My blog of random things and tests.

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  • Web Summit 2025 – Recap

    I was fortunate enough to attend Web Summit this year, and I went with a completely open mind, ready to soak up everything I could. I studied the speakers and topics closely and selected a well-rounded mix of talks covering performance, WordPress Special Projects Team interests, AI, customer service, robotics (because it is just cool), sport (because I love it), and celebrities (because I can’t help myself). What surprised me most was how many of the talks I chose for personal interest aligned so naturally with Team 51 and the TAM role.

    The WordPress Special Projects Team & High Performance

    We kicked things off with a talk from Maria Sharapova on how AI will improve athletic performance. There are many parallels between high-performance athletes and a TAM on the Special Projects Team. The key takeaway was simple: AI and the tools built on it are here to help us work better and faster. What used to take weeks of analysis can now be done in minutes. The question she left us with applies just as clearly to us: What data are we leveraging to improve ourselves—and what aren’t we tracking yet that we should be?

    In parallel, I attended three Formula 1 focused talks exploring how elite performance is achieved when every part of the process is intentional, quality-controlled, and supported by the right tooling. Technology exists to support the human—not replace them.

    These sessions included leaders from Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS, Oracle Red Bull Racing, and McLaren. McLaren spoke about staying relevant in a world where many fans will never physically interact with the brand. Toto Wolff and Don McGuire discussed the importance of hardware—specifically the Qualcomm Snapdragon chip—for vehicle communication. Oracle Red Bull Racing, alongside 1Password’s CEO, focused on the central role of trust: trust is what turns ambition into lasting advantage.

    One narrative from Wolff that deeply resonated with me is that he sees himself as a translator—bridging communication between human and machine. In that translation lies success. This mirrors what we do as TAMs: we translate between partners, developers, designers, and code. We sit at the centre of communication. It made me reflect on where our weakest communication links live—do we need to listen better, or translate more clearly?

    Another powerful metaphor was the balcony and the dancefloor. You need to be on the dancefloor—working, building, solving, moving fast—but you also need the balcony view to ensure you’re moving in the right direction with clarity. This is where ICs and Leads rely deeply on one another, in a symbiotic relationship that drives focus, alignment, and quality work.

    Several speakers echoed the same fundamental message: look after yourself.

    • Eat well
    • Sleep well
    • Exercise
    • Support your mental health

    A well-supported person shows up more focused, present, and ready to contribute meaningfully.

    This also came through strongly in the talk Technology with Soul: Building with Intention. Adults are spending more time on their devices than ever before—often missing what truly matters. We were encouraged to resist autopilot and reconnect with purpose. This mirrors themes we hear in our Engagement Surveys. On the WordPress Special Projects Team, connection is core—but you can’t truly connect with others if you’re not connected to yourself first.

    One piece of advice that really stuck with me:

    Change “I have to” into “I get to.”Biz Stone, Co-Founder of Twitter and West

    You don’t have to write the report—you get to write the report. That shift alone brings meaning and ownership back into our work.

    High-level reflections applicable to the WordPress Special Projects Team:

    • High-performance teams must be diverse and authentic
    • Make space for higher-perspective thinking
    • McLaren won the Constructors’ Championship last season by 7/10s of a second. Small details matter—everything matters
    • Optimise your personal life
    • Reassess your priorities often and listen to yourself more than you listen to others

    People, Authenticity & Empathy Over Tooling

    I attended a fascinating talk by Dan Gardner titled The Internet Is Closing: Where Does That Leave You and Your Customers? His research shows that while businesses obsess over automation and efficiency, long-term growth is overwhelmingly driven by customer experience. There’s a proven 30% revenue increase when organisations prioritise customer satisfaction (read the statistics here). 

    From this lens, the WordPress Special Projects Team’s focus is spot on—our customers sit at the centre of everything we do. Their experience with WordPress and with us is our top priority. This also raises the question: is there an opportunity for us to grow revenue by focusing more intentionally on our paying Automattic customers?

