Bridget Willard | SaaS Marketing Agency

Author: Bridget Willard

  • WordPress 5.6 and PHP 8 – Changes [Did] Happen

    Is your plugin ready for PHP 8? Maybe I should ask if you’re ready for WordPress 5.6? Either way, there will be changes. Breaking ones. Read them all on PHP 8’s GitHub page.

    PHP 8 comes out on Thanksgiving and WordPress 5.6 comes out 12 calendar days later. So, yay! Not so much? Also, why are there any software releases after October 15? If you believe in holidays, then believe in holidays. Sheesh.

    I’ve reached out to my clients who build plugins and themes and none of them are surprised by either WordPress 5.6 coming or PHP 8. They’re a bit bummed that it means another holiday testing their code, but yeah. Welcome to plugin development in WordPress, right? Nothing new to see here, folks.

    When is PHP 8 Coming Out?

    General availability or GA of PHP 8 will be on 26 November, according to their calendar. PHP has 4 release candidates and the fourth will be on 12 November.

    PHP Release Candidate 2 is available for testing as of 16 October and the third will drop 29 October. (PHP is international so the date is European style.)

    When is WordPress 5.6 Coming Out?

    The final release is set to come out December 8 according to this post on Make WordPress.

    WordPress has a call for testing PHP 8 right now for 5.6. Testing feedback in the form of GitHub or Trac tickets closes November 17.

    And, yes, WordPress 5.6 will have support for PHP 8. So you may as well make your plugin ready. Right?

    “Even though WordPress 5.6 will add support for PHP 8.0, no changes will be made to the minimum required version of PHP at this time.” Andrei Draganescu (10/6/2020)

    How Does PHP Affect My WordPress Website?

    If you’re reading this and you’re a website owner but not a product or plugin developer, that’s okay. The bottom line is this: it’s best practices to have your software as up-to-date as possible. If you’re not sure, check with your web host.

    WordPress is a content management system that uses PHP to talk between the servers, your website, and the browser. Generally, your website host determines how high you can upgrade your site’s PHP. My site is and I was on PHP 7.2, for example. I just upgraded to PHP 7.4. That was as high as I could go.

    Should I Refactor for PHP 8?

    Maybe. My suggestion from a strategic standpoint and manpower is to be ready for the future. In marketing and public relations, we like to be ahead of the story. It seems to me you save yourself a lot of work later if you plan for the future now.

    “Refactoring WordPress plugins is no joke. But if you start with small functions like this and gradually work your way around the codebase, it gets easier.” Tom McFarlin

    Maybe start another dev branch that is PHP 8 ready but wrapped to support down to 7.2 or something. 7.4 might be a better route, but it’s up to you.

    We like to honor backward compatibility in WordPress but Gutenberg is already a major breaking change (though I seem to be the only one saying it). But that’s another blog post.

    “PHP 8 is actually already at RC2 and will be released nov 26th. Re: WP vs PHP8 – as things stand, expect breakage in unexpected places. Most of WP is untested on PHP 8 and with WPs reliance on type juggling, things *will* break.” Juliette on Twitter 

    How Should PHP 8 Affect My WordPress Plugin?

    PHP 8 and WordPress plugins may be a bit of a challenge. Like I noted earlier, WordPress 5.6 (as of right now) will support PHP 8. Some of my friends, however, worry about some issues that will cause breakage.

    Marketing Your Plugin’s Compatibility with PHP 8 and WordPress 5.6

    Yes, you should let people know that your plugin is compatible with WordPress 5.6 and/or PHP 8. Start your GitHub repos, begin your documentation, write blog posts, include notes on update schedules on product pages. Tweet. Yeah. You should tell people.

    Note that Josepha wrote: “WordPress 5.6 includes seven Gutenberg plugin releases.” SEVEN. So, maybe check those out.

    What about Laravel and PHP 8?

    Developers like Carl Alexander and Josh Pollock will be upgrading their Laravel products to PHP 8 right away. Why? Well, it’s a pretty complicated issue in WordPress. Laravel is newer.

    What about Microsoft and PHP 8?

