How Are You Using AI?

Well, I dunno about you, but…. this whole time-switching thing is annoying. 😜

I’m a little late on the newsletter this morning because…. well, everything is shifted by an hour. For no good reason. Not to mention I was in the office at 7:15 this morning and it was still DARK outside! 🥴 Not a fan.

Yeah, I’m not a big fan of daylight savings time. But, I also realize many people are. Honestly, doesn’t matter much to me in the long run, but it sure would be nice if we’d stop switching back and forth.

In this issue, I’m going to talk about page builders. And why, frankly, I don’t think you should use a page builder at all. Oh, and maybe avoid Elementor?

I thought I would share some of the things I’ve been using AI tools for in the last couple weeks. And I’m curious how YOU are using AI (if you are).

OK, let’s jump into it…

Opinion: Avoid Elementor & Most Page Builders

OK, I’m just going to say it…

You should probably avoid most page builders. And that includes Elementor. For the most part, just stick with building using the default block editor.

Let me explain…

When it comes to page builders, Elementor is not one of the worst. It has a lot of good points. In my opinion, some of the worst options are Divi and Thrive Architect.

Divi uses shortcodes throughout the site, making you wholly dependent on Divi for life. Not to mention it is bloated and not fun to use. Their new version currently in beta promises to fix all this, but I haven’t tested it yet.

Thrive Architect. Ahhh…. I used to love Thrive. We were besties. But, not anymore. The new owner of Thrive Themes (Awesome Motive) ruined it. Not to mention a little tidbit for people who built landing pages with Thrive Architect is that it stores your content in a non-standard way in the database. Which means, you turn off Architect and your pages go blank. That’s always fun. 😜

WP Bakery is a bloat fest. Horrible.

I just brought on a client using some builder called Zion Builder. Horrible builder. Buggy.

Beaver Builder… same story. It works, but it is clunky.

Which brings me to Elementor…

Elementor often keeps WordPress agencies in business. The reason is because such sites just seem to have more problems. Elementor sites are usually rather bloated. Elementor upgrades often cause new conflicts and things break. My clients who use Elementor have to come to me to fix something far more often than any of my clients using Kadence (which uses the block editor). Block-based sites just don’t break.

It wasn’t long ago that yet another Elementor version came out and it broke several of my clients’ sites. The editor wouldn’t even load anymore. I had to go in and downgrade these things just to make it work. Elementor upgrades usually work fine, but I will say Elementor has always been the most problematic just because Elementor literally changes and things just…. break.

You know it is bad when they even build downgrade options right into the editor…. and Elementor does just that. It literally has a section in the tools area where you can downgrade to previous versions. The fact they even built that tells you something, really.

I’ve also seen Elementor getting more aggressive with their promotions as their business strategy shifts. So, we’re starting to see advertisements showing up within WordPress admins due to Elementor. Not cool.

Often, the slowest sites I work with are on Elementor, too.

The issue with most page builders is that they’re not using default WordPress. They are a layer over top of WordPress and they do things in their own way.

The advantages of these page builders is that it provides a new user experience for editing and creating content. Many people prefer those experiences to the default WordPress experience And I get it. But, it still means you’ve got a layer over top of WordPress and… that layer can break sometimes. And layers add bloat.

Not all page builders are created equally. So, this isn’t meant to be a blanket statement that page builders are all bad. They’re not. It is great that the WordPress ecosystem has all of these options and people can choose.

But, if you ask me…

Build your site using the Gutenberg, default block editor that comes with WordPress.

Add Kadence Theme and Kadence Blocks and you can literally build anything you want. There are other options, too, such as Spectra. But, I’m more of a Kadence guy. 😇

A site built this way will be faster and it will be less troublesome.

And if you’re just avoiding using the block editor because you’re not used to it or it feels clunky to you…. I get it. I used to be that way, too. 🤪 But, a quick little training session on how to use it can work wonders. Once it “clicks”, you’ll find you can literally do anything you want with the default block editor.

If you want, you can book an Implementation Session and I’ll show you the ropes on how to best use the block editor. Then, you’ll be empowered with it.

This Week In Concierge

The last week in Concierge has been mainly just head down and working on stuff. Lots of stuff going on among clients.

But, times when things are busier than others also brings up a point about the benefits of the Platinum Concierge plan.

Most of my clients are on the Core Plan. But, Platinum comes with several benefits over Core and one of them is prioritization.

What this means is that when I’m sitting there looking at a sea of requests from clients, my Platinum clients come in front of the line and I will attend to their requests first. Which means faster response times.

Not to mention that Platinum clients also get time included in their plan each month so they don’t have to tap into Anytime Credits so much. That’s always handy.

So, if you’ve got an active project going along, want faster responses and faster fulfillment of things you need…. well, consider that ol’ Platinum plan. 😇

WordPress Quick Bits

Essential Addons Security Flaw. If you’re using Essential Addons For Elementor, make sure you’re upgraded to at least version 6.0.15. A security flaw was found by Patchstack called a cross-site stripting vulnerability. Read more about that here.