    Sara Vienna reinforced this in her talk The Empathy Advantage: AI’s Impact on UX. While the world accelerates toward automation, there is real competitive power in slowing down and empowering people. Her message was simple and powerful:

    Those who create meaningful experiences will win.Sara Vienna, Chief Design Officer of Metalab

    If everyone uses the same tools, everything begins to look, feel, and sound the same. It’s the human element that creates differentiation and makes experiences genuinely worth sharing.

    This theme continued in The Authenticity Algorithm: How Absolut Vodka Scales Creativity with AI by Pernod Ricard’s team. They demonstrated how AI can be incredibly efficient, but without humans guiding brand identity, tone, and intent, the output simply doesn’t work. 

    AI learns from humans—and humans learn from AI. Both need to exist together.

    The Open Web, Ownership & Digital Identity

    There was significant discussion about the move away from open browsers toward closed platforms. I’ve seen this shift in my own behaviour—where I once defaulted to Google Search, I now often start with ChatGPT.

    A panel with the CEOs of Mozilla and Cloudflare focused on privacy, digital advocacy, and the importance of protecting the open web. This closely aligns with Automattic’s values. Cloudflare’s recent issues with Perplexity ignoring robots.txt raised major concerns: bots can bypass rules, boundaries, and even paywalls. This challenges content ownership at its core. Where do we help site owners regain control?

    Human beings are far more wonderful than machines. Keep humans in charge of the process.Charlie Ungashick, CMO of Vimeo

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt spoke about how your digital self should belong to you, reinforcing Automattic’s mission around content ownership. He emphasised that AI should be used to enable creativity, not exploit it. This hit home for me. While it’s magical to bring my children’s drawings to life using AI, it would feel deeply wrong if someone monetised those outputs without credit.

    One concerning statistic lingered with me: in the last six months, there has been a 50% drop in users clicking through to validate AI sources. As AI gets smarter, people may get lazier with verification. It’s our responsibility to keep reinforcing that hallucinations happen—and sources still matter.

    Content Is Changing

    Throughout the talk AI: Creator Killer or 10x Superpower? I kept thinking about Woo.

    • 75% of users under 25 get information from video
    • 82% of all web traffic is video
    • Engagement increases by 87% with video
    • Buying behaviour increases by 64% after video engagement

    Video is no longer an enhancement—it’s an expectation. And it’s no longer just rectangular; it’s immersive.

    This raised important questions for me:

    • Are we discussing video in our Discovery calls often enough?
    • How is Woo handling video in default product templates?
    • What extensions support user-generated and immersive video content? How do we build these into Core?

    One simple but practical recommendation we should make more often:
    When our partners are planning photography, start with video. You can always extract stills from video, but not the other way around.

    We also saw an impressive AI tool called Picstart, which localises content across different markets automatically. The demo was incredible. It made me wonder what we could learn from tools like this to better support localisation for Automattic’s products.

    Some talks were pure curiosity-driven joy. Seeing Spot from BostonDynamics live was unforgettable. I also completely nerded out during a demo by Amazon’s Chief Robotics Technologist, Tye Brady, who showcased robots with a sense of touch. While the application focused on logistics, I immediately imagined how it could revolutionise fields such as robotic surgery.

    I also treated myself to talks on the future of commercial space travel and the decommissioning of the International Space Station, and a session with Armin van Buuren and Apple Music’s Global Head, Ole Obermann. Armin is a household favourite—and yes, I fully fan-girled.

    The Expo

    Outside of talks, I spent limited time in the expo halls to prioritise sessions and continue my day-to-day Automattic work. What stood out to me wasn’t who was there—but who wasn’t. It felt like a space where Automattic should belong. The halls were filled with driven startup teams. Imagine if even a fraction of them built on WordPress.com. Imagine the conversations we could have about integrations, platforms, and partnerships.

    I met a standout swag supplier called Team Sunday. Their catalogue is big and versatile, and all items can be fully customised. They don’t do print-on-demand, unfortunately, but they work with global brands, ship internationally, and, I might be biased, but the person I spoke to said they like South Africa and gave me some socks. In my non-biased opinion, the socks are a nice quality! It was a very positive interaction!

