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14 iOS and Android mobile apps for WordPress users

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Community, Featured

Published

February 18, 2015

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As our mobile devices become more sophisticated, so too does our dependency on them. That might seem worrying to some readers, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. Think about all the wonderful apps that have been developed that make our lives easier, and consider the potential apps that might exist in a few years’ time — exciting, right? Now, running a website is seriously hard work, even when using a user-friendly CMS like WordPress. If we’re not careful, it can feel like we spend entire days staring at a computer screen. With this in mind, we could […]

How to declutter WordPress in 12 steps

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February 17, 2015

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Be honest: Is your WordPress backend a clean and appealing working environment? Does it make you feel relaxed and focused, and taking care of your website a pleasant activity? Or is it a mess of update messages, unanswered comments, and other distractions? Where you have to scroll over dozens of unused plugins until you get to the one your are looking for? You know, kind of like this browser window: If so, it’s time to set aside time for a “declutter WordPress weekend,” and do some serious housecleaning. With spring around the corner, what better time to make a fresh […]

7 awesome WordPress plugins in 2015

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Published

February 16, 2015

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We’re just one month into the new year, but we’re already seeing a ton of awesome new WordPress plugins. Below are 7 of the plugins I’m most excited about. Check each of them out for yourself, and see if they would be useful in your own plugin arsenal. Also, be sure to share any plugins you’re excited about in the comments section after the article. 1. Custom Login Page Customizer Customizing the WordPress login page has never been an easy task — but this plugin changes things. Using the built-in WordPress customizer, this plugin gives you complete control over your […]

21 productivity tips and hacks for WordPress bloggers

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Development, Featured

Published

February 13, 2015

4 Comments

Running a website, or blog, or online business is not always a cakewalk. There is always something to do: Content creation, marketing, maintenance, not to mention updates and website changes. You could easily work 24/7 — in fact, many of us attempt to do so. Even though WordPress makes maintaining an online presence quite comfortable, there are only so many hours in the day you can actually be productive (without seriously impairing your health and social life that is). Therefore, it is important to find ways of making the most of the time you have. Luckily, there are steps you can […]

Happy, loyal customers: How to retain eCommerce customers

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Published

February 12, 2015

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How do you make an existing eCommerce store more successful? It’s a very good question, and one that many store owners approach the wrong way. It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of relentlessly chasing new customers — 500 customers sounds far better than 400 customers, after all. And there’s nothing wrong with this approach really, as extra customers will bring in extra revenue. However, it’s not the easiest way to boost your store’s profitability. Savvy marketers have long realized that it is far easier (and cheaper) to persuade an existing customer to buy from you again than […]

Lessons we can learn from Jetpack, and how it’s helped WordPress succeed

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Published

February 11, 2015

24 Comments

Of the many gifts that Automattic has given this community, Jetpack is definitely one of the greatest. Jetpack is an all-in-one suite of tools, including services that run on WordPress.com’s servers, for free, that couldn’t be handled by the kind of $5 per month shared hosting packages many users start with. If it wasn’t for this plugin helping to ease the onboarding of new users, WordPress would not be where it is today. Automattic has gained a lot from this: they are a company, with a simple objective to make money, pay salaries, and provide a quality return on investment […]

10 simple content hacks for more engagement, shares, and traffic

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Development, Featured

Published

February 9, 2015

6 Comments

Is it just me or does talking about content marketing sometimes feel like discussing royal families? With so many people throwing around phrases like “Content is King!” and “Distribution is Queen!” I can’t always tell whether I am reading up on marketing or stumbled onto a Game of Thrones forum. However, apart from being an overused phrase, nobody will argue the importance of high-quality content in today’s online world. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past ten years, you are probably aware that producing great content on a regular basis is key to being successful on […]

11 ways to contribute to WordPress

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Published

February 6, 2015

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WordPress is an open source project — meaning there is not one individual, entity, or company that maintains it. Instead, a community of people around the world contribute to WordPress and make it better every day. The WordPress community invites you to contribute as well. It doesn’t matter whether you are a developer, designer, writer, teacher, or just a user: You can be an absolute beginner or a seasoned veteran. If you want to get involved, there are many ways you can contribute. You can visit the wordpress.org website, which outlines all the ways you can help out. Just click here. […]

Why the best web dev teams are a little like the Guardians of the Galaxy

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Published

February 5, 2015

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely seen (or at least heard of) the Marvel film, Guardians of the Galaxy. A solid installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Guardians tells the tale of Peter Quill, a half-human, half-alien who was abducted from earth as a kid and grew up cavorting around in space, picking up alien lady friends along the way. Everything is business as usual until he finds himself locked up with a group of criminals who band together to save the galaxy. What’s interesting is that each member of the crew brings something unique to […]

Automating WordPress plugin updates and releases with Grunt

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Published

February 4, 2015

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In my last article, I demonstrated how to use three tools for automating WordPress theme, plugin, and full-site development using Grunt, a taskrunner that uses JavaScript for scripting. Creating tasks with Grunt to automate repetitive processes is actually quite easy. Not only is there a huge number of pre-existing tasks available, but its use of JavaScript also has its advantages. In this article I will be showing you how to automate the process of releasing a plugin. This is something I recently did for the Pods Framework, after an incident where I skipped a step doing it manually, causing our admin […]

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