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Today, I’m thrilled to announce that WP101 is joining the Awesome Motive team under the leadership of my friend, Syed Balkhi.

It’s surreal to think back 14+ years ago when I released the first version of the WordPress 101 video tutorial series. I initially thought these WordPress tutorial videos would serve as a ‘leave-behind’ for my web design clients. I could never have foreseen that they would go on to help millions of people all around the world learn how to use WordPress to build their own websites.

I’m incredibly proud of what our small team has accomplished in the years since. We’ve not only made it easy for beginners to learn how to use WordPress but also enabled WordPress agencies and service providers to offer white-labeled, professional WordPress training videos to their clients via the WP101 Plugin.

Over the years, we expanded the library of training videos to include the most popular WordPress plugins, including WooCommerce, WPForms, Elementor, Beaver Builder, and many more.

Even after producing more than a thousand tutorial videos over the years, it made me smile when someone at a WordCamp would say, “Hey, I recognize your voice!” More than one person jokingly referred to me as the “Voice of WordPress.”

Still, keeping the WordPress 101 videos up to date with each and every release of WordPress has been a labor of love. And after updating the series more than 25 times, it became more than a little taxing. So it’s no wonder that this past year, I finally began to feel burned out. Several close friends even asked how I didn’t burn out much sooner!

Through my recovery, I’ve learned a couple of critical lessons. First, my greatest joy comes from knowing I’ve helped someone accomplish something they never thought possible. Perhaps no other moment better illustrates this than this photo sent to me from my friend, Mary Job, who used the WordPress 101 videos to teach a classroom of young women in Nigeria how to use WordPress so they could build their own businesses.

It’s humbling to think about how something as seemingly insignificant as a series of WordPress tutorial videos can have such a positive impact on someone’s life half a world away. That moment brought tears to my eyes.

The second lesson I’ve learned is best summarized by an African proverb frequently quoted by another great friend, Cory Miller.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Gradually, I’d come to the realization that I’d taken WP101 as far as I could as a one-person shop. I knew it was time for a change of leadership and the exponential strength that only a team like Awesome Motive could provide.

Who better to steward the future of WP101?

I’ve been friends with Syed Balkhi, the Founder of WPBeginner and CEO of Awesome Motive, for more than a decade. WP101 and WPBeginner started around the same time with a similar mission: making it easy for people to learn WordPress.

So I watched with great admiration as Syed grew WPBeginner to become the largest resource for easy-to-understand written tutorials for WordPress — while at WP101, our goal was to provide the best video training for WordPress. We’ve each described our relationship within the WordPress community as something beyond competition, perhaps better described as “co-opetition.”

Syed has gone on to curate and build a family of ‘best-in-class’ products and services for WordPress. I have tremendous respect for the incredible impact Syed’s had on the growth of the WordPress community and the vision that we share.

That’s why I’m confident there’s no one better suited to be the custodian of WP101 moving forward and to take this resource to the next level.

After 14+ years of creating WordPress training videos, I’m excited and grateful for the opportunity to move on to the next chapter of my life. And it gives me great joy to know that Syed is committed to carrying the mission and legacy of WP101 forward.

With a transition like this come many questions, so let me take a moment to answer them.

Who is Awesome Motive?

Awesome Motive is a company started by Syed Balkhi of WPBeginner fame. Their mission is to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys.

Even if you’ve never heard of Awesome Motive before now, you’ve likely seen or used some of their products—including WPForms, which we’ve introduced to you right here on this site.

They’re also behind some of the most popular plugins and resources in the WordPress space, including:

• WPBeginner – the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.
• OptinMonster – popular conversion optimization software that helps you convert abandoning visitors into subscribers and customers.
• WPForms – the most beginner-friendly WordPress form builder.
• MonsterInsights – the most popular WordPress Analytics plugin that helps you grow your business with confidence.
• AIOSEO – the original WordPress SEO plugin to help you get more traffic.
• WP Mail SMTP – the #1 plugin that helps improve your WordPress email deliverability.
• SeedProd – drag & drop landing page builder for WordPress.
• RafflePress – powerful WordPress giveaway and contest plugin to grow your website traffic.
• Smash Balloon – the most popular social media feeds plugin for WordPress.
• PushEngage – leading web push notification software for small businesses.
• SearchWP – the most advanced WordPress search plugin.
• AffiliateWP – leading WordPress affiliate management plugin.
• Easy Digital Downloads – a leading eCommerce plugin for selling digital products.
• WP Simple Pay – a simple WordPress payment plugin that lets you accept online payments without creating a shopping cart.
• WPCode – the most popular code snippets plugin for WordPress.
• Sendlayer – powerful SMTP email delivery service for websites and apps.
• …and many more!

