Ninja Forms Contact Form – The Drag and Drop Form Builder for WordPress

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 Use Ninja Forms to create beautiful, user friendly WordPress forms that will make you feel like a professional web developer!

Not a tech person? No problem. No coding skills required. You can design beautiful, complex forms like a pro with a dedicated support team at your back. No question is too small- build your forms with a professional team happy to answer any question or address any issue.

BUILD BEAUTIFUL WORDPRESS FORMS WITHOUT BEING A DESIGNER

Drag and drop fields. Easy row and column layouts. Multi page forms. Conditional forms. You don’t have to be a designer to create forms that will blend beautifully with your WordPress website.

ADVANCED FEATURES YOU WON’T NEED A DEVELOPER TO BUILD

Let users upload files and make any form an upload form. Send or export submissions as a PDF, Microsoft Excel file, even Google Sheets. Send email from any form to just the people that need it. You don’t need to be (or hire!) a developer.

ACCEPT PAYMENTS AND DONATIONS WITH A PAYMENT FORM OR DONATION FORM

You can accept PayPal and credit card payments securely and easily from any of your WordPress forms. Single payments or subscriptions, fixed, variable, or user entered amounts. Give your customers or donors all the options, or just one with a PayPal form, Stripe form, and more!

Embed Google Reviews in WordPress

To embed Google Reviews in WordPress, you’re going to need a few things:

Google Business Profile listing

Google Reviews WordPress plugin

Google Places API key (depending on the plugin)

Google Business Profile Listing

First, you’ll probably want a Google Business Profile listing where customers can leave reviews in the first place.

While you can embed Google Reviews from any listing (even those you don’t control), setting up your own Google Business Profile listing will give you more control over your business’s profile in Google.

Because this profile is where customers will leave the reviews that you embed, you’ll want to put your best foot forward. By creating your profile, you’ll be able to add pictures, edit business details, share updates, and more.

To create your listing, you can go to the Google Business Profile page and follow the instructions. 

Alternatively, if Google has already automatically created a listing for your business, you can claim it by clicking the “Own this business?” link that appears on the listing in Google.

Google Reviews WordPress Plugin

Once you have your Google Business Profile listing, you can use a dedicated Google Reviews WordPress plugin to embed reviews from that listing in your WordPress site.

You can find a number of free options that will embed reviews for you, though most also offer premium versions that add more features.

Apple is testing a ChatGPT-like AI chatbot

Apple is developing artificial intelligence tools to challenge OpenAI, Google and others. Apple has created a chatbot that some engineers are internally referring to as “Apple GPT.” 

Apple has built its own framework, codenamed “Ajax,” to create large language models, which are AI-based systems that power offerings like Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Ajax runs on Google Cloud and was built with Google JAX, the search giant’s machine learning framework. Apple is leveraging Ajax to create large language models and serve as the foundation for the internal ChatGPT-style tool.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: Building a Membership Site with WordPress

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin

Members is a roles and capabilities based WordPress membership plugin. It gives your users the ultimate member experience by giving you powerful tools to add roles and capabilities and assign them to your users.

Members allows you to set permissions to restrict content on your site by providing a simple user interface (UI) for WordPress’ powerful roles and capabilities system, which has traditionally only been available to developers who know how to code this by hand.

PLUGIN FEATURES

Role Editor: Allows you to edit, create, and delete roles as well as capabilities for these roles.

Multiple User Roles: Give one, two, or even more roles to any user.

Explicitly Deny Capabilities: Deny specific capabilities to specific user roles.

Clone Roles: Build a new role by cloning an existing role.

Content Permissions / Restricted Content: Protect content to determine which users (by role) have access to post content.

Shortcodes: Shortcodes to control who has access to content.

Widgets: A login form widget and users widget to show in your theme’s sidebars.

Private Site: You can make your site and its feed completely private if you want.

Plugin Integration: Members is highly recommended by other WordPress developers. Many existing plugins integrate their custom roles and capabilities directly into it.

WordPress 'WooCommerce Payments' Plugin Critical Vulnerability Spotted

 A critical vulnerability was spotted on WordPress WooCommerce Payments plugin, which allowed hackers to get access to user privileges. These include administration access upon vulnerable WordPress installation.

