Podcasts about WordPress

Send us a message!AI is changing the way travelers search, compare, and book vacation rentals. But what does that mean for direct bookings, local brands, and the websites operators have spent years building?In this episode, Alex and Annie are joined by Richard Vaughton of Yes Consulting and Mark Simpson of Boostly for The Great AI Debate. After taking this conversation to the stage at the Host Planet Roadshow in London, Richard and Mark continue the discussion around what AI could mean for vacation rental marketing, website strategy, and guest acquisition.Richard argues that AI will reshape websites, search, and distribution in ways the industry has not fully prepared for yet. Mark makes the case that strong website infrastructure, brand strategy, PMS connectivity, and niche positioning still matter, especially for operators who want to grow direct bookings.Together, they explore whether AI search will create new opportunities for independent vacation rental companies or make it even harder to compete with OTAs.Episode Chapters:05:29 - How AI is changing the future of vacation rental websites07:10 - The debate between WordPress websites and AI-built websites10:00 - Why website design alone is not enough to drive direct bookings28:25 - How Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and Expedia continue to shape guest behavior36:29 - Why broad search terms are becoming harder for local operators to compete for18:00 - How AI search could make niche positioning more important21:53 - The growing role of TikTok, creators, and social media in travel discovery46:03 - Why brand trust still matters in an AI-driven search environment48:22 - How PMS data, integrations, and distribution may evolve53:22 - What vacation rental operators should be thinking about now as search changesAs guest behavior shifts, vacation rental operators are being pushed to think more carefully about how people find them, what makes their brand memorable, and how they can stay visible beyond the major booking platforms. Connect with Richard:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardvaughton/ Website: https://yes.consulting/ Connect with Mark:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmarksimpson/ Website: https://boostly.co.uk/ ✨ Exclusive Offers to Alex & Annie Listeners: Thinking about the next chapter for your vacation rental business? Connect with Monarch Collective to explore what growth could look like with the right platform behind you.

Watch on YouTube. Peter Rojas has built new things at almost every scale there is, and he planted the seed for this show years ago in an email to Michael. In this episode, Peter and Michael discuss: How building new products inside a big company differs from a startup, and why you have to invest ahead of traction Why corporate product development is a harder numbers game than a venture portfolio AI, vibe coding, and the Mozilla Pioneers program for widening the top of the funnel Why incumbents keep losing the next technology wave Why coordination breaks down at scale, and the clarity that fixes it About Peter: Peter Rojas co-founded Gizmodo and Engadget, two publications that changed how people understand technology. He has been an operator and investor across AOL, Meta, and BetaWorks, where he was a founder and VC. Today he leads new product development at Mozilla and runs Mozilla Pioneers. 00:00 Cold open 01:46 The email that started the show 03:33 Startup vs building inside a company 06:57 The corporate product numbers game 11:03 Vibe coding and Mozilla Pioneers 15:13 When a trusted brand is the advantage 18:04 Why incumbents lose the next wave 21:58 Meta's metaverse bet vs AI 25:44 If I were running Meta 29:02 Was the VR bet a failure 30:27 Why coordination breaks at scale 35:07 Fear, focus, and the CEO filter 38:56 How Mozilla runs on KPIs 40:30 The founder who hid his idea 46:33 Where to find Peter Resources mentioned: Mozilla Pioneers: https://newproducts.mozilla.org/mozilla-pioneers/ WordPress: https://wordpress.org Lovable: https://lovable.dev Replit: https://replit.com Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code Rec Room: https://recroom.com Connect with Peter: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterrojas/ Connect with Michael: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-koenig514 Building Helm: https://helmapp.ai Subscribe to Between Two COOs: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/between-two-coos/id1635533318 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2NjVgGm6mqLPEbJUvHnHEH Newsletter: https://betweentwocoos.com Watch on YouTube.

This week I Talk About The 2026 Mid-Year Business Checkup [powerpress]

Almost 2,000 Arch Linux packages have been infected with malware in a supply chain attack, FISA surveillance powers expire for the first time since 2008, the FBI takes down a Chinese phishing service, and a major supply chain attack hits the WordPress ecosystem. Show notes Risky Bulletin: Arch Linux supply chain attack spreads to 1,900+ AUR packages

New location, Gordon’s Office We went to Wordcamp Europe in Poland, Krakow European Wordcamp is the biggest of the conventions Reasons for going – networking with friends and colleagues Theme this year seemed to be AI Connecting WordPress using MCP to Claude Using AI to build pages, perform WordPress operations, correct grammar, create images, pretty much everything AI is good at Need to have a good understanding of what is happening so you can check it Four floors in the convention centre – live transcription and translations this year. Two huge rooms for lectures Food, drinks and snacks always available Evening parties – drinking and socialising WP Umbrella – great way to manage your websites – https://wp-umbrella.com/ Great country – Perogi was a favourite at meal times Lots of things to see Much cheaper than Switzerland last year Salt Mine visit was great – seeing all the salt sculptures Visit to Auschwitz – which was interesting and harrowing A good rounding off from my Anne Frank experience Rooms of shoes, hair, luggage, pots and pans Next year is in Malaga – a week earlier than this year Details at: https://europe.wordcamp.org/2027/ Visit the website: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk Drayson Design Website – https://www.draysondesign.com The Creative Tinker Website – https://www.thecreativetinker.com Facebook: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk/facebook Youtube: https://www.thisweekwith.co.uk/youtube * Full transcript will be available on the website. We may receive a referral fee from any of our links which help towards the costs involved in creating this content for you.

Dein Ansprechpartner für Digitale Kompetenz und mehr Selbstbestimmtheit als Blinder Mensch!Hier sind wir: https://schulze-graben.de**Barrierefreie PDFs erstellen: Interview mit Manuela Gloor (Umbruchbox) – Warum Accessibility dein Business richtig boostet (SEO, KI & mehr Kunden)** In dieser besonderen Interview-Folge von **Smütech** spricht Jockl mit **Manuela Gloor** von der **Umbruchbox** über eines der wichtigsten Themen für Unternehmen, Selbstständige und Content-Ersteller: **barrierefreie PDFs** und **barrierefreies Webdesign**. Manuela erstellt aus echter Leidenschaft barrierefreie Dokumente – und erklärt, warum das weit mehr ist als „nur für Blinde“. Sie zeigt, wie du mit klarer Struktur, PDF/UA-Standard, ARIA-Labels, Alternativtexten und logischem Aufbau nicht nur gesetzliche Vorgaben (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz) erfüllst, sondern gleichzeitig deine **Sichtbarkeit in Google und bei KI-Systemen** wie ChatGPT massiv steigerst. ### Was du in dieser Folge lernst: - Warum barrierefreie PDFs und Webseiten **deinen Umsatz** steigern können (mehr Reichweite, bessere Auffindbarkeit durch Suchmaschinen & KI) - Praktisches Beispiel: Wie konsequente Transkripte beim Smütech-Podcast die Zugriffszahlen um **30–35 %** erhöht haben - Warum gescannte Speisekarten in Restaurants (und vielen anderen PDFs) bares Geld kosten - Wie Unternehmen aktuell auf das Thema Barrierefreiheit reagieren (B2B-Real Talk) - Was bei modernen Webseiten (z. B. WordPress) wirklich zählt: Struktur, logischer Aufbau, Farbkontraste, ARIA-Labels & Alt-Texte - Manuela's Hintergrund als Grafikerin (Polygraphin) und warum das für wirklich schöne **und** barrierefreie PDFs entscheidend ist - Wie du von Anfang an richtig planst – und warum Nachbesserung deutlich teurer wird ### Manuela Gloor & Umbruchbox – jetzt direkt kontaktieren & lernen Manuela hilft dir konkret bei: - Erstellung barrierefreier PDFs (aus Word, InDesign oder bestehenden Dateien) - Barrierefreiem Webdesign mit WordPress - 1:1-Coaching und Beratung **Besuche Manuela hier:** -

On a new BONUS episode, Justin & Jeremy review Travis Knight's new Masters of the Universe!    FIND US HERE:  Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/epic-film-guys- Official Fan Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/epicfilmguys Feed URL: https://epicfilmguys.podbean.com/feed/ Wordpress: http://epicfilmguys.wordpress.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/epicfilmguysny/live You can also catch us on most every podcatcher under the sun! Search for us on BluBrry, Stitcher, Spreaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, and many others. Search and you will find us! There has never been a better time to join up with the elites at https://www.patreon.com/epicfilmguys! You can get access to pre-roll and outtakes from the show, exclusive episodes, free swag, and so much more. Tiers start as low as $1/month! Please consider supporting the show, and thank you for being one of the EFG faithfuls

The conversation focused on Angie, Elementor's AI-driven tool for WordPress, highlighting its integration, ease of use, and ability to generate custom code snippets and widgets without requiring Elementor's page builder. A key theme that emerged was the evolving role of AI in web development, blending rapid AI-generated first drafts with refinements through traditional interfaces. The discussion got into how Angie facilitates both creativity and efficiency, supports best WordPress practices, and safeguards site changes through sandboxing. Several points were raised, including Angie's token-based access model and its fast-growing adoption with over 30,000 active installs.

Send us Fan MailEver notice how the thing that helped you survive can quietly become the thing that keeps you disconnected?The armor. The independence. The belief that you have to carry it all yourself.In this conversation, Carol sits down with Lady Jen Du Plessis to explore what happens when high achievers stop proving, protecting, and performing... and start allowing themselves to be seen.Together, they unpack the hidden cost of self-reliance, why vulnerability feels so uncomfortable for successful people, and how our brains often confuse safety with staying hidden.Because what if the breakthrough isn't working harder?What if it's letting a little more light in?If you've ever struggled to receive support, trust others, or share the parts of your story you've worked hard to protect, this episode will speak directly to you.Where are you still wearing armor?And what might become possible if you simply started poking a few holes in it?The path from hustle to harmony doesn't begin with doing more.It begins with being seen.

Episode 117: A conversation with daughter of the King, wife, mama to four, Executive Director of Reckless Abandon Ministries, and Bible teacher, Aminta Geisler, and our BTG Podcast host, Mykelti Blum. These two talk through Aminta’s new Bible study, The Great 8, focused on the Beatitudes and what Jesus has in store for us through these important principles. She is passionate about teaching the Word of God to others and sharing how God radically changed her life. Aminta and Mykelti dive into Scripture and unpack one of Jesus' most important sermons. Get ready to take lots of notes! Learn more about Aminta and her new Bible study at amintageisler.com. Follow @amintageisler on Instagram and Facebook. Follow @MNBTG on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Subscribe to the BTG Podcast on Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Spotify, YouTube, or listen on WordPress. Thank You, Episode 117 Sponsor: Bible Basics Ministries! Thank you to Bible Basics Ministries for their support as our Episode 117 Sponsor! Learn more and purchase resources: biblebasicsministries.com. Follow @BibleBasicsMinistries on Facebook and Instagram. Email info@mnbtg.org with interest in viewing sponsor levels and benefits. BTG Events & Resources: 2026 Garden Coffee Free Missional Event for Women and Girls of All Ages! July 3, 2026, at Lake Geneva Christian Center in Alexandria, MN. Enjoy Refreshments, Worship Together, and Hear from a MN Global Worker. You’ll Also Have the Opportunity to Invest Into Missions (to Support Our 1000 Sisters Fund). Learn More at mnbtg.org/1000sisters. No RSVP Required; Invite Your Family and Church Community! 2026 Thrive Conference October 9-10, 2026 Mayo Civic Center (Rochester, MN) Featuring Lisa Bevere, Christina Girma-Hanfere, Martha Tennison, Susie Larson (speaker and emcee), Amber Gerstmann (emcee), and Substance Worship Afternoon & Main Sessions, “LIVE at Thrive with Susie Larson” — a BTG Podcast Recording Experience, Lunch with Speakers, the Thrive After-Party, Shopping, and More! Groups of 40 or More Who Register by September 20 Will Receive Reserved Seating. See All Ticket Types, and Register: First-Time Guests to Thrive in Rochester Can Register for ONLY $20 FREE Tickets for 2026 High School Grads and North Central University and Trinity Bible College and Graduate School undergrad students! Email info@mnbtg.org to Request Your Coupon Code. (These free tickets are not transferrable.) Register for Early Bird Tickets by August 31. BTG Missions Trips and Giving Opportunity Learn About Our 2025-2026 BTG Missions Partners, and Give A Tax-Deductible Gift:: mnbtg.org/missions. Apply to join a 2027 BTG Missions Trip to Cambodia or Cambodia and Vietnam: mnbtg.org/trips. 2027 BTG Leadership Conference February 19-20 Lake Geneva Christian Center (Alexandria, MN) Featuring Lisa Seaton and More! Main Sessions (including the Lund Leadership Award Presentation and the Leadership Exchange), Workshops, Brainstorming Groups, the After-Party, Exhibitor Shopping, Networking, and More! Register: mnbtg.org/leadership. Nominate a female leader of excellence for the 2027 Lund Leadership Award by Oct 31, 2026. 2027 Single Moms Retreat  June 4-5, 2026 Lake Geneva Christian Center (Alexandria, MN) Featured Guests: Dr. Keisha Spivey (speaker) and Derrick & Ashley Benoit (worship) Main Sessions, Multiple Workshops, Lots of INCLUDED Activities, Giveaways, and Services. Learn More & Register to Attend, Exhibit, or Volunteer: mnbtg.org/retreat. Please take a moment to rate and review the podcast to help others find this resource, as well!

PHP Podcast – June 11, 2026 Guest Hosts: Sara Golemon, Elizabeth Barron & Holly Schilling Eric and John are out this week — Sara, Elizabeth, and Holly take over. Here’s what they covered: PHPVerse Recap PHPVerse just wrapped up, and Elizabeth was there in Amsterdam. The format is unusual — all speakers are flown to one location, but the audience is entirely virtual. It was a class act: professional TV crew, studio lighting, and a makeup and hair team on site. Around 2,500–3,000 people watched the live stream. Everything was broadcast as one long block; individual talk segments and possibly the documentary trailer will be cut and released separately. The full stream is available now — the PHP documentary trailer (produced by Jet Breeze, covering 30+ years of PHP history) appears around the 2:24:30 mark. PHP Foundation 2026 Strategy Document Elizabeth and the PHP Foundation released their 2026 strategy document the same day as this recording. The foundation gathered community input across numerous conversations and conferences, synthesized it into findings, and has now published a plan for the rest of the year. Key themes: repositioning PHP’s public perception (which Elizabeth calls a solvable problem), creating six special interest groups, and launching an Onboarding Initiative to build a real on-ramp for new PHP developers. Elizabeth’s view is that the two things giving her the most hope for PHP’s future are the passion and expertise of the community, and how good the language itself has gotten. Visit thephp.foundation to read the full document. The Onboarding Initiative One of the six special interest groups the foundation is launching is specifically focused on bringing new developers into PHP. Goals include creating a true learning path (not just a reference manual that assumes existing knowledge), improving educational resources, and potentially working with the php.net website to improve the first-time experience. Holly made the point that PHP’s barrier to entry is genuinely lower than almost any other language — the Hello World program is 11 characters — but that story isn’t being told outside the PHP bubble. New developers are turning to JavaScript as a first language and running into minified spaghetti instead of something approachable. AI Writing PHP — And PHP as a Second Language Holly built the entire PHP Tek conference app backend in Laravel without writing a single line of code herself — AI-generated throughout, which she reviewed and approved. The code held up to peer review at the conference with only minor style nits. She ran it on PHP 8.3 and used modern standards throughout (one piece of feedback: stop using empty()). The consensus: AI models write good modern PHP because of the vast amount of open source PHP they were trained on. The caveat Sara raised is worth thinking about — how much of that training data is PHP 4-era code and WordPress 3 repositories? Either way, Holly’s case for PHP as a second language is strong: low ceremony, low boilerplate, readable syntax, and it’s a language where you can do something useful in minutes. PHP’s Reputation Problem (and Why It’s Fixable) The group dug into PHP’s perception gap — the mismatch between how good the language actually is and how it’s perceived outside the community. Holly’s experience as a mobile developer who recommends PHP to others: the pushback is immediate (“isn’t that slow?”, “isn’t that dead?”). The benchmarks don’t support that reputation — PHP outperforms Python on most comparable workloads — but data alone doesn’t shift perception. Elizabeth’s point is that this is primarily a storytelling and coordination problem, not a language problem, and that the foundation’s repositioning work is exactly aimed at closing that gap. The community has the passion. It just needs to tell the story outside its own bubble. PHP Polling API RFC Sara walked through the RFC for a new Polling API in PHP (wiki.php.net/rfc/poll_API). The short version: PHP currently has five or six different ways to do I/O multiplexing (watching multiple streams and acting on whichever one is ready first), and which one works depends on the OS, available extensions, and PHP version. The Polling API proposal creates a single, unified interface that abstracts all of that. The immediate beneficiaries are async frameworks like Amp PHP, ReactPHP, and Revolt, which currently have to maintain multiple backend implementations to cover different environments. The bigger picture: this is a building block on the path toward true async PHP, likely contributing to something more complete in PHP 9.0. Most app developers won’t use it directly — but the libraries they depend on will. RFCs are all listed at wiki.php.net/rfc. PHP.net: Do As We Say, Not As We Do Sara, who has contributed to php.net, copped to the state of the codebase: some of it dates to the PHP 3 era, there are functions.inc files, and it is very much “do as we say, not as we do.” The historical reason is that php.net used to rely on community-administered mirrors (r-synced servers running everything from PHP 5.1 to 5.6 simultaneously), so modernizing the code was impossible without controlling the runtime. That’s changed with CDN-based load balancing — they can now control what PHP version runs on php.net — and the code has been getting better. But it’s a slow process. PHP Podcasts Past, Present, and Future Holly asked about the PHP Town Hall podcast (Ben Edmonds and Phil Sturgeon), and the group did a quick tour of PHP podcast history. The PHP Roundtable — originally started by Sammy, taken over by Eric — has produced about three episodes. Sara and producer Joe are planning to take it off Eric’s hands and actually do it properly. And Elizabeth announced that the PHP Foundation is launching a new podcast: tentatively called PHP at Scale, hosted by Ben Marx, focused on telling the stories of organizations pushing PHP to its limits. No launch date yet, but there’s already a queue of interested guests. Next Week’s Show — Moved to Wednesday Sara will be on a boat off the coast of Galicia on Thursday, so next week’s episode is moving to Wednesday. Guests will include Paul Reinheimer and (hopefully) Sean Coase — two veterans from PHP’s podcasting past. Elizabeth is going to try to make it work around the Canadian Grand Prix. Mac Mini M4 for Local LLMs Holly picked up a refurbished Mac Mini M4 (16GB RAM, 512GB storage) specifically to run LLM models locally via Ollama. Apple Silicon is a solid choice for this because the unified memory architecture gives the neural cores access to far more RAM than a discrete GPU setup. Sara is waiting for the M5, which is reportedly not coming until fall — and is already resigned to spending too much on it when it lands. Links from the show: PHP Foundation — 2026 Strategy Document PHP RFC: Polling API PHP RFC Wiki — All RFCs Under Discussion Amp PHP — Async framework ReactPHP — Event-driven async PHP Revolt — Event loop for PHP php.net website source code (github.com/php/web-php) PHP Architect Discord Guest Hosts: Sara Golemon Based in Lisbon, Portugal PHP core contributor; code contributor via the Curl project (which means she technically has code on Mars) Elizabeth Barron Executive Director, PHP Foundation Based in Germany Holly Schilling Primary mobile developer; built the PHP Tek 2026 conference app Based near Chicago, IL Streams: Youtube Channel Twitch Connect & Hire PHP Architect Website Twitter/X Mastodon Hire PHP Developers Looking to hire PHP developers? Email support@phparch.com – Joe and the team are available for consulting, infrastructure work, Ansible playbooks, and code review. Partner This podcast is made a little better thanks to our partners Displace Infrastructure Management, Simplified Automate Kubernetes deployments across any cloud provider or bare metal with a single command. Deploy, manage, and scale your infrastructure with ease. https://displace.tech/ PHPScore Put Your Technical Debt on Autopay with PHPScore Music Provided by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/ Join Us Live Next Week Note: Next week’s show is on Wednesday (not Thursday) with guests Paul Reinheimer and Sean Coase. Youtube Channel Got feedback? Join us on Discord at discord.phparch.com The post The PHP Podcast 2026.06.11 appeared first on PHP Architect.

