Tips Tuesday – DIY SEO, Webmaster Tutorials, Plugin Updates, TikTok Visionaries

Hello Happy Site Owners and Webmasters!

Tips this week include:

• New bonus post, podcast, and livestream coming this week with a peek into our future
• DIY SEO Quick Checks are done and we start Jan 6
• New Webmaster tutorials have been posted
• WordPress 5.9 beta 4 is out
• New settings for CleanTalk antispam plugin
• A look back at the year for WP Fastest Cache
• And the visionary I found on TikTok who lit me on fire about why we need Gutenberg

Listen to the Podcast

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Spill the Beans Livestream tonight

Do join us live tonight at 8pm ET / 5pm PT on the BlogAid Facebook Page. We spill the beans on this week’s news, breaking stories for the day too, and special info just for those who watch. And the replay is available here on this Tips Tuesday post later too. But the live party is so much more fun.

Replay

Who I Help

All BlogAid posts and tutorials are intended to assist business-minded, hands-on bloggers and webmaster designers who are serious about making money and who want to stay up-to-date with site changes. And our BB Hub is a private member site and Facebook group for my site audit clients that has lots of extra perks and support.

BlogAid Happenings

Welcome to the last Tips Tuesday for 2021, y’all!

And it’s going to be a little short as news has been light for this past week, thankfully.

2022 and Beyond: Bonus Post, Podcast, and Livestream

And, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a bonus podcast and post for us with a peek into our online future.

Look for it on Thursday – plus a bonus live session to discuss it at the special time of 1pm ET / 10am PT.

It will be on the BlogAid Facebook page, just like the Tips Tuesday livestream is. And the replay will be available on the post later too.

DIY SEO Quick Checks Start Jan 6

Woot!!!! I’m delighted to announce that our DIY SEO Quick Checks are ready – and you’ll see the first email on Jan 6. 

You’ll get an email every day through Jan 15 with a super quick check to ensure that all of your SEO foundation settings are current, plus info on new tutorials in those sections too.

Now, if you’re new to the DIY SEO course, you need to take all of the standing tutorials first. That solid SEO foundation is what makes all the info in the workshops actually do you the most good.

For folks who have been in the course for a while, you’ll do fine with just the quick checks.

New Webmaster Tutorials

This past year I’ve had more site owners request help to permanently shut down their sites than in all the years I’ve owned BlogAid combined.

Now my webmasters are getting those requests too.

So, I made a new tutorial section in the Webmaster Training for how to close down a site properly, including the same checklist I use for my clients.

All BlogAid Courses on Sale

You’ve got 1 week left to get your discount on all BlogAid courses.

The sale ends Jan 5 – I extend it through the new year as some folks want the tax write off now and some want it later.

But when it ends, it ends.

So, don’t miss the best investment you can make for your site’s success!!

Site Services Update

We were running a wee bit ahead of schedule with onboarding folks.

But, most of my clients have been taking some time off for the holidays, so client work has been light this past week, and will be for this week too.

If I guesstimated we would be starting your project in Jan, we will be on time. And for folks after that, we may be a little ahead of that original guesstimate.

New project requests are still holding for the Feb/March timeline.

That’s all the happenings around here. Let’s jump into this week’s tips.

WordPress Tips

WordPress 5.9 Beta 4 out

The WP devs are right on track with their scheduled beta releases of WP 5.9.

And I’m anxious to get a hold of the RC1 release next week on Jan 4.

That’s when I’ll start making my new Gutenberg Ninja tutorials.

And I hope to be releasing them into the course when WP 5.9 rolls out in late January.

Get Your WP 5.9 Update Instructions

Now, we won’t be updating to WP 5.9 right away when it’s released.

I’ll be sending word on when, along with instructions to my BlogAid News subscribers.

So, be sure you’re on the list.

Plugin Tips

CleanTalk Settings Change for Caching

When I did a recent check of BlogAid speed, I found that a file was missing. The file was from CleanTalk antispam plugin, and it had gotten caught in my caching/optimization plugin settings.

I reached out to CleanTalk support and they told me to change how the JavaScript they use to protect my site is set. And I did that.

But, I also reached out to Emre, the dev for WP Fastest Cache about it, and he said that I also needed to make a new rule for deleting the plugin’s cache every 10 hours else I would run into another issue with this new CleanTalk setting in 11-12 hours. 

So I did that too, and I updated my WP Fastest Cache tutorial for both.

I have to tell you, I’ve been testing this CleanTalk plugin for about 4 months now and I’ve run into two major issues that required me to completely remove the plugin and reinstall it from scratch. 

And then found out it was too aggressively blocking form submissions from folks who wished to be clients. And now surprises like this.

Yeah, this thing catches harmful stuff like nothing else I’ve ever seen – but at what cost?

I’m still not ready to recommend it widely yet.

But I will say that the only other choice is to get Akismet if we want both our comments and contact forms protected, and I’m not wild about that choice either.

I’ll keep you posted as I continue to test it.

WP Fastest Cache: A Look Back at 2021

I am so happy to know Emre Vona, the dev of one of my all-time favorite plugins – WP Fastest Cache.

He has a new post with a nice look back at 2021 for the plugin.

Did you know there are 28+ million users of WPFC?

It’s also ranked 35th out of the nearly 60,000 plugins in the WP plugins repository.

And I want to thank Emre for creating such an amazing plugin to help us have super fast sites, and how wonderful he is to work with for improving the plugin too.

Marketing Tips

Morten’s on TikTok

I was thrilled to find Morten Rand Hendricksen on TikTok. His handle is @Mor10web.

And just like always, he’s leading the way with where the web is going and he’s all over Web 3.0 development.

You’ll be hearing more in Thursday’s bonus post about how he set me on fire for why we needed Gutenberg and the vision he shared in 2018 for what is being built in Web 3.0 right now.

I couldn’t find him online for a while and I’m thrilled to have access to him again!

And I hope the post coming on Thursday will inspire you about what’s coming the way Morten’s talk inspired me.

And I can hardly wait to start posting on TikTok myself in 2022.

Wrap Up

That’s a wrap for this week’s Tips Tuesday.

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Be sure to visit BlogAid.net for more tips and resources and I’ll see you online.