WordPress WooCommerce Payments Plugin Had Over 600,000 Active Installations

All in One SEO – Best WordPress SEO Plugin – Easily Improve SEO Rankings & Increase Traffic

All in One SEO for WordPress is the original WordPress SEO plugin started in 2007. Over 3 million smart website owners use AIOSEO to properly setup WordPress SEO, so their websites can rank higher in search engines.

We believe you shouldn’t have to hire an SEO expert or developer to properly setup WordPress SEO. That’s why we built AIOSEO as the most comprehensive WordPress SEO plugin and marketing toolkit, so you can improve your website’s SEO rankings and uncover new SEO growth opportunities in less than 10 minutes.

At All in One SEO (AIOSEO), user experience is our #1 priority. From website SEO setup to ongoing SEO optimization, our team of SEO experts have created easy to follow SEO workflows that will help you outrank your competitors in search results. This is why many industry leaders award AIOSEO as the most beginner friendly WordPress SEO plugin that’s both EASY and POWERFUL!

AIOSEO’s WordPress SEO plugin features are highly optimized for Google and other popular search engine algorithm because we follow the most up to date SEO standards and SEO best practices. We can honestly say that AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin in the world.

Create a Mailchimp Subscribe Form in WordPress

Just follow the step-by-step tutorial below to embed a Mailchimp signup form on your WordPress site.

Step 1: Install and Activate the WPForms Plugin

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see this step-by-step guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

Step 2: Install and Activate the Mailchimp Addon

Next, we need to activate the WPForms Mailchimp addon. Go to WPForms » Addons and find the Mailchimp Addon.

Install and activate the Mailchimp Addon.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI signs deal with AP to license news stories

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and The Associated Press said Thursday that they’ve made a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP’s archive of news stories.

“The arrangement sees OpenAI licensing part of AP’s text archive, while AP will leverage OpenAI’s technology and product expertise,” the two organizations said in a joint statement.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

China finalizes first-of-its-kind rules governing generative A.I. services like ChatGPT

Chinese regulators on Thursday said it finalized first-of-its-kind rules governing generative artificial intelligence as it looks to ramp up oversight of the rapidly-growing technology.

The powerful Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said it worked with several other regulators to come up with the new regulation that will come into effect on Aug. 15.

Generative AI is a fast-growing area of technology in which artificial intelligence services are able to generate content such as text or images.

Popular WordPress Security Plugin Caught Logging Plaintext Passwords

The All-In-One Security (AIOS) WordPress plugin was found to be logging plaintext passwords from login attempts.

Installed on more than one million WordPress sites, the security and firewall plugin was designed to prevent cyberattacks such as brute-force attempts, warn when the default admin username is used for login, prevent bot attacks, log user activity, and eliminate comment spam.

ChatGPT rival Bard launches in Europe and Brazil

Google’s parent company has announced the rollout of its chatbot rival to ChatGPT in the European Union and Brazil, as tech firms ramp up their competition to dominate artificial intelligence.

Bard is now available in 27 EU countries and Brazil, as well as 40 new languages, including Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi and Spanish.

Bard’s expanded rollout comes hours after Elon Musk announced the launch of AI company xAI to challenge ChatGPT creator OpenAI, which the billionaire has accused of being biased in favour of “woke” politics.

Shopify WordPress integration

The Shopify WordPress integration works by adding a Shopify Buy Button to your WordPress site. This way, you maintain every aspect of your website (blog, site design, SEO) on WordPress, but you can also sell products and process payments with a simple button from Shopify.

Here’s how it works:

Create a product in Shopify (images, product description, and price).

Copy the embed code for the Shopify product.

Paste that code anywhere on WordPress to embed Shopify products on the site.

Then, customers go to your WordPress site to see the Shopify products. But to purchase, they’re sent through a Shopify checkout module.

Elon Musk launches xAI, an artificial intelligence works with Tesla, Twitter

Elon Musk has formed a new company focused on artificial intelligence (AI). Musk, runs Tesla and SpaceX, announced the company's launch on Twitter. Saying the company, xAI, was formed to "understand reality."

The company is expected to work closely with Tesla and Twitter, which Musk also owns, according to xAI. The entity is considered separate from X Corp, but will work closely with Twitter, Tesla and other companies “to make progress towards (its) mission.”

How to Protect the WordPress Admin URL

Protecting your WordPress admin dashboard URL

Since the default URLs used to log in to the Admin area of WordPress websites are known publicly (such as domain.com/wp-admin), anyone can attempt to log in, posing a potential vulnerability for your website.

