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Best WordPress Online Resources and Influences in 2024
Step into 2024 with an inside look at the most influential WordPress online resources! Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro, this video is packed with game-changing tools, trends, and strategies that will revolutionize your approach to website creation. Get ready to be inspired by top experts in the field as they share their invaluable knowledge. Dive into this must-watch video now and level up your WordPress skills!
Podcasts
#1 – Kitchen Sink WordPress
Adam Silver
@heyadamsilver
#2 – The WP Minute WordPress News
Matt Medeiros
@mattmedeiros
#3 – The Startups For The Rest of Us
https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com
@robwalling
#4 – The Prof G Pod
Scott Galloway | No Mercy, No Malice
https://www.profgalloway.com
@profgalloway
#4 This Week in Tech – Leo Laporte
https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech
#5 – This Week in Startups – Jason Calacanis
https://thisweekinstartups.com/
#6 – Mixergy Startup Stories – Andrew Warner
YouTube Channels
#1 – WPTuts
Paul Charlton
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiTDv6q1XYwZnAm2EYN8wKw
@WPTutz
#2 – Kevin Geary
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4KXtFds_3R7xwGV79rZysg
@thekevingeary
#3 – Web Squadron -Imran Siddiq
https://www.youtube.com/@websquadron/videos
https://websquadron.co.uk
@ImranWebsites
#4 – Lytbox Academy
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7lb7-6SLqw-wiJlq3LMy2A
Lytbox Academy
@jeffreyatlytbox
https://lytboxacademy.com/the-academy
X (formerly known as Twitter)
Jason Cohen
@asmartbear
Brian Gardner
@bgardner
Jamie Pootlepress
@pootlepress
Brian Jackson
@brianleejackson
Other Recourses
WPTavern
[00:00:00.220] – Jonathan Denwood
Welcome back, folks, to the WP-Tonic This Week in WordPress and SaaS. This is episode 896. Yes, folks, I’m getting close to the big 900. Oh, my godfathers. In this show, we’re going to be talking about The best WordPress online resources and influences in 2024—the podcast, the YouTube channels, Twitter, X, formerly known as Twitter. I should get that right, folks. Other online resources that both me and Kirk follow, consume. I want to share with you, which will make you more enlightened and better consumers of WordPress and tech information. What more could you ask for my beloved tribe? Probably a lot more, but that’s all you’re going to get from this episode. So, Kirk, would you like to introduce yourself to the new listeners and viewers?
[00:01:10.360] – Kurt von Ahnen
Sure thing, Jonathan. My name is Kurt von Ahnen. I own an agency called Manana No Mas. I do a podcast with the same name, and I work directly with membership and learning websites and products like Lifter LMS and WP-Tonic.
[00:01:24.010] – Jonathan Denwood
That’s fantastic. Like I was saying, before we go into the meat and potatoes of this great show, I’ve got a couple of major messages from our major sponsors. We will be back in a little while.
[00:03:57.130] – Kurt von Ahnen
I do. Me and Adam have become fan boys of each other. He’s a really interesting person. Then when I found out that he was, you think he says that about me? He might. I know that he joins in on a lot of the lives that I’ll do. He’ll jump in and comment on stuff. I really enjoy following him as a person. He runs those crazy 50-mile races that you run by foot. He runs those, I can’t remember what they call them, extreme marathons or something like that. He has It’s all too extreme for me. Yeah, ultra. I think that’s what it is, an ultra marathoner. He has that website called RunAdam Run, which is a who. But he’s a great guy. You know what’s really cool about following people in the WordPress space is when you get started in WordPress, you’re excited about the tech, you’re excited about the platform. But it’s like when you begin to branch out, and you start to listen to some other voices in the space; I think it gives you a much more well-rounded appreciation for how it’s developed what open source is and how it’s a community.
[00:05:01.930] – Jonathan Denwood
If you go one, then.
[00:05:04.050] – Kurt von Ahnen
Yeah. The next name on the list was Matt. I’m going to mess up his last name. I’m going to sound like you for a moment. Mediros? Is that how he says his last name? Madairos. Matt Madero. Matt Madero. So embarrassingly, it was, I don’t know, 18 months ago, two years ago, somewhere around there, he was in between positions, and I didn’t really know who he was. I didn’t know he was the WP Minute WordPress news guy. I was like, Hey if it helps you out, you could jump on my podcast where I’ll help you promote yourself to get to whatever the next thing is. Then, after that, after I stuck my foot in my mouth or my fingers on my keyboard, I realized who he was, and I started to listen to the WP Minute. I like the guests that he has, and I like his style. I like the way that he communicates with people.
[00:05:54.010] – Jonathan Denwood
What form, give the listeners, and what format is it?
[00:06:00.210] – Kurt von Ahnen
I think it’s really similar to… Well, to be honest, it’s really similar to ours. He has really great guests, and he asks them questions about how they develop or what they do in the WordPress space. I think I’ve listened to maybe eight or 10 of them, and I’ve come away with good value from it. If I think about what am I going to do what tools I want to use or who I want to follow in the space, I think that I come away from some of those interviews with, that’s a person I want to follow up with, or that’s a person I want to follow on Twitter, or that’s a person that I want to keep tabs on.
