Table of Contents

The Story Behind this Toolkit 2

Why Having a Toolkit is Important? 3
Web Hosting 4
Security & Performance 6
Essential Functionalities 7
SEO & Marketing 8
Themes & Styling 12
Monetization 14
Ecommerce 15
Membership 16
Translation 17
Additional Resources 18
Copyright and Disclosure 19

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The Story Behind this Toolkit
When I first started using WordPress in 2006, I wanted to know what
were the exact plugins and tools that “experts” are using on their
website.

At the time, no such resource existed. I struggled my way through and

learnt from every single mistake that I made.

In 2009, I decided enough was enough and created WPBeginner

which became the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.

Today, I want to share with you my toolkit - a collection of WordPress

related products and resources that I use on our websites and
projects.

I hope you will find it useful in building / improving your WordPress

site.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

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Why Having a Toolkit is Important?

When growing a business, time is money.

Leveraging the right set of tools will help you save time and get ahead.

On the other hand, using the wrong set of tools can cost you a lot of
money and hassle in the long run.

That’s why I always recommend choosing the best tool for the job.

Note: Not all plugins / services that I use are free.

I pay for them because they make me more efficient. Instead of

looking at them as costs, I look at them as investments.

A toolbox stuffed with necessary tools is crucial for the success of

your website.

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Web Hosting

Often overlooked, web hosting is one of the key components of every

successful website. Web hosting is where your website lives on the

internet. Similar to a house, each website has different needs.

Knowing what you need will help you make the right decision and
save time / money.

Where I host WPBeginner:

SiteGround - The WPBeginner website is hosted on a

SiteGround Enterprise server. I have been using

SiteGround since 2015. They host over 2.8 million

websites.

SiteGround provides the perfect combination of speed, performance,

and reliability. They have plans that grow with your business.

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Alternatives:

Bluehost - One of the oldest web hosts started in

1996. Great for small businesses. I use them for my

smaller websites. Officially recommended by

WordPress.org.

Hostinger - Another great yet affordable web

hosting provider. They have many data centers

across the world. In our speed tests, their servers

turned out to be one of the fastest on the market.

Enterprise WordPress Hosting

WPEngine - WP Engine offers WordPress-specific

hosting built to ensure high performance, security,

and uptime. With WPEngine, you’ll have an army of

WordPress experts on your side for assistance.

Read more about when do you need Managed WordPress Hosting.

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Security & Performance
Making sure that your website is secure and loads fast is detrimental
to your success. Below are my favorite security & performance tools:

Duplicator - Schedule cloud backups for your site.

This is like a time-capsule for your website. If

something goes wrong, you can go back in time.
You can get the free plugin from here.

Alternative: UpdraftPlus

CloudFlare - One of the best CDN services available.

Cloudflare offers a free CDN that speeds up your

website along with a suite of powerful security

features. Learn to set up Cloudflare Free CDN.

WP Rocket - Best caching plugin for WordPress.

Caching is a must have for every website because it

reduces server load and significantly speed up your

website.

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Essential Functionalities
Want to add basic functionalities to your WordPress website? Take a
look at some of the best WordPress plugins I use on all my websites.

WPForms - Drag & drop WordPress form builder.

Easily create contact forms, subscription forms,

payment forms, or any other type of forms without
hiring a developer. Here’s the free version.

WP Mail SMTP - The most popular SMTP and PHP

mailer plugin for WordPress. Ensures emails sent

through your WordPress sites are delivered properly.

Here’s the free version.

WPCode - Add code snippets safely without having

to worry about breaking your site. It significantly

reduces the number of plugins installed on your site.

Take a look at the free version.

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 SearchWP - Make your site’s content more
searchable. It indexes additional content that the

default WordPress search ignores like custom fields,

ACF fields, product attributes, and more.

SEO & Marketing

Want to get more traffic and subscribers on your website? Here are

the best WordPress SEO and marketing plugins to help you boost your
website traffic.

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) - The best WordPress SEO

plugin. It helps optimize your content by adding

meta titles, descriptions, sitemaps, and more. Get the

free version here.

OptinMonster - Converts abandoning website

visitors into email subscribers. I created this plugin

for WPBeginner and now it’s being used by some of

the largest websites on the internet.

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 Drip – Powerful tool to send email newsletters.
Makes it easy to segment your audience, set up

automation and workflows. I use it on WPBeginner

and most of my websites.

Alternatives: Constant Contact and Brevo.

MonsterInsights - Most popular Google Analytics

plugin for WordPress. See how visitors find and use

your website, so you can keep them coming back.

Simply put get the stats that matter.

PushEngage - Easiest way to drive repeat traffic to

your website. It lets you notify your site visitors via
push notifications and encourage them to return to

your site. I use it on WPBeginner.

RafflePress - The best contest and giveaway plugin

for WordPress. With RafflePress, you can grow your
email list, social media following, and more. You can

get the free version.

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 Smash Balloon – The best social media feeds plugin
for WordPress. Create and display custom Facebook,

Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube feeds on your

WordPress site.

UserFeedback – Easy survey tool that gives you more

insights into what users wanted. Create surveys like

feedback/experience, NPS, product usage survey,

etc. Get the free version here.

Keyword Generator Tool – Our FREE tool enables

you to create 300+ SEO keyword ideas in a click.

With it, finding keywords are no longer tedious or

time consuming.

