Tips Tuesday – WordPress 6.0, Member Site Survey, Host Issues, WP19 Day

Hello Happy Site Owners and Webmasters!

Tips this week include:

• What’s new in WordPress 6.0 video tour
• Where to get update instructions for WP 6.0
• Major issues happening at two popular hosts
• Who is the only host I trust with my sites these days
• Content Revamp How-to Workshop this week for DIY SEO members
• How to get in on the Gutenberg Ninja course before it closes for purchase
• Wrap up of our Digital Downloads workshops
• Digital Download Setup Manual is on the way
• Member Site research survey is coming soon
• Why so many member site owners leave tons of money on the table
• Research into profitable store setups is coming
• May 27 is WP19 Day and the celebrations that are happening
• Why WP needs to think like a platform again
• What if there were a WordPress Lite version for niches?
• How to use the new Pattern Creator
• How anyone can confidently show up on video

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BlogAid Happenings

It’s been a busy week of host migrations and consults and more and more are scheduled for this week. I’ll tell you all about why as we get into it today.

What’s New in WordPress 6.0

WordPress 6.0 is expected to roll out today.

And I have a video tour for you of all the new features and improvements.

BlogAid News subscribers will get special update instructions when I feel it is safe for most of us to upgrade to 6.0.

Major Issues at NameHero and A2 Hosting

I don’t have many site audits clients still on NameHero hosting, but everyone who still is has experienced their site being down as that host rolls out an update across their servers.

They are advising one client to pause Cloudflare and turn off some ModSecurity rules, which will basically gut a big chunk of her site security.

I did an audit for a client there this weekend where I saw they had turned off select rules for ModSecurity in her .htaccess file.

And on all site audits there I have seen where they completely borked the PHP settings in such a way as to make the entire server run slower.

And there are one or two clients still on A2 Hosting that got notifications their servers are at end of life and there will be a 2 week gap of no security updates prior to them being moved to a new server – and no word of them doing a temporary redirect of the IP during that move either, so those sites could suddenly come down as well.

These are not issues I can fix, nor would I even attempt to due to the insane liability of the security issues.

What I have been telling folks for 2 years is to leave these hosts and SiteGround as eveything just keeps getting worse with them.

Move to Iridium Hosting

Folks, hosts are at the mercy of the hardware and software they use. And anything can happen at any time with either of those things.

But, some hosts do a far better job of configuring the settings and such to have the least issues, and definitely have the least down time.

That is why I have chosen to go with Iridium Hosting, which is a boutique host, meaning that they are not trying to serve every kind of site owner with race to the bottom setups and pricing.

It’s like the difference in going to a fast food place compared to going to a mom and pop diner that takes a lot more pride and care in what they serve, including better ingredients.

And these issues with the other hosts were the last straw for some of my clients and they put in their migration requests over the last 2 weeks, and more are coming in.

Plus, you don’t have to wait for your audit checkup or hosting renewal to make this move either. Some of my peeps have been able to get a pro-rated refund on their remaining time. BB Hub members, search for those posts in our Facebook group to see how it was done.

I also want to say a big thank you to my clients who heeded my warnings early on and who moved before there were major issues with your sites.

I do all I can to keep you out of panic mode. And the folks who heard me and took action are calm and enjoying their lives right now.

Site Services Update

The waitlist for all site services is running into end of June, first of July. So, if you want to get an audit or move to better hosting before your summer vacation, now is the time to get in that request.

BlogAid Course Happenings

Content Revamp How To Workshop

For the past 2 weeks in the DIY SEO course we have been doing our content revamp series of workshops.

We started with how to do a content audit to gather all the info you need and how to do the first of your sorting order.

And then last week we did our content revamp strategies session where we covered how to decide what to rework or delete, plus just updating or republishing, and then the SEO consequences of each of those choices.

And this week we’ll be finishing the series with a workshop on how to make those changes in a way that doesn’t get you in hot water with Google.

And this one is super important because things have changed with those consequences over the past year and you need to take different steps than usual.

Gutenberg Ninja Course Closing to New Purchase Soon

Quick reminder that I will be closing new purchases and renewals for the Gutenberg Ninja course soon.

The subscription is for 6 months and your last chance to purchase or renew is over the next 2 weeks.

