There were two WordPress events happening last week – WordCamp Asia taking place in Mumbai and PressConf taking place in Tempe, Arizona. Which means much of the WordPress world was out and about last week. 😜

Which includes me. As much as I think visiting Mumbai would be kinda cool someday, I was out in Arizona instead for PressConf. Just flew back in late Saturday night.

It’s interesting, too…

At least at PressConf, there were two overriding concerns on a lot of peoples’ minds. They were:

• WordPress internal politics and concern over the dumb choices of Matt Mullenweg.
• AI and its potential to radically change much about the WordPress business

Overall, I’m not sure if I’ll return to PressConf next year or not. To be honest, I didn’t come away with too much which was actionable for me. But…

It did lead to some stuff I wanted to talk about in this week’s newsletter. 😎 A couple things, actually…

One… that you ARE a media company. A lot of smart people in that room at PressConf know this. And two… no, AI isn’t going to kill off what we do.

Let’s dive in…

Your Business Is a Media Company (Whether You Know It Or Not)

I almost changed the name of my company. I considered NOT calling it “Blog Marketing Academy” anymore.

Seriously. Concierge is roughly 95% of my revenue these days. I work with clients and the core service is most definitely a service. So I started thinking… why is this thing still called Blog Marketing Academy? It felt like a relic from the days where selling courses was my bread and butter. But, it isn’t anymore. Shouldn’t I rebrand around the thing that actually makes the money?

I actually bought domain names. 😇 And I spent time brainstorming new brand names for this thing.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was being naive. 😇

Because here’s the thing… how do people find me? My content. My YouTube videos. My blog. This newsletter. The content is the front door. Concierge is what I offer once they walk through it.

If I rebranded everything around the service, then I just blend in to the scenery of all of the other folks who offer WordPress services.

Blog Marketing Academy is the media brand. Concierge is the monetization layer. They work together — but the media brand is the engine.

And that’s really the framing I want to talk about today.

You’re a Media Company. Act Like It.

This isn’t a new idea. It’s not some trend. But it’s one of those things that’s easy to nod along with and then completely ignore in practice.

If you run an online business — coaching, consulting, courses, services, whatever — you are a media company. Not because you need to become some kind of content machine pumping out TikToks all day. 😜 But because the content you put out is what earns trust and attention. And without those two things, nothing else works.

TRUST and ATTENTION. Those are the absolute most important requirements in your ability to sell almost anything.

Think about it like a TV news network. Nobody at CNN would say the news programs ARE the business. The real business is the advertising revenue – and selling stupid drug commercials. 🤣 But without the shows, there’s no audience. Without the audience, there’s no revenue. The media drives the attention. The attention drives the money.

Your business works the same way. Your course, your service, your coaching program — that’s the monetization. But the content is what earns the trust that makes people want to buy from you in the first place.

Why This Matters More Now Than Ever

AI has commoditized information. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT almost anything and get a solid answer in seconds. So if all you’re offering is packaged-up information — a course, an ebook, a guide — you’re competing with something that’s free and instant. And that’s a tough place to be.

What AI can’t replicate is trust and attention. A relationship with a real human who has real experience and opinions.

And where does that come from? Showing up consistently. Being helpful. Having a point of view. Being a real person, not just another faceless brand. Being opinionated.

That’s what your content does. It’s not a marketing expense. It’s the thing that makes your business visible and trustworthy enough for people to want what you sell. It is what makes you relevant in a world of AI.

Too Many Cases of Mistaken Priority…

I see this all the time out there… and even with some of my clients.

People spend weeks tweaking their offer. Writing promo emails. Setting up funnels. Playing whack-a-mole with the tech. Some are even running paid traffic. But meanwhile, their blog is a ghost town and their YouTube channel has three videos from 2022.

They’re treating content like a chore. Something they know they “should” do but keep putting off because the “real work” feels more urgent.

From a public content perspective, you can be a “nobody” even with all the fanciest sales funnels in the world. You can still be irrelevant and a commodity.

The model that works: build an audience, earn their trust, and let your product or service be the monetization layer on the backend. Your audience is the asset. The product is one way you serve them.

This Isn’t Just For Course Creators

This applies to basically everyone.

If you’re a coach or consultant… your prospects are Googling their problems before they ever talk to you. Are they finding YOUR content, or somebody else’s?

If you run a local business… same deal. The plumber with a YouTube channel showing people how to fix common issues? That’s a media company. The dentist with a monthly email newsletter with oral health tips? Media company. They’re building trust before the customer ever picks up the phone.

Even SaaS companies work this way. The product solves a problem, but the content is how people discover that the problem even exists.

Keep It Simple

People overcomplicate this. You don’t need to be everywhere.

Start with an email newsletter. Even monthly (although I’d consider that bare minimum). Then pick ONE channel — YouTube, a podcast, a blog. Get that flywheel turning before you add another. Don’t try to launch five platforms at once. That’s a recipe for burnout and a bunch of half-assed content nobody reads.

Of all the content types, I think videos are the best for building trust and having new people find you. Blogging is great still – and don’t underestimate it. But, it is hard to compete with people being able to SEE you and get a feel for you in the form of a video.

And build it on property you own. Your own WordPress site. Your own email list. Renting space entirely on someone else’s platform is risky long-term. Algorithms change. Platforms shut down. Prices go up. Your media company’s foundation should be infrastructure you control. Even if you’re using Youtube (and you should), you can embed those things on your own website and have your Youtube channel clearly and cleanly referring people back to your own site.

The Reminder

This isn’t some revolutionary new framework. It’s a reminder of something that’s been true for a long time and is only getting more true as AI changes the landscape.

Stop thinking of yourself as someone who sells a product and has to do “some marketing.”

You’re a media company.

