Videos are a powerful form of communication. They’re attention grabbing, fun to watch, and even more fun to share — people are twice as likely to share videos than any other form of content. And, when used correctly, they can reduce customer service calls and increase traffic, leads, and sales.
Continue reading → How to Host Videos on Your Website (Best Way Explained)
Speed and reliability are undeniable priorities for any website. Consumers expect online stores to load in less than two seconds, and a one-second delay in load time reduces page views by 11 percent. Moreover, with search engines increasingly prioritizing load times, maximizing your site’s speed is crucial for search engine optimization (SEO).
While there are a variety of ways to improve website speed, one of the most effective solutions is to use a content delivery network (CDN). By integrating a CDN, you can reduce the stress on your server and enable visitors to load pages on your website faster.
In this article, we’ll explain what a CDN is and discuss its main benefits. We’ll also show you how to use Jetpack’s WordPress CDN. Let’s get started!
Continue reading → WordPress CDN Plugin – Why Use One & How to Choose The Best
Jetpack is well known for its image CDN, backup features, and stats, but did you know it also offers more than 30 other ways to customize your website? With a modular approach — no features are automatically enabled, and you choose which items to turn on individually — it adds features without loading unnecessary code, so your website runs efficiently.
Continue reading → How to Customize a WordPress Site with Jetpack
Slow websites lead to lost traffic and revenue. According to Pingdom, load times are directly correlated with bounce rate — the percentage of people who leave your website without visiting more than one page.
More and more people browse the internet on mobile devices, which often have less-reliable internet connections. And not everyone lives in an area with good connectivity. If your website’s load time is long, you’re inaccessible to them.
Continue reading → Is Your WordPress Site Slow to Load? Try These 7 Steps to Fix It
Jetpack is a popular pick for WordPress users because it offers enhanced functionalities and can be used for most purposes, ranging from blogging to e-commerce. One thing that you may not have considered, however, is creating and offering online courses through your site.
Let’s explore how to offer online courses through your Jetpack site so that you can share valuable lessons while profiting from your expertise.
At bare minimum, you’ll need a few hours of video content to get started with creating an online course. If you’re camera shy, don’t worry, you can use lecture slides as well.
It’s also important to consider the layout of your course. How many parts will you offer? Will you include written content to supplement your videos? How will you grade your students on course completion?
After you’ve given the logistics behind your course some thought, consider going a step further by integrating a forum where students can answer each other’s questions and give each other feedback. This can save you from having to address each issue personally. Other helpful features to include are a “FAQ” page and a “Contact” page complete with a form so that students can contact you directly.
What’s a teacher without resources? Here are a few tools that can help you deliver a curriculum.
Plugins are what gives WordPress its amazing versatility, as you can download tools that will enable you to add virtually any feature to your site. There are a few plugins that are specifically designed to help you create an online course. These are called learning management systems (LMS), and they make laying out your content much easier. One LMS that’s gotten a lot of attention is Sensei.
Sensei helps to make your courses attractive, easy to navigate, and user-friendly. Once installed, you can create online courses, write detailed lessons, and add quizzes. Its reporting feature lets you see how many people are enrolled in your course, and you can recognize those who complete your curriculum with personalized certificates.
The features don’t stop there, though. If you offer multiple courses and you’re looking for more advanced functionalities, Sensei even allows you to set lesson and course pre-requisites. This means that users will need to take and pass a certain lesson or course in order to advance to the next one.
Sensei is an extension of the WooCommerce plugin, a popular e-commerce option that’s known for being well-supported and easy to use. If you decide to charge a fee for your course, you can create a paid membership option with WooCommerce to integrate popular payment gateways, like PayPal.
You’ll need a way to manage and organize your videos, especially if your course features many hours of content. Use Jetpack’s video storage functionality to upload videos from your computer directly to Jetpack’s servers, instead of storing the videos on your host’s server. This saves you storage space, and allows your site to load a lot faster. Those with Premium or Professional plans can upload an unlimited amount of video content and deliver it quickly and seamlessly to viewers with Jetpack’s video content delivery network (CDN).
Once your course is live and ready to be taken, you’ll need to attract students. It’s important to promote your course so that it reaches a wide audience. Send out an email reminder (if you have a mailing list), and post about it on social media. If you have a budget, consider using paid ads, as they’re impactful ways to bring in the exact type of traffic you’re looking for.
You should also consider providing written transcripts of your videos, as an alternative content type may improve your search engine optimization and will certainly add to the quality of your curriculum. Additionally, it offers an alternative to an audio course. Those who are hearing-impaired, or prefer to read lesson plans instead of viewing video content, might use this content type instead.
You don’t need to become a WordPress expert to sell your expertise — all you need is Sensei, WooCommerce, and Jetpack to help you create online courses that will deliver your passion and knowledge to the world.
Do you offer online courses through your website? How do you promote them? Share with our readers in the comments below!
Do you have any videos on your site? If not, you probably should consider adding some.
When it comes to getting the attention of a potential customer or fan, few things are more effective than a captivating video. In fact, Marketing Land reports that people are typically more likely to make purchases after watching product videos.
The use of video content on a business site captures visitor attention and reduces bounce rates. Videos give visitors an incentive to stay and interact with your site longer, leading them to become more interested in your brand in the process. The more invested a person is, the more likely they are to transition from a potential customer to an actual one.
Despite the many benefits of video content, most small business sites don’t use it. This is a huge missed opportunity. Fortunately, it’s never too late to add videos and help your site stand out among the crowd!
Continue reading → Ways to Boost User Engagement with Videos
No one likes a slow site. Most visitors will click away if a page isn’t loading fast enough, and Google actually gives sites lower search engine rankings if they don’t load quickly.
Luckily, there are multiple ways you can improve your site’s speed. Images and videos are the biggest culprits when it comes to slowing down a site, but they can be forced to load faster by using something called a content delivery network (or CDN).
Let’s explore the CDN basics, and how you can use the CDNs that Jetpack provides to speed up your images, your videos, and ultimately your entire site.
Continue reading → How Does a CDN Improve Performance & Page Speed?
Welcome to Jetpack 4.5, available now for upgrade or installation. We’re starting the year in style with some very exciting additions and improvements that we can’t wait for you to try. This release includes:
Continue reading → Jetpack 4.5: Monetize your site, brand new VideoPress, and many new shortcodes and widgets
