WP Weekly 138 - Selling - Spectra Theme, Dev Search Engine, Gutenberg Phase 3

Interesting insights on selling a plugin business and a different marketing route of giving away a premium plugin for free for one year. This issue covers new launches like Spectra One Theme, WP tools from Cloudfest 2023 Hackathon, and updates to the Core WordPress, WooCommerce, and the Gutenberg project.

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• New Launches… While the pro version of the Spectra plugin is yet to launch, its companion Spectra One theme built with full site editing (FSE) features is now available for free in the WordPress directory. Also, ThriveDesk has launched WPPortal for more seamless integration with WordPress for viewing support tickets, history, and overall support communication.
  
  
• Cool WP Tools… check docs_dangit – a search engine for WordPress developers, which was created as the project at the CloudFest hackathon 2023. Also, check WPHackCebola – a free tool that helps find vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins and themes. It is from Codeable experts, a project at the CloudFest 2023 hackathon.
  
  
• New Plugins… Anand Upadhyay from WPVibes has released a new free Frontend Product Editor for WooCommerce plugin that allows quick editing of the basic product data from the front-end interface. While the team at WebFactory Ltd has launched the pro version of the free Login LockDown plugin with 100,000+ active installs.

1. Builder Hosting & Pricing… new features have been added to the Elementor Cloud Hosting with updates like advanced caching, staging environment, and page duplication. Also, from March 29, 2023, WPBakery will have new license plans. In addition to the existing 1 site lifetime license ($59), new plans are: 5 sites license plan for $256 / lifetime and 10 sites license plan for $499 / lifetime.
   
   
2. WP Devs Note… if you use auto-generated code like via ChatGPT in your plugin, make sure it is GPL Compatible for your plugin to be included in the WordPress org plugins directory. Also, the WordPress Developer Blog at the WordPress org website is officially out of beta and launched now – good content for sure!
   
   
3. Next in Gutenberg… planning for phase 3 of the Gutenberg project has started. It will focus on bringing features like real-time collaboration that will allow you to work together in real-time across all block editors, a more visual post revisions interface, admin design, and a library for managing blocks, patterns, styles, and fonts.
   
   
4. Core Updates… WordPress 6.2 Release Candidate 3 is now available for your testing. WordPress 6.2 release is scheduled for release this week on March 28, 2023. Also, WooCommerce 7.6 Beta 1 is now available with improvements to the mini cart block and more.
   
   
5. WP Talkies… Matt Medeiros has published “What’s the problem with Awesome Motive?”. Writing on such a topics is always challenging, and no wonder it got various reactions like here, here, and here from folks in the WordPress ecosystem.

• Win a new website: Participate in Give Back a Thon by GiveWP.
• Free film product website template on Elementor by Templately.
• MailOptin 2.2.57.0 added integration for Restrict Content Pro.
• “Who is WordPress now for?” interesting discussion on Reddit.
• WordCamp Asia 2023, official photos album with 11,434 pics.
• Now you can join the waitlist for Bard, Google’s AI answer!

WordPress Biz: Acquisition & Free Model

Phil Crumm shared an insightful thread on Twitter on why and how the Elementor addon company Exclusive Addons was finally sold for $70k on Flippa. Focussing on acquiring an existing user base, the WPExperts team has acquired a free ‘change wp-admin login’ plugin with over 90,000+ active installs.

The Free Model… Nick Diego is making his plugin Block Visibility free by merging the pro features in the free plugin from the 3.0.0v release as there are no funding issues, and it being a passion project. Also, I was made aware of this interesting offer where you can grab the FooEvents plugin free for 12 months – an interesting marketing move for sure, what say?

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Upcoming Events...

Mar 31, 2023: WordCamp Bogota 2023 in Colombia.
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By
Davinder Singh Kainth
A creative who Loves to Create Online Spaces powered by WordPress.

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