You’ll get the updates for what changed in WP 6.0 and 6.1 for anyone who purchases now, or depending on when your current subscription expires for those who are already in the course.

I do have tentative plans to develop a mini course under that name somewhere down the road, but it will likely be for a limited time and mainly focus on how to build landing pages for digital downloads and/or member sites or other niche sites.

So, if you have not made the switch to Gutenberg yet, now is your last chance to get in on THE most comprehensive and updated set of tutorials available anywhere.

BB Hub Happenings

FYI, the BB Hub is a private membership and community for my DIY site audit clients with lots of perks and support, like these.

Digital Download Workshops Wrap Up

I want to send a huge thank you to Denise Wakeman for her help with our Digital Downloads workshops. Denise hosted 3 of our 5 workshops and her expertise was absolutely invaluable to help us ensure we knew what our audiences wanted in a digital download, plus all of the important info to put in the download and on our landing page or optin, plus on our thank you page and email sequences.

I also want to thank the BB Hub members who contributed to the other workshops that were available to all members. The ideas and resources you shared of what’s working for you gave all of us great ways to make these things super easy to create! 

Plus, your feedback and support of one another is what makes the BB Hub such a powerful village.

Ecomm Coalition Happenings

Digital Download Setup Manual on the Way

For the past few months I’ve been in contact with a few of my trusted partners to help bloggers move into selling their own products and expertise directly.

For the past several months one of those vendors has been doing a super deep dive into everything you need to know to deliver a digital download.

I’ve seen the draft of it and let me tell you, it has all the tips and tricks that most folks don’t even know to do.

Plus, it’s got multiple quick video tutorials and is chock full of links to resources you need to make all of this work smoothly.

It will be available to the public in the coming weeks and I’ll most definitely keep you posted.

Even folks who already have a digital download delivery set up will want this manual. I’m not kidding when I say it has every tip and trick you need to be successful with it.

Member Site Research Update

Y’all know that I’ve been doing a deep dive into offering member site consults and setups as a service for all of this year.

Most of that research has been looking hard at the feature set each platform and plugin offers.

And to be honest the variety is so overwhelming that I got to the point where I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

So, I had to leave it alone for a couple of weeks until I could get my bearings again and refocus on goals, meaning start with the end in mind.

Very soon I’ll be sending a survey out to my BB Hub folks who are interested in starting a member or course site to get an idea of their goals.

And I’ll combine that info with goals from my own current member sites, plus the new one I’ll be building later this year, so I can start making setup checklists of all the features needed to meet those goals.

Then I’ll notate which platforms have those features.

Then I’ll start building them out and making my setup checklists so I can offer that turn key service.

Stop Leaving Money on the Table

Doing things this way will give me all I need to offer consults and workbooks for helping clients create a money-making membership or course site.

And it all starts with a consult.

Here’s why.

I used to offer this same service years ago, and I discovered that folks were leaving all kinds of money on the table simple because they were entirely focused on the content they were creating and not on marketing, selling, or retention.

Let me tell you the truth.

You don’t make your money from the content.

You make money from properly marketing and selling your knowledge.

Then, if you have a good retention strategy, you keep the folks you got for longer.

That means you don’t have as much churn and you have members who help you promote your product.

In other words, making money gets way easier as you go.

None of this has anything to do with your content.

I’ve seen shit content courses sell to millions of folks and keep at least half of them through renewals because they know this truth.

I’ve seen crap coaching memberships do the same. Most of the folks in them don’t really succeed. It’s social work that makes them feel better about trying, even if they don’t see real results from the effort.

And I bet every one of the folks reading or hearing this right now has purchased at least one of those courses or memberships.

Their marketing and retention strategy worked on you, and millions like you.

But, only then does your content matter.

And even if it is stellar, you still need more content and ways to keep your folks engaged so that they keep renewing. Retention is where the easy money is.

And this is why consults are a must.

You tell me your idea and I help you find 4x more money in it.

That is the track record I already have with clients who I set up member sites for in the past.

This deep research I’m doing takes that up a notch by including your marketing and retention strategy too, as several of the platforms have that included in them now. They didn’t back when I offered this service before.

So, I already know how to do the member site setups. What has taken me the extra research time has been including all the other integrations you need to be successful.

