Seems like the WordPress ecosystem is having a bull run! Things look all bullish with the big Yoast acquisition and other smaller sell-offs. On the product’s front, Frost seems all-ready in the ‘more’ challenging WordPress themes space. Also, can we expect better responsive controls in the block editor?
Visual Composer is an intuitive drag & drop WordPress website builder that helps you create any professional design quickly for yourself or your clients.
WP Job Openings is a simple and straightforward plugin to set up a job listing page in minutes and streamline your hiring process with intuitive prebuilt layouts.
Restrict Content Pro is a super simple plugin to create a premium content membership website on WordPress to generate recurring revenue.
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What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖
- Got Noticed… quick WordPress install spin up (and for free) for testing, playing, or experimenting – InstaWP is new and works like charm! The new block-based, Frost by Brain Gardner is open for early adopters at $195/year (normal will be $295/year), and the official Frost pricing page has more details.
- Challenging WP Times… is Gutenberg killing WordPress themes ecosystem? Well, here is a video from David Vongries from the Page Builder Framework theme highlighting challenges for theme developers in the blocks world. Also, with FSE (Full Site Editing) in the mix, has the pressure to adapt to new WordPress increased?
- Only for WooCommerce… another ‘no so talked’ way to optimize your WooCommerce store for conversions by customizing variation prices with a new Woo addon from the Barn2 team. Also, the new product filtering by attributes is coming in WooCommerce.
Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥
- The Biggie… Yoast SEO plugin has been acquired by Newfold digital (formerly Endurance International, remember) joining other company brands like Bluehost, Hostgator, and more. The founder, Joost de Valk explained this sell off to future money flow unpredictability and plain boredom!
- How Many Millions… made the Yoast deal possible? Well, no one knows the ‘real’ figure – but no harm playing a guessing game like Aaron Edwards thinks it is
1230-50 million considering Yoast has 140 employees, while Ben Townsend is guessing around 8-12 million. - Another sell off… “$100,000+ in revenue in 8 months, who said you couldn’t make money in WP?”, Jack Kitterhing shared about the acquisition of immerseus featuring a collection of eLearning Plugins for LearnDash to an entity called honorswp.
- Dev Focus… armed with new information, Leonardo Losoviz has changed from GraphQL should be in the WordPress core to why WordPress should not be in the WordPress core. Understanding the process of using web components in WordPress, its easy!
- WordPress Security… 17% of WordPress plugin vulnerabilities were of critical risk and password attacks are on the rise – these are a few of the findings in the 2021 mid-year WordPress security report prepared by Wordfence and WPScan.
Quick Bits 👍
- A few useful ways to leverage blocks power in the widget areas.
- Mimic Gutenberg Plugin’s templating system for the block editor.
- Thrive Themes is launching a new plugin today (Aug 16, 2021).
- Call for sponsors is now open for WordCamp US 2021 event.
Focus for WordPress 5.9: Responsive Blocks!
Gutenberg block editor is good for desktop layout building but it falls flat (almost) when a non-coder has to adjust the responsive behavior. Fortunately, the next WordPress 5.9 would focus more on responsive adjustment options at the block level. In the meantime, using block add-ons like GenerateBlocks should come handy in faster and responsive building with blocks!
