Tips Tuesday – Ad Revenue Battle, AI Plugins, PHP and WP Updates

Hello Happy Site Owner!

Tips this week include:

• PHP and WP Update Status
• Researching IP Rotation Issues
• PHP 8.1 and MySQL updates eminent
• What would a course in blogging look like today?
• Bloggers have a lot of hats to wear
• Sites really are technical things
• Yoast adds AI title and metadescription tool
• How to keep a human voice in the age of AI
• Where to find THE best AI creative assistant
• AI is coming to more WP plugins
• Why me and my webmasters are attending the AI web Agency Summit
• WordPress Playground is now a Chrome Extension
• Short-form video strategy for Reels and TikTok
• The battle for Ad Money: AI vs Human Content Creators – must read for bloggers

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PHP and WP Updates Done

I’m delighted to report that we were able to resolve issues that clients were encountering with PHP/WP updates. It’s not fun when 2 major updates hit at the same time. But maybe that was a good thing because we got it all taken care of at once, instead of finding out that PHP 8.1 will impact the new things in WP 6.3.1.

Researching IP Rotation Issues

One of the other things these updates revealed concerns security. We whitelist our IP at Cloudflare and the host. That’s usually an IPv4.

But, with these new updates, plus OWASP security rule tightening, some folks have had to whitelist their IPv6 too. And that rotates more frequently than IPv4.

So, we’re all putting our heads together to come up with good ways to deal with this so that we don’t have to constantly find and whitelist our IPs.

PHP 8.1 and MySQL Updates Eminent

If you are not on a site maintenance program with somebody, then you have to suffer through surprise issues when hosts auto update things on you, like your PHP version, or the new MySQL version that are about to be forced at all hosts in the next month or so.

That’s why me and my peeps enjoy staying ahead of the curves and doing these updates well ahead of a forced change so we can work on them together and get everybody through the issues and then go on with our lives.

Later down the road we start hearing the screams from other site owners who have no idea why their sites are broken nor do they know what to do about it.

What Would A Course in Blogging Look Like Today?

I was thinking the other day about what it would take to create a course that would help a new blogger learn all they need to know about running a successful blog that actually makes them money beyond a side hustle.

I remember back when I started BlogAid and I taught a course like that. It was 4-6 weeks.

Today, I believe it would have to be at least a year-long course.

A Lot of Hats to Wear

You have to have the knowings of a LOT of things to make a solo blog venture profitable, especially when using WordPress.

You have to know how to:

• Write compelling, engaging content that is SEO optimized
• Create and optimize images for different platforms
• Post to different social media platforms to get the most reach
• Choose a host, theme, and plugins that are the best
• Secure your site
• Make your site fast
• Do statistical analysis for diving into analytics for the site and other platforms

That’s a lot to know!

I hope you will take a moment to pat yourself on the back for all that you have learned in this venture.

I also hope you will take a moment to realize that there has always been something new to learn, and there always will be with running and marketing a site.

Sites are Technical Things

WordPress, themes, plugins, host software, and databases are all just a bunch of code.

Sites have always been technical things.

And now we have extreme cybersecurity concerns to deal with.

Plus the internet is just a bunch of wires and hubs that are becoming clogged highways of traffic. 

So we have to find ways to get our sites into a flying car and zoom above all of that with CDNs like Cloudflare that help us be fast and more secure too. And we have to know what plugins and themes contribute to speed and security.

Get Site Help That Makes You Money

You need pro help with all the techie side of site things these days. It’s just too much for non-techie folks to deal with on their own.

That’s where BlogAid comes in.

I don’t take newbie clients.

There’s just too much they need to learn about running a profitable blog before they wake up to the fact that they need to hire help to make the actual site part of it run better.

To my knowledge, I’m the only person left on the entire planet that offers and done-with-you service for DIY site owners.

Everybody else has no help or has moved to a done-for-you service. And everything about done-for-you suits the majority of profitable site owners, except for the price tag. It’s expensive.

I feel like George Bailey some days. I’m hanging on to my little Building and Loan enterprise to help the folks who are a good fit for this hybrid service and who appreciate the lower price tag on it because they can do their parts of the partnership.

They really appreciate that lower cost when they start making so much more money from having done it too.

So, if you’re a woke site owner and you have realized that you need extra help with all the techie stuff, see my site audit service and come join us.

We help each other stay ahead of the curves, avoid expensive pitfalls, make more money, and stay calm. And see my DIY SEO course to go beyond keywords and such and get to the heart of what makes SEO work for you.

I’ll have more pop up courses for you, like the GA4 course, as the need arises. And there will always be something, right?

