Full Transcript for 449. Is It Time to Leave WordPress?

definitely listen on, 00:02:04.094 --> 00:02:07.215 And I will give you some suggestions of what you might want to do 00:02:07.215 --> 00:02:08.335 instead of WordPress. 00:02:08.335 --> 00:02:10.574 Or if you're just starting out and trying to decide between 00:02:10.574 --> 00:02:13.375 WordPress or something else, this will help guide you. 00:02:13.455 --> 00:02:16.655 And if you want to know what I will be doing as I leave WordPress 00:02:16.655 --> 00:02:19.530 and want follow along with that journey, then I'll tell you where 00:02:19.530 --> 00:02:20.810 you can go to do that. 00:02:20.969 --> 00:02:24.490 And before I get into sharing some thoughts to help you decide 00:02:24.490 --> 00:02:27.210 whether it's time to leave WordPress, quick disclosure. 00:02:27.450 --> 00:02:31.050 Many of the things that I mentioned in this episode, tools, 00:02:31.050 --> 00:02:34.534 plugins, themes, such, I have affiliate relationships with them. 00:02:34.615 --> 00:02:38.534 I am not currently sponsored simply to talk about anything. 00:02:38.614 --> 00:02:42.055 But if you purchase something through 1 of my links, it's likely 00:02:42.055 --> 00:02:43.814 I will get a commission from it. 00:02:43.814 --> 00:02:46.854 But I recommend things I truly believe in regardless of earnings. 00:02:47.150 --> 00:02:50.110 And I do still truly believe in WordPress. 00:02:50.349 --> 00:02:52.270 I've just decided it's not right for me. 00:02:52.270 --> 00:02:54.910 And whether it's right for you, that's for you to decide. 00:02:54.990 --> 00:02:56.590 And maybe this episode will help. 00:02:56.590 --> 00:02:59.150 So you can follow along in the notes for this episode, a simple 00:02:59.150 --> 00:03:00.189 tap or swipe away. 00:03:00.189 --> 00:03:04.055 Look at the chapters powered by podchapters.com, my own product. 00:03:04.055 --> 00:03:05.254 I'd love for you to try it. 00:03:05.254 --> 00:03:10.375 Or you can go to the website at the audacitytopodcast.com/ leave 00:03:10.375 --> 00:03:11.254 WordPress. 00:03:11.574 --> 00:03:15.014 Number 1, and this is a bit foundational to several of the other 00:03:15.014 --> 00:03:16.215 reasons I'm going to share with you. 00:03:16.409 --> 00:03:19.450 WordPress uses outdated technologies. 00:03:19.849 --> 00:03:23.770 WordPress as itself has certainly modernized over the years, but 00:03:23.770 --> 00:03:28.490 the core of WordPress depends on PHP, which is a server side 00:03:28.490 --> 00:03:32.294 programming language. Thankfully, you don't need to know PHP. 00:03:32.294 --> 00:03:35.175 You don't even have to know it exists for you to have a great 00:03:35.175 --> 00:03:41.655 website built on WordPress. But PHP is a bit old of a technology. 00:03:41.655 --> 00:03:44.935 Certainly, it's been updated over the years, and we're in the PHP 00:03:44.935 --> 00:03:47.150 version 8 era right now. 00:03:47.229 --> 00:03:50.909 Eventually, we'll be in PHP 9 and beyond, and it's getting 00:03:50.909 --> 00:03:53.870 better,

but it is a bit dated. 00:03:53.870 --> 00:03:58.510 There are better ways of doing things besides using PHP. 00:03:58.590 --> 00:04:04.265 Sometimes I wonder if because WordPress now runs 40% of the web, 00:04:04.585 --> 00:04:09.145 I wonder if that's part of what's keeping PHP alive because 40% 00:04:09.145 --> 00:04:13.784 of the web, at least, depends on it, through WordPress. 00:04:14.210 --> 00:04:19.089 But PHP aside, WordPress also has other approaches that are quite 00:04:19.089 --> 00:04:19.970 outdated. 00:04:20.129 --> 00:04:24.370 Do you realize that we're now at WordPress 7.1 at the time of 00:04:24.370 --> 00:04:25.410 this recording? 00:04:25.569 --> 00:04:31.155 And it's in the year of our lord 2026, And WordPress still does 00:04:31.155 --> 00:04:36.035 not have something as simple as a native dark mode. Why? 00:04:36.275 --> 00:04:40.595 Do all the developers who work on WordPress love being blinded by 00:04:40.595 --> 00:04:44.160 the user interface? Why isn't there a native dark mode? 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:47.040 And I'm not talking about what your visitors see on the public 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:49.759 side of your website, because that depends on your theme. 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:52.160 And different themes might have light modes and dark modes and 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:54.319 automatic switching and stuff. That's fine. 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:57.199 And yes, there are plugins out there that can add this stuff to 00:04:57.199 --> 00:04:57.279 it. 00:04:57.544 --> 00:05:01.305 But the admin dashboard looks essentially the same for everyone. 00:05:01.464 --> 00:05:05.225 And WordPress 7 introduced a slight redesign, which makes things 00:05:05.225 --> 00:05:08.584 look better, increases the contrast, and improves the colors in 00:05:08.584 --> 00:05:11.225 it. But that's just a little bit of a facelift. 00:05:11.225 --> 00:05:12.425 Why isn't there dark mode? 00:05:12.709 --> 00:05:16.149 It's been so long that dark mode has been commonplace in 00:05:16.149 --> 00:05:18.790 operating systems and apps and websites. 00:05:18.949 --> 00:05:22.310 Why doesn't WordPress support it? I don't know. 00:05:22.389 --> 00:05:26.389 And when I ask this in some deep WordPress community, the answer 00:05:26.389 --> 00:05:30.404 was basically like, well, we accept poll requests, which is their 00:05:30.404 --> 00:05:33.285 basic way of saying, you go code it yourself and you submit your 00:05:33.285 --> 00:05:34.165 code to us. 00:05:34.245 --> 00:05:38.004 Why don't they support dark mode natively with WordPress by now? 00:05:38.004 --> 00:05:42.819 That's just a tiny thing, but it is, I think, indicative of the 00:05:42.819 --> 00:05:45.940 archaic approaches to managing and running WordPress. 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:49.860 An even geekier thing is the version control behind WordPress and 00:05:49.860 --> 00:05:53.300 the WordPress ecosystem of the plugins and the themes that you 00:05:53.300 --> 00:05:56.340 can get through the official repository on wordpress.org. 00:05:56.564 --> 00:06:00.085 Version control is, well, as its name implies, is a way of 00:06:00.085 --> 00:06:02.085 controlling the versions of software. 00:06:02.245 --> 00:06:05.764 It's the revision history of plugins and apps and development and 00:06:05.764 --> 00:06:09.764 stuff that you can then see when certain changes were made and 00:06:09.764 --> 00:06:11.525 who contributed those changes. 00:06:11.525 --> 00:06:15.110 It's a way that you can test multiple versions and branch off to 00:06:15.110 --> 00:06:17.750 test different features to see if they work before you merge them 00:06:17.750 --> 00:06:20.949 back into the core code and then publish things out there for 00:06:20.949 --> 00:06:27.074 everyone else to use. These days, everyone uses Git, g I t. 00:06:27.314 --> 00:06:31.074 You might have seen links to or even been on the website 00:06:31.074 --> 00:06:32.754 github.com. 00:06:32.754 --> 00:06:36.514 That's the most popular place for people to host their git 00:06:36.514 --> 00:06:41.250 repositories, but Git is the technology that enables the version 00:06:41.250 --> 00:06:44.209 control. It's what all developers these days use. 00:06:44.370 --> 00:06:47.170 WordPress doesn't use git. 00:06:47.329 --> 00:06:52.930 It uses subversion, which is something that I haven't touched 00:06:52.514 --> 00:06:56.355 since my full time job more than 15 years ago. 00:06:56.675 --> 00:07:00.995 I don't know anyone who actually uses Subversion on a regular 00:07:00.995 --> 00:07:01.634 basis. 00:07:01.875 --> 00:07:06.769 Even a lot of the WordPress developers use Git 1st, and then have 00:07:06.769 --> 00:07:10.610 some way of synchronizing Git over to subversion. 00:07:10.769 --> 00:07:14.930 And you might not think that really affects things all that much, 00:07:15.170 --> 00:07:19.664 but I think it could because it means that for someone to launch 00:07:19.664 --> 00:07:23.664 a plugin in the official WordPress repository, they have to learn 00:07:23.664 --> 00:07:26.625 some stuff about Subversion, or they have to have some kind of 00:07:26.625 --> 00:07:31.344 weird workflow to synchronize their git repository over to 00:07:31.344 --> 00:07:35.310 Subversion in order to make their plugin or their theme available 00:07:35.310 --> 00:07:36.830 on wordpress.org. 00:07:36.910 --> 00:07:40.509 And so that could be holding back some developers or frustrating 00:07:40.509 --> 00:07:44.430 and confusing developers, making them less eager to work on 00:07:44.430 --> 00:07:45.629 things for WordPress. 00:07:46.024 --> 00:07:50.024 So because of these outdated technologies, WordPress is being 00:07:50.024 --> 00:07:51.464 held back by some of this. 00:07:51.464 --> 00:07:54.745 And this plays out in several of these other points that I'll 00:07:54.745 --> 00:07:58.264 share with you in ways that some of these outdated technologies 00:07:58.264 --> 00:08:02.870 are affecting WordPress and the whole

