Issue #121 Loop WP

Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #121 of Loop WP!

Last week, I shared some community resources that address awareness around event promotions (e.g. WordCamps and Meetups) within the WordPress Community.

This week, we have a conversation about Wix, WordPress, and open source.

🔊 Beehiiv also released a new audio feature for emails, which I added to this and all my previous newsletters. It’s not perfect, but Brian is very cool.

Let’s go! 👇

WordPress Wasn’t Even Considered

Last week, one of my best friends wanted to build a website for his wife’s new business and needed help (true story).

👷 His only previous experience was as a GoDaddy website builder (which is not WordPress-based), and it was OK but a bit basic.

He wanted recommendations for other choices, so I suggested Squarespace or Wix Studio.

Now, friend, you might wonder why I didn’t mention WordPress.

🤔 After all, being my best friend, surely he knew what I build websites with?

(He does, but we’ll come back to this later.)

Wix

Let’s talk about Wix for a moment.

🎦 Jamie Marsland made the video below in June 2024, and it’s worth a watch.

Jamie references an important graph from Noel Tock, which you can find on X.

Noel breaks down the graph in a thread (so make sure you read his additional comments on his post).

✅ Jamie makes some excellent points in his video about Open Source.

Much like Noel Tock suggests, if WordPress is going to stay relevant or continue to grow, it needs to consider marketing.

The Wix Marketing team has grown significantly over the years (mentioned in the video above), and to be honest, I don’t even know if WordPress has a marketing team and what size it is. 🤷‍♂️

(There may be signs of that on the horizon, and you can read more in the WordPress News & Tips section at the bottom of this email.)

Wix Studio

Remember I recommended that my friend check out Wix Studio?

👂 He didn’t listen, so he checked out Wix instead and hated it:

• It wasn’t user-friendly

• It was confusing and frustrating

🤣 Now, this is the Wix of old; remember the one that sent Bose headphones a few years back to WordPress influencers and made Matt angry?

Then he tried Wix Studio, the drag-and-drop builder they launched last year.

It was a different builder and a totally different experience. My friend was sold. 👇

Why Not Squarespace

Even though Squarespace has its drag-and-drop builder and offers similar features, it was more expensive than Wix Studio.

Pricing was a factor in this scenario, so Squarespace only received a cursory glance; my friend might have chosen it instead of Wix after a deeper dive (a trial or demo).

(🤦‍♂️ Don’t even get me started on how much WordPress costs and all the different scenarios.)

We’ve Been Here Before?

As a Community, WordPress has been here many times.

I also discussed this subject last year in Issue #99 of WP Wednesdays (the old name for this newsletter).

It’s worth a read, but if you don’t have time, we covered:

• WordPress’ relevance in web design (let’s not forget about Automattic Design services).

• WordPress costs.

• WordPress complexity.

• Brand awareness. **

** This has been further complicated by how .com is now outranking .org for search results, which I discussed in detail in Issue #104.5 of WordPress Wednesdays.

Why Not WordPress

Remember, friend, I said we would return to this.

🤷‍♂️ My friend didn’t care about Open Source (I do, but most normal users won’t) and, after doing some brief research, didn’t think WordPress would be easy.

(I would agree, WordPress isn’t easy any more.)

And this is the issue: the results aren't pretty if you search for a website builder.

WordPress has a PR and Marketing problem (not just a UX and UI problem, but they are related).

I made a quick video below. 👇

Feature Freeze and Focus

Paul Charlton from WP Tuts made a short video discussing a feature freeze that many of us have been asking about (and think should happen).

I would go a step further and ask an additional question:

Now, that is not an easy question to answer, and this is partly (but not exclusively) due to the:

• Confusion between .org and .com.

• Hosts and their versions of “managed” WordPress.

• The lack of existing marketing for WordPress.

• Could WooCommerce even be an issue (especially when you consider .com)?

• The push from WordPress.com towards the Enterprise market.

Identity Crisis - A Parting Thought

I believe WordPress has an identity crisis that needs to be solved if WordPress will continue to be relevant and grow.

These three articles need your attention, friend:

• James Giroux has an article called “The Next Challenge for WordPress: Embracing Enterprise“.

• WP21 - 11 opinions from Matt on how to grow WordPress. **

• James Giroux expands on Matt’s opinions in “Eleven Reasons Why the Future of WordPress is Bright.“

** Matt’s right; the WordPress Playground is awesome, and it has a lot of potential for future development but does a normal user who wants a quick and easy way to build website care?

That’s it for this week 👋

⏭️ I’ll share something I should have done last month, but I forgot as I relaunched this newsletter.

If you are new to this newsletter (which many of you are), you’ll experience this semi-regular feature for the first time, which I hope you will enjoy.

Weekly WordPress News & Tips

WordPress News & Tips are back, offering excellent and insightful content this week!

• CSS Effects - Glassmorphism and Gradient Mesh Effects. (WP Tuts)

• PWA & Offline Playground - What’s new for developers? (August 2024). (WordPress)

• Better for Everyone - Elevating Ecommerce Accessibility: An Interview with Equalize Digital and WooCommerce’s Progress. (WooCommerce)

• UX Improvements - Move Posts Per Page, Offset, and Pages controls from the block toolbar into Inspector Controls. (Ryan Welcher)

• I Didn’t Know This - Did you know that the WordPress Design Team publishes an update every two weeks on what's being worked on? (WordPress)

• Eagle Eyes - Somehow, I missed the original video last year, but this updated version looks fantastic! (WP Tuts)

• Excerpt UI - There is not much love here or in the comments, and for good reason. (Keith Devon)

• Rocket.net - Paving the Way for Massive Scale (Rocket.net)

• Get Listed - The WP World Business Directory is now free! (The WP World)

• Marketing Budget - A marketing budget for WordCamps? Yes, please! (WordPress)

• I’ll Be Trying This! - Replace 15+ WordPress Plugins With WP Extended. (WP Tuts)

If you have a question about this email or WordPress, reply, and I will answer you as soon as possible.

👋 Until next time,

Simon