The biggest mistake I see folks make is picking a platform to run their membership on without thinking through all of this first.

That costs you too much money in the end.

And that’s where the info, consults, and workbooks I’ll be creating over the next few weeks come into play.

They help you find the money in your offer and help you avoid super expensive pitfalls from suffering from what you don’t know that you don’t know.

Store Research Coming

Once I finish up with my member site services research I’ll be diving into store setup, as most of it is tied directly to the digital downloads and membership setup too.

And I’m leaning super hard toward Shopify and Shopify Lite.

My research will also include SEO and social selling, which few others are covering.

I’ll keep you posted on when I get started on that.

Just know that the main focus of BlogAid is changing into helping you make money directly, because that is the way everything is going. And turning you into a direct-pay content creator is my goal.

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

WordPress Tips

May 27 is WP19 Day

This week, on May 27, WordPress celebrates the 19th anniversary of its release.

And there is a special website for WP19 Day to celebrate.

They are asking folks from all over to submit a video sharing their thoughts. 

And they will have live events and even a gameshow too.

Check out the site for details.

One thing I will say about WordPress is that it has helped generate a massive global ecosystem.

But, for being 19 years in the making, it’s amazing how behind it is in some areas of development and innovation.

WordPress Needs to Think Like a Platform Again

Brian, over at MasterWP, has an interesting editorial in response to the reports I shared with you last week about WordPress losing a bit of market share and why some folks think that is well deserved.

His point is about WP returning to a focus on being something that is easy for devs to expand and for end users to use, like the iOS platform from Apple.

But what really struck me were his statements about WordPress taking a 5 year detour into becoming a page builder.

Every major release for the last 5 years has been mostly about blocks, including the editor and now Full Site Editing themes.

And this is why he says vendors like Elementor have been able to stick around. It didn’t take them anywhere near 5 years to make a viable product that is easier and more robust than what native WP can do even after all this time.

In fact, he says that FSE would be better off as an addon instead of dragging all of us through a very long beta cycle.

And I have to agree with that take on it.

While I believe Gutenberg blocks are a major improvement, nothing about it should have taken as long as it has to be viable. Multiple plugin creators have including all manner of styling and advanced options for years that WP is just now developing. Products from Spectra (formerly known as Astra) are a shining example of that. A few years ago they took the top spot as the most downloaded theme, and they took that spot from WordPress itself.

And this is the difference in developing for a target audience with a company that has real leadership compared to trying to develop by committee to meet an overwhelming variety of needs.

What If There Were a WordPress Lite?

About 6 years ago I said that WP needed to fork into a platform for bloggers and a platform for business, and I still believe that.

And they also need some real leadership and way tighter deadlines for delivering fully viable core changes. Stop with the years long beta releases.

And I’m not the only one thinking there ought to be different versions of WP to suit different needs and make it easy for folks to quickly create those sites.

On May 24 some folks from Post Status will be doing a Twitter Spaces event to ponder what a Lite version of WordPress could do and how it could serve different niches a whale of a lot better than the full-blown version we have now.

How to Use the Pattern Creator

Theme designers, and those who want to create a template for posts, you’ll want to hear this podcast on how to use the native WP Pattern Creator.

I REALLY hope more designers start creating block patterns as a way for folks to get ready-to-go landing pages and such.

It’s also a way to create a more reliable template for posts and such compared to using Reusable Templates.

The podcast show notes have lots of helpful resource links for you to learn more too.

Video Tips

How Anyone Can Confidently Show Up on Video

On TikTok and other places I’ve seen many of you get started with videos where you don’t show up on camera.

That’s a great start.

And I’ve also seen others make videos where you are showing us a scene while narrating, either in the moment or with a voiceover.

That’s even better. In fact, talking is required now to get anywhere on YouTube videos.

I’d also like to encourage you to put your happy face on the video too, even if it’s just to say hi to the viewers.

The nice folks over at Social Media Examiner have a super post to help you get comfortable on camera too.

You can do this, even if you are tech or camera shy. 

And all of my peeps who have at least stuck their toe in the water have discovered it’s really not that hard at all.

Wrap Up

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

Thanks for sharing this podcast and post with your blogging buddies, and for leaving comments and reviews too.

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