WordPress News

WP Updates sold under non-disclosure, experiences outage

Brian Krogsgard

September 21, 2015

WP Updates is a SaaS that allows plugin and theme authors to provide automatic updates to their customers. It is a third party distribution system that the author uploads their updated files to and WP Updates sends it to customers.…

Local WordPress development strategies and transparency in business — Draft podcast

Katie Richards

September 19, 2015

BusinessDraft

Post Status Draft is a podcast about WordPress news and events hosted by Brian Krogsgard and Joe Hoyle. This week we discuss strategies for working locally, Underscore.js templating, and transparency in WordPress businesses.

Popping the publisher bubble

Brian Krogsgard

September 17, 2015

Business

Ben Thompson does excellent analysis. In his latest post he talks about the big problems facing journalism and publishing online. Here's my favorite part: It is easy to feel sorry for publishers: before the Internet most were swimming in money,…

Gravity Flow makes custom form administrative workflows simple

Brian Krogsgard

September 15, 2015

BusinessDesign

"RE: RE: RE: RE: Needs input." Gravity Flow helps organizations get rid of this nonsense, by extending Gravity Forms to make custom form-based workflows for administrative approval and user input processes.

Freelancers and the self-employed are ignored by the government

Brian Krogsgard

September 9, 2015

BusinessSecurity

Sara Horowitz -- who is the founder and executive director of the Freelancers Union -- makes a compelling argument for how important freelancers are to the American economy. She highlights just how big the freelancer economy is: For better or…

Yoast to expand to Drupal with SEO product

Brian Krogsgard

September 9, 2015

Business

It makes sense, given Yoast SEO's recent API changes and adjustment to a real-time Javascript driven SEO analysis, that they can now create a cross platform SEO product. And today they announced that Yoast SEO for Drupal 7 will be available…

Showing up at a gold rush with a shovel and a pan

Brian Krogsgard

September 1, 2015

BusinessDesign

I'm a pretty big fan of Dave Pell's NextDraft newsletter (subscribe and read my interview with him and Andrew Norcross!). It's a mix of tech and current events, and today he talked about the bubble in tech. I'll show the quote…

Million dollar products

Brian Krogsgard

August 27, 2015

BusinessDesign

Kyle Neath isn't a fan of Unicorn culture in tech-land. He would like to see more people aim to create what he qualifies as family businesses, and aim for smaller (more niche) customer bases, provide better service, build companies that…

Stream 3 goes back to self hosted site logging, looks more like 1 than 2

Brian Krogsgard

August 26, 2015

Business

Stream is one of those plugins that I've always seen the potential in but it's never quite nailed it. I was a pretty big fan of Stream 1, and I wrote about my experience, but in the end it ended…

Restaurant Engine sold for “low six figures”

Brian Krogsgard

August 7, 2015

Business

Brian Casel has sold Restaurant Engine for a "low six figures" sum. His asking price was $185,000, according to FE International, the site he used as a broker. Restaurant Engine was a very early entrant as a hosted WordPress website provider…

A practical guide to the GPL

Brian Krogsgard

August 6, 2015

Business

Richard Best has invested a lot to understanding the GPL, inside and out. He now has an ebook to help guide others on the GPL. Now, in a single place, you can find answers to all manner of issues relating…

Paid Memberships Pro unveils business model from 2012 to now

Brian Krogsgard

July 29, 2015

Business

Paid Memberships Pro has a somewhat unique monetization method for their plugin. They largely monetize by selling support and custom work, versus selling any kind of extension or functionality. All Paid Memberships Pro features are free. A few years ago,…

Don’t make enemies, invest in friendships

Cory Miller

July 29, 2015

BusinessPlanet

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.

Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress

Brian Krogsgard

July 23, 2015

BusinessDesign

Chris Pearson and Matt Mullenweg have hardly communicated with one another in the last five years, but they are ideological enemies. They have very strong personalities and unshakable beliefs on business and software. This is a story of their dispute, their idealism, and the implications it will have on the WordPress project.

Pearson versus Mullenweg, a history

Brian Krogsgard

July 21, 2015

BusinessDesign

This is a preview of the first part of my upcoming article on Thesis, Automattic, and WordPress. Chris Pearson and Matt Mullenweg have hardly communicated with one another in the last five years, but they are ideological enemies. They are…

The commercial theme tides

Brian Krogsgard

July 13, 2015

Business

Commercial WordPress theme sales is a known business today. Folks have been selling themes since 2007 and many sellers experienced some very good years. The market commoditized itself quite significantly, and it's harder and harder each year to stand out. Of…