Pagely takes on WordPress.com VIP, WebDevStudios buys out Maintainn, and Harrison Ford is also old.<\/p>\n
This week’s round-up of WordPress news, views and reviews summarized in our daily email newsletter, The WhiP.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to The Whip<\/a> for daily lashings of WordPress goodness.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI’ve tried the big three: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal. They all make me want to kill myself. I’ve searched high and low for anything remotely pleasant to use and I’m yet to find something.\u201d Khuram Malik is convinced WordPress is sooo 2008<\/a>\u00a0and we should ditch it for Wix or Tumblr. Crowd Favorite\u2019s Chris Lema argues so what if WordPress is old?\u00a0Harrison Ford is also old<\/a>. Somehow, his argument makes sense.<\/p>\n Speaking of Chris Lema,\u00a0have you developed your business skills<\/a>\u00a0as much as you\u2019ve developed your, well, development skills?<\/p>\n The team behind WooSupport offer a\u00a0peek at how they work<\/a>.<\/p>\n Learn web development with these 10 websites<\/a>\u00a0listed at Elegant Themes.<\/p>\n And\u00a0why does WordPress need FTP<\/a>?<\/p>\n How to\u00a0find out what WordPress theme a site is using<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0style external links in WordPress like Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0notify users when their comment is approved in WordPress<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0add a forum to your WordPress site<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0make the most of your wp-config.php file<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0change WordPress email content types to HTML<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are a heap of advanced tutorials right now on Tuts +. Find out\u00a0how to create a portfolio with Projects<\/a>. WordPress error handling with\u00a0WP_Error Class I<\/a>. Writer Rachel McCollins looks at\u00a0setting up WooCommerce<\/a>. Finally, a quick tip on\u00a0using BFI Thumbs for custom feature images<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have you ever been fernweh or seen a bakku-shan? Here are\u00a030 words difficult to translate into English<\/a>.<\/p>\n And Wall-E.\u00a0Because he\u2019s cool<\/a>.<\/p>\n One hundred! Yay! Thanks for sticking with us. As always, if you\u2019re enjoying The WhiP, please share the love and forward this edition to friends, family, lovers, neighbors and tell them to sign up\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n BuddyPress 2.1.1 is out<\/a>. This maintenance release squishes some bugs.<\/p>\n Time really is money. ManageWP\u2019s Vladimir Prelovac\u00a0lost 50% of his usual traffic after a network glitch<\/a> caused a 4-second delay on his website.<\/p>\n The Matt Report\u2019s Matt Medeiros interviews\u00a0BuddyPress freelancer David Bisset<\/a> about finding your WordPress niche.<\/p>\n Beka Rice, writing for Post Status mulls over whether\u00a0WordPress is right for eCommerce<\/a>\u00a0and comes to the conclusion it\u2019s like renting a house versus owning one.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re self-employed,\u00a0what is your routine<\/a>? Developer Tom McFarlin offers some tips.<\/p>\n Lists! Everyone loves a list, right?\u00a020 free and premium social media plugins<\/a>. Lots of great options.<\/p>\n 5 tools for\u00a0creating a maintenance mode or coming soon page<\/a>.<\/p>\n And our friends at WP Mayor have rounded up\u00a0a whole lotta business themes<\/a>.<\/p>\n In light of Facebook\u2019s recent acquisition,\u00a0how to add WhatsApp to your WordPress website<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0optimize your website for Chinese users<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0schedule backups to the cloud with the BackWPUp plugin<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0drive traffic to your WordPress site<\/a>.<\/p>\n And\u00a0some of the steps you need to take<\/a>\u00a0after installing WordPress.<\/p>\n Developer Paul Underwood has a ridiculous number of WordPress snippets on his site. His latest is on\u00a0how to register new post statuses<\/a>.<\/p>\n Add two-factor authentication<\/a>\u00a0to iThemes\u2019 Sync.<\/p>\n And while we\u2019re on the topic of iThemes,\u00a0here\u2019s a guide on how to use their Security plugin<\/a>\u00a0at Tuts+.