To prevent this, you can change the URL to something unique or protect the existing URL with the help of the changing the WP Admin URL 

The easiest and fastest way to protect your admin URL is to change it. You can do it easily by using a free plugin like WPS Hide Login.

Once you set a new URL and save the changes, the login URL will change instantly, so make sure to save it somewhere safe

Bluehost Incorporates AI Into New WordPress Site-Building Package

Bluehost, a web hosting service that specializes in WordPress hosting, said Wednesday it's launching a new WordPress site-building package that uses artificial intelligence. The package is called WonderSuite, and Bluehost said it's designed to be a digital co-pilot to help you easily create websites fast.

"With WonderSuite, we remove the complexities of building a website or store with WordPress…so can publish their site and see success earlier for their business,"  

WordPress 6.3 Beta 4 is ready for download and testing.

This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, you should evaluate Beta 4 on a test server and site. 

Get an overview of the 6.3 release cycle, check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.3-related posts, and review the new features in WordPress 6.3. Also, save the date for a live product demo scheduled for Thursday, July 20, 2023, at 16:00 UTC (Zoom link). This will be a great opportunity to join the WordPress community to celebrate the accomplishments of 6.3 and this final chapter of Phase 2.

Beta 4 highlights

Thanks to the many WordPress beta testers, this release contains 40+ (Editor) and 60+ (Trac) updates since the Beta 3 release. Excellent work, team!

Notable updates for this beta release include:

Discontinuing support for PHP 5.

4 tickets closed regarding fetchpriority and lazy-loading features related to performance (58680, 58635, 58704, 58681.)

Launch and Configure a WordPress Instance with Amazon Lightsail

Amazon Lightsail is one of the easiest ways to get started with AWS. It offers virtual servers, storage, databases, and networking, plus a cost-effective, monthly plan.

Step 2: Create a WordPress instance in Lightsail

Complete the following steps to get your WordPress instance up and running on Lightsail.

Note: For more information about creating an instance in Lightsail, see Create an Amazon Lightsail instance in the Lightsail documentation. 

a. Sign in to the Lightsail console. 

b. On the Instances tab of the Lightsail home page, choose Create instance.

c. An AWS Region and Availability Zone is selected for you. Choose Change AWS Region and Availability Zone if you want to create your instance in another location.

d. Choose your instance image.

Choose Linux/Unix as the platform.

Choose WordPress as the blueprint.

e. Choose an instance plan.

A plan includes a machine configuration (RAM, SSD, vCPU) at a low, predictable cost, and data transfer allowance. You can try the $3.50 USD Lightsail plan without charge for three months (up to 750 hours). AWS credits the first three months to your account.

f. Enter a name for your instance and choose Create instance.

 Resource name guidelines:

 Must be unique within each AWS Region in your Lightsail account.

Must contain 2 to 255 characters.

Must start and end with an alphanumeric character or number.

Can include alphanumeric characters, numbers, periods, dashes, and underscores.

Step 3: Connect to your instance via SSH and get the password for your WordPress website

The default password to sign in to the administration dashboard of your WordPress website is stored on the instance.

Complete the following steps to connect to your instance using the browser-based SSH client in the Lightsail console, and get the password for the administration dashboard.

Note: For more information, see Getting the application user name and password for your Bitnami instance in Amazon Lightsail.

a. On the Instances tab of the Lightsail home page, choose the SSH quick-connect icon for your WordPress instance.

b. After the browser-based SSH client window opens, enter the following command to retrieve the default application password:

cat $HOME/bitnami_application_password

Copy

c. Make note of the password displayed on the screen. You use it later to sign in to the administration dashboard of your WordPress website.

Step 4: Sign in to the administration dashboard of your WordPress website

Now that you have the password for the administration dashboard of your WordPress website, you can sign in. In the administration dashboard, you can change your user password, install plugins, change the theme of your website, and more.

Complete the following steps to sign in to the administration dashboard of your WordPress website.

Note: For more information, see Getting the application user name and password for your Bitnami instance in Amazon Lightsail.

a. In a browser, go o:

http://PublicIpAddress/wp-login.php

Copy

In the address, replace PublicIpAddress with the public IP address of your WordPress instance. You can get your instance's public IP address from the Lightsail console as shown in the image at the right.

b. Log in to your instance. 

