Automattic has been busy creating and expanding its Automattic for Agencies initiative across its WordPress brands – WordPress.com, JetPack, Pressable and Woo – and have just announced their WordPress.com Partner Directory.

“When you apply to the agency directory, your application will be reviewed to assess critical areas like security, performance, and adherence to different business requirements. Accepted agencies can showcase their profile across the Woo, Jetpack, and Pressable brand directories via a single listing.”

Visit the Partner Directory via this SEO optimized URL: https://wordpress.com/development-services/

I’m starting a list here but will add it to a Resources section of the website when it exists 🙂
Feel free to recommend ones you listen to too.

This Old Marketing | Marketing

Woo Biz Chat | Business

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway | Business

Masters of Scale | Business

Uncensored CMO | Marketing

Content Inc with Joe Pulizzi | Marketing

The B2B Playbook | Marketing

WP Product Talk | Business

Post Status Podcast | Business

Growth Colony | Marketing

The B2B Marketing Podcast | Marketing

The Marketing Book Podcast | Marketing

The Mi3 Podcast | Marketing

The new version introduces the Table Builder, a simple, visual interface that allows you to create beautiful tables effortlessly.

It’s a feature that a lot of customers had asked for, replacing the shortcode approach and making the process much more streamlined .

You can read the announcement here.

WooCommerce Product Table is one of Barn2’s bestselling plugins used by store owners to display product information clearly, in a tabular format (eg. like an invoice)  and on one page.

The episode is called Is WordPress’ Market share Declining? And What Should Product Businesses Do About it? and co-hosted by Matt Cromwell and Amber Hinds .

There were 4 guests split in two sessions:

• Part 1 – Joost de Valk (Yoast SEO founder, Emilia Capital) and Noel Tock (Human Made partner)
• Part 2 – Miriam Schwab (Strattic founder, Elementor’s Head of WP Relations) and Rich Tabor (Automattic Product Manager)

It’s definitely worth a listen, and when you do remember that the success of the project depends on both a top down and bottom up approach. That is, leadership and steer from a higher level and participation contributions from everyone else. How this can be made to work will directly impact its effectiveness.

How about that for click bait? 😉

If you follow Kevin Geary of Automatic.css (ACSS) and Frames, you will have heard of his new project: EtchWP.

In one of this email he says: “This is slated to be one of the biggest product announcements in the history of WP, if not the biggest.” Will it be?

Here’s the thing: he’s built a following and credibility. And two great products. Here’s earned the right to a slow, expectation-building reveal. However, if Etch isn’t the best thing since sliced bread, or even Top 5, he will have lost some of that credibility.

Etch will be revealed in September. Get your popcorn ready.

I keen on hearing it, at WordCamps, in podcasts,  and the various communities I part of: WordPress product owners, Devs and agencies need to do more marketing.

Here’s the thing: unless you are a Marketer… you just don’t know where to start. I’ talk about this here a little, but this is a topic that needs to covered as a course.

If you can answer this question it will help me figure out what topics to write about and how to structure the online course I intend to create.

So, what is your #1 blocker to growing your WordPress business?

Have a look: https://www.liquidweb.com

The new UI is quite conservative (compared to Kinsta’s recent efforts) but polished and on brand.

It provides real estate to their broad range of products. I’m not a big fan of sliders but I think the one they have adopted works well because it looks like one that I can scroll through myself.

This is what stands out, IMHO: Setting the standard in web hosting for 27 years

It’s hard to argue against the quality if a web product or service that is as old as the web itself 🙂

Interesting webinar that I think is of interest to both established and higher-traffic publications and smaller ones that are seeing their traffic increase.

Covering some of the more technical considerations:

• Performance optimization
• Scalability
• Integrations
• Headless

Speakers are from The Publisher’s Desk, 10up, Big Bite and WP Engine.

It’s free to attend

When: Thursday, August 22 at 12:00 pm EDT / 5:00 BS
Register: Webinar | WordPress for Media & Publishing Sites

Remote work is great unless you’re working for a globally distributed organization that hasn’t quite embraced async.

Twist addresses this, or so they say:

Builderius is a new page builder that features:

•  Full CSS Development Environment
• Global Components
• Tabbed Canvas Interface, Dynamic Data Previews
• To Publish Releases Straight from the Builder

You can see the walkthrough here: https://youtu.be/-ecvt6xrqCA

And test it yourself here: https://builderius.io/alpha/