Growing Your Email List 6 Digits and Beyond [Upcoming Webinar]

Looking to grow your email subscription list by colossal amounts? Join Syed Balkhi of WP Beginner and OptinMonster on Wednesday, September 28th at 11 a.m. CDT for a free webinar discussing some of the best ways to give your email list a massive boost in subscriptions. Sign up here:

How to grow your email list six digits and beyond

Building a bigger email list is important for many reasons. It builds a relationship between your brand and followers by delighting them through engaging content. Emails can also attract readership, converting readers into prospects.

Get smart with your email growth tactics by watching this informative session where the following tips will be covered:

• The No.1 trick to increase email subscribers in less than five minutes


• How to solve the biggest list building problem before you even encounter it


• The exact workflow Syed used to grow his email lists


• A simple psychology principle proven to increase conversions by mammoth amounts


• And more!

This is surely a webinar you don't want to miss! Can't attend? Sign up anyways and we'll send you a link to view the recorded session after the live one airs.

REGISTER NOW

Hope to see you there!

The post Growing Your Email List 6 Digits and Beyond [Upcoming Webinar] appeared first on WP Engine.

Zippythemes.com for Sale

We have just put zippythemes.com for sale. This is a great domain for anyone looking to enter the WordPress themes market with their own themes store.

If you're interested in acquiring the domain please fill in the form below to get in touch. Serious offers only please.

How to Change Sender Name in Outgoing WordPress Email

Do you want to change the default sender name and email address for outgoing WordPress emails? By default, WordPress uses 'WordPress' as the sender name for all outgoing WordPress notification emails. In this article, we will show you how to change the default sender name and email address in outgoing WordPress email.

Why You Should Change the Default Sender Information in WordPress?

The default WordPress sender name is 'WordPress' which sends emails from a non-existent email address (wordpress@yourdomain.com) as the sender email.

Many spam filters block your WordPress emails believing it to be spam. Sometimes it does not even make it to the spam folder.

For more on this topic, take a look at our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

The outgoing email notifications are important, and you should use your own brand and email address. This increases the authenticity of your brand and increases name recognition among your users.

Having said that, let's see how to change the default sender name and email address in outgoing WordPress email notifications.

Method 1: Changing Default Sender Name and Email using a Plugin

First thing you need to do is install and activate the CB Change Mail Sender plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will notice a new menu item labeled CB Mail Sender in your WordPress admin bar. Clicking on it will take you to plugin's settings page.

You will need to enter the name and email address you want to be used for outgoing WordPress emails.

Don't forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

That's all, all your WordPress notification emails will now show the name and email address you entered in plugin settings.

Bonus tip: You should use a professional email address. See our guide on how to create professional business email address.

Method 2: Manually Change Sender Name and Email Address

This method requires you to paste code into your WordPress files. If you are new to adding code in WordPress, then take a look at our beginners guide on pasting snippets from web into WordPress.

You will need to add the following code in your theme's functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

// Function to change email address



function wpb_sender_email( $original_email_address ) {

    return 'tim.smith@example.com';

}



// Function to change sender name

function wpb_sender_name( $original_email_from ) {

	return 'Tim Smith';

}



// Hooking up our functions to WordPress filters 

add_filter( 'wp_mail_from', 'wpb_sender_email' );

add_filter( 'wp_mail_from_name', 'wpb_sender_name' );

This code simply replaces the default WordPress sender name and email address with your custom sender name and email address.

You can test this by adding a new user, changing password, or any other action that sends WordPress notification email.

We hope this article helped you learn how to change sender name and email address in outgoing WordPress email. You may also want to see our guide on how to send email to all registered users in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Change Sender Name in Outgoing WordPress Email appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Move a Single WordPress Site into a Multisite Network

One of the most frequent questions I've been asked by students completing the WordPress Multisite course in The Academy is this: how do you move an existing WordPress site into a Multisite network?

This post is designed to answer that question and take you through the steps you need to follow to move a site into a network. I'll look at:

• How to use the Import/Export tool to migrate content.


• How to use the Widget Settings plugin to migrate widgets.


• How to tidy up afterwards.

Choosing a Migration Method

In this post I'm going to show you the easy way to migrate your site, using a couple of plugins. This has the advantage of being quick and easy, and for most sites it will migrate almost everything you need.

