Paid Plans

Blogging Glitches: An Update

~ beetleypete ~ 44 Comments

Following on from yesterday’s post about issues with replies to comments, this appeared to be fixed (for now) just after 8pm last night.

Thanks to everyone for your advice and suggestions, I am sorry I was unable to reply to most of them.

What made me enraged yesterday was that I pay £84 a year for a Premium Plan. As well as giving me extra space for images and no ads on my blog posts, it is supposed to provide me with instant ‘Live Chat’ to resolve problems.

In the past, this has worked reasonably well, but recently the format has changed slightly, and it now seems to be generated by AI, not humans. As a result it doesn’t work, because it fails to recognise the issue you are asking for help with, or directs you to routine WordPress information pages that most bloggers are very familiar with. Then it declares ‘No issues found’, and deletes the request.

I think this is bordering on fraud from WordPress, as it is one of the major selling points of a paid plan.

All of this made me so angry and stressed yesterday, I have decided to take a couple of days off to calm down, and have a rethink. The last episode of the serial ‘Julia’ has been published, and I am currently able to reply to comments and to comment on most blogs I follow.

So I will hopefully be back as usual next Monday.

Much Ado About Nothing?

~ beetleypete ~ 15 Comments

Another view of the WP changes. This might calm us all down!
(Well, maybe…)
HOWEVER! Other bloggers have been told that once their paid plans expire, the new Free or Pro will be the only available options.
Watch this space…

This, That, and the Other

Yesterday there were some posts going around, including mine, suggesting that WordPress was consolidating down to two plans: a scaled-back free plan, and a professional blogger-level Pro plan at $180 a year. This created quite the brouhaha among us casual, hobby bloggers.

I opened up a help ticket on WordPress asking if this were true, but as of this morning, I have not received a response. But my blogging buddy Jim Adams, who must have more clout with WordPress than I do, contacted WordPress, and he was told that “that the Personal, Premium, Business, and eCom plans are not being discontinued. The Pro plan has been introduced in addition to these plans and is currently only available for the FREE sites.”

So it seems that we were all up in arms over something that won’t adversely affect most of us. Thank you, Jim, for giving us the real skinny…

View original post 32 more words

Free Or Paid Plan on WordPress? Read this!

~ beetleypete ~ 84 Comments

WordPress is about to change the variety of plans available to bloggers. In their ongoing quest to pander to business users, (and to make more money) only TWO plans will be offered in future.

Free
or
Pro

https://wordpress.com/support/plan-features/

*There will also be a monthly limit on views of your blog! So much for expanding your community!

https://wordpress.com/pricing/

The Free plan will allow ONLY 0.5 GB of storage space. If you use more than that, WP will potentially delete the photos in your media library. The Pro plan allows 50 GB, and retains the features of Premium, with some extras. Bloggers already getting the free 3 GB allowance on the Free plan, or 13 GB on the Premium plan will retain that.

For now.

But the cost of the Pro plan will be $180 a year, paid in advance. This is going to impact millions of WP bloggers around the world, at a time when the cost of living is increasing to levels not seen since WW2.

Read this post from Bookstooge, for a detailed explanation. Then get angry!
https://bookstooge.wordpress.com/2022/04/02/bend-over-bloggers-wordpress-wants-your-ss/

WordPress: Sponsored Posts

~ beetleypete ~ 81 Comments

I received this notification from WordPress when I logged on this morning. Perhaps everybody got one, but just in case you didn’t see it this is by way of information.

WordPress.com has started testing Native Sponsored Posts. This is an extension of our advertising program and will have the same controls and restrictions as our standard ad placements.
You may see these Sponsored Posts running on your sites as we expand testing. They may be promoting WordPress.com content, marketing initiatives, or brands.
Longer term, we hope to offer Sponsored Posts to our users as a way to help drive traffic and promote content discovery. For any questions or issues, see our Native Sponsored Posts FAQ.

https://wordpress.com/support/native-sponsored-posts/

It seems that WordPress is testing out its new plan to generate extra income by offering sponsored posts to users. Eventually, this will give you the opportunity, should you want it, to pay them for sending one of your posts to users. Meanwhile, they will be trialling posts containing their own content, and also that of various brand advertisers. These will appear as posts, not obviously as advertisements.

You will have no control on what you receive, or how frequently you receive them. The only option to avoid receiving them is to upgrade to one of the various paid plans offered by WordPress. If you have one of those, sponsored post will not appear on your site. (For now…)

Just so you know.

Some Rare Praise For WordPress

~ beetleypete ~ 55 Comments

As most of you will know by now, I rarely have anything good to say about WordPress. Whether it is the fact that they will not be retaining the Classic Editor soon, or the endless glitches that fling our comments into Spam Folders, the host company of our blogs has received the sharp end of my keyboard on more occasions than I care to remember.

However, credit where it’s due.

This morning, I received conflicting communications about the renewal of my paid ‘Personal Plan’. One message said I had to renew it, and another told me it had been automatically renewed, supplying me with a confirmation invoice number to prove that.

So I used the ‘Live Chat’ system to query the confusion.

They replied instantly. I typed out my question, and received a reply resolving the issue in less than sixty seconds. I know this is not available to anyone who uses the Free Option. But at £3 a month, it has to be worth it. And it gets rid of the advertisements too. Some people pay that much every day for a takeaway coffee.

Compare that to so many years of teeth-grinding frustration trying to contact WP through the help pages and forums.