Get in, get it done the easy way, and go on with your life.

Site Services Update

Doing the PHP/WP update research and doing the actual updates has delayed my client project work schedule by a couple of weeks.

Plus, several clients have had deaths or illnesses in the family and had to delay their projects.

So, my schedule is a little jumbled right now.

If you are on the waitlist, I will be opening your project as soon as we get caught up with the currently open ones.

If you are due for an audit checkup in October, now is the time to get that request in.

And please do visit the BlogAid Site Services page to see all of the help I can provide to take you and your site to next level, or help you start a new site, rebrand the one you have, and so much more.

AI SEO Tips

Yoast 21.1 Adds AI Title and Metadescription Tool

In the latest premium version of Yoast SEO you’ll find new AI tools to help you craft better titles and metadescriptions.

While that sounds convenient, it also adds more bloat to the plugin and new 3rd party call.

The majority of my DIY SEO course members do not use the premium version of Yoast. 

And we turn off all of the 3rd party analysis tools in the free version too.

Yet, we have THE most optimized SEO possible on our whole site and on our posts and pages.

How To Keep a Human Voice in the Age of AI

AI is a helpful assistant, especially for those who run a niche site.

You talk about the same things all the time.

AI can help you freshen up your ideas and get your creative juices flowing.

It can even write whole posts for you. In fact, the internet is being flooded by such posts.

As a content creator, it’s your voice, your angle, your content that folks want to hear.

I think this post from the nice folks at Flyte Blog will help you realize just how important your human voice is in the age of AI.

And it will help you see that AI is an assistant, not a creator. You are the creator.

AI Success Club

If you want to learn how to make AI a creative assistant for all aspects of your online endeavors, the AI Success Club is THE very best way I know of to do that.

I joined even before it launched.

And it has been a fantastic investment to help me learn how to use AI in ways I had not even thought of.

It’s not just a course.

The community is fantastic too.

Plus, we get to hear from other industry experts as well.

AI and WordPress

AI In More Plugins

Yoast is not the only plugin to bring AI into your site. 

It’s all over the place.

I just don’t report on it because I checked into several of these things and the bloat and security concerns outweigh the convenience.

If you want AI assistance, use the free version of ChatGPT.

In fact, I find the free version of 3.5 to be far more creative with helping me get ideas or variations on an idea than the paid version, which has 4.0 available.

AI Web Agency Summit

Me and my webmasters will be attending this 3-day summit event on how AI can be used in web agencies, like the businesses we run.

Bloggers may be interested in the Kadence theme AI demo session on day one. And see the session on day two for how generative AI works and how to use it for WordPress. 

To get a grip on just how big and important this summit is, scroll below the list of sessions and see the names of all the WP related businesses that are supporting this event.

I hope that helps all of us understand where things are going with sites and content and security and why I’m spending so much time delving deeply into AI now.

I don’t believe that AI is going to replace people in the WordPress ecosystem, including designers and bloggers.

I do believe that people who use AI will replace those who don’t.

Webmaster Tips

WordPress Playground is Now a Chrome Extension

Need to test a theme or plugin more deeply than what you can see on its support or demo page?

The WordPress Playground has been a way to very quickly set up a sandbox site and install your new thing to see it fully in action.

But, it was a little cumbersome to do, and you had to remember the link and such.

Well, it’s a lot easier now.

They made it into a Chrome extension.

You can very easily fire up a new WP instance with just a click.

This is going to come in super handy if your client asks you to install a new plugin they heard about. You’ll get the chance to do more than just read about it.

No staging site required, and no orphaned files, folders, and database tables to remove after you delete it if you don’t like it either.

Of course you can’t test it in their environment with their content. But I think it’s a good tool to have on hand.

Video Tips

Short-Form Video Strategy for Reels and TikTok

The nice folks at Social Media Examiner have an excellent guide to get you going with short-form videos.

This post really has everything you need, including super easy ways to get started if you haven’t already.

The strategy they cover is excellent too.

If you’re thinking of skipping over this article, I want to you to read at least this one excerpt from it:

Why Is Short-Form Video So Important?

We live in a video-first world. If you’re a creator who loves photography or copywriting, there’s still room for your skills but let’s be realistic. Short-form video dominates every social media platform. From Instagram Reels to TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Watch, and even Pinterest and Spotify, short-form video is taking over.

Monetization Tips

The Battle for Ad Money: AI vs Human Content Creators

If you blog for ad revenue, then you MUST read my post on the storm that is brewing with Google breaking its own ad placement rules and the $13 billion dollars they wasted for those who bought those ads.