Welcome to the Escape the Roomz resources section. Here you will find a list of the hosting services and website design resources I recommend for building and optimizing your business. With exception to one item, I have tested/used every tool or site recommended on this page. Many of the resources listed below are crucial to successfully running my business.
Before proceeding, I wish to be totally transparent with an important disclosure:
Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission that comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that I recommend them because they will likely provide a significant function or benefit. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you believe, as I do, that they will help you achieve your goals.
Before we get to the top 10 list of plugins, let’s discuss website hosting. Web hosting is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post a website or web page onto the Internet. A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for the website or webpage to be viewed in the Internet. Websites are hosted, or stored, on special computers called servers.
If you are thinking of creating an online business, now is a great time to do that. There seems to be a price war between HostGator and BlueHost – HostGator just lowered their starting price to $2.75/mo – are you kidding me!?
This site is hosted on HostGator. HostGator was established in 2002 and has become one of the top hosting business. In 2016, PC Magazine awarded HostGator with multiple Editor’s Choice awards for the overall web, Shared, Dedicated Server, and Managed WordPress hosting plans.
Bluehost is a leading web hosting solutions company that was established in 2003. They provide support to more than 2 million sites and have more than 750 employees. Bluehost has been recommended by WordPress.org Since 2005.
Now some of you are probably asking why I am recommending two hosting services. First, it’s because they are so close in an overall comparison. Second, a price war is afoot and both are very inexpensive.
I chose HostGator for this site because it didn’t appear that the comparable Bluehost plan would allow for multiple websites, but later learned that it does. Both support WordPress sites. Consider trying both for at least a couple of months to determine the best product for your needs. Stay with the entry plans until you are ready to develop your site(s), then upgrade to a business plan as needed. Sticking with an entry plan while you are experimenting and learning the ropes will save you money. Above all, you really want a service that you will be happy with in the long run!
If you haven’t considered WordPress, I highly recommend you check it out as it can be a huge time saver. There are a ton of plugins that work with WordPress to pretty much accomplish everything you need such as tools to build pages, import and export database tables, handle eCommerce, backup and restore sites, and handle SSL, SEO, and GDPR.
Now let’s get down to the plugins we recommend!
Elementor is a testament to how far web page design has progressed over the last decade. Elementor is a WordPress page editor with a live frontend that allows you to see your design take shape as you are building it. I started with the free version and upgraded to the Pro version. Elementor has a 5-star rating and over 1 million active installations.
Advanced WordPress reset plugin will reset your site’s WordPress database back to its first original state and avoid using the manual method of removing files and going through WordPress traditional installation. This plugin has a 3.5-star rating with over 50,000 active installations.
By now you’ve surely noticed that almost every site asks you to accept the use of cookies. This is to comply with the EU cookie law GDPR regulations.
Cookie Notice for GDPR is very easy to use. Just create the message and button text and this plugin does the rest. Cookie Notice for GDPR has a 5-star rating with over 800,000 active installations.
Yoast is currently considered the most comprehensive search engine optimization software available for WordPress users. Yoast has a 5-star rating with over 1 million active installations.
We use this tool to perform readability checks of our pages and for keyword optimization. This plugin is updated every 2 weeks to ensure the website is optimized for the most recent Google algorithm.
Advanced Ads is a great tool for creating, organizing, and placing ads. You can create plain text and code ads, image ads, and Adsense ads. This plugin has a 5-star rating with over 70,000 active installations.
One feature we love is ad grouping and rotation. Ads can be weighted such that some appear more frequently than others.
MonsterInsights allows you to connect your WordPress website with Google Analytics, so you can see how visitors find and use your website, so you can keep them coming back.
We have been using this tool for connecting Google Analytics to our sites. Google Analytics is very important to track and understand your site’s traffic patterns. This plugin is rated at 4 stars with over 1 million active installations.
OptinMonster is a lead generation tool to capture leads and maximize conversions. It features a powerful drag & drop builder that creates visually stunning opt-in forms. OptinMonster has a 4.5-star rating with more than 800,000 active installations.
One feature we really like is the Exit-Intent technology that provides visitors leaving the site an opportunity to subscribe for notification of new content or products.
We have found this to be a great tool for performing backups. The tool will backup and restore database files, plugins, themes, uploads, and other miscellaneous files. There are many options for remote storage. This plugin has a 5-star rating with over 1 million active installations.
We also use WP Optimize, which cleans out unnecessary data keeping them optimized and efficient. This can speed up web performance. Another product we use is Migrator which allows us to move content from a localhost installation to the live website.
Email marketing is an essential for any web business. ConvertKit is an email marketing platform for capturing leads from your WordPress blog. This plugin has a 5-star rating with over 10,000 active installations.
The power behind this plugin is the ConvertKit service which allows the user to create forms, sequences, and automations. We used the form and broadcasting tools for beta-testing. Check out their demo video.
WPForms was designed for business owners, bloggers, designers, developers, photographers, and basically everyone else. If you want to create a custom WordPress form, then you need to use WPForms. WPForms has a 5-star rating with over 1 million active installations.
We used this tool to create our contact form and the beta test evaluation form. The latter was a fairly complicated form, but the tool was very easy to use. You can check out that form here.
While using this plugin we learned of an exciting discovery. Using Zapier, we believe that we will be able to connect this plugin with ConvertKit to receive escape room business experiences and lessons-learned that will be essential information for website visitors.