    Payments were a major theme in the expo halls, particularly PIX Payments, which offers fee-free, instant transactions without business-hour limitations. It made me reflect on how this might shape the future of WooPayments.

    While I understand these conferences aren’t strictly web-focused, they remain spaces where I believe Automattic could make a meaningful impact.

    In Closing

    The conference concluded with Tim Berners-Lee, and I sat in absolute awe. Watching the creator of the World Wide Web speak live was truly an honour. His closing words stayed with me:

    Have pride in what you do.
    Bring back the power of the individual.

    I returned home deeply grateful, motivated, and energised. This experience gave me the opportunity to spend time with colleagues. Seeing people truly fills my cup—especially in creative, inspiring environments. I feel a tangible lift in my performance after spending time with colleagues in person, and Web Summit fuelled me in all the best ways.

    Thank you, Automattic, for the opportunity.

  • Lost in Translation (and Privilege)

    Lost in Translation (and Privilege)

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately about English being my mother tongue.

    I work in a team where most people speak multiple languages, and I’ve always been a bit envious of that ability. I really battle to learn languages — gosh, most days even English fails me.

    It’s been a big year of travel, and none of the countries I’ve visited are English-speaking. A quick recap of the amazing places I’ve been this year:

    • The Philippines in February
    • The Netherlands in April and September
    • Czech Republic in May
    • Portugal in November

    And yet, the word that keeps coming to mind is yuk.

    That’s the feeling I get when I walk into a local café, bar, or shop and start speaking in English. Why should locals have to praat die taal when I’m in their space? As the year has gone on, this feeling has only deepened. It feels like entitlement, privilege — like forcing others to adapt to my way. All the things I can’t stand in other people, and all the things I consciously try to move away from.

    Inclusivity. Empathy. Belonging. That’s what I strive for.

    I don’t have a neat conclusion to this — just an acknowledgment of the discomfort.

    I’ve got a 780-day streak on Duolingo for Spanish, and honestly, it means nothing if I don’t use it.

    So I’m setting myself one goal: I’ll likely be in Mexico in March. By then, I want to walk into a café and at least start the conversation in Spanish. To respect the language, and let them choose to switch to English — not the other way around.

  • Boracay, Philippines

    Boracay, Philippines

    I’m used to traveling for work. It usually means flying alone, landing in a cool place and connecting with the team within a few hours. 

    This trip has been different. Firstly … Asia! Insanely cool to be on a continent that I don’t know. I went to Hong Kong in 2011 but outside of that, it’s a complete unknown for me. 

    Secondly, James and I had planned to fly together but circumstances changed and he stayed home which has resulted in me traveling solo longer than I’m used to. 

    This is a new feeling. Quite a vulnerable one, quite an indulgent one, and uncomfortable at times. Not uncomfortable in a way that I’m not happy, more just that I can feel growth in myself. This is like a new skill I’m flexing. It feels quite cool. 

    Thankfully my need for planning and control has meant I’m seldom in any situation where I’m thrown a curveball. My arrival in Boracay was proof of that pudding. My pre-booked transfer to my hotel ended up being a multi-step trip that required two vehicles, going through a port, taking a boat and a 1km walk as turns out, I’m staying along the beach where no vehicles can go. Who knew! If I was in Europe or the US, I would have planned nothing and just grabbed a cab or called an uber. 

    There’s also this paradigm where I’m not talking, but it’s not quiet. It’s this weird oxymoron. I’m constantly surrounded by people. I’m eating out every meal, I’m working out and about, I’m on the beach, I’m walking the island. And it is BUSY! Holy sh1t there are so many people here, yet I’m not engaging with anyone. I’m finding that quite therapeutic actually. I’m loving not talking but I’m loving not being alone. I’m loving that nobody is expecting anything from me (serious case of mom-syndrome!). 

    My time is my own. My voice is my own. My sleep is my own. It’s been quite wonderful. 

    So far I’ve learnt a few things about Philippines I’d love to share. 