[00:06:35.180] – Jonathan Denwood
He’s the grandfather of WordPress, but he hasn’t got the record because I think I got the record now for continuous podcasting. He does series, series and has breaks. I’m more bonkers than him. I’ve just slogged away. But always listen to Matt’s stuff. Can be spicy, can be spicy, but I can be spicy as well. If you’re handing the hangout, you have to take a little bit back.
[00:07:08.460] – Kurt von Ahnen
I think one of the first times I listened to his podcast was actually a referral from your panel show, the WP Tonic Panel Show, because he covered something spicy and you covered, you were like, everyone listened to this podcast thing and then commented about it. I think that was the first time that I listened to his podcast.
[00:07:29.300] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah. Right. On to the next one. Startups for the Rest of Us. Rob Rowland is the founder of this podcast and is an online entrepreneur, highly successful, powered I’ve seen with his wife, and he’s done this podcast for many years, and it’s a bit of a passion for him. I’ve learned an enormous amount from Rob, and we’ve become friends. I think he would say I was a friend, even though we both realized that I’m bonkers, and he’s quite sane. But I don’t think I’m too bad, because long as you know that you’re bonkers, you can deal with it. It’s all about the mechanics, marketing, any subject around bootstrap startups. And it has a lot of cross-fertilisation in the WordPress professional space, because a lot of the people that I listen to this podcast are freelancers, agency owners, plugin builders, WordPress service providers of certain types. There’s a lot you can learn from the bootstrap startup area, and I’ve learned a lot by… It’s a regular one that I listen to. What’s your feelings about this one?
[00:08:57.120] – Kurt von Ahnen
This one is going to sound like a sideways comment for Rob if he’s listening to this one. They’re incredibly informative, and I learn a lot from them. But I’ll be honest, his pace, his talk and his pace, it’s like, I got to focus on You know, I read that.
[00:09:15.510] – Jonathan Denwood
You should be. It’s words of wisdom. Don’t you concentrate on my words?
[00:09:21.400] – Kurt von Ahnen
No, I listen to your wonderful accent and I’m entertained.
[00:09:24.980] – Jonathan Denwood
It shows. Sometimes I do not think he’s listening, but there I don’t hold against him, though.
[00:09:32.360] – Kurt von Ahnen
I think his content is so informative and textbook-like, I guess, is the way I’m going to try and say that. Sometimes you read for enjoyment, and other times you read because you really got to pass the test next Tuesday. Sometimes this podcast feels like I’m trying to pass the test next Tuesday. I feel like if I don’t concentrate on each thing he’s bringing out or each thing he’s talking about, that I’m going to lose the purpose or the point of the conversation.
[00:09:59.840] – Jonathan Denwood
I I like the consistency. There’s not many duds. There’s not many podcast that he does that are really bad. With the interview show, the quality does vary, folks, because we are dependent on the guests to some extent. Obviously, Rob has some guests, but it’s mostly him speaking about a particular subject or answering questions that are sent to him. I can I do that. I need a co-host if we’re doing an internal discussion. We don’t have a guest, but I’m always impressed with individuals that can do a show totally on their own. I would find that quite intimidating. You want to do the next one?
[00:10:49.440] – Kurt von Ahnen
The next one I don’t have a ton of experience with, just on the surface, and that was Scott Galloway.
[00:10:55.520] – Jonathan Denwood
Professor Scott Galloway.
[00:10:58.120] – Kurt von Ahnen
Professor G Scott Galloway. No Mercy, No Mouth. For me, Mondays, I’m usually trying to get a pretty good start on a Monday, and he puts out new content on Mondays.
[00:11:12.020] – Jonathan Denwood
No, you’re slightly on there, actually. He produces He does three shows a week.
[00:11:17.110] – Kurt von Ahnen
Well, he does one on Monday, and then he does an office hour thing on Wednesday.
[00:11:20.950] – Jonathan Denwood
And he does a Friday show, which is based on his essay, and he has a professional actor read it out.
[00:11:30.120] – Kurt von Ahnen
Then I’m way off the target.
[00:11:32.730] – Jonathan Denwood
Actually, I got mixed feelings about Professor G. He’s a hugely successful individual sold a business for an enormous amount of money, him and his partner and his team. He’s a professor of marketing at a leading American University. He is very insightful, but also can be extremely Emily Madlin. Obviously, when you’ve made that type of money and you’re mixing, you’re going as a speaker to all the… As a speaker, to all the conferences and everybody wants a bit I love you. He does live in a little bit of a bubble. But on the other hand, he just comes out there and then, almost every second episode with a really down to earth statement. And that’s why I stay with him. And when it comes to the actual analysis of business and how business models and how marketing really affects the success of whatever type of business you’re running, he is extremely insightful, and I would recommend his podcast to anybody who’s trying to be successful online.
[00:12:58.500] – Kurt von Ahnen
I found it interesting that he covers a wide swath of content. He’s not overly focused on any one thing. I think I saw something about Netflix, and then I saw something else that he called Technonarcism, and just interesting topics.
[00:13:15.940] – Jonathan Denwood
Oh, that would never be in the WordPress space, was it? Take no narcissists. There’s none of those in the WordPress space, is there?
[00:13:23.670] – Kurt von Ahnen
No, sir.
