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Reginald Chan – Page 143 – Serious Talks on Marketing & Relationships Matters

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  • Which Is The Best Page Builder For WordPress ?

    Which Is The Best Page Builder For WordPress ?

    ​There are hundreds of WordPress page builders in the market and finding the best page builder for WordPress is challenging. For starters, many WordPress page builders provide very similar features which made the process of selecting the right one extremely complicated.

    ​Lucky for you, what you will find in today’s post will be the best WordPress page builder (through my own experience) and the reasons behind it.

    Important: The best WordPress builder is going to help you solve a lot of challenges and save you time in building a page. Make sure you make the right decision when choosing a page builder for your blog.

    Best Page Builder WordPress

    ​The Best Page Builder for WordPress – Thrive Architect

    ​I have used many page builder, including the all time famous OptimizePress. I have used it since day one OptimizePress was launched until I came across Thrive Architect.

    ​For the record, Thrive Architect is the new and updated version of the previous Thrive Content Builder. Yes, yes and yes — Thrive Architect is apart from Thrive Themes family.

    ​What makes Thrive Architect powerful?

    ​Make no mistake. There are many WordPress page builders in the market today but not many of them are smooth. In most cases, they lag even at the most simple task. This is where Thrive Architect is different from the rest.

    Thrive Architect is smooth and very fluid. This makes the process of building a WordPress page highly effective and fast. It doesn’t lag just like other WordPress visual page builders and it is easy to use.

    How does ​Thrive Architect looks like on the backend?

    ​Do you use Medium? If yes, it certainly offer a touch of feel of Medium, along with more features than you can imagine.

    ​Traditional WordPress editor looks like this.

    Standard WordPress Editorial TinyMICE

    ​As you can see, it is very straightforward and doesn’t offer much customization and even features. Most customization work on WordPress backend requires the usage of coding, shortcodes or HTML codes to make it look good for the eyes.

    ​However, Thrive Architect is build from ground up, that offers ​a whole new experience. ​Some call Thrive Architect a WordPress drag and drop page builder. Others call it WYSIWYG WordPress page builder.

    Take a look at the image below to see Thrive Architect’s backend. As you can see below, you can customize any WordPress page or post with Thrive Architect panel.

    Thrive Architect Review Choose An Element

    Either way, Thrive Architect is created to solve the biggest problems most WordPress users are experiencing; lack of a page builder that is easy to use and effective.

    ​Build WordPress pages using ready-made templates

    ​Thrive Architect comes with a list of awesome WordPress templates that you can use. Instead of designing a page from scratch, you can select a wide range of beautifully crafted sample pages.

    ​Here’s a few screenshots of the pre-installed pages.

    Thrive Architect Landing Pages Template SetsSave

    ​Each of the set you see above comes inbuilt with more than two landing pages and they are all professionally done to ensure that each page has similar elements for similarity.

    Unlike other page builders for WordPress, you often need to either clone or recreate new pages in order to have the pages to have similar elements. With Thrive Architect, you just need to select the landing pages and walaa – multiple landing pages are created in just seconds instead of hours.

    ​Best WordPress Page Builder: Thrive Architect

    Thrive Architect allows you to to throw away all the guess work and put your time where it matters the most. In this case, building a WordPress page fast and effective.

    ​If you are interested to read the ​complete Thrive Architect review, you can do it here. ​

    ​Are you using Thrive architect? If no, click here to see Thrive Architect in action!

  • Should You Buy Thrive Themes?

    Should You Buy Thrive Themes?

    ​Do you think that Thrive Themes is worth it? Do you think it is worth buying Thrive Themes?

    In today’s short article, I’m going to share with you my honest option using Thrive Themes for almost a year now.

    Before that, let’s do a quick summary of what Thrive Themes is all about, shall we?

    Is Thrive Themes Worth It

    ​What is Thrive Themes?

    Thrive Theme offers a complete set of conversion focused WordPress themes and plugins for beginners and advanced WordPress users.

    ​By default, it comes with over 10 well-coded WordPress themes which focuses on:

    • check​Conversion
    • check​Speed
    • check​Lead generation
    • check​Easy to use

    ​Let’s be honest here. Anyone can create a WordPress blog under 5 minutes but​ not everyone can create a beautifully designed WordPress blog.