As I said, it’s an impressive collection of the absolute best products and services for WordPress. But what impresses me even more than these excellent products is the people who stand behind them.

Every company claims they care about their people and their customers. Since day one, I’ve gone to great lengths to provide the best customer care possible, which is why I’ve personally answered every single question in our WordPress help forum. The Awesome Motive team is equally committed to providing the same fanatical level of customer support. They get it.

That’s one of the biggest reasons I decided to pass the baton to Syed and the Awesome Motive team. I fully believe the best thing I can do for the growth of WP101 and our customers is to put it into the best hands in the market.

Okay, so what does this acquisition mean for existing users?

In short, you can expect more — and better. One of the biggest challenges I faced while running WP101 as a ‘solopreneur’ was being unable to scale. With each and every course I added came the added responsibility of maintaining that course, keeping it up to date with every major update. That’s a massive challenge for any one person.

To mitigate this challenge, I partnered with several incredibly talented WordPress educators like Carrie Dils and Dave Foy, who created several fantastic courses for WP101. I’ll be forever grateful for their willingness to invest their time and expertise in crafting excellent learning experiences for you, our WP101 members.

With this change of ownership, WP101 is now integrated into a larger family of products and companies, with access to an even larger pool of fantastic course creators, who you’ll meet soon.

You can expect new courses to appear on WP101 at a much more frequent pace. Awesome Motive will help WP101 grow better and faster than before, and you’ll see the positive effects of this right away.

What’s Coming Next?

I could not be more excited about Syed’s vision and passion for taking the best WordPress training videos into classrooms to help WordPress grow in the enterprise, government agencies, and — perhaps most significantly — the school and collegiate level, as part of the mission of the Balkhi Foundation.

WordPress is an open-source platform, and it has the power to transform the lives of so many people around the world. So, I’m excited about the future of WP101 as a training platform under Syed’s leadership, coupled with his vision to create even more opportunities to shape the future of the web for billions of people worldwide. Stay tuned!

On a personal note…

When I look back over the many years during which Kay and I have made lifelong friendships with so many incredible people in the WordPress community, I can’t help but feel immense gratitude.

I’m grateful for each and every interaction I’ve had with you—our customers—especially when we worked together to turn frustrating technical issues into an authentic, friendly, connective encounter.

I’m grateful for the wealth of counsel and timely advice that several of you have freely provided over the years, without which WP101 simply would not be what it is today. There’s not enough room in this post to list each of you here, but I look forward to thanking you in person. Suffice it to say… the WordPress community is truly like no other.

I’m also grateful for the opportunity my three kids have had to meet so many of you at the dozens of WordCamps we’ve attended as a family over the years. They’ve grown up hearing about WP101 and its role within the global WordPress community. And that’s a gift they’ll continue to enjoy for years to come, especially with Syed and the Awesome Motive team at the helm.

Finally, I’m grateful that WP101 has outgrown me. As a founder, I can’t think of a better legacy. And I’m incredibly grateful that my friend, Syed, has stepped in to become the custodian of WP101’s future. For my part, I’ll continue to provide support and training during this transition, and then I’ll continue to root for Syed and the Awesome Motive team from the sidelines.

I can’t wait to see what you all build together!

To your success,
Shawn Hesketh
Founder, WP101

Our highly-popular WordPress 101 course is all-new, every video updated and re-recorded to cover the latest enhancements in WordPress 5.5. See what’s new!

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Later this month, we’ll celebrate our 11th anniversary, and since we launched in 2008, we’ve updated and re-recorded the WordPress 101 videos a whopping 26 times.

WordPress 5.5 “Eckstine” brought a long list of exciting new features for the block editor, including an all-new block directory, and the introduction of block patterns, which make it easy to create complex, beautiful layouts, using pre-built combinations of text and media blocks that you can mix and match to create your pages and posts even more quickly.

You’ve probably already noticed some significant changes to the WordPress editing experience on your own site.

So, we’ve completely updated and re-recorded every video in the WordPress 101 course, covering all the latest new features and enhancements.

If it’s been a while since you’ve checked out the WordPress 101 videos, why not swing by and see what’s new?