WordPress ecosystem. 00:08:03.029 --> 00:08:07.590 So then moving on to number 2, WordPress gets slow. 00:08:07.670 --> 00:08:12.230 I'm not saying WordPress is slow, but it gets slow. 00:08:12.389 --> 00:08:15.830 Every plugin that you install on a WordPress website has the 00:08:15.830 --> 00:08:17.844 potential to slow down the website. 00:08:17.844 --> 00:08:22.485 In fact, I think it would be safe to say every plugin does slow 00:08:22.485 --> 00:08:23.524 down the website. 00:08:23.685 --> 00:08:27.764 Maybe it's not perceivable, but it does add data. 00:08:27.764 --> 00:08:31.930 Most plugins are adding extra stuff that has to be downloaded by 00:08:31.930 --> 00:08:35.129 the browser when someone visits your site or even when you log in 00:08:35.129 --> 00:08:37.769 to your site and manage it from the admin side. 00:08:38.090 --> 00:08:42.009 There is extra information that has to be moved around, extra 00:08:42.009 --> 00:08:45.450 database calls, extra stuff that has to be downloaded, CSS, 00:08:45.904 --> 00:08:49.264 JavaScript, the other things that have to be run. 00:08:49.345 --> 00:08:53.024 So the more things you add to your website, the slower it gets. 00:08:53.264 --> 00:08:56.544 And a lot of these plugins, maybe even just the way that 00:08:56.544 --> 00:09:01.820 WordPress is designed, isn't so friendly to optimizing when that 00:09:01.820 --> 00:09:03.259 code gets loaded. 00:09:03.259 --> 00:09:05.660 There are different caching plugins out there that make these 00:09:05.660 --> 00:09:10.860 things a whole lot faster, but even they are not as good at 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:14.595 segmenting certain code and separating things. 00:09:14.754 --> 00:09:18.595 For example, my own plugin that I built for WordPress and Sell 00:09:18.595 --> 00:09:22.115 called social subscribe and follow icons or for short, subscribe 00:09:22.115 --> 00:09:22.915 and follow. 00:09:23.075 --> 00:09:27.800 It will load the code that enables the widget on every page. 00:09:27.879 --> 00:09:31.639 It doesn't load that code on only the pages that need it. 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:35.000 It loads it on every page, and that's the way that most plugins 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:35.639 work. 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:39.504 If they enable some kind of functionality on your site, they will 00:09:39.504 --> 00:09:43.584 most likely load the code to enable that functionality on every 00:09:43.584 --> 00:09:47.904 page even if you're not using that functionality on every page. 00:09:48.144 --> 00:09:51.910 So that's a big reason why your WordPress website might get slow. 00:09:51.910 --> 00:09:56.149 You might have a plugin that does something on 1 page of your 00:09:56.149 --> 00:09:56.790 site. 00:09:56.950 --> 00:10:01.190 So really, it should load that code on only that 1 page, but most 00:10:01.190 --> 00:10:05.350 likely, it's loading some code on every page of the site. 00:10:05.644 --> 00:10:08.605 Themes could also slow down the site, but the theme is something 00:10:08.605 --> 00:10:09.965 that you pick 1. 00:10:10.125 --> 00:10:13.325 You don't have multiple themes on a site, but some themes could 00:10:13.325 --> 00:10:15.004 be slower than other themes. 00:10:15.085 --> 00:10:19.565 So WordPress by itself without any extra themes or plugins is 00:10:19.565 --> 00:10:20.284 pretty fast. 00:10:20.829 --> 00:10:25.870 But even then, it's not as fast as it could be because WordPress 00:10:25.870 --> 00:10:29.789 is built on outdated technologies and outdated approaches. 00:10:30.110 --> 00:10:31.789 This gets geeky again. 00:10:31.870 --> 00:10:35.245 There's a difference with how WordPress loads the pages and how a 00:10:35.245 --> 00:10:37.164 lot of modern apps load pages. 00:10:37.325 --> 00:10:41.004 If you go to a site powered by WordPress and you browse different 00:10:41.004 --> 00:10:45.565 pages on that site and go page to page to page, your browser is 00:10:45.565 --> 00:10:50.419 downloading or checking information and reloading page after page 00:10:50.419 --> 00:10:51.379 after page. 00:10:51.379 --> 00:10:55.539 For every new page you visit, it is loading a new page. 00:10:55.779 --> 00:10:59.860 The more modern way to do things is called a single page app or 00:10:59.860 --> 00:11:03.975 SPA. That doesn't mean it's actually 1 URL. 00:11:04.214 --> 00:11:07.495 Or, like, if you're on theaudacitytopodcast.com, every episode 00:11:07.495 --> 00:11:11.174 you visit, the URL still remains theaudacitytopodcast.com. 00:11:11.174 --> 00:11:14.375 That's a misconception about what single page app means. 00:11:14.700 --> 00:11:18.540 But it means that the page loads only once. 00:11:18.540 --> 00:11:22.940 There is essentially a single page for the entire website. 00:11:22.940 --> 00:11:26.300 The URLs change as you go around to different places. 00:11:26.460 --> 00:11:30.004 The only thing that's different between the pages is the data. 00:11:30.084 --> 00:11:31.924 Take The Audacity to Podcast for example. 00:11:31.924 --> 00:11:33.845 If you go to the show notes for this episode at 00:11:33.845 --> 00:11:38.245 theaudacitytopodcast.com slash leave WordPress, the page will 00:11:38.245 --> 00:11:42.884 load, and the data populates that page showing you the title and 00:11:42.884 --> 00:11:47.269 the notes and the episode download information, the metadata, and 00:11:47.269 --> 00:11:48.950 all of that for this episode. 00:11:49.029 --> 00:11:52.470 If you then go to a different page on the website, like an older 00:11:52.470 --> 00:11:56.629 episode, then WordPress is loading another page. 00:11:57.215 --> 00:12:01.934 But the only difference actually between this episode's web page 00:12:01.934 --> 00:12:06.495 and another episode's web page is the data that's in the 00:12:06.495 --> 00:12:11.215 database. It's not the HTML and the CSS and the PHP. 00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:13.730 It's just the data. 00:12:13.970 --> 00:12:18.049 So modern apps like Podgagement, which by the way, my

promo is 00:12:18.049 --> 00:12:20.289 still going through the end of September 20 26. 00:12:20.289 --> 00:12:25.304 If you want to try Podgagement free for 60 days, That's a podcast 00:12:25.304 --> 00:12:28.985 listener exclusive offer in celebration of International Podcast 00:12:28.985 --> 00:12:29.464 Day. 00:12:29.464 --> 00:12:31.944 Try it free for 60 days over at the 00:12:31.944 --> 00:12:35.784 audacitytopodcast.com/usepodgagement. 00:12:35.944 --> 00:12:39.889 That gives you the coupon automatically to try it free for 60 00:12:39.889 --> 00:12:40.129 days. 00:12:40.129 --> 00:12:42.370 You'll see that when you're actually in the checkout process. 00:12:42.370 --> 00:12:46.450 You'll see 2 months free and then whatever your recurring payment 00:12:46.450 --> 00:12:48.850 is for the subscription level that you choose. 00:12:48.850 --> 00:12:51.809 So the audacitytopodcast.com/usepodgagement. 00:12:52.024 --> 00:12:56.665 But Podgagement and PodChapters also are both single page apps. 00:12:56.825 --> 00:13:01.384 So when you go from page to page to page, in those apps, it's not 00:13:01.384 --> 00:13:04.345 actually loading page after page after page. 00:13:04.809 --> 00:13:06.810 It's already loaded the page. 00:13:07.050 --> 00:13:11.690 It's just replacing the data in the page or the content of the 00:13:11.690 --> 00:13:14.649 page because that's really all that's changed. 