Free Services for Website Building & Optimization
Last Updated November 24, 2018. There are a number of free online services useful for site builders. The four listed below are helpful for checking if DNS changes have been…
Best Web Hosting for Site Builders
Introduction If you need a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or a physical machine in a server facility then this article isn’t for you. For a high-level view of hosting considerations, see…
Creating an Off-Canvas Menu for Astra
As you may know, Astra is a relatively new WordPress theme created by Brainstorm Force. They are the company behind the Ultimate Addon for Beaver Builder as well as a…
The Not So Skinny on Custom Templates: Toolset, and Beaver Builder
The WPBuilds Facebook group is a friendly and interesting bunch of site builders. Periodically there is a discussion about plugins for creating the "display template" for Custom Post Types. This…
Gutenberg Will Bring Marketplace Shakeup
For the past couple of years, we have been hearing about how hard it is to break into the WordPress theme and plugin markets. I think there will be a…
Three FOMO Marketing Failures
We are all familiar with FOMO marketing - playing on the consumer's Fear Of Missing Out to quickly move them to purchase. This might be your standard sale - "buy…
Thrive Comments: Walkthrough and Review
A few weeks ago I was thinking to myself that WordPress comments were really a black hole. So I was surprised and intrigued when I received an email from Thrive…
Beaver Themer vs Toolset
When Posts Are Not Enough WordPress core supports custom fields and custom post types, but there is no admin UI for managing them and they are not output for display…
Best WAMP Server for Local WordPress – Laragon is Easy
Everyone doing web development or training up in web technologies needs a local test server. You know that testing on a live site is risky. Building websites or evaluating themes and…
Website Backup Plugins – Three Options
Having a good backup option for your WordPress site is essential. It helps you recover in the event there is a problem with an update, a user error, or a…
WordPress – A Case for the 80-20 Rule
Last updated September 1, 2017. When I was learning to program, I was taught that 80% of the project can be implemented with 20% of the effort. To realize the…
My Top WP Toolset Suggestions
Last updated August 26, 2017 I recently discovered the WP Builds podcasts. Nathan Wrigley and David Waumsley, the hosts, have interviewed some great guests with a focus on topics relevant…
WordPress Hosting – General Overview
I have been involved in website hosting since 1995. I've worked for organizations and companies who hosted their own sites. I've had clients with Virtual Private Servers (VPS) for site…
WordPress and Drupal Comparison – Deep Dive
WordPress and Drupal are two very popular content management systems that are often compared. The common conclusion to most comparisons is that WordPress is good for blogs or small sites…
WordPress Themes and Plugins with a Lifetime License – The Ultimate List
Last Updated November 24, 2018 Over the past year, several major plugins have stopped offering a lifetime license. I've kicked myself for waiting on a few that I could have…