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– ‘good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you happen to be hiding out there on the globe today! Coming to you LIVE from …’
Welcome to Episode 645 – Unlock the Secrets of WordPress Efficiency – Tune into WP Plugins A to Z
We’ve got a couple of great in-depth plugins to cover for you, some recent news in both the WordPress World and the Tech World in general, and some awesome WordPress Tips!
How’s everyone out there feeling with the weather changes? I’ve noticed a few people around me catching the seasonal shift flu and starting with the allergies – remember that just ’cause we are shifting into warmer weather, that does not mean you can just drop all the healthy things! Going from cold to warm is just as much as a transition for the body as going from warm to cold, it’s just more enjoyable to head into summer then into winter.
Water, movement, and more water! Warmer days mean more water is needed always!
A few reminders before we start the show today….
Reminders:
- Show starts at 12:30pm Pacific Time every other week on Monday! Join in for the pre-stream entertainment at about 12:15ish! You’ll find the show notes on the home page of wppluginsatoz.com within 24(ish) hours after every show!
- This is a value for value show dear listeners, help us get some loven’ by hitting some like buttons, sharing an episode or two, or just turn our show on really loudly. We will catch somebodies attention!
- If you stick around until the end, you will have a chance to hear some good Questions – sometimes meant for the greenies, sometimes meant for the very experienced – and sometimes the questions are just completely random. Stick around and have a listen, might help! Or at least entertain!
(Don’t feel shy about sending in a message just to say hi! Send along suggestions, questions, recommendations, news, art – we always love to hear from our listeners!)
Let’s start the show with this weeks Featured Artist:
Artist:
Our Artist today is Firefly! https://firefly.adobe.com/?media=featured
We would love some new art from our Producers out there! If you are so inclined, you can send it into us at https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/. If you need some inspiration, you can always go to our site wppluginsatoz.com and check out our Art Vaults – you will find the link for it on the left hand side.
…We can NEVER have too much art!
Breaking News in the WordPress World at large!!
If you have anything you think should be added please send it into me at amber@wppro.ca!
News this week:
WordPress Vulnerability Report
(https://solidwp.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-march-12-2025/) – In this report there are 143 vulnerabilities. 129 are plugins this week, with 14 Themes.
Plugins: 78 Patched / 51 Unpatched
Themes: 8 Patched / 6 Unpatched
WordPress Vulnerability Report from PatchStack
(https://patchstack.com/database/) – These guys always have the latest information on what is going on regarding the latest in vulnerabilities. At the time of writing this, most recent issue was 2 days ago, and the issue was with a plugin called Ad Inserter; it has a Replected Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability.
Where in the WP World?
(https://thewp.world/proximity/) – So as it turns out, you can use this to find people who are publicly listed as WP users close to you and their location – I suppose to go over to their house and have tea? I am not sure, although I do appreciate that it is only people who make the effort to put out their location that you will find – or so it appears! Just wanted to share this with everyone.
Google AIO is sending more traffic to YouTube
(https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-aio-is-sending-more-traffic-to-youtube/540951/) – This is a really good article to read over if you are looking for ways to expand your Organic Growth on your site. Everyone likes getting noticed, and this article explains how making sure you have plenty of short videos, and however many are useful longer videos on your YouTube Channel with fantastic short descriptions will help you and your site get noticed more, and help to expand on your Organic Growth overall!
How Google determines relevancy & helpfulness
(https://www.mariehaynes.com/how-google-determines-relevancy-helpfulness/) – This is a fantastic article to help everyone understand what Google is currently using as its reference points to rate your site – don’t worry, in another 6-8 months it will have likely changed again and we can all work on the new reference points together! Great article to help out for the here and now.
Google March 2025 Core Update is rolling out – here is a deeper dive
(https://www.seroundtable.com/google-march-2025-core-update-39060.html) – This is a good article to look over because knowing when the Google Core Update rolls out will help you to take better care of your SEO on your site. The Core Update’s have an affect on your site every time, and knowing when they happen will help you to figure out the pattern for your own site as well.
(Go visit https://wpshout.com/comics/ for a fantastic brain break!!)
Rogue’s Corner News and Extras
New unique plugins available from WPProAtoz.com
WordPress Items
What does a WordPress site cost
https://tiltedchair.co/how-much-does-a-wordpress-website-cost/
The next stages of WordPress
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpresss-next-phase-mullenweg-shares-whats-ahead/541369/
Plugin Marketplace may end
https://freemius.com/blog/future-of-wordpress-marketplaces/
https://freemius.com/blog/what-is-a-wordpress-marketplace/
Some SEO info:
Understanding Keyword Research
https://alicerowancontentmarketing.com/blog/keyword-research-finding-meaning-data
Seven reasons PMax is stealing your search impressions
https://adalysis.com/blog/seven-reasons-pmax-is-stealing-your-search-impressions/
11 Years of Google Warming: Is Search Heating Up?
https://moz.com/blog/charting-the-google-algorithm
Discussion on AI and SEO replacement
https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/1j6c886/is_seo_truly_dying_in_the_age_of_ai_why_do_you/
Tip of the day
If your a WordPress user you might want to sign up for WPPressor
https://thewp.world/presser/john-overall/
And another community and follow us for an interview with the Creator Ryan on March 24 at 12pm
https://influencewp.com
Some Extras – check out the N3W$ 4 Y0U coming out on Weds for more, or you can check out our Facebook or Twitter!