00:13:15.050 --> 00:13:17.930 And there are other aspects like using Podgagement, for example. 00:13:18.355 --> 00:13:21.875 If you go to the image maker in Podgagement, which allows you to 00:13:21.875 --> 00:13:26.674 very quickly turn a review into a downloadable image, that image 00:13:26.674 --> 00:13:30.035 maker has a bunch of extra code that makes it work. 00:13:30.195 --> 00:13:35.129 But in Podgagement, that code loads only when you open the image 00:13:35.129 --> 00:13:35.769 maker. 00:13:35.769 --> 00:13:39.370 It doesn't load when you're simply reading your ratings and 00:13:39.370 --> 00:13:42.809 reviews, and it doesn't load when you're looking at your search 00:13:42.809 --> 00:13:43.610 ranking history. 00:13:43.875 --> 00:13:46.914 But when you look at your search ranking history, the chart 00:13:46.914 --> 00:13:48.434 information loads. 00:13:48.514 --> 00:13:52.115 So all of that code that makes the chart visible, that loads for 00:13:52.115 --> 00:13:52.914 that page. 00:13:53.075 --> 00:13:57.075 And that's separated, so each thing loads only when it's 00:13:57.075 --> 00:14:00.000 necessary. WordPress is quite a bit different. 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:03.920 And because of that, WordPress can feel really slow. 00:14:04.160 --> 00:14:08.879 They've tried in version 7.0 and later to speed this up at least 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:12.225 in the admin side, which is great because that should be a place 00:14:12.225 --> 00:14:14.945 that could be easier to speed up and certainly a place that's 00:14:14.945 --> 00:14:16.065 more necessary. 00:14:16.065 --> 00:14:19.184 Because even if you have super aggressive caching on your site, 00:14:19.504 --> 00:14:24.000 when you are logged in as an administrator, most likely, you're 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.600 not getting the cached version. 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:28.799 So you're getting the slowest version of your website, while 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:31.679 maybe people on the public side are getting the faster version. 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:34.160 But you have to suffer because you're the administrator. 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:36.274 So WordPress does get slow. 00:14:36.274 --> 00:14:39.075 For every new thing you add to it, you are slowing it down. 00:14:39.075 --> 00:14:42.674 Some things slow it down a lot more than others, but you are 00:14:42.674 --> 00:14:45.235 slowing it down for every new thing you add. 00:14:45.714 --> 00:14:50.129 I do think that at some point in the future, and this might be 00:14:50.210 --> 00:14:54.529 WordPress 10 o that they finally do this, but I think that they 00:14:54.529 --> 00:14:59.889 will eventually make a radical shift to more modern technology to 00:14:59.889 --> 00:15:01.250 make things much faster. 00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:06.615 But to do so is going to break everything we know right now about 00:15:06.615 --> 00:15:07.174 WordPress. 00:15:07.174 --> 00:15:11.014 All of the plugins and themes, they would all break, and they 00:15:11.014 --> 00:15:12.615 would have to be updated. 00:15:12.615 --> 00:15:15.495 And maybe that's why WordPress continues to embrace the 00:15:15.495 --> 00:15:18.899 architecture that they have now is because they realize we just 00:15:18.899 --> 00:15:21.620 can't move things over like this. 00:15:21.620 --> 00:15:25.940 We have this technical debt to keep it on this current 00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:30.820 technology, and we just can't change from that or else everything 00:15:30.820 --> 00:15:35.504 breaks, to quote from Borderlands 4. So WordPress gets slow. 00:15:35.504 --> 00:15:36.784 It's not slow by itself. 00:15:36.784 --> 00:15:39.904 If you have a WordPress website with 1 of the built in themes and 00:15:39.904 --> 00:15:42.625 no additional plugins, it's really fast. 00:15:42.945 --> 00:15:45.184 But you start adding stuff, and it gets slow. 00:15:45.184 --> 00:15:49.199 And this frustrates me myself for my own WordPress websites is 00:15:49.199 --> 00:15:52.959 how slow it is for me as the administrator to do certain things. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:54.399 And I have to wait seconds. 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:57.199 And I know that sounds like such a 1st world problem to have to 00:15:57.199 --> 00:15:59.839 wait seconds for pages to load. 00:16:00.075 --> 00:16:03.754 But I'm spoiled on my own apps like Podgagement, PodChapters, and 00:16:03.754 --> 00:16:07.675 a whole lot of other apps on the web where you click a button, 00:16:07.754 --> 00:16:10.075 and it takes you to that page right away because it's not 00:16:10.075 --> 00:16:11.274 actually loading

the page. 00:16:11.274 --> 00:16:14.075 It's just loading the data to populate that page. 00:16:14.420 --> 00:16:15.940 And they're so much faster. 00:16:15.940 --> 00:16:20.019 WordPress is slow, inherently slow because of its outdated 00:16:20.019 --> 00:16:23.620 technologies, and the more you add to it, the slower it gets. 00:16:23.700 --> 00:16:28.820 Number 3, related to this, WordPress can have security risks. 00:16:29.334 --> 00:16:33.335 WordPress on its own is not a security vulnerability. 00:16:33.654 --> 00:16:38.695 But for every plugin that you add, you are increasing your risk 00:16:38.695 --> 00:16:42.695 for vulnerability because every plugin could have the potential 00:16:42.695 --> 00:16:44.054 to have a security hole in it. 00:16:44.379 --> 00:16:47.579 And especially these days with vibe coding and vibe coding, by 00:16:47.579 --> 00:16:50.299 the way, if you're not familiar with what that actually means, is 00:16:50.299 --> 00:16:54.139 it's basically someone who either doesn't know how to code or 00:16:54.139 --> 00:16:57.500 doesn't look at the code. They're just going with the vibes, man. 00:16:57.500 --> 00:17:00.334 I just tell the AI what I want it to make. 00:17:00.334 --> 00:17:02.174 I just go with what feels right. 00:17:02.174 --> 00:17:04.494 If I get an error message, I don't even read it. 00:17:04.494 --> 00:17:08.014 I just paste it in. I say, fix this. I'm just vibing. 00:17:08.095 --> 00:17:11.535 I'm just going with the vibes and letting it do its thing until I 00:17:11.535 --> 00:17:15.000 get a result. That can produce a lot of security risks. 00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:18.759 And more and more people are using AI to make plug ins and 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:23.160 themes, which then could be introducing security risks for your 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:23.639 site. 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:27.224 Even if you have a well developed plug in, it's possible there 00:17:27.224 --> 00:17:30.984 could be a hole in it that the developers didn't realize, and 00:17:31.065 --> 00:17:35.224 hackers discover that hole, and they manipulate that to get into 00:17:35.224 --> 00:17:36.024 websites. 00:17:36.265 --> 00:17:42.059 I had a about a 2 year battle on 1 of my own websites where as 00:17:42.059 --> 00:17:46.059 good as I am at keeping my websites updated, updating the themes 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:49.099 and the plugins and the core WordPress and all of that stuff, 00:17:49.339 --> 00:17:54.565 somehow, 1 of my websites kept getting compromised in major ways. 00:17:54.565 --> 00:17:56.884 I found malicious code in different places. 00:17:56.884 --> 00:18:01.365 I found weird things in the database, and I found other stuff, 00:18:01.365 --> 00:18:04.565 and it was breaking things and search and all kinds of stuff. 00:18:04.565 --> 00:18:06.884 And there are still some ways I'm trying to clean up some of the 00:18:06.884 --> 00:18:08.644 mess that happened now years ago. 00:18:08.724 --> 00:18:12.190 But I don't know how they

