In this episode, I’m laying out the foundation for a new initiative I’m calling The Thriving Project. It’s a simple, community-driven effort to refocus the conversation around why WordPress matters—especially in this era of AI hype and increasing web complexity. This isn't a top-down campaign. There’s no committee. It’s just us, the WordPress commu…

In this episode, I unpack Joost de Valk’s recent post on ProgressPlanner.com, where he describes the “two faces of WordPress”: the community-driven contributors and the commercially-driven businesses. While I largely agree with his premise that there's a widening gap between the two, I think there’s more nuance that needs to be acknowledged—especia…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Being a freelance web designer often means dealing with disruption. Sometimes, it’s a client who needs a new feature built ASAP. But it can also come from a shakeup in the technology we use. Artificial intelligence (AI) has undoubtedly been a…

If you’ve ever said “I suck at marketing” or felt like you just don’t have what it takes to get your business out there, you’re definitely not alone. In this episode, I dig into why so many of us (myself included) feel overwhelmed by marketing and think we’re just not cut out for it. The truth is, marketing can feel like an endless checklist: blog …

In this episode of The Matt Report, I fire up the mic after years of dormancy to explore a timely rabbit hole: how AI platforms like ChatGPT are surfacing and ranking content—especially in response to queries like “best WordPress podcasts.” I noticed that The Matt Report still shows up in these AI-generated lists, despite not publishing new episode…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe The web was once a bastion of free and cheap things. Free tools and services catering to professionals and novices were abundant. And even things that cost money were relatively affordable. This climate has been a boon to freelancers, agencie…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Freelancers have plenty of options for leveraging artificial intelligence (AI). It seems like a new tool or five comes out each week. And that doesn’t include existing products with bolted-on AI features. The hype train has morphed into a roc…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe The web design industry is maturing. New projects used to be the lifeblood of freelancing, and companies spent money on feature-packed websites to establish themselves online. But those opportunities seem fewer and farther between these days.…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe As consumers, we are trained to crave what’s new and improved. It’s all about that massive feature launch or the illusion of getting more for your money. I can understand the appeal. Having the latest and greatest product gives us bragging ri…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Technical debt is an inevitable challenge for WordPress freelancers who have been in the industry for an extended period. Websites, tools, and services age, while outdated code, incompatible plugins, and inefficient workflows can accumulate. …

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe You can use WordPress to build all kinds of websites. There are no hard limits when it comes to looks or functionality. That freedom is powerful. You can build sites that handle eCommerce, memberships, and large databases. You can tie in with…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe There are a lot of advantages to being a freelancer. One of them is that you can work from anywhere. No need for a brick-and-mortar location means saving money. It’s also pretty nice that WordPress is free to use. A savvy business owner can g…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Click here to follow the WP Minute+ podcast. It's where all of the podcast episodes have been going. In today's episode I'm sharing additional thoughts on Automattic vs WP Engine and where I stand with covering it. ★ Support this podcast ★…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Imagine if Wix invested in open source? Imagine if Wix gained on WordPress? Imagine if Wix conquered our beloved CMS? Imagine if Wix focused on one area in WordPress: Data Liberation. I don’t think the closed-source CMS will supplant tens of …

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe I wonder if people are generally upset that Mullenweg has control of “WordPress” or that he has control over a large chunk of the “open web.” Placing his irresponsible reactions aside for a moment, I think we should abstract why we might feel…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Get all the links here. With the beta of WordPress 6.6 releasing, and seeing the advancements being made with site building features like Overrides for Synced Patterns — I can’t help but be excited for where WordPress is headed. And I know yo…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe WordPress Media Corps — you might even chuckle when you hear the phrase. This experimental initiative is a team that replaced the WordPress Marketing Team. Not commercial WordPress, mind you, but the open source dot org side of the house. If …

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe I really enjoyed the conversation lead by Brian Coords on the topic of version control for WordPress developers and builders. He was joined by my recurring cohost, Mark Szymanski, as he asked the tough questions many beginners might be facing…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe The Biggest WordPress Moves While Mullenweg was on Sabbatical Matt Mullenweg is returning from his 3 month sabbatical, dubbed “Samattical”, which kicked off February 1, 2024. He handed the CEO reigns back to Toni Schneider and placed Daniel B…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe WordPress is amazing not just because it’s a great tool to publish words on the internet, but that it has the potential to encourage you to learn more about the web — if you want. If you remember the golden age of automobiles, enthusiasts wou…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe I recently had the pleasure of meeting Sam Harrison, a professional Webflow consultant and content creator. He was open to co-host a WordPress vs Webflow debate with me, while also unpacking how business is going for his services company. Hea…