Reena goes on the other side of the mic and brings it back home. This one's a flip of the script. Robert Plank — podcaster, interviewer, and WordPress wizard who's sat across from over a thousand guests — turns the tables and interviews Reena on his own show. Then Wayne tunes in, weighs in, and Reena wraps it with a custom intro just for the Better Call Daddy family. The conversation covers what happens when you spend years behind the mic before you ever step in front of it: how early experiences in entertainment shaped Reena's approach to storytelling, why vulnerability is the through-line of every great interview, and what it actually takes to find your voice as a podcaster. Robert brings the craft perspective — Reena brings the heart — and Wayne brings the commentary only a dad can.

Today the podcast focuses on the unique openness and camaraderie of the WordPress community, particularly through volunteer experiences at WordCamp events. A key theme under discussion was how involvement in such communities combats loneliness and provides a sense of belonging and purpose, whether for personal fulfilment or business reasons. The discussion also explored the shifting landscape of sponsorship and participation in WordPress, the importance of welcoming newcomers, and the role of open source in adapting to challenges like AI. There was also a sense of optimism for the future, evidenced through youth involvement and purposeful volunteering. Go listen.

Today the podcast focuses on the unique openness and camaraderie of the WordPress community, particularly through volunteer experiences at WordCamp events. A key theme under discussion was how involvement in such communities combats loneliness and provides a sense of belonging and purpose, whether for personal fulfilment or business reasons. The discussion also explored the shifting landscape of sponsorship and participation in WordPress, the importance of welcoming newcomers, and the role of open source in adapting to challenges like AI. There was also a sense of optimism for the future, evidenced through youth involvement and purposeful volunteering. Go listen.

The conversation focused on WordPress community updates, recent trends in plugin and security landscapes, and user concerns over AI integration and site management practices. A key theme that emerged was the impact of AI on plugin vulnerabilities and security workflows, with organisations like Wordfence and Patchstack adjusting policies in response to AI-driven threats. The discussion explored declining contributions within the WordPress project, responses to major WordPress events, and controversy surrounding plugin installations and repricing by companies. Several points were raised, including community engagement, transparency, and the importance of user consent in product changes.

OK - We're going to get down on the discussion about the LLMs.txt files and WHY I do not use them or recommend to use them.I've got 4 technical reasons why.Plus I spend a little time on the AI Visibility Mastery 12-month course. We are committed to the success of our members. You'll have direct access to both Kim Albee and Carolyn Holzman (me) in the first 2 months on a weekly basis to get your foundation set up and well on your way. After that there is a monthly call for the remaining 8 months. In these calls is where we share the latest research discoveries in how your content can be "the path of least resistance" in the eyes of AI models.This week a little more about the newest VizzEx tool - Symmetry Gate™ Check Tool. You can find it at:⁠⁠https://symmetrygate.ai⁠⁠Last week's episode: https://www.confessionsofanseo.com/podcast/what-ai-models-want-and-how-to-give-it-to-them/Mentioned in the show:https://vizzex.ai/ai-visibility-mastery/Wordpress registration HubSpot registration⁠Symmetry Gate⁠ - check the "cost" of your content for AI models to extract informationVizzEx - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://vizzex.ai/vizzex-pro/⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to Confessions of an SEO™ wherever you get your podcasts. Your subscribing and download sends the message that you appreciate what is being shared and helping others find Confessions of an SEO™An easy place to leave a review ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/confessions-of-an-seo-1973881⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠You can find me on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Carolyn Holzman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠American Way Media⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Google Directly⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AmericanWayMedia.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Consulting AgencyNeed Help With an Issue? - reach out Text me here - 512-222-3132Music from Uppbeathttps://uppbeat.io/t/doug-organ/fugue-stateLicense code: HESHAZ4ZOAUMWTUA

HorrorAddicts.net Season 21 CURATED, Episode# 259 Horror Hostess: Emerian Rich Intro Music by: Valentine Wolfe ************************************ 259 | #QueerRomance | Ollie Fox | Sexsomnia & Marita Volodine http://traffic.libsyn.com/horroraddicts/HorrorAddicts259.mp3 Find all articles and interviews at: http://www.horroraddicts.net   159 days till Halloween      Theme: #Queer Romance Ollie Fox OllieFoxWrites.Wordpress.com   Music: "Forbidden" Sexsomnia & Marita Volodine https://youtu.be/I41dpb1TIRo?si=TRmDFKP3a74tgUdC   Catchup:  #hot #melting #summerheat #nosun #summertrip #camping  #summergothgoals #brown #tansucks #childhoodtrauma #deserttones  Stand in nature and imagine if it was an alt horror world. Watch/read/listen to spooky summer related fun. Create spooky thing on the d/l.   Historian of Horror: #MarkOrr #DraculasDaughter https://youtu.be/greE16U721M?si=3nLHKxF0B9o1WRYn   AUTHORTUNIES: Angela Yuriko Smith https://authortunities.substack.com/   HA SOAPBOX:  https://forms.gle/qbanMDWUxYAuB1EK8   Quiz-akit: If man A buries man B alive, and then man B rises from the grave and scares the Night Watchman to have a heart attack and die, who is responsible for the Night Watchman's death? Write in answers! horroraddicts@gmail.com    Dead Mail: #HorrorFan ERICK: #advice #goth #gothlife #babybat  Answers: Matt, Blessing, Len, Sven, Shelly, Anon Write in re: ideas, questions, opinions, horror cartoons, favorite movies, etc… Also, send show theme ideas! horroraddicts@gmail.com    NEWS:  "Flesh toTree" #FallingYou https://youtu.be/6zfEQH1hno0?si=zYa2ahRGJFg0a-w3 #Promo #CradleofHorror https://www.youtube.com/@cradleofhorror #BookReview #LoversLeap #RikkiGoodwin #ThisDayinHorror #Veronica #AbominableDrPhibes #JesseOrr #DarkPrincess2  #MarkOrr #PRCHorror #1945 #LiveAction #Crystal #WORM #FreeFiction #Veronica #LBGTQFiction #Logbook #Russell #StrangeRomance #BookBirthdays #TheWickeds https://hanetpress.wordpress.com/ #BandInterview #DarkSwoon #AuthorInterview #DavidMSalkin #FromtheVault #UnsafeWords #TerrorTrax #Sexsomnia #ManofOfFrights #Audible https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Manor-of-Frights/dp/B0GK3CTZR6 #Promo #WrenLocklwy #Narrator https://www.instagram.com/wrenlockleyvo/ #HorrorCurated #Dolls https://www.etsy.com/listing/1564359283/horror-curated-halloween EVENTS:  #SpookyBookFaire October 10th, 2026 / San Mateo Public Library #OutoftheCellar #FilmFest #VeronicaCraven https://OutOfTheCellarFilms.com World Fantasy Con Oct 2026 https://worldfantasy.org/ ~~End of News~~  Nightmare Fuel: #DJPitsiladis #CountessBathory   CURATED PIECE: #QueerRomance #OllieFox #TheGuardian https://www.amazon.com/Guardian-Ollie-Fox/dp/B0G528F35H ------------------------------------- Write in re: ideas, questions, opinions, horror cartoons, favorite movies, etc… Also, send show theme ideas! horroraddicts@gmail.com h o s t e s s Emerian Rich b l o g  e d i t o r Veronica McCollum r e v i e w  c o o r d i n a t o r  Daphne Strasert s t a f f Jesse Orr, Lionel Green, Kieran Judge, Crystal Connor, Nightshade, R.L. Merrill, Mark Orr, DJ Pitsiladis, Russell Holbrook, Michael Charboneau, Brian McKinley. Want to be a part of the HA staff? Email horroraddicts@gmail.com b l o g  / c o n t a c t / s h o w . n o t e s http://www.horroraddicts.net the  belfry  app  https://www.thebelfry.rip I♥radio https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-horroraddictsnet-30940547/ stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/horroraddictsnet spotify  https://open.spotify.com/show/0DtgSwv2Eh6aTepQi7ZWdv audible https://www.amazon.com/HorrorAddicts-net/dp/B08JJRM4NM overcast https://overcast.fm/itunes286123050/horroraddicts-net podcast republic https://www.podcastrepublic.net/podcast/286123050 himalaya  https://www.himalaya.com/en/show/501228 rss http://horroraddicts.libsyn.com/rss YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4E9vnOzVkdRNLnL2QWVk3w Instagram https://www.instagram.com/horroraddicts.netpress/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/horroraddicts.net Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/208379245861499

In this episode of The UK Flooring Podcast, Tom dives into one of the biggest missed opportunities in many flooring businesses: the website.A lot of flooring companies have had a website built, left it alone for years, and hoped it still does the job. But as Tom explains, getting people to find you, trust you, and actually make an enquiry is getting harder. Your website cannot just sit there looking pretty. It needs to work.This episode is not about flashy design for the sake of it. It is about the practical things that help turn website visitors into real enquiries: better photos, clearer copy, stronger calls to action, working links, contact forms that actually collect the right information, and follow-up systems that make the customer feel looked after from the first click.Tom also talks through why flooring businesses should think carefully about the platform their website is built on, why stock images can make your business look less trustworthy, and how linking your website to a CRM or WhatsApp can completely change the way you handle leads.Because the truth is, if your competitors look sharper, respond faster, and build trust quicker, they are giving the customer more reasons to choose them, even if they are more expensive.What You'll Learn in This Episode:Why a website built five years ago might not be doing enough for your business now.Why Tom recommends using flexible platforms like WordPress instead of being locked into limited website builders.How poor stock imagery can weaken your website and make your flooring business look less professional.Why your photos should focus on the flooring, not just the room around it.How to make your About Us page sound more human and less robotic.Why flooring showrooms need to clearly show and say that they have a showroom.The importance of having clear calls to action on every page.Why your phone number, email address, forms, and buttons all need to work properly.How a CRM can help flooring businesses respond faster and follow up more effectively.Why request-a-callback forms can work better than basic contact forms.How automated emails, texts, videos, and appointment confirmations can build trust before you even meet the customer.Why picking up the phone quickly after an enquiry can massively improve conversion.How WhatsApp Business can be a useful option for trades who are busy on the tools.Why social links, videos, Google reviews, and recent content all support customer trust.Why premium customers will often do their research before choosing who to spend money with.Memorable Quote:“If you put all these client touch points in place first and then worry about your pricing second, the people that have done this are getting more money for less jobs with less hassle.”Speaker Information:Tom Cockerill is co-founder of Cockerill & Co and co-host of The UK Flooring Podcast. In this episode, he shares practical advice for flooring retailers, fitters, and business owners who want their website to bring in better enquiries, improve trust, and help them stand out online. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meta exposes 20,000 Instagram accounts through a support tool bug. CISA warns of active attacks on SolarWinds Serv-U. WordPress sites face takeover through a widely used plugin. A new Gafgyt variant broadens its reach. Pink extortionists steal cloud data with vishing and legitimate tools. Plus, allegations against IBM and AT&T, a dark web drug dealer gets 26 years, and the Monday business brief. Tim Starks from CyberScoop discusses the ongoing debate over staffing and budget cuts at CISA. NATO lets Ukraine play the bad guy.  Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest We are joined by Tim Starks from CyberScoop, who is discussing the ongoing debate over staffing and budget cuts at CISA, the political battles surrounding the agency's future, and what the Trump administration's plans could mean for U.S. cybersecurity efforts. Selected Reading Meta AI Bug Exposes Over 20,000 Instagram Accounts (Infosecurity Magazine) NSO Group back in Meta's crosshairs after alleged WhatsApp targeting (The Register) CISA: Patch actively exploited SolarWinds Serv-U DoS vulnerability (CVE-2026-28318) (Help Net Security) Everest Forms Vulnerability Exploited to Hack WordPress Sites (SecurityWeek) C0XMO botnet spreads via DD-WRT router flaw, kills rival malware (Bleeping Computer) New Pink Extortion Group Targets Microsoft 365 Cloud Data Via Vishing Scams (Hackread) Ex-Threat Intel Exec Accuses IBM and AT&T of Hiding Hacks (GovInfo Security)  California man sentenced to over 26 years for dark web drug trafficking (SC Media) AI observability platform Coralogix raises $200 million in a Series F round. (N2K Pro Business Briefing)   Nato narrowly beats Russia-style enemy in cyber attack simulation (Financial Times) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show.   Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I Share How Pivoting Isn't Failing [powerpress]

If you're an aspiring interior designer or you're still in the early stages of building your business, chances are you've asked yourself questions like: Do I really need a professional website yet? Should I invest in custom website design? Or can I just use a template for now?I hear these questions constantly from designers inside my programs, especially when they're trying to balance launching their business with managing their budget wisely. And honestly? It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the options — WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, SEO, branding, copywriting, templates, custom builds… suddenly creating a website feels harder than designing a room.That's exactly why I invited website designer Robyn White back onto the podcast.In this episode, we unpack what interior designers actually need when it comes to website design, how to know the right level of investment for your stage of business, and what questions to ask before hiring a website designer. We also talk about minimum viable product websites, brand strategy, portfolio photos, AI renderings, website maintenance, and why perfectionism may be holding you back from getting clients.Featured GuestRobyn White is the founder of RDW Design Studio, where she combines luxury market insight with strategic website design for interior designers. With a background working at one of the world's most prestigious art galleries, Robyn brings a rare blend of strategy, aesthetics, and high-end client understanding to every project. She specializes in helping interior designers elevate their online presence through thoughtful brand strategy, SEO-conscious website design, and customized digital experiences that attract aligned clients and opportunities.What You'll Learn in This Episode✳️ When to invest in custom website design✳️ Questions to ask website designers before hiring✳️ Templates versus custom websites for beginners✳️ Website platforms: WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace✳️ Building a portfolio without completed client projectsRead the Blog >>> Essential Website Lessons Before Building Your Interior Design Website NEXT STEPS:

Thanks Pressable for supporting the show! Get your special hosting deal at https://pressable.com/wpminuteBecome a WP Minute Supporter & Slack member at https://thewpminute.com/supportThis episode of The WP Minute+ podcast features Matt's chat with Beaver Builder's Robby McCullough. They discuss the evolution of Beaver Builder, including its recent AI integrations. You'll find takes on the current sentiment within the WordPress community, the importance of open source, and how to adapt in the age of AI. Robby also shares his thoughts on user expectations and the future of web design. Takeaways:Beaver Builder is evolving with AI integration.The Assistant Pro plugin is still operational but has been integrated into Beaver Builder.The WordPress community often engages in ‘drama farming' with negative narratives.AI is being explored in WordPress core, showing a new direction.Open-source ethos remains strong in the WordPress community.User expectations for AI tools need to be managed effectively.AI can enhance design but should not replace human creativity.The baseline for web design is improving compared to the past.Beaver Builder aims to provide a cohesive design experience with AI.Important Links:Beaver Builder: Twitter/X | WebsiteConnect with Robby: Twitter/XThe WP Minute+ Podcast: thewpminute.com/subscribe ★ Support this podcast ★

Thanks Pressable for supporting the podcast! What hosting should feel like...nothing! https://pressable.com/wpminute Today's episode features a segment from Matt's discussion with Beaver Builder's Robby McCullough. Robby stopped by to tell us about Beaver Builder's AI integration and the strategy behind it. The guys also dig into how this technology fits into WordPress and the greater open-source landscape. You can catch the entire episode over on our WP Minute+ channel. Visit thewpminute.com for all the details: https://thewpminute.com/can-wordpress-keep-up-with-ai/ Watch the full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhMAXR9KkT8  Support our work at https://thewpminute.com/supportGet the newsletter at https://thewpminute.com/subscribe ★ Support this podcast ★

This final instalment of Sass lays a strong foundation for our return to developing statically generated websites with Jekyll. We learn how to deeply customise and integrate Bootstrap into our own styles. As is often the case, Bart starts by describing the different techniques that can be used to customise Bootstrap with Sass, and then ties it all together with a worked example. We now have the tools to use Bootstrap, even if our website uses a content management system like WordPress. You can find Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes and the audio podcast at pbs.bartificer.net. Read an unedited, auto-generated transcript with chapter marks: PBS_2026_06_06 Join our Slack at podfeet.com/slack and look for the #pbs channel, and check out our pbs-student GitHub Organization. It's by invitation only but all you have to do is ask Allison! Join the Conversation: allison@podfeet.com podfeet.com/slack Support the Show: Patreon Donation Apple Pay or Credit Card one-time donation PayPal one-time donation Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle NosillaCast 20th Anniversary Shirts Referral Links: Setapp - 1 month free for you and me 15% off Carbon Copy Cloner Wispr Flow - 1 month free for you PETLIBRO - 30% off for you and me Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me Backblaze - One free month for me and you Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you. PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us CleanShot X - Earns me $25%, sorry nothing in it for you but my gratitude

In episode 131 of the Gutenberg Changelog, Birgit Pauli-Haack welcomes Isabel Brison to discuss the latest developments in Gutenberg plugin releases 23.1, 23.2, and 23.3, as well as progress leading up to WordPress 7.1. The hosts highlight recent calls for testing, including collaborative editing—previously delayed from 7.0 due to stability concerns—and the new media editor…

Chris Badgett and Emily Middleton from WPCourseGuide examine the quickly changing effects of artificial intelligence on online learning, course design, WordPress, entrepreneurship, and the nature of employment in this episode of LMScast. They talk about how AI is enabling creators to develop courses, produce content, build software prototypes, and automate complex tasks more quickly than […] The post What Is Really Going On? Chris And Emily Debate Current Reality appeared first on LMScast.