    And this is where Thrive Themes comes into play. Instead of messing around with coding and other complicated stuffs (like website loading speed), you can have all in one solution through Thrive Themes.

    For starters, the ready-made templates are easy to use and you can install them in just a few clicks. Yes, no coding skill required.

    ​Thrive Themes WordPress Templates

    ​I recently used Thrive Themes on my marketing agency (click on the link to take a look). The site looks awesome and everything is created in just an hour. Several landing pages and homepage are all done through drag and drop (thanks to Thrive Architect).

    ​Thrive Themes makes website creation really simple and you no longer require coding skills to build a WordPress theme. Seriously.

    Take a look at Thrive Themes below. Aren’t they beautiful?

    Thrive Themes vs Genesis Theme Framework ReviewSaveSave

    ​Thrive Themes Plugins

    ​The jewel of Thrive Themes is the Thrive plugins. Personally, this is the single and most important reason why Thrive Theme is worth it.

    At this point of time, Thrive Themes offers eight powerful plugins that you can purchase separately (click here to see the demo of each one) or have them all under Thrive Membership which will save you thousands of dollars a month.

    Here are a list of Thrive plugins:

    • check​Thrive Architect
    • check​Thrive Leads
    • check​Thrive Ovation
    • checkThrive Ultimatum
    • checkThrive Headline Optimizer
    • checkThrive Clever Widgets
    • checkThrive Quiz Builder
    • checkThrive Apprentice
    • checkThrive Comments

    ​What is Thrive Architect?

    Thrive Architect Review

    Thrive Architect is the most powerful WordPress visual builder in today’s market. It is flexible and it is very intuitive. As a matter of fact, this blog post is created using Thrive Architect.

    ​You can take a read about Thrive Architect in this review.

    ​What is Thrive Leads?

    What is Thrive Leads

    ​Let’s not talk about others and just me. Using Thrive Leads, I was able to launch my freelance course by building a mailing list around it.

    Do you know how many emails I have collected thanks to Thrive Leads on a monthly basis?

    Over 1,000 email subscribers!

    Even John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire uses Thrive Leads. See the plugin demo here.

    ​What is Thrive Ovation?

    ​Thrive Ovation is one of those revolutionary plugins. This is extremely important if you are planning to take advantage of one of the most underestimated conversion boosters in the marketing world!

    ​Using Thrive Ovation, you can now set and forget testimonials directly on your WordPress blog. It allows you to organize testimonials in one spot and tag them for what they are about!

    Thrive Ovation

    The next time you need to use a testimonial on your sales page, you don’t have to dig into the thousands of emails you had. Instead, you can now find them under one roof.

    testimonials have the power to ease that anxiety and close the sale.

    Check out how Thrive ovation works here.

    ​What is Thrive Ultimatum?

    ​They call themselves as the ultimate scarcity marketing tool for WordPress.

    Here’s a quick quote from Neil Patel.

    “If you can create a stronger sense of urgency on your landing page or websites, then you can successfully spur people to do what you want them to do on your page (such as convert).”

    ​Does this makes any sense to you? I bet!

    Thrive Ultimatum

    ​Thrive Ultimatum allows you to:

    • check​Easily fixed date campaigns
    • check​Automatically recurring campaigns
    • check​Creating evergreen system
    • checkCreate 100% authentic evergreen scarcity
    • check​Using expiring links and bulletproof the tracking
    • checkDrag and drop builder included
    • checkShowing the right offer to the right audience
    • checkCreating unlimited scarcity campaigns

    ​Click here to take a look how Thrive Ultimatum works in real life.

    ​What is Thrive Headline Optimizer?

    ​I use Thrive Headline Optimize in all my blogs and websites. As bloggers and content writers, we spend most of our times trying to craft the best headlines to get better click through rates.

    However, what happens when you are down with 5 very powerful and well crafted headlines to choose from?

    Introducing Thrive Headline Optimizer.

    Thrive Headline Optimizer

    ​You can now easily add unlimited headlines and try them out. The best part, you can set it on automation and the plugin will automatically choose the best performing headline!

    To be honest, this is the only headline optimizer plugin that is worth the money!