Welcome to a more powerful WP-Admin experience
(https://wordpress.com/blog/2024/03/04/new-wp-admin/)
Google E-E-A-T: What is it & how to demonstrate it for SEO
(https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-aio-is-sending-more-traffic-to-youtube/540951/)
CSS Flexbox Layout Grid
(https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/)
Creating a personal brand: How to sell yourself as a developer
(dev.to/buildwebcrumbs/creating-a-personal-brand-how-to-sell-yourself-as-a-developer-52po)
“Wait, not like that”: Free and open access in the age of generative AI
(www.citationneeded.news/free-and-open-access-in-the-age-of-generative-ai/)
Crazy Ink Animation Effect with CSS Only (video)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1yU9-QRO48)
Clones have officially arrived – 2025 opens up pre-sale reservations
(https://clonerobotics.com)
Bing tests new Copilot Answer Interface
(https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-new-copilot-answer-interface-39057.html)
The evolution of AI: from foundations to future prospects
(https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/research/evolution-of-ai)
Dragon Rating Time with John!
John’s Plugin
Timed Content
https://wordpress.org/plugins/timed-content/
The Lowdown:
The Timed Content plugin allows users to specify that a portion of a Page or Post should appear/be visible or disappear/be invisible based on given time characteristics. You can also make portions of a Post or Page be visible at certain dates and times; you can even set up a schedule!
The plugin adds the following:
A “client-side” shortcode that allows the marking of content to appear or disappear after a given time interval; a “fade” effect is included. This functionality is intended to be used for special effects only, as content marked in this manner is still visible in the HTML source and, therefore, not a secure method of hiding content.
Two “server-side” shortcodes that allow the marking of content to be visible only during specified date/time intervals. This functionality can be used as a secure method of hiding content, because the marked content will be included in the Page/Post only when viewed in the specified date/time intervals.
A TinyMCE dialog is included to help users build the shortcodes. See the Screenshots tab for more info.
Rating 5 Dragons
WordPress Tips
We would love to hear some tid bit tips from some of our producers out there – what did you figure out by breaking something? Or what did you need to learn in order to help someone? You can send these tid bits into me at amber@wppro.ca
My tip to you today…
For the most part everyone is aware that if you come across an issue tech-wise, there is probably already an answer out there all you gotta do is search.
What many don’t realize, is that while there may very well be an answer out there to the particular problem you are having at this moment, there are also dozens of ‘answers’ to problems that are SIMILAR to the one you are experiencing – but actually have nothing to do with your particular issue.
So when you are researching, be sure to read fully through the ‘answer’ you have found before you start following the steps – many a time has a person read the short description, and the first few steps, and thought ‘yea! This is right, for sure!’
Only to find.. that by step 3 they have now compounded their problem so badly that it is going to take about 10 times longer to resolve it as there are so many problems now even a top of the line professional who specializes in the particular problem you were having at first – will not be entirely sure on where to start unravelling the issues.
ALWAYS make sure that the ‘resolution’ you have found online COMPLETELY matches the problem you are currently having.
AND
DO NOT DELETE anything – make a copy of it and set it aside. You may find that you need to replace whatever it is you have just removed.
Dragon Rating Time with Amber!
Amber’s Plugin
AI Power: Complete AI Pack
https://wordpress.org/plugins/gpt3-ai-content-generator/
The Lowdown:
I am back with the same plugin this week because I realized after fiddling around and looking deeper into the errors (with guidance from my dad John), that I had not actually given this plugin a fair and proper review.
I want to take a moment to sincerely apologize to the creators of this plugin for my poor review last show, the issues were my own fault and not your plugin’s fault.
senols I am terribly sorry! I am going to give a full and proper review this time!
As it turns out, I had had another AI plugin activated!! Another AI plugin that I had reviewed a while ago and had completely forgotten about – the Ask Billy AI Chat Bot Plugin!
So all of the massive energy sucking issues appear to have been caused by my having two AI plugins running at once. Now I am back with this plugin to properly review it!
I feel like the dramatic effect of the two AI’s colliding was like finding two chemicals that work really well to set one another off in chemistry; DO NOT allow this plugin to run with any other AI plugin running – at the very least not Ask Billy!!!
To begin, once downloaded and installed you will find the Plugin Dashboard on the right-hand side menu area under ‘AI Power’. Here you choose which Engine to go with: OpenAI, OpenRouter, Google, and Microsoft. Each one of these will be better at one area than the others – for instance, I was unable to get an image at all with OpenRouter, although by choosing ‘OpenAI’ I was able to get an awesome dragon with emerald scaled breathing ice-fire!