You practically NEED to be to survive these days in this massive ocean of competing attention.

TRUST and ATTENTION are the 2 most important factors. That’s what drives your business. And you only earn that by being out there, helping people, and being real.

WordPress News & Updates

Lighter week on the news front — a lot of the WordPress world was busy at WordCamp Asia in Mumbai. But, here’s what came across the radar…

WordPress 7.0 New Schedule Coming by April 22 We covered the delay last week, but here’s the update: pre-release versions are paused until April 17, and the core team will publish a revised release schedule no later than April 22. Everything else in the 7.0 feature set is ready — it’s just the real-time collaboration database architecture that needs more time. Latest on the 7.0 timeline

WordCamp Asia 2026 Wrapped Up in Mumbai Over 2,200 attendees gathered at the Jio World Convention Centre for three days of sessions, workshops, and contributor work. AI was a dominant theme across the event. And one notable announcement: WordCamp India was confirmed as a fourth flagship WordPress event for 2027.

Tutor LMS 4.0 Beta 1 Released The WordPress LMS plugin shipped its first 4.0 beta with new quiz types, certificate verification, course bundle expiry controls, and a round of security fixes. If you run Tutor LMS, check out what’s coming in 4.0.

FluentCart 1.3.17 — Visual Invoice Editor and Fees API FluentCart shipped a visual PDF invoice customizer, a Fees API for adding custom charges, advanced shipping country controls, and European e-invoice compliance. Solid update if you’re running FluentCart for your store. Full release details at FluentCart

Conversion Bridge 1.13.2 — Scroll Depth Tracking Conversion Bridge added scroll percentage triggers for custom events — you can now fire a conversion event when visitors reach a specific scroll depth on a page. Handy for tracking whether people are actually reading your content vs. bouncing after the first paragraph. How scroll depth tracking works

What 25 Years of “Death” Predictions Taught Me

I was at PressConf last week — a smaller event for people active in the WordPress space. And, it’s funny…

One of the big items of concern – the elephant in the room during the whole event – was AI. And how it might change the face of WordPress. Frankly, some in the room are wondering if AI is going to put them out of business.

Now, I’ve seen a lot of these cycles come and go. I’ve seen a lot of trends where people thought about (and wrote about) how something is “dead”. All of them real, but overblown at the time. Things like:

• 2000-2002 – The dot-com bust killed free money. For a time there, people thought making money on the internet was kind of over. Funny. 😆
• 2003-2008 – WordPress killed custom websites. The idea that hand-coding a site from scratch was dead. This one did eventually happen, but not as fast as people thought.
• 2008-2010. Apps killed the browser. Remember when people said there would be no point in having a website anymore? Everybody would have an APP! Of course, while many businesses DO have apps, we all still use websites and web browsers.
• 2010-2016 – Social media killed the personal site. For awhile there, “gurus” were saying social media like Facebook would take over. You don’t even need a website anymore because you could just have a Facebook page! Some people moved their entire businesses onto Facebook. Then Facebook changed the algorithm, started charging for reach, and those people were stuck paying to talk to the audience they’d built for free. Oops. 😬
• 2016-2020. No-code killed custom development. No-code solutions coming out. WordPress and custom development were going extinct, they said. Everybody will just drag and drop on WebFlow! Except… no. Didn’t happen. Those new solutions are great, but they didn’t take over.
• 2024-2026 – AI is killing the click. Now, we’re in the AI cycle. AI is killing off SEO, blogging, all of it. Or, so they say.

This isn’t even all of them. You know how many times I’ve heard people say “Email is Dead!”. Except… all these years later, and through ALL of these hype cycles, pretty much every single one of us check our email as the first thing we do in the day. 🤣

Every few years, something new comes along and the hot take machine fires up. It is mostly clickbait. But here’s what actually happened every single time…

The thing didn’t die. It adapted. And the people who ignored the hype and kept focusing on fundamentals came out ahead.

I’ve Lived Through All of These

I’ve been doing this online business thing since the early days. I’ve seen every single one of these cycles play out in real time.

The pattern is always the same. New technology arrives. People proclaim the old thing dead. Then the old thing adapts, the new thing finds its actual place, and life goes on.

And it will happen again.

AI is definitely NOT a hype cycle. It is here to stay – and it is only getting better. In fact, there’s a new version of Moore’s Law which basically says that the capabilities of AI models are roughly doubling every 7 months. The pace of development is INSANE. This is NOT a hype cycle. BUT…

The basics are the basics.

We’re all still dealing with human beings here. And basic human nature and the things we really want don’t change much over time.

Things adjust. Some old cycles will end…. but new ones will begin.

AI isn’t going to kill the marketing basics. It will simply augment it. It will help speed up systems.

AI is lowering the barrier to entry and it is democratizing technology more than ever before. People who don’t even know how to code are now able to build their own custom software – unique to them. It is amazing what’s going on.

But, it means humans – and the human connection – move further up the hierarchy of needs. And those basics never change. Ever.

If you focus on earning trust and attention — through your own content, on your own platform, with your own audience — the medium almost doesn’t matter. You’ll adapt to new tools as they come along, but your foundation stays solid.

Use the Tech. Don’t Chase It.

The right approach to any new technology — AI included — isn’t to panic about what it’s killing. It’s to figure out how it augments what you’re already doing.

AI isn’t replacing WordPress. WordPress is already integrating AI into its core. AI isn’t replacing your content. It’s making it faster to produce and easier to optimize. AI isn’t replacing your expertise. It’s making the people who HAVE real expertise even more valuable, because the generic stuff is now free and everywhere.

Use AI to speed things up. Use it to work smarter. But don’t mistake the tool for the strategy. In fact, you’re being freed up to think through your strategy and put your attention on the things which truly matter… because the tech is getting easier.