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How to use the Pretty Links WordPress plugin to shorten or mask links like affiliate links

October 28, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

If you use WordPress for your website you may use affiliate links or different links that you may want to shorten or mask with a domain link instead. One reason you may want to do this is if you have a link to a youtube video that you made for your website you may want the link to be yourdomain.com/youtube instead of youtube.com/linktext. We use the Pretty Links plugin for that on this website.

This post has information that may help you with using that plugin to shorten or mask links like affiliate links on WordPress on there. If you have not installed the pretty links plugin here is information on how to install the pretty links plugin on your website. You may want to make a backup of your website before you install or use plugins like this one on your website.

From the WordPress Admin you can click on pretty links > add new in the left menu
On that page you can then add the title for the link
Then you can put in the type of redirection you want to use and 307 temporary is the default on it
Then you can put in the target url which would be your affiliate link or the youtube link if like in the example at the top of this post
Then you can use the pretty link field to type in text you want in the link like we typed in youtube in the example at the top of this post
Then you can click on the copy to clipboard button to the right of the pretty link field to copy the link to use on your website
Then you can put in notes if you want for it
Then you can click on the update button to update the link on it.

Then you can use the shortened or masked link in a wordpress post or page on your website.

Disclosure: There are affiliate links on posts and throughout the website and if you use the links to make a purchase we may earn a commission from it. We link to these companies and their products because of the quality of the companies and not because of the commission we may receive from it.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only and in no event will this website or its owners be liable for any losses or damages associated with your use of our website or content. We recommend that you make a backup of your website before you make updates to it. Click here to see our full Disclaimer.

How to install the Pretty Links plugin for WordPress for affiliate links and link shortening and masking

October 28, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

On your WordPress website you may use affiliate links or different links that you may want to shorten or mask with a domain link instead. For example if you have a link to a youtube video that you made for your website you may want the link to be yourdomain.com/youtube instead of youtube.com/linktext. There is a WordPress plugin that we use titled Pretty Links. This tutorial has information that may help you with installing that plugin to your website on there. You may want to make a backup of your website before you install plugins like this one.

From the WordPress Admin you can click on plugins > add new in the left menu
In the search bar at the top right you can type in pretty link in it
That should then bring up a list of plugins with pretty links at the top of the list there
You can then click the install now button
Then you can click the activate button
Then you can click on settings > pretty links in the left menu
From that page you can look through the different settings you have available and run the pretty links tool if you want.

You can do settings on the plugin to have it shorten links or mask links when you want to.

Top 3 inexpensive web hosting companies for WordPress websites in 2019

October 28, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

If you use WordPress for your website you likely need website hosting for it. There are a lot of website hosting companies on the internet and we have made a list of the top 3 inexpensive web hosting companies for WordPress websites in 2019 based on our experience with the companies. We have had hosting with all three of these hosting companies and would recommend them for your web hosting needs.

Ipage

Ipage is one of our favorite online web hosting companies and it works great with WordPress in our experience. At the time of the writing of this post they have web hosting plans for as low as only $1.99 per month. Here are a few things that it lists are included with your web hosting on there.

Free domain registration
Thousands of free templates
Free email address
Free 24/7 Support
Free SSL certificate included
1 click WordPress installation
Free domain transfer
30 day money back guarantee
Unlimited domains can be in the hosting there

You can get a great deal with Ipage if you use this link.

Bluehost

Bluehost is a great web hosting company from what we have experienced on there. They host many of the websites on the internet and it works great with WordPress in our experience. At the time of the writing of this post they have web hosting plans for as low as only $3.95 per month. Here are a few things that it lists are included with your web hosting on there.

Free domain name for the first year
Free SSL certificate included
1 click WordPress installation
24/7 Support
Unmetered bandwidth
30 day money back guarantee

You can get a great deal with Bluehost if you use this link.

Justhost

Justhost is a good web hosting company from what we have experienced on there. They host many WordPress websites on the internet. At the time of the writing of this post they have web hosting plans for as low as only $3.95 per month. Here are a few things that it lists are included with your web hosting on there.

Free domain name for the first year
Free email address
Free website builder
1 click WordPress installation
24/7 Support
30 day money back guarantee

You can get a great deal with Justhost if you use this link.

With web hosting you can put your website online.

What is the difference between WordPress on wordpress.org and wordpress.com?

October 28, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

If you are a beginner with WordPress you may be wondering what is the difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com.

WordPress.com is a blogging option that you can use for free if you use a yourname.wordpress.com domain for your blog. You can use that free service to set up a free website on the wordpress.com domain and many people like doing that. WordPress.com does have more premium options like using your own domain or monthly paid options you can view more information about at wordpress.com.

