X Marks The Spot

How ya doing? 😇

Before I kick off another busy week (got 4 client calls today… how the heck did that happen? 🤯), I wanted to make sure I get this week’s issue of The Morning WP into your inbox on schedule.

What’s coming up in this issue:

• Changes on the horizon with X (formerly Twitter) and what you should consider doing
• WordPress Quick Bits
• A cool tool for finding what’s slowing down your WordPress site

OK, let’s do this thing…

X TV, X Payments… Pay Attention To X

You may have seen this coming already, but some details about the new X TV came out last week. This is part of the effort to turn the X platform (formerly Twitter) into a leading video site.

Linda Yaccarino (CEO of X) posted a teaser of the new X TV. It looks like they are definitely taking X into the direction of Youtube when it comes to video.

It will be interesting to see how this develops. Obviously, the real-time nature of X currently doesn’t lend itself to a good video experience. We don’t surf Youtube using timelines. 😜 So, perhaps this is going to develop to the point where creators can get full-blown video channels on X that compete head-on with what we can do with Youtube. We shall see.

But also interesting is the news about X Payments. Things are moving quick on that front, with X having now acquired money transmitter licenses in half of the US states. Some of the rumors include things such as:

• Have a wallet on X and store funds (if you want)
• Be able to purchase things on (or with) X, subscribe to creators, etc.
• Use X payments as, essentially, a bank account

Basically, X is aiming to be the American alternative to WeChat. The… “everything app”.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I sure as hell don’t intend to store funds on X or use X as my bank account. At least not very much. That sounds highly centralized to me, so no thanks. But, the power of the platform is definitely something worthy of attention for all content creators.

For those who build up decent followings on X, the monetization potential is already pretty strong. In fact, from what I’ve seen, it can be much stronger than Youtube. Plus, right now, X is really leaning into video…. which means the algorithm is definitely incentivizing the use of video right now.

So, here’s my thoughts…

There are people who avoid X because they think it is all about politics and people arguing all day. And, there is that stuff. However, the platform is very responsive to what you yourself engage with and who you follow. With just a little effort, you can turn X into a pretty useful tool. For me, it has turned into quite a valuable tool for keeping informed with topics I am interested in. Honestly, whether I post on the platform or not, I find it quite useful.

But, speaking as a content creator, I think X is worth putting some time into for sure. A few action items I intend to take more seriously are these:

• I am going to begin cross-posting the stuff I do on Youtube over to X as well. And we’ll see what comes of it.
• I will probably begin to experiment with “Shorts” on X. Basically, short off-the-cuff videos recorded on my phone and posted to X.
• I may begin repurposing some of the stuff from my blog into long-form posts on X. Obviously, not copy/paste, but need to summarize it down. Then, link back to the original post.

Personally, I think X is a platform on the move and I think it will grow. If you’re not putting any time into it right now, it might be worth just a smidge. 😇

If you’re on X, you can follow me here. I don’t only talk WordPress. After all, I’m human.

Last Week In Concierge

Here’s a bit of the activity from last week among Concierge client sites:

• Working on building an integrated online course setup (to replace Teachable for a client)
• Connecting a site to Amazon SES for cheap, reliable email sending
• Built a new sales page (using copy written by a copywriter)
• Quickly handled a downed website (happens rarely, but I get notified super quick when it happens and I’m on it like a fly on a pile of…. yeah, you know 😜)
• Debugged a marketing automation that wasn’t working as expected

Concierge isn’t just a maintenance plan. It is about knowing exactly who to go to when you need something done on your site. It is about having a webmaster that you can talk to like a normal person. 😇 Plus, as you know, I know the tech of these sites well and I also understand online marketing. Been doing both a very long time. Which means… I can look at things holistically for my clients and help tailor the tech toward conversions and sales.

Every site is different. But, check it out and see how it makes sense for you.

WordPress Quick Bits

TutorLMS 2.7 Released. The new version of TutorLMS has come out… this one being big on new APIs. The Pro version now has a ton of new APIs to allow the data from TutorLMS to be used in other systems and enable more full-stack integration across your site. The new version also has full compatibility with WordPress 6.5. Read the full announcement here.

Uncanny Automators Get The Update. The new 5.7 version of Uncanny Automator has been released, with new integrations with GetResponse and SliceWP. They’ve also got a new web app for Google Sheets enabling stronger integration, a new Gutenberg block for magic buttons and magic links (for running full automations using simple links), and the ability to schedule automations. Cool update! Check it out.

Put Loom Videos Into Your WordPress Dashboard. I might check this one out since I use Loom all the time for clients. Vloomp is a new small little plugin that can take your Loom videos and put them into the WordPress dashboard. I find it kind funny, though, how simple this plugin is. Surprised nobody thought of it until now.

Studio (For Mac) Released. If you would like to have an easy-peasy way to use WordPress locally on your own computer and test things without fear, Automattic has launched the first version of Studio for Mac. It is totally free, too. I tried it out and it works well and is incredibly simple. Windows users… you’ll need to wait a little longer.

ZoloBlocks Launched. BdThemes (the guys behind Element Pack for Elementor) have launched a new plugin called ZoloBlocks which adds powerful new blocks to Gutenberg. Looks pretty cool, although since I’m a Kadence Blocks user I don’t have much of a need for this. But, still… nice to see.

Themeisle Launched AI Chatbot. They’ve launched Hyve, a new chatbot plugin that uses OpenAI. It will use the content of your WordPres site to “train” the bot and respond to inquiries. Check it out. So now, if you want another way to tell your visitors how impersonal you are, you’ve got another way to do it. 😜

“Fix” Plugin Onboarding? A little pet peeve lately with the new version of WordPress is that when you install and activate a new plugin, nothing happens. The screen just sits there and you have to click on something to see the new plugin. I don’t know why they did this, personally. But, leave it to the community to fix it real quick. Dave Grey has released a quickie band-aid plugin that will refresh the plugin page upon plugin activation. Check it out on his X account.

Advanced Custom Fields wins the Plugin Madness 2024 contest. Cue the funny contests, but ACF has won. Check it out.

Finding Out Which Plugins Are Causing The Slowdown

When it comes to WordPress plugins, they’re not all equal when it comes to impact on site performance. I know many think that “the less plugins, the better”…. and that’s true overall. However, it isn’t always that simple. That’s because some plugins have a larger impact than others.

Simply put, some plugins are lean and mean. Others are bloated.

Some plugins are coded in a very efficient manner and have almost no impact on site performance…. while others are coded sloppily or without much regard to performance.

Now, there are various tools for measuring website performance. People often use Google’s PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix, for instance. Super useful… and if you’re nerdy like me, these tools can help you spot the problematic plugins. But, you have to know what you’re looking at. 😇

But, running a WordPress-centric tool would have advantages as well. Because it is part of WordPress, it has access to specific data about your site that those external tools wouldn’t have.

So, check out Code Profiler.

Code Profiler is a plugin that will… profile the code of your website. Duh, right? 🤪 But, this means it can help:

• Identify slow plugins or themes
• Identify the performance impact of individual scripts, functions, database queries, etc.
• Identify which remote connections are slowing things down

The cool thing, too, is that because it is operating within your WordPress site, it can give you specific information about the specific setup of your website. It isn’t trying to guess from the outside. It knows what plugins you’re running, what queries are being run, etc.

Code Profiler has a free version which is quite useful on it’s own. With their Pro version, you’ve definitely got more data, but you can spot bad plugins easily with the free version.

For my clients, we can now put this to use on your site since I have gone ahead and acquired licensing for the PRO version. And this will now be part of the WP Speed Fix service.