Último día de la WordCamp Europe 2026 en Cracovia y, como no podía ser de otra forma, había que sacar al menos un capítulo de la maleta. Me acompaña David Pérez, de Close Marketing, para repasar entre risas —y algo del brilli brilli que quedaba de la noche anterior— todo lo que ha dado de sí el mayor evento WordPress de Europa. Una WordCamp para enmarcar 2.441 asistentes (que, según cuentan, alguien contó uno a uno a la entrada 😏) y gente de más de 80 países —«85», matiza David—. Un anfiteatro espectacular, charlas a rebosar y una zona de expositores donde, por mucho que lleves toda la vida en WordPress, siempre descubres herramientas y plugins que no imaginabas. «Piensas que está todo hecho, pero es mentira.» Practicando inglés a base de pasillos Una de las grandes ventajas de un evento así es el inglés. Llegas como un cervatillo deslumbrado, pero según vas cogiendo el tonillo de cada país hace clic en tu cabeza y empiezas a entenderlo todo (con suerte, sin acabar hablando con acento indio el lunes). David, que se examina pronto, ha venido a entrenar de lujo. La charla de Matt y el cierre Mención obligada a la charla de Matt —con el clásico juego de «The Real Matt»— y al cierre de la WordCamp por la tarde, donde se anuncia la próxima ciudad. ¿Repetiremos? David lo tiene claro: «Yo creo que sí»… aunque primero toca convencer a la familia. David Pérez y Close Marketing Aprovechamos para charlar con David, que ya tiene una agencia de 13 personas. Eso sí, avisa en broma: como el 13 da mala suerte… mejor contratar a uno más. (Que nadie se asuste el lunes 😅.) Lo que pasa en Polonia… Y como todo buen episodio de Potencia Pro, hubo ración de humor: las «polacas», la pesadilla de la chapa misteriosa (con Fede Padilla como principal sospechoso), el brilli brilli de la fiesta y aquello de que «lo que pasa en Polonia, se queda en Polonia». ¿Quieres los detalles? Déjanos un comentario y quizá te los contemos por privado. O no. 😉 En resumen Una experiencia que recomendamos a cualquiera: diversidad de culturas, aprendizaje a raudales y muy buen rollo. Puede que caiga otro capítulo en el aeropuerto… quién sabe. Y sí: este episodio se ha publicado con el bot. Si lo estás leyendo, es que funcionó. 🤖 🤖 El contenido de este post ha sido generado automáticamente con inteligencia artificial a partir de la transcripción del audio. Puede contener errores o imprecisiones. ¿Te ha gustado el episodio? Si quieres que sigamos experimentando con bots, protocolos y empanadillas polacas, no olvides suscribirte y dejarnos tu valoración. ¡Nos escuchamos en el próximo capítulo! Métodos de contacto Enviadnos vuestras preguntas al grupo de Telegram. Apuntaos al canal de Youtube del podcast https://www.youtube.com/potenciapro Si nos queréis decir algo directamente lo podéis hacer a @potenciapro , @materron, @mpc, o en el grupo de Telegram Y si eres muy muy muy fan del podcast Echa un vistazo a cómo nos puedes ayudar en https://potencia.pro/se-prosperoso/

Send us Fan MailLet's Taco ‘Bout returns to kick off the latest summer miniseries. This year, desperation to remain relevant wins out as The Fat Dude is focusing on this year's summer release schedule! Sarah Lahue returns to the show to dive into two of the biggest success stories so far this year, the indie horror smashes, Backrooms and Obsession. We talk about what excited and infuriated us in both Kane Parsons' and Curry Barker's big screen debut films. Warning: spoilers aplenty, so listen with caution. Also, there's some Mets and Knicks talk for the New York sports fan in your life.Sarah can be found across social media @SarahTheColor. You also follow her blog at monstrousfeminine.Wordpress.com.Follow Fat Dude Digs Flicks across social media:Facebook - Fat Dude Digs FlicksInstagram - FatDudeDigsFlicksTikTok - FatDudeDigsFlicksLetterboxd - FatDudeFlicksSubscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Goodpods, or wherever you get your podcasts. Search for Fat Dude Digs Flicks and click on that subscribe button. Please take a second to rate and review the show, while you're at it!Subscribe to the Fat Dude Digs Flicks YouTube channel and send a thumbs up or two my way!If you'd like to contact me for any recommendations, questions, comments, concerns, or to be a future guest, you can send an email to FatDudeDigsFlicks@gmail.com.And now the call to action:The fight for Women's Reproductive Rights continues. If you are interested in supporting a woman's right to choose, please look into the following organizations:Planned ParenthoodCenter for Reproductive RightsPathfinder InternationalNational Women's Law CenterNARAL Pro-Choice AmericaReligious Coalition for Reproductive ChoiceEquality NowEvery Mother CountsGlobal Fund For WomenGun violence in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. Join the fight for better gun laws and regulations by looking into or contributing to:Coalition to Stop Gun ViolenceEverytown for Gun SafetyThe Brady CampaignNewtown Action AllianceMoms Demand Action for Gun Sense in AmericaAmericans for Responsible SolutionsLaw Center to Prevent Gun ViolenceHelp protect, defend, and support our LGBTQ+ brothers, sisters, and non-binary spiritual siblings by checking out:Transformation Project SDGLAADTrans LifelineThe Trevor ProjectThe Center of Excellence for Transgender HealthGender DiversityHuman Rights CampainIt Gets Better ProjectThe Transgender Law CenterFORGEGLSENThe Matthew Shepard FoundationPride FoundationTransgender Legal Defense and Education FundTrans Women of Color CollectiveTrans Youth Equality FoundationNational Center For Transgender EqualityTrue Colors FundThe Trans Culture DistrictOh… and as always, Fuck Donald Trump. Fuck Toby Doeden. Fuck Dusty Johnson. Fuck Pete Hegseth. And Free Palestine. Support the show

