WordPress Performance Guides and Reviews
WordPress security is becoming a much bigger issue nowadays because of its popularity. So many sites are using WordPress, with many developers building apps, themes, and extensions for it. But unfortunately this also makes it a common target for hackers. But on the flip side, there are tons of documentation and support for WordPress and… Read more EASY WordPress Security Tips WITHOUT Slowing Performance
Swift Performance easily beats WP Rocket for me. (UPDATED 2019) It’s faster, just as easy to use (although requiring a few extra clicks to setup), has more features, and performs better on a wider range of servers. WP Rocket is no slouch, it was the WordPress caching champion for several years! Let’s do some deeper… Read more Swift Performance vs WP Rocket – WordPress Cache Plugin Comparison
Honest advice from an experienced user in both WooCommerce (with WordPress) and Shopify platform. They’re both fantastic ecommerce platforms with incredible designs and features. Both are popular for all users, beginners, experts, and even large corporations. It used to be that Shopify was considered the “expensive/paid/pro” option and WordPress/WooCommerce was the “cheap/free/open-source/DIY” option…but a lot has… Read more WooCommerce (WordPress) vs Shopify – Ecommerce Store Comparison (2018)
I review different WordPress backup plugins and the many nuances I noticed about each one. There are numerous features to consider and many ways to go about it. I go over several options explaining why I like (or don’t like) each one.
My honest thoughts on Cloudways managed hosting services! Cloudways is a premium alternative to traditional VPS or cloud hosting providers and I would say competes directly with Runcloud and Serverpilot. They’re a new-ish hosting company getting popular very quickly by both technical as well as non-technical users. Beautiful service, easy to use, with great support… Read more Cloudways Managed Hosting Review (2018)
I’ve given examples for both “www” and also “without www”. I gave neutral code that works with any site. If you want, you could also replace “%{HTTP_HOST}%” with your domain name. I only have rewrites for Apache HTaccess right now. Add this code above the #BEGIN WordPress line in your htaccess.
OVER 40+ WordPress cache plugins reviewed, with test scores and personal notes! I tested every single WordPress cache plugin I could find. (And yes, I have no life!) I’m a total speed addict and love tweaking my sites for the absolute best page load times. Q: Why does website speed matter so much? A: It… Read more Best WordPress Cache Plugins Review – UPDATED 2019
Load Google Analytics faster on WordPress! If you’ve ever been addicted to speed-testing your site on Pingdom/GTmetrix, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. That GA JS request lags your site costing you an extra 100ms-2seconds of load time. Below are my favorite methods to prevent the Google Analytics JS from slowing down your… Read more Fastest ways to load Google Analytics JS on WordPress
My favorite WordPress plugins (and also HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by experienced WordPress developers). All these plugins are clean-coded, super-fast, and best in class. I’ve also included thoughts on others that I don’t like…just so you have some context.
All the WordPress webhosting companies I’ve personally tried or heard about from people I trust! My compared criteria are: SPEED, reliability (up-time), FEATURES (easy to make changes, add SSL?), and PRICING (not crazy expensive). Customer service is not as important for me since I can do 99% of things myself. I’ve tested a handful of… Read more Best WordPress Hosting Reviews (UPDATED 2019)
A list of my favorite pagebuilders and why. I also include a list of my non-favorites for comparison reasons. I compare them on features, ease-of-use, speed, clean output code, and compatibility.
DAMN!!!! DAMN DAMN DAMN! I feel embarrassed to say this but gotta give credit where it’s due: SWIFT PERFORMANCE LITE PLUGIN is the motherf**ken magic wand of the WordPress speed-up universe! I’m embarrassed because I’ve made it my personal mission to stay on the cutting edge of WordPress speed-related optimizations/development and for whatever reason have… Read more Swift Performance Lite – WordPress Cache Speed Plugin REVIEW
Ahhh, they keep making WordPress themes more and more complicated! Which one should you choose and which one is the best?!!! What features do you need and what marketing gimmicks should you avoid? There are actually easy ways to tell which themes are good and why.