<\/p>\n Twin Peaks<\/a>. That is all.<\/p>\n Another day, another WordPress buy out. Development agency WebDevStudios has bought out\u00a0Maintainn<\/a>. According to the\u00a0announcement<\/a>, the acquisition will allow WebDevStudios to provide\u00a0dedicated in-house maintenance and support to its clients<\/a>.<\/p>\n Developer Tom McFarlin, who created the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate, has put a\u00a0call out for feedback to help improve the free open source project<\/a>, which provides a foundation for plugin developers.<\/p>\n Plugin developers might also want to check out writer\u00a0Jay Hoffmann\u2019s awesome article on support options<\/a>\u00a0at Torque.<\/p>\n “…instead of aiming for massive popularity, it\u2019s better to steadily build interest in your brand among an audience that may be smaller but more devoted.\u201d WooThemes wants you to\u00a0maximize online store conversions with compelling blog posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Long form content is the bee\u2019s knees. Writer Brenda Barron takes a look at\u00a0long-form options for WordPress<\/a>\u00a0on the Kinsta blog.<\/p>\n Have you ever thought about\u00a0which social media channel are best for your site<\/a>? WP Mayor offers some interesting food for thought.<\/p>\n Find your groove as a web designer with Elegant Themes\u2019\u00a0guide on how to be productive<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the WPMU DEV Blog, we\u2019ve got an awesome guide on\u00a0how to integrate Twitter into WordPress<\/a>, including examples from some well-known sites.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0simplify your online presence with decent hosting<\/a>\u00a0at WP Explorer.<\/p>\n Learn how to easily add pricing tables to your website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tuts+ continues its series on\u00a0configuring W3 Total Cache<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lastly, developer Paul Underwood explains\u00a0how to display a submenu only on a parent page<\/a>.<\/p>\n The granddaddy of the modern keyboard:\u00a0the history behind IBM’s Model M<\/a>.<\/p>\n Can\u2019t start your day without a coffee? Researchers have\u00a0linked coffee consumption to eight genetic variants<\/a>.<\/p>\n And 41 of your favorite movies\u2026\u00a0if they were about potatoes<\/a>\u00a0(yes, it\u2019s as stupid as it sounds).<\/p>\n Since stepping down as Automattic\u2019s CEO earlier in the year, Toni Schneider has been working with\u00a0Tinker<\/a>, a small team inside the company focused on creating new products and technologies like\u00a0Selfies<\/a>.<\/p>\n WP Tavern\u2019s Jeff Chandler\u00a0shares his experiences at WordCamp Ann Arbor<\/a>\u00a0and talks about tips for first-time organizers.<\/p>\n Long-time blogger Tom Ewer talks about his new project\u00a0Beginner Blogging<\/a>\u00a0on the WooThemes blog.<\/p>\n And a government perspective on why\u00a0WordPress could be a good fit for your agency<\/a>, thanks to WordPress.com VIP.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0create custom register and login pages with rich user profiles<\/a>\u00a0at WP Lift.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0automatically share your old posts<\/a> at WPMU DEV.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0improve your website\u2019s bounce rate<\/a>\u00a0at WP Explorer.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0customize the Patricia Genesis child theme<\/a>\u00a0on the Conducter blog.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0use wpDataTables<\/a>\u00a0at WP Mayor.<\/p>\n Smashing Magazine\u2019s Daniel Pataki joins the WPMU DEV Blog team with a fantastic article on\u00a0the powerful must-have tools every WordPress developer should have at their disposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tuts+ have a great post on\u00a0how to use Grunt to speed up your WordPress development workflow<\/a>.<\/p>\n Improve third-party API performance in WordPress with the\u00a0WP-TLC-Transient library<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Attachable computers will be less expensive to make, provide greater accuracy because sensors will be closer to a person\u2019s body (or even inside us) and offer the most utility, as something people won\u2019t forget to wear.