Build Your Own Author Website: Maintenance Mode

It’s time to show you how to put your new website in maintenance mode, in case you don’t want anyone to see it while you’re still in the process of tweaking it.

Let me introduce three WordPress Plugins that do the job for you.

Ultimate Maintenance Mode

This plugin displays a screenshot of your website with an over-lay window and the reason your site is down.

Features:

• Works with any WordPress theme
• Allows you to work on your site while non-logged-in visitors see the Maintenance Mode page
• Automatically Creates a Screenshot of your Website and uses it as the background for your maintenance mode page
• Ability to add a Custom Headline, Message & Background Image
• Returns a 503 http status and retry header so search engines know your site is down
• Simple and Easy to Use
• Multisite Support
• Translation Ready – i18n Support

Here’s a live demo.

This plugin adds some great features to your coming soon page.

Features:

• Easy install and use
• Works perfectly with all versions of WordPress
• Fully Responsive Coming Soon page
• Ability to disable Coming Soon page for specific IPs
• Highly customizable Coming Soon page
• Ability to set Coming Soon page background image
• Ability to set Coming Soon page background color
• Custom Logo for Coming Soon page
• Ability to use WordPress post editor for Coming soon page Message
• Social Media Ready(Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, Instagram)
• SEO friendly Coming Soon page
• Set Meta description for your Coming Soon page
• Set Meta keywords for your Coming Soon page
• Enable/Disable Search Robots
• Uses CSS3
• User friendly back-end for Coming Soon and Maintenance mode plugin
• Tested on popular WordPress themes
• Coming soon page visible only non logged in users

I love their demos: Demo 1 Demo 2

Features:

• Simple. No confusing options or complex setup
• Mini themes. Choose between four professionally-designed, responsive mini-themes to display when in Maintenance Mode
• Pre-styled text. Title, header, headline and message text gets styled without requiring HTML or CSS
• Add your own logo. Add your own logo using the WordPress Media Library to give Maintenance Mode a personal touch

Overview:

Easy Pie Maintenance Mode was designed to let you get to the important work of improving your site while visitors know you are performing maintenance in the shortest time possible. We’ve supplied four very nice looking themes to display when your site is undergoing maintenance. Additionally, you can easily cater these to your taste using CSS. For the advanced users, you can create your own mini theme to be displayed when the site is undergoing maintenance.

In this way, both beginners and pros will find Easy Pie Maintenance Mode not only easy to use but highly flexible as well.

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The maintenance mode plugins I shared above are all compatible with the “Book-Snapper” theme, but if you have chosen a different WordPress theme, be sure to check if the plugin you selected is compatible before you install it.