WP Builds

The WordPress news from the last week which commenced Monday 3rd July 2023.

On the podcast today we have a lovely conversation with Derek Ashauer. He's been working with WordPress for many years, and has gone through a few changes during that time. I suspect that many of you will really identify with this podcast. The idea that you're a web developer, plugin / theme / block author, content creator etc. might suit you for a while, but perhaps you've had itchy feet from time to time. Derek certainly has! He started out building websites in decades ago, but for a variety of reasons this did not seem to be 'the thing' that he wanted to do year after year. And so, in 2013 he decided to turn his attention into plugin development. Success (whatever that means) always seemed to be a little further into the future. Although his Sunshine Photocart plugin was doing fine, it was not the end of the road. You'll hear Derek explain that he's not that comfortable with marketing, having a more self deprecating demeanour (he fits right in here). So this podcast is all about listening to a nice person talking about how to transition from being an agency, dealing with clients, to being a product owner. Just lovely!

The WordPress news from the last week which commenced Monday 19th June 2023.

The podcast explores the legitimacy of using GPL clubs for reduced-cost WordPress plugins. They discuss the rise of these clubs, their sources, and the risks associated with using nulled plugins. The limitations of page builder tools and the drawbacks of purchasing from GPL clubs are also discussed. Overall, the speakers emphasize the importance of understanding the risks and benefits associated with GPL clubs.

The WordPress news from the last week which commenced Monday 12th June 2023.

On the podcast we have Christiaan Pieterse from Maxi Blocks. If you've ever dug into WordPress block packs / suites then it's quite likely that what you're going to hear about Maxi Blocks today will be quite familiar, except one important thing - the pricing model. More on that in a minute. Maxi Blocks has all the blocks that you typical website needs. I could list them all here, but just click the link above and you'll find them. There's containers, headings, images, maps, groups, icons, sliders, all-the-things so to speak. The thing that's different here is that way that they're pitching the product. Maxi Blocks is free. There is no feature that is locked away. You have access to every block, every setting inside those blocks, no functionality is hidden behind a pro option. So, you're thinking, well this product won't last long. They'll go through their cash, give away everything and run out of road. Not so fast! They do have a pro version, but you're going to be paying only for pre-built designs and patterns. If you're curious about blocks, take a listen to the podcast, check out the Maxi Blocks site, and tell us what you think of the product in the comments.

This is the 9th episode of our "Thinking the Unthinkable" series and today's unpalatable thought is… WordPress is too expensive? We can dismiss this as insane ramblings straightway? It’s free! But, it can be expensive to do anything out of the ordinary, although Site Editing is changing that! Is WordPress a trap for the naive DIYer? Cheap start, but a longer term hidden costs in hosting and maintenance? Or is it still possible to build something decent but at a low cost? What about the freedoms that the GPL provides, and (dare I say it?) the websites that sell premium plugins for knock down prices? It's an interesting chat and we hope that you enjoy it!

Today on the podcast we have Arnas Donauskas, who is a Product Owner at Hostinger. He's on the show to talk about something that I'm sure that we've all felt before… that feeling of not being sure that WordPress is the project that it once was, that the future is not what you'd like, and how you can move on and work on the web with something else. This is a tough subject for a podcast called WP Builds! The name implies that we're here come what may! I guess that the title is a little bit of clickbait, and perhaps a better title would be more like 'how do you get your WordPress mojo back?' WordPress site building and growth can be challenging, and quite often people lose their motivation to continue, and this is what we address… getting back your inspiration and desire to use WordPress and be a part of the community that surrounds it. Having said all of that, we cover a lot of ground about this topic and a whole bunch of other topics too.

The WordPress news from the last week which commenced Monday 15th May 2023

On this 8th episode of "Thinking the Unthinkable" we are asking “is ‘open source’ a liability? This was prompted by a 2021 incident. A zero-day attack called Log4Shell that affected major players like Microsoft and Cloudflare. It's a chat about risk assessment really. Lots of levels with WordPress’ LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL). It seems quite remarkable that WordPress has worked so well for 20 years. So how do we 'sell' free, open source solutions to our clients, when most of them are from a world in which you need to pay for all-the-things?