Weekly WordPress News: Plugin Directory Refresh, LayersWP and Pickle

As WordPress continues it’s battle to compete with the likes of Wix and Squarespace, this week we saw the launch of the new plugin directory design to match the recent theme directory design. We also saw some new design recommendations being released to push developers towards creating more attractive theme designs in an effort to boost the quality of themes available. It’s pretty basic stuff, such as targeting your theme towards a specific use, making sure body text is readable with correct font sizing and line-heights etc, but should help as there is still some quite poorly designed themes appearing on a regular basis in the directory.

Last week saw the launch of Layers, a free page builder by Obox themes and this week saw Adii Pienar ( co-founder of WooThemes ) join the company with a 30% investment. The future is looking great for Obox, they seem to smashing it with Layers – take a look at this interesting post on their blog where they describe how the launch went went they hit the top of Hacker News and Product Hunt.

Finally, another nice launch that caught my eye is Pickle, by Jason Schuller who founded Press75. It’s a WordPress theme / hosted solution with a custom back-end aimed at restaurant owners to help them create simple sites for their businesses. Once the rest API is completed we should start seeing a lot more exciting apps with custom admin solutions like this.

On with the news, have a great weekend everyone!

WordPress News and Articles

• WordPress Plugin Directory Launches New Design – The new plugin directory goes live, looks much better.
• Adii Pienaar is making a WordPress comeback with stake in Obox – Brian’s post about Adii Pienaar investing in Obox
• WordPress Communities Around the World – A cracking post by Kinsta about the communities of WordPress users around the world.
• Jason Schuller’s Pickle Theme Re-Imagines WordPress as an Invisible CMS – I like this, it’s great to see someone do something different with WordPress.
• WordPress Theme Review Handbook Updated to Include Design Recommendations – A few new guidelines for design rather than code when submitting a theme.
• What Developers Need to Know About Theme Design – More for developers to improve their theme designs.
• Our Director of Engineering on the New WIRED.com – Wired.com just moved their 17 sites over to one WordPress install, post contains some interesting technical info.

Tutorials and How-Tos

• Learn How to Create a WordPress eCommerce Store from Scratch – Our review of a Udemy course to teach you the basics of WooCommerce.
• How to Install WordPress Locally on Your Computer with DesktopServer – A tutorial for running WordPress locally.
• Integrating A Page Builder With Your WordPress Themes – How to include Beaver Builder in your themes.
• The Basics of Developing Accessible Websites – How to make your themes accessible for people with impairments.
• How to Make Your WordPress Blog Content More Socially Shareable – Some tips from Joe for helping your content work on social media.
• How to Set Up an Affiliate Program with WooCommerce – Using affiliateWP and WooCommerce for your affiliate program.
• Create A Simple CRM in WordPress: Creating a Custom Post Type – Tutorial for creating a CRM.
• An 8-Step Checklist for Publishing a WordPress Theme on ThemeForest: Part 2 – Second part of the tutorial on how to get your theme ready for ThemeForest.

Resources & Freebies

• 40 of the Best Feminine, Cute & Girly WordPress Themes – Updated post for 2015 with the best themes for female bloggers and entrepreneurs.
• Over 50 Stylish & Free WordPress Portfolio Themes for Photographers – Updated post for 2015 with the best free themes for Photographers.
• Clean Up WordPress with the New WP-Sweep Plugin – Free plugin to clean up your WordPress install.