Today in Digital Marketing - Will January 25th be the End of WordPress Themes?

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Starting point is 00:01:27 you should be using Riverside.fm. Sign up today so you can focus on your content and leave the quality to Riverside.fm. Today, is it the beginning of the end for WordPress themes? The hack that exposed thousands of brand websites is growing. How is the broken supply chain affecting delivery times? Some welcome news for people who run ads on Google or post YouTube videos. And forget TikTok, the cool kids are on OnlyFans. It's Wednesday, November 24th, 2021.

Starting point is 00:02:04 Happy National Jukebox Day, United States. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital, and here's what you missed today in Digital Marketing, episode 511. Until pretty recently, WordPress was a pretty basic CMS. You could write words into a page or post, put a headline on it, drop some images in, and that was about it when it came to page layout. So an entire industry of theme frameworks sprung up. Elementor, Divi, and so on. These were paid products that you would drop into WordPress and they'd give you drag and drop blocks and much nicer layouts.

Starting point is 00:02:35 Over the last couple of years though, WordPress itself has begun to catch up. It's added a block system of its own, complete with some rudimentary drag and drop. But a new sneak peek into the version coming in January shows us that soon, we may not need those external theme frameworks. WordPress says its forthcoming version 5.9's main goal is to get full site editing to all users. Full site editing will let you control page content and global pieces of your website at the same time. Here's an overview of the features you can expect in the new year. New tools that will allow you to change design elements

Starting point is 00:03:14 like typography, spacing, and colors across your entire site. The next generation of themes. Themes will be created entirely with blocks. Improved PHP 8 support, active embeds for Pinterest, the ability to show login screens in different languages, and responsive blocks with more fluid typography controls. There will also be updates to the Gutenberg editor, including how to align elements, query block improvements,

Starting point is 00:03:41 improvements to list view, lighter navigation block experiences, and more. WordPress 5.9 is expected to release on January 25th next year, and I will bet a lot of amateur web devs will be kicking the tires to see if it's solid enough to stand on its own as a design tool. Change your passwords. The GoDaddy security breach that gave an attacker access to more than 1.2 million email addresses has expanded to six more web hosts. The company said the attacker gained access using a compromised password. SFTP and database credentials were exposed for two months undetected So, heads up if your brand's website is hosted on any of these

Starting point is 00:04:30 GoDaddy, TSO Host, Media Temple, 123Reg, Domain Factory, Heart Internet, or Host Europe The hackers had access to this data from September 6th to November 7th. According to WordFence, customers of at least two of the web hosts received notices informing them of the intrusion, implying that the root cause of the additional data breaches are connected. So if your web hosting provider is on that list and they haven't forced password changes on you, go change your password. And use a password manager. Come on, it's 2021.

Starting point is 00:05:04 And if you're looking for a good one that's not a ripoff, I recommend Bitwarden. A supply chain update now on how shipping is going for e-commerce retailers and others. As you can imagine, on-time performance has declined since the summer and a study by Convey suggests it could be a challenging holiday stretch ahead for carriers. Convey's data on parcel on-time performance is based on tracking tens of millions of packages shipped from more than a half million locations in North America. Some of the highlights? Well, let's call them lowlights. The average OTP, that's on-time performance, for retail last-mile deliveries in October was 78%. FedEx achieved an OTP, that's on-time performance, for retail last-mile deliveries in October was 78%.

Starting point is 00:05:46 FedEx achieved an OTP rate of only 72%, although that was up five points. UPS's was 83%, down five percentage points from September. And this might surprise you, but the U.S. Postal Service is actually the on-time performance leader right now, holding steady at 92%, down only 1% from September. FedEx, UPS, and the USPS said they are prepared to handle the upcoming surge in volume, but with staff shortages, supply chain woes, and an increasing demand for home delivery, there is no doubt it's going to be a difficult season for shipping. insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected.