[00:13:27.270] – Jonathan Denwood
He doesn’t know. He doesn’t want to go down that ride business. There’s no time to say who are the narcissists in the WordPress space. No, there’s no evidence of that at all, is it? So onto the next one. This week in tech, Leah Lepult, the granddaddy. I’ve been listening to him on and off for over 20 years. One of the first podcasts… I’ve been listening to podcasts for over 20 years. I was one of the… I was listening at the beginning of it, and Leah Lepult was a pioneer of it. So do you listen? Because he produces a lot of content, him and his team is a whole channel of podcasting, the Twitch Network. Do you listen to any of it?
[00:14:20.090] – Kurt von Ahnen
Actually, when I saw this one on the list, I was like, I’m going to have to check this out because if you’re recommending it, I got to check it out. I haven’t seen this one yet.
[00:14:27.890] – Jonathan Denwood
Lime, you don’t listen to the My granddad, he was podcasting in tech. His premier show is this week in tech. I mercensely copied the format for my weekly, but now has become a monthly roundtable show. I mercensely copied the format. All great artists, they don’t copy, they utterly steal. Kaseh said that. He does a weekly, This Week in Tech, where he has a panel of mostly journalists, journalists or tech influencers. They talk about the tech stories of the week. He does a show about Windows, which I do listen to because it just keeps me thankful that I’m an Apple user. He does a show on Mac, which in some strange, I find the least interesting, actually, because there’s not much going on in the Mac world most of the time. But like I say, I would highly recommend this week in tech and support Leo because I think he’s contributed a lot to my own online education. Want to do the next one?
[00:15:58.690] – Kurt von Ahnen
Yeah, this is one that I’ve listened to a bunch over, it seems like a long time, this week in Startups. Thisweekinstartups. Com with Jason Kalanis, Kalisantis.
[00:16:10.000] – Jonathan Denwood
I’m so grateful that you even struggle of these names because Canon Callean. I can’t even pronounce it. I’ve been trying to pronounce his surname for almost 15 years, and it’s got no better listeners than yours.
[00:16:26.600] – Kurt von Ahnen
No, no. I think I’m adopting some of your habits, John. I thought I’m messing some of the names up. But this week in Startups, I’ve listened to for a while. Now, here’s where I get sometimes just lose patience or you lose focus or you lose interest. I would say in the last… God, he’s got almost 2,000 episodes, but in the last three, six months, maybe a year, it seems like the luck of the draw is almost every time I go to click on the link, it’s about AI of some kind.
[00:16:57.170] – Jonathan Denwood
Oh, he’s gone big. I’ve reduced my consumption because he had a co-host and they had a bit of a fouling out. Oh, my God. That would never happen on this show either. He had a bit of a falling out and they had to part ways. He was orientated. He was doing five shows a week, and it was orientated mostly on tech news and commentary, but they had a full in out. Now he’s got various co-hosts, but he’s gone all in about AI There’s only so much AI I can tolerate. I’m a big user of AI. It’s made a big difference to my own my own output. But there’s only so much I can listen to. I still listen to it, but you are right. There’s only so much AI I can stomach.
[00:17:48.870] – Kurt von Ahnen
I just feel that there’s so many derivatives and all these upstart tools founded with AI. So many people covered AI so many times. I mean, we did it for months last year, but I’m just wore out. I think I’ve just heard too much of that phrase, and there’s so much other stuff going on in the tech space that I’m looking for other information.
[00:18:15.120] – Jonathan Denwood
We got one of our former interviewers, Adam Sprina. He’s called our podcast live. Thanks. You have to come back on the show sometime, Adam. It was a great chat. Now, yeah, So another really grandfather. The other thing about Jason is I find him extremely annoying as an individual. Absolutely Narcissus to his core. Utterly narcissistic in his attitudes and extremely confusing, and can be extremely insightful. And also extremely funny. Also, he has dyslexia like myself, but he’s a total narcissist of the highest order. And There’s only so much of Jason I can tolerate, like certain other people that I’ve had to expose myself to. My patience is not endless. It’s got better, though, I think. I used to be much worse. I think I am more patient. I know that’s very hard to accept, isn’t it, Kerr? I know.
[00:19:36.820] – Kurt von Ahnen
You’re putting up with me, so you’ve got a lot of patience.
[00:19:40.720] – Jonathan Denwood
You’re very easy to work with most of the time. You’ve had a lot to deal with over the past three, six months. I’m very impressed how you dealt with everything, really. Mixergy. Angio Warner. This is a really another really old favorite. He interviews startups or established startups or startups that have sold their business. And they’re coming on to tell Andrew how well and wealthy they are. But I still listen to it, even though… So do you listen to this one? Was this on your radar?
[00:20:32.990] – Kurt von Ahnen
More so because he’s also had what I would consider like, celebrities involved. A lot of times with startups, and it’s a hit or miss thing. Sometimes, not everyone that does a startup is a super dynamic person or a super exposed person to promoting themselves yet.
[00:20:52.470] – Jonathan Denwood
Sometimes- Is there a polite way in saying that they’re a bloody total bore, but they’re rich?
[00:20:57.530] – Kurt von Ahnen
Sometimes. Sometimes. And so if- Oh, that’s never happened.
[00:21:02.750] – Jonathan Denwood
You meet somebody that’s got gobs of money, but you rather roast in hell than share another hour with them. Sorry, go on.
[00:21:12.140] – Kurt von Ahnen
No, but there’s been times on Mixergy where they’ve had a more established person with more exposure and a little more entertaining or dynamic to listen to. And I’ve enjoyed some of those shows.
[00:21:25.780] – Jonathan Denwood
It’s very diplomatic.
