EDITS.WS

Author: Sarah Gooding

  • Mailchimp for WordPress Plugin for Sale in the Ballpark of €1.6M

    Danny van Kooten, creator of the Mailchimp for WordPress plugin, has indicated that he is interested in selling his plugin for somewhere in the ballpark of €1.6M. It is the most popular Mailchimp solution for WordPress, although it is “unofficial” in that it is not developed by or affiliated with Mailchimp in any way. It has more than 2 million active installs and has been downloaded more than 42 million times.

    In a comment on a popular Hacker News post that asks, “What is the best income stream you have created till date?” van Kooten dropped the hint that he is willing to sell the nearly ten-year-old plugin:

    It’s definitely not my passion but in 2013 I built a WordPress plugin around the API of a popular newsletter service and it’s been paying my bills ever since.

    Still going strong at €36K per month excluding VAT.

    There was (and still is) a huge market where non-technical people are looking for a GUI around something a programmer would find very simple (and usually too boring to work on). More so if the tech surrounding it is not particularly sexy, as is the case for WordPress and PHP.

    Ps. In case anyone is reading this, I am open to selling. I spent about 4 hours a week on it and the rest is handled by 2 freelance people costing about €1K / month each. Contact me for details if interested and willing to pay in the ballpark of €1.6M.

    van Kooten developed Mailchimp for WordPress when he was hospitalized in Vietnam due to acute appendicitis with extra time on his hands during his recovery. He identifies himself as an “accidental entrepreneur” in his Hacker News bio. In 2021, he was featured in Wired for his efforts in reducing his carbon output as a plugin developer. He refactored the plugin to send 20kb less data, and, due to its large user base, he estimates these changes reduced the world’s monthly CO2 output by 59,000 kilograms, which Wired estimated is “roughly the equivalent to flying from New York to Amsterdam and back 85 times.”

    Mailchimp for WordPress has commercial upgrades ranging from $59 – $149 per year, and 1% of the plugin’s revenue goes towards environmental projects.

    Although Mailchimp recommends WordPress.com’s “Mailchimp block” as the official WordPress integration (also available in Jetpack 7.1+), van Kooten’s plugin is far more flexible. Mailchimp for WordPress integrates with other popular plugins like WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms 3, BuddyPress, MemberPress, and Events Manager, allowing visitors to subscribe via the checkout or comments form.

    Several commenters on van Kooten’s Hacker News response indicated interest in his offer for sale. His comment offers a a rare, transparent look into a popular plugin’s revenue and potential sale price, as most companies that acquire WordPress plugins are almost never willing to reveal how much they paid for them. As Substack moves to add compatibility for Ghost themes and other third-parties, and newsletters become even more critical with people leaving Twitter, it will be interesting to see more movement in the newsletter support space. van Kooten may be setting out at just the right time to find a buyer for Mailchimp for WordPress.

  • Gutenberg 14.7 Introduces Color Coding for Template Parts and Reusable Blocks, Adds Media Tab to Inserter

    Sometimes Gutenberg introduces features that you never knew you needed. Such is the case with the new color coding system in the Site Editor. The latest 14.7 release adds color to template parts and reusable blocks in the list view, block toolbar, and block selection outlines. The colorization is intended to help users differentiate between the different block types as they edit their designs.

    video source: Gutenberg PR #32163

    Another UI enhancement in version 14.7 is a new, experimental split control for block settings. It splits the block inspector sidebar to separate the settings controls from the appearance controls, giving the appearance side the same half-moon icon used for styles in the Site Editor. The intention is to make it easier to manage blocks with many controls, such as Group or Navigation blocks, that would end up having the settings scrolling down the page.

    image source: Gutenberg 14.7 release post

    The split control enhancement isn’t set in stone yet, as it must be enabled as an experimental feature in the Gutenberg > Experiments admin menu. It seems helpful but could prove to be more confusing for users, so further testing is needed before it moves out of experiments.

    The inserter is getting a major change in 14.7 with the addition of a Media tab, making it faster to add images, video, and audio. Users can select the new tab and select a media type to see the ten most recent items. There’s also an “Open Media Library” button at the bottom of the panel.

    Other notable updates in 14.7 include the following:

    • Page List block can now expand inside the List View to see the hierarchy of pages (45776)
    • Layout controls added to children of flex layout blocks (width for row and height for stack are now available for child Row and Stack blocks) (45364)
    • Significant load time performance improvements from caching the results of querying settings from theme.json. (45372)

    Check out the changelog to get a more detailed look at the dozens of improvements and bug fixes included in 14.7.

  • WooCommerce Blocks 9.1.0 Introduces Products Block in Beta

    WooCommerce Blocks version 9.10 was released today, hitting a major milestone for the development of its new Products Block. The plugin serves as a place to iterate and test new blocks, and this release introduces the new Product Query-powered Products block in beta.