got in, exactly how. 00:18:12.349 --> 00:18:15.630 But I did eventually discover that the way that they were able to 00:18:15.630 --> 00:18:20.990 keep getting into the website is they had somehow accessed 1 of 00:18:20.990 --> 00:18:23.150 the administrator accounts on my site. 00:18:23.230 --> 00:18:28.964 And I suspect that it was a plug in that allowed that access. 00:18:28.965 --> 00:18:32.085 And then once they had access through that admin account, they 00:18:32.085 --> 00:18:34.005 could continue using that admin account. 00:18:34.005 --> 00:18:37.365 I tracked it down to see which account was actually making some 00:18:37.365 --> 00:18:41.339 of the changes and discovered which account it was, and I knew 00:18:41.339 --> 00:18:44.779 that the person who owned that account was not causing those 00:18:44.779 --> 00:18:47.420 problems. So something had been compromised. 00:18:47.420 --> 00:18:51.180 So there was an immediate password change and using the 2 factor 00:18:51.180 --> 00:18:53.180 authentication. Oh, there's something else there. 00:18:53.355 --> 00:18:56.874 Why doesn't WordPress natively support 2 factor authentication? 00:18:57.115 --> 00:18:59.994 You have to use a separate plugin to enable 2 factor 00:18:59.994 --> 00:19:03.994 authentication. And even then, that breaks other things too. 00:19:04.075 --> 00:19:06.714 Like, a public login might not support the 2 factor 00:19:06.714 --> 00:19:08.710 authentication. So it is just a mess. 00:19:08.710 --> 00:19:11.269 Like, why doesn't WordPress support this natively? 00:19:11.509 --> 00:19:15.589 So everything that you add to WordPress is adding a potential 00:19:15.589 --> 00:19:19.589 security risk. And here's something maybe scary to do. 00:19:19.589 --> 00:19:24.595 Go into WordPress, look at all of your active plugins, and then 00:19:24.595 --> 00:19:27.234 check how recently they've been updated. 00:19:27.634 --> 00:19:30.595 Some security plugins will actually do this automatically for you 00:19:30.595 --> 00:19:33.394 to let you know it's been so many years since such and such 00:19:33.394 --> 00:19:36.799 plugin has been updated, or this plugin doesn't even exist 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:40.080 anymore in the WordPress repository, so you should probably find 00:19:40.080 --> 00:19:41.039 an alternative. 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:44.720 You would be surprised, I think, how many of your plugins have 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:47.840 been abandoned or just haven't been updated in a while. 00:19:48.404 --> 00:19:52.484 And each 1 of those then is a potential security risk. 00:19:52.805 --> 00:19:58.164 Because WordPress powers about 40% of the web, that makes it a 00:19:58.164 --> 00:20:02.940 big target for people to try and hack WordPress core or really 00:20:02.940 --> 00:20:04.539 popular WordPress plugins. 00:20:04.619 --> 00:20:07.819 And the plugins can also change ownership, and the new owners 00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:09.900 might do something malicious with the code. 00:20:09.900 --> 00:20:11.579 That has happened before too. 00:20:11.819 --> 00:20:18.315 So WordPress by itself is not as vulnerable, but what you do with 00:20:18.315 --> 00:20:22.954 it could make it really risky for yourself and the data on your 00:20:22.954 --> 00:20:25.115 site. And you might be thinking, oh, it's just my podcast. 00:20:25.115 --> 00:20:26.634 It's not all that important. 00:20:26.714 --> 00:20:29.740 But what about what kind of data your site collects on your 00:20:29.740 --> 00:20:30.380 audience? 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:34.220 Like, their email addresses, their IP addresses, anything like 00:20:34.220 --> 00:20:37.019 that might be in your WordPress website. 00:20:37.180 --> 00:20:42.334 And if a hacker gets in, then they get access to audience data, 00:20:42.414 --> 00:20:45.854 maybe even some really personal stuff about your audience. 00:20:46.014 --> 00:20:48.494 So you don't need to watch out for only your own security, but 00:20:48.494 --> 00:20:50.654 also the security of your audience. 00:20:50.815 --> 00:20:52.894 And WordPress can have those security risks. 00:20:53.179 --> 00:20:57.259 This is 1 that doesn't affect me as much because I don't mind 00:20:57.259 --> 00:20:59.179 keeping my plugins updated. 00:20:59.259 --> 00:21:02.859 But every now and then, a plugin update can break things. 00:21:02.940 --> 00:21:06.539 In fact, there is a very important plugin to my workflow right 00:21:06.539 --> 00:21:11.315 now that I can't update because the update breaks things. 00:21:11.634 --> 00:21:16.034 I know I need to update it, but it breaks my workflow in certain 00:21:16.034 --> 00:21:20.274 ways, and I don't want to change that workflow or recode certain 00:21:20.274 --> 00:21:22.835 things. So I haven't updated that plugin. 00:21:22.835 --> 00:21:26.720 I'm not gonna tell you which 1 it is, but it's important to me. 00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:29.919 And so that is a potential security risk. 00:21:30.159 --> 00:21:33.359 But you have to figure out for yourself, are you willing to take 00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:34.079 on this risk? 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:37.039 Are you willing really to take on the responsibility? 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:41.864 Because with great power of WordPress comes great responsibility, 00:21:41.865 --> 00:21:42.664 Spider Man. 00:21:42.825 --> 00:21:46.904 So you have to decide, are you willing to pay that cost of the 00:21:46.904 --> 00:21:48.024 responsibility? 00:21:48.105 --> 00:21:52.184 I'll get more into the cost of WordPress in a little bit, but 00:21:52.184 --> 00:21:54.505 WordPress can have those security risks. 00:21:55.059 --> 00:21:59.700 Not inherently vulnerable, but it can be depending on how you use 00:21:59.700 --> 00:22:03.539 it. Number 4, WordPress doesn't connect well with AI. 00:22:03.619 --> 00:22:06.580 This 1 might not seem to matter too much to you, but it could 00:22:06.580 --> 00:22:07.460 matter more in the future. 00:22:07.605 --> 00:22:11.444 And I'm not talking

about AI in the sense of generative AI. 00:22:11.605 --> 00:22:14.884 Like, click a button and it generates the article or the episode 00:22:14.884 --> 00:22:15.605 for you. 00:22:15.845 --> 00:22:18.964 But think about the more magical things that AI can do these 00:22:18.964 --> 00:22:23.640 days. Like, agentic AI does things for you. 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:28.920 Imagine having something like an AI agent that looks at every 1 00:22:28.920 --> 00:22:33.720 of your posts and automatically corrects your show notes based on 00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:36.595 what you actually said in the episode, Or maybe something that 00:22:36.595 --> 00:22:41.234 even automatically updates certain information in your website 00:22:41.234 --> 00:22:43.075 based on the latest news. 00:22:43.154 --> 00:22:46.355 I don't mean simply pulling in an RSS feed, but maybe correct 00:22:46.355 --> 00:22:50.680 something or adds some kind of correction to your notes or all 00:22:50.680 --> 00:22:54.200 kinds of things that you could imagine that could be done with an 00:22:54.200 --> 00:22:57.319 AI so you don't have to go in there and do it yourself. 00:22:57.480 --> 00:23:01.799 And WordPress natively just doesn't connect well with AI. 00:23:02.039 --> 00:23:05.799 No matter how it is that you want to use AI, there is a limited 00:23:06.015 --> 00:23:10.255 API that an AI can use, and I know that it's a lot of letters 00:23:10.255 --> 00:23:12.575 right now, but it's not complete. 00:23:12.974 --> 00:23:17.214 Like, for example, even if I can automatically publish something 00:23:17.214 --> 00:23:21.779 to a WordPress post, can it automatically populate the PowerPress 00:23:21.779 --> 00:23:22.579 information? 00:23:22.740 --> 00:23:27.700 Or the SEO information, can it automatically upload my image to 00:23:27.700 --> 00:23:30.819 the proper place and work with all of the fields? 00:23:31.059 --> 00:23:32.339 The answer, I think, is no. 00:23:32.695 --> 00:23:36.934 Some plug ins might integrate with AI to some extent, but again, 00:23:36.934 --> 00:23:40.615 you might need a plug in to do some of that stuff, and it's not 00:23:40.615 --> 00:23:42.054 natively built in. 00:23:42.215 --> 00:23:45.494 And I'm surprised that WordPress doesn't do that because of how 00:23:45.494 --> 00:23:49.159 popular it is, because of how many developers are working on 00:23:49.159 --> 00:23:50.039 WordPress. 