But if you've made a lot of customizations to your site using the Customizer, or you've spent a lot of time setting up your plugins, this method won't migrate all of that. You can either take the time to manually tweak everything again (see the final part of this post) or you can manually migrate the site by copying the relevant database tables.

Migrating the database tables involves using phpMyAdmin to download database tables, editing the resulting sql file and re-uploading that using phpMyAdmin again. It saves you having to do any tidying up at the end but can be a bit daunting. I'll cover that in a separate post – if you don't feel up to that, by all means follow the instructions here.

So let's get started!

Before You Start

But wait. Before you start, there's a very important thing you need to do. Back up your sites. Make a backup of the site you want to move AND your network. Just in case. Use your favorite backup plugin (it's Snapshot Pro, right?).

Ready? Now you can get started.

Exporting Content from the Old Site

WordPress provides a tool you can use to easily import and export your content. Let's start with that. Open up your starting site. Here's mine:

In the admin screens, go to Tools > Export:

Unless you just want to export certain post types, keep the All content option selected and click the Download Export File button. WordPress will create an XML file and download it to your computer.

Creating a New Site in Your Network

Now open the network into which you want to import your site. Start by creating a new site in the normal way.

Installing and Activating Plugins and Themes

Before you import content, install the same theme you were using in the old site on your network and activate it for your new site. Do the same for any plugins.

If you're not sure how to install and activate themes and plugins on your network, see our guide to configuring Multisite.

Importing Content to Your New Site

Now, before you import the content from your old site, go into the Posts and Pages listings in the admin screens and delete any dummy content that's been created for you when you created the site. Delete any widgets too. You should have an empty site.

Before you can import the content from your old site, you'll need to install the WordPress Importer plugin. Go to your Plugins screen in the network admin and install that (you'll need to search for WordPress Importer).

Now in your new site's admin screens, go to Tools > Import and scroll down to WordPress at the bottom of the list. Click the Run Importer link.

WordPress will ask you to select a file to upload:

Click the Choose File button and then select the file from your machine (it will be in your downloads folder unless you've moved it). Remember you're looking for an XML file. Once you've done that, click the Upload file and import button.

The importer now wants to know if you want to assign content to existing authors on your network, or import authors:

Select whichever option applies to you. I'm assigning my posts to my existing username, but if you're running a multi-author site you may need to import authors.

Finally, select the Download and import file attachments option to copy media files from your old site and insert them in the correct place in your new one. This is one of the most useful features of the importer as far as I'm concerned and I've never yet come across a site where I didn't check that box!

Click Submit and the importer will work its magic.

Eventually you'll see the All done! message. Take a look at your Posts admin screen to see the posts that have been imported: you'll find pages too.

So that's your content imported. Next, let's import widgets. You can do this with another plugin.

SUMO Subscriptions – WooCommerce Subscription Plugin

SUMO Subscriptions for WooCommerce is the most comprehensive WooCommerce Subscription Plugin. It has tons of features using which you can sell subscriptions in your WooCommerce shop. Feel free to contact us with new feature requests.

Fixing the “Are You Sure You Want to Do This” Error in WordPress

The vaguest WordPress error you'll no doubt come across at some point, which also has a whole laundry list of probable causes, is…

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

What's frustrating about this particular error is that it could mean you made a small fixable mistake or, worse, that you've been hacked (though typically it's a security issue that's easily fixed and not always the case).

Today, we'll uncover the meaning of this mysterious error, when and why it happens, as well as troubleshoot techniques and fixes.

Getting an Error Accidentally on Purpose…

Unfortunately, the “Are you sure you want to do this?” error can happen while you're trying to accomplish a wide variety of tasks:

• Publishing posts or pages


• Inserting an image into a post


• Customizing a theme


• Creating tags or categories


• Uploading a theme or plugin


• Updating WordPress core or plugins and themes

This isn't by any means a complete list, but it should give you a good idea of when this error could occur.

When the error appears, it's the only thing that's displayed other than a link to try again, though, a second attempt usually doesn't work.

The vague error on an otherwise blank page.

It may seem as though this is an odd error in its phrasing since it's not specific. The phrasing makes sense because there are so many potential causes and most of the time it's an error that's caused on your end. Either you made a mistake or the developer who created the plugins and themes you use made the mistake.