[00:21:29.470] – Kurt von Ahnen
Diplomacy, that’s my thing.
[00:21:33.120] – Jonathan Denwood
Not mine, is it? I can be when I want to be. It’s just a lot of the time I don’t want to be, do I? Got enough. Let’s go on. That’s our podcast section, folks. Let’s go on to you. There was one on your list as well, and that was Chris Bradger of Lifter LMS. Lms class. You listen to that, don’t you?
[00:21:52.950] – Kurt von Ahnen
I have to.
[00:21:54.240] – Jonathan Denwood
I’d be in trouble if you didn’t listen to the words of the great leader, would you?
[00:21:59.570] – Kurt von Ahnen
Yeah, I think Chris does a great job bringing in guests. You have to remember, I’m focused on membership and learning websites, and he’s bringing in people that are directly related to or in alignment with the tools or the things that I’m trying to create. They say the riches are in the niches. His LMS cast definitely falls within my niche. I stay attuned to what- I know another show that you come on that’s also focused in the Membership Machine Show.
[00:22:31.590] – Jonathan Denwood
Membership Machine Show. You should be listening to it, folks.
[00:22:35.760] – Kurt von Ahnen
But yeah, I love LMS cast. I think Chris is a pretty dynamic individual and his ability to ask… Because Chris will ask a probing question, and then he’ll ask another layer down. I don’t even know if he realizes he does that. But he’ll ask a question, he’ll ask another layer down, and then sometimes he’ll ask another layer in. Then you start to identify the root cause of his guest’s success. You come away with an extra layer of knowledge out of it. I think he’s really talented in that way, so it’s fun to listen to him do his work.
[00:23:11.540] – Jonathan Denwood
On to the podcast, on to YouTube channels. I listen quite a bit in the background as I’m trying to make my living. That’s Paul Charlton from WP Tuts. Paul has been on the show a couple of times. He’ll hopefully all come back during 2024. He runs a really great YouTube channel about educational, but also he has a great law community that their need to discuss page builders in Gutenberg seems to be endless, their want and their need to discuss it, which Paul is very generous with his live YouTube podcast. He gives them their fix. And he also does a load of reviews and quasar educational, and it’s his full-time job. And what I love about Paul is he’s kept his credibility as well, and he’s very upfront about who’s sponsoring it. And it is very difficult when you’re taking sponsorship in the WordPress space to keep any credibility. But he understands that in the meantime him to long term, he’s got to try and keep it. I think he’s extremely fair about his comments without becoming what I call, sorry for the term, folks, a total WordPress fan, boys, bum like a supremo, and there’s so many of them in the WordPress space.
[00:24:51.880] – Jonathan Denwood
Do you watch any of Paul’s stuff? And has he been on your radar?
[00:24:56.010] – Kurt von Ahnen
I have learned a ton from him. To put it in a good perspective for a while, and I’m going to be transparent, I got hooked into the Elementor cloud for a little while, and I was just playing in Elementor in that haze, and Gutenberg was out, and a lot of people were jumping on the Gutenberg, and I wasn’t. I was still using the handicap over there on Elementor. Then I had a couple of projects pop up, and I was like, as an agency owner, I need to be better at this. I need to understand this more. I followed his channel for a little bit, and I watched some of his tutorials, and I felt more comfortable, and it just ramped me up to speed much more quickly than trying to figure it out on my own.
[00:25:42.160] – Jonathan Denwood
If you got a YouTube channel you want to share that’s not on this list, or do you want to go to the next one on the list?
[00:25:49.200] – Kurt von Ahnen
Well, we can go to the next one on the list, or we could just give a shout out to, again, with the Lifter LMS focus is I watch a lot with Will Middleton. He’s young. He’s young. He has a thing It’s called WP Course Craft, WP Course Guide. That’s on YouTube. That’s his channel.
[00:26:07.770] – Jonathan Denwood
It’s disgusting. He’s young, intelligent, semi-good-looking. There’s nothing more that I hate.
[00:26:14.720] – Kurt von Ahnen
His gift is… He talks fast and he moves the mouse real fast. Sometimes you got to slow his videos down. But he makes a ton of content, and he’s just started doing more content at a higher level of production. He’s decided that he could have bounced out of it. He could have said, I’m going to take my notoriety with Lifter and do something different. But he’s doubled down, and he’s getting into custom plugins and code and automations more and more. Some of the stuff is, you can learn a lot from him. He’s a really smart guy, and he’s young. You nailed that. He’s young. He’s got a Head Start. I wish I was where he was when I was 21.
[00:27:00.260] – Jonathan Denwood
There we go. On to somebody I’ve been following for a while. They came on this show last week, and we really had a very in-depth discussion. We went on and on and on. That’s totally cool. For me, I think it’s one of the longest shows we’ve had in the world. It was an hour and a half. We had Kevin Gary in the show. Kevin is really passionate and very intense. But a great educator, and he just tells it how he sees it. I’ve learned a lot watching his videos, and we’ll continue to watch him. He does a really excellent job in his education. He is extremely opinionated, makes me mold. Some people say I’m brutally honest. Well, all I got to say, just go over and watch Kevin then, if you think I’m I’m meek and mild compared to Kevin. He really doesn’t care. He just goes for it. So has Kevin been on your radar? And did you have the opportunity to listen to my interview?
