In partnership with
Hi, {{first_name|friend}}. 👋
Welcome to Issue #175 of Loop WP!
Last week, we looked at an AI prompt provided by Paul Charlton to help analyse and improve your website.
This week, I’m having an open discussion about the direction of this newsletter and what it’s like running a newsletter within the WordPress community.
Let’s go! 👇
Find your next winning ad creative in seconds with AI
Most AI tools promise you thousands of ads at the click of a button. But do you really need more ads—or just better ones?
Kojo helps you cut through the noise. We analyze your paid social data to uncover the ideas with the highest chance of success. Then, our AI predicts which concepts will perform best, so you don’t waste budget testing what won’t work.
Instead of drowning in endless variations, Kojo sends your best idea straight to a real human creator who makes it engaging, authentic, and ready to win on social. The entire process takes less than 20 seconds, giving you certainty before you spend and better performance without the waste.
Why gamble on guesswork or settle for AI spam when you can launch ads proven to work, made by people, and backed by data?
The Future of Loop WP
💡 I was going to keep this email for subscribers only, but on reflection, I think it’s healthy to have this discussion and share some of my process in public.
TLDR: This newsletter will be pivoting its focus more towards WooCommerce and AI, but it will still:
Talk about general WordPress and the community (but to a lesser extent).
The WordPress News & Tips will remain, providing a weekly dose of generalist information.
Why The Change?
Last week, I mentioned I might start to pivot the focus of this newsletter to WooCommerce and AI instead of the current topics I cover:
WordPress in general/community.
WordPress deep-dives (themes, plugins, etc.).
WooCommerce.
AI has started featuring a lot more recently.
I ran a poll last week, and whilst feedback was limited, 57% of voters said they would stop reading my newsletter if the focus changed. 🤔
📉 For transparency, the number of poll answers received was too small to be impactful either way, but the votes were from subscribers sharing their honest feedback and taking the time to do it.
(I appreciate you, and I have taken this on board; you have not been ignored, {{first_name|friend}}.)
We’ve been here before, back in Issue 112 of this newsletter, when it was called “WP Wednesdays”, which at that point was composed:
30.2% of my newsletters have been dedicated to WooCommerce.
33.6% of my newsletters have contained both WooCommerce and WordPress content.
19.4% of my newsletters have been just about WordPress.
16.8% is "other" content (community-related, announcements, promotional).
🧠 Those stats from almost two years ago led me to the logical conclusion of shifting my focus to WooCommerce, with WordPress being secondary.
However, just like 57% of respondents now, back then, in Issue 113, I explained that most people did not want me to pivot, but that was two years ago…
Since moving my newsletter from Mailchimp to Beehiiv and rebranding as “Loop WP”, the WooCommerce content I have created has dropped from 30.2% to 12.9%.
(This drop in WooCommerce content wasn’t intentional, but they are also some of the most performant newsletters. 🤔)
Dave Foy said something that stuck with me two years ago, and now I think I will take his advice:
It's your newsletter, you (me) should decide
There’s also more to consider behind this pivot, and if you are considering starting a newsletter about WordPress, it’s worth reading. 👇
I’ve seen lots of newsletters come and go in the 4+ years I’ve been writing this newsletter. In that time and on several occasions, I’ve celebrated some amazing newsletters in the WordPress community.
💪 It’s important to lift each other up in the WordPress Community when we can.
From running this newsletter, I’ve learned a few things that I wanted to share:
Most people don’t want to pay a subscription to read a newsletter about WordPress.
There is a wealth of topics in WordPress (too many, more on this later).
Growing a WordPress newsletter organically is really hard (especially if you are not well-known or don’t have a product).
It takes 2 - 4 hours (sometimes longer) to write these newsletters.
I don’t think there are too many newsletters about WordPress, but there are a lot, and it isn’t easy to stand out as a generalist newsletter. **
I also run an open newsletter; you don’t have to subscribe, and I have an RSS feed.
** There is a lot of noise in the WordPress community in general, and it’s mostly the loudest that are heard (and that’s just not me).
That’s not a criticism of others (it's the way the world is today - very noisy), it’s an observation and also a reflection on my personality (I’m not big at promoting myself).
A Little More On Monetisation And Sponsorships
After moving from Mailchimp to Beehiiv, I’ve monetised this newsletter in a few ways, as I had learned it’s not sustainable to write this newsletter for free.
So far:
Beehiiv Ads (in-newsletter) have only brought $69, and after currency conversion, it’s much less.
Getting sponsors is hard when you are a small newsletter.