    ​Click here to take a look at Thrive Headline Optimizer.

    ​What is Thrive Clever Widgets?

    ​Do you ever wish to have the widgets showing only to specific audience, post or pages? Now, you can with Thrive Clever Widgets.

    The concept is rather simple. You can customize each widget to be visible only to selected criteria.

    Thrive Clever Widgets

    This way, you can start delivering only the right content to the right audience at the right time.

    ​Click here to take a look at Thrive Clever Widgets for yourself!

    ​What is Thrive Quiz Builder?

    ​Do you know that one of the best ways to build traffic and conversion is through quiz?

    Having the right quiz is going to make your blog more fun and more importantly, you can resonate better with your audience.

    Thrive Quiz Builder

    ​What makes Thrive Themes worth is it the fact that with Thrive Quiz Builder, you can easily create powerful engaging quiz into a potent way to grow your business.

    See Thrive Quiz Builder in action here.

    ​What is Thrive Apprentice 2.0?

    ​Thrive Apprentice 2.0 is Thrive’s flagship plugin for online courses. With Thrive Apprentice, you no longer need to pay hefty sums for other membership programs to create a community out of it.

    Thrive Apprentice 2.0

    You can now do it with cost efficient and not burning a hole in your pocket.

    What makes Thrive Apprentice so powerful is the ability to merge with all the Thrive products and work meticulously well.

    And that is probably just an understatement. Take a look for yourself here.

    ​What is Thrive Comments?

    ​Last but not least, the newest product from Thrive Themes is the Thrive Comments. Thrive Comments allows you to start engaging with your audience in new ways you can never imagine. At the very least, no WordPress plugin is able to achieve what Thrive Comments does!

    Here’s what you need to know. Thrive Comments is only open to current members of Thrive Themes and therefore, you will be able to use this plugin with a paid membership. Nonetheless, you can take a look at Thrive Comments using this link, for a free 30 days money back guarantee.

    ​Is Thrive Themes worth it?

    ​Absolutely, no doubt in my mind that Thrive Themes is really worth it. With the amount of value the themes and plugins can provide, it is insane for not even considering Thrive Themes.

    ​Click here to get the best discount for Thrive Themes!

    Now, it is your turn. What do you think? Leave a comment below and tell me what you think!

  • Is MailChimp Free?

    Is MailChimp Free?

    Is MailChimp free? The answer is yes. The MailChimp Forever Free plan allows you to manage up to 2,000 email subscribers and delivering 12,000 emails monthly.

    Is MailChimp safe? Now that you asked, MailChimp is safe for work. If you are sending non-spammy emails, then you are pretty much in a very safe environment. But if you are an affiliate marketer, you may have a problem (or problems if I may).

    I wrote a post about problems you will face when using MailChimp and since then, it became one of the most visited posts on my blog.

    Let’s be honest. Most of you who are reading this is either a blogger, beginner or an Internet marketer. Either way, your goal is to save more money and aim for the highest yield.

    I get it and I have the same thoughts as well!

    MailChimp Forever Free plan is always good for us especially when you don’t have to pay until you hit 2,000 subscribers. Plus, most beginners don’t generate over 100 subscribers in a week. So, you are in good hands (at this point in time).

     

    Why do I recommend MailChimp?

    MailChimp is great for bloggers, Internet marketers and even business owners who are just starting up in email marketing. Here are some more reasons why you should be using MailChimp Forever Free account:

    • MailChimp is free
    • You can be worry-free until you hit 2,000 email subscribers
    • Beautiful UI and UX design on MailChimp’s backend
    • Drag and drop builder helps you create beautiful email templates
    • Simple filtering to help you manage your email lists
    • Very high delivery rates
    • MailChimp is scaleable

    Now, allow me to touch on the last point which is scalability. As your business progresses down the road, you would need to scale your email marketing software because you are going to have more subscribers and need better features for marketing.

    You can easily move on to MailChimp paid accounts as low as $9 per month and if you need all the analytical features, there is MailChimp Pro which starts at $199 per month and it is on top of your monthly subscription fees.

    Signing up for MailChimp is always a breeze. You can start an account in just 5 minutes using this link.

     

    Why do I not recommend MailChimp?