    1. It’s really affordable as a South African. Our currency is actually stronger than theirs! A bottle of water or soft drink are around R15, and a beer R20. 
    2. There are of course fancy restaurants along the beach which cost more, but they’re really easy to avoid and there are some low-key local beach bars which are just as fun. 
    3. I feel Boracay deserves the title “the city that never sleeps”. When I go to bed, this place is so alive. People everywhere, live music coming from every restaurant, clubs, massages, markets – it’s really cool. But – if you’re up and about at 7am. It’s the same. The live music isn’t playing but families are out, all the restaurants are open, people exercising. It’s been such a cool experience seeing it both in the morning and the night. 
    4. The food is different, but very delicious. It’s a lot of meat, broth and vegetables. Most people enjoy it with rice but I’ve just been loving having it on its own. 
    5. There’s very little focus on alcohol. The beaches are a no-food, no-drink place. Only water allowed. And at the bars, most people seem to be sipping on fruit juices and waters. There are beers and cocktails on every menu, but nobody I have seen is getting messy which is a real eye opener considering there are heaps of foreigners from more booze-focused locations. 

    In a nutshell my trip to Boracay has been quite epic. A great balance of work and play (and sleep). I recognize I come from a seriously privileged position here, but if anyone can travel alone, even for a few days, I highly recommend it. It doesn’t have to be across the world – keep it local if that works for you. But there’s some wonderful personal growth that comes from it 🫶

    Now … on to the main event in Manila.

  • Default Search Block

    Default Search Block

    I am doing some testing using the WordPress Search block, as there is a spacing issue between the CTA and the input field on one of the websites I’m working with.

    I’m going to be testing if the issue is isolated to the site where I took that screenshot from, or if it’s a Core issue.

    I’m starting by adding the block to this post 👇

    And I can see immediately that the issue was isolated to the specific site, as on my site there is a gap between the input field and the CTA.

    For those interested, the solution was to overwrite the flex-basis of the input search (.wp-block-search.wp-block-search__button-only.wp-block-search__searchfield-hidden .wp-block-search__input) from 0 to 100%

    Image credit: taken from https://jetpack.com/upgrade/search/

  • Query Loop Block – Recommended Add On

    Query Loop Block – Recommended Add On

    The Query Loop block is hands down my favourite block (we all have favourite blocks right?). However… the default pagination that lives inside of the query block forces a page reload each time you navigate to a different page (and in my opinion, is less than pretty).

    I totally get the functionality. But how it looks bugs me!

    The WordPress Special Projects team have created a nifty little plugin which extends the pagination functionality and adds a “Load More” button to the query, instead of numbers. This also means, there is no page that reloads, it simply adds more results on the page you’re already on, which is UX a lot of folks are loving right now.

    You can download and install the plugin from the WordPress.org plugin library. Once it’s enabled, head over to your query block in your post/page or template and you’ll see this setting in the pagination block:

    And voila! Your pagination is now a customisable Load More button. Have a look at how it works in the video below. It doesn’t yet give you control of the CTA colour, it uses your theme’s default button colour, but I have no doubt that’s coming soon.

  • Automattic

    Automattic

    Woa what a week. What a 2-weeks. I’m not going to get into the details of the past two weeks’ events as there are heaps of other platforms where you can get that information from (here’s a summary), but what I can share is how devastating this has been for me. 

    Until today, I have chosen to sit on the side and watch everything unfold. Actually, I don’t know if it was a choice. I think I froze. I know I wanted to support Matt and Automattic, but it’s like I was paralysed. All I managed to do was create a Twitter account, X account, so I could repost some of the messages I liked. Even that took me a few days to get right. I did it in such a haze that I forgot my username, never added my email and managed to put my phone number in wrong. That was fun trying to get access back! 

    And I had this personal niggle. I totally understood what Matt was trying to do, but I was being challenged by how it was all going down. While WP Engine’s lack of giving back is gross and icky, it’s not illegal. I spent many days working through the news and trying to fully understand where this was all coming from. I got the Trademark stuff and that can be handled by the attorneys. It’s the giving back I was having a hard time with.

