REVIEW OF THE ONE HOUR UDEMY COURSE
“CREATE BEAUTIFUL LANDING PAGES WITH WORDPRESS“
Instructed By Huzaifa Ali
Includes the review of the course plus first experiences with Huzaifa Ali’s “WP Landing Pages” plugin.
INTRODUCTION
This ambitious course covers an abundance of instructional material within a single hour. The instructor starts with a brief personal introduction and then begins the course. He thoroughly demonstrates the process of creating WordPress landing pages using templates. The course includes four nicely paced sections, 11 lectures and three quizzes. Every section includes additional resources and quality links.
DOMAIN DISCOUNT
To begin the course, Huzaifa Ali quickly points students (who do not yet own a domain) to GoDaddy for a great deal on a domain name (just $0.99 for the first year). To get that deal, he provides a generous RetailMeNot promo coupon code link.
After registering, Huzaifa steps students through configuring hosting to the domain name through cPanel and installing WordPress. To demonstrate, he uses BlueHost, but he is open to students using their own preferred hosting service.
My example is HostGator’s cPanel QuickInstall.
WP LANDING PAGES PLUGIN
The course concludes with editing landing page templates through the free “WP Landing Pages” plugin which the instructor created and published. “WP Landing Pages” plugin is available for download at the WordPress.org plugin directory (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-landing-pages/) and through the built-in WordPress plugin installer. The plugin has over 1,000 active installs.
The instructor advises students to create a MailChimp account and shows how to integrate MailChimp to create an opt-in form and later, a mailing list for a highly converting landing page.
SUMMARY
In summary, topics include how to:
- Register a domain name (great promo coupon code included)
- Install WordPress – Quick Method
- Install WordPress – Advanced and Secure Method
- Use MySQL Wizard with advice on configuring privileges
- Install and configure the WordFence security plugin with its many options
- Complete the initial WordFence security scan
- Install and activate the free “WP Landing Pages” plugin
- Customize templates (5 templates included within the plugin)
- Change the background and wording
- Integrate opt-in forms
- Embed Videos
- Create an email list with MailChimp
For a nice change of pace, quizzes are scattered at the end of sections to test student’s knowledge of course materials.
PRACTICALITY?
So, how did this course do in practicality? As a student new to WordPress development, I was excited to find a short but comprehensive landing pages course at Udemy. However, I ran across some stumbling blocks when using the “WP Landing Pages” plugin. I sent an email today to the instructor (and creator of the plugin) and hope to hear back in time to add his comments to this review. His email address is readily available with the installed plugin.
To be fair, I am using a WordPress multi-site installation and that might be the reason for the issues. However, prior to installing the plugin, a message appears saying the plugin is compatible.
EXAMPLE SITE: “Create Beautiful Landing Pages with WordPress”
I followed the instructor’s videos to create an example site, “Create Beautiful Landing Pages with WordPress” changing parameters as needed for a WordPress multisite. Install inside the multisite network dashboard is quick and easy. It involves clicking “Add site” and selecting a new subdirectory. The parameters are site address, title, language and a new admin’s email address.
Tip if creating a new multisite: It is best to add users first in the Network dashboard prior to creating a new site. During a new multisite install the username is brought in with the email address. Otherwise, if a new email address is not in the database, you may get a default username with the same name as the new site’s subdirectory.
The default WordPress site is not too exciting.
I took ample notes during the quick and the manual install lectures as future reference for single site installations, giving special attention to security advice.
Wordfence Security Install and Configuration
Next were instructions on installing the free Wordfence security plugin. I am new to multisite use and worried as I already had Securi Security installed on the network and hesitated to add and activate another security plugin.
I network deactivated Securi and installed and activated Wordfence.
On the top level of the multilevel site, under plugins, Wordfence is shown with a “Network Deactivate” option.
On the lower sites the plugin shows with a “Deactive” option.
Wordfence Deactivate
Unfortunately, at the lower site dashboard, Wordfence Security settings do not show up on the left side despite activation at that level.
However, from the multisite network dashboard, Wordfence option screens appear.
I opted to follow the instructor’s scan recommendations.
WORDFENCE IN ACTION
All went well and Wordfence scanned with three warnings (due to plugins installed for other sites in the network). I ignored the scan warnings. The Wordfence scan screen is easy to use despite its complexity.
There are many detailed activities and features in Wordfence Security. Although only a few hours old, there was already a list of visitors. The visitors were (what appears to be) a robot and me.
