Tips Tuesday – Gutenberg Bonus, DIY SEO Workshops, UpdraftPlus Backups, Genesis Future

Happy Ho Ho and Merry Christmas Site Owners and Webmasters!

Tips this week include:

• Bonus sessions coming for the WP 5 / Gutenberg workshop
• What’s coming in the live DIY SEO workshops that start in January
• A chance to get in on the BlogAid holiday discounts before time runs out
• Help with upgrading your PHP version before the end of the year
• Why I started a brand new email list for Heartwood Art
• Why I’m so excited about incremental backups coming to UpdraftPlus
• And what’s in store for the near future of the Genesis theme framework

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No live recap today!!!

BlogAid Happenings

It’s been a packed week around here!!!

I finished the Gutenberg classes in our WP 5/Gutenberg workshop and I’m making bonus sessions for us too, as there is more to explore than what is in that class.

I’ve also been super busy with getting the DIY SEO workshops ready for January.

Plus, this coming week you’ll see the posts I’ve been working on for us, as there are all kinds of new things cropping up that you’ll want to check out.

And yes, I’m taking time off for the holiday. Got buddies coming over today and then I’ll be visiting with family and friends throughout this next week.

So, not much time for me in the woodshop last week, but there sure will be in the coming weeks and I have an invitation for you on that front.

So let’s jump into some details.

WP 5 / Gutenberg Workshop Bonus Sessions

About half the folks in the Workshop have completed it.

I believe most others will be doing it this week, as they were tied up for the holidays.

Some sites have had issues with cloning on the UpdraftClone service. I’ve updated the tutorials for that, and the fixes. It’s a new service, so we’re all helping them work out the kinks. And it didn’t happen with very many people, so overall it’s working great.

And a few folks have not had the hosting resource headroom to clone their big sites. That’s actually something I’ll be addressing in 2019, as I have a lot of clients that have had sites for years and are running out of space on their current hosting package.

Morten’s course on Gutenberg has been fantastic!!!

But there is more to explore than what it covers.

So, I’ll be creating at least 2 bonus sessions for us.

One is on the Yoast SEO meta box in Gute and the other is for the leading 3rd party block set that further expands what Gute can do.

So, if you’re in the workshop, look for emails this week with those bonus sessions.

DIY SEO Live Workshops Start in January

I’m putting together the new live SEO workshops for us and I’m super excited about what we’ll be covering this time.

We’re going to go way deeper into content marketing, including the feedback we get from Google and how to deal with old posts based on that feedback.

That’s also part of cleaning out our hosting accounts to free up more disk space.

It’s also about making a content plan so you actually have a shot at building authority on topic and ranking well.

Look for a post tomorrow on how to explode your content marketing in 2019 for more on that.

BlogAid Holiday Sales End January 4

If you’re not already in the DIY SEO course yet, now is the time!!! It’s on holiday sale with a whopping $50 off!

And site audits are on sale too. Now, you don’t have to get your audit before Jan 4, but you do need to book it before then to get the discount.

And, if you’re a designer who needs to know how to set up sites securely, make them fast, and do full HTTPS conversions, the Webmaster Training has a huge discount on it.

Help with Upgrading Your PHP Version

As y’all know, we all have to upgrade to at least PHP 7.1 by the end of the year.

I’ve got news for you on that front regarding issues found in PHP 7.2 and how to fix them, because that’s the highest level some of us can go.

So, look for a post on that this week too.

New Heartwood Art Newsletter

I’ve started a whole new newsletter and blog post feed from my woodworking site.

I had so few subscribers, and they haven’t heard from me in such a long time that I decided to just wipe out the old email list and start a new one.

So, if you subscribed recently, please visit the site and do so again.

I’m going to start blogging very soon.

You can also follow me over on Instagram and the Facebook page, as that’s where I’m already posting the behind the scenes stuff. And a lot more of that is coming soon too.

Site Success in 2019

I’m putting together my year end post with a peek into my crystal ball for what I believe will be the biggies for site success next year.

I’m also going to see if I can squeeze in a livestream for that, where you can participate with what you see coming for your niche, and ask questions.

I’ll have more on that later in the week, or early next.

That’s all the news from around here. Let’s get to this week’s short tip list.

Backup Tips

UpdraftPlus Now Includes Incremental Backups

If you’re using the premium version of UpdraftPlus, you will now see options to do incremental backups.

I’m very excited about this option, as it’s going to seriously reduce the load on our hosting resources and potentially make restoring portions of a site way faster too.

But, it could also make restoring a whole site more tedious.

I’ll be testing these new settings out with a few clients who have huge sites in the coming weeks.

I’ll have suggested settings for you when we finish.

But for now, I would not make changes to your settings until we see what will work best on different site types and sizes.

The premium version of the plugin has a lot of other advantages too, so if you’re not already on it, I suggest you have a look at it.

READ: UpdraftPlus Free vs Premium vs Migrator

READ: WordPress Backup Checklist to ensure you are truly getting everything you need to fully restore your site.

Theme Tips

The Near Future of Genesis

I’ve been saying for about month now that I think Genesis is positioning itself to become a full theme builder on the back of Gutenberg, and will actually leapfrog WP doing that.

Well, obviously there are a LOT of Genesis core changes that need to happen first.

In this post from StudioPress via WPEngine who now owns them, and in it we get to meet the folks in the new Genesis Shapers community. They come from various developer backgrounds and will serve as the community voice that shapes the future path of the Genesis framework.

They had their first in-person meeting at WordCamp US in Nashville earlier this month.

Skip down to the section on Nathan Rice’s comments. He’s the lead dev for Genesis.

He gives us a snapshot of what is to come in the next 4 releases.

And most all of it is a revamp of the core to match WordPress’ vision of Gutenberg.

I believe all of this is coming from the current development of themes made specifically with Gutenberg in mind.

In last week’s Tips Tuesday I reported on the 6 themes they have revamped to be totally Gutenberg compliant.

I’m going to be using one of those on my Gutenberg test site this week.

But for my new woodworking site revamp, I’m waiting to see what the new fully Gute themes offer that’s different.

Given this news of what’s coming to the Genesis core, I don’t expect to see those newest themes until closer to spring if not later.

Between now and then, expect a steady stream of Genesis updates.

I don’t think it will impact most of us who are not using 3rd party themes, such as those from the foodie sector that have so much in-built functionality.

FYI, the foodie theme people are getting away from that in their newer themes, as it came back to bite them with all these core WP changes since WP 5.0.

So, it looks like all of us on Genesis need to consider a budget for a new theme by 2020.

With the woodworking site, I can afford to jump on this train early.

But, I’m thinking most site owners, with highly customized themes, might want to wait until later in 2019 to see what has rolled out, as both Genesis and WordPress and other block makers continue to develop and expand Gutenberg.

That’s what I’m doing with BlogAid.

However, if you’re starting a new site, definitely consider going Gute to begin with and using themes that already fully support it.

Wrap Up

Happy Ho Ho, y’all. That’s a wrap for this week’s Tips Tuesday.

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