    I spent hours every day reading Reddit and X threads. It was like watching a car accident happen. I don’t mean any disrespect to folks who have been in severe car accidents, but I was watching my beautiful Automattic get absolutely slammed in the media. 

    Automattic. The first place I’ve worked where people got me. The first company that’s gone out of their way to see me as a person. The flexibility of freelancing with the stability of full-time employment.  The company that offers benefits that extend to my family. The company that prioritises mental health. The company that does so much good. My Automattic. My second home. The place I have fought exceptionally hard to be at. The place I choose to spend more time than I need to because I absolutely love it. To the deepest depths of my heart. Yes, it’s a job. But it’s so much more than that.   

    Then came the alignment offer—six months of pay, your Mac and a reference. WHAT? Even longer if you have parental leave or a sabbatical coming up. The moment I saw it, I knew I wouldn’t take it, but I knew some people would take it for the other reasons. That hurt. I wish anyone resigning had to check an anonymous box so we could know who had an alignment issue and who took it for the cash.

    Then boom: we lost a developer in our division. Ouch. And boom: Daniel Bachhuber. I was shaken up, but thought that was the worst. Then BOOOOOOM: Josepha Haden Chomphosy. I read about Josepha’s resignation around 6 am on Thursday, and I burst into tears. For the next 16 hours, resignation after resignation. Each one causing a wave of uncontrollable emotion. 

    Tears streamed down my face for the entire day. You know when you cry for so long you get a headache? Yeah, I was there.

    Automattic is where I feel safest. While I have a full and happy personal life, Automattic is my stable, safe place. And suddenly, it wasn’t stable. Or safe. My Automattic was on fire. My home was on fire. And there was nothing I could do to stop the flames. Finally, at 10 pm local time, we hit the deadline, and the resignations stopped.

    Soon after, we started to get the figures. 159 people took the offer, 8.4% of the company. I could slowly start moving from my emotional brain over to my rational brain. 8.4%. That is okay. Especially considering how generous the offer was. 

    Maybe things will be okay. I connected with other teams and divisions, checking on lots of people. Everyone seemed raw but okay. We’re bruised – definitely, but we’re together now. Aligned.

    We received WP Engine’s lawsuit, and we lawyered up. Everything will be okay. 

    We had a team call on Friday. It was a combination of comforting one another, asking questions, changing topics and asking about the future. It felt good to be with everyone. I am not physically close to any other Automatticians, so it’s been a very lonely few weeks, and nobody around me could understand what I was going through. 

    It’s Monday now. I spent the weekend unplugged. I had two swims in the ocean. And I spent time in the sea today before coming to work. I think that during the next few weeks/months, as we process what has happened and figure out what A8c looks like in the future, I need to be sensitive to myself and put extra effort into ensuring I am recharged, and my cup is full. I’m glad we’re coming into summer. 

    I am Automattic-strong for life. They’ll have to fire me to get rid of me. I love it so much. My chosen-home. I am definitely bruised from these past few weeks, but whatever happens next, I’m here for it.

    🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶

  • SEO RECOMMENDATIONS

    A while back one of our partners asked for help with SEO but weren’t interested in hiring a specialist. I have quite an extensive background in SEO (although it has been many years since working actively in SEO, so my info will be dated), but I put together a little help guide for them on the basics. I’m sharing it here in case it’s helpful to others.

    SEO Recommendations

    SEO is multilayered and looks into a variety of systems to determine your rank. The team I work for builds sites and themes that are aligned with SEO best practices, making it a little easier for sites to get up and running. 

    Please see below for the details.  

    Your website host:

    A solid host makes for an excellent foundation for a website. Pick a reliable host. My go-to hosts are WordPress.com or Pressable. With both these hosts, speed and security have been prioritized. There is no downtime, further reducing the reputational risk of your site being unavailable. All Pressable & WPCOM sites come with an SSL certificate, which secures your site and built-in Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), which means they have servers distributed globally, and the site will be served from the server closest to the user, reducing the load time. 

