I Built a Fundraising Thermometer in WordPress (in Just 10 Minutes)

Visitors decide whether or not to donate in seconds. If they can see that others are already contributing and the goal is within reach, they’re far more likely to take action. A fundraising thermometer can help with that. It turns your campaign into something people can see and connect with, generating excitement as the donation […]
Matt: D’Angelo & Diane
Just last night I was re-watching Annie Hall to remember and honor Diane Keaton, and now the news that D’Angelo had passed. I’m writing this listening to Voodoo, one of the great albums of all time. That CD in my beater car in Houston was on constant rotation, the richness of the tracks— it’s an […]
Open Channels FM: Why Focus Matters When Building a Successful WordPress Plugin Business
Learn the importance of focus in scaling a WordPress plugin, advocating for prioritizing core products over numerous side projects to achieve long-term success.
Open Channels FM: How Great Storytelling Builds Brand Loyalty and Differentiates Products
In this episode, Rae and Adam dig into why storytelling is key for brands to shine in WordPress, sharing tips on connection, differentiation, and authentic messaging.
Matt: Nanochat & MCP
Probably the most interesting thing on the internet today is Andrej Karpathy’s nanochat, “a minimal, from scratch, full-stack training/inference pipeline of a simple ChatGPT clone in a single, dependency-minimal codebase.” 8,000 lines of beautiful code, as Simon Willison notes. If you want to understand how LLMs work, study this. Andrej is a code poet. In […]
How I Turned My WordPress.org Reviews Into Powerful Social Proof

While developing my own WordPress plugins, I realized that earning people’s trust was often harder than building the product itself. You can have great features and reliable support, but if someone hasn’t heard of you before, they will still hesitate to click “Install” or “Buy.” That’s why I recommend showing real WordPress.org reviews and ratings […]
Matt: Last Ball
If you appreciate golf at all, the story of how Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach without knowing he was down to his last golf ball because of arcane rules is pretty interesting.
Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Changelog #122 – Gutenberg 21.8 and WordPress 6.9
In episode 122 of the GT Changelog podcast, host Birgit Pauli-Haack is joined by Beth Soderbergh, CEO of bethink Studio, to discuss the latest updates in Gutenberg 21.8 and WordPress 6.9. The conversation kicks off with reminiscing about past WordCamp experiences and transitions into a deep dive on block themes, evolving design tools, and the […]
Matt: In Canada
I’ve been trying to find time in my calendar to attend more WordCamps as I love meeting WordPressers all over the world. The stars aligned, and I’ll be swinging by WordCamp Canada next week. They’ve put together an amazing program, including open web pioneer and inventor Dave Winer, so I’m looking forward to checking out […]
Matt: Twitter Hacked
Sorry everybody, my @photomatt on Twitter has been hacked, I’m trying to regain account access, but it is not currently in my control. Update: Thank you to the fine teams at X/Twitter and Nikita Bier, my account has been recovered. Just for future reference, I will never promote cryptocurrencies or similar investments. If you see […]