Introducing Russell Aaron I didn't learn WordPress at a fancy college or career academy. I graduated from the University of YouTube. My internship was the Las Vegas WordPress Meetup and WordCamp Vegas. The rest I learned building mortgage company platforms, working for casinos, inside managed WordPress hosts, and at some of the best WordPress development and support shops on the planet. Show Notes For more on Russell, check out his website: https://russellenvy.com Transcript: Topher DeRosia: All right. Here we go. Hey folks. Russell Aaron: And three, two, one. Topher DeRosia: Hey folks. Welcome to Hallway Chats. I’m Topher, and I’m here with Russell Aaron. I assume I pronounced that right, because it’s not that hard, but you never know. Russell Aaron: You know, so many people call me Aaron. They’ll tag me and they go, “Thanks, Aaron.” And I’m like, “You know, it’s Russell, but it’s cool.” Topher DeRosia: Yeah, nice. All right. Well, I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day from you talking about podcasts having the same people on episodes all the time. I thought, “Oh, I gotta have that guy on my podcast.” Because then you can’t go on any other ever again, because then you’ll be that guy. Russell Aaron: Maybe. Topher DeRosia: So, I snooped a little. You live much closer to me than I expected. Have we met? Did we meet at a WordCamp? Russell Aaron: I think we met at WordCamp Ann Arbor one year. Topher DeRosia: Oh, okay. I went to a whole bunch of those. Russell Aaron: Yeah. I think I spoke 2018, something like that. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. I was probably there. Russell Aaron: Yeah. Topher DeRosia: All right. So tell me where you live, what you do, all that kind of stuff. Russell Aaron: I currently reside in Indianapolis, Indiana, and I am just freelancing as of right now. You know, I live in a pretty small town where it’s kind of old school WordPress, if you will. Anyone who is worth their salt keys will remember a day when websites were not responsive or a business has a cousin of a friend of a brother who builds websites and, “Hey, he’s working on it,” and three years later, there’s still no new website. I kind of live in a town where I’m kind of getting back to my grassroots, where I stay up late at night with my insomnia, and I will roll up to a business and I will say, “Your new website can look like this today. If you pay me this much money, I will install it today, and this is your new website.” And it’s got your updated menu, and it’s responsive, and it works on mobile, and we can connect it to AppPresser and make it an app and stuff like that. So I’m kind of reliving the glory days of what I remember WordPress to be. Topher DeRosia: I’m also freelancing right now, sort of by choice, sort of not by choice. Somebody I’m married to would rather I had regular pay and insurance. Russell Aaron: Heard that. Topher DeRosia: Are you in the same boat, or did you do this on purpose? Russell Aaron: I did this on purpose. I was not working for the man, but I was working with some people. I’m over the tiny little granular things that somebody can fire you over. Like they’re watching if your mouse moves or they’re watching if you haven’t logged in. There’s just no more trust, I feel like, in so many cases. And so I know that I can do things better on my own, and I’m going to. Topher DeRosia: I have to admit, I love the freelance life. It is pretty special. Russell Aaron: Right. It’s almost like… what’s that movie? The 40-Year-Old Virgin, where they are making a website and they’re like, “Hey, Spider-Man 3’s on in five minutes. Let’s go watch it.” Like they totally ignore their job and they just go watch this movie now. It’s kind of like that. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Yeah. For me, it’s doing stuff with my wife. She has a day job, but it has kind of chaotic hours and not specific days of the week. And so I work when she does, which sometimes is Saturday and Sunday, and then I just don’t on Tuesday and Thursday. That’s pretty great. Russell Aaron: I’m kind of in the same boat. My wife has a wonderful job, and she is with a great group, and she does global advocacy. I mean, she just deals with people that are happy with the product, and she keeps them happy. She does lots of stuff like that. I’m kind of the same thing, where their company is now starting to get into AI, and they have so many questions, and I’m over here building things with AI and doing things like that. So I’m not exactly consulting, but my ideas are going into their company through my wife. Topher DeRosia: My wife works at a grocery store, and they have a cash machine they use in the back office that runs Linux. Russell Aaron: Oh, wow Topher DeRosia: And the IT guys had to come in and do some work on it, and she saw the screen and she’s like, “Oh, is that Linux?” And I’m like, “Who are you, and what do you know?” Super nerd. So what’s your company name? Do you have one, or is it just WP Pro Support? Russell Aaron: WP Pro Support. Topher DeRosia: WP Pro Support. Okay. Do you concentrate more on support, or do you build more? Russell Aaron: I have been doing support since 2011. I formed my very first support company, and I launched it the same day that Shane Sanderson launched Maintainn. My buddy, who you might know, John Hawkins, I was at the Vegas WordPress Meetup Group, and I had the idea in Vegas WordPress Meetup Group where there’s 70 people sitting right here behind me and they all want help. And I was like, “How do I do this?” So I built my first thing where I gave everybody free-for-life support, and they were my test group, if you will. And they helped me work out my bugs and tickets, and they helped me work out how I actually operate and do stuff like that. Then when I launched it, literally that day, John goes, “Wait, have you seen this?” And we had no idea about each other, but we literally launched them the same day. Fast forward three years down the road, I ended up working for Maintainn when it was owned by WebDevStudios. But everything I’ve done in WordPress has been support, whether I’ve worked for a mortgage company, a casino in Vegas, hosting with Liquid Web, doing stuff with NerdPress or AppPresser. Everything I’ve done is support. That’s really where my passion is because I remember what it’s like being a first timer. I think that there is a huge market potential here of people are always going to be new. I don’t care who you are. There’s always somebody new walking in the door, and there has to be a person who will sit down and say, “Come here, I’ll hold your hand.” And I am that person. I always try to look at WordPress from that lens is if a new person is looking at this today, are they going to be happy? Are they going to be confused? And I go from there. So currently today I’m transitioning away from support as we know it, where you write a ticket and then somebody on the other end is like, “Hey, I fixed your site,” or whatever. And I’m transitioning to a new product that I’m working on. So I’m going to be getting away from traditional support, but I’m still going to be doing things in the support space, if that makes sense. Topher DeRosia: Yeah, that makes sense. When I first got into WordPress, it was 2010, and custom post types were brand new. Russell Aaron: Right? Topher DeRosia: And I was out of my element with WordPress. I did not know what I was doing, but I did know PHP, and no one else knew post types yet. So when it comes to that, I was on an equal footing, and that was my way in. That was my leverage. I made a lot of money in the early days just building custom post types. Russell Aaron: Custom post types and single-posttype.php or whatever. Yeah. Topher DeRosia: So I was a competent PHP guy who didn’t know WordPress. And I feel like we’re in kind of the same transition space right now with AI, where we have tons of competent WordPressers who don’t really know AI yet. I think there’s a great space for that, teaching our friends, teaching everybody we’ve known for 10 years in WordPress. You know what I mean? Russell Aaron: I do. That’s one of the things that I really love about WordPress is that… let’s take the new 7.0 that just came out, I think it re-leveled the playing field. Before this came out, there were people that were ahead of others when it comes to patterns or blocks or the command palette and stuff like that. But now I think with this, we’re back to an even playing field because every… I mean, not exactly. There’s still some people who know AI a lot better than others, but you’re always five minutes ahead of somebody and five minutes behind somebody else. Topher DeRosia: Oh, yeah. Russell Aaron: But I do think that with 7.0, a new level playing field has come out. And now is the time to start learning, or you got to wait until 7.1 comes out where that new level playing field comes out. But that’s what I love about WordPress is that it continues to happen. Like you said, CPTs. I still love CPTs. I think they’re one of my favorite things. I look at all of these features, you know, page builders, another time when the playing field was leveled again. Now you learn page builders and then shortcodes and then this and then that. I think that’s the one gift that WordPress keeps giving is that you might be out of date six months from now, but then 7.1 comes out and you’re caught right back up. Topher DeRosia: Right. Yeah. And while you’re five minutes ahead, you quick do a WordCamp talk. Russell Aaron: Yes. Yeah. Topher DeRosia: For that long, you know more than other people, right? Russell Aaron: At least it’s on video, right? Topher DeRosia: Right. I was an expert for a minute and a half. Russell Aaron: That was my 15 minutes of fame. Topher DeRosia: What is your WordCamp life like these days? When was the last one you went to? Russell Aaron: The last one I went to was in Vegas, 2018. It was at the Plaza Hotel, which I worked at. When John was putting that together, in Vegas we had a wonderful space, and it was called The Innevation Center, and it was at a data facility called Switch. And they donated so much to us, and we are so grateful to them. And then they kind of had a change in their policy where they weren’t doing things, and then they overpriced how much it would cost to hold events and stuff like that. I was working at a hotel, and so we had this giant convention space, if you will. And so because I was able to pull some strings, we got a great, great discount, all food paid for. I mean, all of it. So that was my last WordCamp. The after party was on top of a pool deck, and there was pickleball courts, and there was a pool, and there was an open bar. I mean, it was rad. That was my last one. I have kids now. My kids are seven and eight and so my WordPress travels have slowed. No, I’m sorry. I take it back. WordCamp US last year was my last one, where we went scorched earth. That’s what I call it. I call it WordCamp scorched earth. Topher DeRosia: I was there for that one. I used to go to a lot every year. Go to- Russell Aaron: Five, six? Topher DeRosia: Five and 10. But since COVID, I think maybe just US every year. It’s weird to just go to one. Russell Aaron: It is. And just US, it’s almost like we used to have what I used to call regional events, where I lived in Vegas, I would hit up WordCamp Orange County, then I’d hit up San Diego, then we’d hit up LA, and then we’d make our way up to Portland, and then maybe if San Francisco did one, and then Phoenix. I did all my regional stuff. And then every once in a while I would venture… I mean, I love WordCamp Minneapolis. Love the people up there. Love so much about that event. Used to do that a lot. What’s the one in Ohio that I used to go to? Topher DeRosia: In the teens, there were five in Ohio. And being in Michigan, I used to just cruise down there. Russell Aaron: It’s a three-hour, three-and-a-half-hour drive, huh? Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Russell Aaron: About that. Yeah. Topher DeRosia: At the time, I was working for a company that was paying me to go to WordCamps. I had to make the case for each one, but it was a really simple case for all the Ohio ones because I didn’t need a plane ticket. I just drive over there. It’s like five in Ohio. There was Ann Arbor, there was Detroit, there was Grand Rapids, there was Chicago. I mean, there was almost 10 WordCamps within a three-hour drive of me. Russell Aaron: That’s beautiful. Topher DeRosia: It’s just not there anymore. Russell Aaron: I was very fortunate to work for companies like WebDevStudios, where I could tell them, “Hey, I got into WordCamp Minneapolis. I’m going to speak there.” And because I’m speaking there, they would reimburse me X amount of dollars for something, and then they would sponsor the WordCamp, and then they would make a thing out of it. I mean, I was very fortunate in being able to do that. Then I worked with a really great company called NerdPress, and they are a fantastic group of people that do the same thing. And then I ventured out into different straits, and it was very much different. I’ll say that much. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Those are good times. Russell Aaron: It’s almost like… the way that I put it is it’s like we all graduated. We all did our four years of college, we all graduated, and now we went to our temp jobs or we went to our internships. Like the band broke up. Topher DeRosia: Yep. Yeah, it is a lot like that. I have seen generations of WordPressers. There was all the crew before 2010 that were downloading zip files and hacking themes to even get them to run. Then there was after 2010, and custom post types were new and stuff. And then there’s the whole Gutenberg generation that never experienced all that crazy theme stuff. Russell Aaron: I mean, you tell people that child themes were so new that people didn’t even grasp the concept of a child theme, and today it’s so baked in. It’s not even something that people think about. It’s just you install this and the child theme, and it’s a thing. But I remember writing those by hand. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. No kidding. Then to a certain extent, not even having child themes anymore because nothing is stored on the file system. Russell Aaron: I love it. I love it. In my very first WordCamp talk in Vegas 2012, I made a prediction that everything was powered by the theme. Everything used to… I mean, that’s as far as I go back is every template was the same. It was left column, right sidebar, header, and every page, whether you liked it or not, looked like a blog post. And it wasn’t full-width, responsive. I remember a lot of that. And then corporate themes came out, and then cupcake themes came out, then lawn company themes came out, and then the rise of Envato and stuff like that. That’s a good name for a band, The Rise of Envato. Topher DeRosia: I’d go see them. Russell Aaron: But all that stuff comes out. And then you look at it now and it’s like, that seems so far away. I still remember the day that I learned about child themes, and I’ve never forgotten that. And I think, coming back full circle, that’s why I stay in this beginner support space because I’m kind of keeping that nostalgia around, I guess. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. There’s a lot of joy in watching people’s eyes light up when they get it. Russell Aaron: That’s the best part is just telling people what’s possible. When they’re frustrated with something and you go, “Oh, hey, Gravity Forms can do that.” And they’re like, “Wait, what?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” And they can also do… And I just start naming stuff. And I show all 50 extensions that they have and they’re just like, “Wait, what?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” I’m like, “This starts getting radical when you’re into it.” Topher DeRosia: There’s something I miss from old WordPress that I don’t see in modern WordPress. It might not be a thing. And that is dramatic new styling with a theme the instant you install it. My wife is not a computer person and does not care about computers. She loves design stuff. There was a time we used Winamp. Russell Aaron: Wow. Topher DeRosia: And she loved getting skins for Winamp. And she would download 30 in a day and try them all out. And then when I set her up for the blog the first time and showed her the theme repo on .org, this is in 2011, she would literally spend a day just downloading theme after theme after theme. Russell Aaron: Same way. Topher DeRosia: And you just install it and poof, your site looks amazingly different. These days, I mean, you install something like Kadence or GeneratePress or Ollie or any of them, really, and it’s kind of a blank canvas. Russell Aaron: It’s very minimalist. It’s very minimalist. Topher DeRosia: I miss the ability to say, “I feel like making a change today,” and two minutes later, your site looks completely different because you’re using… Russell Aaron: Couldn’t agree more. Couldn’t agree more. I mean, I look back at old pictures from when I would host the meetup group in Vegas, and there’s pictures of me talking, and then on the screen behind me is my old site, and it was this old layout. I bought the theme from Envato because I was just fascinated with it. It was everything that I wanted it to look like. But same thing is now when you change your theme from this one to that one, that dark grunge kind of thing is gone, and now you’ve got this bootstrap-looking thing or whatever. I agree with you. I think that comes from my days of being in MySpace. That’s how I got started with all this. So you could change your MySpace template like that, and I think that’s where it comes from, at least for me. Topher DeRosia: I haven’t even looked into it. Can you make a Gutenberg-based blog theme that has a very striking look and just release it? And then, I don’t know, just release a whole bunch of them like in the old days? Theme shops had 35 themes for sale, and they all looked different because they were all totally different themes. Russell Aaron: I remember there was a day on Envato where it was the same theme, it was just rebranded. So it was like theme name 1.0, and it was called Atlas. And then it’s the same theme but in orange, and now it’s 1.2, and it’s called Dungeon or something. And then we have 1.3 again. Same theme, same framework, but each version was named something different. It made that developer look like they had five different products instead of just one over and over. Now you look at something like a page builder, and it’s like, “We’ve got 500 different templates in one thing.” I can’t do that. I think that’s too much for me. Topher DeRosia: It’s like the days of the CSS Zen Garden. Russell Aaron: Right. Topher DeRosia: HTML is the same, CSS changes. Before I used WordPress, I built my own blog system. Russell Aaron: Oh, wow. Topher DeRosia: It never got super advanced, but I used it for 10 years. One of the things you can do in your HTML is register alternate stylesheets. It’s the same tag, it’s just an alternate word in there. And then in Firefox, at least, you can go under “view Page Style”, and they would all be listed there, and you can just choose different themes. I figured out the JavaScript, even though I didn’t know JavaScript. I figured out the JavaScript to make a little dropdown box in my sidebar so my visitors could say, “Oh, I want to change my theme here.” I never figured out how to do that in WordPress because everything was so tied to style.css. I didn’t know how to make a different one be the main one. But that’s something else I miss in WordPress is the ability to just so dramatically and dynamically change your design because your content is structured so well. Russell Aaron: You know, not only that, but I really liked the websites where there was a demo, and then it gave you a basic username. The username was demo, the password was demo. But then the one thing I never figured out was how every 24 hours the site would just reset. So somebody can go in there and they could do whatever they wanted to do. They could create their own pages. They could create their own blog posts. And for 24 hours, there was a page called Russell’s Awesome. But then after 24 hours, it would just reset. I always thought that was so cool, but I could never figure out how to do that. Topher DeRosia: Oh, yeah. And everybody was editing all at the same time, within that 24-hour period. Russell Aaron: I have since restructured my website. I use the block theme from WebDevStudios. I kind of feel like that’s where I got my education from. I was somebody who kind of dabbled around in WordPress, and then when I went to go work with them for three years, they had a set of standards that I couldn’t even fathom to begin with. But then as we built things and I saw how their machine works, how their business revolves, I was like, “You know, for me, this is the way that I like to do things, is the way that they like to do things.” And so my new website… I mean, not new website, but it’s my new theme, I actually had AI build it for me. I had Claude. I was using… It’s by ThemeIsle. Neve. I was using Neve, one of my favorite themes. Love them. So I was using that, and then my site was kind of all over the place. It was an “I’ll teach you how to do this”. That’s kind of the main focus of my site is I will jump on a call with you, and whatever questions you have, I’ll sit here for five hours with you if you want. I will teach you and until you get it. But then I also had this section about band names that were just… earlier when we were talking about the rise of Envato, you know, like I would have a section on my blog where you could create a new band name and then I had all these random blog posts. And so my website was kind of like this potluck, if you will, just like this random stuff. And I was like, you know, I want to be doing something else. I think my website needs to change. And I have those old blog posts still, but they’re hidden. So now with my new theme, I had AI look at my old site and say, this is what I think we should do. I picked out some colors and over like five days, I had it build me five different HTML pages, like completely different, you know? And then I started giving AI and I said like, “Okay, I want to look like this.” And then I was like, well, okay, I like this and I like this, but I also like this from this other site.” So I started feeding it information and like when the HTML came out, I had 12 different templates. I had my blog posts, I had my archive, but I had everything built in HTML. And the cool thing about the WDS block theme is that it serves everything as an HTML page. So I literally just took AI and said, “Take these HTML pages, bake them into how this theme does it,” and bam, my site came up. I had it done in maybe two days. Topher DeRosia: Wow. Russell Aaron: And then after that, I had it take all of those HTML pages and create me patterns. So now I can go in, and when I go into my full site editor, I can go to patterns, I have all my homepage patterns, my blog patterns, I sliced everything up, and they’re all WordPress native blocks. So I can literally go in and change the coloring on any page I want instead of having to edit the HTML or anything. And now that I have that, I feel this sense of freedom where I’m not worrying about an update coming tomorrow, if my update is gonna break or I don’t have to read a changelog that is not specific anymore. I can’t stress how much I love not having to read changelogs or the lack of changelogs. I mean, I’m fully happy with how things have come out. And over time, I’m gonna keep fine-tuning it, but I’m pretty much where I’m at right now. With all of this new technology that’s come out, I’ve really kind of found my love again for WordPress. I was kind of in a slump where I just wasn’t really doing anything. Now I take my son and we’ll drive down to Louisville, Kentucky. He rides BMX. So while he’s racing, I will literally have Claude Code open on my computer and I will log into the Claude app on my phone and I can keep sitting there having the same conversation. So this new thing that I’m building, I can still do it while I’m sitting there watching him race or while I’m doing something else. I was just like, this is fantastic. And then my wife will drive home and I’ll just sit there and I talk into my phone, I literally put the microphone on and I’ll be like, “You know, I don’t like that. And here’s my thoughts about this.” And you know, my phone dictates all of that and then I send it to my computer through the app and it just keeps spinning things up. Then by the time I get home, I have a new version that I can demo or I have a new version that I can test. I mean, I am just so fascinated by it. Topher DeRosia: That’s cool. Were we at WebDev at the same time? Russel Aaron: I don’t think so. Topher DeRosia: I was there just over three years ago. Russel Aaron: I was there 2015 through 2018. Topher DeRosia: Oh, yeah. I came much later. I was only there for like two months. Russell Aaron: Oh, wow. Sometimes that’s the way it goes. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. They were gonna get a big contract that hired a bunch of people and two months later didn’t get the contract and let us all go. Russell Aaron: As much as I hate that, that also taught me that the people that do great work or the people that show up every day and are putting in more than they’re getting out, those are usually the people that stay in companies like that. That really changed my work ethic. I used to be somebody who wanted to be not lazy, but I didn’t wanna be pressed for time or having to go, go, go and having to be on all the time. Now, I’m the opposite. Now, I’m like, now that I’ve done that, I kind of earn for that stretch for a little bit. I mean, you were just saying that how you’ve transitioned to where you are. I was watching a Barstool Sports interview with a guy who runs a pizza shop in… it’s either New Jersey or New York. The guy’s only open Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And he’s only open nine to six or something like that. And he built that business… well, it’s been in his family for like 60 years or something. He has one of the last original pizza ovens ever. But anyways, the point is, is that he lives at the pizza place, that’s where his entire life is, but he built the business around his life. I’m doing the same thing where if I wanna literally go jump on my bike right now and go for a two-mile ride, I’m gonna go do that. And I don’t have to feel like, hey, you’re not logged in and we’re not tracking your mouse. Like what’s happening? How come you’re not on Slack? You know what I mean? I’m not tied down to that. And I can’t stress that enough of like, that is where I wanna be. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Yeah, it is a good life. We are at about the time to wrap it up. Okay. So I’m gonna do that. Where do you hang out online? Russel Aaron: Where do I hang out online? Topher DeRosia: Are you in any common WordPress Slacks? Russel Aaron: I’m on the main WordPress Slack sometimes. I tend to watch more than I do involve anymore. A long time ago, I used to be very vocal and I used to be not afraid to walk in to a room guns blazing. With the big cultural shift that happened in WordPress, I tend to just sit back now and be more self-reserved. So I post on my website, russellenvy.com. I’m on LinkedIn. I’ve been utilizing Reddit a lot too. I think for me, Reddit is a place where I kind of disagree with the fact that you can hide behind a pseudonym, but I do like the brutal honesty that people will have because they are hiding behind something and they will say, dude, this flat out sucks. Or they’ll be like, Hey, this is great, but it would be cool if, or somebody can be like, “Hey, that already exists. You’re not doing anything new.” I do like that. Because it kind of not puts me in my place, but it shows me either how connected or disconnected I am to what I think I’m doing. And so Reddit is a very great place. I mean, everything is russellenvy.com except for Twitter or X, whatever you want to call it. Topher DeRosia: All right, cool. Russel Aaron: Where do you hang out at? Topher DeRosia: I am in probably 40 slacks, but the vast majority of them, I don’t look at. I’m there so that someone can ping me. I’m in a couple of slacks in India. Okay. I’m in the WordPress Italian community Slack. Russel Aaron: That’s interesting. Topher DeRosia: Post status make, of course there’s a hero press Slack. I have my own company Slack, my local meetup has a Slack. There’s just a lot of them. I wouldn’t say I’m super active on any of them. I just occasionally interact with somebody. I use my own company Slack to invite my clients in when we talk there. Russel Aaron: Right. Do you find yourself reading things more than, you know… from the outsider looking in, I post a lot and it looks like I post a lot… I mean, especially on LinkedIn, but I’m always consuming more than I’m posting. Do you find yourself doing that? Like where you’re… maybe not keeping up with the trades anymore, but like, you know… I used to read maybe 1,500 blog posts a week and then… what was that service where you could like save…? I used to have a service where you could save articles and then that way, late at night, I would just read, you know, maybe 10 or 15 of them a night. But now I look at things like Reddit where I see… I just look at somebody who’s going on there and asking for help. Again, it’s a standard WordPress person that, hey, I’m new to this, I don’t know how, and I’m looking at it and I’m just like, how can we make that better? That’s kind of where I’m at these days. Topher DeRosia: I don’t read a whole lot in Slack. It really is for my convenience. I’m pretty active with my RSS reader. I follow a lot of stuff. Russell Aaron: Oh, wow. Topher DeRosia: Because I don’t wanna go chase it all down all over the internet. So, you know, there’s that. I’m on LinkedIn a fair amount, Facebook a little bit. I’m on Mastodon and Blue Sky mostly just to post stuff. It’s funny, I have more followers… No, let me say it this way. Mastodon, I have the fewest followers, but the most engagement from those followers. Russell Aaron: Isn’t that interesting? Topher DeRosia: Yeah, I’ll post something and I’ll get some favorites or reposts or whatever. Blue Sky, I get almost nothing at all, despite the fact that I have like a thousand followers there. Russell Aaron: But Blue Sky is a community that is fast-moving. I almost compare it to anything Meta has, which is you can post today right now and in three minutes you’re 785 posts down. That’s what I really love about Reddit is that I posted something about this AI team that I’m building that I give away for free on GitHub, and so for like five days, I was the number two post on that subreddit. And the volume that I saw from that. I mean, Reddit really loves human writing. If you go in there, you post something that somewhat seemingly might suggest that you had AI do anything with it, they will just downvote it. But if you write original and you write from the heart and stuff, like your stuff skyrockets there. I’ve learned a lot from Reddit because of that. Topher DeRosia: That’s really cool. Russell Aaron: It’s interesting. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. All right, well, thanks for chatting with me. Russell Aaron: Thank you for the time. Topher DeRosia: And now you can’t be on anybody else’s podcast. Russell Aaron: I’m actually starting my own, sir. Topher DeRosia: Are you? All right. Russell Aaron: I have, like you said, the reason why we started this is because you saw something from me that says, “I’m tired of the indie circuit,” if you will. I put out a LinkedIn post, I don’t know, maybe a month ago at this point and I asked people if they wanted to be on a show. So I have WP Roundtable. I got that from Kyle Mahler, a person who I love in WordPress more than I can express. One of the best people on the planet, I feel like. I was thinking about starting that up again, because we don’t have WP Watercooler anymore. We don’t have anything like that. That’s kind of where I got my start from. But again, I also identify that that’s kind of the problem is that every Monday or Friday I was on a show and I was one of the people that you would see constantly. And so I was sitting there thinking and I was like, what doesn’t the space have? What kind of show do I wanna watch? Because I don’t watch shows when they come out, do you? Topher DeRosia: No. Russell Aaron: I always watch them maybe four weeks down the road at like 2:30 in the morning when I have nothing going on. And by that point, the information is almost stale. I mean, the way that anything works these days. And there’s a few that I might watch maybe within 48 hours of coming out, but at this point, there is something… a new idea that myself and… the guy’s actually an automatician. And so it’s actually kind of interesting because we don’t wanna say anything that would put him in a position to where he’s saying something bad about the company he works for, but I’m also the person where I get to say something to the person who works at Automattic to maybe incite some change. So we are working on something like that, but it’s not going to be an interview show. It is not going to be something where you tune it out or you put it on a 2.5 playback speed just to get through it. You know what I mean? And that’s really what the emphasis of my post was about is that so many of the interviews go that way. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Are you familiar with wppodcasts.com? Russell Aaron: Yes. Topher DeRosia: Okay, good. So when you get it started up, submit it there. Russell Aaron: That’s a place. I’m very fascinated by Gary Vaynerchuk. Are you familiar with Gary V? Topher DeRosia: No. Russell Aaron: I watch something Gary V every day. That guy makes me feel like I’m lazy every single day, but he is also one of the people that says like, “Hey, you’re 40, you’re still just a baby.” A lot of people feel like I should be two kids, a house, marriage, this, that, and because I’m not, I’m behind the ball. And he’s one person that’s like, “Listen, you’re still a kid.” And he’s like, “You’re 40, I’m 40, and you have 10 years until you’re 50.” And even then you’re still so young to where you can generate something again and from 50 to 60, you can now do. That kind of mentality really moved me around. Why I bring that up is, I’m trying not to post on the same places that everybody else is. I wanna find that new venture. Substack is a great one. And they also have a way to release podcast episodes through them. So they can actually be your entire engine. So like you don’t have to host them on different places and stuff like that. So I’m looking for different plays like that. Topher DeRosia: All right, cool. Well, I look forward to hearing about it when it comes out. I’m sure you’ll post on LinkedIn. Russell Aaron: Yes, yeah. Topher DeRosia: All right. All right then, well, I will maybe find you on Slack or Reddit or someplace. Russell Aaron: Slack, Reddit, LinkedIn. Either way, please keep in touch. First of all, it’s great to see somebody familiar in the space. It’s great. I mean, just talking about the old days, I could sit here and do it forever. Topher DeRosia: All right, I’ll see ya. Russell Aaron: Have a good one. Topher DeRosia: All right, so that was the end of the podcast. If you could send me a headshot. And yep, that’s the one. Cool. And any links you want in the liner notes. Russell Aaron: Cool. Topher DeRosia: And two or three sentences about you and what you do and whatnot. Russell Aaron: Cool. I noticed that you… are you trying to revive Hallway Chats? Or is it something that when you just find something interesting, you’re like, hey, I’ll go do that. Topher DeRosia: That’s it right there. Russell Aaron: Okay. Sure, sure. Topher DeRosia: There was a time when it was a weekly podcast and now it’s a whenever I feel like it podcast. Russell Aaron: I love it. I think that’s the biggest reason why I’m trying to do something different is I really dislike watching a podcast. The first thing they do is they come on and they go, “Hey, welcome to WP whatever. Hey, sorry we didn’t post this week. I was bit…” If you are gonna say you’re gonna post every Wednesday at one, that’s on you. But I do not like when things start off with an apology. Like just get to it. Because I’m not watching it Wednesday at one. I mean, unless you’re Joe Rogan, or unless you are somebody who has a huge following that people will watch you live because it’s important. Otherwise, it’s just consumable stuff, you know? Topher DeRosia: Yeah. For years, I posted it Heropress weekly on Wednesday without fail. I would ignore my family to go get it done. Then I was talking to Morton Rand Hendrickson. You know him? Russell Aaron: Uh-huh. Topher DeRosia: Yeah, he’s a huge fan of Heropress. And I said to him, “Do you read every week?” He’s like, “Oh no, not at all.” He’s like, “Oh, I thought you really liked it.” And he said, “Oh, I love it. But I don’t have time to read every week.” Every few months I’ll get depressed about the WordPress community and I’ll go read 10 essays. And then one time I was at WordCamp Ann Arbor, probably the same one you were at and Josepha came to me and said that… she was kind of a sounding board for employees that come to her and said, “Listen, I’ve been working support all day and people suck and I’m depressed and I hate life.” And she would just listen for a while and then at the end they would say, “Okay, I’m gonna go read a bunch of Heropress and I’ll feel better.” And it really changed my perspective of what I was making. I wasn’t making a weekly publication. I was making an archive, a collection to be used as a tool, a library. Russell Aaron: I’m gonna say this poorly, but it’s almost like you are creating a support help hotline where it’s like, if you’re on the verge of blowing up your website, please call this number. We’ll talk you down from it. It’s almost like you’re building that. Topher DeRosia: That’s funny. Russell Aaron: That’s interesting. And then now you’re just selective about it or you’re so far- Topher DeRosia: I’m less aggressive about finding essayists and less insistent that they get it to me by a certain time. Like I would find somebody and say, listen, I need it by Sunday on this date. And they were like, “Okay.” And that worked for a while. Russell Aaron: Oh, before, before. Okay. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. But now I’ll find somebody… No, I don’t go looking as often. Russell Aaron: You’ll maybe find something that somebody wrote and you’ll be like, “Hey, are you interested in doing this?” Topher DeRosia: Yes. And I don’t find people as often. I used to find my people on Twitter and I’m not on there anymore. Russell Aaron: Like by personal choice? Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Russell Aaron: Okay. Topher DeRosia: I just left Twitter. Russell Aaron: Oh, wow. You feel like your life improved? Topher DeRosia: Yes and no. Russell Aaron: Okay. Topher DeRosia: I feel the loss of what Twitter was. And it’s not there anymore. It’s just gone. Russell Aaron: Especially around WordCamp and stuff like that. That used to have to be the place that you’d be on, you know? Topher DeRosia: The Twitter I loved doesn’t exist anymore. And so, yeah, I feel that loss. Russell Aaron: I need a t-shirt that says that. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Wow. I’m in the process of making a printable store. Printable? Printful. Printful store. Russell Aaron: Cool. Topher DeRosia: With Woo, to make a video with. I need to make a bunch of products. Maybe I’ll make one of those. Russell Aaron: It’s interesting. Wow. You just flat-out left X. Do you feel like with Heropress, it was… and again, this is why I made that post, is that people almost see it like they can make the rounds. And it’s like, well, I haven’t gone there yet. And so they’re gonna submit something to you because they’re gonna get some press out of it. And it’s not so much what’s best for your brand or it’s not best for your website. They just see it as, well, I’m gonna get some exposure there. Do you feel like it used to be that? Topher DeRosia: No. I’ve gotten maybe two or three submissions ever like that. And a couple of them, I was able to say, “No, that’s not what we’re about. It’s this other thing, what Heropress is actually about.” And they’re like, “Oh, well, okay, that’d be great.” And they do that. And maybe one or two people have said, “I built this great company and everyone should come use my company.” Like, no, not so much. Russell Aaron: Interesting. Topher DeRosia: And that’s the end of it. Russell Aaron: I remember back in, I wanna say like 2013, people used to call each other out and be like, why are you giving the same speech at WordCamp Miami, WordCamp Minneapolis, WordCamp San Diego. And that’s kind of where I was at with that same LinkedIn post. It’s like, I really, really enjoy watching Matt Cromwell’s show, but the guy that he just had on also was on Jonathan Denwood and was also on this one. It was also on, I was like, I’ve already seen this. Maybe I get three more percent information that wasn’t in that last, or because Matt knows a little bit more about personal stuff in WordPress or building a business, he might have some more insight there, but it’s like, I’ve already heard this and I’m kind of already over it. And that’s kind of where I was at is you don’t have to just say, I’m gonna do this one and that’s it. But it’s almost like, you’re making yourself not… what’s the word. Not credible because you’re going around and saying the same thing and it’s just, you’re not doing anything different than a blog post could have done. Topher DeRosia: You know what I mean? I don’t feel too bad about repeating WordCamp talks because, especially at small camps, because a lot of people are just gonna go to their local camp and never go to another one. And unless they cruise.tv, they’re not gonna see it. I struggle a little bit with podcasts because I’ve been asked a lot over the last 10 years to come on a podcast and talk about the story of WordPress. And it’s the same story every time, you know? And so, I’ll try to mix it up a little bit, give different information that I’ve never given before, that sort of thing. But it is something I think about and struggle with a little bit. Russell Aaron: What do you struggle with about it? Topher DeRosia: I don’t wanna just say the same thing over and over again. You know, I don’t want people to go, oh, Topher’s on another podcast episode. Oh, I’ve heard this story. I don’t need to be on this episode. Fortunately, it’s been around long enough that I can give a brief synopsis of the beginning and talk about stuff that’s happened in the last couple of years. Russell Aaron: Right. Topher DeRosia: Which is gonna be really different from the podcast episode I was on in 2020. Russell Aaron: You know? Right. Topher DeRosia: It’s an interesting dilemma when you have one story to tell and everybody wants you to tell it. How do you deal with that? Russell Aaron: Well, I’ve noticed that too. It is like, you know, I’ll watch [Insert Famous Name Here], and they have a podcast, and they’re interviewing, again, [Insert Famous Name Here], and that person was also just on That Famous Name and That Famous Name. I actually saw somebody, it’s like almost a year ago, and they were just like, “Do you want me just to say this so your show has this speech in it or are you genuinely asking me?” Because, you know, like you want this story so you can post it on your social media. But I’ve already given that story 15 different times because they wanted it for their own, you know? And it’s almost going that way where I kind of respect it in a way because you don’t want to post other people’s content. But I also feel like I’m tired of saying the same shit over and over again. It’s interesting, man. Topher DeRosia: Yeah, that’s a dilemma. Russell Aaron: So you’re just like kicking back and… are you building something for you that you think is gonna scale or are you trying to get away from WordPress? That’s kind of where I’m at right now. Topher DeRosia: Yes and no. I have always wanted to… I’ve always been better with people than code. I’m a life coach. Russell Aaron: Yeah. I did not know that about you. Topher DeRosia: I love talking to the client more than coding. I love helping people learn things. And so those skills could be anywhere in WordPress, but also could be anywhere outside of WordPress. So I’m looking for those jobs and they are not out there. Russell Aaron: Right. Topher DeRosia: So here we are. Russell Aaron: I’m to the point now where my son, he’s eight, but he races BMX, like actual bikes and stuff. And so there’s a college here in Indianapolis and it’s one of the best cycling schools in the country. And there’s like five Olympians that practice every Tuesday and Thursday and they’re right in our back door. These are people that have a great social following, but they don’t post very well. They have a brand name, but they don’t have a website. So I’m noticing that every new space that I go into, it’s kind of like I get to jump back into WordPress again, where it’s like, hey, I just built a website for this BMX track in Louisville, Kentucky. It’s one of the best tracks in the country by everybody that has ever raced in a sport, they all vote that it’s one of the best, but they don’t have a website period. I just went through this where they have a guy, he’s their treasurer and he’s like, “Well, I’m an AI software guy.” And I’m like, “Well, how come you don’t have a website?” And he’s like, “Well…” And I’m like, “Listen, I submitted a new version of a we… literally, I uploaded it to my Russell website or to my Russell Envy site and I just put it in a sub-folder and I was like, “Your website could look like this today.” I was like, “For free. I don’t want anything from you. No free anything.” I was like, “I want to donate this to you because I want to grow the sport.” And the guy’s like, “I wanted to build it and React.” And I’m like, “Well, why didn’t you?” And the guy’s like, “Uh.” And I’m like, “I have free hosting for life from WPEngine.” And I was like, “I won’t charge you guys ever. I will host a site. I have free with AppPresser. I’ll build you guys an app where you guys can send push notifications.” And the guy’s like, “Well, I want to have a lot of control and say over it.” And I was just like, “All right, you know what?” And then I built my own. Now I own a domain all about their BMX track and now they’re calling me going, “We should have went with you.” I’m to the point now where I’m nice. And then it’s just like, “Dude, I’m 10,000 miles over you and I’m going to go this way.” Liquid Web did that to me. Liquid Web brought me in and they were like, “We’re going to…” I was supposed to be the OG stellar WP. They brought me in, I was hiring all my friends and I was bringing in people and we were building something. And then they called me and they were like, “Well, you can either be a level two support person or you could just not work here.” And I was like, “Well, I don’t work here anymore.” And they were like, “Well, wait, hang on.” And I literally hit “click” and I have never logged on since. Topher DeRosia: That’s funny. Russell Aaron: I’m in that same boat where, you know, I don’t have to work for you. You know what I mean? Like, fuck, I’m 40. I should be doing something on my own anyway. I kind of wish I had… what was WP 101? Sean did that for all those years. I wish I would have done that. Or every week, I should have had some YouTube about talking about something and maybe I could have monetized that, but I’m not behind the ball. I let the ball slip is what I feel like. Topher DeRosia: It’s not too late to start. I picked that up when Sean, quit and I’ve got a YouTube channel with a bunch of stuff on it. I published one today. Russell Aaron: Oh wow. It’s just interesting things that you think about, or is it like educational, like tutorials? Topher DeRosia: It’s educational tutorials, but stuff that I find interesting. Like today I made a desktop wallpaper for WordCamp Europe. Russell Aaron: Nice. Topher DeRosia: And I did it by going to their webpage in my browser and using the console to hack the HTML and CSS until it looked like a screen, a wallpaper. Russell Aaron: That’s fucking cool. Topher DeRosia: So I published it right before I’d started talking to you, like minutes before that. And it has three views. Russell Aaron: Woohoo. Topher DeRosia: But a couple of weeks ago I did one called fun and games in the terminal. And it’s how to play Tetris in the terminal and how to make a choo-choo train go across your screen when you type LS wrong. And it has 784 views right now. Russell Aaron: That’s awesome. Topher DeRosia: I did one on how to brighten a photo. I did a series. I’m working on a series called Topher learns how, or I talk to people who know how to do things that I really should know how to do, but don’t. I talked to Scott Kingsley Clark about pods, which has been around forever, but I’ve never used. I talked to Donata about Termageddon, because I know it’s important, but I have stayed away because I don’t understand and it’s scary. Russell Aaron: Termageddon. I’ve never heard that. Topher DeRosia: Oh. You know the little cookie consent things, privacy policies and whatnot? Russell Aaron: Yeah. Topher DeRosia: So when you sign up with term again, you pay a surprisingly low monthly fee and they have a human get on the phone with you and talk through your requirements of where you live, your legal stuff. Like, are you in Europe? Are you in California? Where are you? Where are your customers, your viewers? Then you drop in a short code for your privacy code and for the cookies and they keep them up to date based on how the laws change. So you don’t have to pay attention to, Oh, did California make some crazy new law about cookies? What do I need to do to update my site? It’s really, really great. So I did an interview with her. Russell Aaron: $12 a month or $119 a year. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Russell Aaron: What is the point of having a privacy policy if you don’t pay extra for limiting your liability? Wow. That’s amazing. Topher DeRosia: It is. Russell Aaron: That’s someone just thinking outside the box. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. I have a couple of videos where I was given an account at a hosting company that I’ve never used and videoed logging in for the first time and getting to a website. Russell Aaron: Oh, wow. Just from first login to setting everything up to now you have something production. Wow. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Specifically not reading the docs. Russell Aaron: Oh, just trying to brute force your way through it. Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Russell Aaron: That’s smart, dude. Topher DeRosia: It’s partly about… well, they may have wonderful docs. It may be super easy to do if you read all the docs. I don’t want to read the docs. Russell Aaron: Me neither. Topher DeRosia: Clickety clickety click, I have a website. So I did GreenGeeks. I did honesthosting.io. I did X cloud. So that’s the kind of stuff I’m doing. Russell Aaron: That’s interesting. That is something that, that Gary V talks about a lot is that it used to have to be where you are this WordPress brand and you do just this and all your videos could only be about that. Anytime you stepped outside the box, people were like, “Why am I watching this?” And today now we’re to finally to where my website would probably actually thrive is it’s so random. It’s just something out of my head and one thing can skyrocket and it’s like hitting the jackpot, you know? That’s interesting. Topher DeRosia: Another thing I did is I made a site called topher.how and because I realized I had never really made stuff in my own channel. I’ve been blogging for decades, making videos, WinningWP. I have over a hundred videos on WinningWP. Russell Aaron: WinningWP? Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Russell Aaron: Did you start that when Charlie Sheen started doing Winning? Topher DeRosia: No, no, no, no. But I was thinking, boy, I’d love to have all this stuff on my own website, but I don’t want to go find it all and copy paste posts. And then I realized nearly every place I’ve ever made content has RSS for their authors. Russell Aaron: Yeah. Topher DeRosia: And so I found the sites, found my author RSS feed and started piping them into WP all import. And now topher.how has all my content from the last 15 years on a dozen different sites, doesn’t more than a dozen different sites, all my videos, all my posts, everything on wordpress.tv, all that stuff. So it’s kind of a portfolio. Yeah, so you can go to topher.how and see all my stuff. Russell Aaron: That was actually one thing that I was really proud of was that my entire WordPress journey is documented on somebody else’s project. So, like you go to WPwatercooler and my resume, what is great about it is that it is not me who can edit those videos, it is not me who can master them. Those words are there. Those words are me. You want to know my qualifications in WordPress, there’s all my shit. For me, I was like, “That’s actually pretty sick. You know what I mean?” Topher DeRosia: Yeah. Russell Aaron: Wow. Topher.how. Oh, dude, do you know who Jeffrey Zinn is? Topher DeRosia: No. Russell Aaron: Oh God. Him and Brandon Dove they have Pixel Jar. Have you ever heard of Pixel Jar? Topher DeRosia: Maybe. Russell Aaron: They’re big West coasters. I’ll tell you that much. He just wrote me, “He literally just said, dude, how do you find the time to write so much on LinkedIn? I enjoy all your stuff, but mostly I’m blown away by the volume.” Topher DeRosia: Nice. Russell Aaron: I’m going to write him back and just tell him the truth. But you know, it’s all thought man. Interesting. Topher, I’ve had a lot of fun. Am I taking up your time? Topher DeRosia: I should get back to work. Russell Aaron: All right, sir. Have a good one. Topher DeRosia: All right. I’ll see ya. Russell Aaron: Bye. Topher DeRosia: Bye.