    Your Theme: 

    An SEO-friendly theme is lightweight and loads quickly. Only uses code that is needed. There should be no bloating. 

    Domain Name: 

    It’s a good habit to get into referring about your site in the same way. Search engines see http://www.domain.com and domain.com as two separate sites. You can choose www. or non-www, but whatever you decide, be consistent with using it. 

    Permalinks & Site Architecture: 

    Your permalinks should be clear and the site architecture should be aligned with the user journey. If the user is reading a blog post, the permalink structure should be like: 

    domain.com/blog/post 

    It helps to group pages into categories. For example, if you have five different pages that will drop down from your “About Page”, you can set the About page to be the parent page with the information on child pages. This means the URLs for the child pages will be structured like this: 

    domain.com/about/page1 

    domain.com/about/page2 

    domain.com/about/page3 

    domain.com/about/page4 

    domain.com/about/page5 

    WordPress sites will by default generate a URL based on the page and post titles and the parent/child relationship. So be conscious of this when you’re adding content to your site. 

    Plugins: 

    I love Jetpack!! Jetpack has a lot of built-in SEO tools. You can customise meta titles and descriptions and control your social media previews. Jetpack comes installed by default on all WPCOM sites. Jetpack also has great AI tools to assist with creating metadata.

    Google’s Search Console: 

    All WordPress sites have a built-in XML sitemap, and it’s important you sign up for Search Console and submit the sitemap. Search Console also provides ongoing recommendations to make the site more user-friendly, which you can work through and fix.

    Robots.txt

    WordPress websites no-index the pages that shouldn’t rank in search results (such as the administrator login page). Advanced users can edit their Robots file and upload it to their server for results. For newbies in SEO interested in using Jetpack, you simply toggle this on, on the specific page.

    Breadcrumbs:

    Adding breadcrumbs to your site helps search engines crawl and learn your site; with the added bonus of being easy tools to help your users navigate their way around. Include breadcrumbs where you can.

    Content: 

    In our opinion, content is the key to successful SEO. It should be organically written without stuffing in content and keywords to try and rank higher. Create high-quality content with frequent updates, and this will help a lot with your SEO rankings. 

    It is beneficial to do keyword research and see what users are searching for, and then tailor your content to their needs. Keywords can be brought into the website text but remember to write for the user, not for the search engine bot. Some ideas on how to write for the user, and establish yourself as a voice of authority:

    • Writing about things within your field of expertise
    • Being factually accurate and comprehensive
    • Backing up your claims with stats and other reliable data
    • Providing transparent information about your website (About page, Contact page)

    Headers:

    Watch the headers on your website pages. Search engines look into the different headers on a page to understand it. Your pages should be set up like this: 

    H1: Page title / Main topic 

    H2: Subtitle

    H3: Subtopic 

    etc 

    Meta Titles & Descriptions:

    You should consider meta titles and descriptions for your pages. By default, the page title and the website name will show as the meta title, with an excerpt of your page content as the meta description. This is fully customisable in Jetpack SEO if you’d like to tweak it. Some tips for meta descriptions: 

    • Provide a unique title and description for each page/post
    • Put your target keyword first in the title and include your brand name if possible
    • Keep the description to less than 120 characters, including your targeted keywords. But remember to write for the reader, not the bot.
    • Include a call to action. 

    Internal Links:

    Wherever possible, link internally. If you refer to a page or post on your site, it’s highly recommended that you link it to enhance the user’s journey. Internal links are a great way to pass authority from one page to another. You want the pages hierarchy to be “efficient”, particularly for large sites.  In this case, efficiency means, how many clicks away from the home page is an article/page.  If it takes a human and/or a bot more clicks to get something, it won’t be crawled as efficiently, and it will not rank as well. Internal Links are the easiest method to create this efficiency. 

    Images & Alt Text: 

    I recommend compressing your images before uploading them to your site. If you are using a CDN, this is less important. The smaller the image size, the faster the image will load. 

