WP Realm

WordPress news, community news, reviews and more from all over the world

Remkus de Vries

About Remkus de Vries

Avid and heavy WordPress user since 2005, so effectively a WordPress oldtimer. Started as developer and agency owner, now works as Head of Partner & Customer relationships at Servebolt.

Co-founded WordCamp Europe in 2012, and WordCamp Netherlands back in 2009.

Principal owner of WP Realm.

Newsletter Glue, is it for you?

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Sorry about the corny click-bait title, but it’s the mood for today, so I’m just going to roll with it.

Over the summer I saw Lesley Sim tweet about a new plugin she was introducing and it peaked my interest! It solves a very particular niche, but one that needed a better solution than what’s out there currently.

Publish new content and then …

When you regularly post new content you’d love for you audience to find that content, right? So, in order to make that happen, you’ve no doubt created a newsletter for people to subscribe to.

But here’s the problem with that. You have to go into Mailchimp to physically publish those newsletters or use the ugly RSS powered solution. Both are not ideal. And this is where Newsletter Glue comes into play.

Easy set up

The plugin, in a very simple way, connects your site with your Mailchimp (or a few other newsletter services) audience list and integrates inside your editor quite smartly. When you’re getting ready to post your new article, just click on the checkbox to send that post out to list and you’re golden. Couldn’t be easier.

Just check out this video where Lesley explains the flow of the plugin:

I’ve already implemented their plugin on a couple of sites now. You even get some styling control over how your post is going to look as email.

All in all, I’m a big fan of Newsletter Glue, almost as much as Lesley loves pizza I think. There are a few things I’d like to see added, though.

  1. I’d love for a custom text area below the post being sent. It allows for you to add a CTA or some explanation.
  2. Not being able to use this integration on Custom Post Types is a bit of a bummer. Allowing for all content to be pushed out would be wonderful feature.
  3. Scheduled posts should be sent out as an email at the time the post is scheduled. Not when you schedule the post. Or so it seems they’re being processed.

But that’s it. It does what it promises wonderfully. Go and test for yourself!

Update:
Lesley reached out to me and let me know that all items of my list will be added in the short future. Today, October the 7th, every single item on my list has been added and/or fixed in the plugin. I am impressed.

WordProof awards €1M grant by European Commission

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This week was an exciting week for Dutch startup WordProof as they were awarded a €1 Million prize by the European Commission.

With this contest, Europe aims to stimulate the use of blockchain technology to solve social problems. WordProof, founded one year ago, managed to leave 175 participants from all over Europe behind. Which is quite an impressive feat for this young startup.

[Read more…] about WordProof awards €1M grant by European Commission

The WordPress Core team proposes to auto-update old WordPress installations

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There’s an interesting proposal on the Make Core blog by Ian Dunn. The proposal suggests to auto-update all older or equal than 3.7 – the version that introduced auto-updates – WordPress instances to 4.7.

The reason for wanting to do this is actually best summarized by Otto in a comment:

If we simply said “we’re not backporting fixes anymore” and left it at that, then that changes nothing except now we’re intentionally leaving a huge portion of the web vulnerable to undiscovered threats

Samuel “Otto” Wood

Read the rest of the post on the Core blog and weigh in. It’s a bit of a read, but I would include the comments before asking your questions or adding your comments.

Themes on WordPress.org will require keyboard navigation to be built in

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The Theme Review Theme announced today that they will shortly be requiring new themes to include keyboard navigation to be built in.

The main goal for this new requirement is to make the themes on WordPress.org have better accessibility features by default. Having keyboard navigation included means you would be able to navigate theme settings and such in the browser without the use of a mouse. This is especially needed for users of alternative input devices who are sighted.

Read more about it at the announcement post.

Google launches Site Kit

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Google announced the developer preview of Google Site Kit on GitHub. They’re launching it on GitHub first so this way they allow WordPress developers to test drive the plugin and test Site Kit compatibility with other plugins. For now, it’s the easiest way for Google to gather implementation feedback and recommendations for this plugin.

Google’s current implementation of the plugin setup flow requires developer know-how and familiarity with Google Cloud Platform and OAuth verification process.  The current setup experience is not the final user experience they plan to make available to WordPress users. Learn more about it on GitHub.

Give props in abundance, not in restraint

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Giving props, for those who are unaware, is where someone who has contributed to open-source code is given acknowledgment. Typically you’ll find these props given within a specific ticket in which a person has contributed a fix for the open ticket. In the WordPress realm, you’ll also find these props at the bottom of a new release post as you can see here in the section called The Squad.

Those who contributed the actual fix are the ones receiving props. But … that’s not very inclusive.  [Read more…] about Give props in abundance, not in restraint

WordPress.com, Jetpack and How It’s All Changing, Maybe?

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Having a commercial version of WordPress alongside a non-profit version has been confusing. Especially to those starting out with WordPress, but not exclusively those new to it. It would be a great win for the WordPress Community if Automattic’s flagship product, WordPress.com, would rebrand itself to Jetpack.com. I have said this, half-jokingly, in the past decade to anyone who would listen. #sorrynotsorry.

But with WordPress.com now allowing for plugins and themes to be activated on their platform, the lines get even more blurry.

The Need to Make Money

Since Automattic is running on venture capital money, at some point it’s going to focus on monetization even more. If you have been paying close attention to how the sign-up between a stand-alone WordPress installation and Jetpack has changed over the last couple of months, you will have noticed. For a brief period, the free option was even hidden in the “Skip for now” button below the pricing table you’re greeted with when you connect Jetpack to your site.

You may have also noticed Automattic opening up their affiliate program. It includes Jetpack, WordPress.com, and everything WooCommerce now. All clear signs that Automattic has made monetization a higher priority in recent months. And judging by a tweet sent out yesterday at the Affiliate Summit, Jetpack is taking a very prominent role:

Changes in Branding

What’s even more interesting, navigating to the WordPress.com main page–make sure you’re logged out–will show you a WordPress frontpage without any signs of a W. Meaning the WordPress logo. I’m not sure when this changed, but it’s a very clear sign that WordPress.com’s branding is changing.

It’s just pure speculation on my part that this will lead to switching from WordPress.com to Jetpack.com, but I for one would welcome the change. I also think it will help send less of a mixed message for those entering the WordPress Community, Automattic’s affiliate program or both. 😉