MainWP Blog - 2020

Black Friday goes back a long way. As a kid, almost 40 years ago, I don’t remember it being a thing. At least not in the small town in Arkansas where I lived. Mostly my mom went back to work on Friday after Thanksgiving. My dad usually stayed home. We didn’t have school. The idea of shopping for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving (in America) dates back to the 1950s and 60s. Apparently, the police in Philadelphia used the term Continue reading the post...

If you are looking for an alternative option for being able to serve images in the correct optimized image format for customers then ImageKit is worth checking out. ImageKit includes automatic image optimization, will work with a number of external object storage options such as AWS S3, Digital Ocean Spaces, Google Cloud Storage, and Firebase. ImageKit uses AWS Cloudfront as the built-in global fast CDN for serving out site images. Imagekit will also integrate with a number of CDN providers Continue reading the post...

Janessa Tran is the marketing manager for eLightUp, which is the company developed MetaBox and GretaThemes. Today we catch up with Janessa Tran and learn more about her job at eLightUp. During this Q&A, we learn that Janessa is a mother of two adorable daughters, previously worked in advertisement, where she spends most of her time for her job, her love of cooking, and the predestined relationship she has with her husband. How did you get started with WordPress? Actually, Continue reading the post...

Having a fast site which serves the smallest sized optimized images is something that everyone wants. We have already covered options within the ShortPixel CDN and if using the Polish feature in the Cloudflare CDN. We are going to cover two other plugin options to be able to serve site images in the next-gen WebP image format. The first plugin that we are going to cover is the WebP Express plugin. After you have installed and activated the plugin you Continue reading the post...

In today’s roundup, we discuss EIG, a major PHP update, and if Automattic is going to IPO. Buckle in, let’s ride. EIG acquisitions lead to its own acquisition Everyone has an EIG story. EIG, of course, is the acronym for Endurance International Group. They have a portfolio of some of the worst-rated hosts around the globe. Think BlueHost. You can see all of those brands at this link. Over the years, they have acquired dozens of hosts, many of which Continue reading the post...

WordPress 5.6 which is on track to be released on the 8th December includes a new opt-in feature for major WordPress core auto-updates. There is a filter that will be added in WordPress 5.6 which means that the auto-updates feature can be disabled using a code snippet. MainWP offers a solid extension that allows code snippets to be executed on all connected child sites. add_filter( 'allow_major_auto_core_updates', '_return_false' ); If you want to keep the UI but not have it checked Continue reading the post...

Being able to find new theme options that are not bloated and are performance-based can be a struggle to have to look through which works well. One of the newer themes is Blocksy which is performance-focused. The Blocksy theme works with page builders like Beaver Builder, Elementor, and the block editor in WordPress core. Blocksy has a child theme which can be installed, along with a companion plugin which extends the feature of the Blocksy theme. The theme includes a Continue reading the post...

What business task do you repeat each week? Are they pretty benign? I know that you are already using a MainWP dashboard to update your websites, so you know the value of automating as much as you can for the benefit of your business. What if you could take advantage of other systems? What about systems to help with email marketing and lead nurturing? What about systems to help with your project management and internal company organization? Would that help Continue reading the post...

When the end of the year, we have all kinds of feel goods. By the time it arrives, we have watched two months of Hallmark Christmas movies. Or maybe other kinds of Christmas movies. Once the dishes are washed on Thanksgiving Day, there is a mad rush to move on to the Holiday shopping season. For decades now, we have had the infamous Black Friday sales. Just in the last few years, we have noticed Cyber Monday. That’s not enough, Continue reading the post...

If you are looking for a privacy-focused, lightweight, and simple web analytics solution for your child sites, then I would recommend looking at using Plausible Analytics. Plausible Analytics script is only 1KB in size which means it will not slow your site down by having to load a number of scripts on load like a number of other analytics solutions like say Google Analytics. You can sign up for a free 30 day trial that does not require a credit Continue reading the post...