    For starters, MailChimp doesn’t go on lightly with affiliate marketers. Now, this means that you are going to face massive challenges if you use MailChimp. Here’s a snippet of MailChimp’s terms of use:

    MailChimp Prohibited Content Affiliate Marketing

    MailChimp doesn’t allow affiliate marketing, along with several other industries.

    While I have seen a 50-50 chance of being caught using MailChimp for promotion the prohibited content, do you want to take the risk?

     

    How to use MailChimp and not get banned?

    The rule is simple: Do not spam.

    Industries such as affiliate marketing, work from home, make money online and lead generation are known for spamming and we should always avoid doing such.

    The quick way to solve this is by ensuring that we send only quality materials through email.

    Do you know that you can send educational emails (using MailChimp) pertaining to the sensitive subjects and not breaking the rules?

    After all, we all hate spam, don’t we?

     

    What are other MailChimp alternatives?

    If you are looking for affordable ones, then I would recommend ConvertKit. ConvertKit is known as the MailChimp alternative because it offers very similar features to what MailChimp does, but with some twists.

    The biggest and single differentiation between MailChimp and ConvertKit is the way they operate. MailChimp is list-centric and this means that number of subscribers are calculated based on the number of subscribers in the list.

    ConvertKit is subscriber-centric and instead of calculating subscriber per list, subscribers can opt into various lists (segments and groups) without being calculated twice.

    Do you know that ConvertKit has an awesome dashboard for an all in one view?

    ConvertKit Dashboard

    In a long run, ConvertKit offers much more saving compared to MailChimp.

    But hey, don’t take my word for it. Click here to schedule a demo with ConvertKit and see it live in action. This way, you will have first-hand experience understanding what ConvertKit is all about (and if ConvertKit is a good choice for replacing MailChimp).

     

    Over to you

    The answer is “Hell yes” if you are wondering is MailChimp free. As a seasoned Internet marketer, I have seen and gone through some hell weeks using MailChimp myself (due to own carelessness). MailChimp isn’t that bad after all in many sides and it is proven with big brands using it.

    As a recap, MailChimp is safe for us if you are in several industries. At the same time, I highly recommend you to take a look at other MailChimp alternatives such as ConvertKit for a more robust email marketing solution.

  • Hitting 2,000 Email Subscribers Is A Milestone. Here’s What To Do Next

    Hitting 2,000 Email Subscribers Is A Milestone. Here’s What To Do Next

    We all love MailChimp Forever Free plan, don’t we? MailChimp’s Forever Free Plan allows you to keep up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails per month. What happens when your MailChimp account has more than 2,000 subscribers?

    Here’s what I can guarantee you: Headache.

    Most of us love anything that doesn’t require us to pay for it (for whatever it is). But when we hit 2,000 email subscribers on MailChimp, we panic. We understand that we would need to start forking out money monthly just to maintain the email list.

     

    Read this before you go down that rabbit hole …

    The first thing is you should do right now is start cleaning up your email list. This means that you should remove all your email subscribers who have not interacted with you for some time.

    You need to start identifying those inactive subscribers by creating a segment on MailChimp (fastest way).

    Creating Segments MailChimp

    Once that is done, you need to add conditions to further discover email subscribers who are low in ‘value’.

    Adding Conditions MailChimp

    Due to MailChimp’s limitation, you can only choose a small portion of options as seen above. I use the last five campaigns as that would give me better stats and results.

    Once that is done, the second step is to re-engage with them for one last time before you ultimately remove them from your list. I often send a super personalized message with an urgent email title to ensure that the open rate is high. Don’t be afraid as it is common for them to unsubscribe themselves!

    If they fail to open the email within three days, you can proceed to remove them from your list. By now, you would have a smaller list and probably save you some space.

    IMPORTANT: I recommend you to continue reading the below as it will come in handy real soon!

     

    You should be making money using your email list and here’s why

    When you have more than 2,000 email subscribers, you should already be monetizing your email list. Wait, what?

    Yes, you heard me right. 2,000 email subscribers is not a small number and this means that you can be doing a lot more to generate revenue from your email list.

    Let’s say you take an example of promotion WP Engine on your email newsletter.