Is Google Dying? OK, Google is by far the largest search engine on the web and it is probably going to be that way for awhile. But, it is losing it’s sparkle. A new survey shows 42% of people saying Google Search is becoming less useful. 61% of Gen Z and 53% of Millenials are using AI tools instead of Google. So, things are changing. Personally, I use AI along with Brave Search most of the time. I really only use Google for local search results now, which it is still best at.

Block Visibility celebrates 30,000 Installs. Nick Diego, the creator of both Block Visibility and Icon Block, celebrated reaching the 30K marks on both plugins. I am one of those 30K since I use Block Visibility pretty often and it is a handy tool to do conditional display of blocks in the block editor. And, you know, I didn’t even know about Icon Block. That looks useful!

JetPack Stats Gets Regional Data. If you’re a user of Jetpack stats, they just updated it to provide regional and city-level insights. This locational data can help you do better local SEO. Just be aware of the privacy problems with using Jetpack. Jetpack sucks up a lot of data and sends it right to Automattic. And since it is inside your site with access to your database, it is basically scraping a lot of internal information and sending it to to Automattic. Not to mention it is a resource hog. Avoid Jetpack.

FluentCommunity 1.20 Release. FluentCommunity continues to develop. The 1.2 release is a big update, including content moderation, BunnyCDN integration, more customization options, integration with FluentCRM profiles (you can now see their community info right inside FluentCRM), and more. Read the full update announcement here.

“Managed WordPress” After a temporary halt in the US for Automattic’s attempt to trademark the phrase “Managed WordPress” and “Hosted WordPress”, it looks like the UK and Australia have both granted the trademark. So basically, Matt gets his panties in a twist over WP Engine and is trying to change the trademark terms now for something that was being said all the time. The dude is acting like a mob boss now, not a proponent of open source.

WordPress Kept Ukrainian Agency Afloat. In a really interesting write-up on HeroPress, Aleks Bochlin, CEO of a web agency in Ukraine, tells the story of how WordPress helped keep them afloat after Russia attacked Ukraine in February of 2022. While US clients left them out of fear, European clients stuck around and the agency kept delivering on projects using WordPress.
Smart Creator Press Launches. A new tool called Smart Creator Press has just launched. It is a membership, LMS and funnel builder all in one. It looks to be put out by the same team as Digital Access Pass, which frankly has always been a little weird in how it works and looks. Might be worth watching, but I’m a wee bit skeptical of an “all in one” plugin like this.

UpdraftPlus Acquires Burst Statistics. UpdraftPlus (the guys who make the popular backup plugin for WordPress) has apparently acquired the privacy-friendly analytics service called Burst. Will be interesting to see how this gets folded into the Updraft offerings.

Are You Using AI Yet?

I’m actually genuinely curious. If you’re reading this, are YOU using AI tools yet? Even if you’re not using them all the time, I’m just curious. Maybe hit that reply button and let me know. 😇

Personally, I use both ChatGPT as well as Grok. Lately, I have been using Grok more. While both have their pros and cons, what I like about Grok is that it is more tapped into real-time data because it can search the web and also sees what people are talking about on X itself.

But, just to give you an idea of some of the things I’ve been using AI for:

• I am coding a simple plugin for Concierge that can go on client sites and provide access to client resources right inside of the admin panel. I am using AI to help me code that plugin and save a ton of time.
• Many, many times I have used AI to code a snippet of code to drop into Fluent Snippets and modify something on a WordPress site. This also includes several custom dashboard widgets I use personally in my own business such as a widget for upcoming appointments in Fluent Booking, a graph of WooCommerce revenue, another graph of subscription rates from FluentCRM, a report on MRR and monthly revenue, and more. All coded with the help of AI.
• My wife and I are planning a trip to England in September with the kids. We don’t know all that much about the best things to see and do in England. So, I asked Grok. I told Grok where we were flying into, when the trip was and how long we were going to be in country. And it gave us quite a nice itinerary that we’re in the process of reviewing now.
• I’m researching buying another RV. And I’ve used Grok to give me some comparisons of different equipment, different chassis, and even ask specific questions about certain RV models.
• Lately, when I post a new video to Youtube, I will use HappyScribe to transcribe it. Then, I get the text file of that transcript, upload it to Grok, then tell it to generate a Youtube video description. It automatically reads the entire transcript and generates a nice Youtube description complete with a timestamp breakdown of the major points of the video. I tweak it a little manually… and it’s ready to go.
• You can find out about “hot topics” in particular niches using Grok. Since it sees what people are talking about. So, for instance, I tell Grok “What kinds of questions are people asking for wordpress? If I were to write an article for wordpress users who run online businesses, what topics would be useful?”. And I get quite the useful list.

So, yeah… I find myself using it more and more. For both business and personal stuff.

It isn’t a magic worker. Anybody who tries to treat an AI tool as if it knows everything and is always right is going to get led astray. When it makes code for me, I have to correct it all the time. 🤪 But, there’s no doubt that AI is getting better really quickly. And it radically speeds up certain kinds of tasks. It is a major time saver.

I also admit… I use AI search results pretty often. I tend to use Brave Search most of the time. And it gives a great summary right at the top of things I search for which is often all that I need.

Interesting times we live in.