    When I read this quote on the Microsoft externals channel, I was aghast. It sounded like PHP 8 wouldn’t work on Windows Servers.

    “We are not, however, going to be supporting PHP for Windows in any capacity for version 8.0 and beyond.” Dale Hirt, Service Engineer Microsoft

    But, thankfully, after writing a comment on The WP Tavern, Andrey set me straight.

    “PHP language is still absolutely supported and works on Windows.Microsoft discontinued donation of time and infrastructure to the process of producing Windows binaries of PHP. Just that.” Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko

    He’s nice like that. One of my favorite people on the planet!

    OMG This is So Long! TL;DR

    • PHP 8 releases November 26.
    • WordPress 5.6 Releases December 8.

  • WordPress and Facebook oEmbed Support

    Many of us who have been blogging for years are completely used to being able to post a link to a Facebook or Instagram post and it magically appearing.

    That is from the oEmbed support from Facebook’s API. The old oEmbed endpoints end October 24, 2020. They have new Facebook oEmbed endpoints. The developer requirements, should you want to create your own app, are in that post.

    Keep in mind that when we say “Facebook’s API” this also includes Instagram.

    Search Engine Journal noted that the changes are retroactive.

    “To be specific, an upcoming API update will remove support for unauthenticated Facebook and Instagram embeds. …The change is retroactive, so all Facebook and Instagram embeds on the sites of unauthenticated publishers will soon become broken. This has the potential to affect millions of sites.” Matt Southern

    I will admit it was nice to see something about WordPress Core in SEJ!

    Facebook and WordPress

    As a result, WordPress Core (the base software not plugins and themes) is ending support for Facebook and Instagram oEmbeds as of WordPress 5.5.2.

    I support this decision fully. As I wrote on the Trac ticket 50861:

    As a writer and social media manager, who loves and depends upon oEmbeds (rather than screenshots), I completely understand the logic behind removal.

    I completely agree this should become plugin-dependent.

    Facebook is famous for changing the rules on their playground. And, honestly, APIs be like that sometimes. Right?

    So, as far as communicating this to the general public, we should fill in the holes of people’s education.

    WordPress 5.5.2 has an important update that affects oEmbeds of Facebook properties. This includes Instagram and Facebook links.

    How Does This Affect You?

    Previously, any WordPress blogger could simply insert a URL of a Facebook or Instagram post and the image and post would render. Like magic, but definitely technical.

    Unfortunately, Facebook has made access to their API a bit more complicated which, cheers to them, helps protect the privacy of its user base.

    If you’re worried about this update, check your posts for links that don’t unfurl/render. They will appear as regular links. It isn’t broken, it just doesn’t render. Instead, use the link like you would any link — in a sentence — with accessibility in mind.

    You can always include a screenshot with alt tags and a caption as well

    Jetpack to the Rescue

    Well, it’s no surprise that Jetpack by Automattic finds a reason to be relevant again. They will be supporting oEmbeds from Facebook and Instagram as long as your site is connected to Jetpack.

    “Facebook and Instagram are ending support for their oEmbed API on October 24. After this change, you must register a Facebook developer account, create an app, and provide a token when calling the new API. …Simply connect your site to Jetpack and start sharing. We’ll handle everything behind the scenes so you don’t have to worry about it.” Jetpack

    But I Want My oEmbeds

    If you don’t want to use Jetpack, and I get it, there are other plugins you can use. In the same WordPress Trac thread, Syed Balkhi suggests two of his company’s solutions:

    “Just wanted to comment here, since our Smash Balloon Instagram and FB feed plugins are already used by over 1.2 million users, we have added the oEmbed functionality to it.

    This was easy for us to do because to create custom feeds, users would have to use the API key anyways. Over the years, our plugin has simplified that process to make it very user-friendly.

    I think it’d be helpful to recommend these because we DO NOT require users to go through a complicated FB app setup process or anything.

    Instagram Feeds – https://wordpress.org/plugins/instagram-feed/
    Facebook Feeds – https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-facebook-feed/

    How Else Can I Link to Facebook and Instagram Posts?