    In this first iteration, users can arrange products by popular presets and control the layout in the list/grid.

    The new Products block is based on the core Query Loop block. WooCommerce Blocks contributors are aiming to replace all of the plugin’s current product-displaying blocks with this one.

    “This new block should be flexible enough to reproduce all of the use-cases currently covered by existing blocks (e.g. showing all products, showing only new products, or products on sale, etc.), while also being filterable via dedicated filter blocks and compatible with FSE templates (i.e. it should replace the placeholders we currently use in archive templates),” Automattic-sponsored WooCommerce contributor Marco Lucio Giannotta said in the ticket proposing the new Products block.

    The first iteration still requires some polishing but it’s meeting the basic objectives for allowing users to display and customize products using the new query-based block.

    Version 9.1.0 also unveils three new “product-adjacent” patterns. These are patterns that don’t use WooCommerce store data but rather focus on presentation. They include the following patterns:

    • “WooCommerce Alternating Image and Text” block pattern. (7827)
    • “WooCommerce Product Hero 2 Column 2 Row” block pattern. (7814)
    • “Just Arrived Full Hero”  block pattern (7812)

    WooCommerce Blocks contributors are also working on patterns that connect to store data and will be releasing new patterns soon. Other notable additions in this release include support for the alignment setting in the Add to Cart Button and Product Rating elements.

  • New WordPress Sandbox Project Demos: Test-Drive Themes and Plugins in the Browser

    WordPress Sandbox, an experimental project that uses WebAssembly (WASM) to run WordPress in the browser without a PHP server, has been chugging along steadily since Automattic-sponsored core contributor Adam Zieliński introduced it earlier this year in September.

    ZieliÅ„ski published three new updates to Twitter this week, demonstrating the project’s potential to provide an in-browser IDE for plugin development along with a quick way to spin up a test environment for themes and plugins.

    In the first example, he shows how the project could be used to test-drive themes from WordPress’ Themes Directory right in the browser. Clicking the demo URL will launch a site with the Pendant theme active, but the theme can be changed to another from the directory by appending a different theme name to the end of the URL. All your changes made on the demo are private and disappear after a page refresh. With a few improvements, this could be transformative for previewing themes on WordPress.org.

    ZieliÅ„ski also showed WordPress Sandbox’s potential for test-driving plugins directly in the browser. The example uses CoBlocks but can be changed to any other plugin from the directory by replacing the plugin name. Having this available to WordPress users would greatly speed up the plugin selection process in cases where it’s not clear if a plugin will do what you hope it will do. It would also be handy if you could append multiple plugin slugs to the URL to install more than one.

    The most recent demo is a video showing how the project can be used to create an in-browser IDE for plugin development, where changes are displayed live.

    For more examples of WordPress Sandbox’s capabilities, check out the quick showcase ZieliÅ„ski built and play around with a live in-browser WordPress instance to see the site updated instantly as you code.

  • Course: A New Free Block Theme Compatible with Sensei LMS

    Sensei LMS, Automattic’s teaching and learning management plugin, has released a new free block theme called Course. In February 2022, version 4.0 of the plugin introduced support for full-site editing with its bundled “Learning Mode” theme. Course features a new bold design made to be customized in the Site Editor.

    Although Sensei works with neaerly any WordPress theme, the plugin looks its best with themes designed specifically for Sensei compatibility. Course includes styles for Sensei functionality to perfectly display course lists, sales pages, and the “Learning Mode” course templates. It integrates with the free Sensei LMS plugin as well as the pro version. Sensei’s new Course List block will also inherit all the theme’s styles seamlessly.

    If green is not your jam, Course includes four style variations suitable as a starting point with blue, dark, and gold as the accent colors and multiple font combinations.

    In addition to the various styles, Course brings all the power of the Site Editor for customizing for Sensei templates, as seen in the Lesson template below.

    Although Course is ideal for website owners who are selling courses, the theme is also flexible to be used without Sensei for other purposes like blogging, coaching, and small businesses. Course isn’t easy to find if you’re hunting for block themes, as it doesn’t seem to be tagged as a block theme on WordPress.org. It’s free to download in the official Themes Directory or via the Sensei LMS website.

  • The Block Editor Is Coming to WordPress’ Support Forums

    The block editor was introduced to WordPress in 2018 and has matured into a more user-friendly tool for expression over the past four years. WordPress.org’s Meta Team is now experimenting with how they can bring the block editor into the support forums. That they are even considering this is a testament to how far the block editor has come, as the support forums provide a critical lifeline for WordPress users who are struggling with their websites and wouldn’t benefit from adopting a buggy editor.