00:23:50.279 --> 00:23:53.879 I'm really surprised at how it's not caught up with some of these 00:23:53.879 --> 00:23:55.079 more modern things. 00:23:55.079 --> 00:24:01.079 Number 5, quote, free, unquote, big air quotes around that. 00:24:01.079 --> 00:24:03.664 Free WordPress can get expensive. 00:24:03.984 --> 00:24:06.945 It doesn't cost anything to download WordPress. 00:24:06.945 --> 00:24:10.944 It's completely free and open source at wordpress.org. 00:24:11.184 --> 00:24:15.265 Wordpress.com is the paid version of WordPress where they host 00:24:15.265 --> 00:24:19.210 and manage WordPress for you, but wordpress.org is where you can 00:24:19.210 --> 00:24:19.769 download it. 00:24:19.769 --> 00:24:24.009 And if you use something like Bluehost or SiteGround or 1 of 00:24:24.009 --> 00:24:26.970 these hosting providers and they install WordPress, but you're 00:24:26.970 --> 00:24:30.410 still managing it yourself, that is still the free version of 00:24:30.410 --> 00:24:30.809 WordPress. 00:24:31.164 --> 00:24:36.045 The code is free, but having a WordPress website can actually get 00:24:36.045 --> 00:24:39.005 expensive. Just the hosting itself. 00:24:39.005 --> 00:24:41.964 Web hosting has gotten really expensive lately. 00:24:42.045 --> 00:24:46.204 Even on these budget providers that advertise things like $2.95 00:24:46.204 --> 00:24:50.900 per month for the 1st year, and then after that, $20 a month just 00:24:50.900 --> 00:24:52.419 for hosting the website. 00:24:52.740 --> 00:24:56.419 Especially as you get into more managed and optimized WordPress 00:24:56.419 --> 00:24:59.059 hosting, it can get really expensive. 00:24:59.059 --> 00:25:00.500 And that's just the hosting side. 00:25:01.065 --> 00:25:03.464 Think about the functionality of your site. 00:25:03.464 --> 00:25:05.224 There might be a theme that you want to get. 00:25:05.224 --> 00:25:06.424 Well, that costs something. 00:25:06.505 --> 00:25:08.744 That might have a recurring cost to it. 00:25:08.744 --> 00:25:11.224 And the plugins that might do things for you. 00:25:11.224 --> 00:25:14.904 And the paid plugins generally are better than the free versions 00:25:15.099 --> 00:25:17.979 and generally worth it, but they can get expensive. 00:25:18.139 --> 00:25:21.899 In fact, in my own decision of whether to leave WordPress, I 00:25:21.899 --> 00:25:26.379 looked at all of the premium plugins that I am actively paying 00:25:26.379 --> 00:25:26.779 for. 00:25:27.034 --> 00:25:30.474 I've gotten in on some lifetime deals for several plugins, so I 00:25:30.474 --> 00:25:32.154 didn't count those in the list. 00:25:32.234 --> 00:25:36.554 But for the plugins that I do pay every year for or the services 00:25:36.554 --> 00:25:41.450 to run and manage my WordPress websites, I'm paying almost $1,200 00:25:41.450 --> 00:25:48.169 a year. So a $100 a month for a free WordPress website. 00:25:48.569 --> 00:25:49.769 It's not really free. 00:25:50.009 --> 00:25:53.365 It does cost money for some of these things, and it costs you the 00:25:53.365 --> 00:25:55.684 time and the knowledge to run these things. 00:25:55.684 --> 00:25:58.244 Because with great power comes great responsibility, and that 00:25:58.244 --> 00:26:00.244 responsibility costs. 00:26:00.484 --> 00:26:04.404 And those plug ins for me that I pay for have been worth it. 00:26:04.404 --> 00:26:07.679 They've been crucial to my business in different aspects of my 00:26:07.679 --> 00:26:08.319 business. 00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:13.519 It just stinks that it's costing me so much to run my website, my

00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:18.559 free website with free WordPress. But it's not free. 00:26:18.639 --> 00:26:21.279 All free things actually do come with a price. 00:26:21.634 --> 00:26:25.394 It just might not be a price with dollars or at least not dollars 00:26:25.394 --> 00:26:28.035 directly, but it might cost you in other ways. 00:26:28.195 --> 00:26:32.755 And if you run into problems like a security breach, that can get 00:26:32.755 --> 00:26:36.275 really expensive in the time it might take you to figure it out 00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:40.279 or how much it costs you to pay someone else to figure it out and 00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:41.079 clean it up. 00:26:41.240 --> 00:26:44.039 I've even seen some people who, when their website got 00:26:44.039 --> 00:26:48.519 compromised, they had no backups, so their only choice was to 00:26:48.519 --> 00:26:51.319 wipe it completely and start over from scratch. 00:26:51.684 --> 00:26:53.765 That breaks my heart to see that happen. 00:26:53.765 --> 00:26:57.525 And I hate that that's so expensive for people, but that can 00:26:57.525 --> 00:27:01.284 happen with WordPress when you're managing it yourself like that. 00:27:01.285 --> 00:27:05.445 And number 6, and this 1 starts to get controversial, WordPress's 00:27:05.445 --> 00:27:09.819 founder, Matt Mullenweg, is hurting his own ecosystem. 00:27:10.140 --> 00:27:14.700 I see Matt as a bit of a hero because he created WordPress and 00:27:14.700 --> 00:27:16.700 has run WordPress for so many years. 00:27:16.700 --> 00:27:20.779 I had the opportunity to meet Matt at a WordCamp US several years 00:27:20.779 --> 00:27:21.259 ago. 00:27:21.259 --> 00:27:26.444 And despite the fact that that day when I met him was 1 of the 00:27:26.444 --> 00:27:30.924 worst days of my life because that was the day that I discovered 00:27:30.924 --> 00:27:35.085 my then wife had left me. And I was trying to figure things out. 00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:38.000 I was confused. I wasn't sure what I should do. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:43.519 I was away at this conference in another city, and all of those 00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:45.279 emotions were going through. 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:48.714 And I was walking around like a zombie during that day. 00:27:48.875 --> 00:27:53.034 But 1 of the things that was a positive, at least about that day, 00:27:53.034 --> 00:27:56.794 as dark as that day was for me, is I got to meet Matt Mullenweg. 00:27:56.794 --> 00:28:01.759 And I shook his hand and thanked him because WordPress has 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:03.679 enabled my business to exist. 00:28:03.839 --> 00:28:08.480 And I've built so much on top of what I can do with WordPress. 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:11.200 And if it wasn't for WordPress, I'm not sure I would be able to 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:12.879 have a business like this today. 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:18.744 So I wanted to thank him for starting it and for how WordPress 00:28:18.744 --> 00:28:24.025 has enabled me to live as much of, quote, the dream, unquote, as 00:28:24.025 --> 00:28:25.065 I could today. 00:28:25.065 --> 00:28:29.539 And I I don't think I could run my own business like I can if not 00:28:29.539 --> 00:28:32.580 for all of the years of being able to do so much through 00:28:32.580 --> 00:28:33.380 WordPress. 00:28:33.539 --> 00:28:38.900 So the whole community owes a lot to Matt for starting WordPress. 00:28:39.460 --> 00:28:46.304 But in recent years, I don't know exactly why, whether it's greed 00:28:46.304 --> 00:28:50.144 or envy or narcissism or I don't know. 00:28:50.224 --> 00:28:55.024 But Matt has started doing some really weird things that are 00:28:55.024 --> 00:28:56.784 hurting the WordPress ecosystem. 00:28:57.169 --> 00:29:00.609 And you can easily find out a whole lot more detail about this 00:29:00.609 --> 00:29:01.169 online. 00:29:01.169 --> 00:29:04.690 If you just search for WordPress and Matt Mullenwig, you will 00:29:04.690 --> 00:29:06.450 discover some of these issues. 00:29:06.450 --> 00:29:10.450 But just to give you a brief overview of 1 of these things is for 00:29:10.450 --> 00:29:14.044 many years, there's been another company out there called WP 00:29:14.044 --> 00:29:17.005 Engine. WordPress is a registered trademark. 