Taking care of your mental health for freelancers is as important as in any profession or field of work. If you don’t, bad things happen such as anxiety issues, depression or even burnout. This isn’t news. Mental health issues have been on the rise for a long time, especially among younger people. Today, about 1 in 5 Americans are struggling with a mental illness. While everyone understands taking time off for physical ailments (such as the flu), mental health issues don’t always get the same treatment. Neither from those experiencing it nor other people. However, they are not any different […]

With snow lightly falling in downtown Nashville, Matt Mullenweg took the stage for his annual State of the Word address. The speech wrapped up another successful WordCamp US 2018 full of talks, networking, and fun. Mullenweg began by letting WordPress reintroduce itself. Reminding the community it was built on the constitution and is powered by the community. “It is both free and priceless,” he said. Gutenberg After stating the reasons we are all here, Mullenweg played some user test videos of the current editor. “Suffice it to say, this editor experience is not working for us,” Mullenweg said. The solution […]

Designing a WordPress website that appeals to your audience and effectively guides them through the user journey takes a lot of work. It’s not just the development of a user persona and sales funnel that has to be carefully thought out. When building websites for a geographically distinct audience–be it for a smaller local audience or one dispersed across the globe–there’s another layer of consideration involved. How to Use Geotargeting in WordPress Geotargeting is a form of audience segmentation. But rather than use data pertaining to visitors’ logged-in status, on-site behaviors, or general demographics, geotargeting segments users based on their […]

In January 2017, Matt Mullenweg announced the Gutenberg project. A project that would change the way people created websites and content in WordPress. After nearly two years, Gutenberg has been merged with core in WordPress 5.0. A long time coming The WISIWYG editor hasn’t had a massive update in over 15 years. Gutenberg introduces a block-based editing system. Developers can make custom blocks which will save time when creating posts. Designers can customize their sites even more than ever before. The idea is to make it easier for first-time users to get a handle on WordPress, and create beautiful sites […]

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — for blogging. Give your blog a temporary holiday theme and meet your readers’ expectations for a bright and joyful time of year. Small changes make a significant impact on your site visitors, and WordPress makes it easy to add some seasonal cheer. Experts predict holiday eCommerce sales will rise by 16.6 percent this year as more and more people embrace the ease of shopping online. Set the stage by adding some holiday flair to your blog using these five strategies.   1. Update Your Theme   One way to give your […]

Storytelling is an important component of online content. Much like copywriting it’s a way of turning bland, forgettable blog posts and web pages into captivating content pieces. Storytelling has become a crucial component in online marketing. The good news is that, even if you don’t know anything about storytelling, you can learn it and this article will show you how. In the following, you will learn what storytelling is and why it is effective. After that, the blog post will give you actionable tips on how you can integrate it into your own site content. What is Storytelling and Why […]

We’ve discussed burnout previously on the blog, but mental health remains an important topic due to the high-pressure nature of working within WordPress. Given that a half day was dedicated to this exact subject at the latest WordCamp Europe, it’s clearly an ongoing concern for many developers. Fortunately, there’s a lot of information available on this topic from outside of the WordPress bubble. The advice you’ll find is often solid and actionable, both as a developer and in other areas. Classic guidance such as “work out, say your prayers, and eat your vitamins” isn’t just a lazy cliche – it’s […]

What’s the main purpose for owning a WordPress site? For some people, the goal is the website itself. They build it because they want to share something important with the audience. When it comes to business websites, however, the idea is clear: it’s all about marketing. In both situations, the website will need some promotion, too. You want more people visiting it, so it will become successful. That’s done through an efficient content marketing campaign. Let’s be honest: it’s a complex and time-consuming process. In fact, it doesn’t end as long as you intend to keep that website alive. You’ll […]

Five years ago Torque was created as a way to teach and communicate with the community. Ever since then, our community has grown and evolved. We want to carry on the tradition of community interaction by inviting you to participate in a survey to help make Torque better. We want to hear what you like and don’t like about the site and what kind of content is your favorite. Take the survey here. The survey closes December 2, so make sure to get your answers in soon. We can’t wait to hear from you!

The field of search engine optimization has gone through so many changes and keeps evolving so fast that it’s hard to keep track. As a consequence, things that used to net you a good chance of landing on the first page of Google no longer do so. However, you might not even be aware that what you are doing is actually hurting your site more than helping. To avoid this kind of scenario, in this post we will look at a number of SEO tactics that no longer work but that people still engage in. These are outdated SEO techniques […]