I can’t believe I’ve put up with months of the annoying Microsoft Windows update restarting, failing, and recovering my windows installation. An endless cycle that kept harassing me for an upgrade. I’ve run into numerous error messages like these below: 0xC1900101 0x30018 the installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with an error during SYSPREP operation… Read more SIMPLE FIX – Windows 10 Creators Fall Update 1709 Failed to Install Error Code 0xC1900101 0xc1900107 0xc1900208 0x30018
Having a strong brand is the only way to make money over the longterm, IMO. Having a brand allows you to sell anything you want at any price you want. Those without a brand are gonna be selling the same generic crap as everyone else and racing to the bottom with discount pricing. The worst… Read more Business Branding for the Longterm
Just my 2 cents as a long-time professional in design, marketing, branding. Logo design is really tough when you first start out because you want so badly to design something people like. And people will say they like this and that but in reality, they only like a new logo if it looks familiar to… Read more How Unique Should Your Logo Design Be?
Here’s the chat script from a friend asking me this…. FRIEND Hey! have you ever done a free consultation on your website? debating on if I should put that or not on my new website as a call to action i have people signing up for my newsletter. basically so I can get their email.… Read more Should you offer FREE CONSULTATIONS on your website?
Shared hosting is back! I bought into SiteGround as a total skeptic. I weaned myself off of shared hosting 8 years ago. But I came back because I heard great things and figured it was a lot easier to have a nice $12/month shared hosting plan with cPanel, staging, SSL, and all the little goodies… Read more SiteGround Webhosting Review – UPDATED 2018
My unofficial guide to speeding up WordPress with SWIFT Performance cache plugin! (Updated March 1, 2019) The SWIFT Performance cache plugin was something I was really excited about because it made such a difference on my sites. I was previously cycling between 3 or 4 different cache plugins throughout various sites but can now replace… Read more Swift Performance WordPress Cache Plugin – UNOFFICIAL GUIDE
Having quality content and at least 2 dozen articles is a good start. 50 is much better. And then if you’re in a broad category, do social media so it can go viral. If you’re in a niche, do SEO and target search engine traffic.
My advice for bloggers trying to establish their own “voice”: One of the best ways I’ve developed my own voice is to forget about grammar. Just talk out loud, and write down your words exactly the way you talk. Forget about that punctuation crap. You don’t need it. As long as people understand you and… Read more How to Establish Your Own Voice – BLOGGING TIPS
I made a long explanation about it a long time ago but can’t remember everything I said. Basically, BackupWordpress has all the features I need for free and doesn’t nag me at all like UpDraft. Off the top of my head, Updraft: Doesn’t back up the entire root directory unless you pay for premium… Read more WordPress Backup Plugin Review – BackupWordPress vs Updraft
What managed VPS does is give you a pre-tuned hosting environment that fits most sites out there (with varying levels of aggressive caching enabled). If you’re coming from shared hosting, any VPS will be a noticeable performance gain to you. But where managed VPS can be a turn-off is the price. You might pay upwards of… Read more Managed VPS vs Unmanaged VPS
I’ve studied, read up and compared many different membership plugins. I have personally tried MemberPress, MemberMouse, and DAP (still using MemberPress and DAP currently). Here is a basic summary of why I think MemberPress is best. For those wondering about my membership site. I basically sell access to 3rd-party hosted videos, downloadable videos & ebooks,… Read more MemberPress vs MemberMouse vs DAP – WordPress Membership Plugins Review (2018)
Jump on forums and start helping a bunch of people for free (the harder the task, the better), and at some point someone will hire you to handle their project for them.