\u201d The New York Time onwearable technology that feels like skin<\/a>.<\/p>\n Billionaire Peter Thiel wants to\u00a0live forever<\/a>.<\/p>\n Carrot<\/a>, a seamless experience, meticulously crafted, from beginning to end.<\/p>\n And\u00a0goat<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201c(WordPress.com) VIP is a great service. However, it is no longer the only service capable of serving clients at scale. We are winning more of those high-caliber clients that need the extra flexibility our stack offers.\u201d Managed web host Pagely<\/a>\u00a0has celebrated its fifth birthday with new branding and a redesign \u2013\u00a0and a reaffirmed goal to compete with VIP<\/a>. Post Status\u2019 Brian Krogsgard talks to Pagely\u2019s Josh Strebel about going after bigger fish.<\/p>\n Longreads joined Automattic in April and now that the storytelling site doesn\u2019t have to stress about money,\u00a0it\u2019s making good on its original plan to give 100% of contributions to independent publishers and writers<\/a>. WordPress.com has jumped on board with plans to\u00a0match all contributions dollar for dollar<\/a>.<\/p>\n Elegant Themes is again running its\u00a0Customer Showcase Contest<\/a>, this time with $12,000 in prizes up for grabs.<\/p>\n This week\u00a0Torque talks to Nick Haskins<\/a>, the developer and CEO at Aesop Story Engine.<\/p>\n WebDesign.com is now officially iThemes Training. According to CEO Cory Miller, the idea is that it will bring everything iThemes does under one roof and stop any confusion by having multiple domains and separate branding.<\/p>\n Elegant Themes\u2019s flagship product Divi has been touted as the \u201conly theme you ever need\u201d But can it stand up to the hype?\u00a0We review Divi on the WPMU DEV Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n WP Explorer reviews\u00a0SiteGround WordPress hosting<\/a>.<\/p>\n Torque’s Shaun Quarton looks at the\u00a0pros and cons of allowing comments on your website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Does your reputation precede you? Writer Brenda Barron offers some tips on how to build creed as a WordPress developer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Crowd Favorite\u2019s Chris Lema reckons clients should be paying you for testing \u2013\u00a0and shouldn’t argue about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n On\u00a0DradCast<\/a>\u00a0this week is Patrick O\u2019Keefe, author of\u00a0Managing Online Forums<\/a>.<\/p>\n How to automatically download remote images to your WordPress media library<\/a> at WPMU DEV.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0hide widget titles from the front-end of WordPress<\/a>\u00a0at WP Tavern.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0increase social media activity on your website with Social Locker<\/a>\u00a0at Tuts+.<\/p>\n How to\u00a0prevent duplicate titles<\/a>\u00a0at WP Tavern.<\/p>\n Developer Tom McFarlin explains\u00a0how to use Codeship for continuous deployment of WordPress projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n Get WordPress up and running with\u00a0Grunt, Sass, Bourdon, and Neat<\/a>.<\/p>\n And how to\u00a0track conversions through Gravity Forms in Google Analytics<\/a>.<\/p>\n Note to\u00a0future self<\/a>\u2026.<\/p>\n Did you know\u00a0the actor who played R2-D2 hated the actor who played C-3PO<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\tThe WhiP Newsletter #99 – Monday, October 6<\/h2>\n
Party Like It\u2019s ’99<\/h3>\n
The Bends<\/h3>\n
Backpfeifengesicht<\/h3>\n
\nThe WhiP Newsletter #100 – Tuesday, October 7<\/h2>\n
Damn Good Coffee!<\/h3>\n
Every Day, Once a Day, Give Yourself a Present<\/h3>\n
I Am 100% Sure That We’re Not Completely Sure<\/h3>\n
I Believe I Was Visited By a Giant Last Night<\/h3>\n
My Log Saw Something That Night<\/h3>\n
\nThe WhiP Newsletter #101 – Wednesday, October 8<\/h2>\n
Freedom of the Press<\/h3>\n
The Bee\u2019s Knees<\/h3>\n
Twitter Love<\/h3>\n
Sweet Potato<\/h3>\n
\nThe WhiP Newsletter #102 – Thursday, October 9<\/h2>\n
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy<\/h3>\n
We Bounce to This Track<\/h3>\n
Smashing Baby!<\/h3>\n
Forever Young<\/h3>\n
\nThe WhiP Newsletter #103 – Friday, October 10<\/h2>\n
Bigger Fish to Fry<\/h3>\n
One-Stop Shop<\/h3>\n
Remote Control<\/h3>\n
Mothership<\/h3>\n
Stop Judging Me<\/h3>\n