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On software development, web technology, and building for the web.

3 Apr 2018

Torque Toons: American Gutenberg Meme

The American Chopper meme is so popular these days that it was only a matter of time before WordPressers got in on it. Doc Pop Doctor Popular is an artist and musician living in San Francisco. As a full disclaimer, he is neither a doctor nor popular. The post Torque Toons: American Gutenberg Meme appeared …

Community & EventsGutenbergInterviews & Features

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2 Apr 2018

A Beginner’s Guide to Content Syndication

If you’re frequently publishing content on your ‘dev blog’ or elsewhere on your site, you’ll obviously want it to reach as many people as possible. This is possible through ‘syndication’ – essentially, getting your content onto multiple blogs at once. Content marketing can positively impact the number of leads you get, so automating the process …

Development

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2 Apr 2018

Torque Toons: GDPR TLDR

The GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, is coming May 25th. It’s similar to the European Cookie Law, but a lot more strict and specific on what data sites can collect from users. In spite of many recent news stories about big companies mining our data, I still find myself oddly dreading designing a site post-GDPR. …

Community & EventsSecurity & PrivacyInterviews & Features

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30 Mar 2018

Building an Email List in WordPress – What Business Rookies Need to Know

Attracting customers and business associates is one of the crucial aspects of every new business enterprise. If you’ve just set your foot onto the business path, it’s vital to know that you need to generate new leads in a personal manner. And the most personal feature used by every entrepreneur is the email service. Therefore, …

Tutorials & Guides

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29 Mar 2018

6 Plugins to Help Increase Your Email Subscribers

While most bloggers think of building an email list as a Herculean task, it can really be a simple process if you have the right tools at your disposal. Thankfully, there are plenty of plugins you can use to easily grow your email list. We hand-picked a few of the best WordPress plugins you can …

Tutorials & GuidesPlugins

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28 Mar 2018

Advanced OOP For WordPress: Customizing REST API Endpoints To Improve WordPress Search

I’ve written a lot about object-oriented PHP and the WordPress REST API for Torque over the past few years. I’ve also touched on using Composer for dependency management and to provide an autoloader, as well as covered unit testing. The basic message of everything I’ve written is that by applying the established best practices of …

Development

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28 Mar 2018

The 5 Best Related Posts Plugins For WordPress To Engage Your Visitors

You probably spend a ton of time and effort trying to get more visitors to your WordPress site. But despite all that hard work, a good chunk of those visitors bounce away, perhaps never to return. That’s why, beyond simply getting visitors to your site, you need to do everything possible to keep them engaged …

PluginsInterviews & Features

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27 Mar 2018

Doc Pop’s News Drop: Are Developers Responsible When a Plugin Breaks a Site?

Doc’s WordPress News Drop is a weekly report on the most pressing WordPress news. When the news drops, I will pick it up and deliver it right to you. There’s a great conversation on r/Wordpress (lowercasing is their theirs) about what happens when a plugin update breaks a clients site. Is it the developers job …

Marketing & BusinessPluginsWordPress

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27 Mar 2018

The Facebook Algorithm Change 2018: What it Means for Your Marketing

We are in for yet another Facebook algorithm change. When Mark Zuckerberg announced that the platform would start prioritizing news feed content differently, it didn’t go down too well with marketers. Especially since he explicitly stated that “you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media” in favor of “meaningful conversations.” What …

Tutorials & GuidesVirtual Assistants

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26 Mar 2018

How to Optimize Your Content For Smaller Screens

Mobile device users have been in their billions for a number of years now (with the number steadily rising). In fact, over half of internet users now browse the web primarily via their devices. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that the content you create for your website can be easily viewed on smaller screens. Developing for …

Development

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22 Mar 2018

7 Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Blog

It seems like everyone has a blog these days. If you don’t, you’re probably wondering what all of the fuss is about. Businesses of all sizes start blogs because they offer a wealth of practical advantages that ultimately boost those businesses. If you’re looking for reasons to jump on the blog train, there’s no shortage …

Tutorials & GuidesVirtual Assistants

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22 Mar 2018

Top 10 Tips To Fix Most Common WordPress Security Issues

Three out of every four WordPress websites are vulnerable to attacks. If your site is hacked, it will not only cost you in terms of restoring the system back to a safe level, but it will also damage your reputation and affect your search engine ranking. But if you follow some best practices you can …

Development

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