Starting point is 00:06:52 Be Zen. Attention Google Ads marketers. Now you can do more on mobile. Google Ads has updated its mobile app with three new features that will allow you to monitor campaign performance and make changes from your phone, making it easier to manage your campaigns. Here are the updates. First, improved performance insights. The app now gives you more context about campaign insights with explanations on budget strategies, shifts in search interest, and more. New real-time search trends. If you tap into the search trend, you'll be able to see the popular searches associated with that trend. You may also see a recommendation to help ensure your account is optimized for emerging trends. You can create a custom notification to alert you when new search

Starting point is 00:07:33 trends are relevant to your business. And you can create campaigns on your phone by tapping the plus button on the bottom right of your screen. You'll be able to select your campaign type, where you'd like your ads to appear, and other campaign settings. These updates are available now for Android and iOS users. You can download or update to the latest version of the Google Ads app to get started. Of course, as with all these ad platform apps, they are always just abbreviated versions of the main platform. If you really care about tweaking all the knobs, keep using the desktop platform. If you really care about tweaking all the knobs, keep using the desktop

Starting point is 00:08:05 version. That's some good news now for content managers who upload a lot of video. YouTube has added a feature that will allow users to reuse details from previous uploads for new uploads on desktop. The new option will let you reuse video title, description, language settings, shorts sampling permissions, and category selections. You can also copy and make edits to the metadata. So if you post on the same topics frequently

Starting point is 00:08:36 or have to manually enter language options with every post, this could save you a lot of time. The new feature is located in the details section of the upload process with a new reuse details option. YouTube also announced an updated memberships tab in YouTube Studio and the addition of more analytics previously only available on desktop to the mobile app. Get out your stretchy pants. White Castle has set up an OnlyFans account to share a stuffing recipe they say is too spicy

Starting point is 00:09:11 for their other social channels. This, of course, ahead of Thanksgiving. A press release announced that White Castle is introducing the hotter and spicier stuffing and has teamed up with a Florida-based firefighter and chef to get the word out on OnlyFans. White Castle's marketing strategy is sort of unique. The brand is one of the first to advertise on the subscription-based platform

Starting point is 00:09:32 that is typically associated with adult content, or so I'm told. Competitor Carl's Jr. was actually the first to set up an account earlier this year. Since going live last week, White Castle's highest rated video has received five likes. Who would have thought that OnlyFans users would not be interested in marketing stunts? I see that Twitter has added a new Spaces discovery tab on the bottom of the iOS app. Finally, that's been really the big issue, I think, in them trying to compete head on with Clubhouse is discovery. The only way you could find out that a space was happening was by happening to follow someone who was hosting a space. So anyway, I joined one called Group Therapy last night.

Starting point is 00:10:22 It seemed, as far as I could tell, to be mostly teens talking about mental health issues. But as soon as I joined, like I have a verified account, a little blue checkmarky thing. As soon as I joined, I guess it puts the verified people up at the top of the list with the verified checkmark visible in the audience list. And as soon as I joined, someone stopped the meeting and said, Whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait, guys, we have a verified account here. What do you want to say? Then they like non-consensually turned on my microphone. I didn't even know you could do that.

Starting point is 00:10:53 So yeah, they turned my microphone on and I was like, I didn't really have a lot to share. Of course, I was still kind of getting used to it. But anyway, it is cool. Twitter's space is discovery. It's certainly a good idea. And I think we're going to try hosting our very own Twitter space here for the podcast. So tomorrow night, we'll be talking about Black Friday and Facebook and Google and all the rest.

Starting point is 00:11:14 So be sure to follow my Twitter account, which is at Todd Maffin, T-O-D-M-A-F-F-I-N. You can tap the link to all my social media in the episode notes. It's going to be tomorrow at 6 p.m. Pacific. That's 9 p.m. Eastern. If it takes off, we'll do one for the Australian people. We'll do one for the UK and Europe and so on. But Twitter space tomorrow. That's going to be Thursday, November 25th at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern.

Starting point is 00:11:38 Talk to you tomorrow. It makes me tell a story Of when I held you tight And now the day is ending I've told you once before I don't wanna tell you how you're gonna go live your life

Today in Digital Marketing - Will January 25th be the End of WordPress Themes?

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