Warum dein Newsletter auch 2026 noch dein wichtigstes Buchmarketing-Tool ist In dieser Episode spreche ich über das Thema Newsletter und E-Mail-Marketing für Autorinnen und Autoren. Ich führe aus, warum ein eigener Newsletter auch im Jahr 2026 ein unverzichtbares Werkzeug für alle Schreibenden bleibt, wie du Abonnent:innen gewinnst und welche technischen Tools sinnvoll sind. Auf dich warten praxisnahe Tipps, ein Überblick über verschiedene Wege, mit Leserinnen und Lesern in Kontakt zu bleiben und Vorschläge wie du deinen Newsletter spannend und gewinnbringend gestaltest. Egal, ob du gerade erst mit dem Thema startest oder schon Erfahrungen gesammelt hast – in dieser Folge findest du wertvolle Anregungen, wie du mit deinem eigenen Newsletter als Autor oder Autorin langfristig erfolgreich sein kannst. Hier die wichtigsten Aspekte, die ich in dieser Folge anspreche: 1. Einführung in das Thema Newsletter-Marketing für Autor:innen Vorstellung des Themas und Verweis auf einen vertiefenden Artikel https://mission-bestseller.com/newsletter-marketing-fuer-autoren-und-autorinnen-aufbau-nutzen-fallstricke/ Überblick über Inhalte und Zielsetzung der Folge 2. Bedeutung von E-Mail-Marketing für Autor:innen Relevanz des Newsletters 2026 und darüber hinaus Ziele: Leser:innen erreichen und Buchverkäufe unterstützen Vergleich der Kommunikationswege: Offline, Social Media, Newsletter 3. Vor- und Nachteile von Offline- und Social-Media-Kontakten Möglichkeiten über Buchmessen, Lesungen und lokale Netzwerke Social Media: Vorprogrammieren, Unverbindlichkeit, besonders für Introvertierte vorteilhaft Nachteile von Social Media: Eigentum der Kontakte bei den Plattformen ([Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.]) Gefahr von Kontosperrungen Organische Reichweite sinkt ständig 4. Vorteile des eigenen Newsletters Kontrolle und Eigentum über die eigenen Kontakte Direktkontakt zu Interessierten Wichtigkeit von Double Opt-in auch bei Offline-Kontakten Datenminimierung (nur Vorname und E-Mail) 5. Aufbau und Nutzen von E-Mail-Listen Möglichkeiten zur Sammlung von Adressen Nutzen der Liste bei Buchveröffentlichungen Beispielhafte Quoten (10% Kaufquote als realistisch) Motivation, einfach zu starten, egal wie viele Adressen vorhanden sind 6. Newsletter als Produkt: Nutzen und Anreize für Abonnent:innen Newsletter als zu bewerbendes Produkt verstehen Emotionale und praktische Argumente für den Mehrwert Spezielle Anreize: Bonuskapitel, Zusatzgeschichten, Materialien (Lesezeichen, Karten, Übungsblätter, Bilder) Notwendigkeit zur DSGVO-konformen Anmeldung Abgrenzung zu alten „Tauschgeschäften" ohne echte Einwilligung 7. Technische Grundlagen: Die eigene Autor:innen-Webseite Zweck der eigenen Webseite: Integration von Anmeldeformularen und Bereitstellung von Materialien Baukastensysteme oder WordPress als Grundlage Aspekte von Investition und Amortisation 8. Optimale Struktur einer Autor:innen-Webseite Wichtige Seiten: Startseite, Über-mich, Bücher, Datenschutzerklärung Empfehlung: Eigene Verkaufs-/Infoseite nur für den Newsletter Angebotsgestaltung: Darstellung der Newsletter-Inhalte und Werbegeschenke 9. Inhaltliche Gestaltung des Newsletters Inhalte: Alltagsschilderungen, Recherchereisen, Buchempfehlungen, Fortschrittsberichte Ziel: Beziehung zu Leser:innen halten, auch wenn zwischen Veröffentlichungen längere Pausen liegen Nutzen für regelmäßige Sichtbarkeit 10. Versandfrequenz und Umgang mit Feedback Kein starres Dogma zur Versandfrequenz (zwischen 2 und 4 Wochen empfohlen) Achten auf Feedback der Leser:innen und Anpassung der Häufigkeit Erwartungen an Rückmeldungen realistisch halten (meist Konsum, weniger direkte Reaktionen) 11. Technische Umsetzung: Auswahl der Newsletter-Software Notwendigkeit professioneller Tools (bei mehr als ca. 30 Kontakten) Empfohlene Anbieter: GetResponse (EU-Server, Datenschutz), Erwähnung von Active Campaign & ConvertKit (USA, zu komplex), Clicktip (deutschsprachig, teuer, zu umfangreich) Relevante Features: Adressorganisation, automatisierter Versand, Segmentierung 12. Anwendungsmöglichkeiten und Zielsetzung des Newsletters Direktvertrieb der Bücher über abgestufte Versandaktionen Langfristige Beziehungspflege als gleichwertiges Ziel neben dem Verkauf Aufbau eines „fernfreundschaftlichen" Kontaktnetzwerks 13. Abschluss und Handlungsaufruf Einladung, mit dem Newsletter zu beginnen oder die eigene Strategie zu optimieren Hinweis auf ein 7-Tage-Programm im Blogartikel für Einsteiger und Fortgeschrittene https://mission-bestseller.com/newsletter-marketing-fuer-autoren-und-autorinnen-aufbau-nutzen-fallstricke/ Aufforderung zu Rückmeldungen und Austausch per E-Mail oder Kommentar   # Newsletter und E-Mail-Marketing für Autor:innen: Deine Community, deine Regeln   Newsletter und E-Mail-Marketing sind für dich als Autor:in wichtiger denn je. Vielleicht schiebst du das Thema schon länger vor dir her, vielleicht hast du schon einen Newsletter, nutzt ihn aber noch nicht voll aus – oder du bist ganz neu dabei und möchtest wissen, wie du starten sollst. In dieser Podcastfolge erfährst du von mir, warum gerade jetzt ein eigener Newsletter das beste Mittel ist, um mit deinen Leser:innen in Kontakt zu treten und zu bleiben.   ## Warum solltest du als Autor:in einen Newsletter haben?   Zuerst einmal: Deine Leser:innen wollen von dir hören! Sie wollen wissen, wann dein nächstes Buch erscheint, ob es gerade eine coole Aktion gibt oder einfach ein bisserln mehr über dich und deine Buchwelt erfahren. Aber warum reicht nicht einfach Social Media?   1. Du hast die Kontrolle über deine Kontakte:     Bei Facebook, Instagram & Co. gehören die Daten alle der Plattform. Accounts können ohne Vorwarnung gesperrt werden, die Reichweite deiner Beiträge ist begrenzt und abhängig vom Algorithmus. Selbst in Gruppen sehen viele die Beiträge nicht, wenn sie nicht täglich aktiv sind.   2. Nachhaltige Beziehungen aufbauen:     Bei einem eigenen Newsletter entscheidest du, wann und was du verschickst – und erreichst die Lesenden direkt. Die E-Mail-Adressen gehören dir, und niemand kann dir den Zugang dazu wegnehmen.   Offline-Events, Lesungen und Buchmessen sind wichtig, aber sie bieten keine langfristige Möglichkeit, den Kontakt zu halten. Deshalb ist der Newsletter das wertvollste Werkzeug für dich als Autor:in.   ## Wie gewinnst du Newsletter-Abonnent:innen?   Die wenigsten Menschen tragen sich »einfach so« für deinen Newsletter ein. Ich empfehle deshalb, deinen Newsletter wie ein Produkt zu behandeln, das du »verkaufst« – und das bedeutet, du musst überzeugende Argumente liefern, warum sich jemand eintragen soll.   Am besten funktioniert das mit einem Gratis-Mehrwert:   - Bonuskapitel - Exklusive Kurzgeschichte (z. B. zu einer beliebten Nebenfigur) - Leseproben, Lesezeichen, Kartenmaterial oder Illustrationen als Download - Im Sachbuchbereich: Checklisten, Arbeitsblätter oder ergänzende Materialien   Wichtig: Frag möglichst wenige Daten ab – Vorname und E-Mail-Adresse reichen. Je niedriger die Hürde, desto eher werden sich Menschen eintragen.   Technischer Hinweis:  Aufgrund der Datenschutzgrundverordnung (DSGVO) brauchst du Double Opt-in: Die Leute müssen ihre Anmeldung aktiv bestätigen.   ## Die richtige Basis: Deine Autor:innen-Webseite   Neben dem Newsletter brauchst du eine eigene Website. Hier kannst du das Anmeldeformular einbinden und z. B. auch deine Gratis-Extras zum Download bereitstellen. Ob du dafür WordPress, Jimdo oder ein anderes Baukastensystem nutzt, bleibt dir überlassen.   Mein Tipp:  Lege zusätzlich zu Startseite, Über-mich, Bücherseite und Datenschutzerklärung eine eigene Newsletter-Verkaufsseite an. Dort erklärst du genau, was deine Abonnent:innen erwartet, was sie bekommen und wie oft du schreibst. Das steigert die Eintragungen deutlich, weil Interessierte hier gezielt angesprochen werden.   ## Was gehört in deinen Newsletter?   Natürlich ist der wichtigste Anlass der nächste Buchlaunch oder eine Preisaktion. Doch echte Beziehungen entstehen darüber hinaus. Einige Ideen für den Inhalt:   - Einblicke in deinen Schreibprozess oder Alltag - Berichte von Recherchereisen oder aus deiner Umgebung - Empfehlungen von befreundeten Autor:innen - »Making-of« zum nächsten Buch, Updates zum Fortschritt - Geschichten hinter den Kulissen und Inspirationen   Du musst nicht befürchten, dass du zu viel von dir preisgibst: Die meisten Leser:innen finden es spannend, ein bisschen mehr über den Menschen hinter den Büchern zu erfahren.   ## Wie oft solltest du schreiben?   Ein zu häufiger Versand schreckt ab – aber zu selten ist auch nicht optimal, sonst vergessen deine Abonnent:innen dich. Ich empfehle einen Rhythmus von alle zwei bis vier Wochen. Das ist genug, um präsent zu bleiben, aber nicht aufdringlich. Natürlich kannst du auch nach Feedback fragen und die Rückmeldungen berücksichtigen.   ## Welche Tools eignen sich?   Für kleinere Newsletter-Listen reicht es am Anfang, wenn du bei etwa 20–30 Leuten noch manuell mailst – aber sobald deine E-Mail-Liste wächst und du DSGVO-konform arbeiten willst, ist eine Newsletter-Software nötig.   Meine Empfehlungen:   - GetResponse: datenschutzkonform, preislich fair, einfacher Einstieg - Brevo ebenfalls beliebt im deutschsprachigen Raum - Finger weg von zu teuren oder komplizierten US-Anbietern (datenschutzrechtlich schwierig, unnötig komplex für unsere Zwecke)   Wichtig sind: automatische Anmeldebestätigungen (Double Opt-In), einfaches Versand- und Listentool und die Möglichkeit, Willkommensmails bzw. kleine »Freebies« zu verschicken.   ##Nutze den direkten Draht zu deinen Fans!   Mit einem eigenen Newsletter baust du dir eine treue Leserschaft auf, die wirklich an dir und deinen Büchern interessiert ist. Nutze die Chance, Beziehungen zu pflegen, tolle Inhalte zu teilen und vor allem deine Veröffentlichungen erfolgreich zu begleiten. Trends kommen und gehen – aber deine eigene Community bleibt dir erhalten.   Wenn du noch keinen Newsletter hast, fang heute an. Und wenn du schon einen hast, prüfe, wo du ihn noch besser gestalten kannst, um mehr Freude – und mehr Verkäufe – herauszuholen. Ran an die Tasten!   Hier die Links, die ich im Podcast anspreche, und weiterführende Informationen, Tipps und Erfahrungsberichte rund um Bücher, eBooks und deinen Erfolg: Hier kannst du meinen ausführlichen Blogartikel zu diesem Thema nachlesen: https://mission-bestseller.com/newsletter-marketing-fuer-autoren-und-autorinnen-aufbau-nutzen-fallstricke/ Und wenn du trotz alledem wie ich weiterhin über Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) veröffentlichst, dann brauchst du diesen Kurs, um deinem Buch mehr Sichtbarkeit zu verschaffen: https://mission-bestseller.com/keywords Hier kommst du zum Mission Bestseller Schreib-Bootcamp: https://mission-bestseller.com/bootcamp   Hier findest du alles rund ums Selfpublishing: https://mission-bestseller.com Einige der Links auf dieser Seite sind Affiliate-Links und ich erhalte eine Provision, wenn du über sie kaufst, die sich nicht auf deinen Kaufpreis auswirkt.