[00:28:18.240] – Kurt von Ahnen
Kevin was not on my radar as the name, right? But then you had him on and I was like, who is this? And I look him up. And as soon as I pulled up his YouTube, I was like, Oh, I’ve seen this guy before. It’s one of those examples for me where the content leads the reputation. I knew his content and I would be looking for stuff, looking for information on YouTube, and he would be a source that would come up through a search, but he wasn’t someone I actively followed. Then once you did the interview, I was like, All right, I’ll give him to subscribe, and we’ll see how attached I get over time.
[00:28:50.730] – Jonathan Denwood
Did you listen to the interview? Did you have the opportunity? I know you probably haven’t because you’ve been busy.
[00:28:56.490] – Kurt von Ahnen
I listened to half.
[00:28:58.220] – Jonathan Denwood
What’s your honest response to the interview?
[00:29:01.950] – Kurt von Ahnen
You know what? Your self-criticism would be that you would waffle on too much, but I don’t think you waffled too much in that situation. It was good. I like what he brought to the table.
[00:29:12.470] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, I think reflecting back on the conversation, I did enjoy it. And hopefully, Kevin, I’ve got some great newsletters and views. It’s not been totally pinned down, but both Kevin and Brian Garner have agreed to come on the in February to have a joint discussion with me and Kirk, and it’s going to be the fight of the century between Gutenberg and the page builders, folks. It should be a very interesting discussion. They both have agreed in principle to do it. We’re just trying to pin down the time that we’re going to do it, but it should be a very interesting discussion because Brian, unlike me, does know his stuff. I know a bit, but Brian Garner is the father of WordPress themes, and what he did with Studio Press to say that he knows his stuff would be a slight understatement. And so it’s really down to earth, a nice guy. I think the main problem, I didn’t do a fantastic job, was that I think Kevin has been totally honest and upfront But he has a focus around class-based page builders and the class framework and using flex box and CSS grids and the new technology.
[00:30:45.140] – Jonathan Denwood
You do need to know some fundamental principles of CSS and HTML and web design in general. If you’re going to use a page builder with the concepts of classes and that, whether The Bolt, and we saw this, basically, you don’t need that type of knowledge to use elevator, but it’s consequences, and that’s around performance, where something like Wix gets around it because it’s a self-hosted solution. It just throws server resources. That is the cheapest way. If you’re dealing with bad code, you just throw server resources at it. That’s such a cheaper way of dealing with bad code. So he’s really passionate. But a lot of people that use Alimator and use divv, they don’t want to go into the classes and really understanding some of the things you need to become utilizing a class place editor. And I was just trying to point out to him that there’s different groups. I think he knew where I was coming, but he didn’t really quite want you to go down there either. Does this make him any sense? Am I waffling the tool?
[00:32:12.760] – Kurt von Ahnen
No, no. If you think about my own experience, Jonathan, I’m not a code person. I’m not in love with code. Code to me is not romance. I’m about point and click and drag and make things look the way the client wants to make it look. So I saw that Kevin had a lot of content on bricks, and then I was like, all right, well, maybe I’ll take a look at bricks, but I’m not going to use it like…
[00:32:40.230] – Jonathan Denwood
You don’t actually have to use bricks in the way that Kevin is promoting because he’s highly into class structure. He can actually use bricks very similar to Alimator if you want to. He says that he’s promoting his own products. I don’t hold that against him at all because they’re He got very good products. Him and his team have done an excellent job. People that criticize him for selling his own book, I think I’ll give it a rest, will you? Wake up. But you don’t actually have to do that. It is, in my opinion, the best system, especially if you’re updating a lot of websites. You’re going to find it much easier to deal with the workload if If you’re utilizing a class-based system. But there’s a bit more to learn into utilizing the… So it’s like all technology, is it worth… Am I going to get a benefit by investing more energy and mental time learning something? Because there’s always the more powerful the tool, the more time you’re going to have to spend learning that normally. We’re going to go for a break. I think we’ve had a great show so far. I’ve enjoyed it, actually.
[00:34:00.980] – Jonathan Denwood
We will be back in a few moments, folks. This podcast episode is brought to you by Lifter LMS, the leading learning management system solution for WordPress. If you or your client are creating any online course, training-based membership website, or any type of eLearning project, Lifter LMS is the most secure, stable, well-supported solution on the market. Go to lifterlms. Com and save 20% at checkout with coupon code podcast20. That’s podcast20. Enjoy the rest of your show. We’re coming back. We’ve had a feast of the best resources for you, WordPress and SaaS junkies. You can consume all this YouTube and podcast and everything else. But before we go on in the second half, I I just want to point out, if you’re looking for a great hosting partner that specializes in learning management systems and community-focused website utilizing Budlibos, have a look at WP Tonic. We specialize in being a hosting provider and much, much more. We can also be your technical resource partner as well. If any of this sounds interesting, go over to wp-tonic. Com/partner. Partners, wp-tonic. Com/partners. We also offer one of the best affiliate packages for our partners in the WordPress space. You’ll be blown away.
[00:35:45.070] – Jonathan Denwood
Just go over there and have a chat with me. We’d love you to come on board. So on we go. Imre, Web Squadron. He’s from the UK, so I just like him anyway because he’s from the UK. He’s coming on the show in Feb, actually, for an interview. Actually, he’s got a really interesting history, how he ever got into web design. He’s a bit like He’s done a lot of shows with Paul Charton on WP Tuts. I think recently, they haven’t done so many together. But he also runs a really great YouTube channel, and he’s quite entertaining. He’s He’s got his own personal style. Has he been on your list at all, Kurt? You’re muted, actually, Kurt. You’ve muted yourself.