In the Username or Email Address box, enter user.

In the Password box, enter the default password obtained earlier in this tutorial.

Choose Log in. 

c. You are now signed in to the administration dashboard of your WordPress website where you can perform administrative actions. For more information about administering your WordPress website, see the WordPress Codex in the WordPress documentation.

Step 5: Create a Lightsail static IP address and attach it to your WordPress instance

The default public IP for your WordPress instance changes if you stop and start your instance. A static IP address, attached to an instance, stays the same even if you stop and start your instance.

Complete the following steps to create a static IP address and attach it to your WordPress instance.

Note: For more information, see Create a static IP and attach it to an instance in Amazon Lightsail.

a. On the Instances tab of the Lightsail home page, choose your running WordPress instance.

b. Choose the Networking tab, then choose Create static IP.

c. The static IP location is preselected based on the instance zone that you chose earlier. Select the created WordPress instance from the Attach to an instance dropdown.

d. Name your static IP, then choose Create. 

Step 6: Create a Lightsail DNS zone and map a domain to your WordPress instance

Transfer management of your domain's DNS records to Lightsail. This allows you to more easily map a domain to your WordPress instance, and manage more of your website’s resources using the Lightsail console.

Complete the following steps to create a Lightsail DNS zone and map a domain to your WordPress instance.

Note: For more information, see Creating a DNS zone to manage your domain’s DNS records in Amazon Lightsail.

a. On the Networking tab of the Lightsail home page, choose Create DNS zone. 

b. Enter your domain, then choose Create DNS zone. 

c. Make note of the name server address listed on the page. 

You add these name server addresses to your domain name’s registrar to transfer management of your domain’s DNS records to Lightsail.

d. After management of your domain’s DNS records are transferred to Lightsail, add an A record to point the apex of your domain to your WordPress instance, as follows:

You add these name server addresses to your domain name’s registrar to transfer management of your domain’s DNS records to Lightsail.

1. In the DNS zone for your domain, choose Add record.

e. Continue adding the following details to complete pointing the apex of your domain to your WordPress instance:

1. In the Subdomain box, enter an @ symbol to map the apex of your domain (such as example.com) to your instance. The @ symbol explicitly symbolizes that you’re adding an apex record. It is not added as a subdomain.

2. In the Resolves to box, choose the static IP that you attached to the WordPress instance in the previous step of this tutorial.

3. Choose the green save icon.

Allow time for the change to propagate through the internet's DNS before your domain begins routing traffic to your WordPress instance.

How To Fix Critical Errors With WordPress Recovery Mode

Did you just try to visit your WordPress site only to be met by a message saying “There has been a critical error on this website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions”? If so, your site is probably in WordPress recovery mode. It allows you to easily to fix fatal errors on your site that can make WordPress’s backend or frontend inaccessible.

Wordpress Jetpack AI Assistant Write smarter, not harderWrite smarter, not harder

 Harness AI power directly from the WordPress Editor

Jetpack AI Assistant fits right into your WordPress Editor. Its intuitive interface lets you engage with AI as if you were chatting with a colleague. This powerful WordPress AI tool lets you generate diverse content on command, reducing the time and effort you spend on content creation.

Unlock high‑quality, tailored content at your command

Feed a prompt to Jetpack AI Assistant and watch as it crafts compelling blog posts, detailed pages, structured lists, and comprehensive tables - all tailored to your needs.

adaptive tone adjustment

Tailor the tone of your text to perfectly match your desired style. Whether you aim for a formal tone or a conversational one, Jetpack AI Assistant adjusts to your needs.

Maintain professional standards with ease

Ensure high‑standard content with Jetpack AI Assistant's advanced spelling and grammar tools.

Title & summary generation

Need a fitting title or concise summary? Jetpack AI Assistant can create them for your content on request.

Translate Effortlessly

AI‑powered translations across numerous languages at your fingertips, breaking down language barriers. Experience the best WordPress AI content tool.

Meta’s Twitter rival Threads explodes to 70 million signups one day after launch

 Meta’s new Twitter competitor Threads has exploded in growth in its first full day since its public debut Wednesday night, fueled by Instagram’s already massive userbase.