    “The support forums have a long history in WordPress,” Automattic-sponsored contributor Alvaro Gómez said. “So much so that the current forum editor predates TinyMCE. By introducing blocks, the support forum will make use of the modern WordPress editor to improve user experience. Users will be able to easily insert links, share code or embed screenshots. Using Blocks will also enable new possibilities, such as using patterns for common responses to allow for faster answers.”

    Due to the technical difficulty of how the forums currently work, the block editor would need to be rolled out to all users on all forums, precluding the possibility of rolling it out on a per-user, per-language, or per-forum basis.

    In a ticket opened six days ago, Meta contributors discussed bringing the block editor to the support forums using the Blocks Everywhere plugin by Automattic. This plugin switches the default WordPress editor for comments, bbPress, BuddyPress, and admin moderation to use Gutenberg, giving users access to blocks. Instead of bundling Gutenberg, it side-loads the editor from WordPress.

    The Meta and Support teams intend to start with just four blocks available to forum users: paragraph, list, quote, and code.

    Gómez shared a few GIFs from a test site, demonstrating a user responding on a thread using the block editor:

    Another item on the roadmap is creating an “add via URL” image block that would allow users to embed from various image hosting services.

    A live testing site is available at https://test.wordpress.org/support/ and anyone who wants to join in the testing can leave a comment on the announcement post. Bugs can be filed on the meta trac ticket for the improvement to the forums. The Meta and Support teams are looking for feedback before Monday, December 12.

  • Google Rolls Out December 2022 “Helpful Content” Update

    Google is in the process of rolling out its December 2022 “helpful content” system update, which started on the 5th and is becoming more visible in search results. The company estimates it will take approximately two weeks to fully roll out.

    The helpful content system generates a signal that is used by Google’s automated ranking systems to provide people with what it deems to be more original and helpful content “written by people, for people” in search results. This particular update improves the system’s classifier and works across content in all languages.

    The system was designed to reward content where Google determines that visitors have had a satisfying experience and, conversely, where visitors do not find what they are looking for, the content will not perform as well. This is distilled into a site-wide signal where Google’s systems automatically identify “content that seems to have little value, low-added value or is otherwise not particularly helpful to those doing searches.”

    If Google finds relatively high amounts of unhelpful content on a site, the rest of the site’s content is not as likely to perform well in Search. With this application of the system, unhelpful content is like a poison for the rest of the website. Google said removing it could boost the rankings for the rest of the site’s content. It can take months for Google to reclassify a site’s content as helpful after unhelpful content has been removed.

    Google published more information on how the classifier works and what it means for rankings:

    This classifier process is entirely automated, using a machine-learning model. It works globally across all languages. It is not a manual action nor a spam action. Instead, it’s just one of many signals Google evaluates to rank content.

    This means that some people-first content on sites classified as having unhelpful content could still rank well, if there are other signals identifying that people-first content as helpful and relevant to a query. The signal is also weighted; sites with lots of unhelpful content may notice a stronger effect.

    This is the first major update to helpful content since August 2022. At that time Google encouraged site owners to focus on creating “people-first content,” as opposed to search engine-first content. Site owners are encouraged to reference Google’s guide to “Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content,” which includes dozens of questions for evaluating whether content will be deemed helpful or not.

  • Jetpack 11.6 Adds Block Pattern Support to Forms

    Jetpack has introduced a major update to its Form block in the latest version 11.6 release. Users can now interact with the various form templates as patterns.

    A new quick start placeholder appears anytime users invoke a new form block. It displays a selection of the most commonly used form types as icons. Clicking on any one of the form templates will instantly add it to the block. From there, users can further customize the form fields and labels. It also displays a link to documentation on customizing forms and a link to view and export form responses.

    Version 11.6 also introduces a patterns explorer, similar to the one found in the block inserter. Here users can see all available patterns fully expanded to better inform their decisions during the form creation process.

    After testing, I found the pattern explorer to be a somewhat clunky way to view available form templates. In the default view they appear one at a time and expand to fit the explorer’s viewport. They are also difficult to scroll. Clicking on the grid style view, the patterns are easier to see but the design could be improved to better differentiate each pattern, as they all seem to run right into the next with faint borders around each.

    Although I’m eager to see Jetpack iterate on the execution of these new ways to build forms, the placeholder and pattern explorer undoubtedly help users get started faster than trying to build a form from scratch in the block editor.

    Other notable updates in this release include SEO improvements that allow users to have more granular control over how their content is presented (or not presented) to search engines. In the Jetpack SEO panel, users can now exclude that specific post or page from being indexed, while allowing the content to remain publicly accessible. Users can also now set a custom SEO title for posts and pages that will show in the search snippet and browser tab.