[00:36:42.170] – Kurt von Ahnen
I’m glad you put him on the list because he’s one of my favorites. When he is talking about a subject, it’s not just like a how do you do this? It’s like a why you’re doing this. He talks about sales funnels. It goes into the advantages of creating the sales funnel, and it’s quick. It’s 13 or 16 minutes or something like that. It’s not like it’s a 45 minute or an hour session that boards you to death.
[00:37:10.020] – Jonathan Denwood
It goes into this is how you- Are you talking about my podcast?
[00:37:13.800] – Kurt von Ahnen
No, sir.
[00:37:15.460] – Jonathan Denwood
You don’t have to call me, sir. I’ll be there 15 years in America. I still cannot get used to people calling me, sir. Because in England, you got to be nighted by the queen for people to I say, sir, to you. You’ve actually got… Well, not the queen. The blessed queen is dead now. She was the only one, the only rule that I had any respect for, actually. We got a king now. In England. But for you to be called Sir in the UK, you got to be 90 by the monarchy.
[00:37:52.720] – Kurt von Ahnen
In America, you just have to be old. Maybe I think you’re old.
[00:37:58.690] – Jonathan Denwood
God, since I He’s getting cheap now, listening to some views. He’s getting contemplative to what they’re at now. Off you go. I interrupted you.
[00:38:09.090] – Kurt von Ahnen
I apologize. It’s all good. I just like his style is good. Like you said, he’s entertaining. Inflection, arms are moving. It’s like you can watch his content and not fall asleep. He shows you what you want to see, but he also gives you that why it’s important or the advantage or the We have this talk all the time. Is he selling the pain pill or the vitamin? He has a good way of doing both.
[00:38:39.070] – Jonathan Denwood
I personally copied that from Rob Rowland. Everything on this show, I’ve just copied from other people, folks. I would say, have a look at what he’s got. He’s quite entertaining. Like I say, he’s going to be coming on the show in February for a bit of the interview. I think it should be right, lively and interesting. He’s got a great background story. I researched his background a little bit. I’d be intrigued how he got into web design, really. Livebox Academy. He’s been watching this for a while. The guy’s based in Thailand. He’s got some good content. It’s all about page building, running an agency. He runs his own agency in Thailand as well. Interesting dude. Been watching it for the past couple of months. Came on my ride, or like I said, a couple of months ago. Do you know about this guy at all?
[00:39:39.470] – Kurt von Ahnen
The only thing I’ve ever seen him on was he did a bricks video that caught my attention, and I watched that for bricks. Then I was surprised to see that he’s got 19,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, so he’s killing me.
[00:39:55.550] – Jonathan Denwood
He’s killing me, but I’ve been doing better. My numbers and my viewing has increased quite substantially over the last six months because I’ve been putting a lot more time into it. I’ve been watching it. I have this page building like it. That people totally… If I wanted to increase the numbers of WP 20, I just need to knock out that. But my business really isn’t focused on this. Really, this podcast podcast isn’t, but I’ve been doing it so long that I feel… But I do enjoy it as well. But my other podcast is more focused around my business, really. But if I wanted to increase, I could just talk about Gutenberg and about page builders. They are ramp, right? They got a form of digital rabies, these people. They cannot watch enough about page builders, can they? What is it, Kurt?
[00:41:03.420] – Kurt von Ahnen
And there’s only so many tricks you can put in a single website. Everyone wants- Why are they so rabied?
[00:41:10.200] – Jonathan Denwood
Because I was watching the episode of Paul from WP. He was doing a live broadcast and people could ask him questions. And they were getting really snarly with him about him no longer being a supporter of Alimator. And I think he’s been extremely fair in these comments about any page builder, about Bloomberg, about everything. He just… He was getting grief from his own audience. They are rabid about these page builder types. They’re just rabid, aren’t they? Would you agree with that?
[00:41:48.160] – Kurt von Ahnen
I would agree more so if we were having a talk about divvy. That divvy crowd. That divvy crowd is a little hard to convince. Other people are like, I could take it or leave it. But you start talking about divvy people, and it’s like, they’re in for a penny, in for a pound, man. They’re going to stick through.
[00:42:08.250] – Jonathan Denwood
All right. All right, let’s go on. How long we got? All right. Yeah. This I talk about X, formerly known as Twitter. I still quit bloody Twitter. I always will do. I can’t stand X. What bloody X stand for you? God, Elvis. I’ve got to say that I’ve got mixed feelings about Twitter, ex formerly known as Twitter. It’s an understatement of the year, but I do consistently use it and I follow people. What I do not get engaged in is online bullying and utilizing Twitter to bully other people. I can be a bit flippant with my piffy little comments, and sometimes people don’t understand my English humor, but I don’t engage in consistent what I consider Twitter bullying. But there’s a few people I do follow. Jason Cohen. I follow his comments because the founder of WP Engine, I would say that he would consider me a friend. We got to know one another. He’s always got some insightful stuff. Brian God, I follow him as well because I got the enormous respect for Brian We’re very different personality types. I think we were working together, I would drive him. Absolutely bonkers. But what he did with the other Brian at Studio Press and They developed the first commercial fee market, built a framework on Studio Press, built a great business, sold it.
