Free Goods Of The Week – Apr. 22
April 22, 2025
Valuable Tips | Interesting Articles This Week
Not a lack of power, but feeling as though we have none. Some people have been indoctrinated to prefer a life with no agency, as it also brings no responsibility. At the other extreme, some folks have decided that they have more power than they actually do. Video games offer people a chance to experience virtual power–an opportunity to feel a lack of powerlessness. Click the mouse, something happ
How Heike Young Uses Humor to Transform B2B Marketing
It’s rare that a B2B marketer is funny on LinkedIn. And not “posted a meme about ChatGPT taking over my job” funny. I mean genuinely , “I would watch this content in my free time” kind of humor. And she’s got 20K followers (and some viral videos with 4M+ views) to prove it. Today’s expert tells us to stop obsessing over high-performing content, and why your buyer persona is bingeing Selling Sunse
Instagram Stories Strategy for 2025
Struggling to get consistent engagement from your Instagram Stories? Unsure how Stories fit into your broader content strategy as we head into 2025? In this article, you’ll discover how to plan and execute an Instagram Stories strategy designed to grow your audience, deepen connections, and drive meaningful business results throughout the year. Why Instagram Stories […]
Every Team Should Know Its Earned Media Value — Here’s Why
Most brands chase exposure. They pour money into ads and PR, hoping to buy attention. And, it works if you have deep pockets. But if you don’t? Then, you’ve got a bunch of tactics to gain earned media value without paying for every mention. Here’s where your whole team will help you gain EMV. In this article, I’ll break down what EMV is, why EMV isn’t just your marketing team’s concern, how to ca
How to Embed Apple Podcasts in WordPress (2 Easy Methods)
When I first tried to add podcast episodes to my WordPress website, I quickly realized that embedding them from Apple Podcasts wasn’t as straightforward as I’d hoped. Like many of you, I wanted a simple solution that wouldn’t require coding knowledge. Through trial and error (and plenty of coffee), I discovered several different methods for embedding Apple Podcasts in WordPress. And by testing th
Simple and painless productivity
On the factory floor, productivity increases are relentlessly implemented, often without regard for worker satisfaction. For people working with a laptop, though, they are often seen as optional lifestyle choices instead of ways to significantly boost how much we can get done–and the satisfaction that comes with time we control. If you work on your own, your productivity choices are up to you. Bu
Easy Guide to Saving HAR Files and Console Logs for Troubleshooting
When something goes wrong with a website – whether it is a broken design, slow performance, shows an error message or something else, it is sometimes difficult to find the exact cause of the issue just by looking at the page. That’s where the HAR files or browser console errors come into play. These in-built browser features allow the tech experts or developers to dig deeper into what’s happening.
Main Character Energy: What Black Panther Can Teach You About Inclusive Marketing
“Inclusive marketing is all about brands acknowledging the many ways that people are different,” says this marketing master. Her voice drops to a conspiratorial tone. “And this is the very important part: Choosing which identities you’re going to serve.” Also important (to this Marvel fan, anyway): What does inclusive marketing have to do with the … MCU? Meet the Master Name: Sonia Thompson, Foun
A Deep Dive Into the Different Types of AI Agents and When to Use Them
I have seen things I wouldn’t have believed even a few years ago. ChatGPT drafting content strategies from a three-sentence prompt. Grammarly solving my Oxford comma woes across an entire manuscript. I have yet to watch C-beams glitter in the dark . But I’ve witnessed AI reshape how I work — and it’s only just begun. One area I find most compelling is agentic AI. Right now, AI agents sit squarely
My Favorite B2B Email Marketing Examples and What Teams Can Learn
A Microsoft study found that people spend 15% of the workday checking email— that’s about six hours a week squinting at their inboxes. While many want that number to be lower, the truth is that email is still a valuable communication tool. When I opt into an email list, it’s because I anticipate something of value in return: expert insights, a story or case study, a free trial, or an event i
Social Media Engagement: How to Make Your Brand the Life of The Digital Party
Engagement on social media is like mingling at a party. There could be tons of people in the room (read: following you), the music could be great, and the vibe could be just right, but if no one’s conversing, the party’s dead — and no one wants to throw a lousy party. By prioritizing social media engagement, businesses can avoid this fate and accomplish their marketing goals. Likes and comments m
Building AI Agents: How to Get Started
Curious about AI agents but not sure where to begin? Wondering how entrepreneurs and marketers are using them to save time and scale operations? In this article, you’ll discover a beginner-friendly framework for building and deploying AI agents—along with practical tips and tools to help you get results faster and more efficiently in your business. […]
Technical debt is easy to incur. It’s unnecessary added features, undocumented code, support for outmoded interactions and anything that slows down your ability to update and upgrade your work. Tech debt is the combination of doing what feels right at the time, in a hurry, and then having to maintain it and understand it going forward. Vibe coding, which is a rising trend, pairs a human programme
Cache Me Outside, How Bout Dat?