  • ChatGPT Creates a Working WordPress Plugin – On the First Try

    ChatGPT passed 1 million users today and Twitter is brimming with a steady stream of creative questions and applications for the AI-powered chatbot. The language model, created by OpenAI, is powered by GPT-3.5, a series of models trained on text and code from before Q4 2021. The model features a dialogue format that gives ChatGPT the ability to “answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”

    While some are busy predicting the end of search engines and sounding the death knell for human-generated writing, others are fascinated by the potential of AI systems to fundamentally reshape the process of creation. WordPress developer Johnathon Williams brought this close to home when he asked ChatGPT to spin up a WordPress plugin.

    Ordinarily, plugin creation is a task that requires a certain level of technical proficiency. Williams demonstrated that, with a little bit of expert guidance, ChatGPT can drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to extend WordPress.

    Williams installed the plugin and found that it worked on the first try. Although he didn’t save the prompt for this first try, he published a gist on GitHub of the generated code.

    On a second attempt of creating a different plugin, he used the following prompt:

    Create a custom WordPress plugin called “Big Daddy Media” that deletes images older than one year from the media library. OOP. Custom admin screen. one button delete. log the full URL of all deleted media files.

    He published a screen recording of ChatGPT at work creating the plugin:

    Williams said that although he’s had mixed results with his prompts, he has gotten the best results from asking ChatGPI to generate entire functions versus specific filters or actions.

    Theoretically, with additional training on plugin best practices and common architecture, ChatGPT could be used by people of all skill levels to extend WordPress in creative ways.

    “Very soon, describing the WordPress plugin you need to ChatGPT will generate a new one faster than searching for an existing one in the plugin directory,” Williams said. “This won’t be true for all types of plugins, of course. But for relatively simple plugins performing established tricks … well *very soon* should probably read ‘right now.’”

  • The WP Community Collective Launches Nonprofit to Fund Individual Contributors and Community-Based Initiatives

    The WP Community Collective (WPCC) officially launched today as a new nonprofit organization dedicated to funding individual WordPress contributors and community-led initiatives. It was founded by Sé Reed, Katie Adams Farrell, and Courtney Robertson.

    The organization was created to address some of the challenges of contribution, where larger companies tend to have more resources to sponsor contributors, while individuals and smaller companies may struggle to balance their ability to volunteer with the need to make ends meet.

    One of the primary ways the WPCC aims to support contributors is through Fellowships. This is an agreement where individuals receive financial support for their contributions to WordPress with global pay parity. They will also engage in professional development and are encouraged to participate in regional WordCamps as attendees, speakers, and/or organizers with expenses covered by the fellowship.

    The fellowships are an interesting concept, designed to incubate high quality contributors who are connected to the community with a well-rounded set of expectations that are not narrowly limited to the code produced.

    WPCC aims to identify areas where the community is underrepresented or contribution is needed and fund Fellowships in those areas. The first fellowship they plan to fund is for an Accessibility contributor, who will dedicate 5-10 hours a week to work on the Make WordPress Accessibility Team and its existing accessibility initiatives.

    “The Accessibility Fellowship will be a bit of a test, in terms of fundraising and response from the community,” WPCC co-founder Sé Reed said. “Accessibility is an easy place to start because the community already knows it is important and we have contributors who are doing crucial work without any monetary support.”

    WPCC is using Open Collective as the fiscal sponsor for its 501(c)3 status, enabling donations to be classified as charitable giving, which is in many cases tax-deductible. All transactions that run through the organization are transparent and publicly documented on the organization’s transactions page.

    Reed said the tipping point for her team to get organized to make this happen was a tweet from Matt Mullenweg shortly after the 2022 WordCamp US, where he responded to people calling for users of assistive technology to be paid for testing Gutenberg.

    “His statement in that tweet really made two things clear to me,” Reed said. “One, that this funding concept would not be in conflict with the work of the WordPress Foundation or the official project, and two, that if we wanted something like this to happen it would have to be done as an independent entity.”

    The WPCC founders joined in on a recent WPwatercooler podcast episode where they shared their contributor stories and why they started the organization. One of their commonalities was a sincere desire to contribute more but not enough time in the day. With very few sponsored contributor positions available, volunteering is not always possible, resulting in the project being led primarily by sponsored contributors.

    “We hope that the WP Community Collective can help bridge the gap between the passion people feel for WordPress, and the very real and practical limits of volunteer contribution,” Reed said.

    WPCC is starting out with a small governance team that consists of the three co-founders but plans to expand the organizational structure to include more community representation, including an Advisory Board with a permanent seat for the Executive Director of WordPress. 

    People who want to support the WPCC can join with an individual membership for free to stay up to date with the organization’s activities. Check out the podcast episode below to meet the co-founders and learn more about the initiative.