WP Weekly 138 – Selling

Interesting insights on selling a plugin business and a different marketing route of giving away a premium plugin for free for one year. This issue covers new launches like Spectra One Theme, WP tools from Cloudfest 2023 Hackathon, and updates to the Core WordPress, WooCommerce, and the Gutenberg project.


Elementor is one platform with unlimited web creations: From landing pages and eCommerce stores to full-blown websites – build it all with Elementor.

Cloudways Advanced Free Staging Environments. Experience the freedom of developing and testing as many staging sites as you want with no extra costs.

At Pressable, seeing is believing. Get your free MyPressable Playground today to experience what it’s like to host your sites where WordPress works best.

↑ Community Sponsors supporting this weekly

What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖

  • New Launches… While the pro version of the Spectra plugin is yet to launch, its companion Spectra One theme built with full site editing (FSE) features is now available for free in the WordPress directory. Also, ThriveDesk has launched WPPortal for more seamless integration with WordPress for viewing support tickets, history, and overall support communication.
  • Cool WP Tools… check docs_dangit – a search engine for WordPress developers, which was created as the project at the CloudFest hackathon 2023. Also, check WPHackCebola – a free tool that helps find vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins and themes. It is from Codeable experts, a project at the CloudFest 2023 hackathon.
  • New Plugins… Anand Upadhyay from WPVibes has released a new free Frontend Product Editor for WooCommerce plugin that allows quick editing of the basic product data from the front-end interface. While the team at WebFactory Ltd has launched the pro version of the free Login LockDown plugin with 100,000+ active installs.

Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥

  1. Builder Hosting & Pricing… new features have been added to the Elementor Cloud Hosting with updates like advanced caching, staging environment, and page duplication. Also, from March 29, 2023, WPBakery will have new license plans. In addition to the existing 1 site lifetime license ($59), new plans are: 5 sites license plan for $256 / lifetime and 10 sites license plan for $499 / lifetime.
  2. WP Devs Note… if you use auto-generated code like via ChatGPT in your plugin, make sure it is GPL Compatible for your plugin to be included in the WordPress org plugins directory. Also, the WordPress Developer Blog at the WordPress org website is officially out of beta and launched now – good content for sure!
  3. Next in Gutenberg… planning for phase 3 of the Gutenberg project has started. It will focus on bringing features like real-time collaboration that will allow you to work together in real-time across all block editors, a more visual post revisions interface, admin design, and a library for managing blocks, patterns, styles, and fonts.
  4. Core Updates… WordPress 6.2 Release Candidate 3 is now available for your testing. WordPress 6.2 release is scheduled for release this week on March 28, 2023. Also, WooCommerce 7.6 Beta 1 is now available with improvements to the mini cart block and more.
  5. WP Talkies… Matt Medeiros has published “What’s the problem with Awesome Motive?”. Writing on such a topics is always challenging, and no wonder it got various reactions like here, here, and here from folks in the WordPress ecosystem.

Quick Bits 👍

WordPress Biz: Acquisition & Free Model

Phil Crumm shared an insightful thread on Twitter on why and how the Elementor addon company Exclusive Addons was finally sold for $70k on Flippa. Focussing on acquiring an existing user base, the WPExperts team has acquired a free ‘change wp-admin login’ plugin with over 90,000+ active installs.

The Free Model… Nick Diego is making his plugin Block Visibility free by merging the pro features in the free plugin from the 3.0.0v release as there are no funding issues, and it being a passion project. Also, I was made aware of this interesting offer where you can grab the FooEvents plugin free for 12 months – an interesting marketing move for sure, what say?


InMotion hosting provides fast and reliable website hosting for businesses of any size. Trust your website to the web hosting experts at InMotion Hosting.

20i® Managed WordPress Hosting. Easily deploy & manage blazing-fast WordPress sites at scale across 20iCloud, AWS & GCP.

WP Webhooks allows you to create powerful WordPress automation workflows directly within your website. It integrates with more than 40+ plugins.

↑ Community Sponsors supporting this weekly

Upcoming Events 💬

December 11, 2023: State of the Word 2023 in Madrid, Spain.
December 25 - 31, 2023: Join WPGivesAHand community endeavor.

Like this WordPress Goodness? Get the next issue directly in your email inbox. Check support options and connect on Twitter and Facebook. This content may contain affiliate links, read the disclosure for more.

❤️ Our Community Sponsors

Omnisend

Omnisend is a top choice for email and SMS marketing on WordPress, perfect for WooCommerce powered ecommerce shops. With Omnisend, you can easily connect with customers and send out awesome campaigns every day.

Hostinger Hosting

Launch your website fast with Hostinger's Managed WordPress hosting and WordPress AI Tools. Secure your WordPress website with Automatic updates, WP malware scanner, and DDoS protection.

Purely Website

Secure your websites against plugin vulnerabilities. Patchstack automatically finds and mitigates WordPress core, plugin & theme vulnerabilities in your clients’ websites. Get 48-hour early warning for new vulnerability threats.

20i hosting

Autoscaling WordPress Hosting from 20i® with staging, cloning, backups, managed updates, unlimited CDN, cache, theme/plugin manager, and more built-in. Backed by 24x7 expert WordPress support.

Tyche Softwares

Power up your WooCommerce store with premium WooCommerce extensions for setting up online bookings and appointments, scheduling of delivery dates, tackling abandoned carts to increase your store sales and profits.

inmotion website hosting

InMotion Hosting provides fast and reliable website hosting for WordPress websites of any busines of any size. Partner with a company that offers 99.99% uptime, free SSL, 1-click WordPress installs, and a free domain for a year.

visual composer

Here is an opportunity to enhance the visibility of your WordPress products and services among WordPress users, freelancers, and agency owners with the community sponsorship program at 'The WP Weekly'.