Read to the end to see an adorable epic battle. In today’s edition: Basel’s upcoming WordCamp has more useful sessions than your Swiss Army knife has tools. The Admin Bar’s 2025 survey is your chance to spill your hot takes, and maybe discover you’re not the only one Googling, “how to deal with clients” every day. The web has become an overengineered mess. Joost de Valk’s suggestion? Embrace your
WordPress JubileeWordPress News / 2d
As I said, we’re dropping all the human blocks. Community guidelines, directory guidelines, and such will need to be followed going forward, but whatever blocks were in place before are now cleared. It may take a few days, but any pre-existing blocks are considered bugs to be fixed.
How to Add a Searchable WooCommerce Product Table to Your Online Store in 10 Minutes!
Adding a searchable WooCommerce product table to your online store can be a simple and effective way to improve user experiences by making it easier for customers to find their favorite products and pinpoint exactly what they’re looking for. Yet, if your current online store theme or page builder doesn’t support product tables by default, […]
How to Move Your Site From HubSpot to WordPress (Step by Step)
Many business owners feel stuck with HubSpot because they worry about losing their content, breaking their SEO rankings, or disrupting their email marketing. These are valid concerns – I had the same worries when I decided to migrate one of my HubSpot sites to WordPress. The good news is that moving from HubSpot to WordPress is completely doable with the right approach. All you need is to follow
How I Built a $2.6 Million Agency in Year One Without a Sales Team — Using Nothing But LinkedIn
Prior to launching my own marketing business, I worked at athletic apparel company Gymshark, driving our marketing strategy around community. I knew that bringing people together was powerful. I just had to move that concept out of the fitness space and into business. How hard could it be? So, when I launched my community marketing agency, Butterfly Effect, I took a new approach. I put on my “pro
The HubSpot Blog’s Social Media Video Trends Report: Data from 1,000+ Social Media Marketers
2025 is upon us, and a new year brings new trends and new challenges. If you‘re a brand looking to leverage social media video this year, you may not know what to expect but don’t worry. I, your resident content creator and social media expert, have the expertise you need to prepare for social media video marketing in 2025. I also have stats from HubSpot’s handy-dandy Social Media Trends Report,
Sometimes, in the absence of data or useful experience, we’re left to act on our instincts. It’s worth noting that other people have instincts as well. And in a given situation, their instincts might prove to be as right as often as ours. Just because it’s your instinct doesn’t mean it’s the best instinct. When in doubt, seek reality and useful experience instead.
A solid work ethic drives someone to show up, even when they’d rather not. If there’s work on their desk, they’ll take it on. Discipline, on the other hand, is the ability to say ‘no’ to free up focus and resources for the work that’s worth saying ‘yes’ to.
If you memorize the steps, you have a direct, simple and fast path to obtain the result. Until the world changes. Even the tiniest shift in the system will render your memorization useless. On the other hand, if you understand the concept, you’ll be able to produce the steps whenever you need them.
Teachers and organizations benefit from both, but they’re not the same. Engagement is the delight we have when we lean into the process. Engagement happens when social media is optimized for maximum focus, and it also can be seen in a student who’s in sync with a teacher who cares. Enrollment is a commitment to change. Enrollment in the process means we’re willing to push through the difficult pa
Most often bad actors try their best to hide their activities by using obfuscated code or by uploading fake plugins or themes that inject simple but malicious scripts into a site. Every now and then we encounter a case where legitimate software is used for malicious purposes. We recently uncovered a case where Sypex Dumper, a valid database backup utility, was injected into the WordPress files.
