WPBeginner Spotlight 16: WordPress Privacy Tools, New AI Block Builder, and Smarter Plugin Updates
We’re back with the September 2025 edition of WPBeginner Spotlight: our monthly roundup of WordPress news, plugin updates, and community highlights. This issue is packed with major product releases, new AI tools, and insights from WordCamp US 2025 in Portland. Among the most significant updates are stronger privacy controls in WPConsent and new automation options […]
Matt: Om 59
I want to dedicate my blog post today to my dear friend and brother, Om Malik, whose birthday it is. Om is a multi-hyphenate, but at his core, he’s a writer, someone who looks at the world and parses it down for others, a seeker who appreciates the spark of creation before most others. Om […]
How I Accept Bacs Direct Debit Payments in WordPress
Running an online business means every abandoned cart hurts. My friend learned this the hard way when his anime subscription service started getting interest from UK customers who kept leaving without buying. 😟 The culprit? He wasn’t offering Bacs Direct Debit, which is a payment method that many UK customers prefer for recurring payments. We spent […]
Matt: Craft vs Slop
In an age where AI can generate an infinite amount of stuff, what matters? Some of the most interesting writing I’ve read on this comes from Will Manidis, who makes it biblical and says that Craft is the Antidote to Slop: From Genesis, man enters not a paradise without labor but a world of intentional […]
Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog 121—Gutenberg 21.6 and 21.7, Block Theme Development, and Block Themes
In Episode 121 of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, Birgit Pauli-Haack and Anne Katzeff dive into Gutenberg 21.6 and 21.7, touching on theme development, block themes, Figma workflows, Playground blueprints, and upcoming WordPress 6.9 features. They discuss enhancements to data views, grid layouts, the new accordion block, command palette improvements, block-level commenting for collaboration, accessibility updates, […]
Matt: Saturday Shares
A few links for you: From Kirschblütenboogie to Khruangbin (from Houston!), here’s a Saturday chill Spotify playlist I made for you to have good vibes this weekend. Perfect for sunsets. Hat tip: Daniel Gruneberg who first introduced me to Hermanos Gutiérrez. Open Infrastructure is Not Free: A Joint Statement on Sustainable Stewardship. “Billion-dollar ecosystems cannot […]
Gutenberg Times: WordPress 6.9 is coming, moar plugins, Query block and fonts—Weekend Edition 342
Hi there, I send you greetings from Gdynia, a polish port city on the East Sea, with some pirate roots, maybe. My only clues are pirate theme of the WordCamp Gdynia, with the Wapuu, the harbor cruise on a pirate ship, and the branding assets of the WordCamp. For one of my slides, I had […]
Matt: Five Publications I’d Love on WordPress
When WordPress started in 2003, I never dreamed it would power over 40% of websites, nine times the number two CMS, but I wrote on a notecard a list of five publications I admired and respected so much I wanted them to run on WP someday. In the interest of sharing your dreams to help […]
How to Connect Amazon FBA (MCF) to WooCommerce
Many WooCommerce store owners face the same challenge. They love running their own online stores but find it hard to match the fast, reliable shipping that Amazon customers now expect. That’s where Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) comes in. It allows you to use Amazon’s fulfillment centers to ship orders from your WooCommerce store. This gives […]
Matt: Harry Mack
I love the culture of freestyle rap, it’s so inspiring to see how people can create such rich poetry riddled with allusions and puns on command. Last week I got to meet Harry Mack and see him improvise live and it totally makes sense that he has a jazz drums background. If you’re not familiar […]