    • Revenue per successful WP Engine affiliate sale: $200
    • Open rate for your email: 50% (2,000 email subscriber x 50% = 1,000 email subscribers)
    • Click through rate for your email: 20% (1,000 email subscribers x 20% = 200 email subscribers)
    • Successful conversion (buying): 2% (200 email subscribers x 2% = 4)

    Total revenue earned: 4 x $200 = $800 per email campaign

    No, I’m not kidding you.

    You see, I’m putting a super low figure in all the calculation above and the reason is simple. I want you to understand that even with the lowest count, you can make a lot more money through email marketing.

    And yes, you can start making money NOW.

     

    Wait, I still have 2,000 email subscribers on MailChimp and I am not sure what to do!

    I’m glad you asked. I have gone through that road before and I was puzzled. I have no idea what I should do and my geeky brain told me to do the calculation (see above).

    I understood that I could earn a lot more money in a long run if I continue building my email subscribers. Thus, growing beyond the 2,000 email subscribers limit on MailChimp.

    What you need to do now (which we are going to discuss below) is this:

    Decide on an email marketing software to proceed with your email marketing.

    Before moving forward, take a quick moment to ask yourself this question.

     

    How much is the lifetime value of your email subscribers?

    Take a look at this infographic done by KISSmetrics.

    How To Calculate Customer Lifetime Value

    In short, lifetime value of your email subscriber is often determined if they are going to repurchase in the future.

     

    How to decide the best email marketing software once your MailChimp has more than 2,000 subscribers?

    1. Upgrade your MailChimp account

    You should go for MailChimp if:

    • You have a low lifetime value of an email subscriber (under $5)
    • You are not actively selling anything of high value to your email subscribers
    • Lead generation isn’t a top priority for you at this point in time
    • Segmenting your audience is not important for now

    On average, you are going to pay anywhere between $25 to $30 a month with 2,000 email subscribers on paid MailChimp plan.

    MailChimp is best when you are a small business or blogger which email marketing isn’t the most important thing for your business. Therefore, sticking to MailChimp is not going to hurt you in any way since you will be making more than enough to sustain.

     

    2. Move to ConvertKit

    ConvertKit is a good MailChimp alternative because of its pricing model. ConvertKit thrives ahead of MailChimp, especially with their subscriber’s centric model.

    Using ConvertKit, you will not be charged multiple times if the same subscriber subscribes to multiple lists. Compared to MailChimp, subscribers can be calculated multiple times which is based on the number of lists they are following. Not so good.

    You should go for ConvertKit if:

    • You are looking for a robust email marketing automation but as easy as MailChimp
    • You want to increase conversions with automated emails that feel personal
    • You need to organize and understand your subscribers
    • You need landing pages (this is a killer, ladies and gentlemen!)

    ConvertKit’s pricing is very flexible and it is one of the best deals in the marketplace. You can check out the ConvertKit pricing and the pricing starts at $29 per month.

     

    3. Move to Drip

    Drip is dope and I’m using it for my business (including this blog). Drip is really powerful because it allows you to take automation to whole new levels.

    [clickToTweet tweet=”If you are using email to sell online products and courses, you need to consider Drip today!” quote=”If you are using email to sell online products and courses, Drip does it better than any other email marketing solution. Period.”]

    Drip is also the main reason how I can sell thousands of dollars worth of affiliate marketing products every month!

    BONUS: Want to know how to make MASSIVE money through affiliate marketing? Learn more for free.

    You should go for Drip if:

    • Automate anything and everything (tagging, list cleaning etc.)
    • Selling online courses or products
    • Inbuilt different types of forms (slider, pop up, exit-intent)
    • Workflow technology (that brings automation to whole new level)

    I would say Drip works as powerful as Infusionsoft but just at a cheaper and lower pricing scale. If you are an advanced marketer, consider using Drip as it is guaranteed to grow your list. Don’t take my word for it. Click here to head over to Drip’s demo!

     

    Summary: What do you do when you hit 2,000 MailChimp email subscribers?

    You have three options right now; upgrade to MailChimp’s paid plan which will save you more money, migrate to ConvertKit if you want to start segmenting your email subscribers, or upgrade to Drip to take email marketing to whole new level and ultimately, make your email subscribers fall in love with you.