The text-based social media product already has 70 million sign-ups, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday.
“Meta only needs 1 in 4 Instagram users to use Threads monthly for it to be as big as Twitter,” 

WordPress – Website Builder

WordPress for Android puts the power of web publishing in your pocket. It’s a website creator and so much more!

CREATE

- Give your big ideas a home on the web. WordPress for Android is a website builder and a blog maker.

- Pick the right look and feel from a wide selection of WordPress themes, then customize with photos, colors, and fonts so it’s uniquely you.

- Built-in Quick Start tips guide you through the setup basics to set your new website up for success.

PUBLISH

- Create updates, stories, photo essays announcements -- anything! -- with the editor.

- Bring your posts and pages to life with photos and video from your camera and albums, or find the perfect image with the in-app collection of free-to-use pro photography.

- Save ideas as drafts and come back to them when your muse returns, or schedule new posts for the future so your site is always fresh and engaging.

- Add tags and categories to help new readers discover your posts, and watch your audience grow.

STATS

- Check your website’s stats in real time to keep track of the activity on your site.

- Track which posts and pages get the most traffic over time by exploring daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly insights.

Wordpress Change WP Admin Login

Change WP Admin Login is an easy-to-use WordPress plugin that allows you to safely change your WordPress website’s admin login URL to anything you want.

The plugin’s simple two-step process ensures the safety of your WordPress admin login URL within seconds, and all of this without any coding.

Protect your WordPress website from brute force attacks.

Quick two-step process that doesn’t require coding.

Source: https://wordpress.org/plugins/change-wp-admin-login/

Wordpress 6.3 Dropping support for PHP 5

Support for PHP 5 will be dropped in WordPress 6.3, scheduled for release on August 8th 2023. The new minimum supported version of PHP will be 7.0.0. The recommended version of PHP remains at 7.4 or greater.

WordPress currently supports PHP version 5.6.20 or greater. The minimum supported version was last adjusted in WordPress 5.2 in 2019, and since then usage of PHP 5.6 has dropped to 3.9% of monitored WordPress installations 

WordPress 6.3 Beta 3 is ready for download and testing!

WordPress 6.3 Beta 3 is ready for download and testing!

Direct download the Beta 3 version (zip).

ChatGPT app downloads are slowing down

 Analysts found that app downloads for ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing have slowed in recent weeks, citing Sensor Tower data, BofA analyst Justin Post wrote in a note Wednesday.

ChatGPT downloads on iPhones in the U.S. were down 38% month over month in June, according to the note. Bing app downloads, which includes a ChatGPT-based chatbot in the U.S., were also down 38% in June.

Elementor Website Builder - Best Page Builder

 Elementor is the leading website building platform for WordPress, enabling web creators to build professional, pixel-perfect websites with an intuitive visual builder. Quickly create amazing websites for your clients or your business with complete control over every piece, without writing a single line of code. Join a vast community of web creators from all around the world who deliver exceptional websites using Elementor.

Whether you’re looking to achieve pixel-perfect designs, scale and accelerate your website creation process, or increase lead generation, Elementor has what you need to create any type of website.

NASA is creating a ChatGPT-like assistant for astronauts

NASA is developing a system that will allow astronauts to perform maneuvers, conduct experiments and more using a natural-language ChatGPT-like interface

China's biggest AI conference kicks off this week

China kicks off its annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai this week in a showcase of Beijing's AI ambitions amid a deepening technological rivalry with the US.

The annual event, which is hosted by several government ministries, has attracted China's top AI firms and institutions. The published agenda that runs from Thursday to Saturday is dominated by local firms and speakers, with some big international names conspicuously missing. Most notably, Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, will not be in attendance.

With domestic regulators flagging risks about generative AI, ChatGPT and similar services such as Google's Bard are unlikely to be allowed into the Chinese market, making AI another closed garden inside the Great Firewall that could benefit local tech giants.

Vulnerability in the Ultimate Member plugin gets exploited in Wordpress websites

 Thousands of WordPress sites could be at risk as a vulnerability in the Ultimate Member plugin gets exploited, but a quick fix will stop your site from being taken over.

The plugin, which has amassed more than 200,000 downloads on the platform, is designed to support user signups and memberships on WordPress websites.

The vulnerability which is being tracked as CVE-2023-3460 has been awarded a score of 9.8, making it ‘critical.’ It is believed to have impacted all versions of the plugin.