00:29:17.005 --> 00:29:20.444 Also, w with a circle around it and that specific font and such, 00:29:20.444 --> 00:29:22.444 that's a registered trademark too. 00:29:22.524 --> 00:29:26.125 So other companies cannot name themselves WordPress. 00:29:26.619 --> 00:29:30.779 But for so long, the WordPress lawyers have said, you can still 00:29:30.779 --> 00:29:35.899 use WP so that people will know the thing you offer is for 00:29:35.899 --> 00:29:37.339 WordPress in some way. 00:29:37.339 --> 00:29:41.734 It's not officially affiliated with WordPress, but it is in the 00:29:41.734 --> 00:29:44.934 WordPress ecosystem. So using WP was fine. 00:29:45.255 --> 00:29:48.694 You couldn't use WordPress. So that's why there's WP engine. 00:29:48.774 --> 00:29:54.694 Spin up WP, migrate WP, WP this, WP that, here WP, there WP, 00:29:54.694 --> 00:29:57.659 everywhere WP. It is all over the place. 00:29:57.819 --> 00:30:01.339 Pretty much everything for WordPress has probably been named at 00:30:01.339 --> 00:30:03.499 some point with WP in it. 00:30:03.579 --> 00:30:10.244 And that was fine until recently, where Matt decided to target WP 00:30:10.244 --> 00:30:14.965 Engine, a commercial company that uses the free and open source 00:30:14.965 --> 00:30:19.684 WordPress in total compliance with the license for WordPress, and 00:30:19.684 --> 00:30:24.880 they've built 1000000000 dollar company on hosting WordPress and 00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:28.880 optimizing their system for WordPress and managing WordPress back 00:30:28.880 --> 00:30:31.840 end and even a little bit of the front end and the security and 00:30:31.840 --> 00:30:34.640 some of that stuff for countless websites. 00:30:34.799 --> 00:30:37.984 I've even been a

customer of WP Engine in the past, and I can 00:30:37.984 --> 00:30:40.784 recommend WP Engine as a great hosting provider. 00:30:40.785 --> 00:30:45.904 But for a weird reason, Matt targeted them, I think, kind of 00:30:45.904 --> 00:30:50.039 envy, maybe some other issues, where he was saying, hey. 00:30:50.039 --> 00:30:50.919 Wait a minute. 00:30:50.920 --> 00:30:56.359 Here's this company that's making billions of dollars off of this 00:30:56.359 --> 00:30:59.720 software, and they're not contributing back. 00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:04.484 Or he thought they weren't contributing back enough to both the 00:31:04.484 --> 00:31:08.085 core development of WordPress and especially financially. 00:31:08.244 --> 00:31:13.525 But the thing is, it's all within the license agreement that 00:31:12.789 --> 00:31:16.549 people can do almost whatever they want with WordPress. 00:31:16.869 --> 00:31:21.750 And so WP Engine was not actually doing anything legally wrong. 00:31:21.990 --> 00:31:26.710 You could say there was some kind of moral obligation or 00:31:26.075 --> 00:31:29.515 reciprocity or kind of the value for value thing that we talk 00:31:29.515 --> 00:31:33.275 about in podcasting where certainly WordPress has provided all of 00:31:33.275 --> 00:31:36.315 this value to WP Engine as a business. 00:31:36.634 --> 00:31:39.595 And why doesn't WP Engine give some of that value back? 00:31:40.190 --> 00:31:42.029 But they're not obligated to do so. 00:31:42.029 --> 00:31:44.509 Just like you're not obligated to support this podcast, although 00:31:44.509 --> 00:31:47.389 I'd love it if you would. You're not obligated to do so. 00:31:47.549 --> 00:31:52.349 So Matt started targeting WP Engine, and this created a kind of 00:31:52.349 --> 00:31:53.470 downward spiral. 00:31:53.470 --> 00:31:56.815 And there was even a period where this hurt the customers of WP 00:31:56.815 --> 00:32:00.654 Engine, where WordPress cut off WP Engine from being able to 00:32:00.654 --> 00:32:02.095 update the plugins. 00:32:02.255 --> 00:32:06.335 So that left WP Engine customers with potential security 00:32:06.335 --> 00:32:10.759 vulnerabilities because of this whole rivalry that started. 00:32:10.920 --> 00:32:14.119 But after some lawsuits, they were able to get that handled. 00:32:14.279 --> 00:32:17.240 And so WP Engine customers don't have to worry about that, but 00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:19.799 there's still this weird animosity. 00:32:20.120 --> 00:32:26.295 And WP Engine, many years, was a top recommended hosting provider 00:32:26.535 --> 00:32:28.535 officially from WordPress. 00:32:28.775 --> 00:32:32.695 So I don't know what has gotten into Matt's head. 00:32:32.695 --> 00:32:35.815 And even recently, there was something where he was temporarily 00:32:35.894 --> 00:32:40.980 put on leave as the CEO of the company that runs WordPress or 00:32:40.980 --> 00:32:43.619 wordpress.com, but then he was brought back. 00:32:43.619 --> 00:32:47.380 And some weird stuff, not like Steve Jobs kind of stuff, but just 00:32:47.380 --> 00:32:49.140 other odd things. 00:32:49.140 --> 00:32:51.700 And maybe there is a little bit of Steve Jobs' personality. 00:32:51.700 --> 00:32:55.785 And I think a lot of great leaders interestingly do have certain 00:32:55.785 --> 00:32:57.545 narcissism to them. 00:32:57.785 --> 00:33:00.664 And maybe that's part of what makes some great leaders is that 00:33:00.664 --> 00:33:04.025 they don't necessarily care what people think about them. 00:33:04.345 --> 00:33:08.330 But it's hurting the WordPress ecosystem the way that Matt is 00:33:08.330 --> 00:33:11.849 playing this out. And I don't know his actual motives. 00:33:11.849 --> 00:33:16.089 We can look at things and see it seems like he's envious or seems 00:33:16.089 --> 00:33:19.769 like he's narcissistic or seems like he's maybe even greedy in 00:33:19.769 --> 00:33:21.904 some ways, but we don't know for sure. 00:33:22.144 --> 00:33:24.704 But certainly, I think it's hurting the ecosystem. 00:33:24.704 --> 00:33:29.184 And I think this is turning some people away from WordPress, some 00:33:29.184 --> 00:33:33.640 developers, some companies, some people who might have interested 00:33:33.640 --> 00:33:38.679 in investing in the ecosystem and making it better for users 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:41.799 might not be so interested anymore because they don't want to get 00:33:41.799 --> 00:33:43.559 involved in the politics of this. 00:33:43.559 --> 00:33:45.640 Or maybe they're afraid that, hey. 00:33:45.640 --> 00:33:49.724 If we make 1000000000 dollar business built on top of WordPress, 00:33:49.805 --> 00:33:51.724 are we going to get sued too? 00:33:51.805 --> 00:33:56.525 Is Matt going to say something from a keynote that targets us? 00:33:56.765 --> 00:34:01.404 So it's it's weird, and I don't like what Matt has been doing. 00:34:01.960 --> 00:34:05.400 He has his own reasons, but they just don't seem to be justified 00:34:05.400 --> 00:34:08.039 in my own opinion. You might have a different opinion. 00:34:08.039 --> 00:34:08.519 That's fine. 00:34:08.519 --> 00:34:11.240 You can look up more information about this if you want to. 00:34:11.400 --> 00:34:14.920 But these are my reasons and some of the things I think you might 00:34:14.920 --> 00:34:17.644 want to think about for whether it's time for you to leave 00:34:17.644 --> 00:34:21.565 WordPress. WordPress uses outdated technologies. It gets slow. 00:34:21.644 --> 00:34:24.925 It can have security risks. It doesn't connect well with AI. 00:34:25.085 --> 00:34:28.605 Free WordPress can get expensive, and there's this whole weird 00:34:28.605 --> 00:34:31.659 thing with the founder of WordPress that's kind of hurting the 00:34:31.659 --> 00:34:32.460 ecosystem. 00:34:32.699 --> 00:34:34.940 But if you're listening to all of this and thinking, no. 00:34:34.940 --> 00:34:36.940 I really like what I can do with WordPress. 00:34:36.940 --> 00:34:40.219 In fact, I want to make my