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View the WordPress 101 Course Outline

Ready to check out the all-new WordPress 101?

We think you’re going to love creating content with the updated Block Editor in WordPress 5.5, but it definitely comes with a learning curve.

Whether you’re building a personal blog, a business site for your company, or even an online store, this course will teach you all the fundamentals of how to use WordPress to build your own website — in about two hours.

By the end of this course, you’ll know how to create and manage your own WordPress website. You’ll learn how to use the Block Editor in WordPress to create media-rich custom layouts. And you’ll be comfortable adding images, and using the Customizer to personalize the design of your site.

But best of all… you don’t have to learn in a vacuum. Every day, our WordPress educators answer WordPress questions from our members in our help forum. So when you need help, just reach out and we’ll do our best to get you back on your way.

Ready to get started? Check out the all-new WordPress 101 course outline, then watch the first seven videos for FREE. See you in the course!

WordPress 101 Course Page

WordPress 5.0 was just released, and it’s arguably one of the most significant releases we’ve seen in more than ten years. Here’s what you need to know…

WordPress 5.0 was just released, and it brings some big changes to the editor. The new Block Editor is code-named, “Gutenberg,” and it’s a project that actually started a couple of years ago with the goal of creating a completely new editing experience that makes it easy for anyone to create rich post layouts.

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The new block-based editor is the first step toward a completely new WordPress experience across your entire site. And it will enable you to create custom page and post layouts that simply weren’t possible before… unless you’re an expert at writing code. We think you’re going to love creating content with the all-new Block Editor, but it definitely comes with a learning curve.

Here’s a sneak peek at Gutenberg and the new WordPress 101 course.

This video is from our brand-new WordPress 101 series, which we’ve been diligently working on since WordPress 5.0 hit the Release Candidate phase just 13 days ago. It provides a quick look at the all-new Block Editor.

Take Gutenberg for a test drive before you upgrade!

You can try out the all-new Block Editor for yourself without risking your own site or content. This live demo site allows you to experiment with all the blocks that are included in WordPress 5.0 and get a taste of the new editing experience before you decide to upgrade your own site.

Try the Gutenberg Demo

Should I upgrade now, or wait?

Normally, managed WordPress hosting companies automatically update their customers’ websites to the latest version as soon as it’s available. But WordPress 5.0 is no ordinary release. The new block editor is a significant departure from the editing experience millions of site owners have come to know and love.

And there simply has not been enough time given to third-party theme and plugin creators to ensure that their products are 100% compatible with the new version of WordPress. For this reason, nearly every managed WordPress hosting company has announced that they will wait until January to upgrade their customers’ WordPress sites.

We think that’s smart. Unless you have a compelling reason to upgrade today, we recommend that you hold off for now. Wait until the first ‘bug fix’ release is out before upgrading to WordPress 5.0.

What if I don’t want the new Gutenberg Editor?

No problem! If you prefer the current editor in WordPress, you can install the Classic Editor plugin, which will hide Gutenberg and its new block editor, including the Dashboard widget that invites users to try it.

You can install the Classic Editor plugin today, and still upgrade to WordPress 5.0 without worrying about breaking your site. You’ll still get the other improvements and fixes that are in version 5.0.

Update: By default, the Classic Editor allows you to switch between Classic and Gutenberg on a per-user or per-post level. This could create some confusion for your users. So, after installing the Classic Editor plugin, we recommend you go to: Settings > Writing and change the default setting, “Allow users to switch editors” to “No.”

That setting will completely hide the Block Editor from your users, as if nothing ever happened.

The Classic Editor plugin will be supported until 2022, so you’ll have plenty of time to try Gutenberg later.

Download the Classic Editor Plugin

When will the WordPress 101 videos be updated?

As we’ve done with every release for the past 10 years, we began the process of updating and re-cording the entire WordPress 101 video series as soon as the new version reached the ‘Release Candidate 1’ phase… just 13 days ago.

Sadly, this particular release cycle has been fraught with controversy, bugs, and significant changes to the UI as late as Beta 5. Despite widespread requests for a January release, WordPress 5.0 was released today. That’s just 13 days since we were given the first Release Candidate, including the weekend. That’s just not enough time for us to update our entire video series, plus create 4-6 brand new videos to cover the all-new features of the Gutenberg Block Editor in 5.0.

Thirteen days is simply not enough time to prepare for such an important release.