    The good news is that links are links. As long as the post is public, you can still create a link within the context of a paragraph. People can click the link and go to the post. It’s not that big of a deal. If you really want the visual, then take a screenshot. If you do that, make sure to include alt text and a link to the actual post. It’s a little bit of work, but worth it.

  • Beaver Builder Landing Page Tutorial: Partner with a Designer

    Are you wondering how to use , well, better? The best route is to hire a designer. They can build modules and templates for you to use!

    Can I Build My Website Myself?

    Yes. WordPress is for everyone. And, yes, anyone can build a website. Your biggest hurdle is having high-quality versions of your logos and photos as well as information about your business ready for print, as they say.

    Pick a free theme, enter your information, and boom. You’re done. This is especially true for a basic site that has home, about, contact, and a blog.

    Hey. I built my own and for the last construction company I worked on. It’s hard. Believe me. And don’t even get me started on the black hole of choosing a theme. If you’re doing it yourself, pick an easy theme. Heck. I wish I had started with from the beginning.

    Why Hire A Designer?

    You should hire a designer because you are not one. Seriously. They’re educated. They’re faster. They think of solutions better than you.

    Please learn from my mistakes. I’ve done so many things the hard way because I didn’t know better. I’m not a designer. Neither are you.

    Hiring a designer to build you layouts and modules in Beaver Builder — if not your whole site — is the best way to go.

    The second best way to go is to buy, along with Beaver Builder, Soul Sections which are ready to go! Like, seriously. Responsiveness (how your website looks on mobile devices) is baked in and Dave Bloom is awesome. (Also, my client, but still. He’s awesome.)

    Here is my . I’ve been using it for over 3 years. My site is built on Beaver Builder Theme using Beaver Builder. It’s worth every single penny.

    Easily Replicate a Landing Page Template

    In this video, I show you how to easily replicate one of your landing pages so that you can build another (using my two books as examples) that is consistent with your site.

    You don’t need the landing page to be in the main menu or navigation. It’s for internal linking, and search results.

    If you’re curious about best practices for landing pages, I’d suggest watching the episode of The Smart Marketing Show with Jen Miller. There is also a Part II that goes into strategy.

    Beaver Builder Video Tutorial

    Here is the video tutorial on how to replicate your layout to make another landing page on your site.

    Photo by niklas_hamann on Unsplash

  • Get Your cPanel Updates in Slack!

    How exciting is this news from cPanel? Their new update (90) has a lot of great features, but the one that caught my eye is the ability to use Slack’s webhooks to get notifications.

    Their say:

    In cPanel & WHM version 90, you can now send system notifications to one or more Slack WebHooks. You can specify SlackÂź WebHooks in WHM’s Basic WebHost Manager Setup interface (WHM >> Home >> Server Configuration >> Basic WebHost Manager Setup).

    Web developers, system admins, and even marketers feel overwhelmed often about the digital chores and hurdles we cross just to find out what we need to know.

    I mean, how many tabs do you have open and how many screens? I’m way over my 8-tab max, typing this while I’m curating Tweets for a Twitter Pro Client.

    But y’all, this sounds like a great improvement for any agency or freelancer’s workflow.

    Which WordPress Web Hosts Will Include cPanel 90?

    The next logical question is which hosting companies will upgrade to cPanel 90. I personally use Pressable and I don’t believe they have cPanel access, according to my designer anyway. Companies love SiteGround for this reason.

    What do you think of Slack notifications from cPanel?

  • How Do You Get Customers on The X Platform (Twitter)? My Top 7 Tips

    Can you really get customers on Twitter? Yes. You can. I do. Most of the time. Yes, if you’re in business and it’s focused on business-to-business (B2B), then you need Twitter. I recently talked with Kim Doyal on this subject as well.

    Firstly, you can’t analyze data that you don’t measure. Tracking your lead source only happens if you ask your customers how they heard about you.