Robot details:
With all its great features, I was impressed and glad Huzaifa Ali included Wordfence in his Udemy course. Detailed visitor information includes IP addresses. The convenience of [Block this IP] option sits below each offering to stop future visits.
WP LANDING PAGES PLUGIN
Following the course video but using WordPress multisite, I installed “WP Landing Pages” version 1.7 (from the Network Dashboard). I activated the plugin at the newly created site level (not network activated). I located the templates within the plugin. Creating beautiful landing pages looked easy while watching the instructor’s videos.
CUSTOMIZING THE TEMPLATES
After selecting and saving template one, the first exercise was to change the background. The procedure looked easy. Upload an image from a PC directory. Instead of editing from the current screen, the instructor recommend going to All Pages in WordPress and select the newly created page and click “Edit Template”. I did so and all went well. The template appeared but with errors across the top (in faded white across the background).
The buttons were a bit confusing as there are two upload buttons plus a reset and a save button. Above the buttons is an editable link field listing the directory to the current background “bg.png” file.
I stopped the course video to keep up with the instructor. His new background image was visible immediately. All looked very user-friendly.
Following the instructions, I clicked the gold upload button but nothing happened. Next, I tried the blue button. My PC directory did not show up. Nearly giving up, I clicked reset and tried again. The PC directory was visible. I selected a background trying to mimic the scenic background the instructor selected. Sadly, no new background showed in the little window. After multiple tries, I clicked “Save” and WordPress opened a page with an “Oops, page not found” error and no background image – nothing like the instructor’s landing page.
Remembering the editable link, I had to try another way to change the background. I connected to the hosted site using FTP and copied several images to the template images folder (default link with the original background directory field and file name). The directory showed “bg.png” plus my uploaded images. I copied and pasted my image directory path and file name into the link field. The small window immediately responded. I clicked “Save” only to be taken to “Oops, page not found” error.
ERRORS
Working around the errors, I followed the next steps to edit the button text, to link to an “instant access report page”, and to add an email button.
Errors appeared such as, “Notice: Undefined variable: output in /…./wp-content/plugins/wp-landing-pages/wp_landing_pages.php on line 196”.
When viewing the site, the following errors appear:
Notice: Undefined index: do in /…./wp-content/plugins/wp-landing-pages/wp_landing_pages.php on line 53
Notice: Undefined index: tpl_id in /…./wp-content/plugins/wp-landing-pages/wp_landing_pages.php on line
As recommended at the top of the plugin WPLP window for 404 errors, I re-saved the permalinks but the errors do not go away.
Determined to create the site using WP Landing Pages plugin examples, I struggled through the remaining tutorials. I was excited to find a course that walks you through using WordPress and WordPress plugins to simply create a beautiful landing page. It is such a great idea!
EXAMPLE LANDING PAGE ATTEMPTS
Both good and bad results follow.
FUTURE UPDATES
I hope to update this review if there is a response from the instructor regarding the error messages. If I do not find a reply, it may not be because a message wasn’t sent. It could be missed email due to so many messages as I am registered for many Udemy courses and opted in to receive all messages.
Again, I believe the template errors are either from using WP Landing Pages on a multisite WordPress install or there may be another plugin that is causing the conflict.
TAKE THIS COURSE OR NOT?
In summary, “to take this course or not“, the Udemy course, “Create Beautiful Pages with WordPress” met all of my expectations and more. The content is excellent, well organized, and thorough. The instructor packs so much info into one hour, including valuable resource links and quizzes, that the student must pause the videos to digest and take advantage of it all. Even a promo code and free WordPress plugins are part of this short course.
COURSE REVIEW vs Review Of WP Landing Pages Plugin
The plugin errors are a separate issue. The plugin could definitely simplify creating landing pages with WordPress. And although it did not work for me, a new WordPress developer, for a multisite installation today, perhaps an update tomorrow may fix all the issues. The Wordfence Security plugin works great. Perhaps, too many steps are discussed for the plugin installations and use with a WordPress multisite network versus critiquing other details of the course. However, since plugins are a big part of the course, showing the steps on this example site is pertinent. It may assist others using a WordPress multisite network. Or they may raise issues about the installations and post easy solutions to errors.
I highly recommend taking this course and trying the “WP Landing Pages” plugin. Students who finish Udemy courses are awarded with a Certificate of Completion.
ADDITIONAL EXAMPLE UDEMY SITES AND REVIEWS PORTFOLIO
For other A1 Network Portfolio reviews and demonstrated pages, a table is provided with the links under “Portfolio” heading on the site “Easily Create Ultra Fast WordPress Site” :
( https://a1sites.a1resources.net/portfoliosites2 ).