[00:44:12.250] – Jonathan Denwood
Yeah, there’s a couple. Any that you follow, or do you want to talk about a couple of others that I’ve put on here?
[00:44:18.340] – Kurt von Ahnen
Well, right out of the shoot, you mentioned Jason Cohen, and I just wanted to give him a personal shout out because he didn’t know me from anybody until I was on an interview with him on your podcast. He connected to me on Twitter, liked my posts, followed along. I mean, this guy has no need whatsoever to put-He’s about to be in there.
[00:44:43.300] – Jonathan Denwood
They’re not trying to be funny. He’s extremely busy. I would imagine he’s extremely busy, but he’s extremely personable and approachable, which you can’t say about everybody, can you?
[00:44:55.070] – Kurt von Ahnen
No. I look at that as being extremely generous. Social Raggurosity goes. You had another guest, David Valentine, that was like that, who’s just so generous with his time, his space, and his network. I think that that’s something that Jason is really good at. Brian Garner, I don’t know very well, but I do follow him and I watch his posts as well as I follow a guy named EZ Smith quite a bit. He is really fun to watch on Twitter.
[00:45:26.600] – Jonathan Denwood
Oh, really?
[00:45:27.260] – Kurt von Ahnen
Yeah. He was a guest on the LMS cast. I I followed him on Twitter, and he’s doing this whole build in public thing like, Oh, I’m rebuilding my website again. I blew this up or I blew that up or whatever. It’s just really good to see someone using the platform from a build in public personal space. And he’s not all full of himself, which I really like. I like someone that can be a little more transparent.
[00:45:53.630] – Jonathan Denwood
Another one that I have up and down relationship with, but I do respect him, is Jamie from Poodle Press, because he is very entertaining, even though he’s a total Google, Gutenberg fang boy. But I think it’s from his heart. He actually thinks that the rest of us are wrong. In our slight tritism of Gutenberg. Him and his daughters, I think having his daughters on trying to work with different Gutenberg page builders and other technologies that are very insightful and very entertaining. He’s British as well. Even though some of my comments he doesn’t appreciate, I still follow him and I find it quite amazing some of the materials that he produces. Do you follow him in that?
[00:46:53.510] – Kurt von Ahnen
The first time that I really followed him, and so I’ve seen him and bits and pieces because you a search on YouTube and here he comes. But he had one episode where he was duplicating the sales site for Top Gun, the movie. He said, Here’s a version of the site, and I’m going to make the same thing in Gutenberg. I was like, All right, let’s check this out. He ran through that process pretty quickly, and I was pretty impressed. I was like, Well, wait a minute. Maybe I do need to take a different look at how I’m using Gutenberg. To say that he’s not influential would be incorrect. And I also, you mentioned the daughters. How many times have I thought, man, I bet you my YouTube channel would grow a lot if I had my daughter on my channel with me.
[00:47:40.710] – Jonathan Denwood
It’s just really very insightful to watch somebody utilized in a page build in Gutenberg. And he is very brave because I got to give him his views. He had Kevin on his own YouTube channel and they had a discussion. And it was very entertaining because Jamie, really, in some ways, he must have known what he was getting himself into because he asked him to come on his show, Kevin, and he knew what Kevin was basically going to say, but it was still very it was very confusing to watch his expression as Kevin just let rip. I So he does produce some really entertaining stuff. On to the next one, Brian Jackson. I’ve known Brian for a number of years. We never met personally. Probably by never, because I’m never going to the hell hole that is Phoenix. I just couldn’t stand those temperatures. I don’t mean that I think it’s a hell. I’m English. Anything above 85, and I thought, I’m just used to gloom with the ride. That’s why I don’t go back to the UK. I love it. I miss my family and still have some close friends there. Not so close anymore, but we still keep in touch.
[00:49:12.970] – Jonathan Denwood
But I just could not stand the weather unless I was totally forced to go back to the UK. It’s just the weather. I just couldn’t face it. But Brian, he runs a small… He was Marketing Manager at Kinsday. He was there They’re helping them in the early days and did a fantastic job, very knowledgeable about online marketing and just hugely entertaining. He’s got a very different style than me, but he’s got a very low following on Twitter and online. That follow, I’ve been following him for years. Is he on your radar at all?
[00:49:55.060] – Kurt von Ahnen
Him and I met at WordCamp Phoenix.
[00:49:59.350] – Jonathan Denwood
You did You were prepared to go to Phoenix for you.
[00:50:02.400] – Kurt von Ahnen
I mountain bike in Phoenix, so I’m not afraid of a little of the little heat. In fact, all of my personal records, my PRs in Strava, came on really hot days. So even though I don’t look it, I can perform well in the heat. I look a mess, but I perform well. I really enjoyed WordCamp Phoenix was a life-changing event for me. That particular area just seems really blessed with a lot of talent. Brian’s one of the people that I got to spend some time with, Thomas Levy, Raquel, over with the Divi crew.
[00:50:38.250] – Jonathan Denwood
Do you mix with the Divi crew, then, do you?
[00:50:40.450] – Kurt von Ahnen
Well, she’s there.
[00:50:43.890] – Jonathan Denwood
I’ll give you No, I’m merciless in the way I put my little comments about Divi, but I find it really clear that the owner and the key people, they’re fab people, and I wish them well, but it’s not something that I’ve ever been in. I I got no plans, but I don’t wish him any ill. But no. So you met Brian. Is he like what he’s like when he’s online?