    I Get My Customers from Twitter

    As an exercise, I imported clients from FreshBooks into Google Sheets. Almost 42% of my leads come through referrals (usually in my Twitter DMs), 30% come from Twitter, and almost 12% come from friends (most of whom I met on Twitter.) It’s arguable that 70% of my business truly comes from Twitter. Then again, I manage Twitter for brands.

    pie chart of lead source for my business
    Pie Chart of Lead Source – April 2020

    People ask me all the time:

    “You mean people pay you to do that?”

    To which I generally reply:

    “Yes, so far it’s working.”

    (Do people pay you to answer their phones? Hello?)

    Here are my time-tested tips on how to get customers on Twitter.

    1. Be Present in Your Twitter Feed

    To get customers on Twitter it is important that you are present in your feed. What does this look like? It means that you sign onto Twitter in the morning, check notifications, reply to everyone, and post something. Scroll through the home feed and reply to at least three people.

    Posting once a day on Twitter isn’t for growth, by the way. It’s basic life support. If you want to grow, you need to spend time on Twitter. It’s about volume over time.

    In the last 28 days, for example, I tweeted over 1500 times. Now, I also have 18,000 followers. So my volume is appropriate for my account.

    2. Search for Questions on Twitter

    To get customers on Twitter it is important that you are seen as a source of information. Not only are you a source, but you are an accessible source. This means curbing your use of jargon or, at least, using it and defining it.

    People are tweeting all day long about things that interest them as well as their frustrations. Find questions that you can answer and reply to their tweets. This is how you build followers and affinity for your brand. People will like you for being helpful.

    Remember to use quotes around your search phrase and choose “latest tweets” instead of “top tweets.” It’s a bit of extra work, but it helps.

    3. Share Your Content Regularly

    To get customers on Twitter it is important that you publish on your blog and share it on Twitter regularly. You want people to recognize your brand and affiliate it with your field of expertise.

    It is important that you carve out the time to do this. Your marketing engine (flywheel as Rand Fishkin calls it) is fueled only by your effort. How are you marketing your business?

    4. Reply to Everyone

    To get customers on Twitter it is important that you reply to everyone. Everyone is relevant. People leave jobs an average of every two years (or less). It’s the relationships that stay around forever. I replied to a tweet and got a $23,000 client. Yep. I did.

    Yes, you have the extra 40 seconds it takes to say, “Thank you.” If you don’t, why are you in business?

    5. Follow and List Everyone Who Isn’t Spam

    To get customers on Twitter it is important that you are — are you ready for this? — social. People always think of the media part of “social media” and conveniently forget the work part. Yes. The work is to interact with others.

    To make your experience efficient and effective, add people to your Twitter Lists. This allows you to filter the feed by topic or category of your determination.

    6. Be Consistent. It’s a Long Game

    To get customers on Twitter it is important that you are patient. It’s not the Field of Dreams. People don’t just come to your profile and buy your $30,000 barbecue pit. There is no such thing as first-click leads.

    “Want to make marketing a competitive advantage for your business? You’re gonna need a flywheel. No individual hack, no short-term set of investments, can compete.” Rand Fishkin of Spark Toro

    Twitter should be part of your daily routine just like email. It’s outreach. Because Google indexes individual tweets, Twitter should also be part of your SEO strategy.

    7. Don’t Be Afraid to Make Statements

    To get customers on Twitter it is important that you differentiate yourself and your brand. What does it do for your customer? What are you providing to your customer?

    What values matter to your business? It’s okay to take a stand. Stay with it. Make your stance and stand by it. Plenty of people say all kinds of things online. Most of the time, I’d recommend that you shouldn’t but there are cases where it is core. People will be upset. Your customers won’t.

    Patagonia, for example, doesn’t mind being outspoken about environmental issues. They probably don’t have very many customers from the oil and gas industry, but they’re fine with it.

    This is an example of aligning your values with your customers.

    Are You At Bat?

    Your swings only count if you’re at-bat. The very best baseball players only succeed 1/3 of the time but they have to step up to the plate. Where are you?

    You can’t get customers on Twitter if you’re not active on Twitter. You need an account. You need a website that is mobile responsive. You may need to outsource, even.

    Twitter has been out since 2007. It’s not just a fad. Your competitors are online. Why aren’t you?

    Bonus Video:

    Using Twitter for Business Development