WordPress website better, then here 00:34:40.219 --> 00:34:44.539 are my continued top recommendations for a podcast WordPress 00:34:44.539 --> 00:34:45.019 website. 00:34:45.244 --> 00:34:49.244 The things that I highly recommend that you use or consider using 00:34:49.405 --> 00:34:52.765 for your WordPress website for your podcast depending on your 00:34:52.765 --> 00:34:55.885 actual needs and your budget. And some of these are free. 00:34:56.045 --> 00:34:56.925 Some of them are paid. 00:34:57.260 --> 00:34:59.980 Some of the links to these will be affiliate links, and I earn a 00:34:59.980 --> 00:35:00.539 commission. 00:35:00.619 --> 00:35:03.900 But I'm a customer of many of these things myself, and I 00:35:03.900 --> 00:35:06.619 recommend things I truly believe in regardless of earnings. 00:35:06.619 --> 00:35:08.940 So number 1, Pretty Links Pro. 00:35:08.940 --> 00:35:11.980 This has been my favorite plugin for WordPress for many years, 00:35:12.135 --> 00:35:15.494 allows you to create the nice links like, for me, the 00:35:15.494 --> 00:35:19.655 audacitypodcast.com/leavewordpress. That's a Pretty Link. 00:35:19.655 --> 00:35:23.014 But Pretty Links Pro, the paid version, adds extra things on top 00:35:23.014 --> 00:35:26.579 of that, like in the show notes where I wrote Pretty Links Pro 00:35:26.579 --> 00:35:30.500 that is being automatically hyperlinked with my affiliate link 00:35:30.500 --> 00:35:33.460 because of Pretty Links Pro. That's so meta, isn't it? 00:35:33.460 --> 00:35:36.260 And then moving on from that, if you want to manage your podcast 00:35:36.260 --> 00:35:39.784 feed from your WordPress website, then the best combination for 00:35:39.784 --> 00:35:44.025 that is Blubrry Podcast hosting plus the PowerPress plugin. 00:35:44.025 --> 00:35:48.264 I use PowerPress on my podcast websites with WordPress, and it's 00:35:48.264 --> 00:35:50.025 been fantastic for that. 00:35:50.105 --> 00:35:54.030 And Blubrry is the best integration with WordPress. 00:35:54.190 --> 00:35:57.789 So you can try Blubrry, by the way, for free with my promo code 00:35:57.789 --> 00:36:00.190 that also gets automatically added with my link. 00:36:00.190 --> 00:36:02.430 All of the links are in the notes for this episode. 00:36:02.590 --> 00:36:05.755 If you want a great theme for your WordPress website, website, I 00:36:05.755 --> 00:36:08.155 haven't talked about this for a while, but I do still use it on 00:36:08.155 --> 00:36:11.835 The Audacity to Podcast site while it's still on WordPress, is 00:36:11.835 --> 00:36:13.434 SecondLine Themes. 00:36:13.675 --> 00:36:18.239 These are themes designed specifically for podcasters and have a 00:36:18.239 --> 00:36:21.519 lot of podcast oriented things in them, and even some things that 00:36:21.519 --> 00:36:26.000 integrate nicely with PowerPress in really smart, easy ways that 00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:28.079 mean you don't have to do redundant work. 00:36:28.159 --> 00:36:29.920 It just does certain things for you. 00:36:30.324 --> 00:36:33.844 If you are interested in working more on the SEO for your site, I 00:36:33.844 --> 00:36:35.684 recommend All in 1 SEO. 00:36:35.684 --> 00:36:38.324 If you want something that makes it easier to build your site out 00:36:38.324 --> 00:36:41.684 to look really cool and do some really cool layouts, my favorite 00:36:41.684 --> 00:36:42.965 builder is Elementor. 00:36:43.299 --> 00:36:46.579 If you use Amazon affiliates and you want to make that easier on 00:36:46.579 --> 00:36:50.900 your website, I like AAWP plugin and have used that for many 00:36:50.900 --> 00:36:51.380 years. 00:36:51.460 --> 00:36:54.739 On the security side of things, so far, my favorite security 00:36:54.739 --> 00:36:56.099 plugin is WordFence. 00:36:56.454 --> 00:37:00.295 It has an option that can automatically notify you when certain 00:37:00.295 --> 00:37:03.255 things are outdated, or you can run a check every now and then to 00:37:03.255 --> 00:37:06.295 see if you have any security vulnerabilities or concerns. 00:37:06.454 --> 00:37:09.655 If you want to make forms on your website, like contact forms or 00:37:09.655 --> 00:37:13.660 surveys or polls, My favorite plugin for that is Gravity Forms. 00:37:13.820 --> 00:37:17.660 If you want the dark mode on the admin side of your website, I've 00:37:17.660 --> 00:37:19.500 been playing around with different plugins. 00:37:19.500 --> 00:37:23.180 And the 1 I'm liking lately, both the way it looks and that it's 00:37:23.180 --> 00:37:27.255 compatible now with WordPress 7.1 is Darkify. 00:37:27.414 --> 00:37:30.375 And WordPress, another 1 of those things that's like, why haven't 00:37:30.375 --> 00:37:34.375 they improved this natively, is the search in WordPress for your 00:37:34.375 --> 00:37:37.574 users to be able to search the posts on your site. 00:37:37.849 --> 00:37:40.170 I recommend SearchWP. 00:37:40.170 --> 00:37:42.890 There are other plugins that I use also and other things, but I 00:37:42.890 --> 00:37:46.409 think these are the ones that I like the most and recommend the 00:37:46.409 --> 00:37:50.170 highest for a podcast WordPress website. 00:37:50.295 --> 00:37:52.694 If you want to do other things like sell memberships for your 00:37:52.694 --> 00:37:56.135 site or sell digital or physical products or consulting or 00:37:56.135 --> 00:37:58.454 booking things, those are different plugins. 00:37:58.454 --> 00:38:00.614 And if you're interested in those, reach out to me. 00:38:00.614 --> 00:38:04.214 Podcast feedback dot com slash audacity if you want to know what 00:38:04.214 --> 00:38:06.969 some of those specific plugins are that I recommend. 00:38:07.130 --> 00:38:10.730 But if you are thinking, alright, I think I wanna leave WordPress 00:38:10.730 --> 00:38:13.609 too. Then my top recommendations for that. 00:38:13.929 --> 00:38:17.449 1st, look at what your podcast hosting provider actually offers 00:38:17.449 --> 00:38:18.730 now for a website.

00:38:18.730 --> 00:38:22.675 Like Captivate and Transistor, I think, offer some of the best 00:38:22.675 --> 00:38:26.195 podcast websites built into their podcast hosting. 00:38:26.195 --> 00:38:29.954 Buzzsprout also offers a very simple, easy to use website. 00:38:29.954 --> 00:38:35.539 And Blubrry is now doing something with Podpage for managing your 00:38:35.539 --> 00:38:38.980 website if you don't want to use WordPress. 00:38:39.140 --> 00:38:43.219 It's not as popular of an option for Blubrry, but it is something 00:38:43.219 --> 00:38:44.420 cool that they're doing. 00:38:44.420 --> 00:38:48.164 But if you want to move beyond what your podcast hosting provider 00:38:48.164 --> 00:38:50.565 gives you, and some of these can give you some really nice sites, 00:38:50.565 --> 00:38:52.005 like especially Captivate. 00:38:52.005 --> 00:38:55.525 I think they provide the best podcast website and the most 00:38:55.525 --> 00:38:57.045 features on that site. 00:38:57.045 --> 00:39:00.244 But if you want something beyond that, but without all of the 00:39:00.244 --> 00:39:03.890 responsibility of managing your own website, look at Podpage. 00:39:04.210 --> 00:39:08.210 This has so many great features built into it. 00:39:08.210 --> 00:39:10.930 And an alternative to Podpage is Beamly. 00:39:10.930 --> 00:39:14.849 It's not as good, in my opinion, as Podpage, but Podpage is 00:39:14.849 --> 00:39:15.090 great. 00:39:15.090 --> 00:39:17.974 And it's also the company that now Dave Jackson works for after 00:39:17.974 --> 00:39:21.494 he has been such a fan of Podpage for many years and 1 of their 00:39:21.494 --> 00:39:25.335 top affiliates, if not the top affiliate for Podpage. 00:39:25.414 --> 00:39:26.614 He now works there. 00:39:26.855 --> 00:39:30.135 And I love what they're doing and the features that they're 00:39:30.135 --> 00:39:34.135 building so that your website, both Podpage and Beamly, are 00:39:33.389 --> 00:39:35.630 powered 1st from your RSS feed. 00:39:35.630 --> 00:39:38.670 So when you publish an episode from your podcast hosting provider 00:39:38.670 --> 00:39:42.909 into your RSS feed, then the website updates to show that 00:39:42.909 --> 00:39:43.389 information. 00:39:43.389 --> 00:39:46.029 But you can build extra things on top of that through these 00:39:46.029 --> 00:39:46.909 website builders. 00:39:47.304 --> 00:39:50.585 And those are my recommendations if you want to leave WordPress 00:39:50.585 --> 00:39:53.545 but still have a good podcast website. 00:39:53.545 --> 00:39:55.945 There are lots of other tools out there that help you create 00:39:55.945 --> 00:39:59.784 websites, but these are the ones I like for a podcast website. 00:40:00.230 --> 00:40:02.070 But what am I going to be doing? 