On a new Fresh Frights, we talk the young Kane Parson's new liminal horror movie, Backrooms! Does this breakthrough indie darling haunt our nightmares? Listen in to hear our full-spoiler review.    FIND US HERE:  Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/epic-film-guys- Official Fan Group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/epicfilmguys Feed URL: https://epicfilmguys.podbean.com/feed/ Wordpress: http://epicfilmguys.wordpress.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/epicfilmguysny/live You can also catch us on most every podcatcher under the sun! Search for us on BluBrry, Stitcher, Spreaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, and many others. Search and you will find us! There has never been a better time to join up with the elites at https://www.patreon.com/epicfilmguys! You can get access to pre-roll and outtakes from the show, exclusive episodes, free swag, and so much more. Tiers start as low as $1/month! Please consider supporting the show, and thank you for being one of the EFG faithfuls    

Send us Fan MailBe honest.How many books have you read that changed your life...for about three days?How many podcasts have you listened to while thinking,"Wow. I needed to hear that."Only to go right back to doing things the same way?In this episode, Alex and Carol explore the uncomfortable truth that most high achievers aren't stuck because they don't know enough.They're stuck because they're waiting.Waiting for more confidence.Waiting for more certainty.Waiting for the perfect plan.But what if the thing you're searching for isn't another strategy?What if it's action?Through a powerful conversation inspired by the teachings of Napoleon Hill and Don Green, Executive Director of the Napoleon Hill Foundation, this episode unpacks why fear keeps us circling the same decisions, how self-talk quietly shapes our identity, and why vision matters more than current circumstances.Because your brain will always find evidence for the story you're repeating.So what story are you telling yourself?And what future are you rehearsing every day?You don't need more information.You need a reason to trust yourself enough to move.

Estoy aquí solito, ya que María no está en España y me he venido a Cracovia, donde estoy disfrutando de la World Cup en Europa. Como no puedo resistir la oportunidad de practicar mi inglés, me metí en la parte de registro y estoy descubriendo que mi inglés no es tan bueno como pensaba. Estoy pasando un rato genial aquí, conociendo a gente maravillosa con la que hablo online sobre WordPress. Me gustaría hacer pequeñas entrevistas y contar sus impresiones sobre cómo está todo, cómo funciona y demás. Esas cosillas que se hacen cuando vienes a eventos de este tipo. No voy a poner música de entrada ni salida en estos capítulos, para que no sea pesado. Continuaremos informando desde Cracovia, así que síguenos por aquí. 🤖 El contenido de este post ha sido generado automáticamente con inteligencia artificial a partir de la transcripción del audio. Puede contener errores o imprecisiones. ¿Te ha gustado el episodio? Si quieres que sigamos experimentando con bots, protocolos y empanadillas polacas, no olvides suscribirte y dejarnos tu valoración. ¡Nos escuchamos en el próximo capítulo! Métodos de contacto Enviadnos vuestras preguntas al grupo de Telegram. Apuntaos al canal de Youtube del podcast https://www.youtube.com/potenciapro Si nos queréis decir algo directamente lo podéis hacer a @potenciapro , @materron, @mpc, o en el grupo de Telegram Y si eres muy muy muy fan del podcast Echa un vistazo a cómo nos puedes ayudar en https://potencia.pro/se-prosperoso/

Nathan Wrigley interviews Austin Ginder about recent WordPress plugin supply chain attacks. Austin explains how attackers are acquiring legitimate plugins, inserting malicious code or update mechanisms, and compromising thousands of sites. AI tools have enabled Austin to detect these issues and trace incidents across multiple plugins, prompting the creation of WP Beacon, a resource for tracking such attacks. The conversation gets into challenges of plugin security, the role of hosting companies, potential solutions, and the ongoing need for vigilant, community-driven oversight to counter bad actors in the WordPress ecosystem.

Materron comienza el episodio transmitiendo su entusiasmo por el viaje que se avecina y la oportunidad de practicar inglés y conocer a nuevas personas. También menciona su interés en probar su nuevo bot, vozcaster.com, y ver cómo funciona en vivo en el evento de WordPress, la maravillosa WordCamp Europe 2026. El bot en cuestión se conecta con un plugin de WordPress que hace de intermediario con PowerPress y que permite grabar audios y automáticamente transcribirlos, además de agregar títulos y música de entrada y salida. Hay una versión gratuita disponible sin inteligencia artificial, perfecta para cualquier persona que desee grabar sus propios episodios. Además de hablar sobre su bot, Materron también menciona su intención de hacer un experimento con el plugin en este capítulo y ver cómo funciona en la práctica real. La WorldCamp Europe es una oportunidad única para él de probar su creación y conectarse con otros aficionados al podcasting. En conclusión, este episodio es un capítulo divertido y emocionante que muestra la pasión de Materron por el podcasting y su deseo de probar nuevas cosas (tecnológicas…). 🤖 El contenido de este post ha sido generado automáticamente con inteligencia artificial a partir de la transcripción del audio. Puede contener errores o imprecisiones. ¿Te ha gustado el episodio? Si quieres que sigamos experimentando con bots, protocolos y empanadillas polacas, no olvides suscribirte y dejarnos tu valoración. ¡Nos escuchamos en el próximo capítulo! Métodos de contacto Enviadnos vuestras preguntas al grupo de Telegram. Apuntaos al canal de Youtube del podcast https://www.youtube.com/potenciapro Si nos queréis decir algo directamente lo podéis hacer a @potenciapro , @materron, @mpc, o en el grupo de Telegram Y si eres muy muy muy fan del podcast Echa un vistazo a cómo nos puedes ayudar en https://potencia.pro/se-prosperoso/

A federal watchdog questions NIST over its vulnerability database backlog. Google patches an Android zero-day. Citizen Lab exposes a powerful location-tracking platform. Malware hides commands in Steam comments. Researchers spot AI-assisted malware development. Attackers compromise Red Hat's npm namespace. DriveSurge spreads malware through ClickFix and fake updates. FreePBX patches a critical flaw. And Dashlane responds to a brute-force attack. Our guest is ⁠Laure Lydon⁠, Opening Chair for Infosecurity Europe and VP of Security and Infrastructure, Flo Health, sharing her expertise on digital health platforms. Meta's AI support bot proves a bit too eager to help. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Today, Maria Varmazis speaks with ⁠Laure Lydon⁠, Opening Chair for Infosecurity Europe and VP of Security and Infrastructure, Flo Health, sharing her expertise on privacy, security, and trust in digital health platforms, especially in sensitive areas like women's health. This interview is part of our partnership with Infosecurity Europe. Selected Reading Inspector general finds NIST mistakes have made vulnerability database ineffective (The Record) Google fixes one actively exploited Android zero-day, 124 flaws (Bleeping Computer) Uncovering Webloc: An Analysis of Penlink's Ad-based Geolocation Surveillance Tech (The Citizen Lab) GoDaddy found malware on 1,980 WordPress sites using Steam as C2 infrastructure (Security Affairs) Threat Actor Uses AI to Build EDR Evasion Tools (Infosecurity Magazine) Attackers Hijack Red Hat npm Scope to Steal Cloud Secrets (Infosecurity Magazine) Hackers hijack thousands of sites for ClickFix and FakeUpdate attacks (Bleeping Computer) Critical Hard-Coded Credentials Vulnerability in FreePBX User Control Panel (Beyond Machines) Dashlane password manager users locked out by brute force attacks (Bleeping Computer) Hackers Simply Asked Meta AI to Give Them Access to High-Profile Instagram Accounts. It Worked (404 Media) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on The Gay Mix, Daniel gave us a full tour of his new AI assistant Sebastian — and honestly, we're not sure who's more excited about it, Daniel or Sebastian himself. From automatically capturing podcast topic ideas the moment they pop into Daniel's head (fig tree, anyone?) to reading transcripts and prepping show notes, Sebastian has already embedded himself deep into the Mix Minus workflow. And if Daniel's after-show automation plans pan out, Sebastian might soon be editing, posting episodes to WordPress, and doing everything short of fetching Daniel a drink. Adam — who admitted he couldn't even get the previous assistant set up — watched all of this unfold with the look of a man who knows his own tax refund check might be fake but can't be bothered to verify it. Speaking of which: Adam received a mystery $195.62 IRS check that he definitely wasn't expecting. We walked him through how to verify it, but honestly, we just hope it clears.Adam spent his Memorial Day weekend the way all proud gay men do: wrestling garden hoses and planting 60 vincas — or periwinkles, depending on which nursery you ask. What followed was a surprisingly heated botanical debate, with Sebastian himself weighing in (via Daniel) to fact-check the whole vinca-versus-periwinkle controversy. Michael in San Diego posted photos in the chat room that only deepened the mystery. Meanwhile, Daniel played us a clip from "Josh and Mama," a mother-son cooking YouTube channel with Southern accents so thick they circled back around to suspicious. Adam thought they were authentic; Daniel and Auntie Scott cried foul. Either way, the kitchen was a mess, the pans had black spots, and as Daniel put it: "as fake as they might be, everything else is tragically real." Kathy Bacon checked in via text message to vent about streaming services advertising for each other, Cathy Marshall kept the chat room lively, and Lamont Cranston came through with a celebrity death call for Grizz from 30 Rock — which Daniel immediately recognized, because of course he did.The News Game saw Daniel cruise to a 4-out-of-5 finish (damn that Latin encyclical name), he nailed the speed round for a perfect score, and we rounded out Celebrity Birthdays with Kylie Minogue turning 58, Jack McBrayer at 53 ("and a screaming homosexual"), and Richard Schiff — yes, Toby from The West Wing — who Adam describes as playing "Eeyore" in every role. Daniel closed us out by predicting internet drama over Disney's Carousel of Progress refurbishment once people notice the Progress family isn't all white anymore, and shared the tragic tale of his pantry shelf collapsing under the weight of too much Walmart cat food. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed making it — and if you're not in the Level 13 after show, you're missing Daniel's Tailscale revelation and whatever else happened after we yelled "we're out of time!"Email: Contact@MixMinusPodcast.comVoice/SMS: 707-613-3284