SEO Analyzer – Our FREE SEO tool lets you quickly

perform an SEO audit, finds critical errors, and

generate a report to fix them. No signup or

installation needed to use it.

Free tools: Get access to more free tools from WPBeginner.

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Suggested Readings:

- Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners (Step by Step)

- Why building your email list is so important today!

- Why you should never use WordPress to send newsletter emails -

This is quite tempting but don’t do it.

- 19 actionable tips to drive more traffic to your new website

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Themes & Styling
The look and feel of your website are crucial for delivering a great user
experience. Here are my favorite theme shops and design plugins.

I highly recommend that you read this guide on selecting a WordPress

theme before you make any decision.

SeedProd - Create custom WordPress themes and

page layouts without a developer. Also design

landing pages, and get access to 200+ built-in
themes. Here’s the free version.

Divi - The easiest way to design a WordPress site

without hiring a developer. It comes with a drag and

drop builder that lets you customize every part of
your WordPress site.

Thrive Architect – Premium page builder that comes

with 350+ pre-designed layouts for homepages,

sales page, and more. You can connect it with
their Thrive Optimize addon to split-test your pages.

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 Astra - It’s a free WordPress theme that comes with

tons of ready-to-build starter site templates. It’s

optimized for performance and seamlessly integrates

with most drag and drop page builders.

Envira Gallery - Easily create WordPress photo and

video galleries, organize them in an album, sort them

by tags, add social media integration, eCommerce,

and more. Get the free version.

Alternatives: NextGEN Gallery (plugin), Photocrati (theme)

SoliloquyWP - The fastest WordPress slider plugin.

Easily create image and video sliders in WordPress.

Features include dynamic content sliders, carousels,

lightbox, and more. Download for free!

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Monetization
At the end of the day, your goal is to make money with your website.
Below are the tools I recommend:

ThirstyAffiliates - Easy solution to manage your

affiliate links. It automatically detects keywords on

your website and adds affiliate links. I use it on
WPBeginner and my other websites.

Advanced Ads - WordPress banner ads made easy.

Easily rotate banner ads, set ad expiration dates, see

stats, and more. Over 150,000 sites use Advanced

ads to optimize their ads.

Suggested Readings:

-6 Best WordPress Ad Management Plugins

-30 Proven Ways to Make Money Online Blogging

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Ecommerce
One of the best ways to monetize a website is through an online store.
Below are the best WordPress eCommerce solutions.

WooCommerce - The most popular WordPress

eCommerce plugin. Easily add an online store on

your WordPress website. Best for selling products
where shipping is involved.

Easy Digital Downloads - Makes it easy to sell digital

products with WordPress. Great for selling eBooks or

online software. We use it to sell our WordPress

plugins. Get the free version.

WP Simple Pay – Allows you to accept one-time or

recurring payments via Stripe without setting up a

shopping cart. Great for setting up a payment form

in WordPress. Free version is here.

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Membership
Another way to monetize your website is by creating a membership
website and offering premium content to paying subscribers. Below

are the best WordPress membership plugins.

MemberPress - Easy to set up membership plugin

that allows you to build and sell online courses. You
can also create content dripping, and integrates with

most popular marketing and payment solutions.

Thrive Apprentice - Best WordPress membership site

and course builder. Its drag and drop course builder

makes it easy to create modules, chapters, and

lessons to keep your courses well organized.

MemberMouse - Enterprise-level membership plugin

to sell products with members-only pricing. Create

member-only content with access controls and

manage members with CRM tools.

Additional resource: Ultimate guide to creating a membership site

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Translation
If your business has an international presence, then you may want to
localize your content for certain geographical regions. Here are the

best plugins to add and manage translations in WordPress.

TranslatePress - Short for WordPress Multilingual,

allows you to create content in different languages.
It’s powerful enough for corporate sites while simple

enough for small blogs.

WPML - Short for WordPress Multilingual, allows you

to create content in different languages. It’s powerful

enough for corporate sites while simple enough for

small blogs.

Additional Info: 9 Best Translation Plugins for WordPress Websites

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Additional Resources
Thank you for reading my toolkit, and I hope you found it to be

helpful.

If you did, then please consider following WPBeginner on:

- Facebook Group (Get free WordPress assistance from our experts)

- Facebook Page (Like us on Facebook)

- Twitter (Follow us on Twitter)
- YouTube (Subscriber our channel on YouTube)

We share tons of awesome video tutorials on YouTube, so definitely

check that out.

You may also like the following sections on WPBeginner:

- WordPress Dictionary - WordPress terms explained in plain English.

- WPBeginner Deals - Exclusive discounts on the best blogging tools

and services for WPBeginner users.

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Copyright and Disclosure

© Copyright 2016 WPBeginner LLC. All Rights Reserved.

May be shared with copyright and credit left intact.

Disclosure:

Some of the links in this book are affiliate links. This means if you click
and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no
additional cost to you. In most cases, you will actually get a better deal

because you’re a WPBeginner user.

Regardless, I only recommend products or services that I personally

use and believe will add value to my readers not because of the small
commission.

Syed Balkhi has ownership in the following products: OptinMonster,

WPForms, MonsterInsights, and several others.

WordPress is a registered trademark of WordPress Foundation.

WPBeginner is a registered trademark of WPBeginner LLC.

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This eBook and its authors are not affiliated with nor sponsored by the
WordPress foundation.

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