00:40:02.230 --> 00:40:04.789 Well, it's going to be something a bit different. 00:40:05.109 --> 00:40:08.630 Because 1 of the reasons why I've stayed on WordPress for so long 00:40:08.630 --> 00:40:12.894 and continued to generate my own podcast feed from WordPress is 00:40:12.894 --> 00:40:16.895 because I wanted total control over what goes into the feed. 00:40:16.974 --> 00:40:20.414 Even in the last couple of years, I have built an extension 00:40:20.414 --> 00:40:23.934 plugin on top of PowerPress so I could do even more than 00:40:23.934 --> 00:40:24.894 PowerPress could do. 00:40:25.130 --> 00:40:28.570 Like, 1 of the examples here that I've wanted for years is I 00:40:28.570 --> 00:40:32.570 wanted the notes that display inside a podcast app to be 00:40:32.570 --> 00:40:35.530 different from the notes that display on the website. 00:40:35.530 --> 00:40:37.769 Like, if you go to the web page for this episode, 00:40:37.769 --> 00:40:42.224 theaudacitytopodcast.com slash leave WordPress, you'll see an 00:40:42.224 --> 00:40:44.704 article version of the episode notes. 00:40:44.704 --> 00:40:47.984 But if you look inside your podcast app, a simple tap or swipe 00:40:47.984 --> 00:40:52.065 away, as I like to say, then you'll see the much shorter, 00:40:52.065 --> 00:40:56.809 simpler, more actionable version of the notes, whether that's the 00:40:56.809 --> 00:40:59.929 chapters or even the actual notes that display in the app. 00:40:59.929 --> 00:41:03.210 That's something I wanted to do differently, and I built that on 00:41:03.210 --> 00:41:06.570 top of WordPress and PowerPress because they didn't do that 00:41:06.570 --> 00:41:08.730 natively the way that I wanted to do that. 00:41:08.894 --> 00:41:12.175 And there's some other things too, like Podcasting 2.0 features 00:41:12.175 --> 00:41:15.695 that are so fringe that I want to be able to put them in my RSS 00:41:15.695 --> 00:41:19.375 feed so that people can have something to test against, but that 00:41:19.375 --> 00:41:22.574 aren't necessarily supported in any of the podcast apps yet or 00:41:22.574 --> 00:41:23.534 publishing tools. 00:41:23.880 --> 00:41:27.559 But I wanted to be on the cutting edge, even the bleeding edge of 00:41:27.559 --> 00:41:28.679 some of these things. 00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:32.679 So because of that and because I'm geeky enough and I know how to 00:41:32.679 --> 00:41:37.094 code, I'm going in the direction of not fully coding my own 00:41:37.094 --> 00:41:40.855 thing, even though vibe coding can do some pretty cool things. 00:41:41.015 --> 00:41:46.135 I'm going to use Payload CMS. That's at payloadcms.com. 00:41:46.135 --> 00:41:48.934 It is open source, and it's built on Next. 00:41:48.934 --> 00:41:50.775 Js, which is a JavaScript system. 00:41:51.030 --> 00:41:55.269 Podgagement and PodChapters are both built on Next. Js. 00:41:55.269 --> 00:41:57.750 So I know how to work with Next. Js really well. 00:41:57.750 --> 00:42:02.390 It's JavaScript all the way down, and Payload CMS works natively 00:42:02.390 --> 00:42:02.949 with that. 00:42:02.949 --> 00:42:06.070 And it has a lot of things built in already that's great for 00:42:06.344 --> 00:42:10.744 publishing

content, and it seems really easy to extend that. 00:42:10.744 --> 00:42:14.505 So as I've been looking at different options and looking at what 00:42:14.505 --> 00:42:17.625 this can do, I'm realizing, oh, that looks nice. 00:42:17.625 --> 00:42:21.224 I could see how I could easily build in this particular feature 00:42:21.224 --> 00:42:25.599 that I want, or I could also very easily ask an AI to build in 00:42:25.599 --> 00:42:29.360 that specific feature because the structure is there so much. 00:42:29.599 --> 00:42:32.800 It would be a completely different way of doing things for me, 00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:34.480 but it's the direction I wanna go. 00:42:34.715 --> 00:42:37.755 And if you want to follow along with the development of this, and 00:42:37.755 --> 00:42:40.715 I don't know how long it will actually take me, but if you want 00:42:40.715 --> 00:42:44.474 to follow along, the best place to do that is on my X account. 00:42:44.554 --> 00:42:47.434 That's at x.com/thedanielj.lewis. 00:42:47.750 --> 00:42:51.909 That's where I will be posting screenshots, maybe some videos, 00:42:51.989 --> 00:42:56.389 some questions, some answers, some frustrations, some findings 00:42:56.389 --> 00:42:58.630 along the way as I build this out. 00:42:58.630 --> 00:43:01.994 I don't know if I will be able to open source what I end up 00:43:01.994 --> 00:43:05.114 building out or if it will even be that easy to use. 00:43:05.355 --> 00:43:09.514 Because as it is, Payload CMS is really more for developers. 00:43:09.514 --> 00:43:12.074 So I don't know if it would be worth putting something out there 00:43:12.074 --> 00:43:13.275 as open source. 00:43:13.434 --> 00:43:16.989 Maybe I would just as an example that other people could copy and 00:43:16.989 --> 00:43:20.909 then modify to their needs, or maybe I just keep it closed 00:43:20.909 --> 00:43:21.309 source. 00:43:21.309 --> 00:43:24.109 I don't know exactly what I'll do there, but you can follow along 00:43:24.109 --> 00:43:26.029 on x at the Daniel J. 00:43:26.029 --> 00:43:29.469 Lewis if you want to see what I'm doing there as I'm sharing out 00:43:28.905 --> 00:43:30.425 updates as I build that out. 00:43:30.425 --> 00:43:34.265 And I have no idea how long this will take, but most of the 00:43:34.265 --> 00:43:38.105 things that I pay for for managing my own WordPress website, then 00:43:38.105 --> 00:43:40.505 nearly $1,200 I'm paying every year. 00:43:40.744 --> 00:43:45.139 Most of that is up for renewal in March with a little bit up for 00:43:45.139 --> 00:43:46.420 renewal before then. 00:43:46.420 --> 00:43:50.739 So I definitely want to finish this before the end of 20 26, I 00:43:50.739 --> 00:43:51.059 think. 00:43:51.059 --> 00:43:54.659 So there's plenty of time to get things moved over and not have 00:43:54.659 --> 00:43:57.219 to pay for the renewals of all of those plugins. 00:43:57.485 --> 00:44:00.204 You might be thinking, well, all of the time that you're going to 00:44:00.204 --> 00:44:03.724 spend on this, is the $1,200 per year that you'll save really 00:44:03.724 --> 00:44:07.244 worth it? And to me, it's not just the $1,200. 00:44:07.485 --> 00:44:09.324 It's the cost in other ways. 00:44:09.800 --> 00:44:13.800 The frustrations with WordPress, the lack of abilities, the 00:44:13.800 --> 00:44:16.920 things I want to do that I've never been able to do with 00:44:16.920 --> 00:44:21.000 WordPress, and I don't want to add yet another plugin, if plugins 00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:24.039 even exist to do some of the very niche things that I want to do. 00:44:24.394 --> 00:44:28.234 I'd really like to just build something newer that I'll have more 00:44:28.234 --> 00:44:31.994 control over, and especially that I can start bringing in some of 00:44:31.994 --> 00:44:35.594 the other features that I've been able to build for Podgagement 00:44:35.594 --> 00:44:36.635 and PodChapters. 00:44:36.635 --> 00:44:39.960 I would love to bring in some of those abilities into The 00:44:39.960 --> 00:44:43.640 Audacity to Podcast website to make it even better. 00:44:43.800 --> 00:44:47.159 And as I learn and build things on The Audacity to Podcast, maybe 00:44:47.159 --> 00:44:50.519 some of that, I'll be able to transition into Pod chapters and 00:44:50.519 --> 00:44:53.394 Podgagement to make them better as well. 00:44:53.554 --> 00:44:55.875 So that's the direction I'm gonna go. 00:44:55.875 --> 00:44:58.755 I would love for you to follow me on x at the Daniel J. 00:44:58.755 --> 00:45:02.114 Lewis so you can see what I'm doing as I build this along. 00:45:02.114 --> 00:45:06.610 And now that I've given you some of the guts, I hope, and not 00:45:06.610 --> 00:45:10.050 scare you, and taught you some of the tools, it's time for you to 00:45:10.050 --> 00:45:13.250 go start and grow your own podcast, whether that's on WordPress 00:45:13.250 --> 00:45:17.329 or anything else for passion and profit. I'm Daniel J. 00:45:17.329 --> 00:45:20.945 Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com. Thanks for listening.