Cutting the cord on your print edition is the scariest operational decision you can make as a publisher. Even when the writing is on the wall, and skyrocketing paper, ink, and fulfillment costs are eating your margins alive, the fear of losing legacy subscribers and fleeing advertisers keeps many publishers completely paralyzed.In this episode, Pete sits down with Wally, partner at digital agency 50 Fish, to walk through a real-world case study of a 30-year-old legacy enthusiast publication, Brew Your Own Magazine, that pulled the plug on print and successfully migrated to a 100% digital-only model using Leaky Paywall.They dissect the exact multi-month blueprint used to transition legacy print readers, how they protected their ad revenue by leveraging trackable digital flipbooks, why they had to tear down their old magazine department navigation for a topical SEO architecture, and a brilliant operational hack using Leaky Paywall's Lead-In extension to explode their free registration list.If print overhead is a ticking clock for your business, this episode is your tactical guide to life after paper.What You'll Learn in This EpisodeThe Reality of the Churn: You'll find out what actually happens to your paid subscriber base when you stop printing, how to handle long-term fulfillment liabilities, and why a well-timed, transparent communication plan beats a rushed transition every time.The Print Replica Ad Trap Solved: BYO retained its legacy print advertisers by offering a digital flipbook with clickable, trackable URLs. This satisfied the 20% of readers who still want a magazine layout while giving advertisers modern data analytics.Stop Replicating Print Layouts on the Web: Organizing your website navigation by magazine departments kills your user engagement. Restructuring content into topical buckets drives massive SEO and longer session times.The Lead-In Growth Hack: You will learn the exact strategy 50 Fish uses to identify high-traffic organic search magnets. They hook readers with the first few paragraphs using Leaky Paywall's Lead-In block, then trigger a free registration wall right at a high-suspense subheading.Why Email is Your Real Product: Traditional metered paywalls fail to capture one-and-done organic traffic. Utilizing Leaky Paywall's List Builder to enforce free registrations builds a controlled, algorithmic-proof audience asset.Resources & Links MentionedLearn more about Wally and his team: 50 Fish Digital Agency or email him directly at wally@50fish.comSee the digital transitions in action: Brew Your Own Magazine and WineMaker MagazineDeepen your paywall strategy: Leaky Paywall Tools used in this case study: Leaky Paywall Lead-In Extension and Leaky Paywall List Builder

This week I Talk About The Summer Slow Down Myth [powerpress]

In this emotional and reflective episode of WELSTech Audio, titled "777 - From Wagon Train to Airplane," I, Martin Spriggs, join my co-host Sally Draper for a poignant farewell as she embarks on her retirement after 18 years with the show. Together, we reminisce about our journey through technology and ministry, highlighting the transformative changes we've witnessed—from the basics of church websites to the complexities of modern tools like AI. We discuss memorable moments, the impact of our community, and the friendships forged over nearly 800 episodes. Join us as we celebrate the legacy of WELSTech, recognizing the essential role technology plays in sharing the gospel and supporting our congregations. Tune in for heartfelt reflections and a look at what lies ahead for both the podcast and Sally.

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 2067: Lisa Jeffs breaks down the digital marketing skills that are becoming essential in a rapidly evolving online economy. From SEO and video marketing to analytics and creativity, she highlights the technical and interpersonal abilities that can help marketers stand out, generate engagement, and build long-term career success. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://lisajeffs.com/top-skills-digital-marketers-need-to-know/ Quotes to ponder: "Video advertising provides more engagement from your customers. It also showcases your product or service in a detailed manner." "Content is an important aspect of the digital marketing industry. Organic reach through engaging content can help companies funnel traffic." "Digital marketing is an essential aspect of a majority of business processes. Sales are predominantly seen in dynamic online setups." Episode references: State of Video Marketing: https://www.wyzowl.com/state-of-video-marketing/ Thinkful Digital Marketing Program: https://www.thinkful.com/ WordPress: https://wordpress.com/ Wix: https://www.wix.com/ Google Analytics: https://analytics.google.com/ Statista: https://www.statista.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends! Today we're going deep on external network pentesting — something I realize we've barely touched in however many episodes we've done. I'm currently in a long stretch of back-to-back external assessments, so it felt like a good time to talk about it. Here's what we get into: Scoping headaches — why the old "count your public IPs and multiply by a big hourly rate" approach drives me crazy, and how we actually scope external tests to be fair to everyone Web apps in scope or not? — this needs its own conversation before the test starts, and skipping it causes pain later Testing under real conditions — the debate around whether to request an allowlist vs. scanning as-is, and why I lean toward creating the best testing environment possible Multi-tool enumeration — why we run Nessus, Project Discovery, and Shodan together, and what each catches that the others miss Reporting the surface — why just walking a customer through what's exposed to the internet (ports, services, screenshots) has more value than I used to give it credit for SNMP and NTP findings — two protocols that keep showing up open when they really (probably) shouldn't be OSINT phase — how we've grown externals to include open-source intelligence work on the customer's domains, not just IP-level scanning WordPress hygiene — it keeps coming up on these assessments, and I've got some practical recommendations Dorking and metadata searches — using AI to quickly sift through publicly exposed documents for things attackers could use to pretext a social engineering attack Subdomain hijacking — a sneaky attack path I've seen in the wild that flies right in the face of all the "check if the URL is spelled right" advice we give users Even when the technical findings are pretty quiet, there's a lot you can do to punch up an external pentest report with stuff that's genuinely valuable to customers!

Today, the podcast is focused on the practical and personal impact of AI in daily workflows and business operations. One theme that emerged was the creation of a custom AI-powered journaling and knowledge management system, Navigator, used for personal insights, team collaboration, and onboarding. The discussion explored how AI provides a “second brain,” enhances memory, and enables more intentional business strategies. Several points were raised, including privacy concerns, the evolution of AI in work life, and its transformative effect on team communication and productivity. The episode highlighted both the opportunities and challenges posed by integrating AI deeply into business processes.

Send us Fan MailEver notice how fear doesn't show up until the moment you actually step into the thing you said you wanted?That's exactly what happened to Alex.What started as a surfing lesson turned into something much deeper. Panic. Tears. Old trauma rising to the surface. A nervous system screaming for safety while another part whispered… stay.In this episode, Alex and Carol pull back the curtain on what really happens inside the brain and body when you're facing fear, growth, uncertainty, and the pressure to “hold it together.”Because high achievers are often really good at looking calm while internally spiraling.We talk about nervous system regulation, old subconscious patterns, why your brain clings to familiarity, and what it actually takes to move through fear instead of letting it make your decisions.And maybe the most important question of all:What are you avoiding because your brain thinks it's protecting you?And what could happen if you stayed with the wave instead of turning back to shore?This conversation is messy. Vulnerable. Human.A reminder that courage doesn't mean feeling fearless.It means staying present long enough to become someone new.

Nathan Wrigley interviews Luke Carbis about the evolving challenges in the WordPress plugin ecosystem, including the surge in plugin submissions fuelled by AI, difficulties with plugin discoverability, and potential marketplace reforms. Luke shares ideas like different WordPress.org-account integration, supporting premium plugins, and adding AI-use disclosures for plugins. They discuss the tension between open-source ideals and commercialisation, the influence of AI on the community, and the need for project leadership to keep WordPress relevant.