[00:51:11.380] – Kurt von Ahnen
To me, gregarious, friendly, open.
[00:51:15.420] – Jonathan Denwood
You have so much jokes, so I can forgive him anything.
[00:51:18.970] – Kurt von Ahnen
Yeah. Like I said, that event was a life changer because you just run into a ton of people. I met, well, Marcus Burnet’s on my list of people on Twitter, and I I met him there. He was presenting, not presenting. He had a sponsorship booth there. Then what he’s done in this last year with the WP World site and telling everybody where everybody’s at and the work he’s doing with the woo. I mean, it’s cool stuff.
[00:51:47.860] – Jonathan Denwood
On to some online other resources, and I’ve only got one. I don’t know if you’ve got any additional stuff you want to comment, but WP Tavern, it lost its last hard core writer. She left, Sarah. For the past, it’s been over Christmas, New Year, and December; I can’t believe we burnt through a lot of January. The great leader it’s his property. He says he’s interviewing people. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it. Jeff, the former editor, has come on the roundtable in the monthly roundtable. I got warmth in anybody who’s been involved in the WordPress professional side got a warm place for the tab because both Jeff and Sarah were… I was amazed they were allowed to publish what they did because a lot of the time, he was a bit critical of what was going on in Automatic and the great leader. And this one reason is why I’ve always had more space for the great leader, even though his ability to consume whiskey and get on X and. He’s pretty entertaining in some ways. But what do you think is going to happen to the tavern? Because they haven’t posted anything.
[00:53:33.740] – Jonathan Denwood
Do you think he’s still in the view?
[00:53:36.720] – Kurt von Ahnen
Well, I don’t know.
[00:53:38.390] – Jonathan Denwood
Do you think he should have you as the other?
[00:53:40.080] – Kurt von Ahnen
No, I was going to point out another name off of your list. Spencer. Spencer. Spencer: What is the name in the hat, from what I understand?
[00:53:47.050] – Jonathan Denwood
Oh, I would pay. I contribute to his one. That would be a train wreck worth watching. No, he… It’d be totally up to Spencer. He’s got the ability to do a great job with it. But as long as he controls himself, he’ll be okay. And I’m not being brilliant, but he’s his worst enemy. But he could do a fab job. And I think he would enjoy it as well. And I think it would be a win-win, not only for the tavern but for Spencer and the community in general. He has to control himself. I don’t know if I couldn’t do it because of my dyslexia. But that’s probably not the main reason. I just would not be able to control myself. I would upset so many people. It would be a death march to destruction. Oh, he’s gone. Maybe I said the wrong thing there. I have lost my co-host. Perhaps he was getting a call to become the master of it. So I think with the abrupt loss of my co-host, he’s coming back. He’s coming back. He’s come back. I don’t know what happened there.
[00:55:13.970] – Kurt von Ahnen
Kansas has frozen.
[00:55:15.290] – Jonathan Denwood
There we go. We better wrap this up. So I think it’s been a great discussion. I guess I haven’t been terrible. I think I’ve been very generous in my comments. Would you agree with that, Kurt?
[00:55:28.030] – Kurt von Ahnen
I believe that you have been very generous with your comments. I want to repeat it to listeners and maybe new followers of the WP-Tonic. This was, I think, a great opportunity to show people that there’s information everywhere. There are great folks that come. So once you get into the WordPress environment, when you start to feel overwhelmed or something, there are resources and things you can bring yourself.
[00:55:52.710] – Jonathan Denwood
Well, it’s the great strength of WordPress because no other platform, no website building or technology platform, has the amount of content and educational material and just commentary as this community. No technology platform instills so much passion for good or bad. I think love is great. I think having passionate people. I think Jamie is passionate about Gutenberg. I respect his views. I’m afraid I have to disagree with some of them. I’m afraid I have to disagree with some of the things that Kevin, I agree about 80 to 90 %. I disagree. I’m afraid I have to disagree with anything. My 100 %. But it doesn’t mean you don’t respect them, even though they’ve got different opinions. But there’s another group of people, and you do see this since page builders, There’s discussions around page builders and other topics which I don’t want to touch now, where you have people that have one particular view. And if you disagree with them, you’re treated like the devil incarnate, and I find it upsetting and juvenile to some extent. But you get that with any large community, won’t you, Kurt? So, Kurt, What’s the best way for people to learn more about you and what you’re up to?
[00:57:34.650] – Kurt von Ahnen
For business needs and website stuff, maniananomas..com. Maniananomas, like tomorrow no more. And then, I’m on LinkedIn almost every day, and I’m the only current fan on it on LinkedIn, so it’s easy to find me and make a connection there.
[00:57:48.320] – Jonathan Denwood
That’s great. If you really want to support the show, go over to the WP Tonic YouTube channel and subscribe to the channel. You find all the content, not only for this show, but for my other show, the Membership Machine Show that covers membership, surprisingly, but also WordPress, and a load of other video content that I’m producing every month. If you want to show your support, go over there, subscribe, and be part of our live chats as well. We love you to be part of that as well. We will be back next week with another great show. We’ll see you soon, folks. Bye. Hey, thanks for listening. We really do appreciate it. Why not visit the Mastermind Facebook group? Also, to keep up with the latest news, click Wp-tonic. Com/newsletter. We’ll see you next time.
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