So, today is the first time in ten years the WordPress 101 videos will not be updated on the same day as the official release. We know you rely on our training videos for the best WordPress learning experience possible. So, we’re working diligently to get our videos to you as quickly as possible. We even canceled our trip to Nashville for WordCamp US this weekend—despite being sponsors of that event—so we can work on the new videos.

Thank you for your patience. We know you’re going to love the all-new WordPress 101 videos!

View The New WordPress 101 Course

It’s your turn! What do you think of Gutenberg and WordPress 5.0?

We’re curious. What do you think of the all-new block editor? Will you upgrade today, or install the Classic Editor plugin? Tell us in the comments below!

How time flies! Today marks the 10th anniversary of our WordPress 101 video tutorial series, and what an amazing journey it’s been.

In 2008, I was designing WordPress websites and then providing one-on-one training for my clients in their offices. After completing dozens of these in-person workshops, I decided to record a series of WordPress video tutorials that I could furnish to my clients as a follow-up resource.

When I shared my idea with a couple of other WordPress professionals, they encouraged me to publish the videos as an online course so they could send their customers to the WordPress 101 videos as well.

Need a chuckle? Click here to view a screenshot of what that first version looked like.

We’ve come a long way in the decade since.

I never could have imagined that the WordPress tutorial videos would go on to help millions of site owners learn how to use WordPress to build and manage their own websites. Every single day, I’m humbled and honored by the opportunity to answer your WordPress questions and help you accomplish your online goals.

Since 2008…

• More than two million people have watched the WordPress 101 videos!
• This site has served more than 30,000 members.
• The WP101 Plugin has been installed on more than two million websites.
• Nearly 500 WordPress agencies, hosting companies, and freelancers have licensed the WordPress 101 videos for use on their own sites.
• We partnered with GoDaddy to provide our WordPress 101 video tutorials to their Managed WordPress Hosting customers.
• We’ve sponsored and attended dozens of WordCamps and other community events.
• We added video training courses for WooCommerce, Jetpack, Yoast SEO, Ninja Forms, MailPoet, The Events Calendar, and Event Espresso.
• We updated and re-recorded the WordPress 101 videos a whopping 24 times!
• We added closed captions and Spanish subtitles to the videos.
• We partnered with several brilliant WordPress educators to help us create and release more courses.
• We partnered with Nexcess to provide our WooCommerce video tutorials to their Managed WooCommerce Hosting customers.

And yet, in many ways, we’ve only just begun.

Over the past six months or so, I’ve worked diligently to develop several exciting new partnerships that are going to make this coming year our most exciting yet!

Here’s a sneak peek at a few of the new things I’ve been working on…

• A completely re-written version of the WP101 Plugin with a ton of new features for WordPress professionals.
• Exciting new partnerships with two Managed WordPress Hosting companies you already know and trust.
• Several new courses for some of the most popular WordPress plugins on the market.
• Custom onboarding videos that you’ll likely see in your favorite WordPress products and services.
• Adding new trainers to help us create and release new tutorial videos faster than ever before.
• Translating our subtitles into even more languages, making our training available to even more people around the world.
• Creating new videos for the all-new Gutenberg editing experience in the upcoming WordPress 5.0!
• New strategic partnerships that will enable us to bring our videos to a larger audience than ever before!

WP101 started as a side project, initially intended to serve just a handful of my clients. Over the past ten years, we’ve learned a great deal about how to create and deliver more effective online training. But online learning can be so much better!

I’ve dedicated most of my free time during this past year to studying more effective ways to deliver online training. We’ll start applying this new methodology to new courses we create during the coming weeks and months. At the end of the day, we don’t just want to provide guided tours of software. We want to help you learn how to accomplish your online goals!

To do that, we need your help. If you’ve got a question, please reach out! What do you want to learn next? How can we help you today?

On a personal note….

It’s been a privilege to serve you for the past ten years. Every day, we’re honored to answer your questions, provide some guidance or much-needed encouragement, and to help you learn.

There are so many people who have been instrumental in WP101’s success over the years, and Kay and I are beyond grateful for the many friendships we’ve made over the years within the WordPress community. We are who we are today because of YOU.

We look forward to celebrating many years to come!

To say thanks to all of you, we’ve created a special 10th anniversary gift for you and your friends…

Q: “How has WP101 helped YOU?”

On this special day, we would love to hear from you. How did you first learn about WP101? How has WP101 helped you? Would you take a quick minute to share your story in the comments below?