WP Weekly 208 - Plugin Sales - Bare Metal Hosting, Woo Blueprint, WP + Multiple AI

It seems WordPress plugin sales are seeing a downtrend, or are we waiting for the Black Friday burst? Many new plugins were released this week: Gravity Connect, Local Pricing, Woo Bday field, and more. Also, new WordPress services for sandbox WordPress installs and WP Chat with AI powers.

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• New WP Install Service… the team at Bit Apps has launched toWP service, allowing you to setup a test WordPress install quickly. For now, this service is free and website remain alive for seven days.
  
  
• New WP AI Chat… James LePage has launched the WP .Chat AI powered service for your WordPress questions. It uses Claude 3.5, Gemini 1.5, and GPT 4o models, and depending on the request, a combination of base models is used for fine tuned answers.
  
  
• Bare Metal Hosting… Liquid Web has introduced Bare Metal Server Hosting, a fully self managed environment that enables users to manage their hosting infrastructure for specific needs.
  
  
• Now Powered by WordPress… the WordPress VIP platform now powers the all new The Onion website, shared (LinkedIn) by Nick Gernert. Also, Lawrence Ladomery looked into local news landscape changes and how WordPress can fit into the CMS of choice.
  
  

New Plugins: Connect, Local Pricing, Copy Link, Bday

New Gravity Connect… no need rely on different third party services to connect Gravity Forms with platforms like Notion, OpenAI, and Google Sheets. The all new Gravity Connect plugin from Gravity Wiz promises a one stop connection solution for Gravity Forms users.

Local Currency Pricing… the team at Paid Memberships Pro has released Local Pricing Addon, which dynamically converts pricing and displays it in the visitor’s local currency, detected by IP address and geolocation.

Copy Link for BuddyBoss… Deepak Gupta from AcrossWP has released a free Copy Link for BuddyBoss addon that adds a ‘Copy Link’ button under the ‘More’ option to easily copy direct links to any activity or comment.

Birthday for WooCommerce… Sanjeev Aryal at Mini Plugins has released a free Birthday for WooCommerce addon, which adds a birthday field to the checkout page, my account page, and user profile page for customers to enter their birth date while placing an order.

1. Code Snippets New Plans… the team at Code Snippets has introduced new pricing plans that offer more websites in each plan. Like Advanced plan now for 10 sites from 2 sites and Professional plan for 100 sites from 6 sites.
   
   
2. Plugin Card + EDD Support… Ronald Huereca has added EDD support (Easy Digital Downloads) in Plugin Info Card 5.2v update. Now also allows you to set a default banner and icon image.
   
   
3. Gravity Form Revisions… if you ever wanted to restore a Gravity Form to an older state, then the new Gravity Revisions feature should come in handy to track all changes being made to a form while building.
   
   
4. Upcoming Woo Blueprint… a tool for exporting and importing WooCommerce settings is being developed and called Woo Blueprint. You can share your feedback and help shape the development of this tool for WooCommerce users.
   
   
5. WordCamp US Schedule… is now available starting with Contributor Day on Sep 17, 2024, followed by three days of sessions with Showcase Day on Sep 18, 2024, and sessions on Sep 19 – 20, 2024.
   
   
6. Suggest a Speaker / Topic… the invited speakers program is coming back for WordCamp Asia 2025 event. You can suggest a speaker or suggest a topic for this event – have your say!
   
   
7. State of the Word Tickets… State of the Word event this year will be held in Tokyo, Japan, on December 16, 2024. You can request a ticket to be one of the 300 members attending in person.
   
   
8. WP Milestones… Jeff Starr, creator of WP plugins and content, is celebrating 20 years of ‘Perishable Press’ brand in the online world. Elliot Sowersby shared (Links X) about the Simple Cloudflare Turnstile plugin reaching the 50,000+ active installs milestone.
   
   

Builders & Blocks: Oxygen, WPBakery, Otter Blocks

Oxygen Updates… version 4.9 of Oxygen builder is now available with new right-click context menu for easy access to features. Also, new options added to the Advanced Query builder.

WPBakery Updates… version 7.9 has added a new color picker with color presets, display of the most used elements in the ‘Add Element’ window, and the ability to copy AI content or code anywhere.

New Block Templates… the free version of Otter Blocks 3.0v has added new full page templates and timeline block. The Pro version has added a new modal block and Woocommerce visibility conditions.

Quick Bits

• New: Gravity Forms has launched its official MailerLite Addon.
• MemberPress with new Assignments and Gradebook features.
• Analyzed: 340+ Opinions on the Block Editor, what do you think?
• Dev’s Guide: Using SVN for the WordPress Plugin Development.
• Jamie is joining Automattic, as Head of WordPress Org YouTube.
• Kevin Geary’s Dear WordPress video & upcoming EtchWP tool.
• Note: WordPress 6.6.2 will be released on September 10, 2024.
• Me talking about The WP Weekly secret sauce with Rob Cairns!
  
  

Digging Reasons: Declining Plugin Sales

Katie Keith from Barn2 Plugins shared (Links X), WordPress product sales are declining because “Google is prioritizing bigger sites more than before”. Also, “It’s particularly frustrating that there’s a cloned version of the WordPress Org repository on WordPress Com”.

Paul added (Links X), “This is probably one reason more plugin developers are contacting YouTube Content Creators who want to gain product exposure”.

New: Astra, FluentBoards, Adminify, Heroic KB

Astra Easy Styling… Astra theme 4.8v update has introduced Astra Style Guide interface, which allows users to access settings for any part of the website, like buttons, logo, colors, typography, and more.

FluentBoards… 1.22v has added the ability to import or export any of your FluentBoards. This update has also added the ability to mention and tag your teammates in the comment section so no conversation goes unnoticed.

WP Adminify… 4.0v is a significant update with Bricks Builder support for admin pages, the option to disable Gutenberg for Block Editor, disable embeds option, and removal of frontend scripts.

Customer Support + Forms… Heroic KB has introduced Formidable Forms integration, which suggests knowledge base articles to customers submitting support tickets through a Formidable Form.

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Upcoming Events

The WP Awards 2024: Nominations & Sponsorships is open.

August 30, 2024: WordCamp Bogotá 2024 in Colombia.
September 17, 2024: WordCamp US 2024 in Portland, Oregon.
October 09, 2024: WordPress Accessibility Day 2024, online event.

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By
Davinder Singh Kainth
A creative who Loves to Create Online Spaces powered by WordPress.

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