How is AI transforming accessibility for indie authors — and why should you care even if you consider yourself able-bodied? What happens when the tools designed to help people with disabilities end up making everyone's creative business better? Jeff Adams, accessibility expert and romance author, explores how AI is opening doors that were previously closed. In the intro, Spotify Audiobook Innovations; The Economics of Convention Life [The Indy Author]; Friction in your Author Business [Self-Publishing with ALLi]. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital.com to get started. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jeff Adams is the author of YA thrillers and gay romance, and the co-author of Content for Everyone, a practical guide for creative entrepreneurs to produce accessible and usable web content. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How ending a long-running podcast made space for more writing — and how to know when it's time to let go of a good thing What accessibility really means for indie authors and why your digital content might be excluding part of your audience How AI agents like Claude Cowork are removing physical and cognitive barriers for authors with disabilities, chronic pain, or limited energy The culture of shame around AI use in the writing community and why blanket anti-AI statements can be ableist Practical tools including NotebookLM, ElevenReader, and ChatGPT for marketing copy, metadata management, and multimodal research Exciting futures in personalised reading, real-time translation, and AI browser agents that could change how everyone interacts online You can find Jeff at JeffAdamsWrites.com. Jeff also now has a SubStack at contentforeveryone.substack.com Transcript of the interview with Jeff Adams Jo: Jeff Adams is the author of YA thrillers and gay romance, and the co-author of Content for Everyone, a practical guide for creative entrepreneurs to produce accessible and usable web content. Welcome back to the show, Jeff. Jeff: Thanks so much, Jo. It's good to be back. Jo: It is. You were last on the show in March 2023, so over three years ago now. Give us a bit of an update on your writing and publishing business and what it looks like at the moment. Jeff: Sure. I think the biggest thing that happened is that my husband Will, who is also a writer, we ended the Big Gay Fiction Podcast at the end of 2024, after 470-something episodes. It was basically time to do that. So we both focused on writing from that point. In 2025 we had some of our biggest successes in getting writing out into the world. I refound my groove—my difficulty in writing went away finally. We talked a little bit about that back in 2023 too. Will started a new pen name and started producing again, and it was really good to be able to move in that direction. Jo: Was this the hockey romance that really hit at the right time? Jeff: You know, I wish I could have capitalised more on Heated Rivalry when it came out, but I did get hockey books out, and I think I did get to ride that wave a little bit there too. Jo: Yes, and if people don't know about that, that was a super popular streaming series. Was that based on a book? Jeff: It was, yes. Rachel Reid was the author of that book and that series that then Jacob Tierney optioned and made into what fairly turned into a global phenomenon at the end of 2025. Jo: Yes, absolutely. Although I particularly liked Red, White and Royal Blue. That was the one I liked. Not so much into hockey. But anyway, I just wanted to ask you about the Big Gay Fiction Podcast. As you say, you did hundreds of episodes over many years. You and I met over podcasting. You've had lots of connections with people. You ended it, and I know you struggled with ending it, but it sounds like it went really well for you. So maybe you could talk a bit about— How do you know when it's time to end something—a good thing rather than something bad? Does that make more space for writing, essentially? Jeff: It absolutely did make more space for writing for both of us, in particular for me because I have a day job. I balance everything on the creative side with the day job. Will and I had been talking about it for over a year. It just was like, it's really time. After nine years, getting to that 470 mark, we thought about trying to get to 10 years and we thought about, if not 10, then getting to 500 and ending on a milestone. As we looked at everything in our creative business, it was like, this is fun, we enjoy it, but we're not getting as much out of it as we might be if we were actually also writing books, which we also really want to do. It became a time thing and what was the best use of the time. We absolutely miss it occasionally. The whole Heated Rivalry thing, I would've loved to have had episodes to talk about that on, but in the long run, it was worth it. Jo: I mean, one of the things with a podcast, particularly around fiction, was that it was a marketing angle for your fiction. This show is a marketing angle mainly for my nonfiction. So what did you replace the podcast with, in terms of book marketing? Jeff: It was really stepped-up email marketing. I'd always had a list. Will started a list, of course, as he started his new pen name. So it was really turning on that, focusing on that, getting some email marketing with a Bargain Booksy and a Fussy Librarian and a BookBub occasionally to do that work. To be honest, even though we covered things in our genre that if you like what we're talking about, you should like our books, there was never as much of a connection there as you'd want there to be. Even from that book marketing angle, these other things that we can do, it's also a better spend of the money to get those types of promos than it was to continue running the show. Jo: Yes, that is interesting. I mean, obviously I think about podcasting a lot since I have this one, and I put Books and Travel on a hiatus and that was meant to help my fiction and definitely didn't help my fiction sales. But I want to bring it back again because I love doing it. Do you have this hankering sometimes? Do you think you'd ever do the podcast again? Because you are also quite into all the technical stuff and all that. Jeff: It's possible. I've toyed with the idea of doing a short accessibility podcast geared towards creatives, tilting to the same audience that Content for Everyone does. Then I come back and look at the time—is my time better served writing new fiction or perhaps starting a Substack, which I also toy with the idea of, for accessibility stuff? So it bounces around in my head to do another show, but I haven't really decided to jump on that yet. Jo: Yes, and I think that waiting is really good. As you say, you quit a big thing and you don't have to rush to fill it again. I love that you guys are writing more books. So I wanted us to talk about that up front because I know people who listen to this show—I encourage people to start podcasts if you want to, but equally it can take a lot of time. So that's fantastic. Now, you mentioned accessibility, and I feel like the word can be quite difficult for people. So let's just start with a definition. What is accessibility? Why do you care and why should we care? Jeff: So accessibility is really about making sure that whatever the thing is, whether it's something out in the physical world or in the online world, that everybody has access to it. Access to the information, access to getting into a building or being able to cross the street appropriately, whatever that is—that the accessibility of the thing is high. So that regardless of who is approaching it, they can interact with whatever the thing is. If we put that into the digital world, it's about making sure that text on a screen can be perceived by anybody, whether they're trying to read it visually or if they're trying to read it through a screen reader or through a braille monitor. Whatever that is, they need to be able to interact with it, get the information they need, do all the functions of whatever it is on the screen. Check out on Amazon, check out at their favourite e-commerce place, be able to get the products in their cart, check out, et cetera. For creatives, it's about the things that we do: the websites that we build for ourselves, the e-commerce platforms that we use, our email marketing, our social media posts. Making all of that as accessible as we can so that we're not perhaps missing a part of our audience or our prospective audience from being able to engage with our work and in turn, hopefully, buy our books and enjoy our books and become a fan. This became important to me because of my day job. I hadn't really considered this—like, I think most people don't—until I started working at UsableNet. It's going to be 15 years I've been at that company come this autumn, and I really started to see the impacts because UsableNet is all about accessibility on the digital front. I really started to learn, being a project manager for them, what all of that meant and how it impacted people who couldn't buy something online, couldn't book a hotel room, couldn't book an airline ticket. It just really became something I got passionate about. I ended up writing the book because I realised that nobody talks to creatives about this. Nobody tells the independent author what they should do to help make their digital stuff accessible so that they don't miss people. I never expected my day job to interact with my creative side so much, but this certainly has over the last few years. Jo: I mean, has it got better? Like we said, you were on here three years ago. We did talk about some of the things around EPUB formats and taking off DRM and what we need to do on our websites—labelling images, for example, and that kind of thing. Do you think accessibility has gotten better? Jeff: I think the awareness of it has improved, both within the creative community and in the broader web ecosphere, that the awareness is better. There's so much knowledge that needs to go into creating something that is accessible. Sometimes there's so much that you have to think about with colours and alt tags on images and all the little bits and pieces, if it doesn't really come to muscle memory, it's easy for it to fall off. There's a survey that's done by WebAIM every year about the top one million homepages out in the universe, and they surveyed those for just the things that an automated scan can detect, which is a small portion of overall accessibility, and the number of errors across that top million actually ticked up this year. Even though there's all these laws around the world—people get sued all the time in the US—the number of errors ticked up for the first time in a few years. So I think the awareness is up, but I think being able to take action on it and make the time to take action on it isn't where it needs to be. Jo: So last time you gave us all those tips. I'll refer people back to that and also to your book Content for Everyone, which has got loads of great stuff in. I wanted to talk to you for this show because I was sitting watching Claude Cowork—now I use Claude Code a lot more—but updating 140 titles on IngramSpark, where me clicking things and there's like 15 clicks per record on IngramSpark updates for pricing, is an absolute nightmare. I was watching the AI do the work and I realised this isn't just saving me time, it's actually saving my wrist and my arm from repetitive strain injury. That's when I thought about this accessibility thing. As you mentioned, for example being physically accessible into a building, say someone's in a wheelchair, they can't necessarily get into a building if there's no ramp. I was thinking that for many years, being an indie author, being a writer online, there's also been these physical barriers because there's a lot of plumbing and clicking for us. So I wondered, starting with an attitude around a shift in who this is opening up to— How is AI starting to help people with these accessibility issues? Jeff: Yes, there's so much opportunity around this. We should note, just to timestamp this, that we're talking on 14th April 2026, because who knows what will change, even in an hour from now. I think Cowork was one of the first things that we saw, and that's only been out since the very top of this year. Being able to do actual agentic tasks. Other things have sort of gotten there, but Cowork really opened it up. You mentioned the repetitive stress that you would've had clicking all of those forms on IngramSpark across 140 books. But there's that type of stress, chronic pain, cognitive drain for somebody who may have some cognitive disability and trying to work through that form. The cognitive energy just might drain out and maybe knock them out for several days after trying to get through that, or the tasks take them multiple days to do. Someone who has lower vision, someone who's trying to work through that form with a screen reader—all of that draws energy, draws focus. Now we've got something where, with plain language, we could say something like: here's all my pricing information, I've logged into IngramSpark, go update these books. Obviously the prompt's going to be a little more than that, but in broad terms, that's what we're going to tell it. Jo: Hmm. Jeff: And being able to have it go through and do the thing. If it gets stuck, have it come back and say, “Hey, I've got trouble with this. Please help me.” That can just free up so much of the drains that people can have—the things that can take them out of doing the part of the work that they need to do for an author business. They can go write the book through whatever process you're going to use to do that, rather than getting caught up in something like having to update all those books on IngramSpark. Jo: You mentioned writing the book there. I have this real sense of being an able-bodied indie author in terms of my computer use and my ability to write a whole book, a 70,000-word thriller that I write regularly. We're all special in some way, but I do have a reasonably normal brain where I can do this work without too much strain. It's hard work, but I can do it. I meet people who are now using AI to help them write, to help them organise their work—maybe someone has dyslexia or ADHD or cognitive issues or pain—there's just so many things that I take for granted that don't affect me. I hear from people who, at this point in time in the community, are almost shamed for using AI to write. So I wanted to bring this up to discuss it under the terms of accessibility. Do you have any thoughts on that? Jeff: I have real difficulty with people who will say anything in the broad range of, “I don't need to use this thing, and therefore you should not either.” Which is adjacent to indie anti-AI speak that there is out there. Certainly we're living right now at probably the highest point that it's ever been, where more and more there's a sentiment towards not using AI for whatever the reason is. I totally respect that people can have concerns about the environment and about energy use and water use, et cetera. Not to mention all the other things that are on the more difficult side of AI. To shame someone who may not be able to put their story out there without the use of that AI, whichever one they're using, or to shame them because they're using AI to run part of their business—updating IngramSpark, doing other things like that—I think it can come down to there being some ableism there. Ther is some privilege behind that too, where they're just like, “I don't need this, and you shouldn't have it either.” I want to give people just a sliver of an idea of what this can mean for someone who is disabled and what AI can unlock for them. There is a person on LinkedIn that I follow whose name is Hannah Desmond. She's an ADHD coach and a former software developer, and very recently she posted this on LinkedIn. This is a paraphrase of what she said, but: having something that can meet you where you are and help you bridge that gap is what I think I have found so helpful about using AI. Here's what I keep coming back to. Without that support, I wasn't more motivated or more capable. I was just stuck. That's the bit that gets lost. We've been taught that struggling is how you know you're doing it properly. So when something reduces the struggle, it can feel wrong—even when it's the thing that actually makes the work possible. Because there's a difference between avoiding thinking and being able to think at all. I think that rounds it up. She's talking about her time as a software developer, but you can apply that to any realm of AI when we're thinking about trying to shame someone for why they may be using it. We may not know that they have a disability because we don't always share that part of ourselves. So I really feel strongly about that and how we are in this culture of shame. Jo: Yes. It drives me up the wall, actually. But I will also say: you don't have to have a disability or accessibility issues in order to use AI in whatever way you personally decide is okay—talking to the listeners now. I think Orna Ross from the Alliance of Independent Authors says it well, which is you should have your own AI policy. So you personally decide where your lines are, how it helps you, what you want to keep for you, and what you want help with. I was also thinking in terms of accessibility around money. Again, for many of us, professional cover design, professional editing, professional human-level translation, these are things that are pretty pricey for many people. So again, this makes it more accessible. One of the reasons we got into the indie way and being indie authors was to try and remove the barriers to entry to people who have been excluded from the environment of publishing. So, yes, it is really hard to talk about this, and yet that's why I wanted to talk about it, because— There's so many variables for each individual and there's no situation that's the same, really, is there? Jeff: No, not at all. The things that I may need to do my work in the most efficient way possible is different from the way that you're going to work, is different than the way my husband's going to work, is different than every other person and the way that they're going to work. Which is why any kind of blanket statement about “I don't need something and therefore you shouldn't need it either” can just be so problematic, because we have no idea what someone else is going through. Either it's a permanent part of their lives or maybe it's something that is happening temporarily with them where they might need to leverage other tools. Jo: Yes. Talking about that temporary, I think I really got the first sense of this when I had COVID the first time, which was really bad. I remember I was so sick, the only thing I could do was listen to an audiobook. I couldn't think, I couldn't read. It was really probably months of not having my brain back. Then the other thing that's happened as I age, as women age, is menopause kicks in and the brain fog is a real thing. I've heard from other people too who've said having Claude or whoever, an AI tool, to help with the brain fog is so important because otherwise I just wouldn't be able to gather my thoughts. Again, as you said— Even if we don't need these things now, it's quite likely we're going to need them at some point, given ageing, given the potential for injury and disease. I mean, we don't escape this alive, do we? Jeff: Yes, that's a great point because unless we're extremely lucky as individuals, we're all likely to have some sort of a disability in our lives at some point. I know for me, as I age and my eyes get more and more tired after being in front of a screen all day for work, and then whatever creative stuff I do in the afternoon on a book—when it comes near bedtime and I do want to read, I probably want to do that with an audiobook, much more audio, especially for any long reading project. That can also be like, if I have a long document or a long article to read, I am likely to give it to ElevenReader, let it load itself up, and then listen to it, because I take the information in better than trying to follow words across a screen. Jo: Yes. Jonathan, my husband, now also listens to a lot of academic papers on ElevenReader. Most of us will know it as where we publish some audiobooks from ElevenLabs, or you can also publish other things there. So it is super useful to think about what we can do with ElevenReader. Another thing that I found really useful recently is NotebookLM. On NotebookLM, there is a free tier. You can put various things in there and then create a custom audio. So this is something I've been doing as part of research. You can put in, say, 10 YouTube videos or some PDFs or your book or whatever, and then you can create a custom audio. Then I'll go for a walk and I'll listen to the custom audio, and then I'll go back and look at the detail of what it was. It gives me the framework of whatever I'm thinking about on a broader level, and then I can come back to the details. So again, it's this multimodal approach that can help us manage our energy, I guess. Jeff: And it's all about the managing of the energy, I think, too. That is a great way to think about the accessibility of it all. You mentioned a great use there for NotebookLM. That could also be putting your book in there and having it help you build a world bible or something like that. Or building marketing materials off of that. There's a lot of things now that NotebookLM can do in terms of helping you create FAQs maybe for a newsletter or for your website, and building video stuff off of the material that it has. So there's a lot of options there, and ever-growing options that can be useful for someone to manage any number of the things that they may need in their creative business. Jo: Yes. In fact, talking about Claude, there are a lot of Claude plugins now, skills and integrations. Shopify just released a Claude plugin and many of us now have Shopify stores. I have a lot of products with a lot of different variations and the metadata. There's so much metadata. And again, I'm just so pleased now that I can work with Cowork and get it to actually update directly into Shopify. In fact, coming back, you mentioned updating alt tags earlier. That's something again that AI could help you update—the back list of your alt tags on a website. I've now got my Cowork doing EPUBs so I could finally update all my EPUBs with back matter and all of this kind of thing. So I feel like perhaps we could go beyond accessibility to talk about amplification. All the things that we didn't do because it was too tiring and we just couldn't be bothered, or it would just be way too much work, that now it's opened up as a possibility because of these tools. Jeff: Absolutely. I mean, you look at a backlist as large as yours and the things that you're now able to do. I didn't know that Claude had a Shopify plugin. So the abilities that we have now to maybe do things in the business that we hadn't before. One of the things I've been working with Claude on is rewriting my website and creating a more proper website for Will. I'm really making sure that it is not only SEO prepared but also GEO prepared, with all the metadata and all the backend code schema that it needs so that LLMs can find me, can understand what I do, can understand the books, branch out to the other areas that it needs to. Doing that through WordPress would've been so much more difficult, even with Claude, that to be able to rewrite the site in a way that is going to let me manage it better so that I will do it on a more consistent basis. Whatever that thing is, we're now able to do these things. That could be updating keywords in Amazon or making sure we're aligned across all of the sales platforms that we might be on and things like that, that Claude can do and do well. Jo: Yes, I think marketing is just the killer app really for people, isn't it? I think most authors do not enjoy marketing. I find Claude better for creative work, for strategic work, for doing work through Cowork or Code, but— ChatGPT with marketing copy is very, very good. So I've actually been using that as we record this. I've got a Kickstarter launching next week, so I've been getting it to do ad copy and social media copy and all that kind of thing. This is stuff when you have to produce—give me 20 taglines, give me 20 hooks, give me another 20 and another 20. I mean, we just cannot do it as humans, right? Jeff: Yes, I have found GPT wildly helpful. I mentioned trying to get Bargain Booksy and Fussy Librarian promos. Jo: Mm. Jeff: And you have to give it the marketing hook, and it can't just be the blurb that's on Amazon—it's got to be something fresh, and they each have slightly different requirements. Having GPT—here's the blurb, give me a dozen different options—and then I may take pieces of all of them and create one of my own. But it reworks that much faster than my brain was ever going to try to find the right thing I want to give to Bargain Booksy. Jo: Yes, you are right. Or it says write this in 300 characters or less. Jeff: Yes. Jo: I do exactly the same. That kind of transformative work can be really good. In fact, there was somebody I know who has been rampantly anti-AI for years and then said, “Would this help me? I have to do a synopsis for an agent, so I've got this 100,000-word book and it needs to be a 10-page synopsis. How would I do that with AI?” So I was encouraging her to take each chapter and ask it to summarise the chapter, and of course read through it and everything. But I mean, doing a synopsis once you've actually written a book—that can be super useful. So I think what we're saying is— There are levels of need in terms of both the author and the audience. Then there are levels of your personal use from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of how far you want to go in every area of the business. And in that way, it's just different for everyone. Jeff: Yes, and I think getting to that mindset shift that we were talking about a little bit—it can be so easy to dip your toes in. That one author came to you and said, “Do you think it could do this?” And I think that's the beginning exploratory area for perhaps anyone. People are going to hear us talk about this and it might inspire them to go try something that we've talked about. But these things, whether it's Claude or GPT or Gemini or whichever one it is, you can come to it and say, “I'm an author, I have X, Y, Z going on in my life”—whether that's a disability, whether that's a time constraint because you have a day job and maybe you have kids and a family that need your attention—”I have these time constraints, I want to do X, Y, and Z in my business. How can you help me with that?” It's going to tell you what it can do to help you with that. I would even say, if you have the ability to have multiples of these, you could ask the same question to GPT and Claude, and they're going to give you similar answers in some instances, but they may also have different ones because of the abilities that the different platforms have around these things as well. That can help you make that mindset shift of, “Well, now I see that it can do that. Could it also do this?” And then ask it if it could do that. Because I know for me, Jo, I've taken so much from you and your journey with Cowork that it's like, “Oh, she did that. I wonder if I could do this.” And all of that piles on top of itself. Then eventually I think your brain starts to think on its own, “Oh, I have to do this task. Can Claude maybe do this for me? Let's go find out.” Jo: Yes, and if it couldn't do it for you yesterday, you never know, it might be able to do it tomorrow. Jeff: Right? Because I haven't tested yet its new ability to actually use your computer. Jo: Mm. Jeff: And I'm curious what that might open up. Because one of the things that I've seen that I wish it would do is be able to take the EPUB that's on my drive and actually put it into a platform I'm trying to upload to. Cowork on its own hasn't been able to cross that barrier, but I wonder if with computer use added to that, if it could. Like, “here's the EPUB, upload that over there,” be able to pick it from the file picker, essentially. Jo: Yes. I think, well, a little tip for everyone: I wouldn't give access to your entire file system to the AI. Jeff: That's a good point too. Jo: Yes. I have a Claude folder in my drive and it only has access there. So if you put files in that drive, it might be able to do that. But I know what you mean. I have been using it to help me publish things in German on KDP. Now I can use the browser, so you can actually do that. In terms of uploading the actual file, I know what you mean. These things will change. As we record this, again middle of April, we are almost about to get the next models being Mythos, which might be Claude 4.7 Opus, or also ChatGPT has a new model coming, and these models are getting very powerful. With every shift they can do more things. So as you say, the very first thing to do is ask it, “I want to do this—what are my options?” And some of them, for example, doing an AI-narrated audiobook, ChatGPT and Claude don't do that. You want ElevenLabs or one of the other services for that, but they can tell you what your options are. So that's one thing, but I wondered if you have any thoughts on the gaps that you are seeing. You mentioned one there around file uploads, but— What do you hope might come and some of the things that might be exciting if they arrive? Because you never know, they might be here already. Jeff: There's certainly some movement in some areas. One of the things I'll share is, in March I was at the 2026 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference—CSUN is California State University, Northridge—and they've run this conference for some 40 years now. One of the sessions I went to was from Tara Maisel—I hope I'm pronouncing her last name right. She's a senior project manager in books accessibility at Amazon, and she was doing a session specifically on readability. She had all kinds of statistics and information about what goes into making something readable. One of the things she talked about with AI was the future of personalised reading. If you think about the Kindle app, for example, there's a lot of settings you can make there—font size, colours, brightness, text spacing. There's a lot of tools in there. She was pointing out that potentially readers don't even know what they actually need for the optimised visual reading experience. She sees a world where AI can perhaps do an analysis of your reading behaviour and then help you find the optimal settings. Maybe even multiple optimal settings for, say, if you were reading in a room that had daylight versus at bedtime, and the ways you might shift it. I was almost thinking of this like when you're at the optometrist and they're like, “Which lens is better—this one or that one?” Jo: Oh, sometimes that is very hard. Jeff: Yes. It's that AI could step you through that a little bit to help you find that optimal reading experience in that moment. And then it might even notice, potentially, if you're changing something in the way that you're moving through a page, that it might flag to say, “Hey, do we need to adjust something?” Some other areas that I think are really exciting, for everyone and perhaps particularly for people who are disabled and needing the support of some assistive technology, is what we're seeing in the browsers. OpenAI's Operator has been out for quite a while now, since sometime I think autumn of last year. Perplexity Comet has been around even longer. Then we've got browser extensions from Gemini and Claude that are available, that can let you just type natural language. You know, “Please go find for me jeans in this size that are on sale on this website. Find me the best price for blue jeans on this site and this size,” and it'll just go do it. Which can certainly speed things up for people in the disabled community to find things quickly, to spend time navigating less, and maybe ending up with the AI coming back and saying, “I found these five things. Which one would you like me to buy for you?” Or, “I found this one thing that you do need and it's waiting for you in your shopping cart.” The ability for that on the horizon is an amazing jump from an accessibility point of view. But really it's one of those things that accessibility will then help everyone because we can all just shop that way, if we choose to. These are early days for these browsers and these extensions. The other side of it comes back to basic web accessibility too, because I've seen these types of activities not work so well on a site that may not actually be accessible on its own. A great example is something I ran into with Claude Cowork about a month ago. I was testing to see if it could help me navigate and get things uploaded together for a site where I wanted to upload books, knowing again that it's not going to upload the actual file, but it could fill in the metadata from my master database of metadata stuff. There were areas on the site that it actually couldn't hit the button, because the site itself was also not functional to a screen reader. So there are gaps there. It's early days, but I really see that as an interesting future that'll really help people with disabilities—but again, help everybody too, just manage time better. Jo: I know exactly what you mean there. I've done some collaborative work with Claude Code when it's like, “I can't click the button,” and I'm like, well, I'll click the button—you fill in everything else. Jeff: Exactly. Jo: It's actually quite a funny situation. But goodness, coming back to IngramSpark again—these things need APIs. We need better functions. It's funny because I think a lot of traditional publishers have these APIs or backend upload things that you can do. I'm like, well, we need to get to that with these systems. But I think things will change. Another thing that I think has also shifted is the use of voice. Voice for dictation—it used to be with dictation that you would have to say “comma,” “open quote,” “new line,” and all of that. And you'd also have to make sense. Whereas now I feel like you can just dictate a whole load of things to these AIs and then say, “Tidy that up,” and they will do a lot more than the old situation. So I think voice will also help. Also automatic translation. I don't know if you know this about X, and if you're on X anymore, but just this week they've made it multi-language. So I can read tweets by people who've posted in another language in English. I can read something from Korean or read something that someone French has posted and it gets translated. It has made a huge difference to the content I'm seeing, which is fascinating because I don't think we've ever had this kind of automatic “everything is translated into your language” situation. It's really got me thinking about how [automatic translation] might work for eBooks or other things if the rights are there. I don't know. Have you seen stuff like that? Jeff: There's so much available now with voice and the ability to not have to speak all the other stuff that went with it—comma, full stop, next line. It was a little mind-bending sometimes, trying to think about quote marks and all that stuff. And now it's so good. Different platforms do it to different degrees of ability. Even being able to speak your prompts into the very platforms themselves without having to type all of it. Chronic pain comes to mind, any kind of mobility thing—all the typing would be a drain or maybe even impossible. So the voice ability is so powerful there and unlocks more things. At the same time, those translation abilities—I believe AirPods now have the ability, if you've got the right stuff on your phone, that you could be talking to somebody, they may speak back to you in a language you don't speak, but your AirPods will give it to you in your language. Jo: Hmm. Jeff: Google has, I believe, a live captioning app that you can use. I think there's even a split screen—I don't know if that's available now or something in their future—where you could put the phone on the table and tell it who's looking at what side of the screen, and it'll put the language that I need on my side and the language the other person needs on the other. So there continues to be such a shift in how we're being able to translate stuff that really opens up communication and can open up our books to so many more people. I'm very interested to see—I haven't pulled the trigger on this yet—but how Amazon's auto-translation rolls out and how that's received in terms of the accessibility around our books and being able to put it in someone's hands who doesn't speak—I think it's only English to other languages right now—but who doesn't speak the language it was written in but wants to read that book. We could never, as indies, or really even big five publishers, wouldn't have the money to create custom translations everywhere. But if the AI can help do that and spread those books around so that everybody could have the story they want to read, I think that's such a win for the reading audience. Jo: Yes, I think it's so exciting to think what might be coming, and that's what I want to stay on the side of on the AI discussion. There's enough negativity out there and you can get that information somewhere else, but for me I want us to stay on the positive side of how this helps both the author and the reader. And hopefully the community, to create more and read more and enjoy being human more. Right? Because I find that I do get out more and listen to stuff, or I'm out walking instead of at my desk, and I mean, that's what it's about. I'm pretty excited about the future. How about you? Jeff: I am. I think there are, quite honestly, some scary things that could be out there in the future. I mean, there's been a lot of talk about what Mythos is capable of. But on the other side of it, there are all these advances. I also look back at Google and AlphaFold and what DeepMind was able to do there for science. There's more of that stuff out there, and individually for each of us, spending a little bit of time—and I do have to say, I think you need to spend time on a paid plan because the free stuff doesn't give you the idea of what these platforms are actually capable of. So if you only drop in, even briefly, to experiment on one of the $20-a-month plans and give it your situation, ask it what it can do for you, I think you'll see where, on a personal level, AI will help you unlock some things. It can help you move some things to the next level in your business that for whatever reason you haven't been able to do. You don't have to use it for everything. You may decide that it's still not for you for whatever reason, and that's fine. But I think there's so much to explore here and to let your curiosity run for a little bit to see what's possible and what you might unlock with it. Jo: Brilliant. So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Jeff: So pretty much everything lives at JeffAdamsWrites.com. Jo: Well, thanks so much for your time, Jeff. That was great. Jeff: I loved it, Jo. Thanks for having me..The post Accessibility And AI: How New Tools Are Opening Doors For Indie Authors With Jeff Adams first appeared on The Creative Penn.

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