Sponsors within the WordPress community have helped sustain this newsletter, and I am incredibly grateful - without them, I would not be writing this newsletter.
If I use my hourly rate, then it costs $300 - $600 per newsletter to produce, and that doesn’t include Beehiiv fees, Stripe fees and bank fees, domain and mailbox costs.
😬 That figure hits hard!
I knew this figure in the back of my mind, but when you see it written down, it’s huge, and because I write a weekly newsletter (with some breaks), let’s take the average (3 hours) time to write:
50 weeks x 3 hours per week = $22,250
🤯 $22,250 per year (not including other costs) to write this newsletter.
I’ve only covered a tenth of those costs this year so far, and sponsorships have declined dramatically over the previous six to eight months, which raises concerns for the future.
✅ Now, {{first_name|friend}}, I don’t necessarily want all my costs covered; otherwise, I would be writing this newsletter full-time, and I don’t want to do that at the moment.
But I definitely need to cover more of my costs over the next six months, and niching down will help me do that (I hope).
Thank You to Everyone
💔 I know some of you won’t be sticking around, although I hope most of you will.
Focusing on a niche within WordPress will allow me to bring more value to my readers, and WooCommerce and AI are things I am very passionate about.
Additionally, I will occasionally still write in more detail about the WordPress Community, products, and services; that part of the newsletter is not going away for now.
That’s it for this week. 👋
Sponsorship Opportunities
🚨 The Google Doc contains all the details if you’re interested in sponsoring the Loop WP Newsletter.
Create How-to Videos in Seconds with AI
Stop wasting time on repetitive explanations. Guidde’s AI creates stunning video guides in seconds—11x faster.
Turn boring docs into visual masterpieces
Save hours with AI-powered automation
Share or embed your guide anywhere
How it works: Click capture on the browser extension, and Guidde auto-generates step-by-step video guides with visuals, voiceover, and a call to action.
Classifieds
Managed WordPress Hosting redefined. Dynamic autoscaling with high-frequency CPUs & CDN pre-cache for always-fast performance. Easy migration, any time.
Kinsta, a reliable hosting partner for your WordPress sites. Everything you need: edge caching, CDN, WAF, 24/7 support, free migrations and much more.
Weekly WordPress News & Tips
This week's excellent and insightful WordPress News & Tips:
Patchstack Priority - Smarter Vulnerability Scanning and Reporting in Solid Security. (Solid WP)
Documentation Team Challenges - Reduced Role in WordPress Release Squads. (The Repository)
Airo Exits Beta - Build professional WordPress websites in minutes with GoDaddy’s Airo® Site Designer. (GoDaddy)
WooCommerce 10.2 - Pre-release updates (WooCommerce)
Expanded Talk - Dealing With Aggressive Sales Tactics in WordPress. (Weston Ruter)
New Features - Introducing Overlay Panels and Conditions in GenerateBlocks Pro 2.3. (GenerateBlocks Pro)
Performance - I Created The Course I Wish Existed 10 Years Ago. (Remkus de Vries)
New Format - WordCamp Gdynia Goes Bilingual, Promising International Speakers, Parties, and a Pirate Ship. (The Repository)
Interactivity API - Building a light/dark toggle. (WordPress)
Search Console Data Drop - Google Search Tests Dropping 100 Search Results Parameter. (Search Engine Roundtable)
😎 Very Cool! - An MCP tool to generate shareable cart links from a Woo store (using the WordPress Abilities API and MCP Adaptor). (Brian Coords)
New Launch! - Diagnose WordPress performance issues in seconds, not hours. (Debug Hawk)
January - June 2025 - Transparency Report Update. (Automattic)
Hosting Shakeup? - WordPress Hosting Team Launches Annual Survey, Promises to Publish Results. (The Repository)
Interview - How AI is helping WPML translate your WordPress website faster and cheaper. (WP Builds)
FluentCart Integrations - Finally, the Fluent Ecosystem Comes Together! (WPTuts)
AI Visibility - The complete guide for SEOs, Marketers, and Site Owners. (Ahrefs)
Smooth Collaboration - Announcing the Core Program Team. (WordPress)
🎶 You Know Me! - Are you down with MCP? (Brian Coords)
Court Updates - Court Dismisses Antitrust and Extortion Claims in WP Engine v Automattic, Allows Other Counts to Proceed. (The Repository)
If you have a question about this email or WordPress, please reply, and I will respond as soon as possible.
👋 Until next time,
WooCommerce is a registered trademark of Automattic Inc. This image uses the WooCommerce logo for illustrative purposes only and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Automattic.