The amount of personalization you can do with this plugin is mind boggling – can be overwhelming in some areas. For example with the image prompter – you have 14 settings from what kind of artist and style, all the way down to the model, size and # of images! Then you also have options along the top tabs of ‘Replicate’, ‘Shortcodes’, ‘Logs’, and ‘Settings’ where there are so many more settings and options.
In order to fully and completely set this up to be used by the public I foresee this taking hours. To use it for just yourself, you can take your time and attack it on a need basis – just fix up the settings for each component as you find you need or want to use this.
One of the things I like a lot is the option I keep seeing ‘Surprise Me’. It makes for a lot of fun!!
A really cool option they have here is under ‘Role Manager’. Here you are able to control which user has access to which options of AI Power – so if you want to give the Editor the ability to access the images but not the content writer, you can! There are 16 main setting options including ‘Wizard’ which I think is a fantastic Setting Label, so this will take a bit to set up.
Really the biggest drawbacks I can see with this plugin, are the incompatibility with other AI Plugins, the time it will take to set up, and the cost.
Looking at this monetarily from my own experience:
I paid $5.00 to OpenAI for a full package option so I could completely test this plugin out.
Each ‘request’ I made, making an image or creating written content, was about $0.04.
If only 1-3 people are using this sparingly, it will last for a while, and tossing $5-10 into the account every month will keep it going nicely.
If this is open to the public, it will not take long for this to become very expensive, so you will find yourself having to charge to keep this going. If that would work for your site then awesome! If that would not work for your site, then this plugin I do not think is for you.
I do like how well this works once you remove the catastrophic chemical reaction between the multiple AI’s! It’s smooth, easy to understand, and is very interesting! I can see that a lot of work and thought went into this.
Now this is just the free version of this plugin, for the Pro version there are so many more items available.
This Plugin can help with content and image creation, Chatbot option, Forms and Training, Audio Converter – there is just so much available in this! You can turn each module off as needed or not as well, offering the ability to declutter your WP site which is useful.
If any of this seems like it is worth using, that it may help you out, please be sure to check this plugin out!
Rating: 4 Dragon
Donations from across the galaxy!
Producership Credits are a thing that do actually exist – we offer them up to those who donate through Time, Talent or Treasure. You can use these credits to boost up your resume, add to your LinkedIn file, so on and so forth!
Even if you are not interested in receiving a Producership Credit, check out how you can use us as your own stepping ladder in the world of the internets – get yourself an interview, get us to make your announcement for you, let the world know you have something to say or a company worth checking out!
Have a look through our site wppluginsatoz.com. Check out the Time, Talent and Treasure pages.
Miscellaneous Announcements from all:
Have an announcement like a meetup, or to announce you’ll be on stage at a WordCamp? Let us know and we will add it here and help get your news out to the world!
Women WordPress Day Guatemala 2025 – March 22
WordPress Women’s Day Nicaragua – March 29
WordCamp Nepal 2025 – April 4-5
Jornada de Disseny Web Amb WordPress Lleida 2025 – April 9
WordCamp Vienna 2025 – April 25-26
To see the entire list you can follow the link here in the show notes, then click on ‘More WordCamps’ right below the list of the next 5. https://central.wordcamp.org/
If you are interested in finding a WordPress Meetup somewhere around the world you can go check out the places here: https://www.meetup.com/pro/wordpress/
Keep checking back every week to find out what else is going on!
How to reach us:
Feel like sending us something through the snail mail system? You can do that thanks to our brick and mortar address that we provide for you!
You can also reach us the more common way of the internets – have both of our internets available down below for ya!
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
John:
My website:http://www.johnoverall.com/
WordPress Emergency Support:http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
email:john@wppro.ca
Amber:
email: amber@wppro.ca
Today’s Plugins we covered were:
John’s Plugin:
Timed Content By Arno Welzel
Two sided shortcodes to hide content
Two sided shortcodes to place content on a schedule
“Fade” effect included!
Rating: 5 Dragons
Amber’s Plugin:
AI Power: Complete AI Pack by senols
Multiple AI providers
Forms and Training capabilities
Audio Converter and Image/Content Creation
Rating: 4 Dragon
Q & A Time with Amber – Catch this info on our YouTube Channel
If you have questions you would like to have asked on the show, send them in to me atAmber@WPPro.ca – we may never stump my dad, but we can get some good conversation out of him at least!
- What is the best option when you screw up: tell your client, or hurry up and fix it and hope they don’t notice?
- What has been the best mistake you have ever made – something where you thought it was the end, but it actually turned out to be just the best possible outcome?
Questions asked after closing credits:
- Of all of your creations, which one is your favourite? Not the ‘best’ one, just your favourite – maybe it was the most fun to create or was just random.
- Of all of your creations, which one is your least favourite, and why? Same sort of out of the box reasoning applies.