    Whenever you upload an image on your site, add alt text. Search engines aren’t able to see what an image is, and it “sees” an empty block. Alt text is the tool used to tell the search engines what the image is. While the technology has improved and search engines can understand images better, alt text is still a must-have, and it enhances a user’s experience who may be using a screen reader. 

    In WordPress sites, it’s easy to add alt text in the media library:

    Security:
    Security plays a role in SEO. Plugins and core software must be kept up to date to avoid vulnerabilities. I recommend using an Autoupdater like this, and Jetpack will take care of the security. 

    I encourage you to set up 2FA on your website or WordPress.com login.

    If you’d like to install a third-party plugin but are unsure of how reliable it is, take a look at the basics. When was it last updated? Is it compatible with the current version of WordPress? How many installations does it have? What do the reviews say?

    I hope this was helpful. It was a very quick overview, but it covers some of the important basics.  

  • How to run Blaze Ads

    How to run Blaze Ads

    This week I’m running my first set of Blaze ads for a partner site.

    Below, you’ll find some information and guidelines on how to run a campaign successfully.

    Before you run the ads:

    Before you can get started, you’ll want to ask the partner a couple of clarifying questions:

    What content are we promoting?

    • A post
    • A page
    • A product

    An important note on the type of content you select. The default setting is that the ad will run with

    • The ad title is pulled in from the page/product/post title.
    • The body copy is pulled in from the excerpt or the first few sentences of the page text.
    • The ad’s image is the page’s featured image.

    All of this is editable while setting up the ad. But it’s worth sharing this with the partner upfront in case they’d like to customise it.B04FCCAll of this is editable while setting up the ad. But it’s worth sharing this with the partner upfront in case they’d like to customise it.

    What is the objective of the campaign?

    • Engagement
    • Awareness
    • Sales
    • Traffic

    What locations should we target?

    • You can choose a country, state/province or city.
    • You can add as many options as required in this step.

    Are there any specific interests we should target?

    • The list of interests is long as each interest has subcategories, but here are the main interests:
      • Arts and Entertainment
      • Automotive
      • Business
      • Careers
      • Education
      • Family & Parenting
      • Health & Fitness
      • Food & Drink
      • Hobbies & Interests
      • Home & Garden
      • Law
      • News
      • Personal Finance
      • Society
      • Science
      • Pets
      • Religion & Spirituality
      • Shopping
      • Sports
      • Style & Fashion
      • Technology & Computing
      • Travel
      • Real Estate

    Remember: the more targeted your ad is, the lower your reach will be. This is expected.

    Budget:

    Our team’s approved budget is $50 per day, for a maximum of 28 days. You add the budget by going into the site owner’s Store Admin (most likely our team user) and adding the Blaze credits.

    NOTE: We operate out of a shared pool of credits across all our sites, so if credits are already available, please don’t assume they’re available for your campaign as they might be accounted for in someone else’s campaign. Add the required amount of credits you’ll be using above what’s already there. (This process may change in the future).

    We are not constrained to a single ad for the 28 days. Feel free to run 4x ads of 7 days and change up the targeting to test different results if you’re interested.

    Blaze UI

    There are two ways of accessing Blaze Ads, and while each looks the same on the front end, they operate slightly differently on the back end.

    There is the Jetpack UI, where your URL will be [DOMAIN]/wp-admin/tools.php?page=advertising#!/advertising/DOMAIN

    By default, you’ll create the ad via Jetpack if you go WP-Admin > Tools > Advertising

    There is also the WordPress.com/Calypso UI, where the URL is https://wordpress.com/advertising/[DOMAIN].

    By default, you’ll create the ad via WP.com if you login via WordPress.com > Select your site > Tools > Advertising.

    Publishing the Ads

    When you are ready to publish the ad(s), you can follow any one of these support docs with the step-by-step instructions:

    Jetpack

    WordPress.com

    Once the campaign has been published, it will be reviewed. You can monitor this progress and the subsequent results under the Advertising > Campaigns tab.

    Support

    Head on over to WordPress.com/Support if you get into trouble.

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