The Jorbin Test
The Joel Test has largely stood the test of time, yet there isn’t a WordPress specific version to help WordPress developers judge job opportunities. The Jorbin Test is the Joel Test, updated for the WordPress engineers of today.
Category: Business
Don’t make enemies, invest in friendships
Enemies are trouble and tear you down. Friends support you and build you up. Building a friendship is not easy, especially when the potential friend could just as easily be your enemy. But it’s a worthwhile endeavor and a lasting investment.
Automattic has acquired WooThemes, makers of WooCommerce
Matt Mullenweg announced today that Automattic has acquired WooThemes, whose flagship product is the popular eCommerce plugin, WooCommerce. All 55 team members at WooThemes will join Automattic, swelling ranks at Automattic by around 18%.
OptinMonster goes SaaS in effort to cater for more hosting environments and non-WordPress platforms
OptinMonster has changed the very core of their product today, and it is now a standalone SaaS (software as a service) product, versus a plugin that runs on users’ servers.
Happytables 3 is taking on Squarespace and Wix for restaurant websites with a brand new platform
The new Happytables is a slick setup, and they’ve invested more time and energy into a hosted WordPress solution than perhaps anyone but Automattic on WordPress.com. The difference here is they are going after a niche, and it’s a huge one with a big need: restaurants.
Running a successful membership site in real life, with Jonathan Williamson
This interview is with Jonathan Williamson, co-founder of CGCookie. He’s going to talk to us about running a real world membership website on WordPress. Jonathan is Pippin Williamson’s twin brother, and he has years of experience running membership websites. There is much that we can learn from him.
Adii Pienaar is making a WordPress comeback with stake in Obox
Adii Pienaar is making a WordPress comeback after over a year away from the community. The WooThemes co-founder has made a strategic investment into Obox, the team behind the newly launched Layers product. In return, he’s received a 30% stake in the company to complement Receiptful, his new eCommerce product.
WooCommerce is going after photography
WooThemes announced a new product today, aimed at selling photography with WooCommerce. This is a good first step, and I’m excited to see an eCommerce product target the photography super-niche. That said, there is a ton of room in this market, and WordPress isn’t really solving photographers’ problems yet.
I ripped off PressNomics
Fresh and rested after PressNomics, today I’m reflecting on the WordPress business event that’s made such a name for itself. After finally making it myself, on its third iteration, I can tell you that I now know what all the fuss is about. Here are just a few of my takeaways.
Let’s Grow: Introducing the Post Status Membership Club
Today marks two years since I launched Post Status. It’s been an incredible two years. Today, I’m thrilled to announce that the Post Status Membership Club is open.
What to expect from PressNomics
PressNomics is this week. Here’s a preview of some of the things I’m looking forward to. I can’t wait to hang out with those of you going!
WordPress and the new European Union VAT (Value-Added Tax) rules
The new European VAT rules rolled out at the beginning of January, and they really complicate selling digital goods to Europeans. I have done a ton of research and reading, and this is the most straightforward post I could make from it to try and wrap up the state of the EU VAT rules for WordPress business owners and eCommerce shops.
GravityView raises the bar for WordPress video advertisements
Okay, maybe it doesn’t raise the bar the way you think I mean. But this is worthwhile. I’m pretty busy building the new Post Status infrastructure, but not too busy to post this. GravityView is a WordPress plugin by Zack Katz and Katz Web Services that lists Gravity Forms entries on your site in a […]
Yoast Google Analytics plugin introduces stats dashboards, with lessons learned along the way
Yoast updated their popular Google Analytics plugin in December to include new stats dashboards that pull in Google Analytics data to your site. The stats are pretty fancy and give a nice quick glance at your stats without leaving your WordPress dashboard. They’ve learned some lessons about building a plugin feature at scale along the way too.
Website micro services provider, Elto, is shutting down for now
Elto, formerly Tweaky, is a micro services provider, for lack of a better term. They started with $25 tweaks, which until they shut down services today, worked it’s way to a $199 minimum. WordPress is a high focus vertical for Elto’s, and I presume it’s their largest as well. Elto is one of several such […]
5 years into business, Pagely is growing faster than ever
Pagely is celebrating their fifth year of business right now. They have just launched their newly designed website (note to early readers: it’s in process of launching at this moment, so some links may not work until later today) to reflect some of the ways they’ve changed over the years. They are also growing, rapidly. […]
WordPress.com is very mobile centric with their first video ad
WordPress.com has released what appears to be their first ever video ad, and it’s quite mobile centric. The ad portrays a number of users using the WordPress mobile app to snap and blog pictures. It’s only 16 seconds, and is (unsurprisingly) to the tune of a Childish Gambino song, the artist whose Deep Web tour […]