AI Agents Today: How Google Gemini, Stream Realtime & Claude are Rewriting Marketing
I’ve spent decades analyzing shifts in marketing, but the rise of AI agents is the most disruptive one yet. These systems are quickly taking over the user journey — but unlike humans, they evaluate structured data, analyze backend specifications, and make decisions in milliseconds. Major players are already taking note and adapting. For example, Adobe recently introduced AI agents that brands can
It’s hard to build a house without a hammer. The hammer has been around for a long time, and thanks to its intuitive design, a user can get 70% of the benefit after less than ten minutes of instruction. People who depend on hammers for their livelihood are probably at over 95% efficiency. In the last decade, we’ve outfitted billions of people with tools that didn’t exist until recently.
Efficiency + Convenience. Not everything is industrialized. A backyard garden, a freelance editor, even a chef with a hands-on restaurant. These folks are building a practice and producing value, but they haven’t embraced industrialization. That happens when management steps in, productizes, routinizes and optimizes. Industrialization produces huge gains in productivity, but it’s also a bit britt
Ad-Jacked: Cybercriminals Inject Google Adsense into WordPress
Recently, we’ve encountered cases where WordPress websites were impacted by Google Adsense hijackers. Attackers inject advertisements and scripts that steal website resources and pump ad views for their adsense accounts. This is not the first time we’ve seen attackers abusing popular Google services. In a previous case, we discovered a credit card skimmer hiding inside Google Tag Manager,
How to Transform Still Images Into Live Videos for Free With the Latest AI Tools
The latest advancements in AI art have taken over the internet. It seems like many people are enjoying the ability to instantly make their vision come to life. One thing that hasn’t gotten as much attention is that you can take AI-generated images (or any images for that matter) and transform them into videos. In this quick guide, I’m going to show you just how you can do it.
What’s New in WordPress 6.8? (Features and Screenshots)
WordPress 6.8 is finally here ?, and we’ve been testing it since the early beta. It’s the first major release of 2025 with several important changes. You’ll notice speed improvements after the update, thanks to the new speculative loading feature that makes pages feel like they load before you click them. This update also introduces better design tools, stronger password protection, and a more p
Each WordPress release celebrates an artist who has left an indelible mark on music. WordPress 6.8, code-named “Cecil,” honors the legendary pianist and jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor. Classically trained yet relentlessly unconventional, Taylor reimagined the piano as a percussive instrument—layering tone clusters, polyphony, and rhythm into a sound both chaotic and precise. His music defied expectati
Welcome aThemes to the WPBeginner Family of Products
Today, I’m extremely excited to share that aThemes is joining the Awesome Motive network, and they’re now part of the WPBeginner family of products . aThemes is a popular WordPress theme company known for building beautiful website templates that are optimized for speed and performance. Over 130,000+ websites use aThemes’ WordPress themes and plugins to build an online presence, launch online sto
EDD Cancellation Survey Review (Why Are Your Customers Leaving? Get Answers!)
Cancellations used to be a blind spot for us with our WordPress plugins. We had a general sense of why people might leave, but no consistent data to confirm it or to act on. After struggling to justify improvements without clear insights, we turned to the EDD Cancellation Survey plugin by WP Sunshine. We implemented […]
2024 was the year of AI tools. Thousands of new apps launched — some just photo generators and gimmicks, others much more useful. What stood out to me were the tools that actually helped you get things done. This list comes from a16z’s AI Unwrapped , which largely features consumer apps for personal use. I’m calling out a few favorites from categories like productivity, audience growth, learning,
The HubSpot Blog’s TikTok Marketing Report: Insights from 1,000+ Social Media Marketers
I first downloaded TikTok during college to scroll through comedy and pop culture discourse. But then, as I grew as a marketer, I started seeing some serious potential everywhere. And I’m not the only one who noticed. TikTok has evolved beyond just dance trends and viral challenges into a genuine powerhouse for brands connecting with audiences authentically. And don‘t just take my word for it — w
Custom GPTs Secrets: How to Get Great Results Every Time
Frustrated by inconsistent results from ChatGPT? Wonder how to get lightning-fast, high-quality outputs without using prompts? In this article, you’ll discover how to build and refine custom GPTs that consistently deliver reliable results—saving you time and helping you easily scale your content, marketing, or business workflows. Why Marketers and Entrepreneurs Should Use Custom GPTs While […]
If three people are coming over for dinner, does that stress you out? What if it’s 17? If you’re giving a talk explaining your strategy to four people, does it feel like a high-risk event? What if it’s 54? How many more people are required before it flips to stressful? Because the last person is just one person. If you’re performing in an auditorium, there are still only thirty people you can
Interesting Articles This Week
