Steve’s Blog

The Challenges and Wins of Creating a Suite of WordPress Plugins on Open Makers

I joined Mark Westguard on the Open Makers podcast (Open Channels FM) to talk about building a suite of WordPress plugins under the PublishPress umbrella. We covered the challenges of maintaining multiple plugins, the business decisions behind acquiring and growing products, and the wins that come from serving a dedicated community of WordPress publishers. If you’re interested in the behind-the-scenes of running a WordPress plugin business, this is a good listen.

Listen to the full episode at Open Channels FM.

Read MoreThe Challenges and Wins of Creating a Suite of WordPress Plugins on Open Makers

Logtivity Interview with WPTavern

For the second time in a couple of years, I talked with Nathan Wrigley on the WPTavern podcast.

The first time around, we chatted about Gutenberg Phase 3.

This time, we discussed launching a SaaS service. In particular, we discussed how difficult it can be.

I had been talking with other WordPress friends who want to start SaaS. They develop successful plugins and want to branch out to launch a SaaS project. So we focused on the lessons we’ve learned from Logtivity over the last couple of years.

I ended up turning this podcast into a blog post: “Lessons for WordPress Plugin Developers Starting a SaaS“.

Read MoreLogtivity Interview with WPTavern

We’re Now Running Logtivity, the WordPress Activity Log

Logtivity is now part of the team that runs PublishPress, MetaSlider, and TaxoPress.

Back in 2021, I told the story of how we became part-owners of Logtivity. And over the last couple of years, I’ve been running Logtivity with my business partner, Ralph Morris. Our aim was to build the best activity log service for WordPress.

During 2023, Ralph’s time has been squeezed between a new job and a growing family. Although 2023 was incredibly productive for Logtivity, we talked at the end of the year and Ralph realized he was over-committed. He needed to recover some of his time. So we agreed to an ownership change. Although we had previously been a minority partner, our team will take over the running of Logtivity.

This process was a little more complicated than we expected because Ralph is in the UK and we’re in the US. The takeover involved closing a UK company and opening a new US company. Stripe doesn’t allow you to move accounts between countries, so we need to migrate all the accounts from one Stripe account to another.

It’s time for our team to get to work and keep working to build the best activity log for WordPress.

Read the full Logtivity announcement.

Read MoreWe’re Now Running Logtivity, the WordPress Activity Log

Lessons Learned from Building Successful Plugins in the WordPress Space on Do the Woo

I was a guest on the Do the Woo podcast with BobWP to talk about lessons learned from building a suite of successful WordPress plugins. We covered how the PublishPress plugin family grew, the challenges of acquiring and integrating new plugins, and what I’ve learned about serving a dedicated community of WordPress publishers and content teams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJGqJQXO1Jk
Read MoreLessons Learned from Building Successful Plugins in the WordPress Space on Do the Woo

Sharing My Posts on ActivityPub

Over on the KinshiPress blog, I wrote about the new connection between ActivityPub and WordPress.

During the last few years, social networks have been splintering and it would be a major improvement for social users to have control over their own profile on their own site.

Over 10 years ago, I wrote a post with this title: “There is an Open Source Rival to Facebook: WordPress“. In the last decade, the potential I described hasn’t been realized.

In that post, I walk you though how the ActivityPub plugin works, explore the key features, and see whether this is finally the open source social platform that could gain traction.

Read MoreSharing My Posts on ActivityPub