Issue #131 Loop WP

Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #131 of Loop WP!

Last time, we discussed Metorik, your “WooCommerce CoPilot”.

This week, I'm writing about Progress Planner, a new plugin from Joost de Valk and Marieke van de Rakt. The promotion for this caught my eye, and its approach is unique.

Let’s go! 👇

What is Progress Planner?

Progress Planner is not Atarim or Client Portal, although both these plugins/services sprang to my mind.

🤦‍♂️ Progress Planner is also not “Project Planner“, which I keep calling it.

💲 A pro version of the plugin is coming in early 2025, but I have tested the free version.

TLDR: lots of potential… 👇

Onboarding

After installing the plugin (they have a video guide), you get a couple of nice widgets in the WordPress dashboard. 👇

🚨 To access the plugin settings, you must consent to or reject email marketing. I think this type of “welcome wall” is clever marketing, and it clearly states consent. 🎉

In this case, I rejected email marketing, so I won’t get the cool weekly emails as part of this test (but more on that later). 😉

Gamification Grammarly Style

😎 If you missed the WordPress dashboard widgets, the 9-step guided tour around the plugin dashboard is cool!

❤️ The badges and gamification aspect excited me (I’m a big fan of Grammarly’s badge gamification, and this Progress Planner reminds me a lot of it).

Some of the features are very similar to Grammarly, too:

• Content density

• Word count

• Amount of content published (can be enabled for posts and pages)

• Weekly “wake up“ calls you’ll receive a Progress Report email reminding you to keep working on your website.

• The list goes on…👇

📆 In the dashboard, you can switch between a weekly and monthly view of your activity and filter activity over set periods.

✅ It feels a bit limited at the moment. I would like:

• A day view

• The ability to set custom periods

• More fixed periods

• Perhaps the ability to customise the dashboard

🧠 I’m sure a lot of this is planned for future plugin or Pro versions.

Plugin Settings & To-do List

Currently, there is only one setting: whether the plugin will consider Pages, Posts, or both.

💡I have not tested this with CPTs, but it might be available in a Pro version (if it’s not already available).

➕ To-do Lists (at the time of writing) were buggy in the plugin’s own dashboard (whereas the plugin widgets in the WordPress dashboard worked fine).

I can quickly and easily add an item, but in the plugin’s dashboard:

• Marking an item complete “seemingly“ did nothing (except move it to the bottom of the list).

• To-do items can be deleted but not re-ordered.

Experimenting with Streaks

🤔 After installing FakerPress and adding demo content, Progress Planner detected all the content in terms of word count and density, but it didn’t add to my writing streak (I’m not sure why).

💡 Experimenting with the “Rewrite and Republish” and “Clone” features of the Yoast Duplicate Post plugin was mixed, but it did trigger one new page (of two) towards my writing streak.

🔥 Writing a post or page from scratch seems like the safest bet for keeping that streak going.

Final Thoughts

✅ The plugin has lots of potential, and it would definitely encourage me to write and publish content.

🙌 Progress Planner is very much off to a solid start!

I’ll be intrigued to see the refinements made before the Pro version launches.

I’ve already outlined some changes and requests, but I would also love to see the following:

• Better onboarding.

• Better documentation and videos on the Progress Planner website.

• Some UI in Posts and Pages to encourage writing further.

• The Progress Planner blog posts removed from the plugin dashboard (they are distracting).

• A better activity log with more details.

🤔 It’s unclear what aspects of “maintenance” and “website management” will become part of the plugin, but based on the plugin repository page and website content marketing, it will play a role in the future.

🧪 I will sign up for the weekly emails and do more testing for a future Loop WP issue.

⚡️ Progress Planner doesn’t have a demo, so I made my own that you can check out, {first_name|friend}}.

🚨 If you’re interested in sponsoring the Loop WP Newsletter, this Google Doc has all the details.

All slots are sold out before Christmas, but I am taking bookings for the New Year.

Weekly WordPress News & Tips

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

• Responsive Design - Would Mike Mcalister's WordPress Mobile Settings proposal be good enough for you? (Jamie Marsland)

• Goodbye - So Long WordPress. (Chris Wiegman)

• Leaving WordPress.org - Here’s Why and What It Means for Paid Memberships Pro Users. (Paid Memberships Pro)

• WDesignKit - A creative hub for your WordPress projects. (WP Tuts)

• Huge Milestone - WordPress Community Creates 1,000 Block Themes in 1,000 Days. (WordPress)

• Fluid Typography - If you've used fluid typography in the GeneratePress customizer settings, this generator is solid gold. (Mike Oliver)

• Together is Better - What Can Hosts Do for WordPress? (The WP Minute)

• Jukebox - Miriam Schwab and Oliver Sild on Security Collaboration Between Elementor and Patchstack. (WP Tavern)

• Newsletter Highlight - WP Inspector, New WordPress 6.7 Tools + CommandUI. (Within WordPress)

• IdeasWP - Make money with your plugin idea. A new concept from Brandon Ernst and Ben Townsend. (IdeasWP)

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

👋 Until next time,