The wording of the error is specifically set to make you pause and think about what happened and if it's possible that you made the mistake after all.

Here are some of the most common reasons for the error:

• You selected an incorrect file when trying to upload a theme or plugin


• An improperly coded theme or plugin


• You reached your PHP memory limit


• A security issue

Before exploring troubleshooting steps and fixes, it's important to explore the possibility that there's a security issue since this would be a serious problem that would require special attention in order to protect your site.

What's Security Got to Do with It?

In many cases, the error pops up when you try to complete an action that requires certain user permissions, but WordPress isn't able to verify that you have access.

WordPress uses security tokens, often called nonces. They're used to validate a user to verify that they are the owner of their account and they have the correct user role to complete the action they started.

If WordPress isn't able to verify the security tokens, the error displays.

If your site is the subject of an attack, especially in cases of cross-site scripting (XSS) or cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks, you might see the error in the midst of an attack.

It could also occur if a plugin or theme has a security vulnerability or isn't otherwise properly coded.

If this is the cause, installing and using a security plugin like Defender can help you locate and fix the vulnerability and end an attack in a few clicks. For other causes of the error, you can try the troubleshooting steps and fixes below.

Changing Your WordPress Database Prefix to Improve Security

WordPress database tables all begin with the wp_ prefix by default. Security gurus often recommend changing the prefix to secure your site, but is it really worth doing? Or is it all sizzle and no steak?

The idea is that changing the database prefix helps avoid nasty SQL injections since hackers usually use queries with the standard settings in their attack, but if the database details are unique the hacker would get an error.

While updating the fix is by no means the best or only solution for protecting your site, it's one step you can take to make your WordPress install that little bit more secure.

So in this post, I'm going to run you through why and how changing your WordPress database prefix can add to your site's security. If you missed the option in the famous 5-minute install, not to worry. I'll also cover how to make the change manually with phpMyAdmin, SQL queries, the wp-config.php file as well as the much easier, one-click method using our Defender plugin.

Keep in mind that at any point, if you get stuck trying anything in this post or anything, ever for that matter, you can ask our expert support team for help. If you're already a WPMU DEV member, you're all set to ask your question. If you're not a member yet, you can sign up for a premium account for free and ask away.

What's Prefix Got to Do with It?

To understand why changing your database's tables prefix could help as a part of your site's preventive measures against attacks, it's important to explore the both sides of the argument. Knowing the reasoning behind the amendment should give you a better idea of what it takes to keep your site secure.

That's all well and good, but why is it a popular practice to change the table prefix in the first place?

SQL Injections and the Common Recommendation

When you're checking out the pros and cons, it's important to note that the main reason why it's widely recommended to rename your table prefix is to prevent a hacker from overtaking your site with a successful SQL injection.

In short, when your site is vulnerable to an SQL injection, it means that a hacker can execute an SQL query from an unsanitized form on your site without your permission or knowledge. If a hacker can successfully run an unauthorized SQL query on your site, it means that there's an open connection to the target database. When this happens, a hacker can change whatever they want and gain full access and control over your site.

When this happens, a hacker can change and do whatever they want with your site since the database is fully exposed to them. They wouldn't necessarily have access to your files, but they would have full reign over your database.

They could gain full access and control to your site and the first task is usually changing the admin login credentials. This locks you out and lets them continue going about they way, making a wide range of changes from making your site turn into spam central and stealing personal information to infecting thousands of others sites where they can spam it up and steal all the more.

It's certainly something you want to protect your site from and you can get more details on SQL injections and its prevention by checking out The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Spam.

Cons

The main reason against renaming anything in the database is that if a hacker can execute an SQL injection on your site, there's already an open connection to your database. This means that if their first SQL query fails, it's easy enough for the hacker to run a query searching for the second half of the table names that are almost always identical to the default.

The second query could search for names including usermeta and postmeta. The search would turn up the full table name and voilà! Your hacker reads your new prefix. From there, they could continue doing what they wanted.

This is also assuming they didn't have access to your files as well. If they did, they could easily find your new prefix there as well.

At the end of the day, if your site and database aren't vulnerable with an open connection, then it doesn't matter what your table prefix happens to be and if there is an open connection, a hacker could easily figure out what you named your prefix making it useless.

Pretty cut and dry, right? Well, not exactly. There are a couple factors and one major one that's left out of the picture here.