WordPress.org is a blogging option that you can use with your own domain. It is what we use on this website. It lets you put your website on yourdomain.com and there are a lot of options you can use when you use a wordpress.org website. If you use wordpress.org you will likely need website hosting for it. We recommend Ipage for your website hosting needs and you can get a great deal with Ipage with this link. You can read about our recommendations for the Top 3 inexpensive web hosting companies for WordPress websites in 2019.

How to disable self pingbacks on your WordPress website without a plugin

October 27, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

If you are using a WordPress website when you write posts you may find that you are getting notifications that you have pingbacks from when you link to your own posts on your website. There is a way to turn off self pingbacks without using a plugin by adding this code to your functions.php file. You may want to backup your WordPress website before you make updates to it.

/**
 * No Self Pings
 *
 * @author WPSnacks.com
 * @link https://www.wpsnacks.com
 */
function no_selfpings( &$links ) {
    $home = get_option( 'home' );
    foreach ( $links as $l => $link )
        if ( 0 === strpos( $link, $home ) )
            unset($links[$l]);
} 
add_action( 'pre_ping', 'no_selfpings' );

Now if that works for you it would keep you from receiving pingbacks from yourself when you link to your own posts on your website on there.

Top 4 easy ways to make a backup of WordPress website files and database in 2019

October 27, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

When you have a website on WordPress it is often a good idea to backup your website files and database often. I have written a few different posts with different methods on how to backup your WordPress website files and database. You can do it manually or with a plugin. The plugin may be the easiest of the options if you want to do that on there. This is my list of the top 4 ways to make a backup of your WordPress website files and database.

Now you can read up on a few different ways to make a backup of your WordPress website.

How to backup your website text and images using the WordPress export tool

October 27, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

If you are using WordPress for your website it is often a good idea to make a backup of your website often. There are a few different ways to make a backup of your WordPress website that may help you with that. One way to make a backup of the text and images on your website is to use the WordPress export tool to make an xml file on there.

From the WordPress Admin you can click on tools > export in the left menu
From that page you can click on what you want to export
Then you can click on the download export file
When you do that it will let you save the export file to your computer on there

Then you would have the xml file of your website text and images on there. This is not a full backup of your website. You may want to do a full backup of your WordPress website on there.

How to run the WordPress importer tool to import text and images to your website

October 27, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

On your WordPress website you may want to import text and images to your website from a different WordPress website or from your own website that you did a backup of. You can use the WordPress importer tool to import a backup you made of your text and images using the WordPress export tool on there. This is on way on how to do that. If you have not already done it you may want to install the WordPress importer tool first on there.

From the WordPress Admin you can click on tools > import in the left menu
From that page at the bottom of the page it says WordPress and you can click run importer
From that page you can click on the browse button
From the browse page you can find the backup xml file
When you find the xml file you can click open
From the import WordPress page there is an import author setting you do
There is an option to download and import file attachments like images to it
When you have done the settings you want you can click the submit button
When you do that it will run the import to your website on it

Then if you do that you should have imported your text and images to that website on there.

How to install the WordPress importer tool to your website

October 27, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

When you have a WordPress website you may want to use the WordPress importer tool. This tutorial will walk you through how to install a the WordPress importer tool to your website. You may want to make a backup of your website before you install plugins like this one.

From the WordPress Admin you can click on tools > import in the left menu
From that page at the bottom of the page it says WordPress and you can click install now

Then the WordPress importer tool is installed on your website. Then if you want you can run the importer from there.

How to install the UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin to your WordPress website

October 27, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

If you have a WordPress website it is often a good idea to make backup the website often. This tutorial will walk you through how to install a popular WordPress backup plugin UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin from the WordPress plugin page. You may want to make a backup of your website before you install plugins like this one.

From the WordPress Admin you can click on plugins > add new in the left menu
In the search bar at the top right you can type in updraftplus in it
That should then bring up a list of plugins with updraftplus at the top of the list there
You can then click the install now button
Then you can click the activate button
Then you can click on settings > updraft plus backups in the left menu
From that page you can look through the different settings you have available and run the backup tool if you want.

You can do settings on the plugin to have it backup your website when you want it to and it can put the backup on your hosting server with ftp or even have it email it to you if you want. There are lots of settings you may want to try on it.

If you want to do a backup of your website files without using a plugin you can backup your website files manually through FTP on there. If you want to do a backup of your website database manually you can backup the database manually through PHPMyAdmin on there.