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Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe March 22 2024 It’s the WP Minute! Today we ask, “Who’s responsible for WordPress marketing?” Coming up next! Josepha Haden Chomphosy, Executive Director of the WordPress Open Source project, posted an idea that shifts the dynamics of the Word…

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Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe I think it’s one of the most important default themes WordPress has released in a while. Sure, the design is fairly opinionated, but with the mix of new patterns/blocks available, I think someone with a little WordPress know how (and grit!) w…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Getting started with WordPress. A topic that’s been popping up a lot more in my WP Minute+ interviews lately. Where does one go when they want to get started with WordPress? Learning how to use it. Learning what it can do compared to its comp…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe # Contributing Through WordPress Training & Education It’s the WP Minute! Let’s talk about contributing through WordPress training, education and content! Coming right up! Something that’s been on my mind as I loosely plot out my YouTube worl…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Coming up on the WP Minute! Help me with this quick survey to shape the future of WP Minute, plus more WordPress goodness, coming right up. It’s time to take a quick survey. If you have less than 2 minutes to spare, could you head to thewpmin…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Cory Miller and I discuss how the WordPress community is impacted when “big issues” clash with Matt, Automattic, and other community members. How should we handle these moments of passion and strife? It’s easy to label these issues as WPDrama…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe I wanted to take today off, to have a bit of a reset from the weekly grind (often chaos) of WordPress stuff. Instead, I’m hoping I can reset expectations with you, my valued reader/listener/viewer of the WP Minute. We’re going into our 4th ye…

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Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Get the links, show notes, original YouTube video, and transcripts from The WP Minute website. Thanks for listening! Please tell us what you liked about State of the Word 2023 on social media! ★ Support this podcast ★…

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Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe WP Minute+ News Round Table Episode 1. This will be a monthly series on WP Minute+ Podcast. Make sure you're following the podcast! Follow WP Minute+ Read the full shown notes: https://thewpminute.com/?p=12987 Get the weekly newsletter: https…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe I’ve been learning the Twenty Twenty-Four theme deeply over the last few weeks, as I feel this is one of the most important default themes ever released. A theme that has a good set of patterns at launch, a less opinionated design than previo…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Today’s update is a brief one. If you hadn’t heard the news, WordPress 6.4 was released on November 7th. Things didn’t go as smoothly has we all hoped, with the core teams rushing to release 6.4.1 to catch a nasty bug in older versions of the…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe WooCommerce is now Woo, kinda. Here’s a quote from their announcement Say hello to Woo.com - WooCommerce post: You can call us Woo, WooCommerce, Their Supreme Wooness — whatever you’d like. But if you want to be specific: Woo is how we refer …

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe On the latest WP Minute, we delve into the release of WordPress 6.4 RC 2, potential implications for the WordPress professional community, and a spotlight on the upcoming Twenty Twenty-Four theme. Is it set to revolutionize the market? The ep…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe WordPress 6.4 is coming packed full of 100+ performance updates, along with some minor iterative changes to the overall UI. In a recent YouTube video, I took a look at RC1 available now to demo. Now’s your chance to dive in ahead of time and …

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe WordPress.org briefly introduced 1-click plugin previews this week. If you found yourself looking at the plugin page on the world’s largest directory this week you could enter the official WordPress playground to explore what the plugin had t…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe The dust is settling on the Ollie theme’s onboarding experience, which was set to be included in the theme’s core functionality when author, Mike McCalister, submitted it to the theme repo. The onboarding experience bucked the trend of tradit…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe I recently had the opportunity to chat with WP Minute Editor, Eric Karkovack, about some new services we are launching to better help WordPress product owners. Eric has been creating content for WordPress developers and designers for over a d…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe Hey it’s Matt from the WP Minute. Did you know there’s a professional group of WordPress’ers excited to meet you? If you’re looking for a more casual WP Slack membership to join, chat about the news, and share your own content with our audien…

Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/support Get the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe At the time of this publication, thirty-thousand plus eyeballs have landed on John Blackbourn’s tweet that has sparked an event that goes well-beyond #WPDrama this week. It seems WordPress.com has publicly replicated the .org plugin pages. My…