99designs is a company that’s been around for many years now. They were toted as a cheap way to get many design ideas for your business and to get up and running with a unique/creative logo relatively fast. Some people saw it as a PRO for all since clients get a good design for cheap… Read more 99designs Graphics Design Contest Review
I’ve been saying this for a long time and feel it applies especially for small business: NEVER EVER EVER PROMOTE DISCOUNTS! If you need something to promote, promote FEATURES (or BENEFITS) but never promote discounts! Giving discounts in subtle manners that don’t piss of customers that paid full price is ok, but DO NOT PROMOTE… Read more Never Promote Discounts! (Pricing Strategy)
Blogging is far superior to video IMO. Ranks better, can be edited, improved, SEO’ed, not at whim to Youtube/Facebook algorithm, can be consumed when audio is not allowed. Can be skimmable. You develop trust in a different way with writing than you would with video.
I keep hearing this debate over and over. Most of them are back-and-forth arguments about backwards-compatibility, accessibility, developer workflow, sharpness, colors, and other mostly developer-related issues. This happens when you compare apples to oranges. Most web-masters care about speed first, customization second, browser-compatibility/accessibility last. So I’ve simplified it to this:
How to make WPML run faster! (instead of slow) Is WPML slowing your site to a crawl? (10-20s load times?) I hear complaints about WPML slowing down sites almost every other day. And for the most part, there’s truth to that. ANY multi-lingual plugin, not just WPML will slow down your site. But many people… Read more WPML Speed Optimization Tips
Stay active in some communities (websites, forums, Facebook, Slack, etc). Ask for lots of help or chime in with insightful answers. As time passes, you’ll get clients you can’t handle and pass them onto the people you met online. And they might do likewise for you. Be friendly and chatty on here and you can’t… Read more How to Network (Meet People) Online – Entrepreneurs
Don’t know which to decide? Facebook page has a hierarchy making your posts more important than others. It’s great for one speaker on the mic with everyone else participating as listener or commentator…like hero + fans. Facebook group makes admin and users almost same level. Where every person’s post gets the same priority. Great for… Read more Facebook PAGE vs Facebook GROUP
I can’t lay down everything I know in one comment but my advice is to have a ton of content that you write from your own head, from your own knowledge/experience. Too many people SEO by copying existing content and it’s hard to outrank competitors that way. When YOU write the first article, pen the… Read more The NUMBER ONE SEO Tip – create the keyword, don’t copy!
I feel like engaged Twitter users are a very selective bunch, with many of them being either Twitter marketers or people with A LOT of time on their hands and just like talking…neither of which are likely to be customers. It’s good for building short-term PR at best, IMO. You’re better off dealing with Facebook… Read more Twitter is NOT a Good Marketing Platform
I like the idea of both. FB ads are a great way to snipe out your target demographic with laser precision quickly and even relatively cheaply if you know what you’re doing. SEO is a great way to get anybody and everyone over the long term. I used to be only about SEO since I’ve… Read more SEO vs Facebook Ads
Somebody asked today: Does anyone know of any formal studies that go into the ‘mental block’ between paying $97 and $100? As copywriters, there are often psychology principles we can point to and say, this works because of the (social proof, authority, fear of loss…) concept. Interested to see if there is a particular term… Read more Pricing Psychology – $95 vs $97 vs $99 vs $100
Does your site have to be the most fancy thing to make money? To what degree should you stress over your website’s design before going live? Design DOES matter, not because of how pretty it needs to look but what it communicates to your reader. Ugly, but functional, is actually not ugly at all. All… Read more How Important Is Your Website Design?
Honestly…there are only 3 good ones (ShortPixel, WP Compress, and Imagify). The rest are junk to me. Either poor compression quality, lack of features, hard to use, or don’t offer anything unique that these 3 already do.
Honest SiteGround review after having tried several VPS hosts as well as dozens of regular shared hosting companies. In about 2010, I moved to VPS and never looked back since I run a dozen serious websites with thousands of hits/day. I was very happy with Linode and never thought to go back to shared hosting. Why… Read more SiteGround WebHosting Review – UPDATED 2017
I’ve written probably 300-400 pieces (about 20% of them 10,000-40,000 words) in the past 10 years with thousands of social shares across them. I’ve got some tough answers but I’ve found them to be most true. The first part is you have to like writing. If it’s not fun to you, if it sounds… Read more How to Find Writing Consistency and Motivation for Blogging