    Do you have more than 2,000 subscribers on MailChimp? What do you do? Tell me all about it in the comments below!

  • Don’t Lose Content The Next Time Changing WordPress Theme

    Don’t Lose Content The Next Time Changing WordPress Theme

    Looking to start or launch your own webinar this year? Here are the best webinar software you should consider today! Changing WordPress theme is always a huge challenge especially for beginners. A lot of bad things can happen when we change a WordPress theme on a live site. Content loss, broken website, distorted images and missing widgets are just a few challenges you will face when changing a WordPress theme.

    All of these will get your head scratching and they will become more complicated if you have limited experience using WordPress.

    I’ve been using WordPress for over 10 years now and I came across a fair share of problems in the past especially when changing a WordPress theme. In this post, you are going to discover how you change WordPress theme without losing content. More importantly, you will be able to see how you can do this under 30 minutes.

    How to change WordPress theme without losing content?

    1. Backup

    No matter what you do, the first step must always be back up your entire site. Most web host in the market today allows you to perform the manual backup in just a few clicks.

    If you are using shared hosting and cPanel, click on Files and select Backup.

    Backup_using_cPanel

    You can also use the Backup Wizard to backup your entire website before changing WordPress theme.

    nackup using backup wizard

    If you are using premium WordPress hosting like WP Engine, you can start backing up your site by through the WP Engine portal.

    Backup_using_Wpengine

    The fun fact about using premium WordPress hosting is the fact that you can leverage the power of staging.

    Back up wouldn’t take long and in most cases, under 10 minutes for a small to medium sized blog. Larger sites may take slightly longer to complete the backup process.

    A staging site is an independent clone of your live production site that can be easily created to test plugins, themes, and custom code. You can also copy the staging site back to the live site at any time after making changes. Each WordPress install at WP Engine can have its own staging site.

    You can use WP Engine staging area by clicking on WP Engine > Staging from your wp-admin and click on the teal button as seen below.

    how to use wpengine staging area

    2. Upload the WordPress theme of your choice

    By now, you should have a copy of the WordPress theme on your computer or laptop. To upload the WordPress theme, head over to your WordPress dashboard and click on Appearance and then, Themes. Click on Add New and Upload Theme tab to upload the WordPress theme of your choice.

    how to change wordpress theme

    3. Final check

    Once uploaded and activated, you will be able to see new WordPress theme live on your site. I would recommend you to run a quick check on your website using Incognito or another browser to ensure the website is accessible.

    BONUS: More tips to change your WordPress theme without losing content

    Want to get more out of your WordPress blog? I bet you do. Continue reading below to find more advanced methods in changing WordPress theme without losing the content!

    Customizing WordPress themes before they’re live

    Do you know that you should always customize the WordPress themes before going uploading it? This helps to ensure that your site isn’t ‘broken’ during the transition period. For your information, it could be a little bit of challenge if you are using shared hosting as not all web host provides such feature (at this point in time).

    If you are using WP Engine (for example), you can use the staging area to create a clone version of your site and be doing the needed updates there. How to clone a WordPress site using WP Engine’s staging tool? Typically, most managed WordPress hosting allows you to use staging area which ensures that you will not lose content after changing the WordPress theme.

    Once you are happy with the changes, you can transfer the updated site to your production site using the red button as seen below.

    deploy from staging to live

    Pretty cool, right?

    You can read more about WP Engine staging using this link.

    On the side, I want you to know that SiteGround offers similar staging feature with lower features and pricing as well.

    Customize option for real-time updates

    Do you know that you can use the Customize feature to update the site’s content in real-time? I love this feature because it provides me with ‘what you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG) option.

    Here’s how it looks like:

    customize wordpress theme

    If you have yet to use this feature, I suggest you try it out now!

    Understand the layout differences on various devices

    Changing WordPress theme without losing the content is one thing. Ensuring that the site looks good in different layouts is another.

    How do you check your WordPress site if they look good on various devices?

    Forget about the tools out there in the market. All you need is to leverage the Customize feature on your WordPress backend. Take a look at the image below.

    mobile version wordpress theme

    Summary – How to change WordPress theme without losing content?

    End of the day, there are many ways you can change a WordPress theme without losing the content. Always remember to backup as it is an important security feature!