one-time)



Hotel California is a very complete WordPress theme for hotels, hostels and bed-and-breakfasts. The theme offers the possibility to show different rooms, that can also be booked. It includes a calculator, so visitors can quickly calculate the price of their stay.

Pros:

  • Design offers space for photography
  • Booking and reservation module for rooms
  • WooCommerce integration possible
  • Price calculator
  • Responsive

Cons:

  • No payment module

Starhotel ($ 49 one-time)



Starhotel is a WordPress hotels theme with a clean design. The included booking module has a prominent position and you can easily add rooms with a specific price per room.

Pros:

  • Design offers lots of space for photography
  • Booking and reservation module for rooms
  • Prices adjustable per room
  • Responsive

Cons:

  • No payment module
  • Booking module does not block the times that are fully booked

Grand Restaurant ($ 59 one-time)



Grand Restaurant offers lots of space for photo impressions. The theme contains a menu for your products, including ordering options when you’re using WooCommerce. Also, the theme has a simple reservation module.

Pros:

  • Design offers space for photography
  • Simple booking and reservation module
  • Ordering products via webstore
  • Responsive

Cons:

  • No payment module
  • Booking module does not block the times that are fully booked

Piquant ($ 59 one-time)



With Piquant you can choose from different website layouts for your restaurant/café. You can describe your recipes and ingredients, and have your visitors book a table. Visitors can also purchase products online, using WooCommerce.

Pros:

  • Practical menu description
  • Booking and reservation module for tables
  • Elaborate descriptions of recipes and ingredients
  • Responsive

Cons:

  • No payment module
  • Booking module does not block the times that are fully booked

WordPress plugins for the hotel and catering industry

Hotel and catering businesses often need additional functionalities on their WordPress website. Think of a booking system for a bed-and-breakfast, a reservation module for a diner, an online menu and payment methods for a take-away and ordering forms for ordering online. Not every theme contains all the functionalities you need. That is why we describe a few plugins you can use as an addition to your WordPress theme to complete the website for your restaurant or café.


WooCommerce adds a webstore functionality to WordPress. This allows customers to buy meals, but also to pay for the reservation of their room or apartment. Plus, there are loads of plugins and extensions for WooCommerce, so it has many possibilities.

Pros:

  • Free base product
  • E-commerce integrates with WordPress
  • Many plugins and extensions
  • Many themes are compatible with WooCommerce

Cons:

  • The base product is free, but the extensions are usually not
  • Complex software, also read our webstore comparison

Gravity Forms ($ 39 per year)


Our favorite plugin for building webforms is so extensive that it can even be used as a basic ordering system. Are you subletting a few rooms per month? Don’t get into an entire webstore package, but start out with Gravity Forms. With a few clicks, you create an ordering form, place it on your ordering page, and you’re ready to go.

Pros:

  • Easy installment
  • Drag and drop form builder
  • Conditional logic offers many possibilities
  • Elaborate online documentation
  • Many themes support styling for Gravity Forms

Cons:

  • The form styling is not very modern

Pinpoint Booking System ($ 50 one-time)


With Pinpoint Booking System you can process the reservations of, for example, rooms on your website, including payment. The plugin is very useful for, for example, hotels and bed-and-breakfasts.

Pros:

  • Very versatile plugin with many options
  • Organized back end
  • Can be linked with payment module (Mollie)
  • Options to add discounts, additional costs and upsells

Cons:

  • For price exceptions (per room), you need to create separate forms
  • Configuring the plugin takes some time

BirchPress Scheduler ($ 75 per year)


Just like with Pinpoint Booking System, you can use BirchPress Scheduler to handle the reservations and payments of the tables or rooms on your website. Additionally, BirchPress offers synchronization with an external schedule, so you can also see the reservations, for example, on your phone. This plugin is exceptionally suitable for restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts.

Pros:

  • Elaborate plugin with many settings options
  • Link to external schedule feed
  • Organized backend
  • Many payment modules possible

Cons:

  • It takes some time to get to know the plugin
  • Payment modules via WooCommerce are versatile, but complex

Booked Appointments ($ 34 one-time)


Booked Appointments is a lesser-known, but a very nice plugin with a clean design, that may be exactly what you need for some target groups. Visitors can pick a date, schedule a time slot, and then leave their contact info. Optionally they can even make a payment with a WooCommerce payment module.

Pros:

  • Plugin has a clean design
  • Compact display of schedule and dates
  • Can be synchronized with an external schedule feed
  • Many payment modules possible
  • Form fields are configurable

Cons:

  • External schedule feed is read-only (reservations are not saved into the schedule)
  • Plugin is not easily extended with add-ons

Do you have another tip? Please tell us below!